Kia Ora - 13 days in Paradise - New Zealand's south island

Another whale tail!


With the goodbye wave from our friendly Sperm Whale, we left Kaikoura for our massage appointments at Maruia Hot Springs.

We took the inland route, which was great. I think we saw three other cars on the road.

We had our first, and only, water crossing. Not bad though, only a couple inches deep on our side of the road.








We made it just in time for our massages.

We experienced a half hour Oriental Massage, which was much needed and part of the "Indulgence Package." We recommend anyone visiting the island who enjoys natural hot springs to splurge on this place.

Nice bed


Nice view


Nice wife


Nice dinner










After dinner we had a pleasant soak in the natural hot pools. The night was wonderful and it sounded like someone in the distant valley was chanting and drumming. I actually thought the sandflies weren't too bad...until I noticed the little bites starting to swell on the backs of my hands. Even that was unable to bring negativity to our trip. We were quickly adopting the national mantra, "No worries."

We got up very refreshed and spent another couple hours in the natural pools, then our hour in the private bath.
Due to liability issues, there will be no pics of me in a swimsuit....I can't afford to replace your eyes.



Doesn't Skittles look refreshed?


The tubs




The private bath


After our soaking, it was time to pack up, gear up and go. We wanted to go back by Punakaiki to get pics of the pancake rocks since we missed them when we last went through. It was going to be a long day, but NZ is worth the nerve damage in the tail bone.

What a great lawn mower!



Speaking of great things...NZ has the best toilets! I mean they are deep! The water level is around 8 inches below the rim of the bowl! When we build our house I am importing toilets from NZ. (guys will understand this rant more than the girls)



Back to our regularly scheduled program

We love how this section of road is just carved into the cliff face






And the famous pancake rocks.

these are made for the kiwi male. still find the water is quite cold

Great ride report!! I just returned from a 18 day trip around the south island in a rental cage. Without a doubt the best twisties in the world.

We continued pushing south from Punakaiki toward our goal of Fanz Josef. As we approached Hakitika we discovered the "Wild Foods Festival" was happening on the next day. When we pulled into town, most of down town was blocked off in preparation. We heard that this was the place to experiment with such things as Chocolate covered mice, sugar glazed scorpions and cow patty pie. We also heard that cow pattie pie may actually be just that.



We saw the funky car used as the "General Lee" knockoff in Eurotrip


The teens were getting rowdy in town and we opted not to attempt to camp there over night so we pressed on.



It was pretty long going with straight roads that appeared well patrolled by revenue collectors. We were already injecting the NZ economy with some cash, we decided to keep it slow just so we knew we could afford to leave.



As we approached the Franz Josef area, the southern alps really began to rise up before us. The vegetation changed very suddenly and we dropped off the face of the Earth and into a whole other realm. It was easy to see why they would want to film blockbuster scenic films like LOTR here.



Sorry, I was getting so tired I managed to blow right past Pukekura, where I intended to eat dinner at the Road Kill Cafe where, "you kill it, we grill it." If anyone gets a chance to check that place out, I'd love to see the inside and the menu.

Instead we ate in Franz Josef and had a really good meal.


Skittles saw a cool older hotel with cobblestone facia on our way into town


Ummmmmm, riiiight


The hotel was definitely in need of an update. It wasn't all bad though, the bartender introduced us to this;


***Shameless promotion*** the helicopter was run by a small family outfit called Glacier Heliventures. They were priced well below what we were planning on paying for the same length of flight in a fixed wing. ADV Approved and recommended! Tell them you're from ADV and, well, they won't know what you're talking about.


Skittle's first ride in a whirly bird!

Sorry about the light pic...remember it's called "porcelain" skin...


How about some Southern Alps




and some glacier








Did I mention the additional benefits of a helicopter is you get to land on the mountains?

The hotel really wasn't that bad. What he neglected to tell you was about the shower. There was green and black mildew in and on the shower curtain, plus the shower head was so low I had to bend on my knees to wash my hair. They failed to tell us that the prior occupants of this room were scientists experimenting with micro cultures in the bathroom and the shower was designed for hobbits.

Beautiful scenery. This is one of those reports I call my wife over to look at the pictures (not of the food). I told her it reminded me of Hawaii without the hordes of tourists. I would imagine the locals would prefer to keep it that way, but unfortunately that's what you get when you live in paradise. That's what we find here in the swamps of home. Thanks for the post.

We landed back at the family heli-pad and almost forgot to pay them. I think getting used to people around here offering services prior to full payment is actually a harder concept to grasp than the whole "keep leeft" thing. In the good ol' USA nearly everything is pre pay.

Back to our room to pack up, gear up, and get out.


We rode into town and ate a nice breakfast




Now on to our next destination - Jurassic Park!






A last glimpse of the Fox Glacier


And on our way to becoming Velociraptor bait

I was getting really tired, as the beds in the last hotel were not unlike a large cardboard box with old dried out saran wrap covering the top as a makeshift crackling hammock. It was actually kind of fun. I walked in to a bed just above knee high and sat down. The foot of the bed immediately sunk till my rear end was about 5 inches from the floor. Much closer than the water in the toilet.

We found the Salmon farm. Which is weird, NZ is working very hard to remove invasive species, yet introducing Salmon.



They had a sign out for their Whitebait sandwiches. Being the foodie I am (and since Skittles got to experience the Marmite first) it was my turn to order something of local cuisine that the rest of the world would find questionable.


Nothing unusual here. Looks like five fried eggs over loading a couple slices of toast.

Until I flip it over

Just what it says...bait.

Skittles went for milder fare


And this guy was there for lunch too


After a lunch to stoke my internal fires of desire...ah, whatever. Lets continue the ride


Skittles was getting more comfortable on the bike and began leaning and reaching for more artistic and action shots

I bet our international to domestics terminal in Perth is further than yours

I told him about the shuttle but he wouldn't listen.

Pesto? No Pizza!

We continued our trek through the rainforest on our way to Queenstown and watching for the much recommended Crown Range Road

A stop at the Blue Pools...gawd I wanted to jump in for a swim.


Unfortunately, the camera batteries died before we reached Crown Range Rd. Blame Skittles, she left the plug adapter in one of our hotel rooms...I'll let her tell the story. :ddog



At any rate, look it up on Youtube. It is a nice road until the final 5 k's or so, then hold on to your hats for some full lock turns with a lot of leaning at very slow speeds. It was gorgeous! I did get a couple pics with the big camera (but we can't use that while riding and there weren't many pull over spots



We pulled into the Holiday Park and quickly discovered if there was a square inch of land, they would sell it. We ended up tucked behind an apartment with a small Asian family staring out there living room window at us. We moved back as far as we could to get away from the 20something Dutch guys playing Techno from a laptop in their minivan.



Once camp was set, we went to Fergburger, which was good - but not worth all the hype. We managed to also make it into town for the Pub Crawl. I guess my hi-viz coat makes some people (who are drunk enough) think I am of the local constabulary. A couple young guys who have been imbibing too much came up and wanted to kiss Skittles, saying kissing a cop was on his list. Did I mention this sloppy drunk was wearing a pink tutu? Ahh to have a camera at these moments.

We went to bed, but the constant noise of drunken teens was a little much to sleep through. The good news is the rain storm, which sounded like someone throwing handfuls of nickels on the tent helped drown out their noise.

Good stuff dudes.

Awesome pictures and story! Moar!!

Just to back up a little, I found more pics of the Blue Pools and an oddity worth a mention.







The gravel bar across from the Blue Pools was covered with thousands of cairns. WTF? Can a local tell me why? What does it mean?

We packed up in the wet as it was still coming down pretty good. We were prepared and this was the day of rain we were warned about - and expecting two days ago.

After our water proof liners were installed and everything loaded back onto our faithful steed, we rode into town and Skittles discovered more shopping for trinkets and t-shirts for back home. Even I got into the excitement and purchased a Maori Taiaha (short speer) made of local wood with a jade tip. Jade, or greenstone, is a big thing around here and we ended up with a lot of it.

Here's the daylight shot of the Fergburger that we missed the prior night. Note the excess humidity levels.



We had breakfast at, of all possible places....Starbucks. I know, I know...I am so ashamed.

The we hit the road after force packing all the extra items we got onto the bike. Maybe next time we'll pack lighter and rent a Goldwing to be able to carry Skittles' booty.


Ummmmm, that didn't quite come out right.

Back to the ride report before I get into trouble.

The rain didn't let up all the way to Te Anau - which is pronounced T'now - which didn't dampen our spirits any. This is frickin New Zealand! No worries!









And those were the clear pics from that day. :eek1 The rain was quickly soaking right through our "waterproof" gloves...but our other gear was working like a charm and we stayed MOSTLY dry. Of course when I removed the moto pants for a hike later it looked like I lacked some bladder control.

We found a little diner in middle of no where and stopped for a bite. The people were very nice and let us eat inside, with some towels under us.





No ride report is complete without food pics...don't know why, it's an inmate thing I guess.

For a look at whats at Pukekura have a look at this site http://www.pukekura.co.nz/bushmans_centre/index.htm

Good to see you enjoed your trip