New Zealand South Island Photos

Hey all...I am in Christchurch, the south islands's biggest city. And the forcast is for rain for the next week...on both islands. So a good time to do a blog update! I have many pictures to post from the south island....but for a start these are going to be it. It takes me a while to do these and I don't want to spend all day here! Anyway....we are almost done with the south island tour. We catch the ferry back to the north island on the 16th...and the funny thing...it so happens to be the day in which the red carpet opening event for King Kong, is in New Zealand....in Wellington of all spots...exactly where we will be! The funny thing is, that I met the art director, for the movie, and his family at a laundrymat of all places! Kind of cool huh? He even met Peter Jackson. Weird how cool things like these can happen. Linda if you are reading this...I hope you had a great boat trip, saw many waterfalls, and have a great time in Tahiti! Anyway, the south island has been great...and with only a few days left..we are going to head to a hot springs area and then back to the east coast side to do some whale watching and wine tasting...I hope everyone is doing good....leave me a message if you get the chance!


This is me on the beautiful Marlbough Sound! This area has many mountains and the ocean is so pretty turquoise in color! It was beautiful to drive through!


Sunset on the campervan, outside of Nelson town, on the west coast of the South Island. Right on the Tasman Sea!


This is a view from the water taxi of Abel Tasman National Park. We took a water taxi boat ride along the entire length of the park. Then had it drop us off at an area and hike a portion of the trek. This area is popular to kayak through too!

This is a view from the trek of Anchorage Bay. The bay is where the boat dropped us off. We hiked about 11.5 km(7 miles) of the trek back to the starting point. The whole trek is 56 km and takes about 3-4 days to do the whole thing!

Waterfall on the trek.

Me on the Abel Tasman Coastal Trek....this was one of the most beautiful hikes I have ever been on! It lead through jungles, with waterfalls off to the sides and views of the Tasman Sea...through many vista points.

This is a picture of the Pancake Rocks. Deep within the crevasces, are many vents that lead out to the ocean. When the tide rises, it fills in through the vents and you can hear swashes of water as it protrudes through the vents. There are whole areas of rocks absent...and you can watch the rise and fall of the tides! It was pretty cool!

Punakaki Pancake Rocks and vents. This is a picutre of the ocean water shooting up through a vent in the rocks. This area was very unique, and at high tide the water is shoots much higher, but unfortunately I didn't visit at that time!

More pictures of the glacier...sorry I just couldn't get enough of them!!! This should make you all feel better, that you are not the only ones surrounded by ice. The only difference is, is that it is summer here, and I hiked in and out all in the same day!

Franz Josef Glacier! This was a first for me! This glacier once was much bigger, in fact on the road driving to the hiking spot, which is about 10 miles from this spot....there was a sign that said, this is where the glacier was in 1750. The glacier began receeding for a while but has been growing again in the past ten years. Every day it grows about 1 meter and on some days up to 5 meters. I couldn't believe how quickly they grow! This was a pretty unique experience, being that it is one of the few subalpine and easliy accessable glaciers in the world. It took only 1 hour to hike to the terminal point.

This is a picture of the top of the glacier...from as far as I could see, at the level I was at. The ice at the top is very blue in color.

Me in front of the terminal of the glacier. This is the endpoint of the glacier.

Me touching my first glacier! The blue color of the ice happens when all the layers of snow compact together.
Me in the sky lodge tower drinking my new favorite beer made in New Zealand...tomorrow I am going to the brewery where they make it! It is a lemon-lime lager (you know how I like those flavored ales) called Moteiths Radler! This was a great spot to view the city, and if you are up for it, they also have bungee jumping and paragliding! Maybe next time for me....a little too much money for these things and I still have 12 months left!
Jayme in the skyline gondola to the top of the mountain side. From the top, there are short hikes, views of the entire valley and Queenstown, a restaurant and bar, and the lake surrounded by mountains. This is the view with the city below.

Queenstown Lake before sunset.

The sunset from Queenstown beach.

This is the sunset my last night in Queenstown. The city is centered on this lake, in a valley surrounded by mountains.