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19/12-08
The last days on the south Island!
Queenstown-Mt.Cook: It was with a heavy heart that we left Queenstown on Wednesday- we both really enjoyed ourselves there with the incredible beautiful scenery and tranquil atmosphere. After leaving Queenstown we started to head north towards Mt. Cook, and arrived in the late afternoon. Before setting up camp for the evening we drove into the Tasman Valley, and walked for 30 minutes to reach the lookout point for the Tasman glacier. The glacier itself looked like a big stone quarry, but the view towards the valley was amazing. We had a close encounter with one of the Kea birds up there too (see photos). We drove back to the White horse DOC camping ground, dodging what seemed like 50 rabbits on the road, those guys are everywhere in New Zealand!!
Mt.Cook-Oamaru: After having breakfast at our camp near Mt. Cook village we went for a small hike up to the Kea point and enjoyed the view towards mt. Cook (we even got to see the top of Mt. Cook in the cloud breaks....weeeheeee), and the surrounding mountains. Even for a Norwegian this view was pretty cool:) Went back to camp and since Severin had done all the driving so far I would finally give it a go! Drove approximately 30 cm before I hit 3 large stones in the road which I did NOT see at all, leaving Hubbel (our car) with an enormous bumb in the front bumber....oh my!!! At first I thought I had hit one of the animals in the camping ground- so all in all it was lucky that it was only a stone...although I guess my mishap will cause us a little bit of money.....So after this fright I handed the wheels over again to Severin ho drove us out to Lake Tekapo with the Church of the good shepherd. Also pretty cool, had it not been for the busloads of japanese people constantly coming in....
So we started to head south towards a town called Oamaru which would be the goal of the day. It was pretty far out of our road, but the blue penguin colony there was very tempting to see. Arrived in town around 19 and I don't know- the whole atmosphere of the town gave us both the creeps. It was like something was hiding beneath the fasades, it was all grey and murky- really difficult to explain. Drove out to some lookout points, and saw some really cool yellow-eyed penguins (for free!!!) before we went to the blue penguin show at 21 (oh yes it is very commercialised), and we had to pay $20 to sit out in the cold and watch the penguins come back from the ocean. It was pretty funny looking at how they struggle themselves ashore, but we were not allowed to take any photos which made Severin pretty upset...his camera is pretty much glued to his hands by now. And after the show there were plenty of penguins OUTSIDE the visitor's centre, displaying themselves for free :)
Oamaru-Oxford: After spending the night in Oamaru we headed north again up the coastal roads to Timaru and then to Geraldine and the inland scenic route over Mt. Somers. Went on a pretty rough gravel road from Mt. Somers in order to reach the location for Edoras in Lord of the Rings (Mt. Sunday), which was located in a fantastic valley (cover photo for this blog). Spent almost 2 hours driving around in the valley, it was amazing!!!!!! NO tourist, no people, only some sheep and cows here and there! In order to keep to our schedule we had to drive further north before setting up camp, and ended up a little bit outside a small town called oxford north of Christchurch. Found a nice DOC camp, and watched a DVD and had a beer in our car in the sunset before falling asleep.
Oxford-Picton: Woke up again this morning to heavy rain, the last few days have all started like this- but luckily the weather improves during the day. Drove north along the coastal roads to Kaikuora where we had a long stop to do a little bit of walking. Saw a seal colony, and a very noisy seagull colony on our way, and just chilled in the sun for a bit before heading north again. Arrived in Picton this evening- and will take the ferry over to the north island tomorrow! Very exciting!
We have definitely had a good time here on the south island, and are a little bit sad to leave. Some of the inland scenery has been a lot like Norway, but a lot has been very different too. We have seen everything from mountains, rainforest, beach and lakes and we have spent every night so far in our dear, but now bumbed Hubbel!
Next adventures- north island!!!
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