South Island

Wow, it has been  a long time since I have done a blog post so here is a quick briefing on where I've been. First, we flew into Christchurch. From there, we picked up a large camper van and drove to a town called Hanmer Springs . This town has a hot pools complex which includes thermal soaking pools and 2 water slides. There's also a place to ski there in the winter.

Here's our first night in the camper van

We encountered lots of sheep while driving on the South Island

  Next we headed toward Abel Tasman Park and stopped on the way to see the Oharu seal colony.
It was funny watching the seals play around on the rocks.

Here is one of the seals at the Ohau Seal Colony...on our way to Pohara.

 We drove on a road called Takaka Hill which is actually a very steep mountain  road. We spent the night in a town called Pohara and our camp site was right by the beach. The next day was a long drive. We got to see the Punakaiki Pancake Rocks and Blowhole.  The rocks are made of limestone and are 30,000,000 years old! If you get there at high tide, the waves crash against the rocks and  water blasts up through the blowhole.

Famous Punakaiki Blowhole

Birds resting on the pancake rocks

Stay tuned for South Island Part 2!