West Side

One of the best things about a multi-day trek is the meal you can justify eating once you get back to civilization. From Glenorchy we hopped in Wanda and made our way back to Wanaka for the night. We did some laundry and then went out for a dinner at a local restaurant that serves local beer. We pretty much ate our faces off and got drunk pretty easy. But it was delicious and well deserved if I do say so myself!

From Wanaka we spent the next few days making our way up the west coast of the south island. We didn't have to be in Nelson/ Able Tasman for almost a week, which gave us a lot of time to meander our way through the cute little towns and stop at all the attractions that we wanted to.

Our first day we did quite a bit of driving, but of course, we stopped along the way. The weather wasn't that nice though, so we didn't feel that bad spending most of the day in the car. We stopped at a few waterfalls; Roaring Billy and Thunder Creek. We also stopped by a few little towns; Haast and Makarora. We spent that night at a DOC site in Lake Paringa. Again, we spent most of that night in the car because of the weather and the sandflies...we still hate sandflies!

The next day the weather wasn't that much better but we still managed to see some cool stuff. It was 'glacier day'. There are two glaciers in the Southern Alps of the south island that pretty much enter the neighbouring towns. Glacier hikes are big business here, but we were too cheap to do one so we just walked to the bases of both glaciers and did some other short hikes around them to check out the area. The first one we saw was Fox Glacier and the second one was Franz Josef Glacier. They were both pretty cool and it was neat to see how much they have receded over the past few years. Since the weather wasn't that great we decided to spend the late afternoon at the glacial hot pools in Franz Josef. There were 3 large pools of different temperatures and we just spent a few hours being lazy and enjoying the warmth after a cool, rainy day. It was awesome.

The weather finally turned by the next morning so we back tracked a little to Fox Glacier. There are a few great vista points in the area where you can get good views of the alps on clear days, and since the previous day was cloudy and rainy, we retraced our steps a little. It was totally worth it. We started off at Lake Matheson, which is situated at the most perfect spot where you can get a photo of the alps reflecting in the water on the lake. Then we made our way over to another area where you got a great panoramic view of the alps. The clouds started to roll in at that point so we didn't get the best photos but we did enjoy our morning tea/coffee in the sunshine with a pretty nice view.

The view from Lake Matheson

 

After our morning back in Fox Glacier we continued our trip up the west coast and stumbled into the cutest little beachside town called Hokitika. Hokitika is mostly known for it's rich supply of local pounamu or jade. The area is so rich in it that every other store in the town seems to be selling it in one way or another. But we were also in luck because the sun was shining, and there was the "Drift Wood and Sand" festival happening all week in Hoki. One part of the festival is people building sculptures on the beach with driftwood from the ocean. There were some pretty elaborate ones - it was impressive. We spent a little time wandering the beach and checking out the sculptures and the rest of the town. One of the best things we saw was a pizza restaurant called Fat Pipi's. The name was just hilarious! We then made our way to the Hokitika gorge. This place was beautiful!. It had this amazing colour of blue water, which was gorgeous and there weren't many people there so it was nice and quiet and peaceful. And there was a swing bridge, which was kind of fun too! We finished the day off watching the sunset on the beach with a bottle of wine.

We spent the night at a DOC site at an old mining town just outside of Hokitika, called Goldsborough, then made our way back to Hokitika the next morning. We started our day off at the local gym, which had great hot showers, then we checked out a local market, and more of the Drift Wood and Sand festival. Todays festivities included people dressed in costume, golfing on the beach and getting wasted. Unfortunately our time was up in Hokitika and we kept on moving up the west coast but we really liked the cute little town.

The following day, we were excited about what was in store for us, as we were going to make it to Punakaiki, which is a little area of the coast where the rock has formed in a way that it looks like layers and layers of pancakes. So, of course, they have been named the 'Pancake Rocks'. It is so interesting how the rock has formed this way and apparently they aren't really even sure why it happened. They think it was because there were layers of limestone deposited at different strengths and the weaker layers have eroded faster then the stronger ones causing this formation. They are pretty cool. There is also a huge blow hole here that is apparently pretty spectacular. Unfortunately, we were there on a day when the ocean was pretty calm, so even at high tide, there wasn't much happening at the blow hole.

The pancake rocks

 

Our last day on the coast we spent in a tiny town doing one of the coolest things either of us has ever done. We were in Barrytown making our own knives with Steven and Robyn. Our friend CP recommended the place and it was so awesome! Steven and Robyn are this old couple who retired to Barrytown and started this knife making business almost 10 years ago and it has become very popular. Steven started out making knives years ago as a backyard hobby and just decided to turn it into a business as a way to retire early. You start the day with a piece of carbon steel made from black sand from Auckland and you forge the steel yourself and flatten it out into a knife shape (what really happens though is that you do about 10% of the shaping and then Steven comes along and works his magic and really makes it start to take shape). After that you spend the rest of the day making a handle out of Rimu wood and Australian brass, shaping and sanding the blade and the handle until you end up with this gorgeous knife. It was such a cool thing to do and totally unique. Thanks for the recommendation Ceeps! And during the day you can also do some axe and ninja star throwing when you're bored. So fun!

No big deal - we made those!

 

One of the girls who did the knife making with us was Judith from Holland. She has been backpacking around NZ for 4 months and had to start making her way up to Auckland to fly home in a week, so she ended up catching a ride with us up towards Nelson after our day of knife making. It was pretty hilarious having 3 people sitting in the front seat of Wanda, but it was nice to be able to help her out a little since most of her travelling is done by hitchhiking. We drove together up to Westport that night, then spent the night there and ate at this restaurant with massive portions. Honestly, you would have thought you were in a restaurant in the States the portions were so big. The next day we kept on trucking and made it as far as Nelson with her. We were stopping here because we were heading to Able Tasman National Park in a day, and Judith was going to catch a bus to Picton for the ferry to the north island.

One our way from Westport to Nelson we made one cool stop at the Buller Gorge, which has New Zealand's longest swing bride (110m). It also had a little side bush hike to the Ariki Falls that we decided to do...bad idea. First of all, Dave and I were wearing flipflops (not the best choice for footwear). Second of all, it had rained the day before so it was pretty muddy. We did pretty well for most of the walk, except for some muddy feet we were okay. That was until we hit one steep decline and I slipped and landed on by butt in a pile of mud. And to top it all off, the Ariki Falls were not impressive. I wouldn't have even called it a waterfall! Very disappointing!

We spent the last day in Nelson just preparing for our 3 day trip in the Able Tasman. On our way to Motueka, the town where we would be started the trip from, we came cross another cute little town called Mapua. We stopped in for the afternoon to have a look around and have lunch. We ended up at the Golden Bear Brewery, which is a little craft brewery run by a guy from California. We sampled a few beers and then were on our way. Mapua was a sweet little town with cool little shops and a nice spot to stop for an afternoon.

Then we were headed to Able Tasman for 2 days of kayaking and 1 day of hiking along the coast.

Thanks for reading

xoxoxo