Today we have arrived at Wanaka, after a few days exploring the wild west coast of the South Island. The most memorable aspect of this part of our journey was the lush rainforest, which lived up to its name at times. On the way we have visited hot springs, crossed the watershed of the Southern Alps, camped on the fault between the Australasian and Pacific tectonic plates (well, we were about 5 m to one side of it), walked up to two glaciers (see pic), found some lovely free places to park our van overnight, and we have all been bitten numerous times by sandflies - like midges but bigger and nastier!
The campervan is small and quite confined, but we are gradually getting used to living in such a small space and the children are using an indoor voice some of the time. Poor Adam has found the darkness at night a bit scary -- it really is too dark to see your hand in front of your face so we are very sympathetic -- but Peter and Felicity are sleeping with him in the space over the driving compartment and are looking after him too.
We're planning to stay in Wanaka for a couple of days to enjoy the lake (see pic) and surrounding hills before heading back across west to see some fjords and, no doubt, to be bitten by sandflies again!
Richard.
wow your trip sounds great fun, and what an adventure it is for the kids. One they will never forget I'm sure.
ReplyDeleteGlad you're able to explore so much, take care and looking forward to the next instalment,
With lots of love
Jenny, Mick, Dan & Ben xxx
Hi everyone
ReplyDeleteGreat to hear that you're having such a fun adventure. John and Judy are staying with us for the night and we're looking forward to sampling a 15 course tasting menu at a restaurant in Kew tonight. John and David are watching the rugby. And David came to bikram yoga with me this morning, which was a funny experience! We're getting very excited about our holiday in NZ. See you in a couple of weeks! We arrive on Sunday 15th March and thought we'd pop over and see you that afternoon, before we go down to the South island on Monday, if you'll be back in Auckland by then?! See you soon, Amanda
PS Let me know if you'd like us to bring anything from the UK.
We enloy reading about your travels and looking at your photos - how about one of the campervan for posterity! Hope you continue to have a great time - safe travelling, love from Mum & Dad (M&H)
ReplyDeleteWe are loving reading your blog. The temperature in our lounge shot up to 14 degrees C this week so we are enjoying imagining just how warm and summery it is in NZ!
ReplyDeleteSimon and Shelagh