Road trip in the South Island

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So we left Asia, sadly. We were very excited to pick up our new home for the next 3 weeks and we werent dissapointed. It was going to be nice having a base for 3 weeks rather than 3 days. We had a day trying it out before meeting Neils mum briefly and taking off on our South Island trip by firstly driving through Arthurs Pass.

Immediately New Zealand felt like we had went home. It has a very British feel (maybe not if we had come straight from the UK and not 5 months in Asia). The climate, the people and some of the scenery are so similar. Arthurs pass immediately reminded us of Highland Scotland but with some different colours. There were some beautiful golden colours covering the hills and valleys but it was hard to shake the similarity. We arrived at our very overpriced camp spot in a pub car park! We hiked up to visit a beautiful waterfull, and immediately you can see that plant life in New Zealand is something unique, especially of course the famous huge ferns.

On our next day we made a beeline for the wildfoods festival in a small town on the west coast. There was a pretty cool atmosphere in town, lots of people dressed up, but no wild foods? We didnt realise that the festival was not on the street but you had to pay (quite a lot) to get in but the atmosphere looked great and we kept swithering, should we say or should we go???? We went, thinking a party wasnt on the agenda this soon into the road trip. We would head on and camp somwhere for the night before getting to Franz Josef the third day. The scenery was beatiful, from coast to mountain, beatiful beaches and snowy peaked mountains, lush forest and mysteriously powder blue coloured waters. After Arthurs pass we began to appreciate how empty of people the South Island is. You barely see a soul on the roads.

We stopped off in Franz Josef to do the glacier hiking. We opted for full day, so once we were equipped with our crampons, jackets, gloves and hats, we were off. It was blindingly white and blue and absolutely huge. We especially enjoyed going through narrow sections of the ice and through a very small ice cave. At one point we had to use ropes to lower ourselves down a thin gorge in the ice, one japanese women actually fell, and whilst we thought she was a gonner or injured, she lay there laughing her head off. This seems to be a Japanese trait, as we had witnessed this before with the suicidal women in Laos. It was not cold at all, the sun was blazing and we were quite warm. On the way down Vik heard a thud behind her as Neil fell down an ice ditch. He was in a lot of pain and bloodied, but could hardly say anything after what the Japanese women had came back laughing from. We realised how unfit we were as we were a bit knackered, yet our guide had been doing twice the work by cutting ice steps in some sections with her ice axe.

After Franz Josef we headed to see the views of Mount Cook from Lake Mathieson, a very iconic view in New Zealand. It is a beautiful view, yet feels like your in Switzerland if it werent for all the huge ferns. Poor New Zealand, its hard to know what its like, it seems very similar to many places you have been before but with some of its own twists. The people seem very British, towns like Christchurch are extremely British in feel and you could have easily been back home at times (weather included). We decided we had to try and stop labeling it as being like other places, but it was hard.

We visited the Fox glacier, which is very similar to Franz Josef, yet there were probably much less tour groups here so in retrospect it may have had an edge on doing the glacier hiking here. From Fox we started to make our way further South to Queenstown. On driving more we started to notice loads of Vineyards everywhere, but as we are stuck with driving we didnt make any stop to try, shame as New Zealand white wines are our favourites but we concluded that if we want to drink wine we will just buy a bottle, we were not sure if seeing the grapes was going to help us enjoy it more.

Queenstown is the world centre for adrenalin sports. We had a good look round and found special deals with 3 activities such as jet boat, helicopter, luge or Sky diving and bungee jumping. We swithered for a long time on whether to take the.............helicopter! (boring and scardy pair). Neil was not bothered as helicopter rides are like a bussmans holiday for him. We opted out of it and headed for the jet boat. This one is a very famous one due to going through a narrow gorge and the skilled drivers manouvering it as though its going to hit then pulling away. The boats are amazingly responsive and to be honest we didnt feel in danger at any point. We felt less thrilled than we had expected, perhaps having had high hopes to be absolutely terrified and less thrilled at the huge price. We headed off for the Luge (downhill karting). This really floated our boats and 5 goes later, Vik still hadnt managed to beat Neil, but we had an absolute laugh whilst hurtling down hill in the beautiful scenery of Queensland (also very like Scotland!).

We started to make our journey towards Milford Sound but would stop off and camp somewhere on the way. We opted for a Department of Conservation site which is very basic with only a composting toilet but you can make a fire. Immediately as we were getting closer to the west coast, the infamous sandflies were everywhere, and they were filling up our van. It took some effort to get rid of them. We went raking for fire wood, which was hard as most of it was damp but after much heartache trying to get it started, Neil was ecstatic once it finally went. We cooked our sausages and had mash then sat round the fire for a nice evening. Camp fires are definately the way to go and its a shame that in Nanny state UK, you would probably never be allowed to enjoy this kind of place.

We got to Milford sound and got our boat trip organised. The scenery here is amazing and difficult to describe. Mountains rising straight out of the sea and snow capped peaks in the distant and waterfalls tumbling down whilst seals are playing on the rocks. It seems like something from a prehistoric world. After a nice tour round we got back to the car park but the van wouldnt start. We realised that the lights had been left on. Phoning our road cover we were told that we would be charged 35 GBP for someone to come out and start the van. Nobody appeared and two more phone calls ensued and all the while waiting outside in swarms of sandflies. Eventually we asked in the restaurant, and they had a battery pack and started it back up for about 5GBP. So a bit hacked off and itchy from some sandflys we headed off again.

We seemed to have a lot of time in the South Island so we looked for a detour and decided to visit the Catlins region, which is really bigged up in the Lonely Planet. Meant to be full of ancient forests and nice coast line but in reality most of the area is for sheep farming and just looked like driving round Yorkshire. We did see some forest but nothing that we hadnt seen already. We were looking for a campsite on the coast and were hoping to be alone with our fire again. Eventually we found the spot along with another 6 vans and this time no camp fires were allowed. The coast line was really nice though with dramatic cliffs. In the morning there was a cracking sunrise to watch from our bed in the van.

So we headed off for Dunedin with a stop off at some other craking coastline spots. Dunedin is the old name for Edinburgh. There was even a Scottish shop selling kilts and other tartan paraphenalia. Not really that keen on the place (too much like something from home) we only stayed one night and made our way to another campsite to make fire and chill with some Speights. We found a beautiful site with nobody else there. There was a crystal clear stream running nearbye so a dip of the feet on that perfect day and we set our selves up with music, beer, fire and food. Perfect!

Reluctant to leave such a perfect camp spot we headed for Lake Tekapo which was beautiful and serene. We played at skipping the pebbles along the flat water for a while before pressing on to Mount Cook. On the way there was a huge lake which was completely powder blue and like nothing we have ever seen before. Mount Cook was in the back drop and some pine forest lining the shore. It was a magnificent sight. Also along the drive at the side of the lake we had to stop every now and then to get some photos of the surreal scenery. The blue colour is actually caused by the glaciers grinding up the rocks and this rock flour is added into the streams and eventually lakes.

We kipped over night and then took a walk in the morning to see Mount Cook closer up. We were starting to notice that having the camper van has draw backs as well. We seemed to be doing less excercise, mostly driving and looking out windows than actually doing anything.

We still wanted to cram some camp fires in so went searching for somewhere to go near the town of Geraldine. We found a spot that allowed campfires and even though there were forests, they were so thick that you couldnt get in to collect fire wood even though we tried. Next option was to drive round and find some. We found about half a dead tree and loaded into the van and drove back to our camp site. So we stayed there for 2 days cooking on the fire some beer and hot chocolate, it was lovely!. This made us see how much we like the camping experience as you didnt need to be travelling and sight seeing all the time, just soaking up the outdoor atmosphere was great and as there was no facility to shower, Vik had to collect water from the icy cold stream to wash her hair.

Before giving the camper van back we decided to head to the coast to Akaroa. It is a small town which was initially inhabited by French and still carries a very French feel. Akaroa has a spectacular harbour and as such we decied to go sailing in a group round the harbour and Vik even got a go steering. We also saw a small penguin bobbing about in the water.

So our time with van was at an end and we had to hand it back sadly and get back to being in a different bed every 2 or 3 days. The camper van experience was mostly good but we should have probably done some more actitivities rather than just sight seeing. The South Island is beautiful, has very few people and with lots of opportunities to get back to nature (especially with a fire!), so all in all a nice experience.

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Photos

Waterfall
At Arthurs pass

Surreal coloured lake
On the way up to Mount Cook

Lake Tekapo
Perfect for pebble skipping

Comments

[Isobel]

Hi Guys hope you both copping