NZ Adventure

July 2018
Four friends & a baby taking on NZ's winter as we tour the beautiful South Island, following the noses of our homes on wheels as we behold everything this beautiful place has to offer. Stay posted for epic scenery & crazy adventure activities.
A&J
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  • 2countries
  • 15days
  • 133photos
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  • 2.9kkilometers
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  • Day 9

    Goodbye Queenstown, hellooo West Coast

    July 9, 2018 in New Zealand ⋅ 🌧 2 °C

    Sadly today was the day we were leaving Queenstown. We absolutely loved this place and would highly recommend it if you’re ever planning on coming to New Zealand’s South Island. While we didn’t really do any of the crazy adrenaline activities here, we still thoroughly enjoyed the experience and atmosphere of the whole place. It’s sad to be going but there’s still so much of this island we need to explore before we hand back the keys to our Wilderness Motorhome.

    It started with a morning run down to the Ferg for a couple of brekky burgers and coffee, a quick pack up, and restock of water and we were on our way. We were heading back north, aiming for the west coast of New Zealand’s South Island. That was going to be our route home to Christchurch.

    We set out, up through the winding, misty roads of the Crown Ranges of Queenstown. As we approached the pinnacle of this beautiful mountain range we began noticing flashes of fresh white snow all around us, we hit the top, parked the van and jumped out into the soft white powder of freshly fallen snow. We spent some time here taking photos, building our first snowman (George), and of course, throwing snowballs. We took a great liking to our snowbaby George and dressed him appropriately, complete with glasses, gloves and a beanie, he even had a proper carrot nose. Best snowman to date! But we were soon saturated and freezing and had to say goodbye to our new little buddy. We jumped back into the vans and started down the other side of the mountains.

    We stopped briefly for a coffee (or mulled wine for some) in the beautiful Cardrona Valley. This quaint little town was tiny but packed full history, complete with a musty but stunning old hotel and cute little school house. We could picture exactly what this little town would have been like back in the day.

    We pushed north, passing back through Wanaka and Albert town heading toward the West Coast. It wasn’t long before the scenery around us changed from snowy mountains to beautiful, lush green, moss covered forests. With the rain falling all around us, this change of scenery brought on a new sense of awe. The dense forests surrounded the road, as we caught glimpses of rushing blue rivers and showering, white waterfalls. This was one of the nicest drive we’d done yet. We stopped at various river crossings and lookouts but, our prime stopping spot was the Blue Pools. The Blue Pools were located about 2 hours north west of Queenstown. We parked our van and set off on the 10 minute walked through the stunning forest to the blue pools. The blue pools consisted of two rivers joining together forming a deep section of water surrounded by smooth stone beaches. On a sunny day the pools look incredible blue, a result of light refracting through the crystal clear snow fed rivers. However, today it was quiet cloudy and the heavy rain had turned the water more of a green colour. None the less it was still an amazing experience. Walking along the board walks through the green forests was so out of this world, and as we crossed the suspension bridge over the blue pools we were again taken away by the beauty of this place.
    We walked down to the waters edge and skimmed stones across to the other side. Many people had built stone stacks which seems to be the thing to do over here with so many flat, smooth rocks.

    Soon the rain set in only more heavy and we made the trek back through the forest to our vans. We set off down the road for about 1km before finding our campsite for the night. We camped at a place called Cameron Flat which over looked the river below us.

    From there it was a cheese board, red wine and a rainy game of ticket to ride before James cooked up a storm for dinner. Jo and I took advantage of the relaxing time to start watching The Hobbit, a perfect movie choice for our New Zealand adventure. Unfortunately our campsite was out of internet coverage so we were phone-less and internet-less for a night (not sure how some of us coped). But with full bellies and sleepy eyes we had no quarms in hitting the pillow for the night, ready to continue our road trip up the west coast tomorrow.

    Asher ☺️
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  • Day 10

    Big drives and death by walking

    July 10, 2018 in New Zealand ⋅ 🌙 5 °C

    Well today was interesting. We had a lovely start to the morning, we woke up at Cameron Flat with the sun shining on all the snow capped mountains, it was beautiful to see after the torrential rain we had yesterday. We were hurried along, James was very keen to get going this morning after having no reception last night, which meant no wifi, he was very eager to get on the road to find the goods.

    We are on our way up the west coast heading back to Christchurch. The coastal drive is blowing us away, first stop today was Thunder creek waterfall, a short 5 minute walk off the main road, and the name sure was fitting. You could hear the gushing water from the roadside. The air is still quite brisk and has a real bite to it. We went for the short walk to the waterfall and after a few snaps it was back to the vans to head through the Haast pass to get the morning coffee.

    I had the fun experience of driving the bus today, when driving you don't get to take full advantage of the view, so I was glad Asher got a turn to relax and soak up the scenery. Driving through Haast Pass was beautiful, surrounded by mountains with water flowing down them.

    We finally made it to the little town of Haast, and oh my that was small town living. Not much in the way of shops or even houses. We went into the local bar/restaurant for some coffee and was greeted by stag antlers hanging all over the roof and walls, most with the skulls still attached. Jess thought it had a very American feel to it, I imagine a bit like Texas. Asher had some coffee and cake but didn't recommend it, so off down the street to the local cafe we went for Jess and James. In about 1 minute we had seen all there was to see, had got supplies from the outrageously priced general store and it was back on the road.

    Heading further up the coast we hit the beach, it was spectacular, so beautiful and clear. It was very inviting, but as soon as you stepped out of the warm van, the desire to swim was swept away very quickly. We stopped at Knights Head lookout, took in the fresh salty air and admired the view. We kept heading north for Fox glacier. The scenery is so beautiful, you can't help but pull over to take pictures, we are limited in our buses to the safe places we can pull over. But we found a beautiful spot at Bruce Bay beach and hopped out for a short stroll on the sand, or should I say rocks. Their beaches are not like ours, they are covered in rocks, all different sizes, but generally quite small. We had some fun building rock towers and collected some pure white stones. The rocks that you find through the forests, mountain side and on the beach are so different to ours. All their rocks are a mix of quarts, granite, jade and something that looks a bit like silver running through them. They are beautiful, I have collected a few to add to my baggage weight limit coming home.

    We pushed on and finally arrived at the little town of Fox glacier, named after the…Fox glacier. It was a little town with not much to offer, so we stopped for some quick lunch and then we were off to the 'short and mostly flat walk' (described by Asher) to the glacier. I was a little hesitant, and not convinced it was going to be a leisurely stroll. Let me just start by saying...I was right.

    We arrived at the carpark at the entrance to the walk and we had a quick glance at the signs. 1 hour return. No alarms going off yet. We saw on the sign that back in 1862 the glacier was so big that it reached all the way to the carpark. Now, it's a 30 minute hike away. We started walking. Still no alarms going off. There were little ups and downs in the path but still, what a lovely walk. So beautiful! The cliffs on the other-side of the river were amazing. We had to do a couple of river crossings. What fun we had jumping across the rocks to the other side. Yay! We started walking quite steeply downhill. Oh no! Alarm! We are going to have to walk back up this hill later. Back to flat. Yay this is a great, leisurely walk. After a couple of ups and downs we turn the corner and see a vertical stretch of hill that goes beyond what we can see! Big alarm bells! This glacier better be worth the pain about to occur. We got to the base of the vertical hill. Looking up was a daunting site. We were not very keen to start the walk up but, we pushed on! Keenly encouraged by James and Asher, Jess and I took on the mental battle and pushed ourselves up the hill, holding back tears as we turned corners only to see another stretch of rocky hill we would have to tackle. Finally, we got ourselves to the top of the mountain and were looking for the beautiful glacier. At first, we weren't too sure where is was because it was so small and so… so underwhelming. We were a tad disappointed by the slab of ice. However, turning around was the best view of all, looking back over the valley and the beautiful tall mountains with the sun shining through, was worth the pain. After taking lots of pictures and recovering from the trip up, it was time to head back down. The walk back was much more pleasant, taking in the scenery, stopping to collect quartz and jade stones, and enjoying a refreshing drink from the flowing rivers. All in all, the excursion wasn't so bad, but lets just say, thats the last hike for the trip, hopefully. I think a gym membership is very much needed to improve the fitness levels. Hahaha.

    We pushed on and headed to the next town, Franz Josef, for some dinner and to buy the last of the supplies for our last night tomorrow. We pumped and dumped, filled up with water and made it to our campsite for tonight. We arrived in the dark, so look forward to what we will see in the morning. We are parked next to Lake Mapourika, just north of Franz Josef. Our time in the van is slowly coming to a close but, it has been such a great experience and we would highly recommend it.

    Looking forward to our adventures through Arthurs-pass tomorrow.

    ♥️ Jo
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  • Day 11

    The Beginning of The End

    July 11, 2018 in New Zealand ⋅ 🌧 4 °C

    Today we woke with our cosy van situated on beautiful Lake Mapourika, 10 minutes north of Franz Josef Glacier township. We ate our Nutri Grain, drank coffee and mosied on down to the waters edge in the drizzling rain. We said good morning to some other campers who’d been fishing with what seemed like no luck, packed up our van and hit the road with James, Jess and Hudsy on our tail. We cruised the 10 minutes back into town for a nice coffee and a bit of wifi so we could upload our blog posts from the last couple of days.

    From there we once again hit the road going north, continuing up the west coast. We drove for a good hour before turning off down a little side road that supposedly led to some natural hot springs. But as the the road turned to dirt, then loose gravel, then simply just large pot holes filled with water, our hope of relaxing in some delightful hot pools quickly diminished. Soon the road came to a complete dead end save for a small walking trail teat led on. I jumped out of the van and went to investigate, only to be greeted by large rocks and a rushing river instead of the supposed soft sand and warm gentle stream. Clearly the last few days of rain have had a huge impact on New Zealand’s rivers. So with the hot springs crossed off our list but not achieved, we tracked back along the goat trail and back onto the main road. We pointed our noses at the small gold mining town of Ross.

    Ross was supposedly the largest gold mining town on the West Coast. We spent a little bit of time here, admiring the very well kept miners cottage and tiny old gaol. Something they do very well over he is maintain so much of their history. There were hundreds of old photographs, instruments and things of just day to day living from back then. It really takes you back to that time when you can walk into an entire cottage fitted out as it would have been back then Complete with an old stove, a dining room and even annelid piano. Quite amazing. We explored the history of the town a little before pressing on the a much larger town, Hokitika.

    Hokitika is one of the larger towns on the west coast. We stopped here for lunch and explored the many different shops on offer. IN particular they had a fantastic glass blowing shop where you could watch the glass benders creating their world of art. It was so mesmerising to watch the piping hot, glowing glass turn into something incredible in their hands. Jo confessed to frequently watching youtube clips on glass blowing, turns out she's got a hidden admiration for the art. We could have stood there and watched them all day, but we had to keep moving. We stopped in at a large jade shop where once again you could watch the masons carve the beautiful green stones into incredible works of art. We admired an incredible 1.5 tonne, $200,000 jade lounge before heading out of town, stopping to pump and dump as we went.

    From there we continue our journey north and then west toward Arthurs Pass. With Jo at the helm I was completely free to admire the amazing scenery as we started heading up into Arthur's Pass. As we drove the mountains seemed to close in on us as the valley got tighter. The road got steeper and the temperature got lower as we climbed ever higher up into the snow capped mountains. We drove along sheer cliffs with waterfalls going over our heads. The gorge below us roared with the recent rainfall converging as it found it's way down he mountain.

    We pulled into a small lookout that looked back down the gorge we'd just climbed. It was beautiful but here we also found the infamous Kea birds, the parrots of the mountain. These birds were pretty large parrot looking birds with sharp curved beaks. They are renowned for nibbling on the rubber tires of cars and sure enough as soon as we pulled up they were looking for their next fix of rubber. Our tires thankfully were not on the menu as one bird instead opted for the rubber seal on our van door before being chases away. We chatted to a friendly local for a while before heading on through Arthur's Pass. We arrived at our final freedom campsite 15 minutes later and set up camp as the rain set in. The weather forecast says fresh snow through the night so we're hoping we'll be waking to a winter wonderland tomorrow but we'll see what happens.

    It was burritos for our final dinner in the vans tonight followed by a quick trip back into reception to upload our blogs and catch up on the daily instagram feed ☺️

    We're sad to be saying goodbye to our Wilderness motorhomes tomorrow afternoon. It's been an incredible experience and the best way to see as much of the sights as possible. We highly recommend Wilderness to anyone planning a road trip around New Zealand, they've been a treat! We just wish we had longer! 😩

    Looking forward to catching up with Luke & Nay for the coming weekend though. I'm sure they've got lots more to show us.
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  • Day 12

    Bye Bye Wilderness & Comforts of Home

    July 12, 2018 in New Zealand ⋅ 🌙 3 °C

    Today we woke to sounds of a heavy freight train roaring past our van! Our final freedom campsite in Arthur’s Pass was unfortunately situated across the road from the main train line that wound through the mountains. But still, the amazing forest around us and gentle patter of rain on the roof was amazing! Could get used to waking up like this every day. But sadly our time in our home on wheels was coming to an end. Today was the day we had to hand back the keys.😩 But, we still had a few hours before we had to do that!

    We got up, did our usual morning routines and headed back up the mountains of Arthur’s Pass toward the incredible bridge of “Death’s Corner” stopping for coffee at the collage on our way. Deaths Corner road bridge spanned through the huge gorge at a very impressive angle. We got the classic shot of this bridge, James got attacked by a Kea bird, and we headed on back down the pass.

    Luke and Nay had given us a list of cool things to check out on our way back to Christchurch. This included the amazing Cave Stream, a long cave with a flowing river running through it. You could actually walk from one end to the other if you were keen enough to get wet. We, however, were not, so we pressed on!

    We were racing against the clock to get back to Christchurch with enough time to sort out the vans before dropping them back, so we had to admire Luke’s next suggestion of the Castle Hill Rocks from the car as we flew by at 100kmph. We did, however, pull over for one last stop before town... The Famous Sheffield Pie Shop... how could we not?!
    Pies on board (including some frozen ones for Luke & Nay) we made tracks for Christchurch.

    We arrived back at Luke & Nay’s and it was time to put our houses (on wheels) in order. We didn’t realise how much stuff we’d brought before we started stuffing it back into suitcases. It was a wild 20 minutes of packing and unloading before we headed back out to pump, dumped, and refuel one last time.
    It wasn’t long before we rolled our relatively tidy vans back into the Wilderness depot. It was sadly time to say goodbye to our beautiful vans! They did their final checks, we did our surveys and then they shouted us a taxi back to the house. Until next time Wilderness. 👌🏻

    We grabbed coffee at the local shops before settling in at the house. We commented on the spacious lounge room and how nice it was after a couple of weeks in the close quarters of the van. We stretched out and relaxed while we waiting for Luke & Nay to get home from work. It was great to see them again when they did get home. They whipped up some delicious wild venison and veggie burgers, coupled with a nice bottle of red, and followed by some amazing chocolate mousse. What a treat!
    Wasn’t long before we’d had our catch ups, drunk our late night cups of tea and all disappeared to bed.

    Looking forward to tomorrow’s adventures with our local tour guides but for now, it’s time to soak up the comforts of a warm, spacious, and stationary home 😊😴
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  • Day 13

    Baked Beans & an Italian Stallion

    July 13, 2018 in New Zealand ⋅ 🌙 1 °C

    We spent the night on a comfy air mattress in Luke & Nay's cosy lounge room last night. We woke to the hustling and bustling of Lukey in the kitchen, whipping up his famous baked beans (famous?). I got up and started brewing a bit of coffee as slowly, one by one everyone else walked bleary eyed into he kitchen. Jo shocked us all by showing face in the kitchen quite early before we realised she was just passing through to get back to her bed from the bathroom! 😂

    But soon the smell of Luke's beans and the rest of his yummy breakfast lured her back in. We feasted on a delicious gourmet brekky before getting ready for the day. Firstly we had to sort out another set of wheels. We hired a rental car online before Luke dropped us to pick it up. We had a great chat to the car rental ladies before setting off to pick up the girls.

    We loaded the girls and Hudson into the cars and we were off on the road once again. We were aiming for the amazing Hanmer Springs. About 1.5 hours later we arrived in the beautiful old town at the base of the mountain ranges, just North-West of Christchurch. Luke and Nay were dying to take us on a a pretty big hike, but Luke, previously reading about the events which took place at the Fox Glacier, decided against it. It was in the best interest of us all. 😂

    We did however tackle a substantial hill climb when we arrived in Hanmer Springs. We set off up Conical Hill, an amazing track that wound up the mountain through incredible pine forests. Luke managed to steal the good camera off James to try re-ignite his old photography skills, much to James' dismay he had to go without taking a photo for some time while we climbed. We managed the trek with ease and the view at the top paid of. We could see all over Hanmer Springs and then back over toward the snow capped ranges behind us. We never grow tired of these incredible views here!

    After several attempts at a group photo it was back down to town to explore and find coffee. Unfortunately due to a bit of a late start to the day we were racing the sun and had to head back to Christchurch. We would have spent much more time in Hanmer Springs if we had the time but perhaps next time.

    We made it back to Christchurch and relaxing for a bit before heading out to dinner just down he road. Luke & Nay had booked a table at an amazing Italian restaurant just new there house. We walked in and instantly felt like we were in another country. The hustle and bustle of happy diners greeted us as well as a large Italian man who threw his hands in the air in greeting "Ciao Bella!" We were directed to our table and continued to be entertained but this character of a man. Hudson seemed to attract bit of attention from waiters and diners alike, making us the centre of attention int he restaurant.😂 We ordered some incredible authentic food and James & Jess reminisced to the days they visited Italy. Our Italian stallion friend was never faraway with a new cheeky comment about how the ladies loved his thick accent, much to the girls delight!

    We spent the night feasting on delicious food and wine, catching up, and enjoying the odd but hilarious interruptions from our larger than life friend. With full bellies and content hearts we walked back to the house to relax in front of the warm fire and sip on cups of tea before bed.

    Tomorrow our personal tour guides are taking us to some farmers markets and showing us around Akoroa, but for now it's time to sleep away this Italian food.

    Asher
    (More photos to come)
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