On the Edge Part 2

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April, 2013
Driving down the East Coast

Beach Front Campsite outside Otago Region

After listening to the waves crashing as we fell asleep, waking up on the beach was exactly as beautiful as we'd imagined it would be.  There were tall cliffs dropping off into the big wide ocean right at our feet. We started off the morning with a couple of coffees and a great big breakfast and then set out on the road again. Unfortunately, as one of the consequences of camping was not having a good charge on our electronics, we only got to take one picture, before our camera ran out of battery.  As we were cooking breakfast with the beautiful scenery in the background, some random guy walked by and asked us, "sleep well?".  We had.

Despite the fact that charging our camera was now our #1 priority, we wanted to stop by "Jack's Blowhole" before heading into the nearest town.  Jack's Blowhole was a natural 200ft hole that dropped into a cave filled with roaring water from the ocean a few hundred meters away. We managed to snap a few pictures with our seldom used Iphone, and were on our way. 

We stopped in the closest, and very small, town, where we stopped at a coffee shop to use their electricity.  We bought a few espressos, as such was necessary to use their power. There we saw the same random guy (now known as Mike from the Netherlands) who had asked us how our sleep was, and we became very friendly with him, comparing travel stories.  We then went to Nugget Point where we climbed up to a lighthouse on the bay overlooking the ocean and rocks that were home to hundreds of seals. The views where extraordinary.

Just an hour before dusk we arrived at our next campsite in Curio Bay, a peninsula surrounded by the ocean in the Catlins of New Zealand. When we first arrived, we had to check in and get an actual site assigned to us for the first time, as this was our first upscale campsite with power (and showers, teehee). Our previous sites were all government sites, based on an honor system where we had to fill out a form and place our money into a box. We were given a map of the grounds (which were pretty big) and began searching for our designated spot.

The ditch we got stuck in

We realized we had made a wrong turn and found ourselves on the edge of the peninsula in deep muddy, uphill track, suitable only for 4X4s. We decided to turn around (a little too late)... Dave popped the van into reverse and we started rolling down the hill and into a ditch and almost flipped the entire van over before we could stop it! When the van finally stopped rolling we were a half tire deep in the mud, only a few feet from the cliff, and utterly and completely stuck (and really scared)! We spent the next 20 minutes trying to roll back and forth and out of the ditch but it was no use, the van would budge a little and then get stuck all over again. Dave got out of the van and Alice jumped into the driver seat, in hopes that a little push or two would help. Still nothing. Just as we were about to give up and admit that we weren't going to make it out without a (very expensive) tow, Dave said "Lets give it just one last try" and put all his muscle into it... And sure enough the van came zooming out and we were saved! We exchanged high fives, hugs, and huge sighs of relief, jumped up and down, and then quickly got outta there!

When we finally found our designated spot, nestled in a U-shaped bush, the sun was going down. It was perfect timing to catch some penguins coming in from the ocean after a long day of swimming and fishing. We put on some warmer clothes and headed down the street to a designated penguin watching area. However on our way down we ran into an Aussie couple that was on their way back and said we missed the big event. Sadly we headed back to the van, still only having seen just one lonely penguin the day prior.


The next morning we did some dolphin watching before doing our usual morning routine of making breakfast, cleaning up, reorganizing the van and setting out for another day on the road. The roads became even curvier than they had been around the bottom part of the island as we drove through town after town. We eventually made it to the south east part of the island where we were able to see the Fjords in the distance as we drove down the 8km gravel road and into our next simple, and quiet, lakeside site. Unfortunately, as this site was also nestled deep in the forest, we got attacked pretty badly by mosquitos, but that's just the price we had to pay.  We had a nice dinner, lit, as always by tea-light candles, and had what had become a tradition; tea and movie time, before turning in.

The next day was a "sit in the library and charge electronics/check the internet" kinda day. We were in the town of "Te Anau", which was the launching point for the drive up to "Milford Sound", a must-do Kiwi experience. Once again we settled down at a lakeside campsite, close enough to Milford Sound that we could beat the early morning tourist traffic and catch an early cruise through the fjords. For those of you that don't know, a fjord is a U-shaped formation, carved through mountain tops by pre-historic glaciers. We were lucky enough to get a gorgeous day for our 2 hour cruise, as we learnt it was almost always raining in the Sounds. We were able to see the very tip of Mitre Peak, the highest point in the Sound, which was almost always blocked by cloud cover. We passed along side various towering waterfalls (even one that claimed to be as tall as Niagara Falls), and rock formations that began taking shape of animals like kissing turtles and lions over the years. Before the cruise boat turned around we made it out to the open Tasman Sea for another breathtaking view. By the time the tour was over we were more than happy about going over our daily budget before we even made it to 11am, and headed back towards the town of Te Anau for lunch.

In Te Anau we were able to contact a friend, Huw,  that we made along our travels who was studying medicine at the university in Queenstown. It was a long drive with more gorgeous views as we drove along the lake and made it just in time to meet Huw at his place for dinner. We had met Huw in Nicaragua and spent almost a week travelling together. It was so lovely to see a familiar face after so long. We spent the evening catching up over wine and an authentic Thai dinner that Huw easily threw together while filling us in on everything he'd done since the last time we had seen him.

The evening was lovely. It had been quite awhile since we had been invited into a home and been able to enjoy the relaxed atmosphere. When the hour was getting late, we were expecting to make our way to the next campsite, but Huw invited us to stay for the night and to make ourselves at home. We didn't decline as it was so warm and cozy where we were, and we slept on the floor right by the fireplace.

Driving up the West Coast:

The next day we woke up feeling well rested (and clean, for the first time in awhile) and ready for the next leg of our journey. We drove through a beautiful town called Watanaka and various other vineyard towns up the west coast before making our way to Lake Gunn. Were we settled down, at a quiet campsite by the lake for the night and prepared yet another delicious candle light dinner.

Glacier hopping was on our list the next morning. It was a beautiful, sunny, and warmer than usual day, and we couldn't have been more lucky. It took us a couple of hours to get to Fox Glacier, the first one of two on the list. We took a 30 minute hike up to the viewing point where we could see tiny moving objects miles away. People were doing a glacier hike and literally walking on the glacier! We contemplated sneaking out there and joining the group but then decided otherwise and made our way back down to the van.

It took us another hour or so to reach Franz Joseph Glacier, where we only had to walk about 15 minutes to see the beauty of it all. Both sites showed information with photos on how the glaciers looked years ago and how much bigger in size they had been. Because of global warming and the changes in the atmosphere both had reduced in size and spectacle with time. We have to admit, although stunning in their own way, we did expect more from these 'must see' kiwi sites, as we have been turned into glacier snobs after our honeymoon in Alaska. However, we enjoyed every minute of it nonetheless.

The next few days took us through Wataroa, where Dave played golf (and Alice played caddy girl), Hokotika, a city right on the west coast,and Aurthur's Pass, a very skinny road that passed through towered mountain top. After that we made our way back to our starting point in Christchurch. We did the circle around the island a little more quickly then anticipated and had a few days remaining before we needed to return the van. So, we did some campsite hopping in and around  the big city and used the days to relax and catch up on blogging and downloading at the various free internet sites around the city.

On our last day in Christchurch we were van-less so we did some exploring by foot and took a long walk to the mall.  As it was the day after Alice's big 30th birthday (once again we had a pizza party dinner the night before) we wanted to get looking for a birthday present.  Unfortunately, things were a little too costly in New Zealand, and we didn't find anything that she liked, so we'd just have to wait a bit longer.  We headed back to our hostel and then to the airport for our 9:40pm flight out of the magical and mystical NZ .


Thanx for keeping up with us,
with love from Kiwiland,

D'Alice