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Published: April 23rd 2016
Oops, We’d only had the hire camper 24hrs and already broke it. Another car flashed us and I looked in the mirror only to see the power chord trailing along the road minus the connector.
We were looking forward to flying into New Zealand. After months of trains and buses we were excited to have our own transport, a Toyota HiAce camper. We pre-booked this in the UK and because of the good price we received, didn’t expect too much. But it turned out to be newer and more spacious than we expected.
As we were in Christchurch, a major NZ city we chose a campsite just a bus ride away from the city centre. Back in 2011, Christchurch suffered a major earthquake which killed a 185 people. I remember seeing the reports on the news when it happened. I either didn’t realise the severity of the event or thought the city was well on its way to being repaired. But what we saw astounded us. The cathedral in the town square is still in ruins (there is still an ongoing debate whether to restore or demolish it), where many buildings stood, it’s now wasteland
or car parks, some have still to be pulled down!.
Many businesses have moved out. There is a shopping mall call ReStart that has been made out of shipping containers to bring some life in the town. Although walking around the streets was pretty depressing, it was good to see the old trams working doing a tour of the city, and the guides being candid about the city’s prospects. A new conference centre is being built as part of a plan to bring life to the town. Elsewhere, what they call the cardboard Cathedral,a temporary structure, has been erected as a place of worship (it's very good, I think it will be there a long time).Next to the cathedral are 185 chairs painted white as a temporary art memorial of the 185 who died.
The following day we headed east, a hour and half journey to Akaroa. A peninsular with a large natural harbour. There is a summit route into the town where you can travel around the ridge of this long dead volcano-with stunning views.
The South Island of NZ may well have ended up as a French colony. 63
settlers came from France with their Governments approval to Akaroa. The British panicked and sent a ship to claim the land. There is still a French flavour to this beautiful lakeside town. It was in Akaroa we had our problem with the power lead, we discovered the problem was a dodgy lock on the power lead cover. Luckily we had to go back towards Christchurch to go anywhere else, so didn’t have to go too far out of our way for repairs.
Repairs done we headed for a campsite on the edge of Lake Tekapo. It is known for two things. It is one of 5 nominated dark sky areas where you can see the night sky with no light pollution. Also, because of rock particles in the water in the lake, it appears a bright blue. We needed to take time out and rested here for a day with a gentle walk up nearby Mount John, that has four observatory’s atop, and a soak in the warm pools at a nearby spa.
Leaving Lake Tekapo we continued south under wonderful blue skies. Did I say in our last post that we enjoyed the
seasons? Although the last days have been sunny with temperatures 18-24 degrees the night temperatures plummet into low single figures, and we are certainly feeling it.
We thought Lake Tekapo was stunning but Lake Pukaki was grander. At the end of the lake was what we and probably most who visit the South Island for the first time come to-Mount Cook. It certainly is an awesome sight whether from a distance or close up.
Alison wanted to see the adjacent Tasman glacier, and after a 15 min climb to the glacier viewing platform, we were deflated to see that because of global warming the glacier is a shadow of its former self. In front of us was a muddy soup of a lake where once was the glacier, although we could still see the remainder in the distance.
It didn’t take away the beauty of the Mount Cook region and were still stopping the car on the way back down the valley to get our last lingering look at this magnificent mountain.
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christine
non-member comment
new zealand
Hi i have been to the same lake and i went in a small plane over mount cook and see the glaciers it was out of this world! I and my mum had the time of our life .we found the weather, people and scenery are wonderful, wish i was there with youx i have cousines and friends there.two of my cousins live in forest hill Henderson auckland.i wish i shown my photos to you .have a lovely timexxxxxxx