Wow, wow, wow, today was amazing.

We started the morning by cancelling our car relocation for the routeburn, and thankfully got 70% of the cost back. I’m feeling quite relieved now I have cancelled and looking forward to heading north to warmer weather.

We were on the road early. It was a glorious day and I really wanted to see Mount Cook. We’d been up there a few times before and it’s always been in the clouds.

It was a beautiful drive through the farm land and over the Lindis pass. But the drive up to mount cook was just incredible. The bright blue water of Lake Pukaki and the mountain sitting proud in the distance.

At the end of the road, we did the Tasman glacier hike, which took us up some steep steps. The first viewpoint was the blue pool which was actually green. It was named the blue pool because it used to be fed by the glacier flow, so it did in fact used to be blue. But since the glacier has receded, it is now green. 

At the top were many people. I’m sure there was a stunning view over the Tasman Lake and the glacier, but all I could see was people. So I took a couple of snaps and got the heck out of there!

It was really warm today, no wind and we were both down to our shorts and t-shirts, and even had the a/c on in the car!

We stopped beside Lake Pukaki for lunch, admiring the blue lake. Then continued to a freedom camping spot overlooking the lake and Mt Cook bang in the middle. It was only 2.30pm, but we were not going to turn down a perfect spot like this. We sat for the afternoon just staring at the mountain.

Some really cool Americans parked next to us, so we spent the evening chatting to them. They are really nice. They met a NZ guy in the States who invited them out and offered them his campervan. Then he said bring friends, as he had two vans. So here they are, touring NZ on the generosity of a kiwi from Rotorua. The other funny thing is, the guy from Rotorua also has a campervan in the USA and also the UK. I think I want to meet this guy who sounds like us!

It was a perfect afternoon and evening.

We woke up this morning and didn’t feel like moving. We said goodbye to Susan and Gary and decided to stay put. Our campsite is overlooing lake Hawea and the weather is lovely and sunny.

I forgot to mention yesterday I tried my loaded pack for the first time.  I’d been pain free for a few  days and the physio had suggested trying my pack about 6 days before the hike, and to try wearing it for 60-90 minutes. If I remained pain-free the next day, I should be fine for the hike,

Well, as soon as I put my pack on I felt a pain. It wasn’t as bad as it had been, but it felt like a warning sign. Later that day I tried it again around the campground, for only about 20 minutes. The pain was still there but not getting any worse.

So, today we did a walk into Hawea, only about an 1.5 hour round  trip, no pack on my back. It felt fine, until later in the afternoon. It’s still not as bad as it was in Nelson, but it is causing me discomfort every time I move. I figure this is a sign, and my gut is telling me not to do the walk.

So I rang Robyn to tell her we’re probably bailing. John suggested I just take ibuprofen regularly during the hike to cope. That might work for some people, but masking pain during a multi-day hike doesn’t sit well with me and could easily turn a minor strain into weeks of physio. With our upcoming European adventure only 7 weeks away, I’m not willing to take that risk. I’ve learned to trust my gut with these things. So I think we’re going to start heading north tomorrow. It’s too frikking cold down south anyway!

We had heavy rain overnight,buffeting the van and I was hoping the canvas on our pop-top was waterproof. But in the morning it cleared and we were on our way along the haast pass.

We stopped at the roaring billy waterfall which was a short walk through the bush. At the end of the bush it opened up onto a wide river bed. There were loads of neat shaped and coloured rocks. It was a gorgeous spot surrounded by mountains. On the other side of the river was an impressing waterfall cascading down the mountain.

We continued our drive, stopping off at little spots to admire the river and surrounding mountains. It really was a beautiful drive. A bit further on was another waterfall. It was only a 5 minute walk to this one, which was a skinny waterfall spilling out of the mountain.

We were going to stop at the blue pools, but the carpark was full so we skipped it and continued. The drive beside Lake Wanaka was as beautiful as I remembered, but the real wow factor was when we reached Lake Hawea. The views of the beautiful blue water from above was incredible, and I probably too more footage than I should have.

We arrived at the camping ground in Lake Hawea and decided to stay and catch up with Susan and Gary. They had no powered sites left, so we found a gorgeous non-powered spot overlooking the lake.

Susan and Gary arrived just after us, and we had a burger at the on-site camp restaurant. It was delicious.

Today we woke up to rain. It wasn’t heavy, just enough to know it was damp outside. We decided not to make coffee in the van and instead headed for a cafe so I could get a video uploaded. The coffee was nice too.

After that we headed off, driving south. It was quite a dramatic scenery drive today. The mountains were covered in mist and it felt really moody.

We turned off before Haast abd detoured down to Jackson bay, leaving all the tourists behind. It was an incredible drive and we barely saw another. It felt like we were driving in the Daintree forest with the lush trees either side of the road. 

And then we went over a long one lane bridge over the brilliant turquoise water of the river. After that it was the most magnificent drive along a narrow coastal road. It was a wild west coast day with waves crashing almost over the road. At the end we found all the campervans (ok, about 6 of them) but they were all in the restaurant at the end universe (well the end of the road, but could have been the universe). The restaurant is called the Craypot, and it looked really yummy, but they had a waiting list so we decided not to.

It was absolutely pissing it down with rain so we didn’t stay long. I would have liked to have taken a walk along the pier, but being such a wild and windy day, we headed back. There was a nice freedom camping spot I had eyed at on the way up.

We arrived at the spot and pulled in and were the only ones there. It had a gorgeous outlook over the inlet and we couldn’t believe our luck finding such a perfect spot. But when we got out of the car we were attacked. Sandflies came at us, ready to eat us for dinner. We decided this wasn’t such a great spot after all, and headed into Haast.

We stopped at a lodge which had camping for campervans. We were right opposite the kitchen and lounge and it was set up like a backpackers, with a great kitchen and loads of lounging chairs. We had much needed showers as we were minging, and also got our laundry done. We are also on a powered site so we were able to use our new heater.

We are both exhausted. We spent the morning drinking coffee before heading on about 11am. We wanted to find somewhere nearby to chill out for the day. We drove down to a freedom camping spot at the beach, but it didn’t have the vibe. The plan was to have a quiet day, then race past the tourist hot spots of Fox and Franz josef glacier.

But we didn’t find anything and ended up camping in the middle of Franz Josef. But it’s a really nice spot at the NZMCA park here. I was worried about mike’s elbow that he scraped on his fall yesterday, so I made him go to see the nurse. She cleaned it up and said it would be fine, so at least that’s something we don’t need to worry about. 

We spent the afternoon relaxing. I finally got my next video finished, now I just need to find somewhere to upload it.

This morning we had to go to the hospital. But don’t panic, all is ok.

We had a great night sleep at the Greymouth freedom camp. We headed off about 9am as Mike needed to go to the hospital for blood tests. With this new medication he is on, he needs to have fortnightly blood tests. And they don’t have pathlabs in the south island, so we had to go to the hospital for it.

It’s quite different here going for blood test. In Hamilton, every sits in the waiting room, ignoring eye contact with anyone else. In Greymouth, everyone is chatting, making small talk about the weather, and joking and laughing. It was kinda cool.

After that we headed to Lake Kaniere. Some YouTubers we follow invited us to visit, so we did! We’ve been following each other for years, and they are the best NZ channel we follow. They are @LeopardsGoWild and they live full time in their caravan with their 3 kids. So, it was so cool to finally meet them. 

We didn’t feel like staying at the doc camp they were at, so we continued on towards the hokitika gorge, taking the gravel back roads. On the way was an incredible waterfall, which of course we had to photograph. Except Mike fell over on the slippery rocks and grazed his elbow rather nastily. I put a plaster on it and hope it will be ok.

We continued on to the Hokitika gorge, arriving just before 5pm. It was a great time to visit, the rou buses just leaving and not too many people. And the water was just unreal! We’d been here before but the water wasn’t this blue. Last time it was like a murky floury blue, this time it was a bright turquoise, almost fluorescent. It was so beautiful I couldn’t stop looking at it.

After that came the time to look for somewhere to camp. I had the NZMCA park in Hokitika lined up, but it was absolutey chockers. So we continued on. We were both feeling really tired. There was a park over property in Ross. We drove up, saw the gate across, and decided we didn’t like the look of it, so turned back. Then I realised how tired I was, so we did a double take. I suggested we just look at it, and if we still don’t like it, we move on.

It was actually a beautiful spot surrounded by trees, and was already very full with motorhomes. But we found a spot, and for $10 a night it felt safe and was very peaceful. (Incidentally, Jenny and Barry checked out this spot the previous day and turned away too!)

Today Jenny and Barry did the Pancake rocks, but we’d done it 3 times before and skipped it. All the cars in the carpark put us off too, and you now have to pay to park. Instead we walked the Truman track down to the bottom where there were amazing views of the sea rolling in and smashing against the rocks.

By then it was lunchtime, and we turned off onto a gravel road  and found a beautiful spot overlooking a swing bridge to have our lunch. It is also the start of the Pike river memorial walk, but it was about 16km there and back and decided against doing it.

The drive down the west coast was incredible. There were plenty of pull over stops, just to stop and admire the wild waves crashing on the shore.

We arrived in Greymouth about 2pm. Barry had to bid at an auction here. Jenny said they saw dolphins down at the point, so we went down to check it out and there was an amazing freedom camp at the end with flash toilets (flushing with water and hand soap). We grabbed a park at the freedom spot for just in case, then took a walk to the end of the pier.

We watched a guy catch a kahawai off the end of the wharf, but we didn’t see any dolphins. When we got back to our van, the freedom camping spot had filled up. So we decided we would stay as it’s such a beautiful spot.

That  night we sat on the beach watching the sunset. It was unreal how pleasant the evening was. There was no wind and the temperature was very mild. There was this cool structure on the beach made from driftwood. It was quite elaborate with different rooms and a firepit. We met the guy who built it, and he’s been working on it for 5 years. He had a warm fire going inside and music playing, and the views of the sunset through the driftwood walls were unreal. It was the sort of thing you might expect to see at a festival, but here it was, right on the beach. It felt surreal!

Ooh, it was chilly this morning. We waited for the sun to hit the van before getting out of bed, and then it warmed up nicely.

We had showers before leaving the Gentle Annie Campground. We drove up past Karamea and went as far as we could. At the end was a DOC camp and the start (or finish) of the Heaphy Track. We took a short walk across the swing bridge and along part of the Heaphy Track, through beautiful nīkau palms.

Barry lost his hat on the swing bridge. It blew off and into the water far below. Mike thought it was absolutely hilarious and kept heckling him about it. But karma’s got him: he’s now lost his own hat.

Afterwards, we headed to the Oparara Arches. They’re down a narrow, windy, very rutted dirt road. It was only 14 km, but it took us almost an hour! On the way, a 4WD had slipped off the road and broken its CV joint. We stopped to see if we could help, but we had limited tools, so we continued on to the arches.

The first arch was a 15-minute walk along a bush track, the path winding through dense greenery. I had to climb down through a cave to the most magnificent arch with a river running through it. There was a sandy beach on the other side of the river, but i didn’t feel like swimming to get to it.

Then we backtracked, and took another walk. This walk followed the river which looked like a strong cup of tea. But it was super clear and it looked unreal. At the end of the walk was a massive limestone arch, which towered precariously over us. It didn’t look safe.

There was a scramble down to the bottom of the arch, but I didn’t want to tackle it and chance putting my back out again.

We rattled our way back along the rough dirt road, and  the tow truck had only just arrived to retrieve the unlucky 4WD. 

After that, we had to backtrack through Karamea and Westport. I hadn’t noticed how windy the road was on the way up, but on the way back it felt long and tiring.

Jenny and Barry were staying at a freedom camping spot at the Fox River, so we asked them to save us a place as we wouldn’t be arriving until after 7pm.

While they were holding our spot, a couple of foreigners pulled in and parked very close beside them. That is typical of foreigners, they don’t have the sense of personal space that we do. It’s normal in Europe to camp like that. Anyway, she asked them to move over a bit so there was room for us, and they left. So they placed their chairs there to mark the spot.

Thankfully, by the time we arrived, our space was still there! It was a beautiful spot, right across the road from the beach and on the banks of the fox river. We strolled along the beach to watch the sun set, the sky turning bright red as the sun set over the ocean. It was gorgeous!

It was a really busy free camp, people crammed in all over the place. There was the usual cacophony of the swoosh of sliding doors followed by the slam of van doors echoing all over the carpark, but it died down about 10pm, and I was able to sleep.

This morning we took it easy in Murchison. We went to a quirky little cafe for coffee and I managed to upload my video. The drive to Westport today was incredible, through the Buller gorge. Towering cliffs on either side and the river running through the middle.

Barry had to get some medication from the chemist, and we did a small shop, then we headed up to Denniston. It was a windy steep drive, but incredibly scenic overlooking the wild west coastline. We were really lucky to have such a clear day as the views from the top were incredible. We tried to find some of the old buildings that were in the book, but not sure they are still up there. We did find Ellens house though and the school where the accident happened.

We had lunch at the top with a stunning view over the coastline, and little wekas wandering around. Afterwards we headed north and stopped at a quirky little campground called Gentle Annie. We have a beautiful spot overlooking the river and the sea, but it’s very windy, and it’s gotten quite cold.

This morning it rained, so we packed up and left our perfect spot. We had to backtrack to Takaka, but we stopped off at a little hippie town of Collingwood and had a look around and through the museum. Then we stopped at Takaka and got rid of all our waste and filled up with fuel.

As it was raining we decided on a driving day. It was a gorgeous drive along the backroads of the Buller river and into Murchison.

We stopped at the Murchison NZMCA park and it’s right in town, and only $5pp. It had been cold all day but when we stopped the sun was out and it was overbearingly hot and humid. Then it rained again and cooled it down.

We mooched around the town, checking out the second hand stores. Then a few sandflies came out and we retreated inside the van where I managed to get my video finished. My back is feeling a lot better now, bit still not 100%.