Deciding to come to New Zealand was a last minute thing once the country unexpectedly opened up to about 60 visa waiver countries, including Canada. We had to make some compromises and ended up allocating only 20 days to this part of the trip. We also decided to do both the south and north islands, not sure that we would be back here for a very long time. So apart from a couple of days in Queenstown and our planned 3-day Abel Tasman trek, much of our south island experience would be a driving tour. Having just completed the 2-day, 800km drive to Nelson it is almost impossible to sum it all up. Mesmerising is the word that comes to mind. Almost every kilometre had beautiful, interesting and varied scenery from ancient mountains to alpine glory, resplendent and expansive lakes, dense sub-tropical vegetation, endless Pacific coastline and rarely a straight stretch of road to be seen.
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| So many lakes and mountains - south island scenery |
We made sure to break up the journey, first with a quick stop at the viewpoint that looks back down to Queenstown from the Crown Range, then with a more substantial walk along the shore of the almost deserted Lake Wanaka. There's nothing like a scenic road trip picnic.
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| The view down from the Crown Range pass back to Queenstown on a sunny day |
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A beautiful autumnal stroll alongside Lake Wanaka
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Walkers are encouraged to water the native plants on their way by
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| That tree that attracts so many people to Wanaka |
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| Picnic stop by the Wanaka Lake beach |
We had a found an interesting looking Airbnb called Teapot cottage in Hari Hari close to the Hokitika gorge walk. This was a real gem, fully equipped with early 19th century fittings and furnishings. We would love to have spent longer there. The gorge walk loop was great, twice crossing the milky blue glacial meltwater, first by the original swing bridge, then by a much longer and higher suspension bridge opened just 2 years ago.
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A tea party in the perfectly preserved Teapot cottage
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| Teapot cottage, Harihari |
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| The older swing bridge at the beginning of the gorge walk |
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I love the sweeping lines of this boardwalk
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| The second bridge, opened in 2020 to complete the loop walk |
Sadly, low cloud persisted all along the west coast and we got hardly a glimpse of the high mountains and no sight of the famous Fox and Franz Josef glaciers at all. I had done a walk on the Franz Joseph in '97 and remember seeing the striations and other glacial features familiar from my recently completed geography A level.
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West coast scenery
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Hard to capture the driving scenery in a few photos
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Our final stop was at Pancake rocks, a fascinating geological attraction made all the more attraction-y by the presence of a pancake rocks pancake shop. The rocks themselves are more of a mystery than the pancakes, layers of sedimentary rock somehow interwoven with a solidified mud-like solution, thus creating the pancake stack appearance.
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Pancake rocks
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The ocean working hard at its erosion job
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What do you see?
 | Pancake eating
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The rest of the way we pulled into plenty of viewpoints for a quick fix of Pacific coast wildness, swung by the gear rental shop to prep for our hike, and landed in our Airbnb in Richmond, just outside Nelson just after dark. Sunday was a day of rest and packing before heading out at the mercy of the rain gods Monday morning to Abel Tasman coastal track...
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