Back to the South Island!

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I’d like to echo Kirstie’s sentiments at the end of the last blog regarding all the great people we’ve met and all those who’ve been helpful along the way. It was unfortunate that Kirstie had to fly home when she did, and I missed my amazing girlfriend and awesome travelling partner very much. However, I was lucky enough to have another two weeks away with my parents, before my return to England. The first of which was spent going back to the beautiful South Island…

We picked up our campervan from Christchurch airport, and it turned out that my parents had booked a rather grand and complicated “mobile mansion”, at least in comparison to what Kirstie and I had been accustomed to. Although a challenge to drive, it made a great little home for 6 days on the road. With such a little amount of time to see various places, we needed to get lucky with the potentially temperamental South Island weather, and lucky we were! Our first three days were glorious, with sunshine and blue skies. This coincided with our stops to the main areas of dramatic scenery.

Our first full day encapsulated the journey through Arthur’s Pass National Park right down to Franz Joseph glacier. Arthur’s Pass was just as grand as it was before, particularly the Waimakariri Valley, and it was a great introduction to the island for Mum and Dad. We ended the day camped near Franz Joseph Glacier, having our dinner outside as the sun set over the Southern Alps.

The next day was truly mesmerising in terms of both weather and scenery! We awoke to a crystal clear sky with no cloud, not even around the mountain tops. This is a true rarity in an area which receives rainfall on 360 out 365 days a year. We raced to Lake Matheson where Kirstie and I were previously denied the perfect view by clouds around the mountains, not this time! As we walked around the lake we had perfectly beautiful views of Mt. Cook and Mt. Tasman gleaming in the distance. The pictures will hopefully do better justice than my words. After viewing the magnificent Fox Glacier, we were on the road again towards Wanaka. The drive turned out to arguably surpass the beauty of Arthur’s Pass, it was all new to me, as on this section of the journey last time we’d had awful weather and couldn’t see anything. There were too many highlights to mention along the way, with the only downside being the ravenous and numerous sand-flies in certain spots.

After camping at Wanaka we were off to the lovely Queenstown region in the morning. After a good coffee in the town, we had a breath-taking drive alongside Lake Wakatipu with the Remarkable and Eyre mountains towering up either side. Next stop was Fjordland and its gateway Te Anau, again I could see so much more of the scenery this time due to a lack of low cloud. We spent a lovely evening surrounded by nature at Deer Flat along the Milford Road.

It could be taken that our luck with the weather ran out the next day when we were to see Milford Sound. However, with pouring rain the thousand waterfalls become all-powerful as they cascade over the insurmountable granite walls of the Sound. The downside is that we failed to see Mitre Peak through the mist and cloud. After viewing the raw power of water grinding through rock at The Chasm, which Dad was thrilled about, we camped up in central Otago for the night. The next couple of days were spent getting back to Christchurch by driving through the old goldfields of Otago and then up the east coast from Oamaru on our final day in plenty of sunshine.

After our connecting flight to Auckland, it was finally time to say a very sad goodbye to this outstanding country. It will simply always be with me, everything about it is special. Maybe one day I’ll be back for good!

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Photos

Lake Matheson
With Mt. Cook (right) and Mt. Tasman (left) in the distance.