The Penny & Martin adventure: phase 2

Following the first phase, the second and final phase of the Penny and Martin adventure ended last Friday at Wellington airport.

I am now 11’500 metres high on my way from Bangkok to Zurich, looking back at seven days on the New Zealand South Island, another in Wellington, and a night in Melbourne. Here’s the summary of the 2200km we travelled, with selected photos inline. Penny has more pictures in her Flickr album.

Thursday: ferry from Wellington to Picton and on to Amberley, where we stayed with Penny’s sister Janey.
Friday: via Christchurch to Lake Tekapo for a lovely swim in turquoise water, before we set up the tent at Lake Pukaki with Mount Cook in the distance.

Camping with a car isn’t all bad.
Saturday: via Wanaka en route to Haast Pass with a stopover at the Gates of Haast for some rock hopping and full body immersion in the icy water (yes, Penny went in all the way, too).

From Haast, we took the beautiful road to Jackson Bay and back, before heading into Cascade Valley for another night of camping, this time with millions of sandflies forcing us to dress appropriately.

NB: please, no new offers for fashion modeling contracts, I am already fully booked. Penny might appreciate them though, especially if she gets to wear white socks.
Sunday: fled the valley as if running for life (think final scene of Hitchcock’s Birds) to prevent further sandfly attacks and headed north to the Fox and Franz Josef Glaciers, where we got soaked in heavy rain.

Reached Greymouth in time for the tour of the local Monteith brewery and spent the night recovering from the camping in the Charles Court Motel. Monteith’s “Munich-style” Golden lager beer is actually quite reminiscent of Munich-style lager!

I also got to take three girls to the men’s toilet to see the world’s coolest urinal.
Monday: the bad weather followed us up the west coast to Punakaiki but didn’t deter us from taking a short hike to the pancake rocks, nor from visiting the seal colony at Cape Foulwind later in the day. I found out how much Penny loves Nikau trees.

From there, headed west for Lewis Pass and passed up on camping due to the heavy rainfall. Instead, we booked into the Maruia Springs Resort Hotel and indulged in hot springs recreation and camping-stove-cooked pasta in the room.
Tuesday: the weather in Kaikoura, which we reached around noon the next day, wasn’t any better, which foiled our diving plans, so we continued on to Picton and decided to cut our road trip short by one day to give us more time tying up loose ends in Wellington.
Wednesday: got up early to rent diving equipment for two dives at Karaka point, where we inspected (and swam through) an old ship’s wreck. We also collected around 20 scallops, which we brought to Penny’s parents and enjoyed them cooked in ginger and garlic for a late lunch.

The ferry took us back to Wellington that night, where I got to see Eagle vs. Shark, a Kiwi movie starring Jemaine Clement from the Flight of the Conchords and music composed by local bands, foremost of which The Phoenix Foundation. I have to side with Penny: it’s an enjoyable flick but probably not worth watching multiple times.
Thursday: following breakfast at the Olive cafe, we went on shopping sprees (I found a store selling Icebreaker gear at 50%…), chilled in the afternoon, fetched excellent Sushi at the Wasabi Sushi Train, and finally saw The Phoenix Foundation play a free concert at Frank Kitts Park.