We flew into Christchurch on the 5th February. Our first night was spent in a half-decent airport hotel, but we were up early the next morning to catch the Naked Bus which took us down south to meet up with my parents in a town called Omarama.
Omarama isn't up in the clouds, it's just that I really like this shot from the airplane.
It was amazing to see them all the way on the other side of the globe. We caught sight of our accommodation for the next couple of weeks; the biggest motorhome I've ever seen. At over 8 metres long, it can be said that my parents like to go large.
Our home on six wheels!
From Omarama we headed on to Queenstown, the tourist capital of NZ. This is the place where you could easily blow what budget you might have had on every possible extreme sport and adrenaline inducing activity you can think of.
During our stay we took a tram ride up a hill to the local ziplining company. The zipline ran through the woods to the base of the tram line.
I managed to capture this view of Queenstown on the way up on the tram to the zipline.
Happy zipliners!
Putting together a panoramic shot in New Zealand is difficult to avoid as the scenery is special wherever you look.
After a good night's rest we went on the next flight to see the spectacular Milford Sound, a valley by the coast with a massive estuary. Usually the tour to Milford Sound includes a short flight over the mountains (there is also a bus option to take you there but that takes somewhere in the region of five hours one way), and then a boat ride through the Sound.
Because of the clouds, the small plane could only do the flight on that day, so we went up anyway on a tour across the mountain ranges, which is a photographer's dream!
The pilot preparing the small plane to take us up and over Milford Sound.
The mountain ranges went on and on into the distance.
This is the first glacier I've seen.
I managed to capture Mount Cook in the distance, NZ's highest mountain.
And there's Milford Sound, lying just under the clouds. A special place indeed.
The view just before coming in to land.
Next stop was another beautiful town called Wanaka, situated by a lake between the hills. After settling down into our campsite with the motorhome, we hired some bikes and took a route around the edge of the lake and back into town just north.
Lisa taking in the view.
New Zealand has a strange infectious vibe that I felt all the while there. It's where adrenaline junkies go on holiday for their fix, and it runs through the atmosphere everywhere you go.
Mum braved it and got stuck into a tandem paraglide just outside of Wanaka.
This isn't my Mum up there, but I thought the moon in the background made for a nice shot.
As she was taking off a guy who was helping got his hand caught in the ropes and nearly went up at the same time!
Now this is Mum, spinning and gliding...
Here is what the landscape looked like in front of her.
Touch down. What a mum!
After Wanaka we aimed for Franz Josef and the glacier on NZ's West Coast. On the way we found some pretty interesting locations and prime opportunities for group shots.
Like this one!
We parked up one night next to a lake on the West Coast just before reaching Franz Josef. I managed to get this shot just before a fisherman headed out on his boat in the morning to spoil the stillness.
Not sure what Mum was thinking, perhaps still trying to fathom the size of the motorhome.
When we reached Franz Josef the main attraction is to go up and see the glacier. We caught one of the chartered helicopter flights up there, which was a lot of fun. The first for me in one of these.
Franz Josef glacier through the window of the helicopter.
Chilling on the glacier. We took a guided walk to see some of incredible twists and tight spots in this moving lump of ice.
Our guide carving the way with her pickaxe.
Lisa going for it!
Getting my pose on, sporting the hired spiked crampons.
Once defrosted we headed up and across the South Island to make our way back to Christchurch. Along the way we came across a village called Hokitika, which has a beach full on driftwood.
Hokitiki made out of driftwood.
This beach was filled with drfitwood.
Evolution. They had made one structure that looked exactly like my Mum, so I took a picture of it.
Dad made one of his own. UK represent!
The weather wasn't always sunshine and blue sky, as this woman is showing with her fashionable hat. I couldn't be more jealous.
Our next stop was the French settlement town of Akaroa on the east coast of the island. Just off the coast of Akaroa we went on a boat ride to spot some the world's smallest dolphins called hector's dolphins. They are only found off the shores of NZ, so was a privilege to see these little fellas.
Us on the boat to see hector's dolphins, seals and penguins.
Two penguins popping up to see what was going on.
And the dolphins! Very distinguishable from other species, with a black dorsal fin and face.
Also saw some seals, which topped the day off very nicely.
After Akarao my parents flew back home. We had a amazing time, doing some many activities and travelling around in style. It was now just the two of us. Lisa and I now
had a month and a half to make our way around the South Island to see a few more areas missed on the first way round. We bought ourselves a 19-stop bus ticket
which would allow us to go to all the major, and some minor, towns and cities
across NZ.
The route was entirely our
choice, we just needed to do a bit of planning. In hindsight, we should have
rented a car which would have allowed us to visit some of the more remotes
places and stay at cheaper campsites, and arrive and leave when we desired, rather
than waiting for a bus. In the end, for the last week on the North Island, we treated ourselves to a rental car, and got to enjoy our freedom from buses.
There are pros and cons to
renting a car however, and we were hearing stories from other travellers about
how they were having to shell out hundreds of bucks to replace failed engine
parts etc… On the bright side, we enjoyed the facilities that some of more the
popular and larger campsites had to offer.
We left Christchurch and had our first stop in the town of Oamaru.
This is the steampunk capital of NZ, and has a dedicated museum just for it!
The steampunk headquarters at Oamaru.
Where's the bloody steam!
We thought this was overpriced at $10 per person because there was no steam and very little punk! Very disappointing, so if you ever plan on going there be sure you take a look at www.bookme.co.nz where tickets for many of the activities in NZ are much cheaper.
The coolest thing there was this room called the Infinity Portal.
We stopped by a place called Moeraki
on our way down to Dunedin. A 45-minute walk along the beach was required to
get to these strange looking rocks. They look like big stony boulders, hence the name
Moeraki Boulders.
Dunedin was our next stop. This city
was founded by Scottish settlers, so its name is actually the Celtic word
for Edinburgh. It became clear that this place had Scottish blood when people
started saying “wee” quite a bit.
We only had a day in Dunedin
before got back on the bus to travel onward south to Invercargill; another one founded by the Scot’s, they really know how to choose the coldest of places! Even though it was NZ’s summertime, the temperature dropped to around 5 degrees
C at night which led us to sleeping fully clothed in our tent.
Our brand new tent after the first one leaked on us. This would be our home for the next 6 weeks.
There are some interesting things to see in Invercargill, such as the Oreta Beach, a signpost that showed how far away some of the capital cities are in the world, and a lovely island just off the coast. But, because we didn’t have a car we weren’t able to visit any of those!
Instead we took a walk around the city centre during which I provided Lisa with a professional guided tour (read from a leaflet I found) and we both learned a lot about Invercargill and tour guiding.
After my very memorable tour, we ended up in Queens Park, which provided us with some of the most interesting garden-related sights we have probably experienced so far. They have a good-sized Rose garden (better than the one in Wellington on the North Island), a large aviary, an animal reserve and a small Japanese garden among other gardens.
After Invercargill we stopped over in Queenstown
once more where we stayed in a shared dorm for just one night because of the way the buses worked out. We set off at the crack of dawn and got on a bus up to Franz Josef, as we had decided to travel up the West Coast
rather than cut across to the east.
By now we had been in NZ for a good month and were yet to see a kiwi. There was a kiwi sanctuary in Franz Josef, which we had to visit if we were ever going to get of glimpse of this nocturnal, endangered species.
They took us down to an area where they bred them, before they were sent to an island off the coast somewhere until they grew big enough to fend for themselves.
Tonto was only 11 days old. There was also one which was just three days old!
When a kiwi is pregnant, the egg is bigger than she is.
Because of weasels, an animal not native to NZ
but introduced from overseas, kiwis have been gradually diminishing to the
‘critically endangered’ end on the conservation list.
Next we camped in Punakaiki
further up the West Coast. The main attractions here were the Pancake Rocks. It’s not
really known how these rocks formed the way they had, but it has something to do
with the ocean currents and movement of the seabed.
The Pancake rocks on the West Coast
The beach was a good one in Punakaiki
For three nights we camped
near the beach, and although the sand flies were getting their fill and the
rain didn't ease up, our time here allowed us to catch up with some internet
chores and relax a bit.
Our last few nights in the South
Island were spent just outside of Nelson, before getting on a ferry to take us
onward and upward over the sea to the North Island.
The winds in Nelson put our tent to the test... fortunately everything was alright and the tent survived the following couple of days.
Lisa enjoying some baking in Nelson in the campsite's kitchen.
Cookies and Mexican food. Yum!
Strolling the huge beach just outside of Nelson.
Nelson is a pit stop for those looking to go up to Abel Tasman and explore the national parks. Unfortunately because of time restrictions we had to push on to the ferry terminal to take us over to the North island. We've marked Abel Tasman as one of the many return journeys we'll have to do. Next time however we'll be sure to hire a motorhome for more comfort and flexibility.
