;
and of course the highly entertaining sheepdog show (with the
enthusiastic dog Molly) and shearing demonstration.
We all enjoyed it, especially Sarah and Matthew,
who got to bottle-feed a lamb and a young pig.
New Zealand has been on my list of places to go for years. Everyone who goes there comes back with glowing reports, and I've read many books that were set there. It looked and sounded like an amazing place, packing every conceivable kind of scenery and activity into a relatively small and accessible area. In January 2005 I was starting to think about our next summer vacation, and was inspired by reading about the adventure trips taken by another family with children the ages of ours when I noticed that they had enjoyed New Zealand by campervan enough to do it twice. My husband, Dale, agreed that it sounded interesting so I started looking into it, found decent airfares and a camper, and made those initial reservations. (Although the airfares did come down even further in April, I did not feel comfortable waiting until the last minute for the camper booking since so much depended on having it.) Later in the spring, I started reading up more thoroughly on the various attractions, marked them on a map, and planned a rough itinerary.
Finally, on Wednesday, June 1, 2005 we landed at Auckland airport at the delightful hour of 5:15 a.m. The flight from LAX was uneventful, and after going through immigration and picking up our luggage, we still had an hour or so to kill before we would be picked up. After the 12-hour flight, Sarah and Matthew (aged 9 and 6 respectively) were bouncing off the walls, but soon grew hungry since the airplane breakfast was three hours behind us. So the first place we ate in New Zealand ended up being the McDonald's in the airport.
We were picked up around 7 a.m. and driven through Auckland to the Kea Campers rental depot in a northern suburb. After filling out the paperwork and being treated to a nice cup of tea, we were given a very thorough - if a little overwhelming - overview of the camper's features. Although both Dale and I have been vehicle passengers in left-hand-drive countries, neither of us had done any driving there, and we had also never driven a camper before. So we were somewhat apprehensive to begin with. I graciously offered to let Dale be the first driver en route to the nearby Pak-n-Save, and off we went.
500KB low-res North Island route map
1.2MB high-res North Island route map
Wednesday, June 1: After stocking up the
camper and eating an early lunch, we headed north out of
Auckland. Because of the long flight, and keeping
jet lag in mind, we didn't want to drive
for very long that first day. We decided to aim for Matakohe for the
night. Just past Warkworth, we found
Sheep World,
which
looked at first like it might be the epitome of a tourist trap but
would be fun for the kids. We were pleasantly surprised to find pretty
nature walks with a dock and equipment to catch and identify pond
creatures; sheep and goats to feed
;
and of course the highly entertaining sheepdog show (with the
enthusiastic dog Molly) and shearing demonstration.
We all enjoyed it, especially Sarah and Matthew,
who got to bottle-feed a lamb and a young pig.
We arrived at the Matakohe Top 10 Holiday Park in the late afternoon. The campground has a lovely view of the water but is otherwise pretty basic. It didn't take us long to hook up everything and figure out how to make it work.
Thursday, June 2: Jet lag made itself felt the next day when we all woke up well before dawn. Since it was to our advantage to go places and cover ground in the early morning, while going to bed relatively early in the evening was not a problem since it was dark before 6pm, we decided to try to maintain this schedule.
We started the day at the Kauri Museum
in Matakohe, taking the obligatory "here's our camper" shot in the
parking lot.
The museum is an amazing place, displaying the history of kauri logging
and
kauri-gum mining, complete with a mockup lumber mill. They also have
many beautiful examples of kauri gum and items
made of kauri and other native woods. These days the beauty and majesty
of these enormous ancient trees is much better appreciated, and
woodworking is mostly done using "swamp kauri": preserved trees tens of
thousands of years
old dug up from drained fields. The museum shop had a wide selection of
swamp-kauri objects
for sale, and their prices turned out to be slightly lower than those
at other places we visited later. While I
was browsing in the shop, Dale took the kids outside to the small
playground, where they really enjoyed the see-saw. For some reason
these seem to be almost extinct in the U.S., but nearly every
playground we found in New Zealand had one.
Having spent much more time at the museum than we planned, we
headed
north on highway 12, paralleling the coast, to the
Waipoua
Forest,
home to the largest remaining live kauri trees. There are
several pleasant walks in this area, including the Four Sisters and
Te Matua Ngahere ("Father of the Forest").
The woods are cool and green, with many large and beautiful tree ferns,
and
the kauris are very impressive - even if you've seen the giant sequoias
and redwoods of California, as we have.
The Millennium
Kauri Forest Project
is working to replant thousands of acres of kauri trees, although it
will take many years for the new trees to grow to full maturity.
It was now approaching mid-afternoon and our destination was Kaitaia, so we made haste up the highway - or at least as much as possible on the narrow, winding road. Coming over the crest near Omapere, we were startled by the sudden breathtaking view of Hokianga Harbour and its impossibly golden sand dunes. Since we were so stunned that we drove right by the best viewpoint and never got a photo of them, here are a couple of links to other people's photos (1 and 2). We drove on to Rawene, where I telephoned ahead to book a tour of 90-Mile Beach and Cape Reinga the next day. We caught the small ferry across the harbour to Kohukohu, and then rejoined highway 1, which took us through the very twisty Mangamuka Gorge - a classic example of how something that looks like a short linear distance on the map can end up taking far longer, and be much more tiring, to drive than you expect. Just after dark, we pulled into Kaitaia Motor Camp on the south end of town.
Today was our first real clue about how often we would find ourselves in areas where the roads were quite twisty and hilly. Because Dale gets carsick as a passenger in these conditions, he ended up doing most of the driving, especially on the South Island.
Friday, June 3: Today someone else would be
doing
the driving! We parked our camper at
Harrison's Cape
Runner in
Kaitaia and got into the minibus. The bus would hold about 15
people, but on this day there were only six passengers: the four of us
plus two college students (one from New Brunswick, next door to where
Dale grew up in Nova Scotia). Our driver was a local Maori man, the
owner of the bakery that supplies the excellent sandwiches for lunch,
who drives for Harrison's part-time because he enjoys being a
guide. He had a great sense of humor and explained lots of things as we
went along. After driving past Lake Waiparera, we emerged onto the
southern end of Ninety-Mile Beach
,
where he stopped for a few minutes so we could get out and walk around.
From here, the view northward up the full length of the beach appears
endless. It is actually more like ninety kilometers (~55 miles) long
,
but you'd never know the difference looking at it. It was very windy that
day
,
with heavy surf in the Tasman Sea and lots of brown plankton being
washed ashore.
The driver told us that he would have to do a special job washing off
the underside of the minibus after we got off the beach, or it would
reek within a few hours.
We spent quite a while splashing along the smooth, almost
endless beach
at a good clip, before arriving at "The Bluff"
,
a small rocky outcrop that protrudes into the Tasman Sea. The beach
just here changes from smooth sand to lovely crushed shells.
The rocks around The Bluff made the surf more noticeable
,
and if possible, it was even windier on top of the bluff than on the
beach.
That's Sarah's face you're looking at in this picture:
Not long afterwards, we turned off the beach near the north
end and
drove along the Te Paki Stream. Like the beach, the stream bed is used
as a semi-official roadway, although rental agencies generally forbid
driving their vehicles on either of them. One of the most fun parts of
the day, especially for the kids, was the stop at the base of the large
dunes that have been left in their natural state at the northern end of
the beach.
The driver had brought several small plastic toboggans, and we all
enjoyed taking runs down the hill.
As one of the other passengers
found out, you do have to be a bit
careful to stop before you drop into the stream! The wind was blowing sand along the surface of the dunes, so
we didn't spend as long at it as we probably would have normally, but it was still great fun.
From Te Paki we drove through DOC farmland and along the ridge
to Cape Reinga
,
where the confluence of the Tasman Sea and the Pacific Ocean is clearly
visible.
It is a pretty spot, with the squat white lighthouse
and a combination of rocky and
sandy coastline. When Sarah threw
handfuls of path gravel into the air, the wind blew it straight
backwards
past her. Occasional showers also blew by, but no serious rain - just
like the previous two days. Thanks to this mixed weather, we saw a
lovely rainbow over Cape Maria van Diemen.
This was just one of many rainbows we saw on our trip, everywhere we
went in
New Zealand, and they definitely contributed to our overall impression
of how beautiful the country is.
From the Cape we took a side trip to Spirits Bay - which is as lovely as everywhere else in Northland - for a tasty picnic lunch. Our guide pointed out some of the native plants, such as flax, tea trees, and pohutukawa, known as the "New Zealand Christmas tree" for its stunning red flowers that bloom in December. We then headed back to Kaitaia via Parengarenga Harbour, an ice-cream shop, and the Ancient Kauri Kingdom, where they have a swamp kauri trunk so large they carved a staircase inside.
Although there were stretches of the day when not much was happening - we covered a fair distance, after all - it was a really enjoyable trip, and a beautiful part of the country. It must have seemed like paradise for the Maori who first arrived there: wonderful climate, adequate rain and fresh water, easy hunting, deep forests, no dangerous animals - and all of this surrounded by stunning scenery.
Anyway, coming back down to earth, after returning to Kaitaia around 5 p.m., we drove about 30 miles to Mangonui, where we ate dinner at the famous Mangonui Fish Shop (fish & chips, of course) and then got a site for the night at Hihi Beach Holiday Camp.
Saturday, June 4: Today was mostly a
driving day. However we
did start it off right by stopping at Paihia, on the Bay of Islands, to
spend a couple of hours relaxing at the beach in the brilliant warm
sunshine.
Unfortunately, it was offset a bit by an unpleasant encounter in the
beach parking strip with a young
man who had chosen to park where he blocked our way out, rather than
take one of the other 30+ spaces available (the place was nearly
empty). But as far as I recall, this was the only time in our trip when
anyone was downright rude - even threatening - to us. I guess
there had to be a bad apple somewhere in the barrel.
After that we belted a considerable distance down the motorway, through Auckland (with a stop at the same Pak-n-Save), and out the other side, turning east toward Orere, where there appeared to be a decent campground on the coast. The campground, Orere Point Holiday Park, was nice enough, but the roads in this area were small and very slow. We ended up doing the last 20 miles of twisty driving in the dark, which was very stressful.
Sunday, June 5: The first part of the day
took us from Orere Pt.
around the bottom of the beautiful Firth of Thames to the base of the
Coromandel Peninsula. The Coromandel is famed for its scenery, beaches,
and mountain forest hiking, but since most of the roads are not
"sealed" (paved), we would not have felt comfortable taking
the campervan there even if the rental company had permitted it. Instead, we
turned southeast at Thames and crossed to the Bay of Plenty, another
subtropical playground of pristine beaches and blue ocean. Since May
and June are kiwi harvest season, we stopped in at the most touristy of
the attractions we went to: Kiwi 360, a working kiwi vineyard near Te
Puke (pronounced "Teh Poo-keh"). After eating lunch and
climbing
the Big Kiwi
,
we went on a tour of their operations in the little carts they
provide.
Just like the Cape Reinga trip,
there were only two other people on our
tour, even though the place could clearly handle a much larger crowd.
Coincidentally, these two were a honeymooning couple from
Albuquerque, 75 miles up the highway from home! We had a good
look at the orchards where the fruit, both green and the relatively new
variety of gold kiwis, were still hanging from the vines
and then
proceeded to the packing
plant. Here they have an amazing machine
that weighs
every
single fruit and programs itself to drop each one
onto the specific conveyor belt for the right box (sorted based on how
many kiwis it takes to reach the total box weight). The fruit was being
packed under the "Zespri" name, and not long after we got back from the
trip,
we saw some kiwifruit in the store with those labels. The kids thought
that was pretty neat. Kiwifruit is stored just above freezing, and will
keep that way for nine months.
Backpackers looking for temporary jobs this time of year should check out this area. New Zealand has one of the lowest unemployment rates in the world, and they were having a hard time getting enough staff.
After the guided tour, we were dropped off at a park area with a simple maze, a kid-size "castle", two long twisty slides down the hill, and a pool featuring a large sculpted relief map of New Zealand in the center which was fun to see. There were a number of other fruit trees scattered around this area, notably oranges (we ate one), avocados (a long way from being ripe), and persimmons (ditto). Sarah and Matthew had a good time here and worked off some energy. We also stopped in at the gift shop to buy some good wine and, of course, kiwifruit. We did try the gold variety, which is milder and less acidic than the original green. Of the four of us, only Matthew preferred it. At the moment it has very limited availability outside of New Zealand because production is still quite low.
From Te Puke we headed inland toward Rotorua, which is
situated in
the largest geothermal area in the southern hemisphere and is also the
traditional home of the largest concentration of Maori in New Zealand.
For our first look at geothermal features, we took a small side trip to
Hell's Gate (note the amusing sign in this picture)
,
which has any number of boiling pools and mudpots with a temperature of
about 99C. We didn't check out the spa, but we did stroll along their
boardwalk. Of course the whole place is redolent with the rotten-egg
smell
of hydrogen sulphide. It is in fact a very toxic gas if you breathe it
at
high concentrations or for prolonged periods of time, but humans are
extremely sensitive to it even at levels as low as a few parts per
billion,
and there is no danger just from breathing in these areas. All the
same,
Matthew held his nose quite literally the entire
time.
We found a nice, reasonably priced campground for the night at Hannah's Bay, the All Seasons Holiday Park. After dinner and a quick check of our email, we went for a walk in the dark down to the lakeshore, where there was a pleasant park and a beautiful view of the city lights sparkling over the water.
Monday, June 6: After letting the kids play
for half an hour, mostly in this terrific roll-around tube
,
we went into Rotorua itself. Years ago at university I witnessed
a stirring amateur performance of the Maori haka,
or war dance, and
really wanted the rest of my family to see it too, so we went
looking for one. The first place we tried had only evening
performances,
so we stopped in at the Visitors' Centre, where they helpfully told us
about Te Puia
(formerly known as
Whakarewarewa after the valley in which it's located). There was a
performance scheduled for about 40 minutes later, so
we booked our tickets and dashed off down the road.
When we arrived, we joined other tourists and went through the
ceremony welcoming us to the marae, and then the
performance
began. The performers all seemed to be enjoying themselves, although
there was one in particular who really seemed to put the original
spirit into it.
They did several traditional songs, including the complex stick-tossing
dance, and concluded with the haka.
After the performance we met a Maori guide who took us through
the museum and told us about the Cultural Institute and carving school
there.
He had quite a sense of humor. ("My
name is Paul - but ladies, you can
call me 'Good-Looking'. Gentlemen, you can call me 'Sir'.") Among other
things, he showed us how the native flax plant is used to make skirts.
This demonstration was both interesting and amusing, as he started off
by
explaining how they traditionally use a mussel shell to score across
the leaf and strip off the outer layers. He then announced, "Meet my
friend Stanley" and pulled out his thoroughly modern boxcutters. The
unstripped part of the leaf rolls lengthwise into a tube as it dries,
and the stripped parts are then woven together to make the top part of
the skirt. When he finished working on the leaf, he
presented it to Sarah, who now has it hanging
on her bedroom wall.
After leaving the cultural area, he took us to the kiwi (bird)
enclosure with its simulated nocturnal environment. Kiwi exhibits were
always
popular with our kids and this one was no exception. Along the path
there he
picked a leaf from a silver tree fern - which in various styles is the
emblem of several New Zealand industries (tourism, wineries, etc.) and
athletic teams - and gave it to Matthew. So they both got good
souvenirs. After that, he saw us all off onto the trail through the geothermal
features, telling us how the Maori used to use the boiling pools and
steam
vents for cooking. The features included boiling mud pots
,
sulphur vents
,
thermal terraces
(where Sarah nearly lost her flax
leaf by dropping it over a fence; we
borrowed someone's long umbrella to retrieve it), and two well-known
geysers
which kindly erupted for us about
15 minutes later. The Prince of
Wales' Feathers (on the left) starts first, heralding the
more spectacular Pohutu (on the right) about 5 minutes after. They kept
going for quite a while. The photo of the terraces shows the volume
of water flowing down from the geysers; before the eruption these
terraces
were dry. Matthew must have got used to the H2S by this time, as he no
longer kept his nose clamped shut continuously with his fingers. (N.B.
The CD version of this journal has
a video clip of the geysers
erupting; at 7.5MB it was too big to put on the Web.)
From Te Puia we headed south to Taupo. To get an early start the next morning, we drove a few kilometers past the turnoff to Tongariro and stayed at the Oasis Motels and Caravan Park. This turned out to be quite a find, with three private naturally-heated spa pools, a thermal swimming pool, and a true mineral pool. Since we hadn't brought our swimming gear, a private spa was perfect for us. It made a delicious ending to a fairly long day. We also got some decent take-out at the Korean restaurant next door.
Tuesday, June 7: We set off early this
morning with the goal
of doing some easy walks in the Tongariro National Park; we didn't
think the kids would be up to the long Tongariro Crossing, which can be
dicey in places in the winter anyway. Shortly before the turnoff to
Whakapapa Village we got our first good view of Mount Tongariro
itself.
We had been warned by Kea about the road up to Whakapapa ski area, but
the Taupo visitor center staff told us it was fine; and indeed, at
least as far as the Whakapapa DOC visitors' center, the road is
perfectly normal with very smooth asphalt. It may get worse beyond that
as it heads up to the ski area, but we didn't go any further. We chose
to walk up the Ridge Track, which starts a hundred yards or so from the
visitors' center. We started the hike off by rescuing a small bird
trapped
inside the restroom shelter at the trailhead, using Sarah's sweatshirt
to
catch it gently as it flapped against the window. The trail was clear
and
frozen hard, and in the many still-shadowed places it was lined with
beautiful frozen groundwater ice
crystals (also known as pipkrake).
This is also where we saw frost for the first time on the trip; it
was particularly pretty on the heather that grew all over the
place.
The heather is the brainchild of an early national park
manager who believed that the area should be turned into a grouse moor
like those of his native Scotland. The grouse didn't take to New
Zealand, but the heather did, and like so many introduced species is
now displacing the natives.
At the top of the Ridge Track are some splendid views. This
attempt at a multi-shot ~330-degree panorama
isn't perfect, but
you
can get the idea. It was an
unusually clear day, and from the end of the track, where we stopped
for a Cadbury Dairy Milk break
,
we could see not only Tongariro, Ngaurohoe, and a shoulder of Ruapehu
but even, about 80 miles to the west, the other
major volcano, Taranaki (or Egmont, as it used to be called). We
gathered from talking to a couple of people that this is very unusual.
The Whakapapa DOC
visitors' center has excellent displays about the volcanic history of
the area, including photos of major eruptions that have taken place as
recently as 1996. On the way back out to the main road we could clearly
see the largest and most active volcano, Ruapehu (here with the native
"poepoe", a relative of pampas
grass).
We stopped at the side of the road
and took a short stroll along the
Mounds Walk, which ended at a slight
rise affording stunning views of the whole
region.
The classic cone-shaped volcano in these pictures is Ngaurohoe (ng-ow'-roh-hoy, more or less) which was used as the model for Mount Doom in The Lord of the Rings movies. All over New Zealand there are special tours available to LotR filming locations, but despite how much we loved these movies, we gave such tours a miss. Not only are they almost always ridiculously expensive, but most of the sets have been removed. Hobbiton, which is on a private farm near Matamata, is now just bare walls set into the ground; even the doors are gone. The most remote of them, like Edoras, the great city of Rohan, had to be restored to their original condition as a requirement of filming in a national park. Of course, many of the settings are stunning - they couldn't remove that! - and the areas chosen for filming are often worth visiting in their own right. So go if you're inclined, just be sure you know beforehand what to expect.
From Tongariro Park we headed northwest to the Waitomo Glowworm Caves. This was a long and mostly twisty drive, which unfortunately meant that Dale had to do it all. The place is quite commercialized, and the cave itself is nothing special unless you haven't seen one before; but the trip into the glowworm grotto is well worth the time and the price. Groups are kept small, and you have to stay virtually silent as you drift through the darkness in a boat beneath the myriad tiny blue lights of these peculiar insects. It feels like you're gazing up at a galaxy of brilliant stars, except you can see that it's three-dimensional as the boat moves. It is eerily beautiful, and the children were utterly enraptured. These glowworms spend months - almost their entire life cycle - as luminescent larvae, living only a few days as adults which can't eat because they have no mouth. It makes you realize what a strange and wonderful diversity of life this planet has evolved ...
By this time Dale really wanted to get away from people and find a place to freecamp by ourselves, so we headed toward the west coast. Just after sunset we found a pull-out area a bit north of the town of Mokau, right next to the black sand beach, which was exactly the kind of spot we had in mind. It was our first night with no outside facilities, and everything worked perfectly.
Wednesday, June 8: We were still waking up
quite early, so after breakfast we went for a walk along the volcanic
sand of Mokau Beach.
Our camper was parked right next to it, and the sky was pale with
the beginnings of sunrise behind the hills.
I have seen golden, beige, and white sand of many shades, even pink
sand, but as far as I can remember I had never been on a black-sand
beach before. It was very fine, gritty stuff, matte black and quite a
contrast with the sky and sea - a beautiful spot to wake up and go for
a morning meander.
With a ferry booking for the following morning, we had a
considerable
drive ahead of us. I had hoped to drive around the western edge of the
peninsula that Taranaki/Egmont creates, but instead we took the inland
shortcut since the weather was not cooperative - although it did still
manage to produce a rainbow!
Two minutes after I took this picture of a shrouded Mt. Egmont
near
Tariki, the clouds closed in
and it started
to rain. It stayed that way until we reached the coast again, when the road turned
south toward Wellington. The drive past the Egmont area goes past many
pastures of sheep and cows. We noticed that instead of (or perhaps as
well as) fencing or walling the pastures, they are separated by hedges
of very tall evergreens - presumably as a windbreak.
Today was not a good day for following other people's directions. First, when we got to the southern coast of Taranaki, we followed signposts for the highway through Hawera, but they left us adrift and we ended up right at the edge of the sea, where the road just petered out. So we turned around and found a bakery where we got some tasty (if very greasy) sausage rolls, and directions that put us on the right road again (there was an unmarked turn). Then we got lost again in Wanganui following the directions in the Lonely Planet guide to find the main street (it's not the highway), which we were trying to get to because we were hungry and it has lots of restaurants. Since we missed that altogether, we ended up getting gas in Bulls (the "unforget-a-bull" town) and having a quick bite to eat in the McDonald's next door out of sheer desperation. Finally, when we arrived in Lower Hutt in northeastern Wellington, we had another interesting excursion trying to find the campgound, first by following the map in the campground book (which showed it right next to the highway - way off the mark) and then following a generic camper sign through roundabout after roundabout. Eventually we got to the Hutt Park Holiday Park. It was the most expensive place we stayed, but the facilities were very good and it is convenient to shopping (e.g. another Pak-N-Save). The two things we remember most about it were the vast numbers of empty caravans being prepared for Lions rugby tour fans (otherwise it was almost deserted), and a fascinating inflated giant pillow which was much safer and far more fun than a trampoline. (Why don't U.S. playgrounds have these??)
500KB
low-res South Island route map
1.5MB
high-res South Island route map
Thursday, June 9: Today we were booked to catch the 9:30 a.m. Interislander ferry from Wellington to Picton on the South Island. They request that you arrive an hour prior to departure. We could tell from the map that we were fairly close but didn't know what to expect of weekday morning traffic, so we left the holiday park at about 7:45, which we figured ought to be at least twice as much time as we'd need. Well, it turned out the traffic through Lower Hutt was dreadful, largely because of a poorly-designed roundabout intersection where the volume of vehicles with the right of way over us was so heavy that it caused our traffic to be backed up for over a mile. Once we were past that (which took half an hour), the proper highway opened up and from there it was only about 10 minutes further, with no complicated directions. So this particular holiday park is actually very convenient to the ferry; you just have to allow enough time in rush hour. We arrived at precisely 8:30. By then my left leg was trembling from having to press the (fairly stiff) clutch almost continuously for all the stopping and starting in traffic.
The ferry was uncrowded; I only saw four other campervans so
we
probably didn't really need reservations. It's just one of those things
where you want to be sure you get the one that fits your plans. There
were cafeterias on board, but as usual on ferries we took picnic food
into the lounge with us. After exploring the ship with the kids for a
while
,
I worked out a rearrangement of our planned route around
the South Island (basically just reversing direction) to avoid
encountering the rugby match in Dunedin. The British Lions rugby team
toured the whole
country
over a period of several weeks, playing regional teams and also several
matches with the New Zealand national team, the All-Blacks. Thousands
of fans from the U.K. went to New Zealand for all or part of the tour,
and we really did not want to be trying to find accommodation etc. in
such a large crowd. Although I had known they would be there from
checking event schedules online, I had not realized we would bump right
into them like that until a couple of days earlier, but it
proved
fairly straightforward to adjust our rough itinerary.
Dale spent much of the ferry crossing konked out from Dramamine. It doesn't seem to have that effect on Sarah, who also needs it - although on this particular day there was all of about 10 minutes' noticeable motion coming out of Wellington Harbour, and the rest of the trip was very calm. Well, the water was calm, at least. But about half an hour before arrival in Picton things got exciting. Sarah asked me to cut a very small chocolate bar in half so she and Matthew could split it. To do this I used Dale's incredibly sharp Swiss knife. When the chocolate bar suddenly broke under pressure, I suddenly discovered that the tip of my left thumb was in the path of the blade. At first I thought I had cut it completely through, about 1/4 inch from the tip, but luckily it turned out there was a little bit still attached. I happened to be in the women's restroom at the time, and another woman there with first aid training confirmed it wasn't severed and reminded me to hold it pointing up while I was putting pressure on it. Sarah went and got Dale, and I went with a staff member to the medic's office, where he put some gauze and such on it. Also luckily, the ship's third mate happened to be going to the Picton medical clinic, so when we docked I went with him in a taxi while Dale and the kids followed in the camper. I was seen very quickly by a doctor who said that it was in a very good position and should heal very well, but to get it checked the next day at whatever medical facilities were handy wherever we were going. A very nice older lady who was a student nurse did a brilliant job of putting strips of adhesive tape to hold it in place, wrapped it beautifully with gauze, and then topped it off with some tube-shaped stretchy stuff to hold it all together. Apparently they prefer not to use stitches in fingers because that can cause additional swelling, which impedes healing.
At any rate, I can personally attest to the fact that, except for a standard NZ$18 copay (about US$13), the New Zealand medical system does indeed cover the cost of treatment for accidents - even stupid ones that you're responsible for inflicting on yourself!
All of this caused us only about an hour's delay, so we were able to continue as planned. But it was a pretty scary thing - more so for the rest of the family than for me, I think. Had it been more severe, it could have ruined the trip. Fortunately, it didn't.
Once back on the road, we headed south to Blenheim, located in a very large winery region. Here we took a side trip toward Renwick to visit the Villa Maria Estate Winery, which makes deservedly famous Sauvignon Blanc, among other things. There are many fine wines coming out of New Zealand now, so it's definitely worth checking them out.
Returning to Blenheim, we got back
on the highway south along the coast. For a good part of this stretch,
the road runs right along the edge of the Pacific, in some places with
the train tracks right next to it on the other side; there just isn't
room to spread out - in fact, the rail line even goes through some
short tunnels right next to the road. It made for a spectacular drive.
We finally reached
Kaikoura just before dusk, and drove out to the peninsula where we
hoped to see some wildlife and take a walk. The first thing we saw
after parking at the end of the road was a baby fur seal who humped his
way in from the water and very photogenically posed on a
rock.
His relatives were hanging around, too, although we had to look
pretty hard to spot them as they blended in with the
rocks.
They were so inured to the presence of people watching them that they
didn't even bother to look up. We wandered a little way along the rocky
shoreline
and then went up to the top of the
bluff. We had been hoping to catch a
distant glimpse of whales or porpoises, but generally the whales at
least don't come in that close to shore, so not surprisingly, we didn't
see anything in that direction. However, the views from the top are
stunning.
(At the edge of Dale's foot in this photo you can see a small white
blob, which is the roof of the campervan in the parking lot below.) The
sudden rise of mountains from the ocean here is more dramatic than
anywhere
else in New Zealand - even than in Fiordland, where the mountainsides
are steeper but not nearly as high as the Seaward Kaikouras (2610m
peak, nearly 8500 feet). It really is a dramatic scene.
As it was now getting dark, we pulled south out of Kaikoura in search of a spot to freecamp along the coast. There was no chance of this in town, as they have a law against it within city boundaries. After checking a few places with "No Camping" signs, we found Goose Bay, where we set up for the night. Matthew wasn't too sure about all this camping next to water, being a little worried that the tide would come up and wash us away during the night. But we persuaded him that it would be all right. The high/low tide differential actually appeared to be very small.
Friday, June 10: In the pre-dawn this
morning we discovered
that Goose Bay wasn't actually a free camping spot, when the owner came
to collect a small fee. (It turned out there were basic facilities that
we hadn't noticed in the dark the night before, and more campers
than we'd realized, too.) But it was worth the price to have stayed
literally right at the edge of the Pacific
Ocean 
, and within a short time we were treated to one of the most
spectacular sunrises I have ever
seen.
After breakfast we headed south, aiming for Timaru. We bypassed Christchurch, since we knew we would be back the last couple of days of the trip before returning the camper and flying back to Auckland. There isn't much to stop for between there and Timaru; the main highway is some distance inland and towns are small. So we spent the morning driving and, on arrival in Timaru, found the hospital to have my thumb checked (looking good, no further charge, but the replacement dressing wasn't nearly as well put together as the original). With that done, we had lunch at the Speight's Alehouse This restaurant is located downtown next to the information center in the historic Landing Services Building, built in 1870 out of lava. I ordered a lunch portion of liver and onions, and got an enormous meal with several large slices of liver. I stuffed myself and still took half of it in a box for later. Parking the camper anywhere near this area proved impossible, so we ended up at the edge of a park several blocks away.
After that we drove to the southernmost of Timaru's holiday parks, Glenmark Motor Camp. We checked in a bit earlier than usual, so we had time to do laundry and relax for a change. Before we left for New Zealand, we found out from Kea that the campers all have CD players, so we brought a selection with us and liked to play them in the evening. Frank Sinatra and Louis Armstrong definitely helped Dale to wind down after days when the driving was particularly tense.
Saturday, June 11: Today we continued south along the coast, with Dunedin and the Otago Peninsula as our destination. We had hoped to take a break to wander along the beach among the Moeraki boulders, but if there was anything signposted on the highway, which doesn't run right along the water here either, we must have missed it. We came into Dunedin mid-morning from the north, descending steeply into town through a fairly high range of hills from which the view was beautiful. Since our goal was Taiaroa Head at the tip of the peninsula, we drove straight through town, catching glimpses of the railway station and a few other prominent buildings. In a moment of insanity we decided to take the Highcliff Road along the spine of the peninsula. Let the name be your first clue: it is extremely narrow, with lots of sharp curves, ridgelines, and hilly stretches. We didn't run into any actual problems - and almost no other cars, fortunately - but sections of it were quite terrifying in the camper (in a small car it would be pure fun). After a while, when I told the kids to look out the window at some view, they told me they were trying to avoid doing that any more. But it really was a thrill, and every bit as scenic as the guidebooks promised. Dale found himself almost enjoying it by the time we reached the end, when it drops precipitously into the village of Portobello to join the coastal road.
Feeling like we'd been holding our breath for half an hour, we
finished the rest of the drive out to the
Royal
Albatross Centre,
arriving in time to eat lunch in the camper before our tour (for
which I bought tickets when we showed up, a half-hour before it
started). This is the only albatross breeding colony in the world
located on a mainland. The guide showed us an interesting short film
about the Royal Albatross life
cycle before taking us up the hill to the viewing shelter. These are
fascinating birds, spending much of their lives at sea, often sleeping
"on the wing" as they can lock their wings into soaring position.
Adults breed every second year, because it takes nearly a full year to
produce and raise a chick. They mate for life, though "divorce" is not
unheard of, and the oldest one known was 62 when she disappeared.
(The guide told us that her much younger mate returned every spring for
three years, looking for her, before he gave up and found another.)
They not only have tremendous wingspans - more than nine feet across -
they are simply huge, period, standing about three feet tall (stand up
and compare that to yourself). The chicks we saw
were
about four months old. Even newly hatched they are startlingly
heavy.
The guide passed around bean bags representing the weight of chicks at
various ages. By four months they weigh about 5 kilograms; adults reach
8kg. It's no wonder they are so awkward landing and taking off! The
weather was sunny and mild, but so
calm
that the adult albatrosses were not able to come in to feed
the chicks, which can go about 4 days without food at this age. In
addition to the albatross chicks, we could also see a small colony of
Stewart Island shags
nearby.
Either because we saw no adults or because it was such a small
group (I forget which), the guide threw in a free tour of the
nineteenth-century fortifications at
Fort Taiaroa.
Matthew got to wear an authentic World War II helmet
,
and we walked through the tunnels into the bunker of their 1886
Armstrong Disappearing Gun, which is the only one left in the world and
is still in working order.
After the tour, we spent a while wandering around the
visitors'
center and gift shop before heading a few miles down the road to
Penguin
Place.
This is a private conservation reserve primarily for the yellow-eyed
penguin, which is the world's rarest with only about 5,000 left. Daily
tours here begin at 3:15 p.m. in the winter. Before heading down to the
yellow-eyed penguin colony, the guide took us around a headland where
they have placed a number of nesting boxes for the more numerous blue
penguins, which are the tiniest penguins in the world at just 12" tall.
We were lucky enough to see
one.
Normally the yellow-eyed penguins come ashore around 4:30 p.m. after
spending the day at sea feeding. On this day, however, perhaps because
of how
calm it was, it was well after 5 when the first one emerged from the
waves onto the
beach.
They have an extensive network of covered trenches which serve as hides
so
you can wander all over the nesting area without disturbing the
birds (the fellow with the beard is Dave, our guide). Since we were the
first tour group, we were given priority for quietly following "Tarzan"
as
he made his way
to
his nest. There was some excitement during this process as a couple of
sheep managed to find their way into the trenches and were starting to
get a bit panicky trying to find a way out. Eventually they scrambled
up the side and out from under the edge of the mesh cover.
After the tour we made our way back into the town of Portobello. At the Albatross Centre we had spent some time looking at a map of the peninsula, which showed a campground on the ocean side. We thought we would try for that rather than drive back into Dunedin, but when we asked the guide about it, he was puzzled because in fact there is no campground there. However, he told us there is one in Portobello, and described how to get there. The Portobello Village Tourist Park turned out to be quite decent. After setting up, we strolled into town and picked up dinner at a fish-and-chip shop.
Sunday, June 12: We woke early as usual, to the sound of bellbirds calling in the light morning mist. We had heard them before, I think in Rotorua, but today they were very striking. The ones we heard were even more musical, like a bell chiming, than this recording (which is from the Kiwi Wildlife Tours Web site). We took the coast road back into Dunedin and went into town to check out Cadbury World, which houses Cadbury's chocolate factory in New Zealand. It turned out not only that the factory was mostly closed on Sundays, but that everything except the museum displays was completely closed for several days' maintenance. Since they still wanted us to pay to enter the displays, even though the chocolate waterfall wasn't operating either, we opted instead to cross the street to a Countdown grocery store, and for the same money bought a raft of Cadbury chocolate bars (on sale, even).
After this we headed south again. We stopped briefly in
Balclutha to
pick up a few supplies and to check email at the local
i-SITE, then followed highway 1
as it
turned westward. Americans will find it amusing that we passed first
through a town called Clinton, and then reached another named Gore.
(They even have signs referencing each other.) On the outskirts of
Gore, we stopped at a playground to eat lunch and let the kids burn off
some energy.
At Gore we left highway 1 and turned on route 94,
which took us west toward Te Anau, our planned destination for the
night. I had originally hoped to see more of the south coast, but we
decided that we just didn't have time to fit that in as well as the
other places we wanted to see.
The drive took us through classic picturesque New Zealand
sheep country:
rolling tussocky pastures, mountains in the
background.
Approaching Te Anau, we started to see fog
,
quite sharply delineated, and clearly filling the valley where Lake Te
Anau sits.
After arriving in town and driving the loop through the main street and
back out to the highway, we stopped in at the DOC visitor center, which
has excellent displays. Here
we learned that the fog is a lake-effect winter phenomenon caused when
warm air in sunny weather encounters the somewhat cooler waters of the
lake and the water vapor in the air condenses. The fog is thick and can
last for days. Lake Te Anau has beautiful scenery, but we
couldn't see any of it.
We talked to the very helpful DOC staff member here about conditions on Milford Road and camping along the way. She provided an excellent map which showed not only the road in great detail, but also the various walking paths and campsites along it. She recommended a couple, and also told us that the fog is largely contained in the lake valley; once the road climbed up into the mountains again, following the Eglinton River, the fog would mostly dissipate, and some of the campgrounds should get a lovely sunrise. We headed north out of Te Anau and, after driving a bit longer than we'd really intended, found a pleasant site at Deer Flat, just north of Mirror Lakes. There were a couple of odd little hills in bends of the river here, and we found an out-of-the-way spot that we liked - right next to water again, somewhat to Matthew's consternation. Knowing that we had a drive ahead of us the next day, we made dinner (gas stove) and went to bed.
Monday, June 13: Around 2:30 a.m. I woke up, realizing that the gas heater had not come on in a while. I guessed that the first of the two 4.5-kg propane tanks was empty and we needed to switch to the other. So I woke Dale, since I am no expert at moving the hoses. But he just muttered that it was already as cold as it was going to get, and went back to sleep. I spent the rest of the night very cramped, because although the comforter kept me warm enough in my warm spot, every time I stretched or turned a different way to get more comfortable I encountered freezing cold spots. At 6 a.m. Dale got up and went to switch tanks. At that point the thermometer on his jacket hanging in the closet read 41°F (5°C). He didn't need to be told that was a lot colder than it had been at 2:30!
Anyway, the camper warmed up nicely, and after breakfast we
were greeted by sunrise on the mountains behind
us.
(See the frost?) There was very little fog so far away from the lake,
and we had a beautiful view northward up the
valley.
After
breakfast, we backtracked a few miles down the road to Mirror
Lakes, arriving just ahead of the first busload of Japanese tourists.
I got a lovely shot of the reflected mountains
before
a couple of ducks paddled along a minute later and destroyed
the reflection. The evening before, at Deer Flat, Sarah and I had
encountered a very friendly New Zealand robin, who hopped up
close, chirped at us, and followed us around for a bit. This morning
another one came and perched on the frosty railing right next to where
the kids were reading the Mirror Lakes
sign.
The robins are quite bold, but are not aggressive like some larger
birds can be.
We headed off toward Milford Sound. In winter, this road can
be
completely impassable due to snow and/or the danger of avalanches. We
were lucky with the weather, which had been sunny for a while so that
all we had to contend with was a few icy patches in the shade. These
were generally gritted, and since Dale has lots of experience from his
youth with driving in winter conditions in Nova Scotia, we had no
trouble. The Milford
Road
is a serious engineering achievement, following a couple of different
valleys through mountainous terrain. We paused at Pops View, which
overlooks a snowy glacial cirque
,
before reaching the Homer
Tunnel.
The tunnel, which opened Milford Sound to vehicle traffic, was a
depression-era project and is just barely two lanes wide - unless you
meet a bus. It is also limited in height, being 3.8m in the center (as
compared to the camper at 3.1m). Since there are only a few pullouts in
the tunnel, we decided to take the chicken way and waited for a tour
bus a couple of miles back to pass us, reasoning that anything it met
going the other way would yield to it. We then followed it through. We
would probably not have had any problems in any case, but it certainly
felt safer!
The other end of the tunnel brings you out in rain forest, a
noticeable change from the climate at the entrance, which is almost
tundra-like. Everything is lush and green, although it was still very
cold. We stopped to take the path at The Chasm, on the Cleddau River,
which crosses a couple of bridges and ends up at a waterfall that
tumbles over spectacularly sculpted
rocks.
For scale in this picture, look up at the very top, where you will
see Matthew standing on the bridge.
Not long after this we got our first view of the famous Mitre
Peak
,
named for its resemblance to a bishop's mitre hat. We then went into town to get a boat tour of the sound. Calling Milford
a "town" is a bit of an overstatement. There are only a few buildings,
and the largest is the cruise terminal. I booked us onto Red Boats, who
gave me a discount for the New Zealand Travel card even though it was
nominally only supposed to work for Web reservations. We had time to
eat a quick lunch before boarding. As you get on, they take a photo of
your group. In our case, this turned out to be the only photo of all
four of us taken on the whole
trip.
The boat tour was definitely worthwhile. We had terrific views
of the sound right from the start
,
including a good look back at Milford
itself.
The
kids really enjoyed being able to get hot tea and carry it around
with them as they watched the water go by. It was cold, but the
sunshine was warm. The first place we went was the
Milford Deep
Underwater Observatory,
an amazing place where you look out observation windows below the
water. So much rain falls in the area (6 meters a year!!) that it
washes a lot of tannins off the forest floor, which float in the fresh
water on top of the salt water of the sound. This blocks enough of the
sunlight that a variety of sea life flourishes here that would normally
only be found in much deeper ocean water. There are colonies of several
kinds of coral, including black coral
-
which is called black because that's the color of its skeleton,
although
the living coral is, as you can see, white. We saw any number of
beautiful fish, sea stars, anemones, and sea cucumbers in a stunning
panorama of life.
Some of the starfish were displaying themselves in stark contrast to
their coral
hosts.
It was an unforgettable experience for all of us.
After that our boat headed out toward the sound's entrance
from the
Tasman Sea. We were joined along the way by several playful dolphins
,
which kept us company almost the whole
way.
Everyone enjoyed watching them, cheering their jumps and laughing at
them skimming back and forth on our bow wave. Along with the
observatory, it was definitely the highlight of the day's trip for
Sarah and Matthew.
(N.B. The CD version of this journal
has a video clip which, at 10M,
was too large to put on the Web.)
After a while we reached the Tasman, at which point the boat
turned
around to head back in. It was easy to see why early explorers missed
the fact that there was even a sound here. They stayed some distance
out from land, and from there it would just have looked like a
bay.
The dolphins joined us for part of the trip back as well. We
stopped for a close look at Stirling Falls.
In my opinion these are
actually most spectacular at the bottom, where the falling water
hitting the surface makes a beautiful spiderweb
pattern.
Before we reached the end of the trip, I took a last photo looking out
of the sound, with the sun sinking behind The Lion on the right, Mitre
Peak on the left, and the narrow gap out to the Tasman Sea in the
center.
(This is one of my favorite pictures.)
When we got off the boat, we decided to drive back to Te Anau rather than spend the night in Milford, to avoid trying to go out the next morning at the time the tour buses were coming in. We followed another bus back through the Homer Tunnel. I looked up the most convenient campground in Te Anau, which appeared to be the Great Lakes Holiday Park. This turned out to be a real find: brand new, inexpensive, and with great facilities. The kitchen was large, clean, and amply equipped. They had a huge lounge with satellite TV, where someone was watching the only U.S. news we saw on our trip: the Michael Jackson trial verdict. (I think we could have missed that without feeling deprived.) It also had a foosball table, so after dinner we had a great time playing family foosball, boys against girls. (Each team won one game, in case you're wondering.)
Tuesday, June 14: Today we started off by
backtracking a bit
east from Te Anau to get to the road to Queenstown, located on the
zigzag-shaped Lake Wakatipu. Although the road is good, it is a
substantial drive until it reaches the lake at Kingston. There is no
lake-effect winter fog on Wakatipu, and this southernmost part is a
beautiful spot.
The water is deep blue, there are mountains all along both sides of the
narrow lake valley, and on this day the mountains were snow-topped but
everywhere else was clear. We stopped for a break and walked down to
the shore. The air was crisp but the sun was warm and sparkled on the
water - perfect weather. From here we got a great view northward up the
long arm of the lake toward Queenstown
itself.
We drove along the east side of the lake, with the well-named
Remarkables to our right. A little before lunchtime we arrived in
Queenstown and were able to find a parking spot in a public lot without
too much trouble. The traffic felt heavier than it really was because
the streets were mostly fairly narrow, lined with shops and businesses,
but the driving wasn't difficult. Queenstown has the feel of an
embryonic Aspen: busy and fashionable, with lots of bistros, coffeehouses,
boutiques, and mostly-young people interested in the many outdoor
thrills available in the area such as jetboating and bungy jumping;
it bills itself as the "Adventure Capital of the World". We
wandered around the center of town for a while, making stops at the
post office, a grocery store (small and expensive; the place is fairly
isolated, after all), and a park with ducks that the kids enjoyed. We
then headed west out of town toward Glenorchy, stopping at a park on
the lakeshore to eat lunch (including the kids' favorite TimTam
cookies).
This spot definitely wins the prize for the most beautiful backdrop for
lunch on the whole trip. We also spent a few minutes watching a young
couple kick a soccer ball around until one of them kicked it over the
edge and into the lake. It was amusing watching them try to get it out
without having to get into the (cold!) water.
The plan after lunch was to drive to the far end of Lake Wakatipu, past Glenorchy, to find a little village named Paradise which was the setting for a book that I read as a teenager and really enjoyed (the mass-market paperback romance A Place Called Paradise by Essie Summers). The author's descriptions of the area were inspiring, so I very much wanted to see it in real life. The Lonely Planet guide says it's "just a paddock", but I choose to believe they didn't look very closely. This area is also one of the few Lord of the Rings filming sites that I actually would have liked to see: the woods of Lothlórien (the real trees, that is, not the gigantic computer-generated ones). But about halfway to Glenorchy we realized that we just didn't have enough gas to make it. We had quite a time finding a gas station once we got back to Queenstown; there didn't seem to be any in the western part of town, at least not within sight of the main road. By the time we found one, we were through to the other side. We pumped about 2 gallons more gas into the tank than the owner's manual said it was supposed to hold, so we must really have been running on fumes!
Somewhere along the road toward Glenorchy we had been hit by some grit that embedded itself low down on the driver's side of the windshield, and which proved impossible to remove from its tiny entry hole (I swear the grit was bigger than the hole was). This really affected Dale's mood, thinking about the NZ$700 we might have to shell out if it wasn't repairable. So at that point, the time and the drain of driving to Paradise meant it just didn't make practical sense to try again. I was very disappointed to have come so close and missed, but there was really no help for it. (If you've been there, tell me what it's like!)
It was now mid-afternoon, so we looked in the Kea campground
guide
and found a place in Cromwell, about an hour's drive away. The road
took us past the Kawarau Bridge, originally a historic site in its own
right from the gold-mining era in central Otago, but now best known as
the site of the first bungy jump. A new
commercial
center
has now been built next to the bridge by A.J. Hackett, who pioneered
bungy-jumping as we know it today and did a few utterly crazy stunts
like bungy-jumping off the Eiffel Tower. We thought at first that we
would have to pay if we wanted to go in, but it turns out that
the bridge itself is
a DOC reserve, so it's public (in fact, AJ Hackett pays the DOC a fee
for every jumper off the bridge, and the proceeds are used to maintain
it). There's also no fee to go into the center, only if you want to
jump or do the Bungy Dome. So we took a look around and then spent 20
minutes or so watching crazy people jump off the
bridge.
It takes some nerve to do this; more than one person who was lined up
for the
experience balked at the last moment. Those who went ahead with it
usually touched water at the bottom of the 43m jump, and were then
picked up by a small inflated boat. It looks like a thrill, but it also
looks like it would be very hard on your back, especially if you aren't
quite in the right position when the bungy cord stops your fall.
We arrived at The Chalets Holiday Park around dusk. Dale walked into town to get some time to himself and look for a couple of grocery items we hadn't been able to find in Queenstown, while the kids and I made dinner. Besides campsites and chalet-style accommodation, they had a restaurant. It appeared to be open - at least the lights were on for a few hours - but we didn't see a single car pull up. Maybe Tuesdays are just quiet. The shared kitchen for campsites was at the back of the restaurant, and we had to get someone to unlock the door for us. I think we were the only ones there to use it.
Wednesday, June 15: We didn't cover a lot
of ground today,
but we did have a lot of fun. From Cromwell we made the short drive
north to Wanaka, stopping a couple of miles before reaching the town at
Stuart
Landsborough's Puzzling World. What an amazing place! It is
devoted to all types of puzzles
and optical illusions, starting with the leaning
tower.
The Puzzling Cafe is a large room full of tables covered with a huge
variety of puzzles, like Tower of Hanoi, combining assorted pieces into
various shapes, etc. etc. There is something for everyone here, of all
ages, and you don't have to pay a cent to play with them. The gift shop
has a wide selection of souvenirs, some of which were very funny. Even
the bathrooms are a sight gag, with an excellent trompe l'oeil
painting of Roman bathrooms
,
and every stall equipped with a toilet seat made from clear acrylic
containing themed items: coins, fish, bugs, and more. We paid for the
full admission and headed off into the large outdoor maze, where we
split up to see which team (boys vs girls, of course) could solve the
maze first by reaching all four corners. Dale and Matthew won, but only
by about 1 minute. The maze is designed to be done by the average
person in 30-60 minutes, so it is just challenging enough to be fun
rather than frustrating. After this we went into the indoor Illusion
Rooms. They have any number of optical illusions here, from holograms
and "following faces" to a forced perspective room
(which
works because
the squares on the floor actually are not square) and
a 15-degree tilted
house.
I don't remember how long we spent here - probably about three hours - but we had a blast. Everywhere you turn in this place there is something intriguing to look at and think about. It's a great way to spend some time and stimulate your brain with real fun.
After leaving Puzzling World, we went into the town of Wanaka. We had hoped to do a short walk along the lakeshore, but it was foggy and a little bit drizzly, so the stunning views that Wanaka is famous for were nowhere to be seen. After eating a quick lunch and finding out that walking wasn't really going to be practical (though we did pick up a good map of the route to Haast), we let the kids play for a while on a playground with some unusual rocking and spinning toys that they really enjoyed, and then headed out of town. Dale wanted to press on to Makarora at the northern tip of Lake Wanaka, but I couldn't find any information about campgrounds there, so we stopped instead at Lake Hawea Holiday Park. Lake Hawea was not far away, so we got in by mid-afternoon. It is a beautiful, spacious holiday park set among many large trees by the lake, although their equipment was a bit elderly. I took advantage of the early stop to do some laundry and make a decent dinner; Dale went for a walk to the lakeshore and then took a nap while the kids played outdoors until it got too cold; then they watched TV in the lounge (which they didn't often get the chance to do on this trip). I think it was here that they discovered The Simpsons, and it was definitely a hit. And to think we travelled halfway around the world for that!
Thursday, June 16: Today we continued
northward along highway 6, which would take us through Haast Pass and
over to the west coast. It turns out
there is a campground in Makarora, but all we saw on the way by
this morning was the lodge/cabins; I only found out about the campsites
by hunting on Google while writing this journal four months
later. The drive
from Wanaka to Haast runs through the beautiful Mt. Aspiring
National Park. We stopped for a few of the easy walking trails to get a
bit of exercise. The first of these was Blue Pools, where the path took
us across a suspension bridge 
above the
Makarora River to the stunningly blue pools themselves.
The snow-fed water is clear and
very cold. The kids had some fun on the small rocky shore along the
river before we walked back. Matthew was much more comfortable on the
return trip over the bridge than he had been the first time.
Driving on, we caught a glimpse of
Fantail Falls before reaching Thunder Creek Falls.
The falls are surprisingly high at
28m (about 90 feet). As you can see, we got yet another rainbow here.
We reached the town of Haast around lunchtime. The Haast River
here fans out into a wide gravelly bed before it reaches the Tasman
Sea. There is a one-lane bridge over the river here. At nearly half a
mile, it's the longest one-lane bridge in the country. It has a couple
of passing bays, but we didn't meet any oncoming traffic (which would
probably not be the case in summer) as we crossed to continue the drive
up the coast to Fox Glacier. We paused at Knight's Point to admire the
view and observe the fur seals on a distant beach, arriving at Fox
mid-afternoon. We drove out to the parking area that marks the
beginning of the walking path to the leading edge of the glacier. The
path had some hilly bits but was quite easy to walk, with good views of
the glacier along the way.
It ends very close to the terminal face.
As you can see, the ice almost
glows, with that particular shade of blue that only ice has. There are
the usual signs warning people not to go closer because of the risk of
falling ice. Like all glaciers, Fox is dangerous to walk on without an
experienced guide who knows the trouble spots and warning signs.
After returning to the camper, we found a spot at the Fox Glacier Holiday Park. The kitchen area had just been freshly painted, so we couldn't eat there, but the facilities worked well. This was the only place I remember that had heating in the shower areas (everyone had hot water, but the bathrooms were otherwise cold and often drafty). There were several large shower stalls suitable for a parent with a child. In fact Sarah and I heard an amusing exchange between a mother and her young daughter. The little girl got showered first, and then when it was her mother's turn she got interested in the water controls. "Mummy, would you like it cooler?" "Don't touch it!" "Cooler, Mummy, cooler?" "Don't touch it!" It was all I could do not to laugh out loud, having been through that myself. They were part of a family of at least 6 (maybe 7), travelling in a huge camper.
Friday, June 17: Despite the rain this
morning, we decided to
do a longer walk around Lake Mathieson. We parked at the trailhead, not
far from the campground, and broke out our new rain ponchos. The kids
both had very cheap bright yellow Spongebob Squarepants ponchos that we
had bought the previous fall on a trip to Florida but had not
used
(in the end it only showered the first day of that trip). They did a
good job of keeping the kids dry on our walk through the wet forest.
Even with everything dripping around us, it was a pretty walk.
Everything was very green (as it should be for a place that measures
its annual rainfall in meters), with lots of interesting plants, dead
leaves, stones, etc. After walking for about half an hour, we reached a
wooden deck partway around the lake where you look back at the
mountains. We couldn't see a thing. But I got everyone to "ooooh" and
"aaaah" just the same while I took a picture of the "best view in New
Zealand".
(If you want to see what it's
supposed to look like, check here.)
We walked back to the car, stripped off our wet things (hanging them in the bathroom), and headed a little way up the main highway to the other big glacier in this area, Franz Josef. Because of the rainy weather, a heli-hike was obviously out of the question. I had read somewhere that this glacier was a bit easier to walk on, and was hoping that one of the guiding companies would be willing to take a child Matthew's age given that he is pretty sturdy and is well-behaved. But the person we spoke to felt that both glaciers are pretty comparable in terms of difficulty, and that access to Franz Josef is actually more difficult. Clearly we would not be able to go on the half-day hike after all, so we decided to do the same thing as at Fox and walk out to the terminal face. We drove out after eating lunch at the Cheeky Kea restaurant (we liked the name better than the food). Signs along the road to the trailhead show where the terminal edge was at various times in the past. We ate a light lunch in the camper, and then started the walk. It was longer than the one to Fox, plus it was by now raining quite hard, so it took a bit longer to get there. Along the way, we passed a guided hiking group of young adults returning from a half-day trip. They all looked completely exhausted, so we stopped feeling disappointed about not having been able to do that.
For a good part of the way, the path was only lightly marked
as it
crossed the broken rock and gravel left by the retreating glacier. I
didn't want to risk getting our brand-new digital camera wet, but
thanks to its rotating LCD screen, I was able to shelter it under my
poncho and get a good shot of Dale and the kids approaching
the
glacier.
It seemed to me that more of this glacier was visible than at Fox, even
with the low clouds. We had to cross a couple of runoff streams to get
anywhere near the glacier's edge. The path ended quite a bit further
away than the Fox one had, but it was nevertheless an impressive sight.
On the way back, the streams we crossed were noticeably deeper and
stronger, no doubt because of the amount of rain that was now falling
steadily. We took a slight detour over to the side of the valley to get
a closer look at one of the many waterfalls pouring off the sides. A
considerable amount of water was being channeled through these.
At one point earlier in the day while looking around the DoC
visitors' center, we had thought about spending the night near the
Okarito Lagoon, where it's possible to rent sea kayaks and paddle
around. However, between the poor weather, the fact that it is 20 miles
off the highway, and that the white herons it's famous for are not
there in June, we decided to continue a bit further north. We camped in
the pouring rain at a DoC campsite beside Lake Ianthe, where we
discovered that the roof vents above the front bunk were leaking
slightly. But it wasn't too bad, and we were able to arrange the kids
and their bedding so that they weren't directly affected. We speculated
that, since the camper was parked on a slight slope, the raised vent
openings might have been sitting in a puddle on the roof.
Saturday, June 18: The rain cleared up today. I should mention that although the rain featured prominently in yesterday's doings, it was the only seriously wet weather we encountered on the whole trip, and we didn't actually mind it. When we woke up this morning, the weather was looking quite promising.
After breakfast and a bit of time exploring along the edge of
the lake, we drove to Hokitika. Dale wanted to get a last look at the
Tasman Sea, so we found a side road a couple of miles north of town
that appeared to head in the right direction. We passed the postwoman
on her delivery rounds and asked whether it would end up at the beach,
and she said yes but warned us that the nearby river had recently
changed course. It proved to be just what we were looking for and, after
causing some annoyance for a car that caught up with us as we were
backing into a suitable place to park just off a curve, we got out and
wandered around
the beach. It was a pleasant, sandy spot. The sea didn't look anything
like as violent as it had while we were at Ninety-Mile Beach, but the
river was doing an amazing job of eating northward along the
beach.
About every 30 seconds another few
inches of sandy edge fell into the roiling water, which was full of
tumbling rocks in the 6" class and looked like it would be exceedingly
unpleasant to fall into. Dale kept tight hold of the kids (I tried not
to watch) so it could be a bit of an adventure for them while staying
safe. Thanks to the clearer weather, there was a pretty view back down
the beach toward Hoki (as Hokitika is affectionately known).
We thought about going a bit further north to Greymouth, but decided we should make the most of the good weather to try to do some walking in the Arthur's Pass area. So we turned east at Kumara Junction and headed inland, leaving the Tasman Sea behind for good. The coastal plain is fairly wide here, so for a little while the driving was easy, though pretty countryside. Past Dillmanstown, the mountains started to rise, and the highway entered the valley of the Taramakau River. Pretty soon we were getting spectacular views of dark green forested hills, spur beyond spur as far as we could see, with tendrils of misty cloud clinging to their sides. OK, now here's my obligatory Geek Moment: Near the beginning of the movie The Return of the King, Sméagol's metamorphosis into Gollum is chronicled. After he is banished and finds shelter in the Misty Mountains, there is a shot where the camera flies along the sides of the mountains. This place looked exactly like that - dark slopes, one behind the other, descending into the valley, the hollows between them filled with mist - somber and a little eerie. After only 15 minutes or so of scenery like this - I would happily have gazed at it all day - we turned into the spectacular Otira Gorge.
The gorge is narrow and twisty, and until recently had some
very
hairy bits along scree slopes. It is still a little unnerving where the
highway has basically been bolted to the side of the mountain, and
culminates in the Otira Gorge Viaduct, an amazing feat of engineering
which opened in late 1999. There is a lookout area immediately east of
the viaduct, so we drove up the fairly steep gravel road to the small
parking area there (I don't know how it could handle summer traffic).
Here we were all thrilled to finally see keas,
New Zealand's large, noisy
alpine
parrots that you hear and read so much about everywhere you go in the
South Island. Even before we could get a door open, they were perched
on the roof of the camper. This one watched me climb out right below
it.
There were half a dozen of them just wandering around, being their
cheeky selves.
They are a dull green color over most of their bodies, with large
patches of red under their wings which are very noticeable in flight.
The
DOC warns against feeding them not just because it's unhealthy, but
because being fed gives them a lot more free time to get into
mischief than they would have if they had to forage. Their
sharp beaks are capable of doing significant damage - say, to car
window wipers and weatherstripping. Like most parrots, they are highly
intelligent, curious, and bold. Their boldness around humans means that
they are seen
fairly commonly, even though most estimates put the wild population at
no
more than 5,000.
The lookout provides a sensational view over the viaduct.
The road, with its accompanying
power lines, is an absurdly thin ribbon of
civilization running through very wild country. Turning away from this
view, we had to laugh at the sight of several keas on our Kea, looking
very much like the logo on the door.
It
didn't seem like they were able to find much to peck at on the roof,
but Dale got very nervous when they started checking out the underside.
So we somewhat reluctantly shooed them away and resumed the drive to
Arthur's Pass.
We weren't at all sure what we were going to do for the night. None of our books showed any camping in the village (which is the highest town in New Zealand), and since we'd spent the previous night camping without facilities, we were getting low on water and weren't sure how much propane we had left. However, when we went into the DOC Visitors' Centre there, the ranger not only gave us useful information about nearby walking paths, but also told us that one of the local hotels (The Chalet, now Arthur's Pass Hotel & Restaurant) had four powered camper sites available, although they don't advertise it. As far as I know, these are the only ones available for miles. Because there were only four, we quickly dashed back to get one of them even though we knew there wouldn't be much, if any, competition for them. Not surprisingly, we ended up being the only people there, which was actually good because the sites are really just parking spots with the power outlets mounted quite close together on the wall of the building; so it would be difficult to get more than a couple of campers the size of ours in there. The price was just NZ$15 for the night, in return for which we got electricity, waste disposal, a water tap, and a bathroom. We felt it was quite a good deal, since it meant we could stop driving and do some walking instead - much more fun!
It was only about 3pm, so we had a couple of hours' daylight
left.
We walked west a few hundred yards from the hotel to a path that had
been recommended by the park ranger. It took us across a couple of
bridges over the Bealey River and Punchbowl Creek 
before starting to climb uphill through pretty beech forest. Not much
further along, all the steep stretches of the otherwise standard dirt
path turned into steps. Eventually we came out
at a very nice wooden viewing platform, from which there was a good
view of the Devil's Punchbowl Waterfall, which is an impressive 131m
high (about 425 feet).
We stopped here for a rest and a snack, which the kids really
appreciated (so did I).
I
counted the steps on the way back down, and there were about 220.
Crossing the first, and longer, bridge near the trailhead, I paused to
take a photo looking along the Bealey Valley.
This is definitely one of the most scenic areas of New Zealand.
Back in the village, we stopped in at the DOC Visitors' Centre to look around the displays and the gift shop before it closed for the day. Matthew decided to spend his accumulated allowance on a small but very cute stuffed toy kea (which he named "Little Kea"). When we returned to our camper, we went into the hotel lounge for a beer (well, water for the kids) and to catch a bit of the news on TV. After that it was supper cooked on our gas stove, followed by bedtime, since we were planning to get up at our usual early hour and do a longer walk further east.
Sunday, June 19: Today was to be our last day doing any real driving, as we were headed for Christchurch, where we would drop off the camper and catch our flight out a few days later. It is only about two hours from Arthur's Pass, so we had lots of time to get there. The DOC ranger had recommended the Bealey Spur path, about 10 miles east of the village, as a fairly easy walk ending with spectacular views in all directions. The trailhead is a bit awkward to get to, as you have to turn off the main highway, go up a narrow and fairly steep road through a cluster of houses, and park at the top. Luckily, we met no other vehicles, and there was enough space to park the camper (there wouldn't have been room for more than one or two others, though).
Although the DOC rates this as a "tramping track" rather than a "walking track", which is supposed to mean that you need to take some care to follow the trail, the part we covered was actually quite obvious, being both well-worn and well-marked.The ranger's estimate of the time it would take, which he claimed to have adjusted for young children, proved to be a little off. He had suggested an hour to reach the open patch where the views start (we had no intention of going all the way to the DOC hut, which is over 3 miles each way). But after walking for well over an hour and a half, we still had not reached it. Partly this is because kids don't walk as fast, but it was due much more to the fact that, when on a walk of any length, children need something to pique their interest: for them, the walking is not the point. (They also need more snacks and more frequent small drinks than adults, so be prepared.)
In this case, we decided to see how many different kinds of
mushrooms we could spot. Our little foray into mycology turned out to
be an amazingly productive one, because there were all sorts of fungi
growing throughout the cool, mossy beech forest that the first
kilometer or so of the path ambled through. The kids did a really good
job of spotting them underneath bushes and in other places where they
were not immediately obvious. Some of them were slimy-looking 
, or rather startlingly resembled
human body parts.
There were groups of classic flat
fungi projecting from decaying logs 
, and some that were quite
beautifully marked, like this black-and-white one.
We spotted two types of very tiny
mushrooms growing in colonies: a beige variety 
and a white one.
The caps of the latter were no more than 1/4" across. (Question: in the
photo of the tiny beige mushrooms, there is a circular plant (fungus?)
with what looks like exposed seeds in it; if you know what this is,
please email me.) Documenting our finds with the
camera also added to the time involved. Many of them were in awkward
spots or in fairly dim light, but using a flash would have washed them
out at such close range, so I had to find arm support for
exposures of 1/8 of a second or so. On the whole I was quite pleased
with the results.
After some time walking through the lovely forest, the trees
began to thin and the flora became much more alpine 
,
with broader views of the mountains around us and the stream valley
running along to our left.
Even though we never got to a spot where there were 360-degree views,
short side paths regularly gave us a look back at the Bealey River
valley 
,
the snow-capped mountains above us 
,
and the broad Waimakariri River valley 
, which the Bealey River meets opposite
the spur.
We were probably fairly close to our intended destination, but we
decided that we had gone far enough to have an enjoyable walk with
beautiful scenery, so we turned around and descended back through the
beech forest 
to the camper.
We continued east along the Waimakariri River valley. The
river here is wide and very shallow, meandering back and forth across
the broad valley.
The vistas of the forested hills
and the snow-capped mountains behind them were really beautiful.
After a while, we saw fewer trees
but a lot more snowy mountaintops, as we left the Waimakariri River and
Arthur's Pass National Park to enter Craigieburn Conservation Park,
where there are a number of ski areas (although as far as we could tell
they weren't open yet). Shortly after passing Lake Pearson, we stopped
at Cave Stream Reserve to eat lunch in the camper and take a break. The
mountains all around us were truly stunning.
The Arthur's Pass ranger had told
us that filming for the new Narnia
movie had just wrapped up here a week or two before (they used this
setting for the battle scenes). The spot takes its name from a
small cave system where the stream goes underground for about a quarter
of a mile, and with some preparation it is possible to go through the
cave. Typically you start the trip at the bottom, some way down the
hill, but as we weren't planning to go through it, we just walked over
to look at the top entrance. It is a bit freaky to realize that you
have to make your way up a 3-meter waterfall and then cross the
fast-flowing stream to get out at this point.
If you look carefully, you will see a chain on the far side; this is
for holding onto as you climb up.
We had a bit of fun wandering around the rough terrain here
and following a few scattered sheep. We could see that we would very
soon be coming out of the mountains, and there were some interesting
rock formations on the hillsides above us.
(There are even more interesting rocks a bit further east, at Castle
Rocks, but we didn't stop there.) For now, though, we just enjoyed the
scenery while we still had it.
After a porta-potty break (save that toilet cassette capacity for when we really need it!), we got back on the highway, which soon descended to the Canterbury Plains, famous for sheep stations. Here we saw more of the tall evergreen hedges that separate pastures. It was very pretty, but fairly quickly started to get more built up - more towns to pass through, more buildings scattered between. Eventually we arrived at the western edge of Christchurch. Dale had looked through the camping books and picked out a place on the very eastern edge that looked promising. To avoid the cramped streets of downtown, we took the southern motorway and then looped up to get onto the peninsula on the far side of the estuary. We arrived at South New Brighton Motor Camp around 4:00pm. It proved to be even better than we'd hoped. Not only is the motor camp itself pleasant, reasonably priced, and well equipped, but its location just can't be beat. It is situated right next to the very large South New Brighton Park Reserve, which has beautiful walks and one of the best playgrounds we've seen, and is only a few hundred yards in the other direction from a lovely beach on the Pacific Ocean with beautiful grassy dunes. The proprietor told us about a very convenient bus service on the main street, about a block away, that would get us into central Christchurch in about 20 minutes. After emptying the camper toilet, pumping a fair bit of water into the tank, and setting up, we went for a walk. It was almost sunset, and the park along the estuary, which contains a wildlife preserve, was lovely and quiet. The trees were full of climbing ropes, and we saw a playground not far away (although it was getting too dark to spend any time there). We very quickly decided to stay for two nights and spend the day between wandering around Christchurch.
While cooking dinner in the campground kitchen, I got talking to a fellow who appeared to be a permanent resident (in a tent). He used to play ice hockey for the Canterbury regional team, and was quite interested to hear we were Canadian. We chatted for a while about famous NHL hockey players from the 1970's. (I'm not normally a sports fan, but my brother was playing pee-wee hockey then so I was paying attention for a few years.)
Monday, June 20: Literally just as the kids
were waking up this morning, I finally took a picture of them in their
bunk.
You can tell they were still sleepy - not very fair, really. :-) After
breakfast we walked out to the bus stop, but we just barely missed one,
so we strolled slowly along the street for another couple of stops
looking at the houses, which are mostly pleasant-looking small
bungalows and cottages - fitting for a beach area - until the next one
came. The trip into town was short, and we got
off at the main bus depot right downtown. Armed with a
not-very-detailed map, we found our way to the main square. The actual Christchurch
Cathedral is here, and we spent a few minutes wandering
through, admiring the stained-glass windows, and buying a few postcards
(Dale's sister visited here years ago so we sent her one), before going
over to the Visitors' Centre. We browsed around the books for a bit,
looking at maps and deciding where to go for the day. The first stop
was easy: the Southern
Encounter Aquarium and Kiwi House, right on the spot. They have a number of large tanks, both fresh- and saltwater, with
native fish and fun creatures like porcupine fish (a kind of puffer
fish), seahorses, and a friendly octopus (always popular with us).
After checking out everything, we were taken into the kiwi house, which
is kept dark during the day so the nocturnal kiwis will be out and
about. There is only a simple plexiglass barrier, so you have to stay
very quiet to avoid disturbing them. We got a much better look here
than in Rotorua, since they don't do tours on a schedule and
we were the only ones in there at the time.
Leaving the Visitors' Centre, we went over to the old university buildings, which are now used as an arts center, to visit Rutherford's Den. This is a memorial to the famous physicist Ernest Rutherford, who was born in Nelson and did his undergraduate and Master's work in Christchurch. They have his lab, a fair number of exhibits, and an old tiered lecture hall where you can find his initials (along with hundreds of others) carved into the fixed wooden desks. It was an interesting place, though it would have been more fun if we could have avoided the school groups. After this we were hungry, so we made our way to Dux de Lux which, although not the most kid-oriented place around, supplied all of us with a good meal.
From here we went to the Botanical Gardens so the kids could burn some energy running around. There was also a playground, but it was really intended for younger children. The gardens have many huge old trees, particularly English oaks that were planted when the gardens were first created in 1863. There is lots of open space, and they have several greenhouses. We would have liked to see the orchids, but that section was closed for an hour or two while they tended the plants (or something). However we did see really beautiful display of potted cyclamens.
En
masse like this they were striking. The Gardens are bordered along
one side by the Avon River, so we made our way along there to the
Antigua
Boat Sheds, where you can rent paddleboats or have someone
punt
you along the river (veddy English). Only three would fit in a
paddleboat, so rather
than get a second one, Dale took the kids out for half an hour while I
had a warming double espresso in the Boatshed Café. They got
off to a bit
of a shaky start 
, but after a couple of minutes
they got the hang of it, and off they went.
Our last tourist stop for the day was the Canterbury Museum. This is a surprisingly large place, with historical displays, moa skeletons, geology specimens, a large Asian Arts section, a fun temporary photographic exhibition on American roadside diners, and a truly enormous collection of bird specimens. (This is where Sarah and I learned that the friendly birds near Milford were New Zealand robins.) It was too bad we'd left it for last, because we only had an hour before it closed. So we did a very quick dash through that tantalizingly just scratched the surface. Clearly this would have been worth a lot more time.
It was now dark and getting chilly, so we walked back through the central square to a triangular block containing many Asian restaurants. After scouting around a few, we decided to get a takeout sushi platter and carry it back on the bus to eat "at home". So we found a place just before closing and did just that. All in all, we covered a fair fraction of the attractions in central Christchurch, and were pretty tired after all that walking, so it was nice not to have to cook a meal.
Tuesday, June 21: This was our last full
day in Christchurch, and Dale knew exactly what to do: visit the
Antarctic Centre, which is not just an interesting place but is also
conveniently close to the airport and the camper return depot. I got
another photo of the kids in the top bunk, this time a little more
prepared for it.
After breakfast, we went up the road a bit and parked the camper near
the playground we had spotted the day we arrived. It proved to have
some really great equipment, including some spinner/bouncer
seats, a large wooden climbing/playing area, and a ride that was a bit
like those old-fashioned Poma lifts on ski hills: a pole hanging off a
cable, with a small flat disk at the bottom end as a seat. Someone tall
pulls the thing up to the edge of the wooden play structure where
there's a mounting platform. Then the kid climbs on, gets seated on the
disk and hangs on tight to the pole, and the other person lets them go
(or even gives them a running start). And off they go sliding down on a
thick steel cable, whooping and kicking with excitement. The goal is to
hit the rubber bumpers at the far end, although that didn't always
happen with our kids (less mass, so less momentum to carry them past
the low point). After it slides back to the low point, they can easily
climb off and start bringing it back again. Both Sarah 
and Matthew 
thought this ride was a real
thrill and did it over and over. Once again, we thought this ride was
quite safe for kids their age who know how to hold on, and it had a
soft surface on the ground below its whole length, but you won't find
anything like this on American playgrounds; people here are just too
worried about the liability issues - and sadly, they have to be,
because too many
parents we've seen don't appear to be willing to take responsibility
for their own child's safety. (N.B. The CD version of this journal has
video clips of Sarah
and Matthew, but
at 7-8MB each these were too big to put on the Web.)
We spent about an hour at the playground, and then drove
across to the other side of the peninsula, to the Pacific Ocean. This
was our last chance of the trip to walk and play on a beach, and it was
a really nice spot.
Although the weather was cool and
breezy, it was still pleasant. The beach is separated from the
street by low grassy sand dunes which look like they run the length of
the peninsula. The view south gives you a really good idea of what
South New Brighton is like.
If a move to New Zealand is ever
in my future, I'd choose to live here. Matthew added a few last shells
to his fairly extensive collection 
, and then we got back into the
camper for the drive around the city.
This time we took the northern ring road, which very nicely
brought us around to the airport. The International Antarctic
Centre is just a few hundred yards down the road from it.
There is a building with public attractions and displays, but most of
it has a serious purpose: it's where people who are about to embark on
scientific expeditions to Antarctica come for several days' mandatory
training on equipment and safety procedures, and to pack up their
supplies. The countries that do this on a large scale (like the U.S.
and New Zealand) have their own facilities, while others share. If you
aren't likely to get to Antarctica yourself, this place will give you
an idea of what it's like. One of our books/brochures had a coupon for
a good discount on adult admission with audio handsets, and the kids'
admission without audio was not very expensive. The first thing we did
after eating lunch in our camper was to go on the Hagglund ride.
A Hagglund is kind of like a cross between an
ATV and an armored troop carrier, with Caterpillar treads. The ride is
quite rough, and the Centre has a track they follow which has been
deliberately designed to show you what the vehicle can do, and bounce
you around a lot in the process. It was noisy and jarring, but also fun.
After this we went around the displays. They cover everything
from logistics and training to history and ecology, with a simulator to
show you what the environment is like there. The "Four Seasons" exhibit
uses diary entries from the Scott expedition to illustrate the
difficulties they encountered. Everyone's favorite section is the "Snow
and Ice Experience". This is a special room with - surprise! - snow and
ice. You put
on big parkas and galoshes, and go into the room, which is mostly kept
at a temperature of -5C. There are lots of activities in here (in
addition to throwing snow at each other), including the windchill
machine 
,
an "igloo" 
, a big snowmobile to sit
on 
,
and a very slippery ice-block slide that is quite hard on the tailbone
if you're not careful where you put your feet.
To top it off, they simulate a storm. It gets very dark, and huge fans
start to blow very hard, dropping the effective temperature to -18C for
about five minutes. This was impressive, though it would have been more
realistically miserable if they could have blown some snow around with
it.
We spent quite a while wandering around various displays, and
the "Great White South" video was really interesting too. Sarah and
Matthew also had some quiet time sitting with the penguins.
It was definitely a fun and
worthwhile way to spend most of an afternoon.
After this, we took the camper to the North South Holiday Park just a couple of miles from the airport. Compared to the one we'd just left, this was a real letdown. For starters, the proprietor assigned us sites rather than letting us choose our own, and she put us right next to pretty much the only other people in the place (who had just flown in and picked up their camper that day). Usually people like a bit of space between themselves and their neighbors if the campground isn't full. To make matters worse, their camper was the same size as ours, and the two sites weren't big enough for both of us; nor could they have gotten out if we'd parked anywhere close to where we were supposed to. So we just quietly shifted over about fifteen feet. Other problems included utterly freezing facilities, showers with no curtains, and no hot water in the bathroom basins! So we were really not impressed.
Our primary goal for the rest of the day was to get as much cleaning done as we could in the camper, to make it ready for return. Some of it would have to wait until we were all done with breakfast and dressing/packing the next day, but we were able to do thorough vacuuming and nearly all of the packing. Then we had a good meal to use up most of our remaining food.
Wednesday, June 22: The final day! After showering and eating, we finished all the cleaning. We also made sure that the toilet and greywater tank were completely empty - very important before returning a rental camper! By the time we got everything done, it was nearly noon - the only time on the trip that we actually left a campground as late as checkout time. Since another important task is to make sure the gasoline tank is full (they don't care about the propane), we went off to do that. We also popped into a grocery store to pick up a few bottles of good New Zealand wine and some Cadbury chocolate to take home with us. Our flight back to Auckland (where we would connect with the overseas one to LAX) was at 4:30pm, so we had told Kea we would return the camper around 1pm. Check-in went perfectly smoothly. Dale was greatly relieved to find out that the minute ding in the windshield was repairable. There was no other damage, and they were very impressed with the cleaning job, so we got our full deposit back. When it was our turn for the shuttle, we loaded up our stuff and were taken to the airport. Everything went smoothly with Air New Zealand as well. It's always so restful when things Just Work. We used most of our remaining NZ cash to get some food in the airport, saving a single NZ$5 bill and some change for souvenirs, and settled in to wait for our plane. From there the trip home was straightforward.
I had mixed feelings about leaving. We had been away for nearly four weeks and were definitely ready to go home. But it is so beautiful and there's so much to see that I was sorry to realize it was over. I think everyone else was less conflicted about going - Dale because he wouldn't have the stress of all the driving any more, and the kids because they knew that the first place we would be going when we got back was Legoland, which they really enjoy. We all found New Zealand to be an amazing country, and whatever you're looking for in a vacation, you can find it there.
Resources: The New Zealand Department of Conservation protects and maintains the country's numerous national parks. There are many useful documents and maps on their Web site, and the DOC Visitor Centres are always excellent. Be sure to stop there in whatever region you are visiting, to find out about walking paths, weather conditions, campgrounds, and natural sights in the area. Many have extensive displays that adults and children alike will enjoy, and their staff were always friendly and helpful to us.
The New Zealand Discount Travel Card, which cost NZ$50, was a good deal, primarily because it was accepted by Kea and RedBoats.
The two guidebooks we took with us were LonelyPlanet (latest version here) and DK Eyewitness (latest version here). Both were useful, although I thought DK was a bit short on practical details like how to find some of the attractions they listed.
When to go: Although travelling to New Zealand in the southern winter has some drawbacks - the main ones being shorter daylight hours and closure of some areas due to weather - it has some major advantages which more than make up for these unless you specifically want to do some of the summer-only activities (like hiking overnight on a Southern Alps track):
Winter weather is quite reasonable. The north island gets only slightly more rain than in summer, and most of the south island actually gets less. As you can see from how we're dressed in our photos, temperatures in the north were comfortable, while in the south it was frosty at night but generally very pleasant in the daytime. The main thing that could cause problems, especially later in the winter, is snow in the central and southern parts of the south island. When we were there in mid-June, the ski areas were not open yet - which was a good thing for us because apparently Queenstown is inundated with Australians when that happens. We rented tire chains from Kea (flat fee NZ$50) since we were going to Milford and through some mountain passes, but it turned out we didn't need them.
Campervans: There are many rental companies available, covering a huge range of sizes and features. We chose Kea for three main reasons:
Overall we were very happy with our Kea experience. The camper (not quite the same as the updated model in the photo) was clean, well-designed, well-equipped, and gave us no serious problems other than the forward bunk ceiling vent leaking slightly during one very wet night. The maintenance instructions were clear and easy to follow, and the free campground guide was very useful (though understandably chock-full of ads). And the depot staff at pickup and dropoff were friendly and efficient.
Some thoughts on living in a campervan:
Driving: Over the course of our 22 days in New Zealand, we drove 3,000 miles. This is an average of about 140 miles per day, although most days we did rather less than that. In some ways - particularly Dale's fatigue level since he had to do most of it - this was too much. Keep in mind that it often takes longer to drive a given distance than you might expect. On the other hand, we have certainly done trips where we drove more miles but saw far less. Considering how much we covered on this first visit there, the mileage shows how easy it is to get around this relatively small country. We now know where some of our favorite areas are, and have potential "stay-a while" focus points for future trips.
Don't sweat the left-hand drive stuff. Just maintain a "keep left, keep left" mantra going in the back of your head while you're driving, with an occasional chorus of "wide right turn". The fact that you're sitting in a different place than usual helps keep your orientation straight. I can honestly say that the few times I drove, I never for a moment got mixed up about this. Roundabouts are a piece of cake (yield to your right), though it can be tense when you're trying to find a gap in very heavy traffic. There is one rule of the road that may give you trouble because it is different than most other countries: when you're making a left turn, oncoming traffic making a right turn in front of you has right-of-way. It is really just an extension of the "yield to your right" rule. We found other drivers to be good about using turn signals, and pretty patient with the occasional uncertainty we displayed. Speeding was very rare - perhaps partly because outside of metropolitan motorways, there aren't many places where it's feasible. The paved roads are generally quite good, but are often narrow (especially in the far north and on the west coast of the South Island) and/or twisty, with the occasional one-lane bridge to negotiate. These were almost always empty for us, but at busier times of year they would probably be trickier.
It definitely helps if you are already comfortable driving a manual transmission; automatics are difficult (impossible?) to find and will likely cost more to rent.
Parking a large campervan is always a challenge, although we found ours surprisingly narrow considering the interior space. Tips:
Insurance: Airfares to New Zealand are expensive, even if you get a deal. Consider a travel insurance policy to cover at least that, in case you have a medical emergency or provider default which prevents you from travelling. For this basic coverage, they are not expensive.
For medical and liability insurance, New Zealand is one of the world's most civilized countries. They have a government department called the Accident Compensation Corporation (ACC). In a nutshell, if there is an accident in which someone is injured, the ACC covers all medical costs. In return for this coverage, someone who is injured cannot sue whoever caused the accident (except for punitive damages in extreme cases). Visitors to New Zealand are covered by this scheme. Read the information on the ACC Web site carefully, to be sure you understand the implications for vehicle rental liability coverage and medical insurance, and check the limitations of your existing health insurance policy before you go, to see if it will cover you in non-accident situations.
Vehicle rental rates typically include only partial insurance. Your own auto policy may not cover overseas rentals, and the credit-card benefits that might otherwise cover you when you use the card to pay for a rental probably exclude RVs. Check both. But thanks to the ACC scheme, liability in case of an accident is largely a non-issue. We chose to decline the additional collision/comprehensive insurance coverage that Kea offered, which meant that a NZ$5000 deposit was charged to our credit card up front to cover our deductible if any damage occurred to the camper. The key thing to watch out for in this respect is windshield damage. Many roads have loose pebbles, and in winter they "grit" the roads with coarse sand. If a serious ding happens, particularly on the driver's side, it costs about NZ$700 to replace it. For a three-week rental, this was still slightly less than full insurance would have cost. We were careful, and also got lucky: no accidents, and although the windshield received a small "bullseye" from a tiny stone, it was repairable (which they can have done for free), so the full deposit was credited back at the end of the trip. This is where we got even luckier: the exchange rate changed during the trip, so in the end we got more back in US$ than we had paid up front. :-)
Holiday Parks: In general these are good, although kitchen facilities often leave something to be desired. Here are some that we especially liked for various reasons:
We also really enjoyed the four places we freecamped (in the sense of depending solely on our own facilities; only one of them - near Mokau - was actually free).
I was completely unimpressed with the dryers in every campground laundry we used. Not one of them was able to dry a full wash load in less than two cycles, and in most cases I had to split the wash into two dryers and still had some damp clothes at the end. A real pain.
The other thing I didn't enjoy was that almost nobody heated the shower areas. There was always hot water, but except when you were standing right in it, you were freezing. Would be nice if they provided a timed space heater or something, even coin-operated.
Shopping and Food: Very important note: do not try to bring any kind of agricultural products into the country! For good reason, New Zealand is very strict about their exposure to insects and disease. Fines will be imposed regardless of whether the transgression is intentional. They will even ask where you've worn your hiking boots. Be prepared.
Dining: We ate at restaurants only rarely - perhaps eight meals on the whole trip. Otherwise we ate in our camper or took our own food to an outdoor table for a picnic lunch when the weather was suitable. If Dale and I had been travelling by ourselves, we might well have sampled more of the many excellent restaurants, but even for us eating out all the time gets old (not to mention expensive). The kids get a lot more fun out of places we pull over for an informal meal; they don't enjoy fancy restaurants, and fancy restaurants don't enjoy them.
Shopping: Pak-n-Save is a chain of large warehouse-style stores, somewhat like Sam's Club in the U.S., which was useful when we needed to stock up on a variety of items (especially the first day). We also found Countdown to be a very good chain, with a huge selection of Cadbury chocolate that always seemed to be on sale. We have always enjoyed browsing around grocery stores to see how local preferences differ from what we're used to. As expected, New Zealand has a strong British influence, so we were easily able to find products such as Dale's favorite Weetabix cereal (available there as the competitor brand Weet-Bix), not-so-favorite Vegemite/Marmite spreads, and Cadbury Flake chocolate bars. Tim-Tams, an Australian chocolate-coated filled biscuit cookie, were very popular with Sarah and Matthew (see the photo of lunch in Queenstown on June 14). Be warned that "tomato sauce" is ketchup. We knew this, but Dale still got caught by some that came in cardboard cartons - decidedly not what we expected of ketchup. If you want something for your spaghetti, look for "pasta sauce". In every store, we found a wide variety of delicious spice pastes and ready-to-use ethnic sauces which were perfectly suited to cooking either in our camper or in a holiday park kitchen. Just add chicken, a few vegetables, and serve with some boil-in-the-bag rice for a very good meal. Oh, and don't forget a bottle of one of the many wines that New Zealand is justifiably proud of!
