A Thorne Downunder: New Zealand Part 1

In my last post I finished up by telling you I had met Anna, and she asked me to go to New Zealand with her and travel around the south island. That was 3 weeks ago on my last day in Port Douglas. I arrived back in Sydney the next day and booked my flights to Christchurch. Some people may think it’s a little crazy booking a weeks’ holiday with someone I had met the day before. However, we had got on very well and as I was now classing myself as a traveller, I was simply doing what travellers do!

Our plan was to hire a campervan in Christchurch and hopefully keep it for the week. Anna had gone through standbyrelocs.com, where you can hire a campervan for as little as $5 a day. This is how it works, if a hire company needs a van or car relocated from one city to the next they put it on this website and you can hire them and take them from A to B for them. It costs nothing, but there is a time limit on it and a kilometre allowance. Simple as that. So we had a van from Christchurch to Queenstown and we had 2 days to get it there. After that we hoped to pick up another van or a car for the rest of the week.

Closed of city centre

So with flights booked, I was due to arrive in Christchurch Saturday lunchtime. Anna wasn’t due in for another 11 hours, so I had time to kill in Christchurch and see the sights. I had booked into a hostel, or at least I thought I had, but when I got there I was told there was no booking and they were fully booked. Disaster! So after spending some time looking online for another hostel I booked into the YMCA!!! As it wasn’t too far, I decided to walk. It was only then that I began to realise how much Christchurch was still suffering from last years earthquake. On that 20 minute walk alone I saw lots of damaged buildings still fenced off, roads still closed and areas where buildings had been pulled down or were being rebuilt. Once I checked into the hostel, I decided to take the short walk into the city centre, where the whole area is still cordoned off and will be indefinitely, there are far too many buildings too unstable and most are due to be pulled down. This includes, hotels, offices, homes, bars, restaurants and the main shopping area. Thousands of business’s and jobs gone, the devastation is actually unbelievable. However, one awesome thing is how they have converted old shipping containers into shops. It’s very cool, with clothing shops, phone shops and cafes all in containers. Despite all this, Christchurch is a stunning place, there is a beautiful river running through it and some fantastic parks. I would fully recommend visiting if you can and help this city get back on its feet!

Shopping Containers made out of shipping containers

One of many buildings still being torn down

This old building is due to be destroyed

Since Anna didn’t get in until after midnight we stayed in different hostels and arranged to meet at the airport to pick up the van at 8am on the Sunday morning. We were hoping to get a comfortable van but we were shocked when we saw this, our home for the next two days:

A six person beauty! After watching our instructural DVD, we mapped out which route we wanted to take, based on how much time we had. We were both keen to travel the west coast and head towards to the glaciers, so that meant heading west directly across the country over Arthurs pass towards Hokitika. Generally about a 2 hour drive I think it took us about 4 due to stopping constantly to check out the views and scenery which just got better and better as the day went on. Then we got to one point where we stopped at this look out:

The road ahead

Kea's

However, whilst there, we were attacked by these guys, we later found out they are called Kea’s and are actually a bit of a pest. However, they are beautiful looking birds, and they did live up to their pest name, when all of them started attacking our van, and eating the paint off the roof and the rubber on the mud guards.

Once we hit the west coast we got as far down as Franz Josef, where the first glacier is. The sun was beginning to set and we had been on the road since 9:30am. So we decided to stop and get some dinner. Afterword’s, we found a campervan park round the corner where we parked up for the night and decided to head to the local hot springs. This was my first time in a hot springs and I will be back as soon as possible, it was a great way to relax after a long day on the road. That was until they closed, and instead of just telling us they were closing they decided to just turn all the lights off. Meaning we had to find our way out in complete darkness. A bit strange but they do things slightly differently in NZ, a whisky before bed and that was the end of day 2.

On the Arthurs pass road

Franz Josef Glacier

We awoke fairly early on the Monday, and took the short drive south towards the Glacier. We had been told of several walks we could do around the glacier, but we decided on one which would lead us right up to the glacier, we knew it would take a couple of hours but we also thought it would probably be well worth it. And we weren’t wrong! The walk was fantastic, scenic waterfalls and stunning views of the glacier. After stopping at Lake Matheson near Fox Glacier, for a picnic lunch on what is known as the lake of reflection, we headed towards a Salmon farm, although we did see a man running naked across the road in the middle of nowhere, which was a bit weird.

Waterfall at Franz Josef Glacier

Haast Beach Sunset

Now driving a 6 person campervan on these roads in NZ is amazing, most roads are only one lane but are incredibly well looked after, and it was great fun driving on cliff edges and mountain roads in the van, although slightly scary at times. We didn’t have a plan as to where to stay that night, we were just going to head as far as week could and see where we ended up. After catching a sunset at Haast beach we got back on the road and since the roads were high on a cliff and it was dark we decided to stop at the next place we found, Makarora. This place was tiny, literally just a campervan park, a few farms and, of course, a pub! So we stopped and had some dinner and decided to camp out for the night. We drank some whisky and watched the shooting stars above the mountain tops. I have never seen the sky as clear at night, even the milkyway was as clear as it could be.

Morning view at Makarora

Sunrise at Makarora

We had to be in Queenstown by 12 the next day, and it was a 2 hour drive from where we were, and the morning drive was great, taking us past Lake Wanaka and Lake Hawea, down towards Wanaka. We finally reached Queenstown just before 12. We then headed into the town centre to work out what to do next, as we no plan whatsoever. We wanted to get another van but there were no relocations available, not only that there were no vans at all. Which meant we had to get a car, after a few hours of planning where to go and what to do over the next couple of days we had a plan. We thought about staying in Queenstown, but had heard of a Kayaking adventure at Milford Sound. Now this isn’t far from Queenstown, but because of a massive mountain range you have to make a 4 hour drive around it. So we decided to book the Kayaking for the sunrise session the next morning and we would try and get there that night and stay in the lodge. We also booked a caves tour near Te Anau for the following evening after the Kayaking. Te Anau was exactly half way between Queenstown and Milford Sound, but once you got past Te Anau there was nothing else until you got to Milford Sound. So we booked a hostel in Te Anau for the next night, as we wouldn’t be back from the caves until late. So off we headed late in the afternoon looking forward to the next couple of days we had all planned out, only it wasn’t going to work out exactly how we planned, in fact it wasn’t even close.

Disaster was just around the corner……..

Here are some more pics of the first few days: