New Zealand #2: South Island

On Sunday morning, we said goodbye to Craig and his family and got on the ferry to the South Island. However, compared to the ferries at home, this was more like a cruise. There were recliner seats, restaurants, a bar, a children's play area, a movie theater, and not to mention beautiful scenery along the way! We arrived to the city of Picton, boarded a bus to Blenheim, our first stop on the SI. After finding beds at The Grapevine Backpackers and meeting our new roommate Luke from England, we all went out to explore Blenheim. We figured out it was a pretty lame small town, but that was ok because we had really stopped here to go wine tasting! The Marlborough region is known for their white wines, and my favorite wine Oyster Bay is made here, so I was super excited to go out and try more NZ wines. The next day we rented bikes, got a map and some directions to some of the good wineries, and started our winery tour. We visited 5 wineries-Villa Maria, Matua, Highfield Estate, Fromm, and Wither Hills. All were good, but our favorites were Villa Maria and Wither Hills. It was a great success for our first bike/wine tour :) Oh and did I mention the tastings were free!!!
After an afternoon of wine tasting, we bused it to the city of Nelson. Nelson is at the edge of the Abel Tasman National Park, which we had heard was amazing. We arrived into Nelson around 8pm and had our first experience with not being able to find a hostel. Our bus driver was kind enough to call around for us and found us (and our friend Luke) 3 beds at Paradiso Hostel. They only had 3 beds in different rooms and for the first time in over 3 months, Toriann and I didn't sleep in the same room, crazy! But, somehow we managed :) We found that Nelson was another city that closed up very early and after settling into our hostel, we went for a wander into Burger King, as it was the only place still open (at like, 10pm). The hostel itself was pretty cool, complete with a pool, hot tub, volleyball court, and large busy kitchen which offered free soup at dinner time.
The next morning, bright and early, we headed out to the Abel Tasman for a full day of hiking and kayaking. We rode the water taxi to our first stop at Bark Bay Beach with scenic stops at Split Apple rock and Pinnacle Island. From Bark Bay, we hiked for 3 hours or so along the coast to Torrent Bay. We had heard the sand flies were bad at these beaches, so I had decided to try out our all natural 'jungle juice' that we purchased from a man in Panama. He had claimed that this magic 'jungle juice' was mosquito and sand fly repellent, relief from insect and stingray bites, sunscreen, could be poured in your ear for ear infections, and...and, could cure melanoma cancer if applied properly. Sounded good to us, so I generously applied it to my legs. After hiking for a bit, I realized that although I was not getting bit (but neither was Toriann), I had heaps of dead sand flies stuck to my legs. I'm not sure if I would consider the 'jungle juice' a success or not... Back to Abel Tasman, after enjoying Torrent Bay beach, the water taxi picked us up and delivered us to Watering Cove, where we had a picnic lunch of veggie sandwiches and banana chocolate muffins (so good!). We met our kayak instructor, had a crash course on kayaking, and headed out to sea. We first kayaked to a small island that often has seals. We saw one seal and he swam right up next to the boat. It was really cool, but a lot of work to see him...because, we then had to turn into the wind and paddle back to the coast. Toriann and I were taking our time, but apparently we were too slow and our guide decided we should be towed by the boys boat. So, the strong men helped pull Toriann and I to safety, and then we continued on down the coast back to Marahau, where the whole day had originally started. We figured out that maybe we had been a wee bit slow because we rolled in about 1 1/2 late. Luckily, the bus had been kind enough to wait for us, and drove us home to Nelson!
Our next day in Nelson, we debated whether or not to go skydiving. We both had been going back and forth for days, and ended up deciding against it. However our good friend Luke decided to do it for his birthday and ended up loving it although i am not sure he would do it again... ooh well maybe next time. We instead had a leisurely day in the city and caught up on life (whatever that means...)
Our days of traveling before having to be in Christchurch to start work on the farm were very few, so the next day we left Nelson and 9 hours later arrived in Franz Joseph. The buses here are great, they pick you up and drop you off at your hostel, and they provide tea and lunch stops. One of our stops was at Punakaiki, where they have 35 million-year-old pancake rocks, created by the waves pounding on the limestone and mudstone cliffs. The rocks are beautiful, unique twisted formations with the gorgeous west coast in the backdrop. It was definitely a worth while bus stop! Sure made us hungry for pancakes:) Franz Joseph is a town based around the Franz Joseph Glacier, one of NZs most famous glaciers. The climate is really unique because the glacier is surrounded by rain forest. We did a half day hike, through the valley leading up to the glacier and then up onto the ice. We were fully suited up with warm gear and crampons, and we had an excellent guide from Delaware. The walk on the ice was really awesome, up and down steep staircases of ice, through a naturally carved tunnel, and through a very, very narrow crevasse. We spent the remainder of the day, hot tubing, staying warm, and enjoying the scenery of the town.
And that completed our speed tour of the South Island, from FJ glacier, we did another long bus journey to Christchurch. Next adventure in NZ, WOOFing...