Tuesday, October 16, 2012

Day 3 ...

So after going to bed with clouds closing in round the mountains it was fantastic to wake up to this view in the morning ... perfect!
This is photo was taken from in front of our cottage .... simply stunning!

 And so began our trek up to the Franz Josef glacier ... about a 40 min walk up to the glacier through a mixture of bush and rocky river bed ... the kids loved the walk and did really well ...

A family portrait with the galcier to the right (using a rock as a makeshift tripod)

It looks small in this photo but to get some perspective I zoomed in and took the shot below

Can you see the large-ish dot near the middle of the photo? It's a helicopter droppping off tourists up on the glacier!

This is a shot of Emma and I standing in front of one of the many waterfalls in the valley.

 Another bush track about 10 min off the side of the glacier carpark takes you to the Peter's pool (thnk that was the name?) and this beautiful reflection pic.

I decided  wanted to go back to the Fox Glacier to see it in better weather. This pic was at the start of the track from the carpark up towards the glacier ... just a shallow pool of water but enought to give another stunning reflection.

And the face of the Fox Glacier ... and unfortunately the weather started getting stormy again, and after walking back out of the valley, 5 min after getting into the car it started raining again.

But not to worry as the rest of the day was spent travelling up to Greymouth where we were staying that night.

Another tour that night ... hubby's choice ... yes the Monteiths Brewery! The tour was ok, the factory is pretty small now with being bought by one of the bigger breweries. The tour included pouring our own lager afterwards ... I tried an Apricot wheat beer ... very yummy. You also got 3 vouchers to sample some more product over the bar and I found my new summer drink  Monteiths Pear Cider - so easy to drink ... almost too easy! They also do restaurant meals and we had tea there after our tour ... yummy whitebait patties ... and fantastic way to finish off the day.


Stay tuned for Day 4 ...

Sunday, October 14, 2012

South Island tour Day 2 ...

Hubby and I both took a week off work to coincide with the school holidays. We had been trying decide where to go and what to do ... the answer we came up with was a trip round the South Island. Well to be honest I was voting for a trip to an island somewhere else ... think Raro or something similar ;) But it was our island, the South Island, that won in the end.

It is a trip we have been thinking about doing for awhile ... neither of us had ever been along the West Coast road, or visited the glaciers. And we believe it is a good idea for the kids to experience their own country, and now they are 7 and 9 years they are at a great age to remember a trip like this.

So ... 9 days ... 2,372km ... and 500 odd photos later :) I thought I'd share our holiday experience with you ...

Day One - was last Friday night when we travelled to Alexandra to stay at the in-laws place.

Day Two - on the road of our adventure, today we were travelling from Alexandra to Franz Josef Village.

 Lake Hawea

A bush walk to see the Blue Pools near the Haast Pass

A rugged beach just north of Haast

A trek up the valley to the face of the Fox Glacier but unfortunately a storm was brewing and rolled in just as we got close to the top of the valley

Amazing rock walls down the valley from the glacier

The view from the front porch of our cottage just north of Franz Josef, looking back towards the glacier valley as the storm rolls in

And a view from same position but out towards the coast as the setting light highlighted the rows of trees and hills behind

I had fun playing with my camera on our holiday (as you can see). Maybe not the best photos technically but they capture our memories of our holiday perfectly. I gave the kids my old camera and was interesting to see the photos they took when I downloaded them today ... had to giggle at the potrait photos they took of each other in the backseat on one day of travelling. I also took a few shots on my phone with the hipstamatic app which added a different dimension to some scenes.

So stay tuned for more highlights of our trip ...

Thursday, October 4, 2012

Snapped ...


... hubby took this pic of me taking photos a couple of weekends ago ... me perched on a rock trying to get the perfect shot ... hehehe!

Sorry no blog posts in the last month, honestly don't know where the weeks are going, kids with sports finishing, prizegivings, school production, relocating our work office to bigger premises, Blossom Festival in Central and now school holidays ... whew!

Heading away for a few days on a bit of a road trip ... to show the kids some of the most beautiful parts of their own country ... have given them my old camera to take photos for themselves so will be interesting what they capture ...

Enjoy your weekend :)