April 09, 2004

South Island WOW!!!

Yet again, it has been ages since I posted. So I'll try and keep the following breif (for my sake :)... here are the highlights...

From Milford, I headed to Queenstown. Which was really dissapointing! The setting was beautifull, but the town felt like it had lost its soul.

Wanaka on the other hand was lovely! Also a great setting... great cafes and shops, friendly locals, wonderfull walks. I picked a hitchhiker up when I was driving from Queenstown to Wanaka and we went and hiked the Rob Roy trail... ~4 hours to an amazing glacier with loads of waterfalls... lovely walk... lots of parrots :)

The next stop was Fox Glacier... I was there for one full day and it was the first day in 3 weeks when they were able to take helicopters up on the glacier!!! WOW!!!!!! I had no idea that ice could be so blue or so big or so dramatic... (I guess I had an idea, but up close it was AMAZING!)

From fox, I headed up the west coast, did a one day Jade carving workshop... at Bonz'n'Stonez... Also a great experience, wonderfull thing to do on a rainy day :)

Lots of driving up to Golden Bay which is the north west area of the south island. I stayed at a lovely backpacker near the Pancake Rocks and then made it up to Motueka for a cool day of sea kyaking in the Abel Tasman park...

Made it up to a super cool backpacker called Shambala (Thanks Wade!!!). This was the lovliest hostel I have ever stayed in. The whole place was run with alternative energy, the garden was lovely, loads of sculpture, private beach that was deserted for 2 hours in both directions... In their info book, they recommend going to Wharariki Beach, which was one of the lovliest beaches I have ever seen! Wow, ~6 seals within 2 meters playing with eachother for 20 minutes! amazing caves, amazing dunes.... the weather was iffy, but again, it just made the whole experience even more magical!!! I hope the pictures come out :)

My next major stop was the Hopewell backpacker in Marlborough Sound, which was also really amazing! (Thanks Marie!!!). I spent most of a day out on the sound fishing (didn't catch a thing, but it was fun anyway :) I also read "Dead Famouse" by Ben Elton, which was recommended by one of the owners... Very cool murder mystery that takes place during the filming of a reality TV show.... I have to say that these shows apeal to me much more comming out of a book than out of the telly :)

Next stop Kaikura, I was hoping to go SCUBA diving with seals or at least whale watching, but the weather started getting really bad! so I had to just skip it.

I headed back to Christchurch... Had a couple of relaxed days... spent a really lovely afternoon with one of Jess' friends who works in antarctica... Yo Anne, hope you have a safe trip home! :)

This afternoon, I flew back up the Aukland. I have a week, not sure what I'll do... I'm going to look into diving on the Rainbow Warrier wrek... or at least visiting the bay of islands... I don't feel very motivated though... I'm really excited to be heading home so soon!

Loads of Love,


-- Bindu

Posted by binduwavell at April 9, 2004 03:42 AM
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