West Coast of South Island, New Zealand
January 1-5, 2015
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Heading over from Wanaka to the west coast, we drove over the
Gates of Haast, which is a steep canyon with what looks like
a wicked kayaking run. We had dinner in Wanaka so by the time
we went over the Haast, it was pretty late, almost getting dark,
so we looked for a place to camp. We found a great campsite by
the river, but it was on soft sand, and we managed to get Nellie
stuck! :) After almost an hour we managed to free her from the
sand and we settled in for the night. But while we were getting
the van freed, we experienced the famous west coast sandflies
come and attack us full force... it wasn't pretty. They're super
tiny, but much harder to feel and kill than mosquitos, hence
much more obnoxious.
The weather on the west coast wasn't awesome, so we didn't make
too many stops, apart from the usual Fox Glacier, etc. - but our
ultimate destination was Hokitika. We stayed the night there,
and in the morning we drove to the head of the Toaraha valley.
We hiked up to the Cedar Flat hut, which followed the beautiful
river valley, though much of the time we were in the trees
without much of a view. The hike wasn't the prettiest but we
were rewarded with some awesome hot springs there, and we camped
right next to them! :)
Next: North of the island, and Kaikoura
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Driving to the west coast by Lake Wanaka |
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Driving through Haast Pass |
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Fox Glacier tourist trap... |
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Hokitika, cool west coast town |
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Parking lot for Cedar Flat hut |
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Beautiful hiking by the Toaraha river |
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Pretty crappy trail, so 3 miles take 4-5 hours... |
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Crazy suspension bridge... |
Old Cedar Flat hut |
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A creek by the hot springs... |
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Setting up camp as the sand flies start arriving (they were horrendous at dusk and dawn) |
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Interesting colors... some people were gold panning in the area too :) |
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This helicopter showed up out of nowhere, landed here and the pilot went for a little walk... random |
What is this I don't even..?? |
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