Wild wet and windy west coast

To get to the west coast of the south island, there is only one road - State Highway 6. It runs from the bottom of the south island through Queenstown and Wanaka then dives over the Haast Pass (the lowest of the three road crossings of the Southern Alps). It then runs up the west coast to Greymouth, from where the rest of the island can be accessed via the other two mountain passes and the coast roads around the top of the south island.

 
The drive from Wanaka to Fox Glacier Village took about five hours but was spectacular, not least because of the huge amount of rain that started coming down about half an hour after starting out, and continuing for pretty much the rest of the day. The Haast Pass itself was uneventful - marked only by a layby and a sign at the summit, but the drive down to the coast at Haast Village from there really reminded us that we were in 'Lord of the Rings' country, with great views of super-clear rivers and waterfalls all around.

The road from Haast up to Fox Glacier Village ran close to the sea for most of the way, and in one place a bit too close - the weather had whipped up the Tasman Sea so much that debris in the form of gravel, rocks, and even bits of trees - were getting washed up onto the road as we drove through. A truck with an excavator bucket was doing its best to clear the worst of it but it was clearly an ongoing issue. We took that stretch of road pretty slowly!

 
Finally we arrived at Fox Glacier village and were glad that we had booked ahead for a night in one of the nicest hostels we've stayed in on this trip - especially as it was still chucking down with rain (not good weather for camping!), and pretty much everywhere in town was booked solid. We even got to watch one of our favourite films - Stripes starring Bill Murray - in the TV room.

Robin

Queenstown and Wanaka

After Fiordland we headed north-east to Queenstown, the self-proclaimed "adventure sports capital of New Zealand". Now, you might think that the enormous variety of adventure sports on offer would mean that competition between the various operators would result in keen pricing. But strangely there seemed to be a kind of cartel operating - pretty much every activity - be it bungy jumping, jetboating, river surfing, or 1001 other ways to scare yourself silly - started at about $150. The net result of this price pressure was that we decided we could think of much better ways to blow a minimum $300 for the pair of us. Not that we're being tight, but there is just SO MUCH to do and see in NZ that you really have to think carefully about the wisest way to spend your money and get the most bang for your buck (as it were). Besides, it was free to go and watch the bungy jumpers at the famous Kawerau Bridge - the world's first commercial bungy operation.

We camped again in Queenstown, at what was a ludicrously well equipped campsite - we managed to eat very well that night even though we were cooking for ourselves. Although Queenstown is beautifully situated on the shore of Lake Wakatipu with towering mountains all around (one is even called Ben Nevis, in the Remarkables Range), we only stayed a night before taking a short (by NZ standards) drive north to Wanaka. To be honest, given the amazing landscapes found all over NZ, we have found that one of the greatest pleasures is simply driving from place to place and admiring the views. The most direct road to Wanaka was a good example of this, as it rose to over 1100m above sea level shortly after leaving Queenstown via a series of hair pins, descending via a long and otherwise isolated river valley. Shortly before arriving in Wanaka the road offered spectacular views of the peaks and glaciers of Mount Aspiring National Park in the distance.

Wanaka was similar to Queenstown in that it could be used as a base for all sorts of adventure activities (not that we did any!) but was more laid back and smaller than Queenstown. On the shores of Lake Wanaka we ate some good take-away fush & chups and then camped within sight of the lake at a campsite that unfortunately resembled a siberian gulag. But it was comfy enough.

We only really stayed in Wanaka because it was the last decent stopping point between Queenstown and Fox Glacier Village on the west coast, a long drive along the lonely SH6 that we tackled the next day...

Robin

Fiordland

We left the catlins driving west along the coast and after a brief stop in Invercargill to check emails etc headed back inland to Manapouri, at the edge of Fiordland national park.

Manapouri is actually the closest settlement with anything vaguely resembling services to the far south west of the south island, even though it is more than 100km from the coast - as the name suggests, Fiordland's deep fiords and lakes coupled with craggy mountains and an extremely wet climate have limited the potential for settlement. The biggest hindrance though is probably the sandflies, who exist here in huge numbers and bite whenever they get the chance!

Manapouri is beautifully situated on the lake of the same name but this wasn't our reason for coming to Fiordland - the real reason was to go sea kayaking on the famously isolated Doubtful Sound - reachable only by sea, walking for several days, or by boat across Lake Manapouri followed by a 20km coach ride over the Wilmot Pass (a stretch of road totally unconnected to any other in NZ). We chose the latter.

 
We kayaked for about 5 hours in a small group of 5 double kayaks plus a guide. To our amazement we covered about 14km and saw only two boats. The 'sound of silence' lived up to its name and the scenery and feeling of isolation were breathtaking.

Update: finally got the photos developed and posted...!

 

In Manapouri we stayed in a funny little campsite but didn't camp because we feared the area's reputation for prodigious amounts of rain. instead we booked a funny little cabin complete with heater and kettle - paradise indeed! The owner had a huge collection of old bangers including a load of old morris minors - some even with british numberplates, bizarrely. however this was not as much fun as the trampolines also present - which we put to good use by bouncing around on like loonies. I think Hannah mentioned earlier that we are easily pleased...!

  
Robin

The Catlins aka the deep south

We got to Dunedin without a fully formed plan of where our journey would take us from there on. Dunedin proved to be not quite as interesting as our (at times rather over enthusiastic) guidebook would have us believe, and so we found we had time to detour to the bottom of the south island and the catlins coast.

The catlins is a sparsely populated bit of farming country that has only had a fully paved road (just one) running through it for a few years. The coast here is spectacular though and there were sufficient other diversions for us to dawdle along in the car for a couple of days. The weather was pretty extreme though, with a strong southerly wind whipping up the sea to a swell of about 5m at times, and attracting some expert surfers (or just plain nutters?). so much for lounging about on beaches spotting dolphins; camping was also out of the question. the place we stayed at in Okawa even had electric blankets - and we were glad for them!

The deep south of the south island was settled mainly by scots - apparently giving the locals a slightly different accent from the rest of new zealand. however the most amusing cultural feature i noticed was the inclusion of deep fried "moro" bars on the menu of a chip shop in Balclutha. there are no mars bars in new zealand but this was the closest you could get. it was hard not to admire the way that the locals appeared to be keeping their scots heritage alive!

Robin

South Island adventure begins...

After a day spent chilling at H & K's in Auckland, while Hannah sorted out some portfolio stuff (and I made sure my Australian visa was valid, whoops almost forgot!) we flew to Christchurch on the South Island of NZ on the 13th Feb. We booked a (rather dreary) backpackers hostel in the city centre for two nights and despite the intense rain on the morning of Friday the 15th Feb we were glad to pick up the hire car we'd booked and get on the road. Eschewing the charms of dolphin watching at Akaroa (on the Banks Peninsula near Christchurch) because of the weather, we got onto State Highway 1 and drove south across the Canterbury Plains.

The hire car deserves a mention - an 11-year old Mitsubishi Lancer imported from Japan with nearly 200,000km on the clock. It performed admirably, despite getting a nail in one of the tyres on the first day, and numerous dings and cracks in the windscreen the next day thanks to an inconsiderate wally overtaking us on a stretch of gravel road - gee thanks.

Hannah says that I should compliment her on her driving skills by the way.

Anyway after a couple of hours we arrived at the small town of Oamaru (actually they're all small down here) which was once an important port but has been in decline since then - the 1880s or thereabouts. It was surprisingly nice with a couple of colonies of penguins to go and bother. We stayed in a cozy little hostel with a log fire and no TV. By about 9pm the guests were all sitting in the lounge reading their books and papers - nice but extremely soporific. We guessed if there was any action to be had in Oamaru, it was somewhere else.

The next day we continued south, visiting the Moeraki boulders - odd spherical geological formations on the shore of the Pacific - before continuing to Dunedin for the night. Dunedin is gaelic for Edinburgh and the city looked very scottish. No fried mars bars though.

Robin

Waiheke Island

Our main reason for going to the 'hippy' island of Waiheke was to meet a couple of Robin's distant relatives. His dad's cousin Barry - or Bazza as we like to call him now - and sons Rakesh and Rahaan (spelling?). Who was indeed a bit of a hippy in days gone by. His sons are named so as he used to live in India, and even ran a 'Freak Bus' between London and Kolkata. Quite impressive. Barry gave us a grand tour of Waiheke's rolling hills and beautiful bays before taking us up to his mansion sized house (self built) high up overlooking the township and off in the distance Auckland city. Lunch was great, as we were given a healthy chinese meal cooked by his wife 'Tracy' whose real name we could not possibly hope to spell.

This was all very nice but by the time we got off the ferry back to Auckland we were ready for a drink. Which was handy, as we'd arranged to meet our friend Marc (the Irishman from the Santiago waitlist debacle) and his brother for a beer. A very nice time was had too. Hamish met us, drove us home and we got fush and chups for tea.....two days in a row, but isn't fish healthy?

Hannah

Northland - Bay of Islands

After returning from the Coromandel we chilled in Auckland for another couple of nights then loaded up 'the rhonda' for a trip north to the province immediately north of Auckland, imaginatively titled 'Northland'.

(later, in the south island, we also spent time in Southland and Westland, but we've yet to find Eastland...)

First stop was some snorkelling just offshore at Goat Island, where the quantity of fish to be seen is supposed to be amazing. Well it would have been, had there not been storms in the pacific, churning up all the water and reducing visibility to about a metre. Bah, we thought (well I did, Hannah didn't even get in the water - to be fair it was a bit chilly) and drove on.

Just before the Bay of Islands we paused at Kawakawa to visit the famous 'hundertwasser toilets'. They are some public loos. Designed by an austrian called hundertwasser. They are Kawakawa's claim to fame. We left within five minutes. (to be fair, they were probably the nicest loos we visited in the whole of NZ, and this is a country that likes a clean loo).

We camped at Paihia for two nights at a little site next to a secluded beach directly on the Bay of Islands. On the first morning we awoke to the sound of rain on canvas (well, composite plastic sheet at least) and promptly didn't show for the dolphin-watching tour we'd booked (ha ha - foolish tourism operators - if you'd taken my credit card number we would have showed!). As it was, the weather improved and we took a ferry ride to the pretty little town of Russell (once the capital of NZ, unbelievably), got a dose of history and culture innit at the Waitangi treaty grounds, and booked an all-in catamaran sailing, dolphin swimming, island snorkelling, and sausage eating trip for the next day - which was awesome. The dolphins, however, were not prepared to let us swim with them as they were feeding. No problem, a fair few (a joint pod of about 30) swam alongside the cat and performed a few dips and dives. Fab.

On the way back to Auckland we stopped for Fush & Chups in a nowhere town called Wellsford. The chip shop was decorated like an old english tea room, run by a Chinese woman, and we ate our dinner watching a huge Maori guy polish off his egg & chips. (sorry, eegg & chups).

R & H