South Island, NZ

We’ve been on the south island for just over a week and we have done and seen so much! First of all, the ferry ride from the north to the south island must be one of the most beautiful in the world. It was 3 hours of stunning scenery. We spent the first few days in Upper Moutere, close to Nelson, at a cozy B & B called the Gingerbread House. We ended up relaxing and reading on the front porch for a few days longer than we expected, because the boys befriended two sweet girls that lived at the B & B. They were able to have a couple of days riding bikes and playing out in the yard with their new friends. It was a much needed play time and break for them.

We spent one whole day at the Golden Bay, which was one of the most breathtaking bays we have seen. We hiked along the bay in the Abel Tasman National Forest, which offered amazing views the entire time. Afterwards, we headed to a beautiful waterfall. The boys love hiking when it entails jumping over rocks, crossing streams, and swinging bridges... luckily, this had all of that, otherwise, the 3.5 hours we did in one day would have been too much for them! (It also had a group of naked women who were just finishing a swim in the falls when we arrived. They then proceeded to hike back out butt naked. Don’t we learn so much in all our travels?)

We also went to an amazing natural spring that has almost the clearest water in the world, second only to Antarctica. It was pretty amazing to be able to look at what looks like a pond and be able to see all the way through to the bottom. It had the most amazing colors, and was so clear that it was like looking through glass instead of water.

We then made our way south along the west coast and stopped at Punakaiki to see the Pancake Rocks, crossed the longest swinging bridge in New Zealand, and then on to Franz Josef and Fox Glaciers.

I have to say, that the glaciers, particularly, the Franz Josef, was the most spectacular thing I have ever seen. To walk along a old river bed surrounded by lush greenery, various palms, dense ferns and the odd waterfall or two.... Then to see this magnificent, huge glacier butting up to all of this. Amazing... A rainforest resting right beside this massive slab of blue ice. It didn’t even look real. We felt like we were looking at a canvas of a painting. I was in complete awe of God’s handiwork. He takes my breath away.

We really wanted to walk to the top, but there were various reasons why it didn’t work out for us. First of all, it is a minimum of a four hour hike and 7 years old for the age. Ashwin really wanted to try it, being that he’s a pretty tall 6 year old and will be 7 in a month, but if you can’t make it, they have to send a helicopter for you (at your expense). Plus, the glacier can actually be quite dangerous, as it is consistently moving and shifting. And the last reason (and really the deciding factor) would be that Bart was stung by a waspy thing and his foot has swollen up two times its normal size. He managed to make the hikes to the terminal faces of the glaciers, but to put on boots with spikes and hike for that long would have been a bit much. Poor Bart... he's already getting better though. The photo below is from about 2 weeks ago. I thought it went well with his current condition. He seems to forget how tall he is and hits his head quite often... this was after one such incident and then a day later we were all playing tag and he ran into a tree. He actually broke the branch. I'm certain that's why he's lost all his hair. His dad still has his. Bart must have scraped it all off throughout the years. ;-)