The South Island

- A billboard in Wellington, for Mo-Mite. All in the spirit of Movember, a growing your moustache during the month of November to raise awareness of prostate cancer. A kiwi thing which is quickly spreading to many places around the world, including Cornwall... -

So we got up early, got to the ferry, found out i'd booked for the wrong direction, but this is New Zealand and they were quite cool about it. Wellington we left grey and cloudy, but we were soon basking in bright sunshine as we made our way across the Cook Straight.

Grey Wellington

Here comes the sun - Welcome to the Malborough Sound, South Island

The ferry takes a very scenic route through the Malborough Sound, to Picton. This town was named after one of Wellington's officers, a particularly brave one at that - according to Alex. We then traveled to Nelson and had some mexican food and a few beers on Trafalgar St. I think there's a theme there.

The menu at the Mexican Resto, you tick boxes to order your food.

There we met a couple of girls from British Columbia, Becky and Caylee, one of whom was on crutches as she'd broken her foot in a tragic and somewhat freakish surfing accident. They quickly challenged us at table football, which we figured was a mistake - as we demonstrated with our superior European technique -, but they were good banter and we offered to drive them around the South Island which they accepted. A little more about Nelson, it's a pretty chilled out town with a very nice beach and some nice cafes.

The next day we visited the Abel Tasman National Park, the smallest in NZ. This park, named after the Dutch captain who discovered New Zealand, boasted some pristine forests and diverse wild life. The main attraction is sea kayaking, whence one can observe penguins, seals, cormorans and many other species whilst perusing the wild coastline. Alex and I booked a boat to taxi us up the coast so we could walk back. We'd planned for about 20kms but the walk was extended by 8 or so kilometers as I mistakenly lead us in the wrong direction for about 1 hour as we looked for a 'legendary' suspension footbridge. So after after 6 hours of walking we made it back, tired, sweaty but feeling like heroes, to our car. The walk was made all the more memorable as we were able to take a shortcut along the beach which had been uncovered by the low tide.

We picked up the girls - who'd been chilling by the beach all day, and drove 210km (in 4 hours, it was scenic) to Punakaiki. Although we arrived at the hostel around 11pm, the manager, an eccentric German fellow, waited for us and we all settled down for a well earned rest.

Punakaiki - blow holes and cliff erosions

Alex doing what he does best...

Punakaiki (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Punakaiki) is famed for its rock formation which is limestone which looks like a stack of pancakes (aka Pancake Rocks) and its blow holes, one of which doesn't really blow but makes a very deep guttural sound as water pushes air through it. From there we went down the sinuous West Coast towards the Glaciers, Franz Josef and Fox Glacier. These are tiny towns, right next to... glaciers.

There is also a lake which when the conditions are right (no wind, clear skies) provides a 'calendar' picture of Mounts Cook and Tasman. We got up early the next day (6 in the morning), walked to the other side of the lake. The wind was nowhere to be felt. The surface of the lake was as still as a monastery. But the clouds were low and the calendar picture evaded us. Maybe next time.

From there we went to Queenstown, the adventure capital of New Zealand if not the World. There are over 400 different activities from the usual sky diving to jet boating up a narrow gorge. There are also about one hundred bars and restaurants for a town of 13'000 people. So it was going to be quite intense.

The lake near Waitanga - just before Queenstown

To be continued...