Soaked to the Bone

Oh, Wanaka, leaving you was difficult for so many reasons. One was because our days there were filled with activity, relaxation, live music and great food -- all sugar coated with a great vibe amidst a stunning picturesque setting. What was the other main reason? What lied ahead.... That, my friends, would be the WET AND WILD WEST COAST! While the west coast of the south island offers amazing tramping opportunities, two massive glaciers, the “Pancake Rocks” and endless, stunning views of the lush coastline… everything is contingent on whether or not it is raining. Mathematically speaking, a traveller only gets about one hundred days a year without rain, so one’s odds are pretty slim to get any dry, sunny days while touring the west coast. But, the mystical powers this area holds is extremely luring to the traveler and the lush, green landscape is jaw dropping none the less.

With that in mind, we left Wanaka – with a gloomy forecast pending – in hopes to do one of the country’s most popular 2~3 day tramps. The tramp is called Welcome Flats and takes place on the Copeland track. At Welcome Flats, a tramper is supposedly treated to many natural hot springs to soak in after hiking uphill all day. Welcome Flats Hut is also supposedly a nice, modern hut with great facilities where anxious trampers bring bottles of wine and “soak” and “sip” all night long. The following day you can supposedly take a side trip to catch great views of Mt. Cook, the gigantic mountain used in filming “The Last Samurai” with Tom Cruise. You can then apparently relax at Welcome Flats Hut one more night before exiting the track and then carry on with your west coast adventure. Sounds nice, eh? Well, apparently it is! Er, um, well…yeah, we couldn’t tell ya whether or not it is since we were rained out for two straight days and weren’t able to go fulfill the dream!

In preparation for the Welcome Flats hike, we settled ourselves into Fox Glacier Township for a couple of nights. A major highlight of any west coast trip of the south island is highlighted by visits to Fox Glacier and Franz Josef Glacier, one a 30 minute drive from the other. Unlike other "retreating" glaciers throughout the world, these “rivers of ice” still flow directly to sea level and are, therefore, impressive remnants of the last Ice Age. Both glaciers are relatively accessible and a person can get right up to the terminal face with a moderately short walk. Other more adventurous folk can take “heli-hikes” where helicopters transport you towards the top of the glacier and then, with proper equipment, you can explore the actual glacier itself. Both visits were better than expected and although the sun was missing, the sheer size of these natural beasts was spectacular. Unable to do the Welcome Flats walk, we toured both glaciers and blasted up the west coast for Punakaiki, home of the enormously popular "Pancake Rocks" and Paparoa National Park. The rocks are difficult to explain, but, the limestone creations resemble stacks of pancakes which began forming 30 million years ago. During high tide and choppy sea, waves crash into the caverns below sea level and water blasts out the top through gigantic blowholes. The pictures will give you a better idea of what we are referring to. We viewed the rocks both during sunset and after sunrise and both times the blowholes were tantalizing the viewers into a frenzy. After a wet walk in Paparoa National Park and having endured six straight days of non-stop rain we decided to make our way to Nelson Lakes.

Nelson Lakes National Park is yet another great region for tramping, highlighted by several dramatic alpine lakes. Hoping to get in a nice day hike before making our way to wine country, the prancers headed towards what was supposedly (there’s that word again) a two-hour hike. After finishing the walk in roughly 40 minutes – again, wet and cold – we threw in the towel and headed for Renwick and its numerous wineries in the Marlborough Wine Region.

***PICTURE NOTE: We have created an online photo album for your special viewing that can hold many more memories than what we can post on this blogpage. Please click on the following link to view our pictures spanning from the Catlin Coast through our days at Wineview vineyard (http://www.pixagogo.com/5065265231). Once the page opens, to start a slideshow you can click on the upper left corner "start slideshow" link. ENJOY!***