South Island - Our Intrepid Journey Day 79 – 88, 5 – 14 Jan 10

Oxford - Queenstown
From 30Dec09 until 04Feb10 our blog, www.mtorhominginxs.blogspot.com, will be rather brief as we will be touring with good friends, Mike and Lynne, who only have a limited time in the South Island.  It will primarily be snaps of places as we pass through which will be revisited at a later time, including other places, when we will post more pics and details. Watch this (blog) space.  This blog is best viewed in conjunction with Raewyn's email episodes.

 Just outside Oxford we parked for the night next to a dry river bed.

 The dry river bed was completely covered.

 with wild flowers.

 Next night we headed towards Akaroa .

Free parking overnight at Birdling Flat.

There were many interesting pic opportunities.

Including natural sculptures.

Following morning it was off to Akaroa passing Duvauchelle on the way.

There’s much to photograph at Akaroa.

The older buildings.

 Make possibly the best subjects.

For the night we headed over the harbour to French Farm.

Which is a free parking area right on the beach. 

 Destination Lake Pearson on the way to the west coast via Arthurs Pass.

Another free parking area that provided many photo opportunities.

Our arrival at Arthurs Pass.

 Was completed by making new friends.

 Over the pass and off down the Otira Viaduct to Lake Kaniere for the night.  The weather was real bad so no decent pics were taken – next time.

 The next day first stop was Franz Joseph.  The weather hadn’t improved and getting close to the glacier was going to be a mission.

 There were however some interesting pics to be taken on the way.

 After all the rain there were waterfalls everywhere.

Further south Bruce Bay provided an brief interlude.

With its abundance of driftwood sculptured by the sea.

 On the way to our next night stop by the Haast River Mike and Lynne had the bad experience of a front tyre blowout.

 Our nights stay by the river was in a large layby where you could walk down to the river and fossick for pounamu amongst the shingle.

 Our first glimpse of Lake Wanaka as we crossed over from Lake Hawea.

 And this was our first glimpse of Queenstown as we decended from the Crown Range.

 A typical Queenstown pic.

Complete with, again, a friendly local.