Scenic Southern Half
Trip Start
Mar 10, 2005
1
19
24
Trip End
Aug 02, 2005
South Island,
New Zealand
Saturday, June 4, 2005
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Christchurch
After an early morning flight from Sydney to Christchurch, it was the time we had been waiting for . . . taking possession of the campervan.
If anyone is interested in the exact specifications of our mighty, motorized vehicle then you can go to the following link: http://www.pacifichorizon.co.nz/trade/2berth.html
Once duly briefed and inspected, we drove the quite top heavy vehicle to downtown Christchurch, managed to parallel park and hit (not literally, thank goodness) the Sunday crafts market and the Christchurch Art Gallery for a little culture
"The Chalice" in Christchurch's Cathedral Square
. After a grocery store run we pulled into the Christchurch Top 10 Holiday Park for our first foray into holiday park camping. A holiday park is essentially a campground with tent and powered sites for campervans as well as cabins and motels for those driving a car. Top 10 is one of the better chains and they give a 10% discount each night if you join their membership scheme - which we did. The park has the usual amenties including kitchen, TV lounge, Internet and laundry facilities. The lady at reception gave a broad smile when we told her it was our first time driving a campervan and staying in a holiday park. All the Kiwis have been super-friendly and it was a pleasant experience cooking our first dinner and pulling out the bed for a good night's rest. It is definitely close quarters, but ample space to sit and cook at the same time.Why did we rent a campervan? It was recommended by nearly everyone who had spent time in New Zealand that we bumped into along our travels. The country is set up for campervan. There are pull offs by the side of the road for camping, loading up on water, emptying tanks, and for getting propane tanks filled. Nearly every vehicle you see on the roads between tourist destinations are campervans. So when in Rome....
A little vocab lesson: Campervan = no toilet / shower. Recreational Vehicle = shower / toilet. We are in a campervan. Let's fill up with diesel and be on our way...
May 30
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Christchurch --> Oamaru
After a quick breakfast we had a quick look at the Christchurch Cathedral and Square before making a stop at the Salvation Army store to pick up a couple winter jackets since in fact it is winter in New Zealand
A Moeraki Turtle
. It was one of Alex's better ideas this trip. Two jackets and two books = $16 USD.With our secondhand jackets purchased we took off south down the coast from Christchurch to the small town of Oamaru. The drive was very scenic and Alex learned to drive a large, slightly underpowered diesel machine. The land was relatively flat on the coast but to our left you could see the mountain ranges so we had scenic vistas complete with sheep grazing in the pastures surrounding us. It was hard not to get the camera out and take thousands of pictures. You may ask yourself what Oamaru has to offer . . . well, penguins. This small town has a colony of rare yellow-eyed penguins and a blue (aka little) penguin colony. For the yellow-eyed penguins, there was a hide set up above the beach where you could try to spot some of them coming ashore in the late afternoon. Winter unfortunately is not a season when penguins proliferate along the coast, but huddling together with all our layers on we spotted 4 penguins return home. Of course we couldn't see if they really had the yellow band around their eyes since they were far away, but we could clearly see a fat seal wallowing on the beach as we walked back to the car. Our second stop of the evening was the blue penguin colony as they come ashore later than the others. You have to pay for the privilege to sit in a grandstand and view the homecoming of these little guys and gals though. So we bought our tickets, watched the video and listened to commentary while anxiously awaiting the arrival of the first raft (group of penguins that come ashore together) of penguins to arrive. There were about 30 in the first raft and they were adorable. Very blue on the back and white on the front which evidently is good camaflouge in the water from predators. They waddled up the rocks that had been nicely cemented for them to make their way across a gravel path, through a wire fence and into the vegetation where nesting boxes had been placed by the park service in an effort to increase the penguin numbers in a protected environment
Best view we got of the rare yellow-eyed penguin
. There were several more rafts that came ashore and we watched enthralled with these funny-looking birds. A total of 70 came home this night. We then went to the camp ground and cooked up some dinner before bedding down for our second night of campervanism. Unfortunatlely, we could not take any pictures, but the pengiuns were quite hilarious as they went through their routine of getting out of the water, feeding their young, and then squaking around their nest. May 31
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Oamaru --> Queenstown
We were treated to a long day of driving but the landscapes were incredible. The road inland to Queenstown as we headed across to the west coast climbed through the Southern Alps whose tops were capped with snow. This portion of the trip required a lot of driving, but with the surrounding landscape it was the journey that made our days rather than particular towns or attractions. Just a little south of Oamaru, we stopped briefly to see a geologic phenomenon - the Moeraki Boulders. These spherical rocks were actually formed within the cliffs on the beach and as time eroded the cliffs the boulders fell out onto the beach. Originally, sixty million years ago these rocks were formed around a central core of carbonate of lime crystals which attracted minerals from their surroundings
Campervan Dinner
. They were quite interesting to check out. Queenstown is the adventure activity capital of NZ and where the bungy jump was invented by AJ Hackett. Other activities including jetboating, swinging, whitewater sledging and river surfing just to name a few more interesting activities on offer. They all seemed like adrenalin rushes and we got a rush just finding out how expensive they are to do. Since our $ doesn't go as far on this part of the trip as the first half we have selected our priority activities and unfortunately nothing in Queenstown fit the bill. For dinner though Alex was hungry for some lamb and we found a great, inexpensive pub (Speight's Ale House) that served generous portions of marinated lamb shanks. Even without our adrenalin rush we went to sleep happy.
June 1
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Queenstown --> Fox Glacier
We woke to a chilly morning in Queenstown but of course you must have a tramp before breakfast . . . so we headed up Queenstown Hill for some panoramic views before we started out for Fox Glacier. However, we did eat some "brekkie" beforehand.
On our northwestern drive towards the west coast we got the bright idea to try out a little free camping at Lake Matheson nearby Fox Glacier for the night. "Free" means exactly that however, our camper doesn't have a toilet/shower though we figured there was plenty of places in the bush
Christchurch Cathedral
. We arrived after dark but could still make out that a couple of other people had the same idea we did. Our heater doesn't work without electricity though with a few extra layers and cooking over gas heat we managed. After dinner we played cards and slept under three duvets. Unbeknownst to us the overnight temperature dropped below zero and a very frosty, rainy morning greeted us as we got out of our warm, cosy bed. The next day we learned that our first free camping night was actually the coldest night of the year thus far. June 2
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Fox Glacier
Again, no day in New Zealand is complete without a morning walk so we headed just across the parking lot where we had stayed the night to Lake Matheson for a circuit that provided the beautiful reflection of Mts. Tasman and Cook on its surface. The mountains were visible (though shrouded in clouds by the time we finished our walk).
In the afternoon, and in the pouring rain, we joined our group from Alpine Guides for a hike up and onto Fox Glacier. It was still raining but they gave us raincoats and waterproof pants along with our boots and crampons (they are the spikes you buckle onto the boot for walking on ice). The glacier was huge. After the Tasman Glacier, Fox Glacier and nearby Franz Josef Glacier are the next largest ones. We walked down to the terminus (end) of the glacier and then hiked up the lateral moraine wall (side) and finally put on our crampons for our climb up to the top surface of the glacier via steps carved earlier by guides
Did someone lose some shoes?
. It was incredible to see other hikers in comparison to the height of the glacier and the blueness of the ice was beautiful. It was awe-inspiring. After our hike we checked out the glow worms in a little forested area on the edge of town - pretty cool. Back at the holiday park we cooked dinner and slept warmly with our electricity cord plugged in.June 3
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Fox Glacier --> Kaikoura
Yet again after breakfast we took a walk (though the shortest yet) up to a lookout point for the Franz Joseph Glacier a little north en route to our trek back across the country to the east coast town of Kaikoura. It was a long day (7.5 driving hours and 500 km) but we made it into Kaikoura's Top 10 Holiday Park before the office closed for the evening. We were ready to swim with dolphins.
