Maandelijks archief: maart 2017

Tramping away on the South Island of NZ.

English, foto, ilse, Nieuw Zeeland, reisverslag, toerisme, Zuidelijk Eiland

March 13th, we are in Queenstown and it is cloudy. We are planning to do part of the Routeburn Track tomorrow. This is one of the 8 Great Walks in NZ, is 32KM long and takes about 3-4 days. We will only do one day and see if we can make it to the first hut and then return, because these walks are not a loop.

In the meantime some pictures of our walks in Abel Tasman National Park, the smallest but very pretty National park of NZ. Abel Tasman (a Dutchman) set foot here in 1642. The park was opened in 1942. We walked two parts of the Abel Tasman Coast Track, which is 60KM long and also one of the Great Walks of NZ.

The park is known for its golden beaches …
and its beautiful rocky formations, but unfortunately also for the many sandflies.
Too bad I did not bring my bathing suit to go for a swim!
Golden Bay.
The coastal track includes some tidal river crossings that can only be done at low tide. As we were a bit too early to cross, we relaxed and ate our lunch while watching the adventurous trying to find a shallow path across.
View of a river estuary from Gibbs Hill.

From Abel Tasman we continued north to Cape Farewell. It is the most notherly point on the South Island and named by Captain James Cook in 1770 because this was the last land seen by his crew as they departed to their homeland.

We made a beautifull walk of 3 hours along the beach with lots of driftwood, wetlands and dunes.

Oystercatchers.
… dreamcatchers …
On our way to Wharariki Beach near Farewell Spit.
sand everywhere…
Much of the scenery made me think of the Hobbit movie.
Wharariki Beach.
On our way back to Nelson we had the famous green-lipped mussels with garlic bread at the Mussel Inn. Yummy but I still prefer our little black ones.

From Nelson we went to St.Arnaud and stayed two nights at the Nelson Lakes.

Rotoiti Lake
The longest swing bridge of NZ, 110m, over the Buller River.
A beautiful DOC (Department of Conservation) campsite but we could only sit outside when covered with DEET. The only pest on the west coast of the South islands are the sandflies, which bite ferociously.

As much as I love the nature and being surrounded by it, the sandflies make it sometimes very difficult to endure being outside. James Cook was one of the first europeans to record his encounter with the sandfly as follows: “The most mischievous animal here is the small black sandfly, which are exceedingly numerous, wherever they light they cause a swelling and such intolerable itching that it is not possible to refrain from scratching and at last ends in ulcers like the small pox”.  It is only the females that bite and suck blood which helps them to produce eggs. The males are vegetarian. After some time you become used to it…a little..:-)

The fantail or by its Maori name Piwakawaka. They are not shy and constantly fly around trying to catch insects disturbed by hikers.
The New Zealand robin or toutouwai is only found in New Zealand.

In the next blog I will report about our trip from Westport to Franz Josef Glacier.

On our way to the South Island of NZ.

English, ilse, reisverslag, toerisme, Zuidelijk Eiland

We are today March 11th, sitting in Burnie in a carpark in Wanaka town with free wi-fi. The weather is cloudy and thus time to do an update of our travels on the South Island of NZ.

We took the ferry in Wellinton on February 22nd and drove from Picton to Nelson, then up to Cape Farewell with a stop in Abel Tasman National Park. Then back to Nelson, St.Arnaud with a visit to the Nelson Lakes. From there on to the Westport, Punakaki, Hokitika, Franz Josef, Fox Glacier to Jackson Bay. Back to Haast over the pass to Wanaka. The coming weeks we will travel to Queenstown, Milford Sound down to Invercargill and make our way back up along the East Coast.

As promised some more pictures from our visit to Napier.

Lots of 1900’s cars in Napier during the Art Deco WE.
Andy took us along for a guided tour from Napier. Thank you Andy and Sue for letting us stay 3 days in your beautiful house!
The whole town was in Great Gatsby style !
…in the rain but..
also some sunshine
Pouring rain on our first swingbridge in Waiohine Gorge.
A KaKa bird eating away on a toast he managed to steal from the plates of a cafe guest in Pukaha Mount Bruce National Wildlife Centre.
Stefan reading the manual of my camera…
Takahe, a flightless bird, looks a lot like its cousin the Pukeko.
We are in Kiwi Country ! We saw the Kiwi bird at the Pukaha centre where they protect the Kiwi by taking the eggs and incubating them. This is called Operation Nest Egg where eggs and chicks are protected from predators. The Kiwi is also a flightless bird, with hair-like feathers, strong legs and no tail. Kiwis are mostly nocturnal so very difficult to spot during the day.There are 5 species and all are threatened with extinction.
The parliament buildings in Wellington, with the Beehive that houses the Cabinet and the offices of its ministers. We were able to get a free guided tour of the buidlings.
View over Wellington from Mount Victoria.
We also visited Weta Cave where the movies Lord Of the Ring, Avatar, Great Adventures of TinTin are digitally mastered. It was a learning experience to see how much craftsmanship there is involved in these creations.
The Interislander ferry waiting for us to come aboard at 8AM
It was a beautfiul day crossing the Cook Strait.
Views on the Queen Charlotte drive to Nelson.
Views over Pelorus Sound.
On our way to Abel Tasman National Park.

On our way to Abel Tasman we stopped to admire Rawhiti Cave.
Rawhiti Cave, also known as Manson Cave, is 40m wide and 20m tall. The ceiling is densely covered in stalactites which become increasingly finer deeper down into the cave.

More pictures in the next blog from beautiful Abel Tasman and the West Coast.