New Zealand South Island

 

 

John and Ros were going to the airport around the same time we were due to be there so we rode with them to the airport!  We were actually a little emotional leaving them, we had such a lovely time with them!

We boarded our plane for the 3hour flight and were delighted to see screens on the back of our seats with full in flight entertainment! As we were just about to set off the guy in front of us looked behind and signalled for the air hostess to come up to him. He pointed to patch under the wing of the plane and said he had noticed dripping from the wing while we were parked. Jaysus!

She sped off and then not long after we start moving again. A bit of back and forth we were eventually led back to the maintenance area of the runway where it was looked into. It turned out just to be some condensation dripping! Not fuel as we all ominously aniticipated! Better safe than sorry and all that!

When we arrived to Christchurch airport it was ghostly quiet! So strange for a large international airport to be so! As we were passing through immigration we were told of the earthquake just before Christmas that had completely destructed the road on the east coast. Also, the devastating earthquake in 2011 has also contributed to the lack of people arriving in!

 

We arrived after hours for pickup of our rental 'campervan' but it all worked out well and we collected it with the help of a lovely lad who was driving the Airport transfer to the rental cars. He was quite Irish in his demeanour, very friendly and not one feck given, he exclaimed about a car parked in the wrong place calling him a 'prick'! Quite endeared us to him! The car was automatic which we wouldn't be used to so he gave Daniel a short demo, couldn't have done enough!

 

Our rental campervan was more like a big car with the seats in the back folding down for the bed and the boot had a stove, sink and fridge! Everything you needed. We were giddy with excitement! Here we were finally roadtripping in New Zealand! We stayed in Christchurch in a holiday park for the first night and visited a large store quite like Tesco and loaded up on supplies! Sausies for brekkie!!!!

 

The next morning we got up early to head to the west coast via Arthurs Pass. Such a beautiful drive, through villages, miles and miles of forested mountains and rivers, waterfalls. We stopped at a lovely town called 'Castle Hill' it is where the Dalai Lama visited and named it 'The Universla Centre of Spirituality' aptly named it has such a serene atmosphere, about 12 little log cabins amongst the hills.

We took a hike through one of the trails along the way too which was lovely! Seeing snow capped mountains in the background a particular highlight!

It is a dangerous place to be driving as a tourist its hard to only look at the road with all the beautiful scenery surrounding you! Hence we stopped quite a lot along the way to take it all in! We finally arrived to Greymouth a sleepy cowboy style town along the coast. We set up our spot in the holiday park and went for a jog along the sea.

 

From Greymouth th next day we made our way to Franz Josef further south stopping along the way in Hoikato. Great town! It was part of the Gold Rush in New Zealand which I never knew. They still maintain the old school style of the town and have a museum dedicated to the history.  Just 30 minutes outside the town is the Hoikato Gorge and my is it GORGE!! A 2 min walk from the car, cross a rickety bridge that only supports 6 people and sit amongst the large boulders sitting alongside the river that runs through it. Incredible, the water a shade of blue wed not seen before! -2 two though so not overly inticing! One mad man there though jumped off into it! Daniel was tempted!

 

We then arrived in Franz Josef, a ski village oddly enough and as we walked through it in the evening it was strange to see palm trees amongst cabins with fire places and snow capped mountains in the background. We picked up a bottle of local New Zealand wine and drank it in the back of our camper that night!

We made our way the next day to Lake Wanaka via Fox Glacier and Haast. We parked up at fox glacier town which was similar to Franz Josef in that it was also a ski village in winter. They organise helicopter rides from here to see the glacier from the sky but we decided to walk towards it. Blooming long awl walk taking over an hour but through beautiful rainforest and then out towards the glacier. As the years haven't been kind to the glacier it is starting to retreat it was also the wrong time of year to see it as it was not winter. It is the only place in the world where there are glaciers in such a temperate country. It was still majestic and beautiful to see and to see the path the glacier had formed.

There wasn't much to see in Haast so we just took it as a chance to stretch the legs and get a coffee before we made our way to Wanaka but then became distracted by a town called Arrowtown where they shot some scenes for LOTR! As we arrived in it became my favourite little town ever. Literally like something out of a movie. Old American western style saloons, cottages. The people here take great pride in their history and restoring and maintaining the buildings facades and traditions. We parked up on a green by the river and had some lunch. So beautiful!

 

Lake Wanaka is such a cool town. Full of energy. Small town but bustling with atmosphere and all the 'cool kids'! We cooked our dinner in the back of the car and sat out while some lad played his guitar close by to us (theres always one!!) and enjoyed some BRB (Boundary Road Brewery) Pale Ales (New Zealands finest!!)

 

We then set off for Queenstown, the adventure capital! We pulled up and witnessed it straight away, above us were people parasailing and hot air balloons. On the lake in front of the town were boats, fishing and a guy shooting up in to the air off the water with his jet pack! Hive of activity! Beside the lake in the park were people playing Frisbee golf! Literally throwing Frisbees into these holes, with a Frisbee in one hand and a bag of beers in the other! Great craic!

 

We had a famous Ferg Burger. This place has queues outside it all day long! True that activity creates activity! We couldn't help but be sucked in!

 

Next stop was Lake Tekapo where stargazing is a popular attraction. Typical that when we were there it was cloudy :(

For our last day in south island we made our way back to Christchurch were we had to drop it back the following morning. It was a lot of driving over the few days but we saw so many beautiful sites and covered a lot of miles. So great living out of our little cabana betsy! To pull up anywhere and make some lunch where you fancy! Funny when youre in the camper with no wifi tv, radio etc, you get into bed when its dark and read play cards and you don't even miss it! Quite refreshing! Back to basics!

Sad to see our Betsy go but looking forward to collecing our 6 berth campervan! We found a website called Imoova where you can relocate vehicles for these rental companies and you pay a lot less. I think it was about 4e a day for the camper, then you have your insurance and petrol! Works out as aloot cheaper obviously! great deal! We picked it up after dropping of the other and we have 4 days to get it to Auckland for drop off. You need to take a ferry from South to North Island which they pay for too which was great! Tricks of the trade!