VERY SOUTH – and going ZigZag the Passes
Heading south we spend a night under the oldest suspension bridge of NZ, where we met surprisingly the couple on their bicycles from Walter Peak again –RESPECT! We continued south on small coast roads and ended it up in Curio Bay. A lovely simple private nature camp site, where you can meet penguins and seals… and if you wake up early enough you can go for a swim with the dolphins and their youngsters in the bay – like Kerstin DID ;-) and will never forget!!!
Enjoying the Catlins we had a stop at the “Curios Gallery”, something you have to have a look at if you are around: IT IS REALLY CURIOUS – and fun!
X-mas we skipped more or less – just spending it going up the east coast, passing Duniden and cooking in the evening our regular camp dinner: 2 minutes rice, with fresh asparagus, mushrooms, chicken and a glass of wine – MERRY CHRISTMAS!
On the Boxing Day we had the streets more or less for our self – of we went to go on the Danseys Pass which goes to the goldfield town of Naseby – great off road mountain track. Additional we did the loop to the blue Lake.
Another beautiful day was waiting for us while going up over the Arrow Junction to Wanaka and spending the night at the lake.
The West Coast was waiting for us… long sandy beaches left hand and rainforest to the right going up to the glaciers. Again incredible nature all in one!
The Arthurs Pass is one of the MUST DO for us. Beautiful, mountains, Keas AND another Africa Twin at the side of the street, UPPSPSSS what´s that? The AT was never sold in NZ. So we had a chat with the owner who imported it from UK…
On the way back to the east coast the weather was changing slowly to gray and rain so we ended up the first time in a hostel double room in Kaikoura. Hard to find any dry place at this time between Chrismas and New Year – but we took the chance to sort out our pictures and update the bolg. Beside we enjoyed of course the day with relaxing, gambling and cooking in a good equipped kitchen.
The New Year is close… we do not know where we will be again, just hoping the rain will stop and then we will see…
Fjordland, Sandlies, Glowworms and a reunion
After escaping the sandflies and having a great ride at the lake side in the early morning we came back to Queenstown to catch our steamboat taking us over to Walter Peak. It took 45 minutes with this boat to cross the lake with wonderful views and lot of learning about this machine. All was original, powered with coal and steam… great piece of steel!
Walter Peak is a farm, running mostly for tourism nowadays so we preferred to go straight on the track – 90km unsealed road. Lovely weather, great landscapes and the only people we met was a couple on their bicycles. We reached Te Anau in the Fjordland at the end of the day.
On the way to Milford Sound we had a nice reunion with David, who is travelling with his BMW already for 2,5 years around the world. We went together to Milford Sound and had a lovely time together, listening interesting stories and trying to ignore the sandflies attacks. On the way back we said good bye to David to have a closer look at the Glowworm Caves in Te Anau.
