Finally I'm back, just had to force myself to do another story as otherwise it will take too long. Still busy with our home.....
OK, New Zealand it is! The memories were nearly gone but when I started again it comes back and then I'm again in awe with the pictures and the visions which comes back.....
My last story ended in Arrow Town and now we are going to Christchurch for our House sit but in between are two other stops, one in a Motel in Haast and the last one is an very special Airb&b in Kokatahi. On these last two days we had some bad luck, have a look.....
First we stopped at the Arrow Junction Lookout, amazing...
I made a movie of the trip to Wanaka, but I have to tell you something you cannot see in the film as I didn't dare to film it; We had to go over a pass, very high and very steep, during that drive I realised that we were soo lucky we didn't had that first car anymore with the worn out brakes! We definitely would have been in big trouble then!
Thinking about that made me real sick...
Movie time, just enjoy this relaxed and beautiful drive....
After this journey we arrived in Wanaka which also is a lovely town, settled on the banks of Lake Wanaka....
From Wanaka the drive to Haast was just amazing with a lot of things to see and to do along the way....
We couldn't do every thing but we walked to the Blue Pools and that was worth doing....
Then we stopped at the Fantail Falls....
On an old stump of a tree people stacked a lot of stones, must have something to do with wishes?
Our last stop was at the Thunder Creek Falls, after that it started raining and you will learn later, it didn't stop till we were in Christchurch.....
After a good night sleep in Haast, which actually consists of a few houses and a hostel, motel, hotel and very very wet weather, we continued our travels toward Kokatahi and our main attraction on the way was the walk to the Franz Josef Glacier.....
but unfortunately it was raining so during the trip we could hardly see anything and when we arrived at the glacier it was still raining.
Anyway, we saw people coming back so we started the walk with our rain jackets on.....
This is a sad picture as this was the last one I made with my little red camera, it died at that moment as it got too much water on its head, it literally drowned and we did everything to get it back to life when we were at the Airb&b but without result ....
We also didn't make it to the Glacier as every one we passed I asked how long the walk still was and they all said approx. 10 minutes, even after a 20 minutes walk when I asked the first one....
The sky became more and more misty so there were also people who said they hadn't see the Glacier at all because of the clouds, then we decided not to go any further.
My raincoat wasn't the best anymore and I was soaking wet till the bone! I had a proper river running over my back into my underwear, along my legs into my shoes....honestly, I'm not exaggerating!
So this picture was made with Fred's phone.....
New Zealand has about the same facilities as Australia meaning; there were toilets at the car park, so with a lot of effort we could put some dry cloths on, in the mean time it wasn't raining anymore but POURING!
We had some more things to do on the way on our list but that was not possible.
When we came to our Airb&b it was drizzling which was a relieve, besides that we were very surprised about this lovely, very cosy little Airb&b named; "The Nest"....
In the mean time, while we were relaxing with a wine, trying to forget the wet adventure, the owner, Wendy, was drying our cloths in the dryer and after a while we got them back, nice warm and dry.....
This little cottage had everything you need....
The owners even had beer for us put in the fridge, Wendy had made great scones and in the morning there was fresh baked bread!...
The shower/bath was outside and even in the drizzle that was lovely....
Next day we could make some pictures from the property in between the showers....
The property is very big so you can have a nice walk...
Unfortunately we only had one night here....
If I would have known this was so lovely I would have made some more time free to spend more nights here but yeh, we had to leave....
The lake close by "Lake Kaniere" must be stunning but we had to face a long way still to Christchurch and we had to be at the car rental company at 3 O'clock and of course, the weather wasn't good again, so we had to skip the lake, unfortunately!
We had to travel from the West Coast, over the Arthur Pass to the East Coast where Christchurch is situated, on the pass we faced.....
So again, seeing/going to tourist attractions on the way was out of the question, really a shame as also Arthur Pass must have been stunning.
After the Pass the weather improved and the closer we came to Christchurch, the better it became. We returned the car and the owner of the house were we are going to do the house sit, was already waiting for us...
We had a great Welcome.....
To be continued.....
Cheers!
