South Island

1. Pelorus Bridge
 We spent the first two nights on South Island at Pelorus River Campground (located on the highway between Picton and Nelson).  The river is cold and clear and is a favourite swimming site for the locals and visitors alike.  All day long groups of teenagers and young adults were leaping off the rocks into the water.  Only to clamber out  and jump in again.  It was fun to just stand on the bridge and watch them at their antics.
 There are stern warnings on the bridge not to jump from the bridge.  It states that people have died, so do not try.

Other than swimming there are some major tramping trails that leave from the site.  Don and I did one walk  that went past two waterfalls before heading straight up the mountain to the lookout.  It was a 4 hour return.  The peak was 417 metres.

The difference between a walk and a tramp is the distance and the need to carry a pack with a lunch or an extra jacket.  We should have prepared for a tramp instead of just a walk.  We did, however, have our water bottles.
 My brother Chris gave us the bottles three trips ago.  His company gave them out to their employees.  We almost lost them early on in the trip as we left them in our hotel fridge in Melbourne before flying on to Tasmania.  It was lucky that we were returning to the same hotel 5 days later.  The housekeepers had kept then for us.  We haven't left them since.

2. Nelson
We arrived in Nelson on Sunday.  Monday was to be a national holiday - Anniversary Day.  Sort of like our Canada Day.  The kids are soon back to school.
Nelson is a beautiful city.

We looked into booking a quad tour but it wasn't going to work out.  The clock is ticking and we want to reach the southern tip (the city of Invercargill) before we are out of time.  The length of the southern island is around 1000 kilometres.
3. Abel Tasmin National Park
From Nelson we took the road towards Abel Tasmin National Park - easily one of New Zealanders favourite vacation sites.  Unfortunately the wind was strong.  Don had to fight to keep the van on the road.  As we drove along we passed vineyard after vinyard.  There were also fruit plantations but by far the most prevalent crop were the wine grapes.
We stopped at Kaiterteri Beach which is on the edge of the park.

The blowing sand made it impossible to enjoy the setting.  After lunch we decided that it was pointless to stay in the area.   We retraced our route heading towards the west coast and the next stop on our itinerary.
4. Towards The West Coast
 After we left the vineyards behind we drove into more rugged terrain.  The vineyards gave way to the forestry industry.  The hills were in various stages of production.  Some were clearcut, waiting for the tree planters to come in and re-plant.  The spontaneity and variety of nature has been replaced with straight rows of one type of tree.  All the surrounding hills were in various stages of regrowth - from 1 year all the way to ready for harvest.  
 We stopped in Woodstock (west of Nelson) to take a break.  Don slept and I read.  The quiet was shattered by the sound of an air raid siren. ( Even if you never lived through WW2 because of the movies we all know the sound). We jumped up to see what the locals were doing, planning to take our cue from them.  The clerk in the antique store seemed to be reading.  Two people across the way were looking off to the west.  We looked too.  Soon we heard the sound of a fire engine.  What a way to announce a fire!!!
We stopped the night at a government campsight in the Lyell Upper Gorge.   The campground is on the site of an old mining town.  All that is left of the area is pictures, stories, and a graveyard.  The last hotel burned down in 1963.

5.  February 1, 2011
Where does the time go.  One month of 2011 gone just like that.
We are along the west coast and the nights are cool.  We could be in Alberta in the spring time as the weather is the same - cool at night aand warm throughout the day.  (The average summer temperature is 19.5 degrees C. The average winter temperature is 12.5 degrees C.  The annual rainfall is 2575 mm.)  Just don't look too closely at the vegetation.  A dead give-away.
The west coast is New Zealand's most unpopulated region.  We drove all day along the coast from Westport to Greymouth and didn't see one boat.
Our first two stops were near the city of Westport and close to each other.  At the 'T' one way led to  Cape Foulwind (named by Captain Cook),  the other direction led to the seal colony.  We went to Cape Foulwind and saw that instead of driving to the seal colony you could take the path along the sea cliff.  It was a beautiful clear day.  We choose to walk but this time we prepared properly for a tramp.  We carried a pack with lunch and water.  The round trip was 7 kms  and was one of the most enjoyalbe hikes we have taken on this trip.

From there we  drove south to Punckaiki, the site of the Pancake rocks and Blowholes.  An interesting sight.  Layers of rock cemented together.  The scientists have figured out what process had to have taken place to create the effect.  What they can't figure out is why and exactly how.

6. Wednesday, Feb. 2nd
We have woken up to rain.  It looked like it was there for the day but we did drive out of it around  1:30.
We shopped for jade in the jade capital - Hokika - a cute artsy town.  The rain poured down but shopping and rain go to gether nicely.
From there we headed to Okarito where we were going to kayak in the lagoon.  The rain had stopped by this time but not the wind.  The lagoon was rough with white caps.  We determined to stay on dry land.

Onwards to Franz Josef to see the famed glacier.  A tourist town at it's finest along with the inflated prices.  We paid $2.22/litre for gas.  We walked to the glacier for a peak but chose not to do any of the pricier options like take a guided tour or a heli-ride.

 We left and drove to Lake Matheson.  Think of Emerald Lake and that will describe the setting.  We did the circle walk around the lake (1.5 hr) admiring the reflections in the calm waters.  From that area you also get a good view of Mount Cook which is the highest peak in the NZ mountains

7. Water and Curvy Roads
The South Island can be summed up in two phrases - water and curvy roads.  We have never seen so many hairpin curves in our lives.  And water - water everywhere.  Falling from the sky, running in rivelets, streams and torrents.  The crashing of waves and, occasionally, a tranquil lake.  New Zealand is a land of many contrasts wrapped up in one small package.