April 7th - April 10th 2012
We woke up in our grotty dorm room and headed to International Arrivals to meet Craig's mum and dad, Jenny and Tom. We hadn't seen them in months so it was lovely to see them coming through the gate. We got a shuttle bus to the place where our campervan was and signed all the paperwork. The van was huge, so much bigger than the one we had in Australia. We jumped in and headed to a supermarket where we stocked up on lots of food before heading out of Christchurch towards Arthurs Pass and setting up camp for the night.
In the morning we got up and drove towards Arthurs Pass stopping off at Castle Hill which was like a more dramatic version of Dartmoor in England. We took a walk around the boulders and over the hills before driving on to the viaduct which I was expecting to look like the one in Harry Potter but it was very modern. We drove on to the West Coast and stopped in Hokitika where we camped for the night and had amazing pizza.
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| Castle Hill |
The next day we drove down the West Coast stopping off at Lake Mapourika for lunch. We continued on to Franz Josef where we were hoping to book a full day glacier hike but there was no availability. We drove to Fox and then down to Lake Matheson where on a clear day you can get amazing views to Mount Cook. Unfortunately the day that we were there was a bit of a drizzly one. We walked around the lake which was still a lovely walk and then went to the Fox Glacier Township where we camped for the night.
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| Lake Matheson |
We woke up to a super miserable day and decided to walk to the ground level of the Fox Glacier. It was wet and muddy, even with waterproofs and an umbrella I got soaked. We couldn't walk too close to the glacier because of landslides which obstructed the path. We dried off and then spent a long day driving down to Wanaka. We drove through the beautiful Mount Aspiring National Park and admired the many waterfalls and landscapes. The weather started to lift and we made it to Wanaka where we had a look around the shops and set up camp. There was a beautiful pink sunset that evening.
