A blog recounting the adventures of Justin & Dana's 2017-2018 world-wide jaunt. With pictures!
The West Coast Glaciers and Wellington
The scenery changes dramatically once you get onto the west coast of the South Island. Dry scrubby hills and dramatic snow-capped mountains give way to dense rainforest and raucous rivers. A very wet and windy road brings you at last to the flat lowlands beside the coast, which look eerily similar to the Oregon coast. Except, you know, glaciers.
Making our way down the narrow pass, taking a little breather from the hairy driving.We made it to the other side! We stopped at a little roadside coffee trailer, and people had written inspirational messages on these white rocks. A girl from Colorado was the only barista (and the only person around for miles). She seemed happy to have other people from the States to talk to. It looks like a lonely job.OUr first glacier sighting, Fox Glacier! Crazy to think that less than a hundred years ago it extended past where we were standing to take this photo. Justin's cut foot was bothering him so we didn't make it any closer, but it was still really cool. Literally. You could feel the frigid wind blowing off the glacier and down the valley.We spent another night in a real campground, which felt pretty luxe. Hot showers and flush toilets, ooh la la! The forest here was very unusual; some of the tallest 'trees' were these big oddly shaped tree ferns, which gave the forest kind of a whimsical Dr. Seuss feeling.The magnificent Franz Joseph glacier! We were able to walk almost up to the base of this one (as far as you're allowed to go for safety reasons)Cascading waterfalls in the valley below Franz Joseph.It was fascinating seeing the fresh scars on the earth left by this huge hunk of ice. We're all used to seeing the way glaciers have shaped the terrain, some places like Yosemite more obvious than others, but here you can see it in progress! The geology nerd in me was wigging out.Standing near the foot of the glacier. They had it roped off past this point. Guess nobody likes an ice chunk to the head. It was really cold here! I had to put my jacket on for the last few hundred meters of the walk, because you could feel this cold breath coming down the valley.Is it weird that the beach is so close to these glaciers? Yes, yes it is. Our (free) campsite for the night was a parking lot right next to the water.Mmm ramen and cider. Dinner of champions.We stumbled upon an old mining town (c. 1900's maybe?) which had once been a huge bustling settlement with two massive coal mines, but had been abandoned to the elements. The local government fixed it up and made it into a park. Very cool to see photos of what the now-empty valley once looked like.Memorial for a mining disaster that claimed dozens of lives. Explosive gas deep in the mine was ignited by some blasting, killing everyone inside.Yummy dinner of champions #2. Practicing for when we'll be camping in the States for six months!Another lovely campsite by the sea. Somehow sunsets in New Zealand are just...better.A pretty viewpoint from a sheep pasture.It's our waka friend again! Ok different bird, but same ridiculous attitude.On the north shore near Picton, where we would be catching our ferry to the North Island.Our last campsite on the South Island! Another lovely free site by the water.Here's a view of the inside of the camper. The bed folds up to give you some benches and a table, so it feels quite roomy!
After our last camping spot by the sea, we got in line to take the massive Interislander ferry across the straight to the North Island. I had mixed feelings about this…what could beat the amazing camping and wild scenery of the South Island? But, there were volcanoes and glowworm caves and Hobbiton waiting for us, so it couldn’t be all bad.
Not a bad view on the ferry trip over. It took about three hours, and was actually a lot of fun! Which is good, because it was hella expensive for two people and a van (about $300 USD).Navigating through the sound.Woo crazy hair!Leaving the South Island behind....The ferry dropped us in Wellington, and we found a free place to spend the night in a marina parking lot. It was a bit of a walk to downtown, over this bridge and through a park. But the park was right beside Weta studios, and turned out to be where a few scenes from LOTR was shot!Well...at least they're not *always* lost...maybe just a bit lost...How do we get downtown again?This is the forest the hobbits are travelling through in the first movie when they first encounter the ringwraiths.This is the hill they all fall down after getting into Farmer Maggot's crop!Wellington reminds us of San Francisco. Lots of really steep hills and artsy folks walking around with wierd-colored hair!The best fish and chips (in NZ pronounced fash and chips) we found. Except I whimped out and got baked fish. But Justin got the propper fried stuff, and it was delicious.Walking back to our marina campsite after enjoying dinner and drinks in the city. We got to walk back through the forest where all the hobbit scenes were shot, with a view of Wellington sparkling below. And I got to pretend ringwraiths were chasing us the whole way (much to Justin's chagrin). Best tipsy stumble home ever!!!We returned to discover our lovely empty marina parking lot had really filled up! Every space was filled, and then some. The guy to our left is not in a parking spot, he's in the narrow buffer space between our spot and the guard rail. Kudos to him for being able to back in there (of course he was German hahaha)
We unfortunately didn’t have much time to spend in Wellington, since our van was due in Auckland in four days and we had a lot to see between here and there. But our one day and one night spent there made us wish we had more time; it was a really fun city! It felt like a cool, artsy, teeny tiny San Francisco. After spending a restful night at the marina with our very close neighbors, we headed to the free museum, since, you know, it’s free and we’re cheapskates. It was fabulous. We gave ourselves two hours here before we needed to be on the road heading north, but we easily could’ve spent a whole day. They had great exhibits on Mauri culture, complete with nearly life-size replicas of their sailing canoes (think the boats from Moana), exhibits about invasive species, farming culture, immigration, and of course the obligatory room full of dead stuffed animals. BUT their room full of dead animals had a giant squid in it!!!
He looks a little worse for the wear, apparently giant squid are incredibly hard to preserve. But he's the real deal!
They also had a new exhibit on Gallipoli, though we’re ashamed to say we didn’t really know what that was until we read the material in the exhibit. If you’ve also forgotten your history lessons, it was a WWI battle in Turkey where NZ supported the British and suffered massive losses. Weta studios collaborated with them, and made a bunch of massive figures depicting scenes from the battle. These things were incredible. They looked exactly like real giant humans, down to the tiny beads of sweat and little hairs and flecks of dirt on their skin. It was eerie to be close to them.
One of the giant soldiers. He looks so real, even when you get really close. You can only tell he's huge by the people standing right next to him. The soldier he's treating has a nasty compound fracture, and it looks so real you get grossed out looking at it.
We reluctantly dragged ourselves out of the museum. It was time to hit the road, heading north towards Mordor!
