Punakaiki to Wanaka via Franz Josef and Haast Pass - pure New Zealand pleasure

It was a great trip down the West Coast to Franz Josef. and on to Wanaka.  Hokitika is a lovely, sleepy old town with a magnificent beach, strewn with driftwood. I wish I could have taken some back with me, but it is a bit bulky!

Back to the toilet theme! This was also a cool sign I could easily relate to.

especially as I was rather concerned about the next stop, The Tree Tops walkway.  A brand new structure built 45 metres off the ground, enabling you to walk in amongst some of the giants of the forest for about half a kilometre. Pretty scary stuff for a scaredy cat like me who hates being even 2 metres off the ground! But I did it and even got to the top of the tower!

Fortunately the photo does not show how much I was trembling, though I did start to enjoy the views after some minutes up there.

I enjoyed it so much ultimately, that I have even got an annual pass so that I can go there again whenever I visit the West Coast. It would be great to be able to see the mountains with snow perhaps and also to be there at different time of the day when there might be more bird life. It was well worth what seemed like rather an expensive entry fee.

What a wonderful stay it was at Cedric's Glowworm hostel in Franz Josef, which has one of the most hospitable managers I have ever met, Benjamin, who made the yummiest vegetable soup free for all guests every evening, and who could remember guests' names with apparent ease! In the evening we headed off into the nearby forest with our torches and were thrilled to find ourselves surrounded at one point by the glistening lights of glowworms. What a touch of magic!

As we wanted to get to Wanaka by late afternoon, we unfortunately could not do walks at Fox and Franz Josef Glaciers, but at least we drove up to view Franz Josef, which looked fantastic in the early morning light.

Glaciers with punga ferns, and only a few kilometres from the sea. Something very special!

The recommendation of our wonderful host was great. Lake Matheson on such a day is a picture postcard/chocolate box lid place to visit. I guess this poem by Brian Turner sums it up.

Talk about perfection. I have never seen a reflection in the lake like it. Mount Cook, New Zealand's highest mountain was perfectly mirrored. It was totally breathtaking.

We did have to avoid the groups of Chinese who were horribly noisy in order to properly enjoy the forest surrounding this absolutely gorgeous lake. Goodness knows why they have to shout at each other when they are standing so near to one another.  Fortunately it was a circular track so at the junction we waited to see where the group went and took the other path, finding ourselves virtually alone on a fabulous forest/lake walkway. You never know who might be following you!

It was fantastic to be walking through the forest and looking up, having experienced the forest looking down the day before.

What a brilliant start to our day. We just could not get enough of the wonderful Mount Cook views.

We spent our lunchtime enjoying them, amazingly sharing a table with a really pleasant couple who live in Kingston just 10 minutes from where I grew up in Epsom. The world is really very small.

What a pity to have to leave this glorious place, but there were more wonderful spots to stop and stare.

Luckily, not a lot of traffic on the road so we could always pull over and enjoy the scenery.
Look at this forest. It blows my mind!

Then after many a corner, one suddenly pops out at the beach - rather unexpectedly I guess for many.

Then back into the forest again on a winding road which seems to wind for ever, but which is totally captivating!!!

To get to Wanaka we needed to cross the Haast Pass, quite a gentle pass which weaves up the hill amongst the lush forest and past crystal clear rivers and streams. The scenery is simple but majestic, and not a building or sign of habitation in sight.

Just as I was beginning to feel exceptionally tired, we arrived at Lake Hawea at dusk. Wow! It was simply amazing. First nature's beautiful artistic creation in the lake

 followed by this stunning reflection in the late rays of the setting sun.

What a way to end the fairly long but absolutely fantastic day of travel. We were ready to head to Edgewater in Wanaka, to meet up with David and then meet friends for dinner. A marvelous day in so very many ways. We are so exceptionally lucky.

Hanmer and the wild West Coast

One thing I found very hard to do during our entire trip was to leave the beautiful places we had been staying! Luckily, it did not take very long for the spectacular new scenery, people and places to kick in.

Arrival in Hanmer is always impressive as one stops to look down at the beautiful Waiau River. There are photos of this river when I visited with Peter on one of the February blogs, but this time autumn had come and this was our first, but certainly not last, taste of gold.

What lovely lighting to arrive to! Hanmer has really taken off in a very small but well managed way. The hot pools there are just heavenly, particularly due to the incredible views of the surrounding forest-clad mountains and the unbelievably clear skies. We were spoilt by the exceptional night skies in most of the places we visited, with the billions of stars, the clear Milky Way and the occasional shooting star. So few people around, so virtually no pollution!

It was fantastic to have a cottage at a campground just outside the village of Hanmer, nestled in amongst the trees. What lovely memories I have of that place because we used to camp there frequently with the kids. Our little cottage was so well equipped and very cosy.

The Lindis Pass, linking Hanmer to the West Coast is a very easy pass but also spectacularly beautiful. Of course it goes without saying that the road is a winding road with lots of ups and downs and this time, due to closure of State Highway 1 north of Kaikoura, it was a bit busier than usual until the junction of roads to the north and to the west.  The scenery quickly changed from wide river valleys with lots of golden tussock to dramatic river gorges, the most impressive being the overhang at Buller Gorge.

Suddenly we were heading towards the rain forest of the west, and a touch of moisture, only to be expected where there is rain forest!! We were pretty lucky though because we had probably only one hour of rain to contend with on our entire trip!! We were also incredibly fortunate to be at the gorge quite early in the afternoon, just 2 hours before a big crash there which caused multiple injuries and closed the road for 6 hours.

It was fantastic to visit the seal colony at Cape Foulwind near Westport once again. This breeding colony of seals is always a delight to view, especially in April when there are masses of seal pups playing in the rock pools, practising their fighting skills, suckling from their mothers and frolicking in the sometimes pretty rough waves which pound against the rocks there.

We had a very rainy end to the trip with a downpour lasting about 30 minutes just as we wanted to unpack at our lovely home, Paua Palace, belonging to Tine a friend and teacher colleague of mine in Zuoz. What a gorgeous, quirky place this is, and what a setting!!Here the view from just outside the house (the next morning!!!).

We were really so lucky with the weather. It was hard to believe that after the previous night's storm we would wake to this cloudless blue sky, and as a result NO pesky sandflies at all!! They do not appear to like fine weather, which was fortunate for us!!

Punakaiki, along with Kaikoura and Wanaka, is a favourite of mine. I could happily spend many days or weeks there. It has a magic and charm which are simply indescribable.

It is not difficult to appreciate how rugged and how breathtakingly beautiful and wild this place is. In the other direction, looking back towards Punakaiki, it is really special too, and best of all, we were able to enjoy it completely alone!

Dear old Ken, my car (registration Ken911), looked quite lonely there! I have to say it was more fun driving around all the bends in the daylight than the previous evening in the dark and rain.

Next stop another old favourite of mine, Truman's Track. We so enjoyed the magnificent walk through rain forest ( glowworms at night) to one of the most gorgeous beaches I know.

How stunning it looked in the early morning light, as the tide began to creep in. You have to take care there because it is fun to walk across the beach to the cliffs

but you always have to watch out !!

The waves can be truly massive, even on the calmest day!

No visit to Punakaiki,  in my mind,  is complete without a walk up the magnificent Pororari Gorge. It is heaven on Earth and fortunately not visited by too many tourists,. This place is truly special and gives you such an incredible feeling of remoteness. Here the fresh air, the lush vegetation,

the sound of the water on the rapids and the dulcet songs of the bellbirds in the trees, all add up to the perfect experience.

Not to mention the wonderful smaller things you can find if you look around you carefully

Oh, how I wish I had a great camera at times!! What a magical place.

Of course, the biggest tourist attraction at Punakaiki is this:-

Pancake Rocks. An absolutely fascinating place with the most stunning views. Whether you see it by day or by night, it is bound to impress. For me, the rocks at sunset say it all!

And as the sun goes down over the horizon

and the waves pound the rocks , thrusting up huge sprays through some of the blowholes there

couples can simply sit and stare and enjoy one of nature's most beautiful spectacles.

Kaikoura, seals and scenery

It was fantastic to once again hit the road towards Kaikoura.
You just can't get away from those selfies when you are in a car !

Our lunch stop was at one of my favourite wineries, Pegasus Bay, in Waipara.  The weather was pleasantly warm and although most chose to stay indoors, we thoroughly enjoyed the massive garden all to ourselves, with the most delicious platter of antipasto imagineable - colourful, tasty and really different. It didn't matter at all that we had no wine. The water was marvelous!

These blogs will have somewhat of a toilet and poster theme. We noticed some really great toilet signs during our trip.

and some great posters I could relate to!

All good things have to come to an end and so we left the winery paradise and continued on our way. The previous week there had been floods and rock slides throughout NZ and also in the Kaikoura area, so sadly the beautiful coastal road was shut once again - those poor workers have a never-ending job trying to keep it open. Even the Inland road had been closed due to flooding and slides, but they had done a brilliant job to open it.

You certainly did not get the feeling that you wanted to hang around in some areas! However, I felt very safe (not sure about Dennis?). The road is stunningly beautiful with a very curvy, undulating road (and I don't mean the undulations caused by the earthquakes!) The road no longer has the number of roadworks which we had seen in February, so most of the trip could be done at 50 kph and not 30 kph. It still gave us time to enjoy the spectacular colours of the tussock grass covering the hillsides and to watch huge flocks of sheep being taken up to the hills, driven by only a couple of sheepdogs - amazing.

Kaikoura is now bustling again thankfully and it was great to see so many tourists there. As we found last time, it does not look like a town hit by a 7.8 earthquake. Most places are open, the road is pretty good and the seals were back in abundance

some up close and personal.

The only real sign of action was when this chap needed to have a pee. Clever guy wriggled his way to the edge of the boardwalk and peed under it!!!Very sensible indeed. He didn't seem at all worried that he had several tourists taking photos of him as he did this.

The next morning, I got woken pretty early by what seemed to be an incredible volume of traffic for a place which is cut off to the north. Anyway, rather than lie in bed feeling a bit brassed off at the rude awakening, I saw that the sun was rising and made the most of this gorgeous time of day. The colours were so exceptional and the solitude made everything seem even more special.

My version of a selfie!!!

As the sun rose, everything was bathed in the warm orange and golden rays. It was awesome. I did wonder whether I should go back and haul Dennis out of his room, but decided against this. Down at the seal colony, sleepy seals were totally unphased by the early bird tourist paparazzi!

Dennis was fortunate enough to see all the seals I had seen earlier, but missed the exceptional sunrise. Never mind, the landscape there is so incredible, that it does not really matter what time of day you turn up.

We headed up the hill to an unforgettably breathtaking view of the coastal area.

Next time I must walk round the peninsular, now that I know that the pathway has reopened.  There were hundreds of seals dotted around. Just like old times! This walkway is, in my opinion, one of the most spectacular ones you can do, and very few people seem to know about it. You just have to check the tides very carefully as there are areas you can be cut off by the tide and some places where you almost have to step over seals to get round the corner!

It was fantastic to share one of my favourite places with such a wonderful friend.

We had a brilliant one-night stay in Kaikoura. Too short, but we certainly packed a lot in and saw some fantastic sights. What a perfect start to our trip!