West Coast of New Zealand

On a highway scenic overlook, a couple we saw just said “Wow.”  The gentlemen then said – “we seem to have run out of adjectives when describing New Zealand.”  I think K and I couldn’t agree more after the past three days.  My apologies for not posting over the past few days.  Lack of internet plus some longer days on the road, it has delayed my posts.

K and I traveled by car from the Nelson area of the south island of NZ to the Fox Glacier on Tuesday.  Yesterday, we spent on the Fox Glacier and surrounding area.  Today, we made our way to Queenstown from Fox Glacier.  I’ll keep this blog post to what we saw Tuesday as it’s just too much to cover in one post.  Over the past two days I took over 700 pictures.  I probably added another couple hundred today.  Don’t worry, I’ll try to pick the best of the best, but the beauty was just stunning.

The owner of the B&B inn outside Nelson told us that it was about a four hour trip to our destination of Fox Glacier.  Note to anyone that comes to New Zealand:  we have found the Kiwi people to be helpful and generally nice to be around.  However, when a Kiwi tells you the cost of something or the time to travel somewhere, double their estimate.  They are tremendously understating people.   This is not an isolated incident and we read in a couple of travel guides that this is a common find among travelers – especially Americans – that come to New Zealand.  So it took all day to make the trip ~300 mile trip, but we had several detours and stops for some incredible scenery.

Rabbit Island

Before we left the Marlborough Sounds area, we stopped at Rabbit Island near Nelson right on the Tasman Bay (at our inn keeper’s recommendation) – a forested little island that sits amid the tidal basin of Tasman Bay.  It was a pretty start to a great day.  Note the shot of the forest on the island.  I have seen some of the Black Forest in Germany.  This little forest had it beat for darkness.

Over the Southern Alps

As we left Rabbit Island and pointed our car south, we could see snow on the mountains ahead.  You could see your breath in the morning and they had fresh snow in the mountains overnight – our first experience with any cool weather in NZ.

The Marlbourgh Sounds area contains all sorts of vineyards, and agricultural land.  Some of the best wines in the world – especially Sauvignon Blanc – are made here.  The grapes here are either being harvested or just about to be harvested.  So most of the vineyards are covered in netting to protect the grapes from the birds.  It makes for an interesting landscape to see all the netted vineyards like that below.

As you head south and west and leave the Marlborough Sounds and vineyards, you cross the “Southern Alps” through the Buller River valley and that is when the scenery really starts to get interesting.

Maruia River Falls

Our first stop before crossing the Southern Alps foothills to the coast was a small detour to the Maruia Falls on a tributary – the Maruia River - to the Buller River.  The falls were created in 1929 by an earthquake.  Here are a few pictures.  This falls is often neglected in guide books (probably because it is off the beaten track a little and there are so many other places to see in New Zealand), but we were glad we made the stop.  I hope you see why.

The trip over the Southern Alps was gorgeous – if not a bit nerve racking in a few spots.  The roads were more narrow and I lost track of how many one lane bridges we crossed – and then check out the road cut into the rock!

Here are just a few of the pictures of the scenery over the mountains and through the Buller River Gorge area.

 

The West Coast

Eventually, the mountains gave way to the sea coast.  And what a coast it was.  Any words I have do it injustice.  Actually, any picture I have does it injustice.  It has some similarities to California’s coast, but more violent and awesome.

Pancake Rocks

About ½ way on our coastal trip, we stopped at the Pancake Rocks and Blow Holes of the Paparoa National Park on the coast.  The blow holes are some of the biggest I have ever seen.  The picture and video should give you some sense of the size and power.

The Pancake Rocks are limestone cliffs that – well – look like a stack of grey pancakes.  Geologists have some loose theories about how they were created, but even they are not sure why or how these formations came to be.  However they were created, they are interesting and beautiful to look at.  Check out the bumble bee that photo bombed the picture of us next to the pancake rocks.

 

Lunch was on the go on Tuesday.  We went to a Countdown store and grabbed some cheese, crackers, and fruit and picnicked in the car as we drove.  The Countdown store is the major supermarket chain in New Zealand.  If you want to know what a supermarket in New Zealand is like, head to your local US supermarket.  You wouldn’t be able to tell the difference unless you looked hard at some of the brand names, but even then it might not be enough to tell.  A Publix, Krogers or Byerlys in the US would look like a Countdown store.

We also made a brief stop in Hokitika on the coast.  This is the center of Maori jade jewelry.  The New Zealand (Maori translated) name for jade is greenstone.  K needed some jewelry.

From there, we saw more coast and ultimately the Franz Josef and Fox Glacier townships.  Below, we got a glimpse of the Franz Josef Glacier and Fox Glacier (the second and third pictures - the glacier we would hike Wednesday) just before dusk.

It was a beautiful day with some fantastic views – only to be surpassed by what we saw on the glacier the next day.  Tune in for my next post to see the pictures from the glacier (and helicopter above it).  It was an event I will remember distinctly for the rest of my life.