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Published: November 29th 2006
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Well the rumours are true - New Zealand is beautiful with spectacular scenery, although we always knew that would be the case given it’s similarity to Scotland (albeit on a much larger/grander scale)!
We arrived in Christchurch about a week ago and have been busy on the tourist trail - given the number of activities and location changes during our road trip round NZ we’ve decided to change our blog format to a day by day account - in a Big Brother stylee!!
Day 1 & 2 - Christchurch
Our flight form Sydney gets us into Christchurch mid afternoon and we check into our lovely hostel before heading out for some wholesome pub grub at ‘The Bard’ pub. On day 2 we set about exploring Christchurch starting with brunch in a nice café on Oxford Terrace overlooking the river Avon - more middle England than Middle Earth (so far)!
We explore Christchurch on a self guided walking tour starting at Cathedral Square and a visit to the Cathedral including a climb up the 134 step tower for a bird’s eye view of the Square. Our walk took us round the city, parks, river and historic buildings finishing
at the Museum and followed by a well earned cuppa in the botanic gardens coffee shop.
We finish the day off with an interesting meal! We order a mixed meat and chicken stone grill, expecting some sort of BBQ/chargrilled dinner. To our surprise we are presented with a sizzling hot slab of volcanic rock with the pieces of raw meat and seasoning and learn that a stone grills means you get the hot stone and the meat to cook at your table to your own liking - we quickly get the hang of it and it was good fun and very tasty!
Day 3 - Christchurch to Lake Tekapo (255km)
We collect our budget campervan which, although budget, is luxury to us after having had the Wicked van in Oz. For a start we can stand up in it because it’s a high top, we have electricity, a fridge, cooker, sink with an electric pump for the water, plenty of storage for clothes and cases and to top it off we have clean matching linen, a duvet and hot water bottles - sheer luxury! After stocking up on supplies (including bananas, which are affordable here - hooray)
we hit the southwest scenic route bound for Lake Tekapo.
The drive takes us through farmland into McKenzie Country where we are treated to beautiful views of snow capped mountains almost in every direction. Lake Tekapo is amazing, its water is a sparkling turquoise blue colour framed by hills and the Southern Alps. After booking into our lakeside campsite for the night we set off on a 3hr walk which is more of a climb than I expected but with some grit, sweat and near tears(! - from HMF) we reach the summit of Mt John for spectacular panoramic views. We are the only people up there and it’s breathtakingly peaceful and tranquil almost eerily quiet apart from the howling wind!
When we get back to our van we head straight for the nearest clothes shop to invest in some warmer clothes, fleeces and rain jackets are required (cold being part of the reason for the near tears!). After dinner we take a short stroll along the lake front before retiring for the night suitably exhausted.
Day 4 - Lake Tekapo to Otago Peninsula, via Lake Pukaki and an abandoned trip to Mt Cook. (385km)
Before leaving
Lake Tekapo we stop in at the lakeside Church of the Good Shepherd for a look. It’s apparently very popular place for weddings and we can see why - it has the most idyllic setting and view through the large windows behind the altar. The Church is a hive of activity with a German film crew filming for a holiday programme. We graciously move out of their way but Simon takes the opportunity to ask if he can get a photo from on top of their van which they surprisingly agree to - slightly alarming because it’s very windy and a cameraman nearly blew off the top of the van - the things Simon’ll do in the interest of a good photo!
We continue our journey west towards Mt Cook but it’s clear as we’re going that the weather is deteriorating - it’s really wet, windy and foggy. We get to Lake Pukaki from where you should get lovely views of the lake with Mt Cook towering in the background but unfortunately all we could see was grey fog. We continue on but it’s clear that the weather’s going to hamper any effort to see the mountain so we
decide to about turn and take our scenic flight of this area from the otherside of the mountains when we get to Franz Josef.
En route we stop at Lake Aviemore for a cup of tea and then onwards to the Elephant Rocks, giant boulders sculpted by erosion from wind, rain and water to form a dramatic landscape and again it was very peaceful with only us and a few sheep to soak up the view. If it looks familiar it could be because the Elephant Rocks were used as setting for Aslan’s camp in Chronicles of Narnia - The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe.
We continued on our way stopping at Oamaru harbour for lunch and other brief stops at Moeraki Memorial Lookout and Shag Point (yeah baby!) to try and spot NZ fur seals (check) and penguins (no luck) before finishing our driving for the day on the very winding road along the shore of the Victoria Channel to the Otago Peninsula. Here we’re delighted to find that we can visit The Yellow Eyed Penguin conservation reserve where these endangered penguins have their own private beach, and through a series of tunnels and hides we’re
able to see them up close without distressing them (apparently they’re very shy and will hide from us if they see or hear us). As it’s evening we’re very lucky to see the change over of penguin parents from babysitting to fishing and so see penguins waddling up and down the beach, heading home or out to sea, before seeing some up close in their nests.
Day 5 - Otago Peninsula to Te Anau via Dunedin and Tunnel Beach (315km)
We set off along the peninsula road back to the historic town of Dunedin (Edinburgh of the South) where the sun is shining and we enjoy the heritage walk around the city. Then we head further south to the Tunnel beach walkway where we tackle a 1km walk. I know 1km doesn’t sound far but it was 1km down coastal cliffs and back up again(!!) but it was well worth the effort as it lead to a lovely beach with huge sea stacks, caves, arches and rock formations carved out of the sandstone. We continue on to Te Anau ready to experience the fiordlands for a few days and it’s an interesting journey where we went from glorious
sunshine in Dunedin to thunder and lightning storms, sleet and even scary hale storms. I kid you not it was raining huge chunks of ice and the windscreen took a bit of a beating (just as well we have windscreen damage cover!). We make it to Te Anau where it is bitter cold and again find ourselves buying more warm clothes hats, scarves etc - seriously it’s getting colder! (and this is meant to be summer!)
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jemma
non-member comment
penguins!!!!!!!
hurray for seeing some penguins :D :D aren't they just the cutest little things ever. NZ looks as fabulous as everyone says it is. Looks as though the weather is Scottish like to me as well as the scenery. Brrrr. It's good practise for what's to come once you get back to bommie scotland - tis freezing here. can't wait tos ee you guys xxx