South Island of New Zealand in April 2011
NEW ZEALAND | Wednesday, 11 May 2011 | Views [1509]
We left for Christchurch on 12th May 2011. Our Virgin Blue flight left Sydney
at 6.50pm and we arrive at 11.50pm. Not a very social hour to be arriving into a
city you've never been before but it is part of the package we bought.
About
two months previous, we were walking Zara down Hunter Street Newcastle to keep her amused (and
show her off of course) and nearly walked straight past Flight Centre but we
stopped and looked, as we always do if not only to dream a little. We seen a
brochure on a New Zealand holiday for 12 days Motorhome, 2 nights accomodation
and flights included for about $1600. The Motorhome has toilet and shower, so
the main obstacle to driving a Motorhome was overcome.
We had been thinking
of becoming grey nomads at some stage in the future but aren't sure if we would
survive (or the marriage) living in confined spaces and like gypsys. This is an
ideal opportunity to see if we like that sort of thing and also cross New
Zealand south Island off the bucket list. The ultimate test I suppose. Small
Motorhome in a foreign country (thats if you can call NZ foreign), in the middle
of winter with no previous experince of this type of thing.
We went in and
spoke with a lady from FlightCentre who explained the deal to us. Of course all
these deals aren't what they seem on the surface. So, when we left FlightCentre
we were booked on thr trip, all excited and $2000 poorer. The reason there are
two nights accomodation are because of the very unsocial hour the flights leave
and arrive. Our flight coming back is at 6.00am which means we need to be at
Christchurch airport at 4.00am.
We aren't sure about the climate during May
in South NZ. That is, will it be just cold, blooming cold or just freezing. Time
will tell.
Thursday 12th April 2012 – arrived Christchurch at about midnight. The Sudimo Motel has a pick up service which is about
55 seconds drive in a mini bus from the Christchurch Int. Airport.
I’m sure Sudimo is Maori for ‘rabbit warren’. We
walked about 1klm of corridors looking our room.
Next morning we checked out, went next door to the Motor Home
hire park to get our ‘home’. We watched
a video on how the vitals worked – we think we absorbed everything necessary.
We left the Motor Home BHire and our first port of
call was a supermarket for provisions. Bananas’ only $1.29 a kg. They came from South America ( Peru we think).
In Australia there were about $15kg because of the severe storms and flooding in northern NSW and Queensland.
We decided to travel south down the east coast of NZ so we travelled south from the
supermarket. Approx ½ later stopped for lunch – there was a salmon farm across
road so went and had a look – more of an advert for the Canterbury district
than for salmon farm. Not a great exhibition of how the salmon industry works
but none the less interesting, giving the Cantebury district good coverage.
Continued onto a town of about a quarter the size
of Newcastle called Timaru – stayed in a holiday park – very good – the park had
full kitchen facilities, lounge with TV.
All worked well with our van except we had trouble
getting the hot water to work – sorted out in light of day – realised we hadn’t
turned both gas switches – do these things in daylight.
Windy (which Wendy’s Maori name) was cleaning her
teeth in the facilities at the caravan park, out of the showers walked a lady
with a NSW Nurses Association T shirt on. They didn’t know each other but this
is a small world. She also is from the Hunter Valley.
Timaru is a lovely port town. Tried to do a brewery tour but missed out on
booking in. Had a good look around the
town and went to the Aigentaigh Art Gallery (pronounced egg and tie). Very impressive.
Lunches on the road tended to be good healthy salads with a cup of tea
Capt John Cain (the bloke in the middle) was an important part of the history of Timauru.
After that we meandered up the valley to a small
winery called Opihi. They have a very nice boutique winery and also run a
restaurant. Not user friendly prices for their wines. After Opihi we trundled
onto Fairlie which is a little town of about 1000 people. You know the sort, 2
pubs, 2 service stations, a golf club, a bowling club and a couple of dozen
boutique style shops. (and a few not so boutique) The caravan park is well
appointed and has free wifi. During the drivewe drove passed an Asian
looking bloke on a bicycle with all his worldy possessions strapped to the bike.
Later that afternoon he came and camped next to us in the park. We didn’t envy
him sleeping out in the cold, wet night. He looked like a northern chinese (mongolian)
On Sunday we left Fairlie and travelled to Lake
Tekapo. The lake water is a turquoise colour due to the ‘rock flour’ suspended in the
glacial melt water that was created by the grinding of the glacier on the
stones.
There is also a monument to the Border Collie dog at Lake Tekapo.
The
locals acknowledged the contribution to farming on the area of the dog. The
Church of the Good Shepherd at Lake Tekapo
(which is adjacent to the statue) is built from local stone in 1935. They
still hold services every second Sunday.
From there we drove to Mt Cook. The main
reason being we wanted to see the Sir Edmond Hillary Alpine Centre which is a static display of his expeditions and feats. We had
previously been to the Royal Mountaineering Institute in Darjeeling (Ind) which
was the birth place and home of Tingseng Norgay (Hillary’s guide), it has an
impressive display of mountaineering equipment as well as photo’s of Hillary’s
exploits. Unfortunately the Mt. Cook display was disappointing. More glitz than substance.
We then drove to Tizel (tie-zel) for fuel (we got 480k with 59l of
diesel)and then onto Omarama for the night. We got there early so we could do
some washing and go to the local Pub to watch the Knights play the Warriors (Sky
TV).
The Omarama Pub was a quaint little establishment with one bar,
some food and accommodation. Half a dozen locals and us. One of the locals
brought in his most beautiful 14 year old Golden Retriever to soak up the warmth
and say hello. After patting the dog and giving her great affection, we realised
the dogs last bath was in 1999. I’ve smelled billy goats that were better. A
quick wash was required. We asked the lady behind the bar to change the TV channel from a program on trout fishing, which no-one was watching, over to SKYTV so we could watch the Newcastle Knights give the NZ Warriors a lesson. Wrong move. We sat and watched the Warriors do to the Knights what we had hope they would do to the Warriors. the locals were in a good mood that afternoon. Whilst it may have been a Rudgy Union town, it didn't matter as long as they beat the Aussies. It was a long afternoon for us but the locals were very hospitable.
On Monday (day 4) we left Omarama for a leisurely
drive to Dunedin. (a couple of hours normally) This took us via Oamaru on the
coast. This is a quaint little portside village of maybe 20,000 people. It is
steeped in history of its fishing, coal and gold. Fishing is the only industry
there today. There is also a large Blue Penguin colony of which the locals make
much of. We went through the Oamaru art gallery which was disappointing however
we then went through the Woolstore Complex nearby where many of the local
artists show their works. This was well worth the time. There are many
accomplished artists in Oamaru. 
Then we travelled south to Dunedin and booked into
a van park. Dunedin has about 120,000 people. It appears one of the main
‘industries’ is the University. About 25,000 of the Dunedin community are
directly involved with the university with about 20,000 being students.
The weather was ‘awful’...cold and blowy. We
decided to try the local pub again. We braved the weather and walked the 2
blocks to the Pub and walked into something similar to that of the Fairlie Pub.
One Bar, a small restaurant and some accommodation. The only thing missing was
the smelly Golden Retriever. At this Pub, apparently it is common practice to
buy a jug of beer and take it back to your table a drink it out of a glass. Most
people do this. Apparently the beer doesn’t get warm? We walked back to our van
after one drink and the sight of Windy in a beanie and mittens is a sight to
behold. Our steak and stir fry vegies was great for dinner that night. There is
nothing like cooking in a Motorhome. The night was cold but calm.
On Tuesday (day 5) we ventured into the city of
Dunedin to go on a double decker bus ‘city’ tour which lasted about 90minutes.
It showed us all the sights which included all the historic buildings and
monuments. It was very interesting. It also included a stop at what is recorded
as being the steepest street on record. (Guinness book approved) It has a rating
of 1: 2.86 which is pretty steep. It is called Baldwin Street. I suppose passing
the Guinness test is proof positive that its the steepest street but we think
we’ve walked up steeper hills in Darjeeling.
On Wednesday we left Dunedin and decided to give Invercargill a miss, the weather was fowl and unappealing so we drove south to Balclutha then turned right to head across toward Te Anau, (tee-an-now) via Gore and Lumsden. We arrived early afternoon and went for a good walk around the town. It is a very pretty little village of a few thousand people which is nestled on the side of Lake Te Anau. It relies heavily on tourism with the snow and the Lake. Plenty of little restaurants and specialty shops. Of course Milford Sound is the main drawcard as it is the main major town close to Milford. We stayed the night in the local van park and met some interesting people, not the least of which was a know-all Aussie and his wife.
The next morning we took a coach trip from Te Anau (tee-an-now) to Milford which was uneventful however the expert commentary by Simon made the trip interesting. We used a company called Cruise Milford and they did a good job. The trip took about 150 minutes with several stops on the way and some time for a snow fight or two.
We boarded the Milford Adventurer for a leisurely 90
minute cruise on the Sound with expert commentary by the Captain. One of the
highlights of the trip was the dolphins that played games with us for quite some
time. There seemed to be between 15 to 20 dolphins having fun on both sides of
the boat. This is not a common occurrence and we were very lucky on the day.The scenery was spectacular even though it was an overcast day and there was plenty of mist.
It reminded us somewhat of the Yangtze River cruise with
the mountains on either side of the boat, but there weren’t any monkeys on the
banks at Milford. The drive back to Te Anau was uneventful. We went shopping
late in the afternoon and had very nice NZ Lamb Shanks for dinner. Stayed a
second night in Te Anau.
On Friday we decided to give Queenstown a miss and
drive straight to Fox Glacier. Our Kruse (navman) said we should go from
Arrowtown to Wanaka via the shortest route. This took us via alpine mountain
goat territory. But there weren’t any goats (because it was too cold and too
steep for them). Baldwin Street Dunedin was a cake walk compared to the “Crown
Range” road. It winds, it twists, it goes straight up, it goes straight down, it
goes left, it goes right and then gets narrow, then it widens, it has hair-pin
turns and very few sign posts to tell you what is coming ahead.
It was about 38k of very strenuous
driving.
Having said that, it is one of the most beautiful
drives you can do. (sitting in the passengers seat)
Going
through the “Crown Range” was Windy’s first go at driving the Van. All our driving thus far had been short and uneventful. This was a longer trip and it was about time Windy had a drive. Her first time in an unfamiliary very large vehicle, she copped what can only be described as ‘baptism under fire’.
She soon learned how the vehicle handled and did a great job in getting us to
Wanaka.
Wanaka turned out to be a stunning little town of a few thousand folk.
It also was nestled a lake and looked like a great place to stay for a while but
our plans didn’t allow it. (NB – ‘folk’ is what NZers call people).
Wanaka is renowed for its skiing in the winter.
Another
couple hours on the road and we were in Fox Glacier township. We booked into
the Van Park for the night and also booked ourselves a half day Glacier walk for the next day.
Saturday – up bright and
early to go on what turned out to be a most spectacular half day guided tour of
the Fox Glacier. The tour company provided boots, socks, raincoat and crampons
(spikes for walking on the ice.) The Glacier is about a 10min bus ride from the
township and then we had a 20 min walk from the Glacier Carpark to the face. It
then took about another 20min walking to get up onto the ice where we applied
the crampons. We had about an hour walking on the ice. Our guide Andrew, chipped
away at the ice where he thought it was going to be slippery. We all found our
‘ice’ feet after a while and got used to stamping our feet into the ice for
traction. We both had too much clothing on. I had three ‘rugby’ jerseys on and
had to take one off. Fingers and toes got very cold but it was still very pleasant. It
is surprising how much rock and debris is on the ice and particularly on the
side of the Glacier. This is called moraine,
a
formation composed of unsorted and unbedded rock and soil debris called till,
which was deposited by a glacier. The walk was one of the highlights of holiday.
After our
walk we went back to the township and then drove to Greymouth through
rainforests and winding roads.
It was on the drive to Greymouth we came apon a rather unusual bridge. It was a Road/Rail bridge. Whilst not rare, the total absence of signage is. Is there a train coming, who knows?
Greymouth
is at the mouth of the Grey River (strangely enough). It has nothing but grey
rocks on the beaches and the town itself looked grey. We stayed one uneventful night. Did the normal things like driving around the town and visiting the supermarket for the nights meal. The next day was a cold Sunday
morning and nothing much happened in the town at that time of day. So we left at
about 11.00am to drive to Hanmer Springs. 
Hanmer
Springs is renowned for its thermal springs. It has 9 open air thermal pools and
3 sulphur pools. We both thought about going for a swim in one of them but very
quickly came to our senses and decided – no. (no appropriate clothing) It is
also a ski resort in winter and a very touristy town of probably 10 thousand
people. It is a day tripper drive from Christchurch (90min).
One night in Hanmer Springs was probably enough as we didn't feel like going into the spring water and it was a very touristy town.
We drove on to Christchurch the following day. Nothing eventful along the way except we noticed how the NZers cultivate very large hedges, presumably for wind breaks. Stayed at a park on the northern side of Christchurch, parked the van and caught a bus into town. The city centre is pretty much a rubble after the numerous earthquakes and will take a decade to recover. However I remember after the Newcastle earthquake of 1989, we all thought doom and gloom at the time but hindsight shows that apart from the loss of life, most of the things to come from it were positive. Insurance companies may not think so. We had a look at the Airforce Museum, it was well presented and interesting.
We had our last night in Christchurch at the 'rabbit warren' Sudimo. Across the road from the motel is the Antartic Centre. That is something to be proud of for the NZers. We found it fascinating and well worth the visit. They have a small room that mimics the atmosphere in the Antarctic. It replicates the temperature and sounds that go to make the Antarctic what it is. Here we see Windy on a snow mobile in that room which was at about -17 degree celcius. 
They also take you for a ride in their snowmobile, good fun.
The next morning, up at 4.00am to the Airport for the trip home.
The South Island of NZ is prettier than the North Island but they both have many things to offer the traveller. The NZ people are a friendly lot of 'folk' and in many ways just like Aussies. It was good to try and learn their language. The one thing we didn't do in NZ was ask for some 'fush n chups'. We can recommend hiring a Motor Home for 12 days to look around.
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