On the 30th Sept - we arrived in Wannaka and went in search of cinema paradiso - we had heard stories of sofas and cups of tea! This sounded like our sort of cinema....We got ourselves two tickets to watch Tarantinos new flick - "Inglourious Basterds"
With a few hours to kill, we had a wander round the town centre and Andy was daring enough to get a haircut - not much can go wrong when you're just asking them to shave your head. A success, he looked like the man i had married again, not his hairy twin!
Well, film time beckoned and gradually the cinema got completely packed out. There was pretty much a stampede when the doors opened and people hunted out sofas to claim as their own. Andy and I ended up with two...coach seats. Surprisingly comfy! Our favourite seats were those inside a car at the front of the cinema, although the poor guy who ended up there had his knees up by his chin for most of the movie. A great relaxed atmosphere, Vue cinemas could learn a thing or two (an interval where you can go and grab a glass of wine, cuppa tea, muffin or cookie? Great!) A fun evening out! (The film was pretty impressive too. Tarantino you did it again)

On the 1st Oct we headed across to Franz Josef. The drive was beautifully scenic, with rainforests to one side of us, and snow topped mountains to the other. We stopped at a fantastic waterfall amongst the forests called "Thunder Creek Falls". Regardless of how many waterfalls we have seen so far, they never cease to amaze us! We also stopped at a beautiful lookout "Knight's Point" view point, which looks down onto the picture perfect beach at Arnott's Point. Unfortunately, whilst stopping here we realised a slight mishap that had occurred in our kitchen cupboard - an oil spill! What a mess! After a big cleanup operation (involving kitchen towels, newspapers and numerous visits to the public toilets to stock up on toilet roll!) we were almost oil free. We're now obsessed about checking the lids on things

On arriving in Franz Josef we head straight to the I-Site to get ourselves booked onto a glacier hike. Luckily there was availability for the following day so we decided to go for it. The campsite we stayed at that night was lovely, with an onsite restaurant and bar - although we didn't indulge too much as we had an early start in the morning!
After checking in at the glacier centre, we were introduced to our guide and he talked us through getting geared up with our gortex jackets, waterproof trousers, mittens, and hiking boots (with crampons!) A 10 min coach ride took us to the Westlands National Park, where we would be beginning our walk to the glacier. Due to the sheer scale of the glacier and the surrounding landscape, its deceiving how far the walk is to the base of the glacier. We are told it will take 45 mins! Just as we start walking, the heavens open up and it begins to drizzle. Then it starts to rain...then it starts to lash down on us! Our guide revels in telling us how the area we are walking in is prone to flooding very quickly after heavy rainfall. Great!

By the time we reach the foot of the glacier, we are caught in the middle of a full scale storm. As our tour group huddles together by the rocks, struggling to put our crampons on, a mini rock fall caused some rather large boulders to land right to the side of us. Our guides now looked a little nervous - they radio'd into base to find out whether to proceed. We are on the verge of being called back in (It's slightly unnerving when you hear the radio response from base "I was blown over on the glacier in those conditions the other day") After waiting for 5 mins or so, we are told that for the moment - we are going to proceed. Scaling the first set of steps cut into the ice is pretty precarious, as water gushes down over them making it harder to stab the crampons into the ice. The rope we have to hold onto is being pulled in all different directions by each person climbing, making it somewhat difficult to keep a hold of - not to mention the rain blowing straight into our faces! On reaching the top of these steps, we are told that one young woman from our group has decided to turn back. Another guide has been radio'd in to escort her. We are all given the option of turning back now if we don't want to go on. I must say for a split second i seriously wonder whether continuing in this rain is a bad bad idea!! BUT when are we ever going to find ourselves on a glacier hike again? So we decide to stick with it and we're so glad we did!! After another treacherous 20 mins or so, the rain eased, the clouds parted and the sun came out to play! By this point, we were almost on the blue ice. It looked so stunning! Looking out into the distance, its hard to imagine that the glacier stretches for another 13km, however looking back is such a stark contrast with rainforest on either side of the U shaped Valley. It was pretty hard work stamping our way along, ensuring the crampons were adequately stuck in the ice. Due to the changeable weather conditions, we were told that we would have to keep moving as it was likely the storm would be heading back our way. Overall, it was a fantastic experience, and we're so glad we decided to stick with it!

Once we were back on terra firma and had made it back to base, we de-robed and headed off in Rodney to make our way further up north to Greymouth. The drive to Greymouth along the West Coast Highway saw us passing some of the most beautiful scenery yet. In fact, the drive is rated amongst the top 10 drives in the world by the Lonely Planet Blue List
After our hard work that day, we treated ourselves to dinner in an Indian Restaurant - and it wasn't half bad! We didn't really see much else in Greymouth, we managed to spot the Monteiths Brewery - After our Speights brewery tour, we didn't feel the need to do another one. Instead we headed out further north to Nelson

3rd Oct - Nelson
We spent most of our time in Nelson recouperating from the last couple of days activities/driving! On Sunday we took a brief walk around the town centre, and up to the Cathedral. An unusual looking building due to its exposed bell tower. Not the prettiest church we've seen. We then realised it was near-impossible to get a cuppa anywhere on a Sunday! Everything was shut. Thats one thing that has shocked us about allot of the towns in NZ, how early shops shut. On numerous occasions we've been walking round town centres at 2.30pm/3.00pm and the shops/cafes begin to shut and everyone just seems to disappear? This definitely contributes to the distinctly 'ghost town' like feeling of allot of the places we've visited. Never mind, we had a lovely cuppa back at Rodney anyway!

4th Oct - Motueka
Next stop was Motueka, further along the coast, this placed us at the gateway to the Abel Tasman National Park. We began our stay with a dip in the campsites hot spa! The campsite was then overrun with a European Students' school trip. Lucky us - we were entertained by numerous renditions of teenagers re-enacting the maori haka dance. Not quite as impressive as when the All Blacks demonstrate it! The next morning, we had to be up, out and ready to be picked up at 8am for our sea kayaking trip in the Abel Tasman national park! Its amazing how quick you can wake up, get dressed, have breakfast AND pack up the campervan when you really need to!

Abel Tasman
After our coach transfer to the water taxi depot at Marahau we realise that our camera is dead. Being cautious, we decided it wasn't the best idea to take our new camera out in the open sea in a kayak...so instead we took the older one. That is, the older one that had just had brand new batteries put in. Well, low and behold - the new batteries are as dead as a dodo. Great! Andys mobile phone to the rescue - he ended up managing to grab some fab shots of the paradise-like scenery. The rest are committed to memory.

Our first leg of the trip involved a 15 minute water taxi to Bark Bay. Quite a choppy ride in our little jet boat and a bit of a shock to the system when we arrived at Bark Bay and had to jump from the boat onto the shore. Although the water only came up to your ankles - it was so so cold, it was like putting your legs in ice! From here we had a 2 hour walk to Torrent Bay where we would be collected. The walk saw us walking around the jagged coastal path, through the forests that trace the coastline. Quite tiring in parts (the uphill bits were very uphill!) and the changes in climate - hot in the sunshine, freezing cold in the forest shade, took a bit of getting used to. For most of the walk, you couldn't see much of the coast line or sea below, but once we reached Torrent Bay - it more than made up for that! Paradise beaches with fine golden sand, shallow crystal clear waters that were bright aquamarine - it was like being back in Fiji (only a little bit colder!) With 20 mins to spare, we sat on the beach, taking in the beautiful surroundings and waited for our water taxi.

Our second water taxi driver was a bit of a speed demon, and was intent on making the underside of the boat lose contact with the water. Cue him driving head first into the high swirls of water and us all gripping on for dear life! We did however manage to spot a couple of penguins in the water on route!

On arriving at Watering Cove we are met by our guide Hamish - who has a delicious lunch waiting for us! (By this point we are STARVING!) After devouring every piece of food, its straight to work with the kayaks. We nominate ourselves with specific roles - Jules will be navigator (ie. I sit at the front) and Andy will be steerer (he gets to control the rudder at the rear)

Once we are kitted up with our spray-jackets, life jackets and 'skirts' to clip on the kayaks we're ready to set off! Our first journey was across the sea to Adele Island, in search of fur seals - and we weren't disappointed. We even had one that decided to come and play with our kayaks, circling around us and popping up spontaneously to say hello! An absolutely amazing experience. Soon after this, we spot a penguin bopping up and down in the water. We feel absolutely spoilt by the wildlife we have encountered at such close proximity.

Our journey back sees us following the jagged coastline, tackling an obstacle of kayaking through rocks on the coast and establishing a good working relationship of "Jules: Left left left", "Andy: ok ok ok!"

We also see many Gannets doing what they do best....divebombing into the water in search of food. Although, we are sad to be informed by our guide that eventually the gannets lose their vital good eyesight, and have to rely on the young to guide them to fishing spots. The young then guide them to shallow areas of water to divebomb, and consequently the old gannets die. An evolutionary assisted suicide/euthanasia system?

The final straight paddle home sees us staying further out at sea due to the low tide, and is approx 2km (further than it looked!) We are amazed to see when we arrived back at Sandy Bay that the tide moves out 1/2km in low tide! We had quite a walk back to the depot (luckily a tractor came and took our kayaks for us!) Here we had another encounter with a bizarre NZ practice. Walking barefeet. Our guide thought nothing of expecting us to walk across the gravelly, unsealed road - barefooted. (And by gravel i mean sharp stones!) But this isn't just confined to abel tasman - we see people walking barefooted all over the place in NZ! On roads, in shops, in the supermarket?? We feel like we are missing out on some secret! Odd.
The sea kayaking trip was a truly unforgettable experience, especially having wildlife so close around you - we would definitely recommend it to anyone who happens to find themselves on the north coast of the south island!!

What's next on the activity agenda? Onwards to Blenheim!