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...