6 - Milford Sound

Today we had planned a morning kayaking trip in Milford Sound, so we had to leave our Lake Gunn campsite at 5:45am to make it there in time. We drove the perilous Milford Road through death-defying road grades, switchbacks through avalanche zones and the infinite Homer tunnel, primarily in the dark.




These are not careless adjectives that we are throwing around for dramatization sake....this was the scariest road we've ever been on. Remember what the guidebooks said about "not recommended for campervans"? Well, it turns out they knew what they were talking about. Fortunately, at that time of morning, we didn't encounter any other cars on the road, saving us one less hazard to worry about. We arrived safely, but frazzled, to Milford Sound for our early morning kayak trip through the Sound. Except for being attacked by squadrons of sand flies, the kayak trip was terrific.






We saw a rare fjordland penguin, a NZ fur seal and a wicka (native bird). Mitre Peak (5560-ft) peaked through the clouds a few times.



On the last part of the kayak, we encountered meter-high swells and fierce winds on the crossing of the sound. We actually had to paddle earnestly. Then we turned and with the wind then at our backs, we surfed back to Deep Water Bay where we started. We had great companions from Denmark, Scotland, Ireland/Bermuda.



Afterward, we toured around Milford Sound ourselves (took 20min), then drove back to Te Anau. On the way back, we encountered many Kea, the only Alpine Parrot in the world....or they virtually accosted us, is more accurate.



They are fantastic to watch, very curious and not at all shy of humans. We visited The Chasm, which is exactly how it sounds, a deep, narrow gorge with a raging river running through it that drops seemingly to the center of the earth.


Driving back we stopped at many a turnout, viewpoint and small tramp ("tramp" in Kiwi means walk or hike), including Lake Marian and the Mirror Lakes.




Te Anau greeted us much differently this time, with calm breezes, blue sky and a very welcoming attitude. We overnighted in a campspace with lake views and free showers! But we missed taking a picture of the sign declaring the 45 degree South Latitude.

5 - Queenstown to Lake Gunn

The weather was very unfriendly today. We left Queenstown while it was sunny and lovely as we started along the shore of Lake Wakatipu,



but as soon as we rounded the tip of lake on the twisty and curvy lakeside road, the wind picked up and didn't let up - don't want to even guess what our gas mileage was on that leg of the trip. We drove past fields of sheep, cows, sheep, deer (yes, deer), sheep, sheep and more sheep.



The landscape was absolutely beautiful and so green you just want to hug it. In Te Anau we fueled up (it has the last petrol station for hundreds of km) and got the local scoop on weather and road conditions from the visitor's center. Rain expected, avalanche forecast = low (OK, we didn't even know that could be an issue), and the road was Open (again, didn't realize that could be an issue). Chains are technically required on all vehicles through the end of November (again, didn't know that), but on this day, they weren't required, so we drove on. The worst that could happen is that we're stuck there for a couple of days, right? Fully stocked and provisioned, we took to the Milford Road. It started out tame enough, cruising through fields and scientific research areas (don't really know what they are, but they are everywhere in this area). Noticeably there were few cars and no buildings of any kind. We drove on. As the road began to follow a river there were DOC (Dept of Conservation) campsites every dozen or so km.

As we noticed the dark clouds pouring in over the giant mountains ahead, Kathy happened to read in our guide books that it is not recommended, I repeat not recommended for campervans to try and navigate this road. We drove on. The wind began and the clouds came in thick and dark. Our goal was the reach the farthest DOC campsite to make our next morning drive a little easier. Friends from Auckland warned us to ensure that there were other people camping where we were because there had been some "incidents" recently. We finally made it to the Lake Gunn campsite only to find it a single campsite with no one else around, save a few clouds.



We decided to park there and see if anyone else showed up. Soon another car arrived and we tried to talk them into staying. They were uncertain. We decided to take a tramp around the lake, so we crossed the feeder creek and took off into the woods, following a stoat (weasel) trapping trail. We went until the trail became too laborious (climbing over trees, rocks and just trying to keep track of the trail). When we arrived back at camp, we were surprised and thankful that 3 additional cars had arrived and a thinning of the clouds.



We quickly readjusted our parking and took a place on the lake shore.



For the next 2 hours, campervan after campervan arrived looking for a place to park....the Inn was full. In a place where we thought there was room for 1 vehicle, 7 or 8 stayed. We had a lovely evening overlooking the lake, watching the resident freshwater eel



and savoring a wonderful dinner. (At one point we had to buy T-Bone steak, because the lamb was too expensive...sheesh!)

4 - Cromwell and Queenstown

Off to the Adventure Capital of the World! We drove through more green, heavily-sheeped valleys winding in between the mountains. We stopped in Cromwell, a famous trading post of old at the convergence of two main rivers. Downtown Cromwell was purposefully flooded a decade or so ago when a hydro-power damn was put in.




They are in the process of restoring the few buildings that weren't covered in the risen water level and they've done a terrific job. We visited a bakery and sat on the river's edge for a while before moving onto a Cidery. We were hoping for cider tastings, but a liter of cider for the road worked fine. After Cromwell we began to take on serious elevation. The valleys gave way to canyons with vertical rock cliffs. The river raging past us was called Roaring Meg after one of the old-time barmaids who lived in the area during the gold boom.



The water was unbelievable -- positively glacial and beautiful. The Kawarau Gorge canyon walls had been carved expertly by the rushing water and huge boulders caused the river to churn. We don't need to mention how narrow the "highway" was at this point...driving was always an adventure. The mountains started to come at us more frequently and they were taller. We came into a town called Frankton, which then blended quickly into busy Queenstown. We weren't prepared for how busy and big the town would be. We found a holiday park at the top of the city, which gave us a great view of downtown and the Lake Wakatipu, and explored on foot for the next 2 days. We spent the entire afternoon up on Skyline hill overlooking Queenstown. We took a gondola ride to the top, giving us spectacular views of the entire valley and lake, with The Remarkables as a backdrop.




The Remarkables were covered in the snow we had experienced a couple of nights earlier, and looked amazing with the blue sky above them. The top of Skyline was an activity mecca with 2 Luge tracks (we did both), bungee jumping, hang gliding, a fabulous restaurant with bar none views, and of course, the gondola. We attended a Kiwi Haka that evening, which is a traditional Maori show (where Kathy learned the Poi Dance and we both mixed and mingled with the locals),



and had the buffet at the restaurant. This was a serious buffet with all kinds of seafood and landfood. Yum. We ate and ate and ate while we watched the sunset reflect on The Remarkables. The buffet cost something like $40 each, which turned out to be quite reasonable for the country.

We rose early to take in a 4WD / Jetboat ride on the Upper Shotover River. The Shotover River was shot in a few scenes in the Lord of the Rings. The 4WD ride took us up the valley, past the Coronet Ski Area, and onto Skippers Road. Skippers Road was the only path to the Upper Shotover River in the gold mining days. It was (and still is) a treacherous "road".



It's dirt, impossibly narrow and windy and has quite a steep grade in areas. The view was amazing, including the near vertical drop into the gorge below. Rental cars are not allowed on this road, nor anything that isn't 4WD. Sheep are flown by helicopter into this area for grazing -- not sure why as it's rather parched land. The Shotover River is glacial, so its a beautiful icy blue color. We were outfitted with spray jackets and PFDs and loaded into the Jetboat.

The Jetboat can move through waters that are only 13 inches deep, but need much deeper water to do their famous 360 spins. (see video) We had a great time weaving up river through rapids and between boulders and white water rafters. Part of the thrill was getting frighteningly close to the cliff walls. At one point, we reached a speed of 50mph -- talk about a wind burned face! On our drive back, we stopped at the famous A.J. Hackett bungee jumping bridge (it was #2). A.J. Hackett was the inventor of bungee jumping.



Suspension bridges are the bridge of choice in NZ, we encountered them quite often. We spent an afternoon ambling around Queenstown. It's a cute, touristy downtown bordered by the Botanical Gardens right on the lakeshore.



One of the top tourist activities is taking a cruise on the TSS Earnslaw, a steamboat that was built the same year as the Titanic, but much less unlucky.



We opted not to take a lake cruise, but maybe next time. Every night we watched 30-60min of the LOTR trilogy so that we could spot movie locations as we visited them. Below, you will see the location where Arwen dared the seven wraith kings to cross the river and a wall of water washed them downriver.

3 - Mt. Cook

It had snowed overnight and provided a beautiful dusting in all the mountains around us. Fortunately it hadn't stuck on the ground where we were, so driving was fine. Not surprisingly, the skies were gray with lots of clouds. We were headed toward Queenstown and had this one chance on the way to drive up to see Mt. Cook, the tallest and most famous peak in the South Island. We decided to go for it, though we weren't certain what the roads would be like. On the way, we rounded another glacial lake -- Lake Pukaki (LOTR Tour Site), and then up to Mt Cook Village.

The clouds were too low to see Mt. Cook but we came upon a couple of gems -- The Hermitage Hotel and the Sir Edmund Hillary Museum. We had no idea Mt. Cook was Hillary's favorite mountain and his training ground for Everest. The Museum was really well done and paid terrific tribute to this humble adventurer/philanthropist. The Hermitage has quite the history and is and always was a luxury retreat in the heart of the Southern Alps (read: filled with Japanese tourists). We spent long enough in the Museum that when we exited the building, Mt. Cook was visible! It's an impressive mountain at 12,120 ft.




The road up to the mountain provided our first introduction to bridges in NZ -- they are almost all narrow, one-lane bridges. We continued south and overnighted in Omarama, out of town on a lake. It was a remote place with almost no other visitors, and it had no-meter showers - yea! We spent some time at the lake watching the birds and ducks. Our favorite was the red-faced chickadee -- we don't know the real name, but they were beautifully colored.

2 - Campervan to Lake Tekapo

Our big adventure on the South Island of New Zealand was discovering the island by touring around in a campervan (think VW Vanagon). For unknown reasons, Kea upgraded us to a 4-berth motorhome.



It was lovely and brand new (which was a far cry from our 16-yr old yacht rental). After doing a bit of paperwork and an extremely quick overview of the operational part of the motorhome, we were off on our 10-day camping adventure. (The next 2 days we spent time in the manual trying to figure out how to do things like ignite the proprane hot water heater) The campervan had a manual transmission (hadn't thought about that before) and the gear shift was on the left hand side. Oh boy, Kathy was glad Steve was driving. It was a frying pan experience pulling out of the
parking lot into the Christchurch city traffic, not really knowing where we were going or how to navigate the roundabouts in the wrong direction (it's not just the water going down the drain that rotates backwards down there).

Once we got out of town, decreased traffic allowed the stress to subside where we enjoyed some scenery. We provisioned in Ashburton, then continued south through the Canterbury Plains. Because of the expected snow, Kathy decided we should inch our way along and get as far south as possible before the roads became impassable. Our goal was Lake Tekapo.

Just out of Christchurch, we discovered a feature of our campervan. The step sounds an alarm if driving when it isn't correctly stowed . However, with the bumps of the road, the step didn't stay tightly stowed and dropped a fraction of an inch causing the buzzer to sound. Every 10km or so, Kathy had to jump out of the campervan and give it a swift kick to get the buzzer to stop. Tiring of that , we tried to wedge things in place, with only slightly better success. Steve solved the
problem by removing the offending sensor. Engineers sure are handy to have around! The valleys were beautiful, brilliant green fields speckled with sheep and an occasional cow.

After a few hours of green fields, we rounded a corner, as we picked up some altitude, and had a breathtaking view of a glacial lake. The water was an unbelieveable blue. It was our first close-up sighting of the Southern Alps, as the mountains here are known. We made our way around the southern end of Lake Takepo and found our first Holiday Park (campground) where we spent the night. We had a nice view overlooking the lake.



We BBQ'd for dinner (we ate very well during this week). Our campervan had everything...an oven, a stove, microwave, fridge, heater and TV/DVD player (although we never used the TV). Because it was a 4-berth campervan, we had a huge double-bed above the driving cab and a sofa and dining area. It also had a toilet, basin and shower, much like the yacht had. We lived in luxury. That night it snowed just enough to dust the mountains, which made the morning drive beautiful as we moved toward Lake Pukaki.




Next to the holiday park was an Alpine Pools and Skating place. This area is a popular summer and winter holiday destination for Kiwis. There was also a trail head up to the top of Mt. John. If we didn't have so far to go the next day, we would have taken this 3-hr tramp to the cafe at the top of the mountain. We found out later that at the top of the mountain is the Mt. John Observatory -- the best observatory in the nation, famous for its star-gazing at night. Oh well, maybe next time.