On The Edge Part 1

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Getting Started in New Zealand:

The moment we stepped onto Kiwi soil, before even leaving the airport, we fell in love with it. We landed in Auckland at 10pm on March 31 and had a whole night to spend at the airport before our next flight to cold and rainy Wellington. From Wellington, we took an over-budget ferry to the south island where we were to begin our 16 day driving excursion.

By the end of our first day we found ourselves in a small town on the north end of the south island called Picton, double over our budget and double over exhausted. We settled down at a cute villa (called "The Villa) near the ferry port, where we took advantage of the on site hot tub after having an early (52 cent instant soup) dinner and a much needed early sleep.

Backpackin' down the road in Picton

We managed to sleep for 12 hours straight and woke up just 10 minutes before we were expected to check out of our room. Our plan for the day was to rent a car or a campervan, which we heard was very popular and cost effective for travelling around the island. We used our free hour of internet to do some research on how to go about it. We learned that Picton was unfortunately not the place to make any plans of that sort as it wasn't a big enough city with the right resources. Therefore, we were going to have to make our way slightly more south to either Christchurch (on the east coast) or Nelson (west inland). All the buses were showing up full for the day, and the only other option that was recommended for us was to hitchhike to one of the two cities.

Hitching a ride with Mike

Hitchhiking was something that we had never had to do so far on our travels and we were a little bit apprehensive. However, it was apparently very popular and often done in New Zealand, so we went for it. We were given instructions to start walking towards the end of town (which was only 15 minutes away) towards the highway, walk past the gas station and to keep on walking until someone kindly stopped for us. As such, that's what we did. At the gas station we stopped and grabbed some meat pies (very popular and very delicious in NZ) for breakfast. Sure enough, before we were even half way into our pies or were able to put a thumb out, a big 12-seater van was pulling over and hailing us in!

Mike, our 'hitch-driver', was a retiree from Christchurch, who grew up in Kenya and now working picking up relocation vans as a hobby and drove us the entire way there. The 5 hour drive down was absolutely breathtaking. We passed vineyards and farmland before the road met up with the coast, and we drove right along side it for 2 hours. Along the way, Mike was nice enough to teach us about the vineyards, some history of the land, and about the recent earthquakes that shook Christchurch and completely destroyed parts of the city. He even stopped for us at a popular site outside a town called Kaikoura, where mother seals left their babies to play near a waterfall, while they went out fishing for the day. The seals were incredibly cute, some relaxing on rocks while others were doing flips in and out of pool underneath a waterfall.

After Kaikoura, we continued down the highway with views of the crystal blue ocean and spiky rock formations on our left and the expansive southern alps to our right. It was almost impossible for us to put our camera down for the entire ride.

Once we arrived in Christchurch, Mike dropped us off at the only hostel he knew about near the university and the botanical gardens, and wished us (along with the other smelly backpacker we'd picked up along the way) safe travels. Unfortunately, the accommodations were all booked up for the night. We made our way down the street to an information station which had just closed 10 minutes before we arrived as per the sign on the door. Luckily enough, the manager walked out just as we got there and began giving us directions toward another option, and before we knew it, he offered to give us a ride there. We were two-for-two on successful hitches for the day!

  

That night we were let in on a little secret about the free internet booths around the city (otherwise we would have to pay $5 an hour for a limit of 100MB of usage at the hostel). We spent almost 3 hours on the curb near a gas station so we could finally download a game for David's new, and until now unusable, PS Vita. Success!

The next day, we went back to the information station by the botanical gardens to get some help on hiring a camper. Another wonderful Kiwi woman was right at our service. She must have called 5 different companies for us, in the attempt to find us the best bang for our buck.

Before we picked up our van we made a few stops, by foot, to see some of the 'Red Zone' areas affected by the earthquakes. Most of the 'Red Zone' was blocked off and under construction for the rebuild, however we were able to get close enough to some of the buildings that were temporarily open for business or still standing as is. Many churches in the area got hit and were either completely demolished or damaged enough for a tear down and rebuild. One of the malls in the middle of town was completely demolished and was temporarily running through shipping containers, which they aptly named the 'Container Mall'.

Our Home on the Road:

By Noon on April 3rd we had picked up our cute little campervan that we would be calling home for the next 16 days! Driving took a little getting used to at first as we had never driven on the left side of the road or the left side of the car before. We took a leisurely spin around the block to get used to the change for a half an hour before we hit the highway. It took us a few roundabouts and right hand turns (and turning on the windshield wipers instead of the signal various times) before we were all set and ready to go. We drove through a few towns and a lot of farmland until we reached a little town called Geraldine where we spent our first night. We stopped at the town grocery to buy some essentials, dinner, and snacks for the road and then headed down the long gravel road to our campsite. The site was out in the middle of farmland with not much scenery and no amenities besides a bathroom and a sink. As soon as parked we it started to pour so we set up the tarp and got our steak and potatoes dinner on the go.

The next day we drove back into Geraldine and stopped at the town library to recharge our laptop and send some emails home. When we hit the road again it was all hills and farmland with towering mountain ranges in the distance. As we got closer and closer to the mountains the more we had to struggle with the fuzziness on the radio, but the more beautiful the scenery became. The tallest mountains were capped with snow while the smaller ones were covered with lush greenery. At one point, the road completely opened up to Lake Tekapo, a sparkling turquoise blue lake where we stopped at a lookout to take some pictures.

 

We kept driving down highway 83, alongside Lake Pukaki, another sparkling turquoise lake, brighter than the sky. We had never seen a lake which was the color you would see around a tropical island, until now. It was later explained to us that the water became that colour due to a mixture of rock sediment, and crystal clear glacial waters. This lake led us straight to our next camping site in Aoraki,  Mt. Cook National Park. At 3754 meteres, Mt Cook is New Zealand's (and surrounding area's) highest peak and housed a stunning glacier that sat right in front of our site.

The next morning, we drove around through the mountain valley, and over to the "Tasman glacier".  It was about a half an hour hike to get up to the viewing point, but was well worth it when we arrived.  The glacier was more than 25 km long, and in the distance we saw boat tours that looked like little ants beside the huge icebergs.  After the downhill hike back, it was time to hit the road again.


We drove south to a town called Twizel, hit the grocery store, then chilled at a local café to recharge our computer (as we had had movie night in the campervan the night before).  We hadn't previously realized just how long it took to fully charge the laptop, until we were sitting there waiting for it.  Three and a half hours to be exact, but that was just the price we would have to pay for our nightly movies.  We drove further south past the towns of Omarama, Kurow, Duntroon, and Omaru, and stopped for the night in a campsite just outside of the town called Herbert.  This next campsite was nestled in the forest, and we fell asleep to the sounds of the forest critters (and our laptop).


As Dave was crying from cutting onions for breakfast, Alice was reading our road map and DOC (department of conservation) pamphlet and researching where our next destination was to be.  We realized that we were founding the island with unjust speed, and at that rate, we'd have done the whole loop in about 8 days, instead of the allotted 16.  As such, we decided not to drive too much that day.

We continued south, and stopped along the way at the Moreaki boulders (naturally spherical boulders that eerily hung out on the beach), and Dunedin.  Dunedin (or, Dune-a-deen, as Alice would say) was a larger city, where we took a long walk along "Allen Beach", which was just outside of town.  After speaking to some locals, we were informed Allen beach was one of two places that were popular for seeing penguins.  So we walked all the way to the end of the beach (the penguin spot), and saw one little guy waddling up the beach just as we approached.  We also managed to see two sea lions, who were taking siestas in the sand dunes. The penguin we saw was very shy, though, and ran back to the ocean as we approached.  We waited patiently for about an hour for other penguins, to no avail.  After we'd decided to leave, we looked back periodically to see if any penguins had come out, and of course one did after about 15 minutes of walking.  We were satisfied,  though, that we'd had the chance to see at least one penguin and could cross that off our list of things we wanted to see.



By the time we got back on the highway, the sun had set.  It was a little difficult navigating our way to the next campsite, in the South of the island, but managed to make it there around 9:00 that night.  We'd read in the book that the views here were supposed to be particularly spectacular, being that it was right on the ocean (which we could hear), but being that it was so dark, we'd have to wait until the morning to see.





Thanks again for reading,
and stay tuned for more adventures.
With love (from the Van)
D'Alice