West Coast & Fox Glacier

We headed north out of Queenstown along the west coast, and have now covered a total of over 3250kms (almost 2000miles). We stopped a few times along the way, mostly when we have been crossing the single lane bridges over massive gorges and rapids. We stopped early evening in the nice little town of Wanaka for some food and a sleep. I hope you're not getting bored with all the photos of lakes and rivers yet!

Yesterday we travelled further north towards Fox Glacier, stopping at Thunder Creek Falls and a beach. I'm not sure of the name of the beach but there were signs on the road leading up to it warning of debris in the road during storms. The sand was littered with masses of broken trees and smashed rocks. Our last stop for the day was Fox Glacier. There are day trips to walk on Fox Glacier, but we're going to hold off until Franz Josef Glacier which is another 30kms on.

Last night we slept in another free DOC camp site on Gillespies Beach, near Lake Matheson. The lake was perfectly still and perfectly reflected the mountains behind it. It's a shame it's been overcast because it would have looked even more impressive to see the snowcapped mountain tops that were hidden in the cloud. Today we have driven to Franz Josef Glacier, and fingers crossed it will brighten up a bit, so that hopefully we can take a walk on the glacier and see some blue ice.

Milford Sound

After my last post we carried on driving towards Te Anau, which has the only road leading to Milford Sound. As we got within 20kms we took a slight detour and headed south to Lake Manapouri to spend the night there in one of the many rest stops along the roads. We woke up early to go and catch the sunrise over the lake with the snowcapped mountains in the background. We're right down in the south of New Zealand now, and it is freezing - I had to de-ice our car before we could drive.

Next stop was Te Anau for a quick break before heading on the 156km road to Milford Sound. The road to Milford is meant to be one of the best roads in the world that takes around 2 hours to drive, but if you stop at every photo opportunity it takes a whole day. We drove about 100kms of it in the first day, obviously stopping to take photos here and there, but unfortunately it was very overcast so the photos were looking quite dull.

Annoyingly, we pulled up at one of the DOC camp sites and went for an hour or so walk to find a waterfall; when we got back and tried to start the car, I realised I had left the lights on and the battery was flat as a pancake. Luckily for us, a German guy called Alex saved our day. I flagged him down as he drove into the campsite and he pulled up next to our van and got the car going again. It was going to get dark soon, so we stayed there for the night with Alex and made a fire.

The next morning another couple turned up to the campsite that had already met Alex a few days earlier so we all went on the same walk I did the day before to find this waterfall again. I didn't take my camera last time so this gave me an opportunity to get some photos. I can imagine that after winter, when all the snow has melted, the waterfall must get huge. Below it, leading down the side of the mountain are tons of boulders and rocks that have torn through the forest to the valley floor.

After lunch, all of us stopped again near Key Summit to take the 3 hour round trip walk. It got a bit overcast again while we were up there, but the view was immense.

Alex and the other couple Chris and Leah, were travelling at a much lower pace as they have a longer in NZ, so we left them to it and headed further toward Milford Sound, stopping at 'The Chasm' to view the near vertical rapids that have carved the rocks into strange shapes.

Last stop for the day, Mildford Sound itself. To get there we had to pass through a tunnel through one of the mountains which was made between the late 1930s and early 1950s. It's only wide enough for a single lane of traffic so is controlled by traffic lights (until 6pm!) and is 1.2kms long. We got down to the bottom of Milford Sound just in time to see the sunset before turning around and heading for Queenstown.

Kaikoura, New Zealand South Island

After Picton, we travelled west to Queen Charlotte's Track because there was a cheap DOC campsite with power so we could recharge our various electricals! The next morning after a bit of a walk on the track we went back on ourselves to travel south along the east coast to spend the next night in Kaikoura.

We found this incredible beach with volcanic black sand and turquoise water. The black sandy beach was littered with bright white trees and branches that had been stripped of their bark by the sea. It almost looked like another planet, or the surface of the moon.

The good thing about New Zealand is that the best sights are free (or have been so far anyway)! Having a camper van has given us a lot of flexibility too; we carried on driving south and stopped to take some photos when we spotted hundreds of fur seals sat on the rocks. I couldn't get close for too long as they really didn't like me being there, but it was was still great to view them.

We got chatting to a local while we were there, who told us that a bit further down the road was a waterfall that when the mother seals are out catching food, the pups swim up the river to the fall when during winter there can be as many as 40 there. Unfortunately there weren't any at the waterfall when we got there, but there were a few swimming and playing in the river leading up to it.

We stayed in another free DOC campsite that night, near a small village called Puhi Puhi. Apparently in the 1920s Puhi Puhi was literally just a school, and because it was so far away from the road, the students used to ride ponies to get to it. Electricity didn't reach Puhi Puhi until the 1950s either! We reached Kaikoura today, which is one of the places in New Zealand where whales can been seen out to sea all throughout the year. We haven't seen any yet, but we have seen plenty more seals, that are used to humans being around so I could get in closer for a better photo.

Finished the Great Ocean Road

Today was our last day with the camper and so our last day on the Great Ocean Road. Last night we had already started heading back towards Melbourne so we wouldn't have such a mammoth drive today. On our way back, we visited some of the sights we skipped on way down such as Erskine Falls.

Erskine Falls is a thirty metre high waterfall near the small town of Lorne, which we chose to be our base for the night as it is only around 120kms from Melbourne. It was raining all day, so there wasn't much else enjoyable to do other than have an explore or the Otway National Park rainforest. We're both glad we visited the falls though, as most of the others we went to had lookouts near the middle that were not great for viewing (or photography), whereas at Erskine we could get right to the bottom of it. There was even a walk down the river leading away from the waterfall, which we decided against based on the sign warning us of snakes and another saying 'Experienced bush walkers only'.

So we got back to Melbourne early afternoon and made our way to the hotel; which was a bit of a mission and included a bus, train and a tram! I'm starting to get seriously excited for the Formula One now, our hotel is 7kms away from the race circuit but we could still hear them practising.