Inspired at Mount Aspiring

Having spent quite some time in and around the Fiordland region it was with some sadness that we began our journey further North.

And just likes chips is not the same without Mayo (if you are Dutch) or Tomato sauce (if you are Amercian) or with vinegar (if you are a Brit)... anyway, you get the idea. A trip North from the Fiordland has to include a stop at the Adrenaline capital of New Zealand - Queenstown!!!

This is place where you can jump naked from a bridge tied to a rope, order 5 vodka shots for the price of 1, win wet T-shirt competitions or even wet Y-front (translated: mens briefs/underwear) competitions. Needless to say, after all the quiet and peace in the Fiordlands it did not take long for us to decide to leave town and head-off for a more remote and quiet destination called Glenorchy. And it paid off... allready on the way to it, we were rewarded with stunnings views like this:

Glenorchy itself was very laid back with a small store, cafe and petrol station. But it was from here that we had had our eye on a small remote campsite and some small tramps in the mountains - way off the tourist trail... lovely!

Lots of "traffic" on the road, but no cars ;-)

Absolutely beautiful and peaceful!

Off-the-beaten-track walk close to Glenorchy

A quick burger-stop in Queenstown (just look at the size of them - eating these was an andrenaline activity in itself) and we jumped back in Vivian for our next destination being Wanaka.

Having arrived in Wanaka we was told about a lovely tramp into the mountains to view some snowcapped mountains with glaciers hanging from their tops. However, this needed to be done in good weather as the road was extremely hazardous and contained a number of fords (small rivers) which needed to be driven across. With a quick check of the weather forecast we could see that our only option was to leave right now as the weather was expected to get worse over the next few days. With nearly 30km of gravel road Vivian was not overly impressed but we managed to get there late afternoon and were not dissapointed.

Rob Roy Glacier

 

With a very nervous journey back to Wanaka (heavy rain had swelled the river crossings and we decided to try and drive across them when it was dark - long story! ;-) we stopped to take a deep breath and decided to explore the town some more before moving on. An amazing lake on the forefront of Wanaka which we mountain biked around as well as our fun day at 'Puzzling World' where we had some optical illusion challenges - good fun!

Now, as always, there is a story here - one which is worth sharing on our Blog with you. Having met a lovely couple during our trip through Catlins, who had invited us into their home for coffee, they also told us we should look-up their son who lives in Wanaka. Therefore, this is exactly what we did and gave Barry a quick call to meet us for coffee.

It turns out that Barry has a passion for flying and actually had broke his back when his plane crashed, whilst crop dusting, quite a few years back. However, this has not stopped Barry and his passion for flying and it was inspirational to see that someone can enjoy life so much regardless of the hurdles put in ones way.

During coffee Barry offered that if the weather cleared he would be more than happy to take us flying in his plane over the snow capped peek of Mount Aspiring in the distance and on to the West Coast of New Zealand. Needless to say, we did not hesitate in saying 'Yes!!!'.

And when the weather was right, off we went...

Quick landing to buy a pie for lunch at a random petrol station in Haast and then off we went again...

You are a true inspiration to all of us - thanks Barry!!!

Fiordland (what, there are even more stunning places to see!?)

Having visited the southern most part of the New Zealand South Island it was time to turn Vivian to the right and begin our journey north again. We swear that Vivian drove with a spring in her step when she realised that we were heading towards 'home'!  ;-)

On the way north, and our next destination being the Fiordland, we had to stop at a little town which is 'famous' for its sausages. It appears they won a competition ages ago but are still trying to make a buck from it - needless to say, the sausages were a dissapointment.

We should stop reading the guide book - next stop, enroute to the Fiordlands, was to visit a cave system which you could walk un-guided for nearly 2 km's underground. It was quite spooky to be alone in such a system and some of the water holes we had to navigate were, as well as being very cold, were extremely deep. As always, we survived to write it on the blog!

Another unplanned stop was Lake Monowai. Somehow it seems like we will end up spending much more time on the South Island than we initially thought. There are just too many lovely places...! :-)

At last, we arrived in the stunning Fiordland region of New Zealand! This place is just amazing, but of course this also means that it is a tourist mecca. 

Therefore we had to get creative on how we could get the Milford Sound to ourselves... So, with a really wet night we headed up the 100km one-way road to Milford and slept in Vivian a short drive away. With a 6am alarm we jumped straight into the driving seat and felt like we had pretty much the whole place to ourselves....

Peaceful and quite Milford Sound right after sunrise

Beautiful early morning cruise through Milford Sound



Lots of dolphins having fun in the sea. Some people pay lots of money for a dolphin tour, we got it all inclusive ;-)

It was a lovely feeling to see all the tourist busses heading into Milford Sounds as we sat down for a well deserved lunch as we were leaving ... Result!!!

Without knowing we ended up at a little glacier when we went for a walk. How crazy is this?! :-)



Stewart Island

Also known as the home of the gumboot (alias rubber boots)  :-)  Even though this is not technically true but given the high percentage of the (anyway small) population on this island being fishermen you do tend to see them everywhere, including in the local pub!

Stewart Island is basicaly the relatively unknown 'third' island of New Zealand and is found at the very bottom of the South Island across one of the most dangerous straits in the world, the Foveaux Strait. As James has once before in his life "survived" the ferry crossing across this strait to this island, this time it was a no-brainer and we opted to take the 15 minute flight instead.



View to the 'capital' of Stewart Island - Oban


More Tramping - no stopping us now :o) ...... this time it was a three day Tramp around a small corner of Stewart Island - there was a great 9 day Tramp too but, alas, we could not justify the time for this.

Caution! Kiwi crossing :-)

*

Please pay attention to the sign... ;-)

Given the remoteness and small number of people on Stewart Island, life tends to evolve around the local pub. We also made sure we was back in town, from our walk, for the infamous 'pub-quiz' which is held every Sunday evening. Having entered our team (comprising of us and two Dutchies) we sat back and observed as the 'Compere' hurled abuse at everything and everyone in the room as she, quite elegantly, barked out the questions... She is the one with the (heavily tatood) arms, thicker than James' legs, dressed in gothic black and propped up on the stall in the background of the pic below ;o)

Blue cod, Blue cod, Blue cod ... it's everywhere on Stewart Island! So, off we went for a day of line fishing with John (that James knew from his first visit to the island) in the bays around Stweart Island. It was sometimes like 'shooting fish in a barrel' but what we caught was filleted and cooked on the boat right under our noses. Amazing what other things decided to bite the bait too - just look at the small shark James has along with the 2 meter shark which was almost landed before it broke the line...

John and his small fishing boat