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Hello!
We wrote our last blog quite a while ago, sorry about that! Having too much fun!
Since Queenstown, after our walks, we got up the next day and it was raining a lot, however we continued with our plan for the day and went up the gondala to see ver Queentsown (which we couldn't see because of the rain!) and then went on the uge 5 times! It was so cool, this small sledge thing on wheels on a track and it was great fun! Stu won every race, but mainly because he's heavier and his brakes weren't so effective no the corners!
From there we went to Wanaka and it was really lovely, with the snowy capped mountains and the lake, very pretty. We were going to try to walk to a glacier hwever the road wasn't too good to it so we walked a different mountain and a walk and picnic byt he lake instead. That night we stayed in an amazing campsite with spa pools, they were so warm and lovely. They opened at 4 so we went in once, had tea and then went in to warm up before bed!
Then next day we got up and drove the west coast to Franz Josef (glacier country). It was quite a good day for driving because it was tipping it down with rani which meant there were plenty of waterfalls to look at and we weren't wishing we were outside!
That night we went to a pub with some Danish people we had met on our travels, we kept turning up at the same campsites so made ourselves sociable and went for a drink! It was a very nice evening, chatting to them.
The next day Stu climbed Franz Josef glacier, he had beautuiful weather for it, went in the fast group so was with the leader who was carving the steps for everyone to use for the day and he seemed to have a really great day. He saw blue ice and went through crevaces and tunnels, a wonderful day for him. I decided not to go again as I went last time and seeing as I am still scard of small spaces thought I'd give the tunnels a miss. I went for a few walks instead and it was lovely, saw the glacier from a distance!
From Franz Josef we drove the next day up through to Hokitika and stopped there for fish and chips on the beach. Their normal fish is elephant fish which is meatier than cod, less flakey, very tasty! We then drove out to see a gorge, which had lovely blue waters. From there we headed to Greymouth, didn't stop there itself but kept driving and stayed in a campsite right on the beach, our best place so far for location!
Then yesterday we drove from our campsite to a place called barrytown and made knives! They are like kitchen knives with gorgeous wooden handles, the people running it were really friendly and we had great fun smithing steel and sanding it all down, very good fun and the knives are a cool souvenir.
After Barrytown we went to Punekaka to see the pancake rocks. Then we drove to a place inland called Reefton. We didn't do anythihg there, it was just to make today's drive a bit shorter.
Today we got up and drove to the east side of NZ to Kaikoura. We managed to arrive at lunch time and it was a lovely sunny day so we went out on a boat to go whale watching. We saw about 6 sperm whales, and they were very coool and the tail going up out of the water when they go for a dive was incredible to see!
We think we will get up and have a coatsal walk tyomorrow, though the weather doesn't lok so good so not sure yet, then probably head up to Abel Tasman. there we plan to walk and kayak as our last stop before crossing over to north island at the weekend.
We can't put photos up today I'm afraid as not at the right type of computer but hopefully be able to get to somewhere to do so soon.
Lots of love to you all, Vicky (and Stu) x x x
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