boats, bus, hairpincurves, little plane and such
Door: Louise
Blijf op de hoogte en volg Louise
16 Maart 2011 | Nieuw Zeeland, Westport
Well, hi there!
Time to give you guys an update.
First I want to say that we ofcourse have been following the disaster that happend in Japan. The earthquake here is peanuts compare to what happend in Japan. We really can't imagine how the situation is in Japan, after the quake and tsunami. And ofcourse the explosions in the nuclear reactor. Nothing alse about this I can say, because it is just horrible.
anyway, now some good news:
The day after the cruise, we did the Milford track daywalk. The day before we really didn't feel like it, cause we were tired from the cruise, the weather wasn't nice and we just wanted to go to Queenstown. So we wanted to cancel it. That was possible, but we couldn't get our money back.........
So, we went and did the walk after all.
Good we did, because it was really pretty and we had nice weather!
A group of 7 people and Justin, our guide. First a bus ride for half an hour, then a boatride, 1 hour and from there we went into the bush! You heard birds averywhere, walked thry kind of a rainforest again! The weather became nicer and nicer! Had lunch in a lodge, where people spent the nite who do the 4 day track!
For us one day was good!
We walked for about 4-5 hours, with stops in between. Also we saw possums in traps. Possums are a treath to the wildlife in New Zealand. They kill birds and stuff. There are 70 million possums in the country, so they need to be killed and they do. Either by car, you see dead possums every where on the roads, or they set traps out, like the ones we saw. Thanks god they die instantly! Cause it was a little sad to see them dead in those traps! Around 6 pm back in Te Anau, where we had dinner at the Fat Duck! Nice restaurant.
The next day we took of for Queenstown. The weather was nice again, lucky us! We went up with the gondola, see photo's and video, that I will post later.
The view was magnificent!!! We were deciding if we wanted to go paragliding from the mountain, but we decided not to do it. Little scary to us, ;-)
We heard there was an other quake, this time in Te Anau, where we just came from. We didn't feel it, it was 4.1
Monday we left for Wanaka. On the way we drove thru Arrowtown. Cute little town! So nice! We had some coffe there. After we wanted to see the famous bridge where they do the bungee jumping. Well, we looked around, while driving, coudn't find it, all of a sudden we see a sign for Wanaka, nut then again a different sign, ok, just go left. That is what we did, well, it was way left and it was a hairpincurve, you will not believe. We thought we were on the wrong road, but there it was the point of no return, ;-)
We took the senic way, but it was reaaly with a lot of hairpins! It was really scary all of a sudden. And we were really high too! Carin did great driving. And Ton and Anneke, I think you did it by bike, right? Proud of you two!
It was starting to get really windy as well, but hey, we did it and we have some film to proof I was just a little bit scared, :biggrin:
We drove thru Cardrona, also a nice, cute little place!
Well, we got to Wanaka finally and went to puzzling world. Thanks for the tip Ton and Anneke! We went into the maze! My god, we got lost and almost sick by going thru all these mazes! Also the Illusion rooms were pretty crazy!!! Really bizar this place, but fun!
We left town and wanted to go to the next place a town called Makarora. When we got there, it was raining and the campground didn't look very nice. It was only an hour more to Haast, the next town. Well, we did have "haast" (in a hurry) to get to Haast, ;-) In Haast there are a lot of sandflies, pretty much the whole westcoast has sandflies. By the way, the road to Haast was curvy again, lots of mountaisn, my gosh, all we saw was mountains dooming up in front of us!!! We've had it a bit with those kinda roads, :biggrin:
It rained all nite by the way in Haast!
Next morning we left on time to get to our next destination, Foc glacier, and Franz Jozef glacier. Near the Fox, we stopped at Lake Matheson, that is also known as the mirror lake. You see the snowy mountains in the lake by nice, calm and clear weather. We weren't that lucky, unfortuanally......
So, we got to Franz Jozef, wanted to do a hike to the glacier, but were too late. so, what shall we do? Helicopter flights were too expensive, but I saw something else...........Wtih a tiny little airplane you could fly over the mountains and glaciers, for about one hour. much better deal then teh helicopter..........
We thought, thought would be great!
So, we booked it in a split second and at 3 pm we went to the little airport with an other couple. It was a plane for max. 7 people. It was the 4 of us and the pilot.
My gosh, it really was a tiny plane!
We had to take our seats, buggle up, listen to some instructions and he started the engine. Well, it wouldn't start, he tried again, still wouldn't start the engine. You have to push he said...............
We all looked at each other, what now and thought, should we leave this plane???
OK, by the 3rd time it started. Andf off, we went!
Before we knew it, we were up in the air..........
The weather was nice and almost clear.
And what we saw was spectacular!!!
So beautiful! We flew over glaciers, snowy mountains, lakes, coudn't believe it. It really was nice, but also a bit scary. Djeezzz, couldn't believe I was in this little airplane!
Almost at the end of the flight, it really got bumpy! We dropped a bit, the lady in front of me grabbed her husband by the arm. My heart almost stopped! All I thought was , if we do crash, we fall on top of the trees below us, so at least that will be a soft landing!!! Or we land on the snow, and we slide down, :biggrin:
But I didn't really like that part of the flight! BUT, we did it and it was worth it!
Took a drink as soon as we got back to the camper! I needed that! ;-)
We took lost of photos and video's. Will post them as soon as I can.
At nite we had dinner with, guess who.............
the english/aussies, Archie and Edith! They were at teh same campground, as a matter of fact, they were right next to us!
We couldn't believe it! Neither did they!
Now we are in Westport, kinda boring little town, but ok campground I think.
going for dinner now and then hopefully I can place pics and film when we get back to campground.
Had rain this afternoon, stopped at the pancakerocks! Very beautiful, but we were soaking wet!
OK folks, gotta go, we need food! and a glas of wine too!!!
ciao for now, Lou
Time to give you guys an update.
First I want to say that we ofcourse have been following the disaster that happend in Japan. The earthquake here is peanuts compare to what happend in Japan. We really can't imagine how the situation is in Japan, after the quake and tsunami. And ofcourse the explosions in the nuclear reactor. Nothing alse about this I can say, because it is just horrible.
anyway, now some good news:
The day after the cruise, we did the Milford track daywalk. The day before we really didn't feel like it, cause we were tired from the cruise, the weather wasn't nice and we just wanted to go to Queenstown. So we wanted to cancel it. That was possible, but we couldn't get our money back.........
So, we went and did the walk after all.
Good we did, because it was really pretty and we had nice weather!
A group of 7 people and Justin, our guide. First a bus ride for half an hour, then a boatride, 1 hour and from there we went into the bush! You heard birds averywhere, walked thry kind of a rainforest again! The weather became nicer and nicer! Had lunch in a lodge, where people spent the nite who do the 4 day track!
For us one day was good!
We walked for about 4-5 hours, with stops in between. Also we saw possums in traps. Possums are a treath to the wildlife in New Zealand. They kill birds and stuff. There are 70 million possums in the country, so they need to be killed and they do. Either by car, you see dead possums every where on the roads, or they set traps out, like the ones we saw. Thanks god they die instantly! Cause it was a little sad to see them dead in those traps! Around 6 pm back in Te Anau, where we had dinner at the Fat Duck! Nice restaurant.
The next day we took of for Queenstown. The weather was nice again, lucky us! We went up with the gondola, see photo's and video, that I will post later.
The view was magnificent!!! We were deciding if we wanted to go paragliding from the mountain, but we decided not to do it. Little scary to us, ;-)
We heard there was an other quake, this time in Te Anau, where we just came from. We didn't feel it, it was 4.1
Monday we left for Wanaka. On the way we drove thru Arrowtown. Cute little town! So nice! We had some coffe there. After we wanted to see the famous bridge where they do the bungee jumping. Well, we looked around, while driving, coudn't find it, all of a sudden we see a sign for Wanaka, nut then again a different sign, ok, just go left. That is what we did, well, it was way left and it was a hairpincurve, you will not believe. We thought we were on the wrong road, but there it was the point of no return, ;-)
We took the senic way, but it was reaaly with a lot of hairpins! It was really scary all of a sudden. And we were really high too! Carin did great driving. And Ton and Anneke, I think you did it by bike, right? Proud of you two!
It was starting to get really windy as well, but hey, we did it and we have some film to proof I was just a little bit scared, :biggrin:
We drove thru Cardrona, also a nice, cute little place!
Well, we got to Wanaka finally and went to puzzling world. Thanks for the tip Ton and Anneke! We went into the maze! My god, we got lost and almost sick by going thru all these mazes! Also the Illusion rooms were pretty crazy!!! Really bizar this place, but fun!
We left town and wanted to go to the next place a town called Makarora. When we got there, it was raining and the campground didn't look very nice. It was only an hour more to Haast, the next town. Well, we did have "haast" (in a hurry) to get to Haast, ;-) In Haast there are a lot of sandflies, pretty much the whole westcoast has sandflies. By the way, the road to Haast was curvy again, lots of mountaisn, my gosh, all we saw was mountains dooming up in front of us!!! We've had it a bit with those kinda roads, :biggrin:
It rained all nite by the way in Haast!
Next morning we left on time to get to our next destination, Foc glacier, and Franz Jozef glacier. Near the Fox, we stopped at Lake Matheson, that is also known as the mirror lake. You see the snowy mountains in the lake by nice, calm and clear weather. We weren't that lucky, unfortuanally......
So, we got to Franz Jozef, wanted to do a hike to the glacier, but were too late. so, what shall we do? Helicopter flights were too expensive, but I saw something else...........Wtih a tiny little airplane you could fly over the mountains and glaciers, for about one hour. much better deal then teh helicopter..........
We thought, thought would be great!
So, we booked it in a split second and at 3 pm we went to the little airport with an other couple. It was a plane for max. 7 people. It was the 4 of us and the pilot.
My gosh, it really was a tiny plane!
We had to take our seats, buggle up, listen to some instructions and he started the engine. Well, it wouldn't start, he tried again, still wouldn't start the engine. You have to push he said...............
We all looked at each other, what now and thought, should we leave this plane???
OK, by the 3rd time it started. Andf off, we went!
Before we knew it, we were up in the air..........
The weather was nice and almost clear.
And what we saw was spectacular!!!
So beautiful! We flew over glaciers, snowy mountains, lakes, coudn't believe it. It really was nice, but also a bit scary. Djeezzz, couldn't believe I was in this little airplane!
Almost at the end of the flight, it really got bumpy! We dropped a bit, the lady in front of me grabbed her husband by the arm. My heart almost stopped! All I thought was , if we do crash, we fall on top of the trees below us, so at least that will be a soft landing!!! Or we land on the snow, and we slide down, :biggrin:
But I didn't really like that part of the flight! BUT, we did it and it was worth it!
Took a drink as soon as we got back to the camper! I needed that! ;-)
We took lost of photos and video's. Will post them as soon as I can.
At nite we had dinner with, guess who.............
the english/aussies, Archie and Edith! They were at teh same campground, as a matter of fact, they were right next to us!
We couldn't believe it! Neither did they!
Now we are in Westport, kinda boring little town, but ok campground I think.
going for dinner now and then hopefully I can place pics and film when we get back to campground.
Had rain this afternoon, stopped at the pancakerocks! Very beautiful, but we were soaking wet!
OK folks, gotta go, we need food! and a glas of wine too!!!
ciao for now, Lou
-
16 Maart 2011 - 06:31
Mirjam Hildebrand:
Klinkt weer als een mooi avontuur! Ik vond Franz Jozef glacier ook vet mooi, heb daar toen 8 uur op gewandeld met spikes aan m'n voeten. Dat vliegtuigje...haha spannend man! Milford Sound was ik ook fan van :) Maar jammer dat jullie veel regen hebben. Nu tijd voor blauwe luchten en zon! -
16 Maart 2011 - 06:38
Eva:
WOW.... superervaring!! Erg benieud naar de Pica's.
Geniet nog even van de staart van jullie reis. 't Gaat hard zie ik! Hier is eindelijk de lente aangebroken, heerlijk!
Veel liefs en pas op jullie zelf, Eva XX
PS: en ja, Japan: 't is gewoon verschrikkelijk wat er allemaal gebeurt... pf. De wereld gedraagt zich wel erg heftig de laatste maanden. -
16 Maart 2011 - 07:08
Marjolein:
He meiden, goed om weer wat van jullie te horen, en weer een prachtig verhaal, Lou Ik zie je al helemaal zitten in dat vliegtuigje en dan met zo`n luchtzak, dan hoor ik je al gillen oehhhhhhoeeeeeee........ben benieuwd naar de foto`s en de films die zullen weer prachtig zijn, dus kom maar op en laat ons thuisblijvers niet te lang in spanning!!!
Geniet ze meiden, en proost voor jullie, ik ga zo naar mijn werk!
groetjes liefs Mar -
16 Maart 2011 - 09:36
Diana T:
O, wat ziet het er prachtig uit! En wat leuk in een vliegtuigje, zal wel erg grappig allemaal zijn geweest, haha! Geniet er nog lekker van!
x -
16 Maart 2011 - 10:38
Anita, Frank En Kids:
WAUW !!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Ik ben eigenlijk best jaloers op jullie. Zitten wij hier in kikkerlandje. Echt prachtig hoor bij jullie, eigenlijk angstaanjagend mooi.
Geniet er nog maar van. Wij gaan ons dagelijkse leventje wel voort hahahahahaha......
Dikke knuffel XXX -
16 Maart 2011 - 10:49
Ilse:
loes weer mooie fotos en wat heb je die vis mooi gevangen,en vooral jou gezicht erbij.volgens mij is dit de eerste keer van je leven dat je heb gevist.ik geniet met jullie mee.veel liefs pillie poost -
16 Maart 2011 - 16:42
Sylvia:
Schitterend zeg die bergen met al het sneeuwgeweld! Zo'n vliegtochtje hebben wij ook een keer gemaakt, alleen was dat gewoon in nederland. Spannend genoeg! Die parapentsprong moet je toch maar even heroverwegen, dat is toch zó gaaf! Ik neem aan dat het een tandemsprong is? Wij hebben het in Oostenrijk gedaan, echt geweldig, dus dit zal zeker de overtreffende trap zijn! Jee, nog 10 dagen, het gaat echt snel! Geniet er nog maar even van! Liefs! -
16 Maart 2011 - 18:17
Bram:
Ik heb gelijk weer zin om terug te gaan. Queenstown- de bungee jump brug ligt voordat je de stad inkomt en niet richting wananka. het is al weer 9 jaar geleden dat ik daar was en ja ik kwam ook niet uit dat doolhof. en hou op over die zandvliegjes je krijgt van die mooie rode plekjes op je lichaam van waar ze je beten. de foxglacier...net als Mirjam een bijna 8 uur lange toch over gemaakt en dat was gaaf. en ja Japan triest. geniet nog zolang het duurt -
16 Maart 2011 - 20:02
Stella:
wat een verhaal weer.die belevenis in dat vliegtuigje heb ik in brazile meegemaakt.dit vergeet je nooit meer ,dat je zelfde mensen weer tegen komt.nou geniet er maar van.
gr stella -
16 Maart 2011 - 20:20
Linda En Jeroen:
He Louise, wat een heerlijke verhalen weer en wat een prachtige ervaringen. Don't worry betreft lake Matheson, wij hebben daar prachtige foto's van (mazzel met het weer) dus die kun je zo aan je muur hangen haha. Blijf lekker genieten van deze geweldige reis. Liefs Linda en Jeroen XX
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