New Zealand: Part 1

Happy New Year! It's been a while since I last made a post on the blog. Jo and I went to New Zealand for 4 weeks over Christmas and New Year. Yup, finally I got the visa and our flights went very smoothly. We stayed in Auckland for about a week and then rent a car to travel down south. Our road trip officially started on the 14 of December 2006 when we left Auckland with a small white Toyota Starlet heading towards Rotorua. Rotorua is a popular tourist city for its thermal areas and attractions.
View of Auckland Tower and a habour

The next morning we went to a thermal wonderland to see a geyser and amazing landscape features that have resulted from the thermal activities in the area. Then we drove down past Taupo which is a town next to a big lake towards Tongariro National Park. The next morning we did the famous Tongariro Crossing in a clear blue sky (which later on we came to learn that such a day was one of the rarest thing in New Zealand. After the big hike, we headed to Whanganui via minor road along the beautiful Whanganui River.
Lady Knox Geysey
Artist's Palette and Champaign Pool and the thermal area
Huka Fall, on the way to Taupo
Emerald Lake at Tongariro Crossing
View of Whanganui River

We drove down to Wellington, the capital of New Zealand to catch a ferry to South Island in pretty much rainy gloomy weather. However, the day we took the ferry across Cook Strait the weather was very fine and clear so we had a great view during the journey. We followed a very windy road linking Picton and Havenlock with a fantastic scenery and headed to Lake Nelson National Park to stay overnight.
View from the ferry seating area towards Marlborough Sounds
Lake Nelson National Park

West Coast was the first main destination in our plan. We had a nice rest stop on the way to the famous Pancake Rock and saw a seal for the first time in New Zealand. The Pancake Rock was pretty spectacular and very busy with lots of bus tours and tourists of all ages. The next day was our first experience with the true South Island weather with heaps of rain and low clouds. To top such a gloomy day of, our car battery went flat and we spent most time figuring how to get help and waiting for the road service people to come by. Well, we met a couple of nice people, both tourists and locals so it wasn't so bad.
Sleeping seal at Charleston
Pancake Rock

The next morning the weather still hadn't got better but we decided to go ahead with the plan of walking up to Avalanche Peak(1833 m) at Arthur's Pass anyway. There was some snow on the higher area and we had a mini snow storm during lunch time. Some people turned back before the reaching the summit because of bad visibility. We continued to the summit and was lucky that the clouds clear up with occasion sunshine so we had an awesome view of the valley and white-capped mountains in the distance. There were also some Keas or alpine parrots accompanying us and trying to get into our bags in search for food.
Walking up Avalanche Peak
Kea on the summit

When we left the moutain region back to the West Coast, the weather got a bit better and the next morning we had perfectly clear day in Hokitika and Lake Mapourika north of Franz Josef. Jo took a swim in the cold water of the lake, brave man. In the morning, we went down to the lake again to enjoy the tranquility of the still lake water which gave the near perfect reflection of the snow-capped mountains of the Southern Alps. Then, it's a big day at the glacier with the best weather anyone could ever hope for in the West Coast. We took a full day glacier guided walk under the cloudless blue sky. The trip started from about 10 am and ended at 4.30 pm, it was phenomenal!
Crystal blue river
Lake Mapourika, north of Franz Josef
Walking on Franz Josef Glacier
On the glacier
Going through the ice crevasse