Abel Tasman National Park, Punakaiki and Franz Joseph Glacier

So, after staying the night in Picton I was picked up by the next Stray bus which had come over on the Ferry from the North island and we headed on over to the Abel Tasman National Park via Nelson. On the way we stopped at a Vineyard to do some wine tasting (very nice) and at the airport to look at some microlite planes before checking in at Old Macdonalds farm for 2 nights in our little huts overlooking the park. The next day we set off nice and early for our 12.9km walk through the park to Anchorage, past all the lovely golden sandy beaches and lush greenery. Shame the weather was not at its best because the scenery would have been even more gorgeous in the sunshine. Nevertheless it was very pretty and after lunch at Anchorage we hopped on a water taxi back to the town to avoid the approaching storm clouds (and having to do the walk back!).  It was a very quiet little place so not much action in the evenings other than tv watching so had some good early nights! The next day we hopped on the bus to head down to the west coast, stopping at the aptly named Cape Foulwind to walk round and see some seals. At Punakaiki we stopped to see the stunning pancake rocks and blowholes before heading over to our slightly strange hostel for the evening with beds on the floor and a giant rock in the kitchen! I also got attached by a Weta (looks a bit like a giant grasshopper) while sat checking my emails that climbed up my leg and wouldn’t let go! I screamed so loud the lady from reception ran over to see what the problem was (she also screamed when she saw it!) but luckily got rid of it for me!

The next morning we headed to Franz Josef via a very odd Bushman museum where we watched a video in which fully grown men in shorts jumped out helicopters onto deer to catch them and put them in deer farms…complete with theme tune…very odd! At our ‘Rainforest retreat hostel’ we went to the bar to play bingo and have a few happy hour drinks. In the morning we got up nice and early to go up the glacier. Recently the glacier collapsed at the bottom end so now the only way you can walk on it is to go up by helicopter. This means they are reliant on the weather and unluckily for us there was too much cloud for us to go up. Very disappointing as we got dressed up in the sexy climbing gear (twice!) and got so close to going up we saw the helicopter land. Instead we took a shuttle and then walked over so we could at least see the glacier which was nice (it’s shrinking quite rapidly unfortunately) before heading back to the hostel to go in the hot tub!