Road Trip Chapter 1

2016-07-19
We started our road trip on Sunday (17/07/16). Me, Ray and Jessica departed from Motueka at 11am after parting with my housemates there. Actually we departed at 10am, but at 10.30am my friend left his jacket at home so we had to drive all the way back to retrieve it. We had a stop at Country Kitchen Cafe in Tapawera and had some coffee there before we headed to Westport, our first destination. We had a stop at Tauranga Bay for the seal pups and we weren't disappointed. It's kinda far away from us though. We continued our journey to Punakaiki to see the Pancake Rock and blowhole. It was not high tide so the water blowed out from the hole wasn't that magnificent. We had our dinner in Fat Pipi Pizza Shop in Hokitika. Sun sets at 5.15pm as it was winter so we headed to our campsite in Lake Mahinapua after these destinations. We arrived when it was totally dark so we had some troubles setting up the tent haha. Everything was so messed up as it was our first day camping. We saw a German sleeping in a sleeping bag under the shelter, without blankets, without mattress. Just sleeping bag. Is he crazy? Jessica slept in a tent, Ray and I slept in the car after moving most of the luggage to the tent and driver seats. Wagon rocks.

On the next day 18/07/16, we departed around 10am, heading to Franz Josef for a walk to glacier lookout point after taking a stop at Lake Ianthe for some photos, The track is long and flat but the view were not bad. After that we went to Lake Matheson for the view of mirror lake, less tourists in winter which means it's not crowded! We arrived at Lake Paringa campsite before the sky became dark so that we can cook our dinner instead of dining out which could drain our money. Tonight we all slept in car at our seats, We did not set up tent as it will rain according to weather forecast. As expected it rained at 6am, big one.

Today we departed at 8.30am from the campsite heading to Wanaka. The whole journey took us until 4pm because we stopped a lot for short tracks along the highway. Thunder Creek Falls, Fantail Falls, Haast Pass, Cameron Flat (to cook some lunch), Blue Pools, and we stopped a lot when we drove by Lake Wanaka and Lake Hawea. We will stay at our friend's house for few nights, we will sleep at sofa so it didn't cost a lot and we could take hot shower, finally.