New Zealand

We arrived in Auckland ....

















... joined soon after by mum ....













... had a lot of laughs (though goodness knows what's going on in this photo on the road to Mount Cook) ....
















.... saw some great sites ....
(whale watching in Kaikoura)














.... almost missed a few ....
(speedacholic mum on a luge in Rotorua)
















.... had loads of opportunities to be amateur arty ....































... but the country is incredibly photogenic anyway ... (camping by Lake Wanaka)












Queen Charlotte Sound - top of the South Island - (a sound is an inlet formed by water erosion, a fjiord is an inlet formed by a glacier .... did you want to know).















Lake Tekapo












.... reflective moments (caught by the resident intrusive paparazzi wannabe hiding in the flowers in a layby / campsite on Lake Wakatipu close to Queenstown).










The weather wasn't always perfect ....
(Milford Sound boat trip. NB this isn't a black and white photo!)











.... we travelled in our cool camper van ....
(here on Route 77 out of Christchurch).












.... stopping when the mood took us ....
(Lake Tekapo again)












..... making friends with the locals .....
(on the scenic route between Havelock and Picton - North of the South Island).















... eating when and where we fancied ....
(camping out by the river close to Te Anau (South of the South Island).











Queen Charlotte Sound dinner and campsite.













... setting up camp each night wherever looked nice ..... (note leaky tent for Sam and myself under the tree on a night we thought rain was coming).










... finding a nice spot for business in the morning ....

















.... and then driving away as we move on to the next place!

















We arrived to Auckland (a third of the way down the North Island) where China Town extends to the whole town. It's known as the "City of Sails" with a large bay into the South Pacific on the East and the Tasman sea nearby to the West. According to the NZ tourist board Auckland is high up the list as "most desirable place to live in the world".

You can wake up to a beautiful sea view, walk down a steep road to Queens Street (the main street), eat the nicest fruit muffins in the world for breakfast. As an optional extra you could jump off a 328 metre tower (the tallest tower in the Southern Hemisphere) before lunch – where there are some fantastic food halls for Chinese, Japanese, Thai, Vietnamese and Indian.

I certainly wouldn’t argue with the NZ tourist board.

In the UK the roads are big but thick with congestion, there are lots of small cars but we can drive on country roads without great heed to being under 60mph. In NZ these things are reversed. Route One – the main arterial road – passes through Hicksville after every few kilometres where the speed limit drops to jogging pace. (Hicksville in NZ may be called Puinui, Papatoetoe or Hopuhopu (whatever influence the Maori people may or may not have - they've certainly influenced the names of towns and areas)). The roads are very quiet, but they look on speeding as being as offensive as marrying your sister. The car choices are between an Australian V8 or an imported Japanese turbo and all roads on the South Island are perfect drivers roads. Unfortunately speed cameras are ever threatening – and they’re secreted in crafty places such as disguised as mail boxes or wheelie bins. To make matters worse there are umpteen billboards saying “speed to your death” or “the faster you go, the bigger the mess”. Pictures show corpses with an ID hanging off a toe, the caption says “your speeding ticket” etc.

So drivers can accelerate to 100kph in 5 seconds (which they mostly seem to do at traffic lights in the town centres), but then they maintain that speed for the next five hours and never dare to even overtake slow old camper vans if it means going over the limit to do so.

We booked our slow old camper can on the second day - not solely on the strength of the artistic works on the vans (probably not solely) and, having picked mum up at the airport (from her holidaying thus far in Singapore and Aus) we set off the very next day to the airport again, and caught a flight to Christchurch (a third of the way down the South Island on the East coast). This was where we picked up the van and from where we’d be doing a lot of driving, stopping, putting up tents, sleeping, eating fruit (mum was with us), and taking photos - before dropping the van off again 17 days later and back in Auckland.

Our initial itinerary was to drive southwest ... which we duly did until, after two days, we reached the southwest (Te Anau was our furthest south - about 125km from the bottom). On the way we viewed Mount Cook (the highest mountain at 3764 metres) at the end of a rather long cul-de-sac (on which we almost ran out of petrol (after that experience we filled up every day)), we enjoyed a hot and blue-skied day before being dripped on (in our non-waterproof tent) during the night. (The night arrangements saw mum in the camper van and Sam and myself in the leaky tent).

Everything in NZ was bright and clear and the colours somehow more colourful, the lakes along the way (thus far Lakes Tekapo and Pukaki) were picture perfect and the mountains snow capped against the beautiful blue sky. New Zealand is definitely sponsored by Kodak.

Te Anau was our first night not in a camp site - we found a river, stopped, cooked, put up the tent ..... it was lovely. Also in Te Anau we visited a large cave across the lake where, from the small cave boat and in pitch darkness, the glow worms shone away. (They shine when they're hungry, trying to attract flies to the light where they can be eaten so that the glow worms can later turn into flies, lay glow worm eggs, and then be eaten (a fairly immediate food chain that must make the “what are we all doing here” question just that much harder to answer)).

The next day we drove up another (all day) cul-de-sac to Milford Sound. The hills grew steeper and more immediate, the weather closed in and it became prematurely dark with torrential rain. All available camping spots had ceased a long time ago except for one camp 8km down a forested single tracked gravel road. This was the rustic 1930’s camp at Hollyford that became one of the highlights for me - we stayed in a battered old shack with a wood stove for heat and cooking. Outside the wind and rain howled, inside I could stoke the fire, do the cooking and sip a beer - it was great (for one night only).

Milford Sound was named by a Welshman after Milford Haven. Milford Sound is in the Fjiordland National Park by the Tasman Sea. The Sound has umpteen waterfalls (plenty particularly after last nights rainfall) falling from vast steep sided slopes. Milford Haven - in South Wales - used to be a large fishing port (renowned for its Hake) before, in the 1950s, oil refineries were built just off-shore. Maybe they used to look similar … or maybe the Welshman’s ancestors are now on the local town council trying to twin Milford Haven to Rome).

We took the Milford Sound boat trip, standing on deck with our raincoats on, while several coach loads of elderly Japanese tourists tucked into the expensive buffet below and missed all the scenery (and missed getting cold and wet).

The next day was 180 miles back down the cul-de-sac to Queenstown where we almost found Paradise (west from Queenstown along the banks of Lake Wakatipu). We started driving up the West coast, stopping for the night at the very lovely Lake Wanaka, before heading for Mount Aspiring National Park (past the twin peaks of Dreadful and Awful) and to the Fox and Franz Josef glaciers. At Hokitiki we turned for the east coast via Arthurs Pass - a road made more dramatic for the sudden appearance of large storm clouds (just about head height).

Arriving in Kaikoura, back on the east coast above Christchurch, we spotted a whale, Dusky dolphins and some seals. We were fascinated to hear that Killer Whales are dolphins - called Killer Whales because they can, in a group, kill whales. When they do, it's only so that they can munch on the tongue. Fascinating. Our camp for the night was right on the waters front looking out to the Southern Pacific and with seals relaxing just twenty feet away.

Our last stop on the South Island was on the north coast on the scenic route between Havelock and Picton. Scenic meant steep (many gear changes) and with hairpins - but our stop was again at an idyllic spot.

The boat to the North Island left from Picton and we were on it the next day for Wellington. In the South Island we stayed in camp sites (e.g. with showers, toilets and a kitchen) for five nights and found fantastic alternative places for the other five nights (more if I’d had my way as who needs toilets and showers anyway).

The North and South Islands overlap, so that our ferry was sailing East to Wellington, where we found a camp site and, the next morning, had a swift look around.

Wellington appears to be in the best location in NZ. In the more built up North Island, so that there are sufficient services and amenities – but only a stones throw (or expensive booked-last- minute ferry trip) away from the open roads of South Island. Unfortunately then we only spent the morning looking around (partially because we couldn’t park in any car parks due to the height of the van).

The impression it leaves is of a very manageable sized city with good shops and a nice atmosphere, tightly packed onto hills around a natural harbour - but with a horrendous wind coming from all directions.

On the trail of ‘Lord of the Rings’ scenery we set off to Mount Doom – one of three volcanoes in Tongariri National Park towards central North Island. The volcanoes are all active, the area is spectacular and the walk (called ‘the Crossing’) is one of the finest one day walks in the world (someone told us).

Unfortunately all we saw were clouds and rain - not quite the views apparently on offer from this photo .....





On the way to Rotorua we stopped first for the night in Taupo for some good old tourist site-seeing. We were now in the thermal area of NZ where the ground steams and pools of water had an equal chance of being hot. In Taupo we saw a vaguely disappointing ‘Craters of the Moon’, and a touristy but pretty waterfall and rapids. In Rotorua we saw the mandatory Maori show, a kiwi (captive) and some geysers. Also we bathed in the ‘Polynesian Spa Baths’ with lovely views across the lakeside and whizzed down various tracks on a 'luge' (small plastic cart with steering and brakes). All the tourist essentials ticked!

Alas the end of our road trip approached, we stayed a night in Hamilton for no great reason and then back to Auckland for our respective flights out.

Conclusions then are that a camper van is a definite recommendation for holidaying in NZ, and for just a little more time than 17 days. With more time it would mean less driving per day and just a little more doing things (not that doing things is cheap here). Nonetheless this was a great road trip – and great too that mum could join us (and then even better again that mum and Sam got along so well). All very good!