Long-overdue New Zealand update: Crazy campervans, mud bathing, glacier trekking, frosty atmospheres and the ubiquitous sand flies . . .

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HAPPY NEW YEAR TO ALL!

I've done it again. Left it far too long between entries that it's nearly impossible to remember everything I have done since my last update - but I'm going to try!

So, after spending Christmas Day with Kathy and Rob, I picked up the camper van from the depot in Auckland and drove to the airport to meet up with Stu, my companion for the next 3 weeks. At this point I should explain about the camper van. I rented it through a company called Escape Rentals, who convert VW-style vans into basic, mini-camper vans with a gas travel stove, BBQ, sink and coolbox. They also commision local artists to decorate each one, thus giving them a fleet of unique vans, each with their own name and identity. Our van is called 'Labyrinth' and has been painted as such with a mural depicting characters and images from the cult 80's film of the same name. It even has David Bowie painted onto the back! It is the epitome of cool, and if I had a pound for every time our van has been commented on, pointed at, or photographed so far on this trip I would be a very rich lady. I love our quirky van, but for wallflowers it certainly ain't.

After meeting Stu at the airport in the late afternoon of the 26th, we headed for our first overnight stop, which turned out to be at the side of the road next to the beach in Mount Maunganui, at the top of the Bay of Plenty. The beautiful beach was a lovely sight to wake up to, and the next day we made the most of it by setting out our camp chairs and having breakfast on the beach. Later that morning we set off for our first proper destination, Rotorua - thermal capital of New Zealand.

While in Rotorua we treated ourselves to a stay at a powered site in a proper campsite. The setting was great, and the site even had its own thermal spa, which of course we tried out! Just down the road were some pretty cool, atmospheric old geysers (of the natural, rather than human kind!) so we paid them a visit too. The next day we drove to a place called 'Hell's Gate', a geothermal reserve set in 50 acres with a large variety of geothermal features. We walked past steaming fumeroles, pools of boiling mud, a mud volcano and the Kakahi Falls, the largest hot waterfall in the Southern Hemisphere. It was a pretty impressive place, if rather touristy, but the highlight was yet to come: we had also booked ourselves in for a mud bath and sulphur spa at the adjoining Wai Ora Spa. Bliss! It was a little pricey but well worth the money, and afterwards I really felt like my skin was beginning to feel better after the hectic South American lifestyle I had inflicted on it for the last 3 months. Money well spent!

After the visit to Hell's Gate we only had 24 hours to get to Wellington for our ferry crossing to the South Island, so we continued our journey south, stopping halfway down overnight at a place called Feilding (no typo!) before finding ourselves in Wellington on the afternoon of the 29th. We spent a couple of hours in the city, where Stu went for a swim and I pottered around the shops and an internet cafe before we drove to the ferry terminal.

I had booked us onto the 6:15pm crossing, which takes around 3 hours, and I was so glad I had as the weather was beautifully calm and we spent the latter half of the journey out on deck watching the sunset over the Marlborough Sounds, a peaceful and stunning experience. Being the idiot that I am, I had left my camera in the van so I'm afraid I have no photographs to show you how lovely this was.

Upon arrival in the South Island, we spent the night at a busy but friendly site in Picton, where we saw our first ever glowworms, which was an unexpectedly cool and rather magical experience. The next morning we drove to Nelson Lakes National Park, parking our van at the West Bay campsite of the Lake Rotoiti. We did a 3.5 hour walk around the lake peninsula and inland up the Black Rock track. It was a lovely walk, but unfortunately my walking shoes let me down once again and the walk reawakened my Patagonia blisters, which had been well on their way to healing nicely! Our stay in Nelson Lakes NP was also our introduction to the infamous sandflies, awful little creatures who do not leave you alone and have a bite that far exceeds their diminuitive size.

After a freezing cold night in the national park, we awoke early on New Year's Eve and drove to Hokitika on the west coast, via a small place called Punakaiki, home of its famous 'pancake rocks' and blowholes (see pictures). The scenery both in Punakaiki and along the west coast was stunning, and the drive was lovely. After arriving in Hokitika, Stu spent the afternoon on the beach while I decided some retail therapy was in order, having heard that the town is THE place to buy jade, or greenstone as it is known here. Mission accomplished, we then went out on the 'town' for New Year's Eve, ending up hugging strangers and dancing around like fools by the clock tower in the centre of town, alongside other tourists and locals. A good night was had by all, and I awoke the next morning feeling a little wobbly.

Waking in a camper van with a hangover is actually a great place to do it as it was Stu's turn to drive, so while he drove the relatively short distance to Franz Josef, I stayed in bed sleeping off my hangover. On the way we detoured slightly to take in Hokitika Gorge, a beautiful ravine accessed by a short walk and swing bridge. The water in the gorge was of an almost unnatural turquoise blue, and the short visit did much to revive my alcohol-induced, cotton-wool head, mushy-brained malaise. Upon arrival in Franz Josef, we cheekily parked the 'beast', as I affectionately call it, for free outside a hostel, had a BBQ on the path at the side of the road and snuck into the hostel grounds to use their loo when we needed to. Good times.

The next day we had booked a day's ice hike on Franz Josef glacier. I was really keen to do this, as I knew that Franz Josef wouldn't be as visually stunning a glacier as Perito Moreno, so I wanted to do something that I hadn't done there to make the experience memorable and unique. I am so glad we decided to, as the day turned out to be one of the most memorable of my New Zealand stay so far. It was great fun, wearing the ice-talons on our boots and walking around with an ice-axe, squeezing ourselves through impossibly narrow and blue ice caves and crevasses . . . I did get stuck a few times and needed a bit of a push to get out, but it was all part of the fun! At the end of the hike I did feel a strange sense of achievement and I definitely felt that I had had a different experience of a glacier, which was ultimately what I was hoping to achieve.

After spending just over a week together in the van, things between Stu and I were getting a little frosty to say the least and, despite being in different groups for the ice hike, things were still strained that evening after we had arrived in Fox Village, so I opted to go out for dinner on my own and leave Stu at the campsite. I ended up meeting a couple from the UK, who bought me glasses of wine all evening so by the time I got back to the van Stu was asleep and I was rather merry, shall we say. After exchanging a few, curt words the next morning I was getting really concerned that we weren't going to last the distance on this trip. As we began a walk round the circumference of Lake Matheson, our frostiness erupted into a bit of an argument, where we both said we didn't want to continue travelling together, which ended up with me storming off for the lake walk on my own and Stu storming off to the cafe. When I returned to the cafe, we agreed that we would part company in Queenstown, our next destination, and I would continue with the van on my own. This was a real financial concern to me, but I hoped that once I had arrived in the city I would be able to find one or two people to join me for the rest of my trip to help me with the costs. However, over the 6 hour drive we both had time to calm down and reassess things, and by the end of the drive we were talking again and being friendly to each other. We both apologised for being rubbish to each other and we agreed to take things one day at a time from now on and to try and maintain some independence from each other as much as we could. We had had a very stressful week of moving somewhere different every day, and I think that this combined with the fact that I had gotten very used to being on my own after South America meant that we had just pushed each other a little too far. So things are fine now! Travelling in such close quarters with a friend, especially one you haven't seen for a long time, really puts so much pressure on both parties, that I have no idea how two people can travel together for any extended period of time. I am in great awe and have newly-discovered respect for those that can! I take my hat off to you all.

So this brings me up to date. I am writing this during my first full day in Queenstown, and I have opted for a much-needed lazy day here while Stu has taken himself off for a day-long hike somewhere in the National Park. The weather has been beautiful and warm since we arrived, and I am expecting another lovely sunset over the lake tonight, to at least match the one we saw last night. The scenery here is fantastic, and after all the mountains and lakes I have seen on this trip I have come to the conclusion that alpine landscapes and scenery are definitely my favourites and I feel most at home when I am immersed in them. A few people have asked me how the South Island scenery compares to that of Argentina, and for a while I really thought that New Zealand would not be a patch on Argentina, but during the last couple of days my faith in the island's scenery has been restored as we have stayed in and driven through some amazing areas of stunning natural beauty. I will never tire of seeing such tremendous views and it is difficult to compare the two countries, as they are both so beautiful in different ways. From what I have seen so far, the mountain landscape in NZ is generally much more alpine and green, whereas Argentina's mountains seem to be much drier and possess more of an ethereal bleak beauty, both of which I have fallen in love with. I don't know how accurate a comparison this is, as there have been areas of each within both countries! But I think if I had to make a generalisation, which I know some of you will ask me to do, then I think that is what I would say.

(Oh, and to all of those wondering if I have done a sky dive, the answer to that is no! I have actually booked to do one on two different occasions, in two different locations, but each time I have backed out and I eventually realised that I don't actually want to do one, I just felt like I should!)

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Comments

[Mum]

New Career?
Your photos are amazing - better than anyone elses I have seen. Maybe that should be your new career. Lovely to talk to you tonight. Keep happy! Love Mum xxxx

[Ian]

NZ
Enjoy, I loved Punakaiki, if you're feeling energetic and non-blistered Queenstown Hill is only a little climb and the views are fantastic. If you find a restaurant called the Captains Table on the main mall that's where I used to work !!

[Katie]

Green eyed
Just wow!