On The Rocks

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Continuing down the west coast adjacent to the Southern Alps we arrived at glacier country with the sun shining and not a cloud in the sky. Within this area there are two glaciers Franz Josef and Fox Glacier, both formed during the last ice age. The glaciers were turquiose in colour and up close looked dirty from the rock deposits. The rivers of ice carved impressively steep valley's, the photo's don't do the imposing glaciers justice.

From the glaciers we ambled through the middle of the island to Jackson. We stayed our final night in the campervan in the best park so far; Jackson's Retreat. Although raining heavily the covered pitches were just the touch with windows looking out across the mountains, foot mats and sinks made our final night all the more pleasureable. During evening we had a bit of a mad one, trying to rid the van of all the food we had gathered over the past 25 days by divulging in a left-over's banquet. The celebrating slid onto the goodies at reception; banana & chocolate cookies, coconut slab...well I guess we need to do some stock piling for China! Annoyingly we left the van for 5 minutes to get the sweets and a flightless bird dumped on our mat so No had to secretly swop our mat with our neighbours, te he.

The last and final day saw us drive through the magnificent Arthur's Pass enroute to Christchurch. It had been raining all day previously but somehow our luck was in and it seemed someone from above was smiling down on us as upon entering the pass the sun shone through the clouds and we didn't have any rain for the rest of the day. A last minute swurve off the road landed us in a beauty of a spot for lunch. We even went to the lengths of reversing the van so it was over the edge of a hill in prime position on a one road track. It gave us great views of the surrounding valleys and mountains, unfortunately it also gave the road great views of us and it wasn't long before a Pacific Horizon campervan, the clue of the size is in the name, drew up infront of us to get a nosy at what we were doing. Monkey see monkey do. It seems the sandfly season had commenced and the blighters lunched on Caz's feet and fingers whilst we enjoyed the views.

We spent the afternoon savouring our last few hours with the van by making sure we stopped at every photo opportunity we could. We arrived at Christchurch and having at length discussed what the best course of action was we decided to spend the night in a tourist cabin to enable us to move all our stuff out of the van and give it a good clean out. After spending so much time in such a small space it was such a luxury having the whole cabin to ourselves. Well the day of reckoning was upon us and we had to hand the old beauty back to the rental people, for it had done us proud, forgetting the minor tyre blip of course. Back to thinking and planning, the easy option really had been taken away from us.

Christchurch is a weird one, nothing like the big cities in the north island and therefore nothing really to write home about, sorry Christchurch. We pit stopped for a few days before venturing to Queenstown to see the final parts of New Zealand.

Having spent 7 hours on a hot sweaty bus we arrived at Queenstown with a problem, we had rang ahead thinking it would be busy like everyone does and we were left with a rubbish room. Backpacker is considered to be the cheapest, nastiest form of accommodation and when you scale it up it offers extraordinarily poor value for money. We visited a few places which coined the lucrative term 'backpacker' and were disappointed with what we saw. A good example was a double room for $55 shared kitchen, shared bathroom, the room was no bigger than a double bed, the bed was 2 mattresses on top of one another, the wallpaper had been ripped from the wall and there was dead insects behind the bed. Then in the same place they offered another room for $90 which was totally self contained, brand new decor, kitchen, bathroom, tv, table, chairs, king size bed, free tea and coffee, shampoo, conditioner. Never a truer word spoken than you get what you pay for but the relationship between value for money and quality just didn't make sense.

With the weather forecast favourable we hastily booked a Milford Sound Select tour and we would have to say it was a great day out even though it rained throughout the whole of the milford sound. The bus driver was a friendly chap giving us a running commentory throughout the day, umbrellas when we went for a walk and even gave us the low down on what dairy farmers are earning - $500,000 profit if you would believe. No has now decided to change career and become a dairy and beef farmer...only joking.

Later in the Queens town we decided to ride the gondola's (cable car to you and me) up the mountain to the top. The views were truly magnificent and having done the 30 minute loop walk it was only right to loop around to the sky bar. Christmas tunes in the background and enjoyment of the highlife along with the lack of O2 seemed to be making the booze stronger or maybe it was the doubles, I can't remember how we got back to the room.

Final Word
It had its ups and downs and considering no-one lives here there is always somebody somewhere. The tempermental weather didn't come as a surprise, but my hayfever did. I'm not one to go along with popular opinion but throughout our level headed trip I have to say that New Zealand and the people we met made for one very pleasant place.

I wonder if we will ever come back...?

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Photos

Arthurs Pass
Limestone Mountains

Queenstown
View From Above

Lake Oneatip
No Assures Me It Was Called This...

1694 Milford Sound
Not A Lot Changes, Been Like This For A Million Years

Queenstown
View Across Lake

Lupins
Looking Over A Glacier Lake

Arthurs Pass
Breath Taking Scenery

Mysterious Beach
Ripply Beach

Christchurch
The Square

Christchurch
City Tram

Comments

[Morag Willsher]

so cool and clear and minty!
... Reminds me of Fox's Glacier Mints! - I wonder if the glacier inspired the sweet? Beautiful photos - you're giving us ideas for future summer holidays - wonder how much it costs to hire a larger camper van suitable for oldies to tour round in comfort?

[Caz and No]

You'll want a big beast van - mauri or kea. November and March are the best times to hire as there are less tourists and the weather is reasonably warm. There you go your next holiday sorted.

[Darren morgan]

Piccys
The piccys look wicked, i bet you are just loving it out there.

[Michelle B]

Wow!
Hi Guys! So glad that you are still having a fab time! Sound like the camper van was ace. I didn't realise that new Zealand is so varied in its terrain! Reminders of Mrs Ho geography lessons... lol, that did make me laugh! You have seen some beautiful places I can't wait to see all of the pictures when you get back! :)