Oamaru to Christchurch

All the way back in Picton our most helpful I-Site lady of the trip had marked dozens of sights on our map and even now, as we headed north out of Dunedin we still had more of them to see. Today  was the Moeraki Boulders which are a collection of amazingly spherical rocks found by the sea. There wasn't a lot to do other than climb on them and once again fulfil my apparent need to be 10 years old. The boulders were rather impressive as they had started from tiny pebbles and grown to these massive sizes while underground for thousands of years, however they will be remembered for Linz’s comedic attempts to mount them. In case I haven’t been clear, the boulders are literally just rocks on a beach but somehow a cafe is allowed to charge people to walk down some stairs to see them. We were never going to do that so we found our own way onto the beach and walked the longer way round to avoid the paying the £1 fee.

I almost moved it

North of the boulders we stopped briefly in Oamaru which turned out to be much more than we expected. Despite only being here for an hour or so we still felt the need to visit the I-Site as there was the possibility of seeing some penguins or sea lions, but once again we were thwarted by them choosing to emerge only in the evening.

From Oamaru we continued our journey back up New Zealand towards Mount Cook, with a quick stop in Twizel on the way for some lunch. Just like Oamaru, our time in this town was brief, but will be long remembered, however not for the same reasons. Never has a town’s lack of sausages caused such commotion. We must have visited every supermarket in town looking for sausages to the standard Linz required, and even then failed and had to settle to something else.

Our drive to Mount Cook took us past even more incredible scenery, stunning lakes and back into the snow. Our destination was the tiny township at the base of New Zealand’s highest peak, which is little more than a few hiking shops and a hotel, and just the other side of the mountains from Fox Glacier we had climbed a week earlier.

Heading to Mount Cook via yet more stunning lakes

The recent snow had blocked the road to our planned DOC site and, following our Queenstown experience, we decided it was probably best to adhere to the warning signs and look for somewhere else to stay. Annoyingly as the township was so small there was no where we could hide our van for a cheeky free night’s sleep, so ended up driving to the next town and it’s campsite. It was either that or shell out on the only hotel in town.

The next morning we drove back into the township to start our walk up to Kia Point. All the recent snow meant the path was hidden so we had to forge our own, but that only added to the enjoyment. Kia Point offered a great view of Mount Cook over the top of a frozen lake and we even caught a small avalanche on the far side. The walk back to the van was slightly quicker as I managed to avoid powering through 12 inches of snow by using my jacket as a makeshift sled.

The view from Kia Point over the frozen lake

It was sad to leave the township as it was so quiet and surrounded so closely by amazing scenery, but we had to push on as we still had three towns to visit and were starting to run out of time.  Our next destination was Hanmer Springs but we weren’t going to make it there in one day as we planned for a quick stop at Lake Tekapo. As you may have gathered by now New Zealand has produced some incredibly blue lakes, but Tekapo goes way beyond this, as it almost seems filled with blue paint rather than water.

The bizarre blue of Lake Tekapo 

We stopped in the town for lunch before heading up a very steep and winding road to Mt John’s observatory. This offered all-round views of the lake, the town and a remarkable wall of mountains that made up the entire horizon. We couldn’t stay up at the observatory long as it was unbelievably windy, and we wanted to get down to the lake itself, where we found the quaintest little church we’d ever seen right on the water. By this point the sun was beginning to set so we headed off for our planned DOC site just north of Geraldine.

The Church of the Lost Shepherd

It was dark by the time we arrived, so we did find ourselves slightly on edge as we came off the main road and drove for quite a few miles along a dusty track without seeing any signs. However, we did eventually find what we assumed was the DOC site, and parked up in the clearing. Once we were sure we were in the right place, we could appreciate how nice a spot we were in, until Linz came across a particularly big spider which brought her Australia fears backs. I would understand if the spider was in the bed or one of the cupboards, but it was outside!

In the light of day the next morning, we wondered why we were ever nervous about driving along the dusty lane for so long, as it was running alongside a farm we just couldn’t see. To get to Hanmer Springs we could have taken the main road past Christchurch, but as we would be coming back that way, we opted for the Alpine Pacific Triangle. This would take us first to Hanmer Spring, then onto Kaikoura then back to Christchurch whilst avoiding main roads.

Throughout our time in New Zealand we had been turning down opportunities to visit hot springs, as we had heard Hanmer Springs offered the best in the country. Unfortunately when we got there on a Saturday it appeared to be the favourite spot in town for all the Hanmer children, and even more so, we could see water slides over the top of the fences. It seems the springs had become more of a water park than what we had been hoping for. We decided not to enter the springs as it seemed a bit childish, so instead went for a game of crazy golf. We found a place called A-maze-n-golf, which surprisingly offered a maze and golf, but we decided just to play the golf, and ended up following a group of drunken elderly folk round eighteen holes.

I wouldn't say this shot was definitely going to go in

Our nights stay came courtesy of a campsite just outside town where we could charge up the van, and shelter from the unrelenting wind which had been building over the last couple of days. The next day we got back onto the Pacific Alpine Highway to drive to Kaikoura, which was a town Linz especially had been looking forward to ever since arriving in the country. It was the most common spot in New Zealand to see dolphins and there was even the chance of swimming with some. We had left early so we could get onto the 12:30pm boat, but having made it in time the boat was called off due to the wind. We couldn’t blame them as we were finding it difficult to even walk down the streets. Kaikoura was a pleasant small town, so we spent the day wandering round before the wind got the better of us and we sheltered in an internet cafe, desperately trying to get our blogs finished before the trip did.

That night we drove a small way along the shore to find a seal colony braving the wind. I briefly got out the van for a photo-op, but realised very quickly that the only reason these seals weren’t being blown into the sea was because the weighed about a ton. That night would be our last in a DOC site, so it was nice that it was a free one, as we would need a powered site before returning the campervan.

Fighting the wind

Our dolphin trip was due to leave at 8:30am the next morning, and thankfully the wind hadn’t picked up yet so we got the green light. Linz had decided to put aside financial concerns at this late stage in our travels, and fork out the money to swim with the dolphins, so consequently woke up like a kid in a candy shop on Christmas morning. On arrival at Kaikoura Dolphin Encounter, Linz was taken away for a wetsuit and snorkel fitting which, at that time in the morning, I was rather pleased to be missing. From there we had a quick introduction about the dolphins, then headed out into the South Pacific Ocean.

I'm not entirely sure if we weren’t actually in the Southern Ocean, which borders Antarctica, but either way it emphasises how keen Linz was to swim with dolphins that she would even consider getting in the water. Everyone who was swimming was told to make a lot of noise whilst in the water as the dolphins enjoy it and are more likely to come over to you. I feel the temperature of the water was in reality the main reason for most of the noises.

Linz being eyed up by a dolphin

Within seconds of entering the water Linz was already being welcomed by a few of the 200 dolphins that were stretching out from all sides of the boat. Apparently the dolphins were getting as much entertainment out of Linz as she was out of them, but seeing Linz spinning round in circles making a whole array of weird noises through a snorkel would amuse anyone. Over the course of the morning, Linz would re-enter the water about five times, as the boat would move positions to go with the movement of the pod. It never seemed to get any easier jumping off the boat.

Swimming along with the boat

Back at the Temples of Angkor I made us chase a man up a temple because I thought it was England cricket captain Andrew Strauss, and today I spent a good while following a man round the boat because I thought it was New Zealand cricket captain Daniel Vettori. It wasn’t.

Busted trying to take a photo of the fake Daniel Vettori. Very Embarrassing

We returned to land both very pleased with our trip, as even though I hadn’t swum with the dolphins, I had never seen such a large amount of them and we even had to joy of having them swim alongside the boat and entertain us with a few flips. We headed back to the internet cafe to power through some more belated blogging, before finding what would be our last campsite. Even though we had a couple of days in Christchurch still to come, we felt sad packing up our campervan as it was feeling too much like the end. We used the campsite kitchen to make pizza and chips, and reclined into their sofas to watch our first episode of Friends in six months, which happened to be on TV.

Our campervan in Australia had been our little cosy home for six weeks, and our van in New Zealand had seemed like a palace in comparison, but both had been our base for our time in these countries and it felt odd to be leaving it all behind. The one issue with our New Zealand palace had been the shocking quality of our windscreen, as we had more chips in it than I had eaten for dinner last night. So before returning it, we would need to find a branch of Smith & Smith to get it fixed.

We drove south out of Kaikoura along the final leg of the Pacific Alpine Triangle, along the stunning coastline occasionally through tunnels cutting into the cliffs. New Zealand had offered every type of scenery available from snowy mountains to bright blue lakes, deep alpine forests and now perfect coastlines.

Our goal was Christchurch Airport where we would be dropping the van off, and doing our best to draw focus away from the windscreen, which still had a few chips despite us getting the biggest ones filled in. We reached the airport just shy of clocking 5000 kilometres in New Zealand; just over 2000km on the North Island and just under 3000km on the South Island. This brought our grand total to about 10,300km in campervans in both countries. Having successfully avoided any windscreen controversy, we were driven into Christchurch by Steve’s Airport Shuttle to our hotel for our last night called The Jailhouse.

Outside our door at The Jailhouse

The Jailhouse may well have been my favourite hotel of our trip, as it was a converted prison and we were staying in one of the cells complete with authentic metal door and bars on the windows. A few doors down from our cell was one which had been left in its original state, when the jail was decommissioned just 12 years ago, and it really wasn’t that different to ours except for the quality of the bed. We chose to spend our last night in the hotel, and save exploring until the following day, so we go ourselves a take away pizza and rented The Social Network from the video shop over the road.

From our jailhouse in the area of Addington, we walked into Christchurch centre the next morning, not knowing what to expect. Just over six months earlier, Christchurch had been torn apart by a devastating earthquake and now so much of the centre remains fenced off. We found our guidebook, which had been so useful all over the country, was no longer relevant as so many of the towns attractions were either blocked off or worse. Cracks in the street were a common sight and so many of the churches and other buildings, which had sat in the town for so long, were now in pieces. We walked back through the botanical gardens, which was the first we had finally got round to seeing, and passed the fanzone for the upcoming rugby World Cup, and couldn’t help but think how nice this town should have been. However the kiwis, as ever, were incredibly positive and determined that life would go on, and even in sight of piles of rubble, people were still punting up and down the rivers in the park.

Some of the worst damage we saw

That afternoon we were picked up once again by Steve’s Airport Shuttle, and were heading back to the airport. It was impossible not to feel sad at the end of a once in a lifetime trip, but there was genuine excitement about getting back home and seeing the family, when not pixelated on a Skype video chat. Despite the constant concerns of my backpack completely failing, going back as far as China, I was able to check it in at the airport still doing its job.

New Zealand had promised a lot and had delivered even more, and our three weeks here could easily be extended to three months. On one day you be driving along expansive plains then up snow capped mountains before spending the night surrounded by dense pine forest. The combination of words and photographs in this blog cannot even get close to describing the beauty of New Zealand. And when you combine the landscape with the people, such as the guys who pushed our car out of the mud before the sun had even risen on the East Cape, then you can begin to see why this is one of my favourite countries in the world. There is still so much we want to see, so we will definitely be back and it wouldn’t even cross our minds to do it any other way, than in a campervan.

From Christchurch we started our 30-hour trip, via Sydney, Bangkok and Dubai, to little North Holmwood. The last thirty minutes of the journey were in the car back home but without Linz, which was strange as we had travelled together and uninterrupted since the airport in Hanoi. This trip was everything I could have hoped for, and so much of that is down to spending it with Linz. Eight countries, four and a half months, thousands of miles and not one single argument!

That brings to an end the best six months of my life. Until next time...

Queenstown to Dunedin

Just driving into Queenstown we could tell we were going to like it. It is quite clearly a ski town and despite deeming going skiing ourselves to be too expensive, we still immediately loved to atmosphere around the place. The town is based on Lake Wakatipu and is one of New Zealand’s most well known towns despite being much smaller than the likes of Wellington and Auckland. It didn't take us long to come face-to-face with the reason it is famous as almost every shop we passed either offered jet boat rides, ski rental or a whole number of activities which involve throwing yourself off heights. Queensland is the adventure capital of New Zealand and we had opted a long time ago that the adrenaline rush we were going to go for was the Shotover Jet, however that would have to wait as we arrived late in the day.

The Mountains over Queenstown

Our first stop took us to the I-Site as, among the usual questions, we needed to find Linz a dentist as a tooth of hers had been causing her trouble for quite a while. We had come across I-Site staff in the past who have been a little short, but this lady didn't even speak to start with. In answer to our dentist question she took a map, marked on some dots and ended with “Anything else?” I contemplated asking if she could also mark on the map someone who actually cared about their job but instead we asked our remaining questions and left only to immediately enter another information place across the road. They were considerably more helpful and, despite getting very similar information, we left feeling much happier. The lady who had served us this time around was Irish and had returned to Queenstown having loved it so much during her travels. She is not the only one to have this idea, as I genuinely think we came across more foreigners than Kiwis working in town.

We set off in search of a dentist for Linz but realising it was the weekend and they were all shut we opted for a sweetshop. Probably not the wisest choice. Having left with a block of fudge and a massive chocolate heart covered in sprinkles we returned to the van. We had researched a cheap DOC sight just outside town, as freedom camping was once again not allowed, and would go there later so we didn't need to worry about checking into somewhere before campsites closed. Instead we headed to Fat Badger pizza so we could spend the evening Skyping home.

Our first day in Queenstown had been great despite having only wandered round the town on foot, and I had had an excellent Skype session with home and James, however the night was about to go horribly downhill. Well, in fact it was the evening going so uphill that caused the problem. By now it was around midnight and we were heading out of town in search of the DOC sight when we turned off the main road and began to climb. We knew the site was 4km along this road however after 3km we reached a gate. It was open but it warned people that four wheel drive cars would only be suitable. For some reason I talked us into investigating, I assume because I thought how wrong can it go in 1km. It turned out it can go very wrong. The road became incredibly narrow with thick snow on either side of us, patches of ice on the track and a rather deadly drop to the left. After about 500m I conceded I had been horribly wrong but no had no choice, due to the narrow track, to reverse the entire way back to the paved road 500m away. This was by far the least pleasant part of our entire travels. At one point we became stuck in the snow but I managed to ease it out while Linz was unable to look as we were both rather nervous. Eventually, however we reached the paved road and were safe, at least to begin with. There was one more road available so we thought we’d try it out seeing as it was well maintained. It continued to climb higher and higher until the point once again where we threw in the towel and decided to head back down. This time a three point turn was required in a 7.2m long van on a road which was probably about 8m wide. Needless to say my three point turn was more like a three hundred point turn but we made it down the mountain and back to Queenstown. Once again the evening could have done without a possum running out in the road again. Stupid creatures.

We ended up finding a Top 10 park which allowed us to pull up for the night and pay in the morning. The next day we had been looking forward to a deserved lie in but now had to check out at 10am. At 9:30am I left Linz in bed and went to the reception where I brought out my best tired look, although I didn't need to put much of it on, and managed to score us a free late check out. We didn't re-emerge until almost midday.

Bombing it through the canyon

We would have stayed as long as possible but the activity we had been looking forward to for so long was upon us: the Shotover Jet. This involves boarding a jet boat which would rocket its passengers at frightening speeds through a canyon while getting perilously close to the edges for the entertainment of those onboard. I had last done it when I was three years old, I can’t remember if I liked it but no mention of the Shotover Jet goes passed without a family member mentioning the ruckus I kicked up as I was being made to wear a lifejacket.

A lot of gear considering we barely got splashed

We arrived in plenty of time as it was a first come first serve situation regarding seats and we wanted the front row. As we arrived so early they tried to convince us to go on the one earlier boat but we had a plan in place and weren’t going to stray from it. When our boat was ready for boarding we were kitted out in waterproofs and life-jackets, which I accepted calmly this time round, before we successfully claimed our front row. The jet boat is an amazing creation as it has an entirely flat hull allowing it to spin on the water like a skimming stone but astonishingly needs just 5cm of water to be able to do the stunts it does. After a few customary action photos being taken of all of us in the boat we shot off towards the canyon where, especially when in the front row, you get unbelievably close to the jagged rock walls. Every so often we would emerge into a clearing only to find our driver would throw us into a complete 360^o spin requiring everyone to force themselves into their seat or else risk flying out. I was a little sceptical that someone could actually fly out the boat but wasn’t prepared to risk it.

We were supposedly on the river for half an hour but it was so much fun it seemed like so much less. Having waited for so long to do it, it didn't disappoint and we were pleased to have done one of Queenstown’s most famous attractions.

Just up the road from the canyon we found a much cheaper campsite for that evening as there was no chance we were going in search of another DOC site. After booking for later on we headed back to the town centre and embarked on a walking tour of the town. Just in case the town couldn’t look any better we even found a man playing the piano out by the waterfront making sure it sounded as good as it could as well. Having wandered around the marina we visited the underwater viewing gallery to see what wonders the lake had to offer under the surface. It turned out there were some fish. We didn't anticipate the £2.50 entry fee to see a few trout, however, for an extra 50p you could push a button which released fish food into the lake so we thought we’d try and get a little more out of our time there.

Good duck banter

Despite the button being under a big “Feed the fish” sign this was quite clearly a feed the ducks machine as immediately the water was filled with these incredible metallic silver ducks which easily beat the fish to the food. The ducks are black above the water but as they dive they become an amazing silver colour making them look like metal sculptures and they could dive to the bottom of the lake with ease. This made the underwater viewing a little more entertaining and we left reasonably pleased.

Looking out across the lake

We had a walk up to Queenstown Gardens as fantastically they had laid out a Frisbee golf course. Frisbee golf is played like regular golf except you replace the bag of clubs with one Frisbee, or in the case of the locals we saw playing it, one Frisbee and a six pack of Speight’s. We didn't have time to play which was gutting but we had a restaurant booked fairly soon. As a birthday present my parents had bought us a meal at the restaurant on top of one of the mountains overlooking the town, which you can only reach via a gondola ride. To get to the gondola we wandered through some of the town’s back alleys to find that even these are clean and nice to walk don with bars and restaurants of their own. Is there any part of Queenstown that isn’t nice?

On the way up the gondola passing paragliders and a bungee jump

The gondola ride up the mountain offered some good views but off course the best came from the viewing deck at the summit. The sun had started to set so the snowy mountains were a slightly yellow colour rising above the lake before it. We first headed to the restaurant but realised we were there way before our sitting had began and had to hang around for over an hour at the top. This turned out to be easily worth it as, because we assume we were first there that evening, we were put in unquestionably the best table available. As we were lead towards this table I just kept having to think it’s not going to be ours, but then it was. The table was right in the corner of the massive dining room meaning both Linz and I had a window directly in front of us giving us unblocked views of the town, the lake and the mountains.

Just an amazing view

The dinner was an all-you-can-eat-buffet and seeing as we had been living off mainly pasta and sauces over the last two months we went to town on it. I had a bowl of tomato soup, three bread rolls, roast beef with potatoes, carrots, peas, pumpkin and parsnip mash, corn on the corb, gravy, venison rogan josh with jasmine rise, a crème brule, chocolate cake, tiramisu, chocolate chip muffin, strawberry jelly and a chocolate mousse. But it wasn't unhealthy as I had a Diet Coke.

I had been putting off having a roast dinner for this entire journey as I want to save it for returning home, but the roast beef was just too good to miss out on. I had also never had venison before or a rogan josh curry but the two together was a great way to try it out. Linz had a very similar banquet but replaced the curry with a second roast dinner, albeit a pork roast second time round. Neither of us have ever been anywhere near this full and I had serious concerns that the gondola ride back down may have buckled as we got onboard.

Coming back down to Queenstown at night

We were gutted to be leaving Queenstown the next morning but it had to be done as we still had a lot to see in the country. We had decided not to continue south towards Te Anau and Milford Sound but instead head across to the east coast town of Dunedin. On the way New Zealand demonstrated its ability to change landscapes incredibly quickly as we started in the snowy mountains of Queenstown before entering brown craggy mountains ranges before rolling green hills around Dunedin. Although I was still enjoying the music from our iPods, one entertainment highlight of the journey came from shouting at sheep to get a reaction. They got bored of me quite quickly.

Lunch down by Lake Dunstan

Our arrival in Dunedin brought us yet further parking trouble and we ended up having to fork out for a rather expensive car park as it was the only one we could find. At £1.50 per hour we didn't plan on staying long and made our customary trip to the I-Site followed by lunch at Subway. Having met them in Cairns and then again in Melbourne, we then met up with Clare and Andy and became a group of four for our time in Dunedin.

We were never going to find a cheap nights stay in town so the two-car convoy headed south out of town until we reached Brighton. This would be the most southern point we would ever reach on our travels. Having tried a couple of places we opted for a £3.50 a night place which was little more than a field with the owner’s house/caravan in it. Linz and Clare took the opportunity to down more wine together and we all swapped stories of our time on New Zealand.

The next morning we drove back towards Dunedin but headed first to the Otago Peninsular with the intention of spotting some penguins and visiting Lanarch Castle. The drive was once again amazing but this trip can only go down as a failure as we saw neither penguins nor a castle. The penguins could only been seen in the evening and the castle is cunningly positioned behind trees which you can only go beyond when you fork out the ridiculously high ticket price. Lanarch is the only castle in New Zealand meaning they owners effectively have a castle monopoly and consequently can rack the price up. Despite this we actually had a good morning as the route to the peninsular is a winding  road leading over spectacular green hills with a view back to Dunedin over the bay.

Heading out on the Otago Peninsular looking back towards Dunedin

Having convoyed back to town we utilised a rare free wifi zone in the town’s library and got some lunch at Velvet Burger. This was an excellent lunch leading me to question why there isn’t more mango relish in the world? The main reason for stopping at the library was so Clare and Andy could download a voucher for our next attraction: Cadbury World. Following an anniversary trip to the romantic city of Birmingham the year before, Linz and I had already been to the English version and given the prospect of money off the entry fee we were keen.

We were lead round the factory by an English guide who we all deemed a little odd but who Linz was thoroughly annoyed by. The rest of us were just a little put off by his slightly odd shout-in-your-face style but Linz was fuming because rather than just hand out free chocolate like in the UK factory, here you had to earn your sweets. Every so often he would quiz you on subjects like the percentage of cocoa butter in a Dairy Milk bar and only those who answer correctly got a rewarded. Linz doesn’t like having to work for chocolate but when the guide gave the two children on the tour free Easter eggs she was livid. The grand finale was us all being ushered into a disused milk silo which had been converted into a chocolate waterfall for entertaining visitors to good effect. We left, via the gift shop, pretty happy with the tour including Linz as we had eventually been given free samples without the need to answer any questions.

On board my Cadbury delivery truck

Rather than head back to Brighton for another cheap night we both chose to stay at a powered site in town. I realise that so far today we had only really been to a chocolate factory but I’m afraid it’s all about to get considerably less interesting to anyone reading this. That night consisted of two rounds of The Game of Life (rented from the reception) and a showing of the first Lord of the Rings film. There’s very little that can be added to that except it was a very enjoyable night and if my life turns out anything like it did in the game then i’m in for a good one.

The following day started with a sad goodbye to Clare and Andy who were now heading to Queenstown while we were planning to head north. Although we were both very pleased to have met the two of them, a lot of my sadness was coming from the fact that it was them rather than us who was heading to Queenstown.

Linz’s tooth still hadn’t relented and was still causing her pain so our first aim of the day was to find a dentist to take a look. Interestingly the best option was the dentistry department at the University of Otago and seeing as Linz would have a student working on her it was also the cheapest option. Linz has never been a fan of the dentist and the prospect of having someone not fully educated working in her mouth didn’t help. However, they were actually very good and Linz did really well to get through an hour and a half of drilling etc as they performed a root canal on her. We had initially planned to head north towards Mount Cook that day but Linz had had a stressful day at the dentistry department which had lasted much longer than we both thought, so we decided to have a relaxing evening in the van at the campsite we had stayed in the night before.

Only one sight was left for us to see in Dunedin before we moved on which was Baldwin Street. The street is almost no different to any other residential road in New Zealand except this one is the steepest street in the entire world giving it a spot in the Guinness Book of Records. Linz told me in a rather stern manner that I wasn’t to attempt to drive the campervan up this incredibly steep road, which I was rather disappointed by. However with hindsight, having walked up the road, if I had have attempted this then I would have probably ended up with quite a mess in my trousers. It was insanely steep for a road with houses on it. We were gutted to find out that we had missed the annual Jaffa Roll by just a few days, as each year thousands on Jaffa sweets (orange coated chocolate balls rather than Jaffa Cakes) are rolled down the street raising money for charity.

Stupidly steep street

From Baldwin Street we would drive north through the Waitaki District and then inland towards Mount Cook. Queenstown had been right up with our favourite places so far on this trip and Dunedin had been particularly fun as we had good people to spend the time with. However, we were back to just the two us now and only a few days left before our flight home, but of course New Zealand was never going to stop amazing us...

Picton to Haast

Having set foot on the South Island we couldn’t immediately set off as we had arranged with Britz to pick up our missing O-ring from a garage in Picton so we could fix our grey water hose. Finding the garage was easy and in no time we were walking away with the necessary rubber seal. Although not having much to offer in the way of sights, Picton must see a lot of tourist traffic as it is the town you have to pass through when ferrying between islands. We had a brief wander around it’s pleasant harbour before hitting the I-Site for some general information about the South Island. What we actually got from the I-Site was an entire itinerary as the lady seemed to get more excited about planning a trip than we were even though she wouldn’t be coming with us. What started as just a couple of suggestions soon turned into a map with scribbling all over with phrases such as “must see” and “make it happen!” We always planned to head south to Queenstown via the west coast and then back up the east coast to Christchurch, but now we had a dozen things inbetween.

Looking down at Picton from the Queen Charlotte Track

From Picton we intended to head straight to Nelson however our friendly I-Site lady had already suggested a better plan. We were still going to Nelson but were now taking the Queen Charlotte Track allowing the South Island to blow us away with spectacular views within an hour of stepping off the ferry. The track wound its way around the many bays while overlooking the green pine islands just over the water.

On the drive to Nelson

Like Picton there wasn't a lot to do in Nelson so, having been informed that freedom camping was not an option, we just checked into a campsite for the night. All campsites offer a powered and unpowered rate but a long time ago in Australia we decided that not getting power really wasn't worth the couple of dollars saved. So you can assume that if we check into a campsite its always to charge up the van. We hadn’t been able to empty our grey water since Opotiki so the van was in desperate need of relief by now, so in went the O-ring and I attached the hose. Except now the hose didn't attach. The o-ring was the correct diameter but far too thick meaning the hose couldn’t clamp itself to the van, essentially meaning we were now in a worse state. To make matters more irritating a twenty-something local, who clearly lived in the campsite and had little in the way of friends, insisted on trying to talk to me the entire time I was trying to fix the thing I had thought was already fixed. He had a theory that by living in a campsite “you can have a new best friend everyday” but I’m pretty confident it wouldn’t be me that day. Just as I was accepting defeat meaning we would have to once again find a garage he piped up with “You know any jokes?” A pretty flat “no” resulting in his branding us “no fun” and he sulked off into the camp kitchen. At least we had got rid of him. Later on we established a means of draining the grey water using the hose (without the O-ring) and the bucket and decided to just stick with that rather than try and fix it again.

That night we experienced something new in the van: ice. The inside of the van began to freeze where metal faces were exposed, and the thermometer on the dashboard showed -2.5^oC. Good thing for our three blankets. When we woke up in the morning it had warmed to a much more tropical 0^oC and when we tried to fill up the van with water we found all the camp’s pipes had frozen.

South of Nelson we were able to stop at another Picton I-Site recommendation just beyond the town of Murchison. The Buller Gorge has New Zealand’s longest swing bridge at 144 metres. Having paid about £2.50 each could cross the rather impressive, albeit shaky, bridge and then complete a short walk around the island that resides within the gorge. In its day the small island was buzzing with activity as gold was discovered in the river, and the walk we took guided us passed old mining tools and prospector’s dwellings. We took some time to walk down to the river as the water was perfectly clear and we came across yet more ice as rocks had gathered water in small pools which had completely frozen over during the night. Except for one moment when I got particularly into swinging the bridge against Linz’s preference, we both thoroughly enjoyed the walk and were once again pleased to have stopped in the I-Site in Picton.

Crossing Buller Gorge

In about five years of driving I have never got a chip in the windscreen of my car and neither has Linz, however on our drive from Nelson we picked up our third since picking up the van under two weeks ago. The initial one we got fixed but these other two made us start to question the quality of the Britz’s windscreen, so we debated for a while whether to complain or just get it fixed. The decision was eventually made to get the larger one fixed but try and get away with the smaller one.

Our town of choice for that evening’s accommodation was the coastal town of Westport which drew us into due to its resident seal colony. Just outside town, on the delightfully named Foulwind Penisular, live a colony of fur seals al year round and on the day we got their we found approximately fifty of them. They had made a small cape their home and I could see why as it was very well sheltered from the waves, due to large rocky outcrops, with a lot of food options around it. We could view them from a purpose built walkway approximately 20m above. It first it was a little hard to tell the difference between seals, rocks and drift wood as they are surprisingly well camouflaged, but we hung around long enough to pick out the majority of them.

Try and pick out some seals

For me there was a rather depressing moment here, although it had nothing to do with the seals. There was one of those signposts pointing in all directions specifying the distances between world cities. This is when it really sunk in how close to the end of the journey we where as it told us London was 16,000km in one direction but Christchurch, our finish line, was just 161km in the other. Although we have many more than 161km to travel before reaching the finish it still hit the point home.

Our site for the evening had to be another paid campsite as we had once again been rejected at the I-Site when we asked about freedom camping. We left the next day and continued down the coast towards the township of the Franz-Joseph Glacier, but on the way stopped in Punakaiki to visit the so called blowholes and pancake rocks. The rocks we layers of rock compressed over thousands of years meant to look like stacks of pancakes and the blowholes were gaps in the rocks which waves would explode vertically through. Unfortunately the weather was a bit tame that day meaning the waves got nowhere near emerging and neither of us really saw the resemblance to pancakes as if we had have we definitely would have gone for some real ones soon after.

The pancake rocks

Beyond Punakaiki we came to the township of Franz-Joseph which we had been looking forward to for some time. The township is barely more than a village used soley for the purpose of offering a base for people wishing to explore the Franz-Joseph glacier which is currently making its way through the mountains nearby. When we arrived it had clouded over so we couldn’t see much beyond the street in front of us but managed to reached the tourist information office as we had some questions. As an alternative to Franz-Joseph, just a couple of dozen kilometres further south is the Fox Glacier which offers tourists very similar experiences so we wanted to know which would be best. We decided to go with the cheaper in the end (Fox) and Franz-Joseph glacier walks include entrance to the hot springs for extra money but we had always planned on doing some hot springs later on.

That evening we were offered the next best thing to freedom camping which is the use of a Department of Conservation (DOC) site. These are in many areas of the country and, in this instance, offered a place for vans to sleep overnight for just £3 per person. You don’t get any facilities, except a rather ill-maintained dunny, but at least you know you’re not going to get moved on or fined. The site was just 16km north of Franz-Joseph so we could easily make it to Fox Glacier (about 35km away) without having to leave too early the next morning.

The lake we stay by that evening

We woke up earlier than we needed to seeing as previous attempts at getting up early for things, such as the East Cape Lighthouse and Lady Knox Geyser, hadn’t gone to plan and set off towards the township. The only thing getting in our way this time was a tree which had fallen during the night across our lane on a particularly windy bit of cliff side road. Having bypassed to obstacle we made it to Fox Glacier township with time to spare so hung around in the warmth of the van rather than step outside earlier that absolutely necessary. When we had driven into Franz-Joseph the day before it had been poor visibility, but this time it was so much clearer and suddenly we could see the vast mountains which surrounded the villages. When we had to we headed into the Glacier Guiding building and soon met our group as well as Sebastian our guide. We were fully kitted up for our walk on the glacier including waterproof trousers, leather boots, socks, gloves (actually mittens) and crampons. Crampons being metal spikes which you can attach to the underside of your boot making it easier to walk on the ice. It turned out Linz barley needed any of this as she had seemingly come fully prepared from the waterproof trousers to the gloves. I basically just had a hat.

Fox Glacier. Its so much bigger than it looks in this photo

Having got our gear we were driven ten minutes from the village to a car park where we would walk for around forty0five minutes before reaching the glacier. Fox Glacier is an enormous shelf of ice which still remains from the last ice age and as it moves in time had cut a huge valley out of the mountains. The glacier seemingly can’t make up its mind as although it moves at a rather brisk half a metre a day it regularly changes its mind and moves both up and down the valley. We began by walking up the rocky track towards the ice while Sebastian would point out various features and explain a lot about how the glacier was formed. Soon we arrived at the main event and fitted our crampons before heading onto the glacier. Although from a distance it seems a bit dirty, this is due to the rocks which fall on it so regularly, from up close you can see that it is incredibly clear and an amazing blue below the surface.

Stepping onto the glacier for the first time

The highlight of our glacier walk was the two opportunities we had to climb inside the ice into caves created by melting water. The first, described by Sebastian, as “the re-birth” was a very tight hole down into the ice which came out a few metres further along than where it started. The reason for the name is based on the person in the whole having to be pulled out of this tiny whole by someone outside as there is no way someone could to it on their own. I found myself a little confused as Sebastian went to pull me out as we casually said “Be like a jellyfish!” I had no idea what he meant. Apparently he meant go limp, as if you try to help him you only make it harder. He could have made it clearer as I was kicking my legs everywhere trying to push my way out.

Crawling through our first ice cave

The second cave was big enough to allow both Linz and I to explore it on our own, and here the amazing blue colour of the ice was so clear. From inside the ice all you can see is blue and I would have happily stayed in there all day. Sebastian was excellent as he would always be taking photos of us on our own cameras so we could just jump in the caves without having to worry about doing it ourselves.

About three metres under the surface

The glacier is completely maintained by Fox Glacier Guiding (the company we used) so as we explored the ice several guides who weren’t running tours that day would have to be constantly cutting steps so people could actually walk on the glacier. This didn't seem like a particularly good aspect of the job.

Soon we came across a lake on the glacier itself which the guides had not seen the day before. This demonstrated how quickly a glacier can change but we were very pleased it did as we could fill up a bottle of glacier water and have a drink. Frankly, it tasted so good I will no longer drink any water unless it has been collected by hand from a glacier. Is that being a little too picky? Actually there glacier water came with a slight hint of blackcurrant but that could have been because we didn't rinse the bottle very well. From the lake we walked back to the van having had one of the best experiences of the trip so far. We had always been excited about the prospect of a glacier walk but Fox had exceeded all expectations my miles.

At the temporary glacier lake

The afternoon was spent getting a couple of toasties from the cafe with free wifi before heading to the internet cafe to upload a blog each. Unlike Australia, mobile internet signal is rather poor and in some places just impossible to use so we had to resort to writing blogs on the laptop but not being able to post them until we came across an internet cafe. That night was returned to the DOC site for another cheap sleep.

The next morning was an abysmal day for weather. We had been looking forward to seeing Lake Matheson which is just 6km outside Fox township but fog had set in and we didn't even bother to get out the van when we reached the car park as you wouldn’t have been able to see anything. Instead we powered on hoping to get to Queenstown before their I-Site closed. However, after just an hour and a half driving we realised it was stupid to carry on and called it a day as early as lunch in the tiny town of Haast. The drive from Haast to Queenstown was meant to be one of the most beautiful in the entire country and we weren’t going to have it ruined by fog. So we were going to wait it out and hope, as predicted, the weather would improve by the following day.

We spent the day in a Top 10 holiday park in Haast as it was the only option. Top 10 parks are very nice but also come with a steeper price but we needed the power if we were going to entertain ourselves her all day. The park was actually much nicer than we expected with a plush kitchen and bathrooms made out of a converted plane hangar. I had a decent chat with some Aussies as they were the only other guests at the park and thy enjoyed hearing about how we had travelled their country. It did get a little awkward when they told me they were from the Gold Coast, our worst area of Australia, and asked me what I thought. I managed to avoid outright lying by avoiding the question all together. I felt it was a safer move.

Setting off from the holiday park

The next day confirmed that by putting of the Haast Pass until then was one of the best decisions we have made since the beginning. The fog had lifted and it was a perfect day. The fact that we hadn’t even realised we had parked underneath a huge snowy mountain proves how bad the day before had been. During the drive through amazing forests and mountains we came across the Blue Pools. After a short walk through the forest we came to a bridge of some of the clearest water I have even seen. Despite being called the Blue Pools they were in fact two merging rivers. Even in points of the river which seemed a few metres deep we could see to the bottom as if they were just a few inches deep. Unfortunately the walk to the pools was so cold my camera failed and would no longer turn on. But no worries, five minutes in my boxers sorted it out.

Down at the blue pools

When we emerged from the forest later on the drive we came across Lake Wanaka. This was our first of the famous New Zealand mirror lakes offering perfect reflections of the mountains behind making for a breath-taking view. We found a spot down by the lake to have lunch and once again found ourselves so pleased that having a campervan allows us to do this. However, just as “You Ain’t Seen Nothing Yet” by Bachman-Turner Overdrive came on the iPod we left Lake Wanaka and spotted Lake Hawea. This drive just got better and better. We came over a small hill and saw the lake with towering black stone cliffs behind them all of course mirrored in the water’s surface, and genuinely started to wonder if we would ever see a bad view in New Zealand. Excluding those of the Auckland Tower.

Our lunch spot on Lake Wanaka

Lake Hawea!

Soon we were diving through Wanaka town which looked like a lovely little lakeside town but we needed to get to Queenstown so couldn’t stay longer than it took to have a quick drive round. South of Wanaka is the small town of Cardrona where we decided to pull in at a small hotel and have a drink. However, it wasn't just a random drink stop as it had in fact been identified on nerd-built websites that it was the filming location for the Prancing Pony in the first Lord of the Rings film. We were quite excited about this until the barman burst our bubble and told us that it wasn't, but I'm happy to go with the internet nerds and claim that it was.

From Cardrona we climbed and the descended and very winding mountain road where we first came across snow. It wasn't enough to put on our free snow chains as it was mainly offer the road but it was definitely enough to upgrade the level of nerves higher than they had been before. I don’t wish to sound like a broken record here but from the summit New Zealand threw us yet another astonishing view taking in the Remarkables mountain range, the small village of Arrowtown below and Lake Wakatipu in the distance. Having reached the bottom we briefly explored Arrowtown as it was supposedly like taking a step back in time, but all we found we an extortionate campsite so left rather soon after entering. From here it was just a short drive into Queenstown known for being the adventure capital of New Zealand, or even the world. I will just leave it for now as being our favourite place in New Zealand by far...

The road down to Queenstown