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 ...