2/18/12 (Saturday):  I believe I left off the last blog rather abruptly in Hokatika because we were getting ready to go out for lunch.  And I actually had the journey reversed; we traveled north on the West Coast of the South Island, so we actually went from Fox Glacier to Hokatika, not the other way around.  So let's finish the day (our 4th day, 2/13) from Fox Glacier to Hokatika (see map).  Since it's all out of order anyhow, here's a shot of Wiley at Punakaki that I didn't include before.  Do you think he's having fun yet?!

Wiley at Punakaki

 This is a view of Fox Glacier from the little town of Fox Glacier.  In order to get closer, you have to take a long hike or an expensive air tour.  We were happy just to see it from below.

 Access to Franz Josef glacier was similarly limited.

We spent our 4th night at Fox Glacier Holiday Park.  All of the holiday parks (as campgrounds are known here) were very nice, with kitchen and laundry facilities, but this one was truly a resort.  Campers had access to bathing in hot springs (for a pretty steep fee).  I chose to utilize the hot tub, which gave me a private 1/2 hour in a lovely Jacuzzi with rain forest all around.  The birds were twittering all around, and I started imitating one of them that whistled a pretty little tune.  To my surprise, it flew right up to within 12 inches of my face and started fanning its tail and dancing around for me.  It was a native bird called Piwakawaka (fantail).  I know that some of you aren't as "into" nature as me, but this was really a peak experience for me!

Lake Wanaka

To finish up with some random shots that I left out of my previous (backwards) blog, here are a couple of the gorgeous glacial lakes where we took breaks.

Lake Hawea

Okay.  Now that I have you totally confused about our route (welcome to the world of the geographically/spatially challenged), we'll continue our trip.

From Fox Glacier, we continued north on the West Coast toward Nelson.  This part of the country was settled during the mid 1800's during the great gold rush.  It's beautiful country, but very rugged.  The towns are now small and spaced far apart. 

For my 67th birthday, I just had to do something adventurous (because flying to the other side of the world and driving a camper on the "wrong" side of the road didn't seem all that adventurous), so when I saw this swingbridge, I knew I had to do it!  It's New Zealand's highest swingbridge and crosses the beautiful Buller River.  The Maori called it the Kawatiri, which means deep and swift.

There was a zip line you could take to come back that looked like a lot of fun, but it was too expensive for me, so I settled for a leisurely walk.  I even took my hands off the rails for a few minutes to get this shot of the waterfall.




 
 


Our next and final destination was Nelson.  Part of the journey was through the Pelorus River Gorge -- breathtaking!  We saw some kayakers, which made us wish we had our kayaks and a couple more weeks to explore.

We spent our final night in Nelson, which was less interesting than I expected.  It's famous for its golden beaches, but it looked much like any Florida beach I've been to except for the distant mountains.

But the campground in Nelson was one of the best yet -- we even got adopted by one of the resident ducks, who liked to hang out by our camper door!

 Wiley took advantage of the free afternoon to take a nap while I did some laundry.  Altogether a satisfying day, even though the scenery wasn't as spectacular as the previous part of the trip.

I have one last blog to do about our South Island advanture, but I think I'll safe it for another day.  From Nelson, we headed back to Picton to turn in the camper and board the ferry for a pretty spectacular trip back to the North Island.  So stay tuned, and E noho rā for now.