lake weikaremoana

My next stop was a national parc with the beautiful lake Weikaromoana. In the north island the Maori influence is much bigger, many places have Maori names (which are really hard to write and remember. I was so tired here, went to bed at 18.30h and slept for nearly 13h! Its dark here at 18.30h.
On the next day I did a short walk to a giant rata tree. This tree starts as a parasite on a host tree and develops roots so it can survive the death of the host tree. At the base this tree measures around 13m and it is between 500 and 1000 years old.



The lake looks nice with sun,



and also nice short before some rain.



Some beautiful falls are also here:

Napier

Napier is the Art-Deco city, here are some nice examples. The city was completely destroyed by an earthquake 1931 and afterwards rebuild again.













I was there at ANZAC day, where they remember their war heroes. They had a scottish band here, which participated in the parade.

wellington

Then I decided to finish my trip on the south island and take the ferry to the north island. I spontanously bought the ticket in a travel agency and had 4 hours to drive to Picton.
On the next day I visited "Te Papa", the National Museum of NZ. They are showing their history there (Maori and Europeans) and also some arts and educational stuff about the elements fire (vulcanos), water (sea) and earth (earthquakes).



On the roof they have an installation of an socalled Overseas Experience. This should symbol their lust of camping and tramping. And they show a good taste because they are using a german car for that.



At the quai next to the marina I saw a seal and also an octupus, funny, i never expected this here.
I stayed the night in Okita, nothing special about this city. On the next day I drove to Napier, an Art-Deco town. The city was totally destroyed in 1931 and rebuild in the Art-Deco style.

The drive was not so interesting, here are living much more people and the landscape is not so nice compared to the southern island. But to be fair its really hard to beat the Fjordlands or the West Coast.

abel tasman national parc

I spent a day in the Abel Tasman National Park and used a boat service. They dropped me after a nice cruise around the coastline and picked me up 5h later at another bay.
The weather was quite good, much better than the forecast. But thats someting I also learned. Don´t trust the forecast here, the weather can change very fast.
The Abel Tasman Walk is one of the Great Walks and follows the coastline with its beautiful bays.
One funny thing in the water was Split Rock. Remembers me of a giant horse leftover ;-)



The water was clear and green, similar like the one at Queen Charlotte Track.



And here I decided to take the shortcut straight through the middle instead of walking around the bay. I was lucky to have worn my waterproof sandals. The depht of the crossing was deeper than expected ;-)

West Coast

I drove north at the highway to Westport. This road is very scenic, I had to stop multiple times to take some pics.

Here are so called pancake rocks. It is formed out of limestone which looks like stapled pancakes. They are containing a blowhole which spits out some water from time to time when a big wave rolls in.



The neighbouring coastline was also very scenic.


And this sign reminds me, that I am far away from home...

Brasil is much closer than Germany, funny.....

Glaciers

My next stop was at the Fox and at the Franz Joseph Glaciers. They are fast and could move up to 5m per day. And Global Warming is "good" for them, they get up to 45 meter snow or 15 meter rain every year and because of that they are growing. NZ has over 3000 glaciers!

Imagine driving around and having seen no snow and glacier so far, than coming around the corner a windy road and instantly seeing this:



The mist comes from a river. Thats New Zealand, full of beautiful surprises!


And here is the Fox Glacier:


I arrived just in time of sunset to the Franz-Joseph Glacier. The tip of the neighbouring mountain was lighted beautifully by the golden sun.



I did a glacier tour on Franz-Joseph, which was nice. Here some impressions:

I was allowed to hold the tool of the guide to look more professional. We got cloth and cramp-ons with spikes from the tour company.



And here ice-man is coming out of his cave ;-)



We were walking between much much big and tall ice-formations:



The different colors have been impressive, especially these deep blues. The color comes from the enormous pressure, the ice get. The ice changes its color.

queenstown steamboat

I drove back to Queenstown to do a "real" touristic thing, cruising with the steamboat to a show ranch ... The boat needs 1 ton coal per hour and you can look how this coal is shouveled into the engine.

Here is the old captain:



And here the new one....



But unfortatly the hat doesn´t fit my head.. so I have to continue my travel
We stopped at the show ranch, where a sheep had to become nude:



It was a wonderfull weather, the trees have colorful autumn leaves and the sun was shining golden.



This was a strange scene where I saw only one colorful tree in a vast landscape.

Doubtfull Sound

On the next day I continued and drove back to Te Anau where I did a Glowworm cave tour. It was funny to see the worms glowing. The next day I went to anouther sound, the Doubtfull Sound.
This one is totally different, not so crowed like Milford. In peak season, over 4000 people go to Milford every day. And in addition you see and hear many helicopters and airplanes there. The helis are doing scenic flights or are transporting goods to the nearby huts.

Doubtfull Sound is also 10 times bigger, so the impression is quite different. Here you see the start at deep cove.



A view back to deep cove.





And here is the end of the sound. If you continue straight on.... and have a ship which could resist heavy weather you will reach Tasmania, which is south of Australia.




At these rocks I saw a seal colony.



During the trip I saw some valleys like this one. These valleys are totally isolated, you will find here unique species. My guide in Milford told me, in one valley they found a spider which is 3 times larger than the average NZ spider. And they even found some birds there which they though has been extinct and some new lizard species.




The nicest thing at this tour was a stop at a side arm of the sound. The captain stopped the engine and asked us to be silent too. It was really impressive to hear only the silent nature sounds, some waterfall in the background and lots of birds singing.

At my way back I visited the biggest hydroelectric power plant, here you can see the exit, where the water from the above lake exits.



And here the turbine hall:




The next day, monday 14.4. I relaxed, did a nice and sunny walk along the lake, saw a film about the fjordland and drove back to Queenstown.

I wanted to do another hiking track in Fjordland, but this was impossible because the return transport through a river was not possible due to the low water. Very very unusual here as there are areas with over 15m rain per year.
Diving was also not possible because end of season... I think I have to come back some day ;-)

Milford Sound

The next stop was Milford Sound. The road to there is one of the most scenic ones. The sign here says all, you will stop often and its remote, only fuel for emergency.



The snow here is glacier snow. The highest mountain, Mt. Cook is 3700m high.



You are passing different landscapes. Nice plains, which are really dry, because they are behind the mountains:



Beautifull rivers



And nice lakes with funny signs



And you have to drive through a one-way tunnel which is at the top of a pass. If have to wait up to 15mins if the other side has green light ;-)


Which is not bad, because you can get out and look around.
The scenery is really impressive, here I heard and saw my first kea, the only alpine parrot.



I arrived late at Milford Sound, too late for a cruise but it has enought light for a nice twilight pic.


And so does it look like with light


or so:




At the next morning I got out of my car and saw some eploring keas at the car park. Very funny birds, one was rolling over the ground.



Another one discovered a chips bag which it emptied. These birds are very intelligent. They could be very disruptive for cars as they crack antennas and can destroy the windscreen isolation.



For the morning I booked a half day kanu tour, a nice way to explore the sound.



We paddled very close to some relaxing seals, which warmed up in the sun.



In the afternoon I did a cruise to see the full sound.



The size of the mountains can only be imagined with the ships in front of. These are big ships, with up to 300 passengers.



I was totally relaxed due to the impressions...