Forests, mountains and beaches
Today's mission accomplished - made it to the West coast and the Tasman Sea. I reckon we'd be taught a lot more about Abel Tasman if he was English instead of Dutch. He mapped much of Australia and New Zealand a hundred years before Captain Cook, and rightly has a sea and an island named after him - Tasmania - as well as one of the great national parks of NZ (which we'll be visiting in due course).
Enough lecture. Today's journey was as spectacular as the destination. Emerald forests, mountains, deep gorges and wide valleys with rushing turquoise rivers - think Lord of the Rings. Pretty awesome (especially for someone who grew up in Norfolk).
For those with special interest/knowledge, we're now at Greymouth - heading down the coast tomorrow to Franz Josef glacier then eventually Queenstown and Fjordland. Bound to meet Aragorn and Legolas somewhere in there.
Tonight's adventure will be making dinner in the RV. We have spaghetti, interesting sauce ingredients and a good bottle of red, so we can't go too far wrong - can we?
PS The answer to the big question ("how many more days is he going to wear that shirt?") is: not many, but hey, this is camping.
PPS Anonymous: if you're still following, we rented the RV from South Island Travel in Christchurch - terrific people. www.southislandtravel.com
From Greymouth, we visited Hokitika on our way south - town heritage trail and small museum. This was the place lots of ships were grounded at time of the Gold Rush, and it features in Rose Tremain's book "The Colour", a story set in those pioneering days.
ReplyDeleteWe then stayed at a beautiful campsite at Lake Kaniere, about 20km inland SE of Hokitika.No electric hook ups but really lovely location on lakeside.
Heading south again towards Franz Josef, we visited old mining town of Ross and then an "interesting" strange cafe/museum at Pukekura. Cannot really recommend the museum except as a weird experience. You cannot miss the cafe as there is an enormous sand fly model hanging outside. It is also the centre of the spagnum moss industry - used to treat wounds in WW1.
We stayed at the "top Ten " campsite in Franz Josef. - Walk into town easily from here and book your helicopter flight to see glacier?
Hope the pasta was as good as the scenery you are clearly enjoying!
ReplyDeleteA discussion point for your evening meal: Huckerby is interviewed in the EDP today and says 'there's not a day go by when I don't wish I were still playing for Norwich City'.
And finally, here's a piece of news I heard on regional radio this morning that you don't have to worry about any more. 'Problems with overhead power cables mean that there will be extended delays at Watford Junction...
Enjoy!