South Island, West Coast

24/01
Before leaving this morning, we go for another big food shopping, I love it, I always find supermarkets interesting, always funny to see what a country eats…similar to ours…but I love discovering and tasting new cookies, biscuits etc etc…naughty me!!! We then drive to Arthur's Pass National Park, the village is in the middle of the park, it is the highest altitude settlement (around 950 metres) in NZ, we arrive around lunchtime and after a nice picnic on a car park (!!), go for a walk on the bed of a river, the Bealey river, it is a great walk, easy but with beautiful scenery. We observe the river flow and relax under the sun sitting on rocks. We both really love this national park and start to feel more connected with the nature around, good feeling. We feel less tired and happier to be here together. We manage to find a nice conservation free campsite, Klondyke Corner; it is great, a nice large open campsite close to a river. We just chill out, watch the amazing sky, again so many stars and the Milky Way and off to bed early.

25/01
We are going for a long walk so before we head up to the mountain, we go to the alpine village to get some bread for the sandwiches, it is early around 8ish and already full of life, everybody seems to leave so early to go walking, climbing…a nice feel. We see some kea, the local parrots on the car park, they are very funny animals, trying to steal food from humans…We have a laugh observing them. We spend the day ‘tramping’ – the NZ way of describing hiking-walking, the Bealeys Spur Track is hard but beautiful, we see amazing views of the river Waimakariri, the valley where we sleep ad have a great view of many peaks in the Southern Alps (yes called like that too here!). It is quite challenging, sometimes very arduous, there are lots of walking up hills, after a really long climb, we stop for lunch close to the hut, and relax under the shade (sun is way too hot here!). I feel like resting as I am exhausted…but Fab is braver than me and wants to climb till the top!! I settle in a nice spot and watch him ascent and go to the top of the mountain. It was really hard and took some time but he made it and came back with some amazing piccies, as usual. Such a nice walk with diverse landscapes, some peaks, mountains with snow, lots of alpine flowers. The diversity amazes us, and it will be the case every time we go for a walk here, you can find many different landscapes in 5 minutes, lakes, swamps, mountains and even the sea!!! Amazing to have such diverse ecosystems so close!
We go back to our little campsite and spend the eve in the same spot, it is actually quite nice to have a sense of routine!!! The evening is not brilliant as we both feel annoyed with the van company: the fridge is not working and the battery seems to be dead…we are losing some food and the smell is not great in the van, cheese and butter melting in the sun, lovely cheddar smell!!! Fab calls them and they cannot do anything as it is Sunday, we will have to call back Monday a.m.

26/01
We leave early as we want to call the van company to sort out the battery, after few phones calls and a bit of stress, we have to drive to Greymouth, the big town on the West Coast to get it sorted, a tiny detour from our initial plan but manageable. The route is interesting, amazing landscapes and some little gold mining cities, feels very much like we would imagine a Far West region in the states!!! Despite so many little gold towns, it feels very empty. We read about the Gold rush in the 19th century and it is hard to imagine it happening here!! We arrive at Greymouth to sort out the van at a garage, it takes 1 hour, we then stroll and go for some shopping, internet and we are ready to go again, a little picnic then a drive till the end of the afternoon to the Glaciers region. We arrive in Franz Josef around 5ish, but we really want to see the glacier despite being tired so we go for a short walk to see the glacier: spectacular!! Nowhere else at this latitude do glaciers come so close to the ocean. The danger is real as two tourists died here two weeks ago, getting too close to the ice.. We will have to be cautious and stick to the tracks. It is an amazing scenery, the ice is blue at some point, the glacier seems so tranquil but it actually moves every day!! We find another conservation free campsite close to a lake, the lake Mapourika, it is a nice site but infested with sand flies and mosquitoes, we have a hard time all eve, chasing them as we become their dinner!!! Many people told us about sand flies, so far we escaped them, here they are, in numbers, biting and attacking…pure bliss!!!!!! We will both from now on have tons of little red bites on our legs, very VERY itchy….

27/01
We again wake up early and go for a beautiful all day walk-climb, in the rainforest. Yes, weirdly enough, there is a real lush rainforest, very close to the glaciers. It is very dense and humid and at times, it feels like being in a tropical country…weird…we will then find out that ecosystems here are a bit all over the place and coexist where they normally shouldn’t. The walk is steep and hard, with many hours of climbing up, river crossing to reach a nice spot with great views on the glacier as we climb to the top, exhausted! Franz Josef glacier (named after the emperor) is very impressive, it advances 1 metre per day!!! We see the blue ice, the canyons created by the snow and ice, the high peaks. It is truly magical to see an amazing glacier, which descends deep into the rainforest of the Westland National Park. After a difficult descent, where I managed to slip and fall in the mud in front of the only person we meet on the track (!), we go back to our campsite for the night. I wash my hair with a bucket outside, helped by my lovely hubby….the joy of no hot shower and freedom camping!!!! We just chill out for the eve, I read about the Maori legend on the glacier: the Maori name is 'The tears of the Avalanche girl', Hinehukatere loved climbing in the mountains and persuaded her lover Tawe to climb with her, he fells from the peaks to his death, she was broken hearted and her many tears froze to form the glacier!! We both reflect on the incredible landscape, the superb scenery. The West Coast region is really wild and untouched, with serene lakes, birdlife, fern everywhere, lots of streams and rivers, mountains and of course dramatic glacial valleys but I miss the humanity…the nature is impressive but not many human beings here and I miss the human touch, the human arts, the human touch on the landscape….Fab connects more with the mountains, the gigantism and the purity of the peaks touch him a lot.

28/01
We go to see Fox glacier this morning, it is 300 metres deep, we take a little walk close to the river to see the terminal ice face. This one has more stones, feels rockier but has an amazing blue icy colour. After a nice stroll, we drive to visit the Lake Matheson, to see reflections of Mounts Cook and Tasman in the water. It is a nice easy bush track around the lake, we see the Mount Tasman but the Mount Cook, NZ highest peak, hides behind the clouds!!! All around, it is still the rainforest, even on the mountains which have huge canopy of rainforest…again it feels like an untamed wilderness, great natural beauty with a beautiful flora. We both again are puzzled by the fact that the dense rainforest is so close to the alpine vegetation, WEIRD!!! We then go for a picnic on Gillespie beach. Gillespie was a small gold town gold, but quickly became a ghost town less than 2 years after the gold rush….we can sense this, a feel of the isolation but also something of a pioneer era. The beach is a beautiful black sand wild beach with a lagoon, we walk for hours, it looked more like swamps, tropical, it feels like Asia!!! We walk, write our names with stones, Fab attempts to sculpt the dead wood on the beach, we hesitate: shall we stay here tonight or move on?? We both feel restless again and in need of new scenery…. But numbers of campervans invade the small beach campsite, so we decide to drive a bit for 2 hours before sunset to find another spot….We are heading towards Lake Wanaka so we need to stop in between and decide to go to the Mount Aspiring National Park. The night arrives when we find a conservation free campsite, it is already 10 pm and hard to cook here as you are not supposed to make noise after that time, it is buys and everyone is so quiet and goes to bed early…the eve feels short, we both fall asleep quickly but struggles with bed bugs…yes the mattress seems to be inhabited by many insects and the multiples bites on our legs are annoying!! We thought that would happen in India, not here!!!!!

29/01
We wake up early again and decide to leave to reach Wanaka in the morning, we both feel tired and a bit low, it is grey and we need to chill out, Fab dreams of a hot shower as it is cold and humid today. I feel sleepy…The drive is nice, amazing mountains and lakes, Fab is touched, I am sadly finding it a bit monotonous…how bad is that, amazing landscapes yet I find it repetitive now…mountains, lakes, forests….We arrive in Wanaka around 10ish, it is a nice little town on the lake front, yes people!!!! I am glad to see some houses, shops and people, yes!!!!! We both decide that after many days of cold showers and freedom camping, we need a treat so check in a nice commercial campsite with spa and sauna!!!! The morning is lazy, internet, shower, shower, shampoo and that is it!!!! Nice to wash, to wash clothes with powder and not soap, yes we are not 20s anymore and sometimes it is nice to recharge the battery!!!! We go for a walk around town, nice shops, organic food, people, we even go for lunch in a pub…nice treat!!!
We then go back to the campsite and enjoy the spa and sauna…Fab decides to BBQ some lambs in the communal BBQ area, he has a chat with some Swiss guys, I stay in, writing and relaxing before a nice meal.