Ok, we know we got a bit behind with this blog. We’ve been WAY too busy to stop and write blog posts so here is a list of all the awesome things we’ve been doing in our last 9 days.
After we got off the ferry we drove towards Abel Tasman National Park. We had an overnight stop on the way and made it to Kaiteriteri the next day. That afternoon we organised a boat trip for the next day and then played min golf. The next day we got a water taxi to Medlands Bay and then walked 10km back to Anchorage where we got picked up by another water taxi. The walk was hilly but lots of god views. At the end of the day we tested out the 50m long waterslide at our campground!
Next we had a long driving day to the west coast, stopping at various places along the way, and stayed overnight near Hakatika before visiting the Franz Joseph and Fox Glaciers. At both glaciers there are walks of 1-1.5 hours to see the glaciers, and even then you are still quite a long way away from the ice. The glaciers have receded a long way since we (Katherine and Andrew) we’re here in 1998.
After the glaciers was another long but spectacular drive through Mt Aspiring National park to Wanaka, with heaps of photo stops and short walks along the way.
At Wanaka we had what I think was the highlight of the holiday for all of us – a river trip involving a jet boat trip up river, a one hour wilderness walk and then a pack rafting trip back. “Awesome, awesome, awesome!” is the only afjdctive we can get out of the kids (except for Michael who has just creatively added “wet”!) For this trip we were relying on photos from our guide with the water proof camera and haven’t yet got them in a form that we can upoad to the bog, so thyou’ll have to wait for pictures!
The next day we had another long drive to Milford Sound. We drove all morning and stopped in the afternoon to do a beautiful 3 hour hike to Marian Lake. We were already expecting a late arrival into Milford but we’re Rutherford delayed by an accident that had occurred earlier in the road tunnel that you need to pass through to get to Milford. Once we heard we were going to be delayed at least an hour we got out our stove and cooked our fish and sausages for dinner by the side of the road!
Apart from the sand flies, Milford Sound was spectacular. We did a morning boat cruise (wanted to kayak but no company could accommodate a family with 3 kids under 15 as they weren’t allowed to kayak alone) and a visit to the underwater observatory then drove back to Queenstown in the afternoon.
And finally we arrived in Queenstown, which has so far been heaps of fun. Today we headed up the skyline gondola, where the boys spent their time (and the remains of the money given to them by their grandparents) on the “luge” and Tehmi spent hers on a zip lining experience. A great time was had by all. Tomorrow we are hoping to watch (safely from the sidelines) some Bungy jumping before flying out tomorrow night.
That’s all for now – this one written mostly by Katherine with a few contributions from children along the way!
For the second walk we went from Hellfire Bay to Lucky Bay. In between (nearly dead middle) we passed Thistle Cove where we saw three whales 🐳 , two dark ones and one light one. We also saw lizards🦎 and a kangaroo. The four oldest people in the family liked the views but the youngest (me) thought the views were quite uneventful.
Going to a chocolate factory
Tractor driving.
And writing a blog post.