Day 83 to 89
Wellington was great, quite a lively place, full of cafes, galleries and boutiques. We had read that it would be hard to park in town, but amazingly we found a place to leave the van all day and we were even able to stay the night.
The ferry crossing to the south was fine, it took about 3 hours. The ferry arrived in Picton, and then we headed down to a town called Blenheim which was around 30 minutes drive away. We wanted to stay in Blenheim because its situated in Marlborough, home to some of the best wine trails in NZ. Neither of us know much about wine so we didn't do a tour, however we had 2 people in mind that we knew would appreciate a good bottle of red. Did a bit of wine tasting at a vineyard called Montana and got some nice photo's of the vineyard itself.
Later that day we drove up to Nelson. Can imagine nelson would be a nice place to live, nice little town, not too far from the beach and great scenery. We only stayed a few hours. Had a picnic in the botanical gardens then made our way on to Motueka (just below Abel Tasman National Park).
The next day we drove into Abel Tasman and saw some beautiful bays, watched the tide come in at a deserted beach and sat in the sun at one of NZ's best holiday spots 'Kaiteriteri'. We ended that Amazing day with a 16,500 ft Skydive :) It was incredible... wish we could describe the feeling. Firstly we had a 20 minute scenic flight to reach the altitude of 16.500 ft, We could see as far a the north Island and Mount Mathews, all over Able Tasmin and so much more. once it was time for the jump, our tandem instructor rolled us out the plane and We had a free fall for about 60 seconds. Next the instructor opens the parachute while you gradually float down to the landing patch. Really was one of the best experiences we have ever had. Stayed one more night in Motueka to recover from the adrenalin rush :) then set off for Franz Josef the next morning.
We were kidding ourselves thinking we could do the whole drive in one day so broke up the journey with a night stop in Hokitika. We took a great stretch of road to Hokitika (SH6 Westport to Greymouth), its mentioned in the lonely planet guide as a good scenic drive, and that it was. Drove past a place called Punakaiki which was quite good along with plenty of meandering rivers and clif edges where you could see for miles. Did eventually get to Franz Josef yesterday where we took a walk right up to the glacier edge 'Franz Joseph Glacier valley walk'. It was quite a strange walk because the glacier feels so close when you initially start the walk but actually takes about 45 minutes to reach. We did a few more walks at the glacier then drove on to see if we could see Fox Glacier which was unfortunately closed off due to weather conditions. The weather did brighten up again early evening so we took a look around lake Matheson, or 'reflection late' as its also known. On a really clear day you can see a perfect reflection of the Alps in the lake, didn't quite capture that but was still good to see. Found a camp last night right in between the Fox Glacier and Mt Cook, was such a good view this morning. We are now on our way to Queenstown (approx 400km) plan to be there late afternoon today.