Camper Van Day - 9 Fox Glacier - Hokitika - Jackson

The day again started with rain, cloud and fog. The night was the coldest of last 8 days. We switched on the heater in the van.There was fresh snow on the mountains. This is summer on the west coast. But I love this weather. I wanted to go to Lake Matheson for the sunrise. But the sun never came out of clouds. So we skipped going to the lake.

After breakfast we left Holiday park. This was one of the best Holiday parks, of  what we have seen. I would like to come back and stay here for few days. We went to Fox Glacier from holiday park. From parking lot it was around 1.5 KM. The river coming out of glacier had hundreds of ice pieces. Recently big chunk of iceberg has broken off from the glacier.

We walked to the Glacier terminal face. It was 1 hour return. Every where around the glacier we could see waterfalls because of the rain. Fox glacier is one of the very few glaciers in the world which lands into rain forest. The other one is Franz Joseph Glacier in New Zealand. I think one more is in Argentina. Walking up to the glacier was great. you can see the blue green ice.




Then we left Fox Glacier as the clouds were not moving away. We reached Hokitika and did some shopping for last 2 days of the trip. Then we left west coast for Canterbury region as we headed to Arthur's pass.

We reached Jackson Retreat around 3.30 PM. Arthur's pass is 30 KM from here and Christchurch is 2.5 hour from here. So we stopped here for the day. It's again a beautiful place. It has mountains surrounding the camper van parking place. We did a 1 hour return walk to a waterfall. We had dinner and drinks for the night. Played snake and ladder. I won.....











This is 31st December 2012, last day of the year. We were supposed to see glowworms as dark sets in. But rain has started pouring down. So we got into the van and sleeping time... When I write next it will be 2013. So Happy New Year and tomorrow is our last day of the trip... so feeling bad about... anyways all good things need to end some where..... I think I have got my calling... I would like to do few more camping like this....

Camper Van Day - 8 Wanaka - Haast - Fox Glacier

The day started with rain. The forecast is rain for next few days thro' out the south island. So we can't escape this crap weather.

We left Wanaka around 10 AM.  15 KM from Wanaka is lake Hawea. We reached there and I took exactly 3 photos and the rain came down pouring. So we left Lake Hawea.  From here on we will be leaving Otago and entering Westcoast.  Rain was good in a sense. Heavy rain on the mountain created so many water falls thro' out our way. At least we would have seen hundred of them. Two of the were on the way, we could park our van and watch them.Fantail falls and Thunder Creek Falls.

We Passed thro' Haast Pass. Road was too steep going towards Haast. Around 2.30 PM we reached Fox Glacier. Rain had stopped for a while. So we went to see Lake Matheson. Lake Matheson is one of the calmest lake in the region. On a good day you can see the reflection of Mount Cook in the lake. Did I say good day, it can't be today. Still we went and had a look. All the mountains were covered in clouds. Still clicked few photos. With in no time, rain started  and by the time we reached car park, I was fully drenched.

We checked into our Fox Glacier Top 10 Holiday Park. That's how our day is ending... Not sure tomorrows weather will be better.....

Camper Van Day - 7 Wanaka

Today's weather report was not good. So we slept till late. By 8.00 AM we did not see any rain. It was bit cloudy. So we decided to do Rob Roy Glacier track walk. This track starts 50 KM from Wanaka. The track itself is 10 KM return. At the end of the walk you can see Rob Roy Glacier.

We started around 9.00 AM from Wanaka. First 20 KM is sealed road. Next 30 KM is unsealed gravel road. Our Camper van was shaking so much, all the nut bolt must be loose by the end of the day. Still we enjoyed the drive. This drive gives you brief view of what you will be viewing later. Huge mountains, waterfalls at every few kilometer, that's the entry point into Mt. Aspiring National Park.








We reached around 10.00 AM and started our walk. First 1 KM was the easiest and at the end of first kilometer, the track divides for Aspiring hut and Rob Roy Glacier lookout. We took the later to continue to our walk and we entered a swing bridge. Then it was all uphill. But this walk was easier compared to the one we did on our second day at Mount Cook.

As we were climbing we could see water from glaciers going downhill. It was blue water with so much force.  We were breaking the walk in between for rest and photos. In couple of places the track was damaged because of the landslide. By the time we reached lower lookout point, rain had started. Around 12 PM we reached upper lookout point and now it was raining. I took couple of photos and we started our decent back to car park. While walking down we had snacks.

When we reached the swing bridge, there was no rain near the car park at all. Almost at the end of the track, I tripped and twisted my ankle. Then we left the place ASAP, if the rain becomes heavy on the hills we may not be able to cross the road. In couple of places on the road, water from hill crosses the road. We reached Wanaka back by 3 PM. Parked our van near lake and relaxed. Later we went to Indian restaurant for Dinner. First time in 5 years, we did not go to Indian restaurant for 7 days during a trip. There was no scope for sunset as the black clouds were on our head and by the time we finished dinner the rain had started. I am watching rain from my camper van and writing this....

Another long tiring day has come to an end and our last day in Wanaka......

Camper Van Day - 5 Catlins - Curio Bay - Slope Point - Te Anau

The night we spent in Catlins was the coldest of 5 days. If summer is like this here, winter would be harsh. There was frost on all the windows of our camper van.

We left our McLean Falls holiday park after breakfast for Curio Bay. This bay is Fossil forest. Around 170 million years ago complete forest was submerged under ash water. We could still see the wood or tree structure in the form of stones. The icing on the cake was, rarest yellow eyed penguins were walking on the beach.

Another 13 KM from here was Slope Point. This point is the southern most point of South Island. From parking it was good 20 minutes walk. This completes most of the activities in my list for the trip. 

From here we drove 230 KM  thro' Invercargill and Winton to Te anau. Small town but a beautiful one. this is my second visit here. I was here 3 years back during a visit to Milford Sound. We strolled thro' town. Sat on the banks of the lake and read book. Had quite dinner on lake shore and then few sunset photos.... and off to bed...  

Camper Van Day - 4 Kaitangata - Catlins

Finally weather god was not smiling on us today. We wanted to go to Nugget point to see the sunrise. But it was too cloudy when I woke up in the morning. So I had to drop the plan of going there early. So we left at 9.00 AM.

First stop in our trip was at Nugget Point. Nice drive thro' Kaka Point and then last 8 KM on a gravel narrow road. We reached Nugget Point car park. It was windy and chilly. After 10 minutes walk we reached Nugget Point. It has a light house and few rock structures in the sea. you can also see, seals at the shore. Since mankind can not easily reach there, these seals and penguins can still live there.

From Nugget point, we went to see Purakauni Falls. That was another 10 minutes walking from parking place. Small but nice one.  This falls was featured on  New Zealand Postage stamp in 1976.








Our next port of call was Florence Hill Lookout. Here you can view Tautuku bay. This beach looks like half moon from this lookout.

Then we went to McLean Falls holiday park and had lunch in the Camper van. 3 KM from here was McLean Falls. One more short 20 minutes walk and I could see bigger, better falls than earlier.














Our next activity was Cathedral cave. But low tide was at 8.20 PM. This cave can be seen only 2 hour before and after the low tide. So we had our dinner by 6.00 PM. We left for Cathedral Cave. Again from parking lot it was 20-25 minute walk. Since this walk is thro' a private land we had to pay $5 fee.

Once we reached the beach, at far we could see cliffs. When we reached near by there were structures straight out of some Indian Jones movie. Huge cathedral like structure and there is an opening to enter the caves. We entered the cave and it was just amazing. After a little distance there was water up to knee high for some distance. Then it was all clear. This cave at the back joins the next cave.  The whole experience has been one of a kind and I would rate it as one of the best. I hope we get to see similar ones thro' out next 6 days....

Camper Van Day - 3 Twizel - Moeraki - Dunedin - Kaitangata

Today is Christmas day. Merry Christmas to all.  We started our journey from Twizel at 8.00 AM in the morning. One more sunny hot day. We had long drive ahead of us. We were going from Mackenzie Country to Otago. The drive was nice. On the way we saw unusually low clouds.

We passed thro' Lake Benmore, Lake Aviemore and Lake waitaki. After 3 hour drive we reached Moeraki. This place is famous for Boulders. This is one of the 101 things to do for kiwis. These boulders formed 55 million years ago. There perfectly round, amazing to see them on these beaches.

After spending some time we pressed ahead towards Dunedin. Since it was Christmas day, most of the city attractions were closed. We went to Larnach Castle. This is New Zealand's only castle. We had very high expectation as back home in India we have seen palaces. This castle was nothing compared to them. It was waste of time and money. Saw the castle and garden surrounding it. Castle is located at a height looking into Otago peninsula.

Our next stop was "Baldwin Street - World's Steepest Street". I went up the street and came down. It was very difficult to come down. All in all this was fun. People were going up and down. There were few people went up with car. But it was scary to see as some cars were barely able to make it to top of the street.

Next we went to St. Clair beach. It was full of people enjoying the sun. I clicked few photos. Our original idea was to stop here over night. Later we realised that next day is Boxing day and the place will be too crowded. So we decided to move out of Dunedin after taking few photos.

We were not sure where would be our night halt. Finally we stopped at Kaitangata riverside motorcamp. We had curd-rice-sambar for dinner in the Camper van :-). 

Camper Van Day - 2 Mount Cook - Sealy Tarn - Twizel

Our day 2 was supposed to start around 6.00 AM for our Muller hut walk. But we got delayed. we started the  walk from DOC campground at 8.00 AM.

It was so sunny and hot. After 15 minutes of walk we took the path towards Muller hut. We thought it should be difficult but we can make it. With another 10 minutes of the walk, instead of gravel path, steps were there. So the daunting task of climbing each step started instead of walking. Each step was so hard as if our legs were made of stones.

As we stared climbing up the views of Mount Cook, Hooker lake  and Hooker Glacier was amazing. We were tired in an hour of climbing steps. We had not carried enough water and what ever we had was almost finished as sun was beating down on us. We were sitting and resting after every few steps. By mid way we were sure, that we will not be able to go up to Muller hut. One of the German guy who was going down gave us water.




So after 2.5 hours of hard walk we finally reached Sealy Tarns.  This should have been 1.5 hour climb. By now Preeti was not well. After taking couple of photos, we started coming down. Mount Cook is the one on the left. It took us 1.5 hour to come down. By now our knees had given up.

To sum it up, it was unprepared, unplanned walk. We should have planned the walk for two days one day to go up and next day to come back. Anyways we could not go all the way up. Tongoriro crossing walk we did couple of years back was more easy compared to this. We had lunch and bit of rest and left for Twizel. On the way we spent some time at Lake Pukaki to put feet under cold icy blue water.




Night was spent at Lake Ruataniwha holiday Park Twizel, with body pain and disappointment of not reaching Muller hut. If yesterday was heaven today was hell....... Even while sleeping, I can feel the knee pain. 

Camper Van Day - 1 Auckland - Christchurch - Lake Tekapo - Mount Cook

The day started at 3.30 AM @ home in Auckland.Left home at 5.00 AM for the Christchurch and reached Christchurch at 8.10 AM. Flight was uneventful. After landing called the Camper van shuttle couple of times for pickup.

We reached the place, where we would pick up the camper van. Even though I had done online check-in, we had to wait for 2 hours. I just wanted to leave ASAP. Then around 10.30 AM we did the payment and we got the keys for our MAUI van, which will be our home for next 10 days.

Then we left for Mount Cook. The total distance was 320 KM. In between we wanted to pick few things but we did not find a supermarket next to motorway so we kept on moving as we had a 5.00 PM booking for Glacier Explorer boat ride.

At 11.30 we had to stop at a place for a small brunch as this was our first meal of the day. Then we reached Lake Tekapo at 2.00 PM. Lake was blue. It was more of a painting. I have never seen such a blue water colour. We took few photos at the historical church. We have been to lake Tekapo earlier but it was a cloudy day so we never got to see this blue colour.

We left Lake Tekapo, half heartedly. Another 45 KM down we got another blue lake, Lake Pukaki. We could see the majestic Mount Cook from here.Along the banks of Lake Pukaki we reached Mount Cool Village at 4.00 PM.

At 4.30 PM we took a bus, which took us near to Tasman Glacier. This trip was thro' Glacier Explorer. http://www.glacierexplorers.co.nz/  Then we had to walk for 20 minutes to reach the jetty. From there it was 45 minutes of  boat ride. We touched ice bergs, which had fallen of the Glacier. This is the largest glacier in New Zealand 27 KM long. The guide cum boat captain gave us insight in to glacier formation & facts. We saw snow covered mountains. But Mount Cook was the tallest of all. Around Mount cook lots of Glaciers are there. Later it was time for us to get back to the bus to come back.

From there we reached our first night camping ground at Glenn Tanner. We had our dinner and Preeti went to sleep. I went out again for doing some more photography. At 10.30 PM, I wanted to sleep after long tiring amazing first day of our camper van trip. In one word today was heaven....

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aoraki_/_Mount_Cook

Evening @ Port Waikato

After long time we had a sunny weekend. Not getting wet & it feels nice. So on Saturday we thought of going for sunset photography to Port Waikato.



We had a long drive from Auckland. We left at 6.00 PM as the sunset was scheduled for 8.30 PM. After a long drive (around 100 KM), we reached Sunset beach on Port Waikato. Before starting the photography, I cut the cake as it was my birthday. Birthday boy enjoyed the cake on the beach.



Then clicked lots of photos. Had a nice long walk with my tripod & camera....saw few more guys like me waiting for the sunset...  sunset was nice but no extraordinary colours.

Once the sun was set, we left to return back. On the way we stopped at my favorite place for few more photos... This is where I got few nice photos...  at the end it was a satisfying day of photography...






but now it was too late for dinner at a restaurant..........








http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Port_Waikato

Break ke baad

I had not written any thing for last two and half years.....  I was wishing a friend on her birthday few days back and she asked me why I am not writing. My excuse was no time. I was just thinking, is it really so or I am just too lazy. I can't be more busy here than back in India.

Apart from that, when I read my own old blogs, it was fun... I think I will write once in a while from now on.
The best part is we are doing a camper van trip in South Island of NZ in December. It should be fun.