ilse Strickx

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!

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.

On our way to Wharariki Beach near Farewell Spit.

Much of the scenery made me think of the Hobbit movie.

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.

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.

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.