South Island: Beaches, Glaciers And Waterproofs

Hello from lovely Queenstown! Since my last blog entry we have done quite a bit... we hiked 2 days in Abel Tasman National Park which included some hairy river tidal crossings - at one we made a cup of tea whilst waiting for the water levels to subside!
The walk was lovely, but our first experiments with pasta 'n' sauce dinners (to cut down on pack weight) resulted in a very miserable Hike Chick. I was not impressed. I had hiked all day only to eat shit at the end of it. Lesson learned. Check out the foxy photo of us in a DOC hut...

We had a 1 day kayak back to base and we kayaked alongside a seal colony! They were swimming next to us and everything.

After that we chilled in Nelson for another couple of days and then headed down to Punakaiki (famous for its Pancake Rocks). A one night stop-off there to break up the long bus journey turned into 3 lovely days in the smallest place ever.. but it was right on the Tasman Sea and our backpackers was about 20m from the beach - the best day/night was spent in our own static gypsy caravan drinking tea in bed with the front door open so that we could watch the raging storm and the huge waves outside. Bliss.
After that came the glaciers. In Franz Josef we met Pete and Claire, who were a bad influence and got us drunk. Thanks guys! It was fun! At Fox we went on a half-day hike on the ice. Amazing scenery. Mad blue ice and lots of puddles to stick my stick in.


Yesterday we arrived in Queenstown which is stunning. We've already spent far too much cash... eating out (best burger ever, according to Pete, who knows his burgers) and preparing for our next intrepid adventure... on Monday we start the famous Routeburn Track - a 3 day hike that we are combining with the Caples Track to make a 5 day round-trip hike (with clothes, food, sleeping bag and stove on our little backs). Thanks to the present of some NZ dollars from all my friends at KC I have just bought a very waterproof jacket to keep me toasty and warm. Thanks! Not as rock and roll as a camper van guys but I definitely will appreciate it (it's pissing with rain here right now). Watch this space to find out how it went next weekend (needless to say there will be no more pasta 'n' sauce: Food Hitler has bought one little bottle for oil, one for soy - stir fry noodles here we come!)