Kia Ora!!! This means welcome, so read on. We left the States on the 2nd June and arrived in New Zealand on the 4th June. I am so pleased that my birhday wasn't on the 3rd June because the dateline meant we lost a full day and the 3rd did not exist - very strange!
We decided to do this leg of our trip in a Campervan to experience freedom of the open road, stop where ever we wanted and let our imagination take the lead. This all seemed to be working really well, when we had our first stop, deciding to pull in and camp beside a lake so blue, it was as if it had a direct feed from the ancient ice of a glacier. We cracked a beer and watched the sun go down behind the snow capped Mount Cooke and considered ourselves very lucky to have this opportunity to travel. Then as the night drew in, the sky lit up so bright that it seemed Europe needed to stop using economy bulbs and upgrade to the same wattage our friends in NZ! Even the milky way looked so brilliant that it looked like a spectacular lunar highway - now there would be a road trip! Then the cold set in, and our free-spirited start to the trip plunged into the icy depths of despair!! Our van was pretty old and drafty, so you could feel the wind howling around the inside of the cab! We needed to leave our clothes on, add more layers and our winter woolies, then the duvet, then my Peruvian throw and still we were frozen to the bone! We huddled together like two tramps in a door way hoping for the morning when we could get on our way, get the engine running and thaw out in the front cab!! Needless to say, we were a little more than anxious about our second night, particularly given we were heading South and the temperature was dropping further. So, when we couldn't find anywhere to pull over the second night and had to stay in a trailer park, we were secretly pleased. We could pull out the electric heater, look up to the power supply and have a cosy night's sleep - it was great! We were a bit disappointed with ourselves though, not quite freedom of the road when you are staying in what feels like a glorified cark park, but sometimes the weather prevails and you just have to give in to being a pussy!! We even improvised with a makeshift toilet in the van - remember how the Victorians did it? Well, we did the same, we had our very own pee potty - a lovely bright red bucket! May sound like we had gone a bit native but man, when its blowing a hoolly and the rain is lashing against the van, you really don't want to leave the warmth just to wet your petal! Don't worry guys, we drew the line at pooing, that was saved for the public toliets only!
The South Island is just so beautiful. We started at Christchurch, picking up the Ezy van, then made our way towards Te Anua to visit Milford Sound. The landscape is just incredible, the grass looks as if its been given artificial colouring because its just so so vibrantly green, and the mountainous landscape that surrounds you, leaves you lost for words.
Milford Sound is just one of the South Island's fjords and its beautiful. To approach, you drive through a vastopen vally towards the mountains, it feels as if you are going to hit a dead end because the road ahead is not obvious. Then you start to ascend, and find yourself surrounded by granite mountain faces covered in hundreds of waterfalls almost like blood through veins. You really felt like you were looking at a living breathing thing. We then drove through the mountain in a man made tunnel and emerged the other side where we needed to descend in to the valley below. This was truly magical, and we were lost for words as we dropped into the mist below unable to see what was ahead. We took ship and headed out to see the Sound. We were not disappointed. The same veins of water were descending down the green clad cliffs and raging waterfalls dominated some of the cliffs entirely. The boat got real close so we could feel the power and be humbled by this awesome force of nature.
From Milford, we made our way to Queenstown and then onto the Faust Pass. This took our little van through some challenging terrain , very rugged steep roads with tight turns. Andy made sure we got the most out of our baby and we just leaned in the appropriate direction to avoid tumbling, to go faster or to slow down!! We emerged on the West on the South Island and took the coastal road through some extraordinary rainforest like surroundings. It was pouring with rain but we loved it because it made the greens seem so much more alive and more vivid. We passed via a couple of glaciers, wich were awesome, even crossing the "no go" wire so we could get a closer look. You can imagine that we swiftly got back over the wire when we heard a piece of the glacier crack and fall into the river!
Our plan was to take one of the passes back over the mountains to Christchurch but this was swiftly blighted when we found fresh snow had sumped and made the pass "impassable". We did consider still doing it for a while, but then remembered the rugby team who eat other when their plane had crashed in the Andes (that said Andy's got a few rump steaks in his butt I wouldn't mind digging in to! So we had to take a detour and go all the way around the island - adding about 400km onto an already long drving day. Andy was a trooper bless, and I brought up the rear with red bulls and party tricks!
We met up with Darren and Donna when we hit Auckland. What a great couple and looked after us like kings. Donna so knew my needs, setting me up with a large glass of vino and a very hot bath. Wow! We had lots of laughs and were sorry to say goodbye, but we did alas after flattening their beer and wine stocks, and teaching Daz how to make his red beast (aka 4 wheel drive) go faster! If your reading guys, thanks a million and see you soon.
The North Island was also beautiful but for its rugged coastline rather than its mountains and fjords. We took a great tour around the Bay of Islands and had the pleasure of dolphins swimming alongside the boat and jumping around in front of us. It was wonderful to see them so free spirited rather than performing tricks in a animal park.
One of the highlights of the North Island was a speedboat trip we did. Man, this was cool!! We boarded for a 35 minute journey of rip roaring fun over river rapids. We did 360 degree turns, bounched alot and had near misses with some large boulders - a speciality of the trip!! It was so much fun and we got the photo CD for free which was fab!!
New Zealand comes highly recommended, its gorgeous with so much to see and do. Would love to come back in the summer when I reckon it looks so different. The people are friendly and the beers are great. Would love the opportunity to go back if we get chance.
