5th - 12th May Wanaka to Mt. Hutt

We left Queenstown and headed to Wanaka which was on Lake Wanaka with the snow capped mountains in the background.

Arriving pretty early as it was only over the mountain pass, we had chance to look at the lake and find a good campsite. We found one which has free hot spa and sauna (even though you paid a bit extra for it) which sounded especially appealing as Vik was feeling quite poorly.

We were planning to do a trek here (Rob Roy), one that would give us a view of the Mount Aspiring so we though we'd take a look by driving first to see where the trek would go from.

The drive took us to the heart of the Mount Aspiring National Park, along the lake side and between the towering mountains. The road started off well, but as with most NZ roads, end up being one track gravel roads, with an assortment of loose farm animals.

It wasn't until we got to the end of the road, that you could get a good view of Mount Aspiring. Carl took a few pictures, while Vik slept in the van. (All Mount Aspiring pics. in album Wanaka to Mt. Hutt)

As it was late afternoon the sun became low in the sky and slipped behind the mountains so the temperature dropped, and it was time to go back to the campsite and jump into the hot tub and sauna.

That night it was freezing. Vik woke at 4:30am needing to go to the toilet, and found the passenger door wide open (the door pops open when you close the side door) and covered in frost on the inside, no wonder it was cold!

By morning the frost had cleared as the sun rose and it was a beautiful sunny autumnal day. We did a long walk along the lake (as Vik was feeling too ill to do trek) and back to the town to have a local brewed beer and a brandy (for medicinal reasons obviously).

We watched the sunset over the lake, and then got some fish n chips to take back to the van before it got too cold. It was nice to be able to go for a sauna and dip in the (very) hot tub afterwards.

The weather changed overnight and when we woke it was cloudy, which got steadily worse when we headed west towards the coast.

When we left the tranquil lake of Wanaka and drove into the windy, wet South-Westerlies (naughty weather that NZ seems to get all the time) which knocked the van about.

The landscape changed as we went west, less dry baron land, to wet tepid rainforest. It was also the first time we had seen the Tasman Sea (in NZ). When we arrived at Franz Josef, it was raining so much that we couldn't even see the glaciers, so we pulled up at a campsite and spent the rest of the day doing chores.

It rained hard continuously throughout the night, and wasn't much better in the morning. We had planned on doing a glacier walk or an ice climb, but it wasn't worth the money in the bad weather, so we didn't, knowing it wasn't going to improve. Instead, we drove to the Franz Josef view point and we were just able to see the bottom of the glacier through the mist. We then went on to Fox Glacier (down the road), put on full waterproofs, and did the short walk to the glacier. Unfortunately, the walk didn't allow us to get too close as glaciers have a habit of moving and collapsing, which was a bit of a shame, as it would have been good to touch it.

It had cleared up a little in the morning as we left. Our neighbours had to pack up their tent, after several days of rain, it didn't look like a fun job - glad we were in a campervan. The cloud had cleared enough to see more of the glacier, and you could see the snow line of the mountains where it came down from.

As we drove north, away from the Southern Alps, the weather improved and the road took us away from the rainforest which became ferns and palms, and followed the coast up to Greymouth.

Greymouth is very much as the name would make you imagine. The place wouldn't win any beauty competions, but the place was in a convenient place for our overnight stop, and the campsite had some great features, such as a bouncy pillow and a trampoline (see pics).

After lunch, we walked into town, which was about 2.5 km. It was nice to get out and get some air after been suck in the van for a couple of days when it was raining. It was a small centre, and there really wasn't much to see or do, but surprisingly quite a few backpacker's accommodation - not sure what they do here, it's a mystery.

After about 10 minutes, we realised there wasn't anything to see or do, so we walked the 2.5km back to the campsite, stopping off at the supermarket to pick up some food for dinner along the way. We basically spent the rest of the afternoon jumping about on the bouncy pillow and the trampoline, which didn't last that long as it blooming knackering! Afterwards, Carl booked himself a quad bike tour called " Mike's Mighty Mud track" for the next morning before leaving Greymouth.

We drove to a farm just outside Greymouth where the "On Yer Bike" company was situated. The tour is suppose to be the wettest, muddiest and most difficult of all the quad bike tracks, and after the rain of the past few days, it would certainly live up to its name. Carl was given a plastic rain jacket and trousers, gum boots, hair net, and hat. There were only two other people, a couple from Northern Island, that were doing the tour that morning, so they had the place to themselves. The whole adventure took one and a half hours of driving very fast; when they weren't stuck that is, along a muddy track through the forest, which was sometimes almost knee deep in water.

During that time, Vik read her book, and was served fair trade coffee ($2 cappucinos) at the farm where the women had suddenly appeared dressed in different outfits. One was dressed (really badly) in a sari, and the other was dressed (really badly) in an African outfit. Had to ask the reason, as Vik thought it was all a bit surreal, but apparently it was Fair Trade Day. The whole experience was a bit weird, especially when the farm kid got out his (Pearl) drum kit and started drumming up on the hill for nearly one and a half hours. Sitting there in the sun was really pleasant apart from being bitten to distraction by the pesky Sandflies. These bites were to irritate Vik for the month ahead! Don't ever let yerself get bitten in NZ, Sandflies are worse than Mossies!

After Carl's tour, we travelled further north to Punakaki to look at the "Pancake Rocks". These rock formations are apparently a mystery to the scientists, but they look exactly what they're called, they look like a load of pancakes stacked up. We did the little walk to the cliff edge where we could see these. (See pics.)

We still had a long journey to go before we would get to our destination of Hamner Springs. The road took us inland through the mountains again, and over the Lewis Pass which was very scenic. (See pics.)

We arrived at Hamner Springs just after sunset. We planned to spend two nights, so we could go to the hot thermal pools, which is what the town is famous for.

We made dinner in the camp kitchen and watched the Saturday night movie in the dining room, which was the second of the Indiana Jones trilogy. It was then that Carl had remembered he'd left his shoes in Greymouth at the "On Yer Bike" place. He gave them a call and arranged to pick them up on Monday.

As we had a relaxing day of just going to experience the hot thermals, we got up late and had a leisurely breakfast before going to the hot pools. The thermal pools place was set up very much like a public swimming pool, but based outside. If you just wanted to go in the outside thermal pools it was only $7 + $5 for the waterslide, but you could also go to the spa section and have a pool to yourself and some treatments.

It was pretty cold outside, so it was a case of quickly walking from one to another before freezing, but it made it especially nice to sit in the hot pools. They were generally around 36 degrees, but there were a few hotter pools of around 39 - 41 degrees. Only problem is, the hotter the pool, the more they stink of rotten eggs - thermal gases. It was lovely, and the 2 hours passed quite quickly just relaxing in the warmth.

After, we went and got some eggs from the shop (you'd think we'd had enough of eggs) to make omelettes for dinner. We relaxed in the van (as it was raining again), read and went on the internet, before making dinner and watching Ugly Betty.

The next day was going to be a long driving day, it was freezing and very difficult to get up, but we left by 10am and made our way back over the Lewis Pass and down to Greymouth to collect Carl's shoes. We'd decided to take a detour from our original plan (as we had to return to Greymouth), and headed down, south of Christchurch, to Methvan and Mt. Hutt, this time going over Arthur's Pass. Methvan is a small village that has been transformed into a ski resort for the local ski slopes of Mount Hutt. This journey was very scenic as it steeply climbed through a gorge and then down the other side to the village of Arthur's pass. We stopped for some lunch at an Avalanche Shelter, before setting off down to the Canterbury Plains where we started our trip in NZ. By this time we had little fuel left (as there weren't any petrol stations along Arthur's Pass - road which goes from East to West of country!) and had to cruise most of the way down to the plains. Luckily we made it to a place called Springfield just in time to fill up.

It was getting really late by the time we made it to Methvan and only just got to a campsite/hotel before the reception closed. Luckily we had the whole campsite to ourselves, which meant we could cook in the kitchen and eat in the lounge and watch whatever we wanted on the TV.

It was a very cold morning and we were reluctant to get up and get going, but we were only staying the one night before moving on north to South Brighton. It was a sunny day, so we decided to leave Methvan and go and have a look at Mt. Hutt. We drove up the gravel track to the snow and ice line and parked up. You could see for miles over the Canterbury Plains, but unfortunately you couldn't see the ski slopes from where we were, so after a short walk we drove back down and head north over the Kakaia Gorge where the water was spearmint colour.