From Wanaka we headed West again into Mt. Aspring National Park. Beautifuly located in the middle if of a very lush, mountainous forest. In order for a forest to be lush – it must rain....which it did all day. In addition to the rain, our friendly associates (smarms of sandflies) also paid us a visit. We survived and carried on to the Fox Glacier on the west coast. It was pouring rain with low clouds, so nothing to see. We then carried on to Franz Joseph Glacier and splurged on a Hostel Dorm room for the night. In the morning it was perfect sunny weather. We made the 3 km hike up to the glacier and got some amazing photos.
For our next stop we wanted to stay in Kahorongi, but the campground was 8 km from the shorline in the mountains where it was raining, so we moved up the coast to Greymouth where we could litterally camp right on the beach, under blue sky and sunshine. We have found a very predictible trend on the South Island:
Coast = Warm & Sunshine
Mountains = Rain & Sandflies
The trip from Greymouth to Westport was an amazing drive weaving up the shoreline visiting large limestone formations looking like pancakes carved by the waves. From the piers at Westport we could see dozens of dolphins playing and jumping in the water.
The road then took us inland to get to our next destination near Nelson on the North Shore. We stopped at a campground partway across the mountain range after a long day of travelling. At the entrance to the campground three tourists were hitch-hiking along the highway. As we drove past them pulling into the campground we noticed their faces looked very desperate and angry. We parked and jumped out of the car quickly finding out why they looked the way they did...SANDFLIES!!! Millions of the little creatures. Within one minute it felt like we had just visited a blood donation clinic. Back in the car. Pulled out the map looking for the nearest coastline with a campground. We ended up driving 1.5 hours north to Motueka, finding a great sunny campground with no sandflies – good decision.
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