South Island NZ

Hello out there!

Well I thought it was about time I wrote another blog as it's been a while...

We're now in Queenstown and enjoying some home comforts at Tim's parents' house overlooking the lake and dramatic mountains behind, but have spent most of the last two weeks on the road in a tiny campervan called a 'crib' and not really a campervan at all but a converted Toyota people carrier! What fun! We decided to stay in a campsite roughly once every two or three nights so have spent some lovely evenings in quiet spots by beaches, lakes and mountains, cooking our dinner on the little gas stove in the back of the crib and washing in freezing cold but crystal clear streams! We really have been getting back to nature, but I suppose that's what NZ is all about.

We picked up the van in Christchurch and drove up into the mountains to Arthur's Pass before retreating to the coast in heavy rain the same afternoon to explore the stunning bays and inlets of the Banks Peninsula. I know there are a few Christchurch-ians reading this who will know the area, but it doesn't seem to be very well know to tourists I don't think? We spent that night overlooking a lovely bay after some fresh fish and chips, thinking 'This is the life!'

The next day, after exploring some more of the lovely Banks Peninsular on 4WD-only back roads (oops, guess who was navigating?!), we headed north towards Kaikoura and stopped just before at a little place called Gore Bay where we spent another 'free' night. The next day we had a very wind-swept walk along the coast in Kaikoura to see the seals then carried on up some dramatic coastal roads and stayed in a campside south of Blenheim. The campsite wasn't one of NZ's finest and seemed to be mainly full of people that actually lived there in their grotty campervans and converted buses - oh well, it was cheap and the showers were hot!

Next it was on the Blenheim and Renwick for some Marlborough wine tasting. We checked into another campsite/backpackers and set off on bikes, wobbling even before we tasted any wine in the ridiculously strong winds! We visited six 'cellar doors', all within a few kms of where we started, and each gave us several wines to try, all for free and with lots of interesting information and friendly chat. We became quite expert at recognising Pinot Gris, Sauvignon Blanc, Riesling and Gewurztraminer but were restrained in our buying and came away with just three bottles - phew! There were so many places offering tastings you could spent a week there sipping free wine, but we managed to tear ourselves away the next day and drove further north to the Marlborough Sounds.

We drove up the Kenepuru Road which is west of Picton (where the ferry from the North Island comes in) and were amazed to see the difference between the relatively muddy-looking Kenepuru Sound and stunning blue Queen Charlotte Sound. We parked up for the night in a beautiful little bay on the Queen Charlotte Sound side and while we were supping some of our nice wine sitting on the jetty a big stingray swam just under our dangling feet - wow, what a treat!

Next we drove over the windy road to Picton for a lunch stop, then headed back west towards Nelson and stayed the night by a pebbly beach where we had our first sandfly experience! The little blighters get everywhere and their bites are extremely itchy, so we were shut up in the van as soon as we finished cooking! Nelson was a nice little town with a great beach and easy access to the Abel Tasman National Park to the north. We spent two days walking sections of the Abel Tasman Track along the coast and had some brilliant weather so it looked even more glorious - golden sandy beaches and clear blue and green water, with a backdrop of native forest. Tim was even fooled into thinking it would be good to go for a swim but was in and out of the sea very quickly - it was freezing cold!

After Abel Tasman it was time to head to the west coast, via Lake Rotoiti (more sandfly attacks) and through the Buller Gorge. On the way south we visited the Pancake Rocks at Punakaiki, so called because they looked like huge stacks of pancakes, and the small Monteiths Brewery in Greymouth, where we had a tour of the brewery and tastings of their six most-popular beers, and arrived at Franz Josef Glacier. The path was closed at a point a couple of kms away from the glacier face but there were so many people crossing the moraines beyond the yellow 'Do not Go Beyond Here' ropes that we decided to do the same and were glad we did as we got right up to the blue-white face of the huge glacier.

Fox Glacier was closed as the road had been washed away in heavy rains the week before, and the weather was pretty awful when we got there too. We stopped for our last night just south of Haast on huge deserted pebbly beach and watched the sunset before retreating from the sandflies.

On our last day with the van we crossed back inland to Queenstown on a gorgeous sunny day. The colour of the lakes was incredible blue and turquoise in the sunshine and we had great views of some snow-capped mountain peaks. It's such an amazing landscape, you can see why Lord of the Rings was filmed here - and don't all the tourists know it - our road atlas even has a 'Rings' symbol to mark various places that different scenes were shot!

After dropping the van off we had a lazy day in Queenstown, going up the hill on the gondolas and racing down on the luge, and then headed off to Te Anau for a cruise up and down Doubtful Sound yesterday, where we saw penguins and seals, and a visit to an amazing underground hydro power station that you visit by driving down inside a mountain!

Sorry this blog has been so long, but we have done so much and I can never decide what to leave out! I will stop now and leave you in peace to get back to whatever you're doing. Thanks for reading this far!

Lots of love
Kirst and Tim xxx

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