The Fellowship of the Van

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Clear skies and the glorious Southern Alps of New Zealand's South Island welcomed us on arrival to Christchurch. From the air we caught our first glimpse of the awesome scenery New Zealand has to offer - the brilliant blue glacial lakes beneath us looked like tiny puddles dotted around the snow capped mountain peaks surrounding them. We landed in Christchurch, the southern islands major city and our base for the next few days. The climate here is very cool as winds sweep down the mountains keeping it very clear and dry for most of the year.

New Zealand is supposed to be very much like the UK, but with 52 million less people, and 40 million more sheep. It does maintain very close ties to the UK and has that same odd relationship as Australia in that the Queen is still Head of State and gazes back at all bearers of the $20 note.

The country was actually discovered by Pacific Islanders who cruised for hundreds of miles across the Pacific in gigantic (for those days anyway) double canoes. This was before Abel Tasman (Dutch) came along in 16-something and called it New Seeland (or New Sea Land which became...you guessed it). After this Captain Cook sailed ashore and claimed it for Queen and country. Ever since New Zealand has had a very British feel, which was very evident to us as we approached Christchurch.

Despite being called a city, Christchurch feels like a half-busy town with a lovely square - a cathedral forming its centrepiece. The Britishness extends to this whole area as well as the names of streets, landmarks and rivers. The Christchurch Cathedral, whilst not as dramatic as some in the UK or Europe has a very historical but elegant look and is just as handsome inside as it is out. A delightful trickle of water flows through town called the Avon, on which it is possible to punt. Punting does not suggest splashing around kicking the water, but riding in a Venice-like gondola, which all looked very civilised.

After a few days musing around the town centre it was time for us to collect our home for the next 3 weeks - our Jucy Camper! Hiring a camper van is, without a doubt, the best way to see the incredible scenery the country has to offer and allowed us to be completely independent in what we wanted to see. The van was bright green and purple and roughly resembled the Mystery Machine from Scooby Doo. The vehicle was a converted 7-seater Toyota with a bed in the back as well as a small fridge, cooker and sink. It was very cosy indeed.

Our first day on the road took us just south of Christchurch to an area called the Banks Peninsular. We began to realise quite how stunning this country is from here, right from the beginning. We drove through the small fishing town of Lyttleton with our aim to circumnavigate the peninsular and make our way to a French flavoured town called Akarora.

The Banks peninsular is a complex weave of hills and twisty roads that wound up hill sides and the remains of now-grassy volcanic craters. The views were excellent, allowing us to see the fresh rolling green countryside and large blue lakes from our high vantage point. The secluded bays around and within the peninsular are a haven for wildlife, with dolphins and seals being common visitors. Akarora was a delightful little town at the end of the road beside the lake. The perfect spot to make some lunch and watch a game of cricket taking place on a nearby green.

From the rugged vast plains of the Canterbury flats we travelled inland towards the highest peak in New Zealand - Mount Cook or Aoraki in Maori. Enroute we passed some magnificent lakes and sub-alpine scenery. The lakes are so very clear, almost impossibly blue. The first we encountered was called Lake Tekapo, which really is a stunning jewel of turquoise blue. The lakes around these areas contain a type of rock salt sediment that floats neutrally in the water, giving it an amazing shimmering colour.

The scenes around here are truly breathtaking and had us swerving for the roadside and grabbing our camera at many locations. Enormous snow-dusted mountains, green forestry, calm turquoise lakes and a landscape dotted with charming flowers of varying colour make up each twist and turn of the road up to Mount Cook. The distinct lack of people made it all the more special.

The road continued to offer this grand scenery as it hugged the shores of Lake Tekapo and the huge expanse of brilliant blue called Lake Pukaki. All the while Mount Cook loomed larger and larger before us. Still the road ambled onwards and upwards through fields of sheep - the lush forestry becoming more and more sparse at higher altitude. We finally reached Mount Cook village and stood at the base of the mountain, feeling incredible small and humble in its presence. Mount Cook itself offers many walks, treks and climbs of varying difficulties. Despite heading into summer there was still lots of snow clinging to the upper slopes.

Before camping for the night we made our way to the Tasman Glacier, a short drive on gravel from Mount Cook Village. From the car park we climbed up for a viewpoint of the glacier and enroute stopped numerous times to admire the view. We were in a gigantic valley, flanked either side by snow-capped mountains. The view was excellent and it was fast becoming evident why this country was chosen to film the Lord of the Rings epics. The huge valley was a carbon copy of something you might find orcs attacking in Helms Deep (which will mean nothing if you haven't seen the films!). This naturally sparked our best Gollum impressions on the mountain side - and no, at this point, we hadn't found the ring.

Once we had reached the crest of our walk, yet another spectacle lay before us. The Tasman Glacier has long retreated from sight but its path down the mountain is still evident. All that is left is a large grey lake with icebergs floating on the water. Not just small clumps of ice, large ominous icebergs! This was a peculiar site indeed. Icebergs were not quite what we were expecting to see at this altitude, and far from any sea or ocean! We made our way down and drove back to our campsite, which was situated at the bottom of Mount Cook.

The bed in our camper is surprisingly comfortable, but unfortunately any calls-to-nature in the middle of the night include a sleepy stumble to an outside toilet. Or, if it is particularly remote this would mean the entire surrounding wilderness becoming our own personal W.C. Still, there are some benefits to this arrangement and the next morning during one bladder-bursting moment we were able to savour an awe-inspiring sunrise from behind the mountains of the aforementioned valley. The colours were a mix of warm orange and red which threw spectacular rays onto the cold lump of Mount Cook, beginning to wake it from its frozen nightly slumber.

From the glorious beauty of Mount Cook and its surrounds we travelled back the way we came and turned further south, heading towards a town called Oamaru. I cannot stress enough how incredible the scenery remained and the marvellous vistas sustained. It was not as if we were making huge efforts to seek incredible vantage points. We were merely travelling down normal (deserted) highways and were treated continuously to these epic post-card perfect views. It is not just the beauty of New Zealand that is so pleasing, its the incredible wealth of this eye-candy that it is home to. Each corner turned heralds a new gasp at the incredulous backdrops. This dramatic scenery was our constant companion as the road maintained huge hills and large glacial lakes on each side but gradually flattened and turned into green pasture and farmland with sheep grazing as we headed back towards the coast. Sheep are pretty much everywhere. We have read that there are upwards of 40 million sheep in New Zealand. No wonder they can't get enough of New Zealand lamb, which is as cheap as it is tasty here.

Our next destination was Oamaru, which is a coastal town famous for being the home to a rare blue species of penguin. These little penguins are the smallest breed of them all and wander in off the coast every evening like clockwork after being out at sea for the day. We didn't manage to see them unfortunately for two main reasons - one, it's stupidly priced to see a natural event take place, and we simply could not hang around as there was so much more to see and do in our time period. Frankly, apart from the penguins, there's not much else to do in Oamaru to kill 10 hours.

Therefore, we ambled on (thankful that petrol is only 50p a litre) down the east coast of the southern island making our way to Dunedin. Enroute we made a couple of stops to various coves and beaches which our map told us were home to the New Zealand fur seals and yellow-eyed penguins. The first of these stops was in a town called Moeraki. We parked up near the shore next to a lighthouse and walked to a viewing point of the beach.

The lookout point was hidden away and camouflaged in a high vantage point off the beach. The yellow-eyed penguins are the rarest kind and stringent measures are taken to ensure they stay nested on the beach. If they suspect or see anything out of the ordinary or become alarmed they will simply leave. The beach below was strewn with Fur Seals which, from a distance looked just like large rocks. They seemed to be just lazily enjoying the wet weather.

Our highlight here though was as we caught a glimpse of a couple of the penguins. They waddled through their conservation area and just stood around for about 10 minutes before making their way back into the dense growth. Our little hideout also supplied binoculars which gave us an excellent chance to see these rare penguins in action up close.

Further down the coast we stopped at an area called Shag Point (no, really) which, thankfully, was not full of humans or animals doing what you'd expect them to at such a named place. Instead the rocky coast is home to lots of seals and unlike the last beach we were able to get a lot closer. Again, they were lazing about, staring back at us curiously, probably wondering just what we were looking at. There must have been around 40 of them dotted around on the red rock, which made them much easier to spot. It is such a satisfying feeling to see a creature like that in its natural environment and not performing or doing back flips in a zoo.

From Shag Point we travelled through Dunedin to our next destination - the Otago Peninsular. This area is a haven for more seals, dolphins, penguins and even albatrosses. It was getting late so we chose one particular beach to explore before camping for the night. The beach was quite far below us, a viewpoint giving us a glimpse of the huge expanse of sand behind great sand dunes which we'd have to tackle. We sauntered down the path, which turned into the side of a large sand dune that we ended up bounding down quite quickly. Our shoes became soggy and sand-filled. But it was good fun!

The beach was deserted but the seal-encounters we had here were our best. At one end of the beach were a couple of huge males sitting chest out trying to impress a couple of females. They stood for a while, spinning around and splashing in the waves until one of the males tried to mount the female. This resulted in a raucous from which we were just a few feet away. We stepped back, hoping we were not the next species they'd try to mount. It was mating season so the seals were showing off, trying to impress their potential mate.

We walked further along the beach, stopping at seals that had washed up on the beach and were having a deserved rest. They must’ve been knackered as we got really up-close with many of them. The females are very cute-looking, the males on the other hand are pretty ugly looking things! The females actually reminded me of Lou Lou as they've got huge soppy eyes. At the far end of the beach was another cluster of seals that we found ourselves amongst. Again, we were able to observe them either just lazing around, playing in the water or just sitting upright, chest out, watching us pass suspiciously. We didn't see any penguins on this occasion - just their tell-tale footprints in the sand.

The next day, we followed the road from Dunedin further south for a period before starting to head west. We pretty much traversed the entire width of the country to reach our next location; Lake Te Anu. This lake lies at the beginning of a one-way drive to Milford Sound, which is located in Fiordland National Park. It has been touted as one of the most beautiful drives in the world, so we were eager to start. Beginning with the marvellous Te Anu, our plan was to cover about half of the drive and camp in one of the Department of Conservation (DOC) campsites enroute. These are cheap but basic camping areas, usually in picturesque locations.
The one we settled on was very basic indeed. A clearing of grass situated next to a crystal clear stream which was the camps water supply that, coupled with the toilet (long drop, composting style) was the only piece of civilization in sight. We were totally alone and the feeling of absolute isolation was brilliant. The only problem was the whole area (and apparently most of Fiordland National Park) was infested with sandflies! We thought we had left our blood sucking parasite friends back in Asia. Despite mosquitoes not really being a problem here, the sandflies were taking their place.

Whilst trying to cook on our little stove in the early evening we were being constantly attacked by them. We asked a DOC officer who came to collect our park fees how best to deal with them. His response was "just keep killing them", which was helpful. After toiling over a hot stove and swatting away the pests we enjoyed isolation in our camper. The night sky was the best we've ever seen. There was no light pollution at all and the sky was the blackest of black. The stars were as bright as they were plentiful. It was as if someone had continuously flecked white paint against a black page there
were so many. It also felt so incredibly close and in a strange way, just plain scary in its vastness.

The drive to Milford Sound continued the following day with the green fields and large looming mountains getting closer. It was a very wet day, which is common in this part of New Zealand. Clouds hung low and appeared to be clamped to the tops of the mountains, depositing their wet innards upon us for most of the day. This part of the country sees at least 7 metres of rain fall each year. As a result there is constant lush forestry and vegetation sprouting from many unconventional places. However, as a result of the wet weather, waterfalls were not mere trickles of water, they were gushing torrents crashing into fearsome rapids below.

The marvellously engineered road wound round the mountains and past near-vertical rock faces. Enormous slabs of rock rose peerlessly from the trees below. The rain causing countless capillaries of water to cascade down the mountainside and into the forestry beneath. This green sub-alpine scenery soon dissipated as we climbed higher, passing slabs of ice and snow by the road-side until we reached the Homer Tunnel - a 1km long tunnel through the mountain. On the other side the road is all down hill with gargantuous walls of dark grey rock on either side, each with streams of water running down


We finally reached Milford Sound, 120km later. Milford Sound is just one of the Sounds in the Fiordland National Park, which contains about 15 in total. Although it's called a Sound, it is actually a Fiord, which means it was created by ice back when the whole country was covered in the stuff. We embarked on a cruise of the Sound which took us on a tour around the area and into part of the choppy Tasman sea (the expanse of water between NZ and Oz). The waters in the Sound are very dark and deep and feel deeper as on either side mountains rise up from the surface. The highest peak - Mitre Peak is a mile high from the waters surface. Mountains always appear large, but in most cases they are viewed from a distance. Here we were able to stare right up at the summit from the base rising from the water. The weather added to the mystique as the mountains were shrouded in a looming fog which rolled over the waters surface.

Whilst out on the Sound, it is difficult to grasp how large everything is as there is no real point of reference. It is only when we spotted a tiny speck on the other side of the water which turned out to be another cruise boat did we begin to appreciate this. Enormous trees sprouting from the side of the mountain that look like twigs are really a hundred feet high and can sometimes fall in a tree avalanche. The result is logs the size of lorries being hurled down the mountainside as if they were small sticks, crashing into the water below. Thankfully though, we didn't witness this event! On the tour of the Sound we also stopped by a bay of seals and various crashing waterfalls before returning to our camper for the trip back.

From Milford Sound we travelled towards the adventure-sport capital of New Zealand - Queenstown. And so far, still not a single ring in sight..

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Photos

Victoria and Mike
At Tasman Glacier

Enormous Valley
Near Tasman Glacier

Beach by Moreaki
Penguins and Fur Seals visible.

Seal Beach
Otago Peninsular

Comments

[Mum Dad and boys]

Love the titles and so apt
When I read the NZ blogs when first published I thought the names were so apt, obviously a LOTR reader and viewer. The photos are awesome and yes it was a perfect country for the film. When I mentioned this part of your trip to a colleague she said she hired a camper for a month in NZ and it was the best holiday ever. Mind you her camper was a luxury mercedes one with all the facilities. No roughing it for her but then you are a lot younger. She said she would definitely do it again. I would love to do this but certainly for a month and in comfort!!! Yes Loulou is as pathetic as a seal. Love and kisses from all.xxxxxx