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Published: November 30th 2009
After a truly wicked night out in Queenstown, 5 of us decided to rent a couple of cars and drive down to see the south coast (Dunedin, Invercargill and Te Anau) for a week. Me, James and Chris got a 10-year old Nissan Sunny (auto transmission) for an absolute bargain of $39 per day (which between the 3 of us came to just $13 each). Compare that to what you'd pay to go there with the Kiwi bus ($425 for 4 days) and there's no contest!
It really was so nice to just get out there on the road and do entirely our own thing. No more 1-hour stops on the Kiwi bus at deserted roadside cafes!
Dunedin is supposedly the most Scottish city outside Scotland (Dunedin is actually Gaelic for Edinburgh). However it certainly wasn't Edinburgh - more like a typical New Zealand ghost town! Luckily though, we only used Dunedin as a place to sleep and went out and explored the Otago Peninsula, where we had scones and tea at Larnach Castle (which was actually more of a mansion) and came face-to-face with seals and albatrosses! The albatrosses really are enormous - it was difficult to get
Larnach Castle 2
View from the castle gardens - no blue skies and sunshine here!any decent photos as they were so far away, but picture a seabird with a 3-metre wingspan and you get the idea!
Driving down the Catlins Coast really gave a true Scottish feel. Extremely wet, windy and huge waves crashing against the rocks. When we stopped at Sandfly Bay, a large beach, we had a close encounter with sea lions (absolutely huge). They were just sitting there on the beach as we walked right past them - weighing half a ton though we decided to keep our distance! The beaches and views you had of the South Pacific really were amazing.
Later that day we arrived in Invercargill, which is the southernmost city in the world (check a map - it's pretty far down there!). However that's about it though - there's really not a lot there! The youth hostel was a converted 19th-Century bank building as well, with coin-operated computers still running on dial-up. Hence the short stay!
The next morning we headed north to Te Anau, where I was back in my sweet haven territory of Fiordland again. Mountains and lakes - you can't beat them! James and Chris drove up the Milford Road (which
Seal near Pilot's Beach
This seal was just lying on the rocks near the path down to a beach - it was less than a metre away! I had already seen) while I walked the famous Kepler Track, with a spectacular lakeside view along the way. Unfortunately, it was a 1-hour walk to the starting point, and given that we agreed to meet at a certain time meant I only got to walk 20 minutes of it (the walk can last up to 4 days if you do the whole thing).
Chris had to be back in Queenstown that day to depart for Christchurch the next morning, so we returned there. We met up with the other 2 guys from the road trip (Jim and Kez) who managed to hit 190km/hr down a gravel road and pick up a speeding fine. Thankfully the cops are more lenient here than back in the UK!
Me and James returned to Wanaka for some more hiking before having to hand the car back in Queenstown. The Cardrona Valley, which separates Queenstown from Wanaka, has to be one of the driest places in Australasia. On a hike up to one of its mountains, Little Criffel, we were absolutely battered by the most fierce sunshine I think I've ever seen in my life. Even after slapping on factor 30 sunscreen
View of Sandfly Bay
Those white specks are sheep! (a necessity for the sun here in NZ) I still returned with reddened legs, and James got sunburned through his t-shirt. The hills were absolutely bone dry; ground that crumbles under your feet and home to some very desert-like plants (how they can find any moisture in the soil is beyond me). Still, we were rewarded for our knackering climb with some lovely views of Wanaka and the surrounding mountains from the summit.
A few days later everyone I knew from the Kiwi bus left for Christchurch to fly elsewhere or home - back to travelling independently again, I'm certainly missing them!
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paul
non-member comment
hey
sounds like you're having a great time. Only just found your blog after rob mentioned it to me, had to google you. Hope you get to do everything you want before you have to come back to a much less adventurous England.