Blogs from Omarama, South Island, New Zealand, Oceania

A strong wind off the lake helped push us up the 10km, 350m climb to the Tarnbrae High point, then it was all downhill to Omarama. We did encounter a few obstacles along the way as you can see from the photos.... read more

Monday 24th An easy and lazy morning as we get the van ready for sailing to South Island. After cleaning out the holds we stock up and drive to the ferry port. The ferry takes three and a half hours to reach Picton on South Island. The sea’s quite rough but we’ve had our sea sick pills and are fine. Mine puts me to sleep for an hour or so. As we pull in to Queen Charlotte Sound we see many islands and a beautiful coastline. After settling on our site we stretch our legs by walking into Picton town centre. It’s a lovely little town with lots of interesting shops, cafes and a really nice water front looking out at the head land and islands. Back on site I sort out extra time for our ... read more

After leaving Lake Tekapo headed south, decided to stop at Omarama for one night. Not really much in the way of a town but found some interesting clay cliffs about twenty minutes drive from the centre. The road from the highway turns to an unsealed road after about 4kms, I have found them difficult to get used to as they are really bumpy and dusty but when in Rome etc. after about another 4kms the road is only fit for 4WD so walked the rest of the way. Couldn't find much information about the cliffs but looking at them it would appear clay between the sandstone is eroded and leaves the sandstone which looks a bit like the sandcastles you make with wet sand. Following at his took the mountain rothe towards Wanaka stopping off at ... read more