Road Trip #1

I'm back from a whirlwind of 3 weeks of exploring the South Island with my partner and his mom while she was visiting us. It was absolutely fantastic! If you have a NZ map handy, you can follow along: Road trip #1 took us from Dunedin up to Christchurch, across Arthur's Pass to the West Coast, up to Punakaiki, down the West Coast through Hokitika, Franz Josef and Fox glaciers, Haast, east across Haast Pass and the Southern Alps, to Wanaka, Queenstown, through Central Otago via Clyde and Alexandra, and back to Dunedin. Phew! Details below.

Christchurch is a hustling-bustling city that seemed a bit overwhelming to us after pokey Dunedin. We explored the beautiful Botanic Gardens, had a delicious dinner, and then spent the entire night listening to drunk kids outside in the central square below our hotel windows. Instead of staying another (sleepless) night, we got our money back and headed west. Arthur's Pass is an incredible drive through braided river valleys and alpine forest. We stopped at Castle Rock where there are hundreds of immense limestone tors that look like ancient city ruins (or a bunch of giant's teeth). We did a short hike through beech forest to a thundering waterfall and spotted the playful Kea, a large, alpine parrot that likes to pull the rubber off your windshield wipers and door seals.

Somewhere along Arthur's Pass

Limestone Tors, Castle Rock, Arthur's Pass

Once across the Pass we headed north to a little coastal settlement called Punakaiki. This area was one of my favorites and I can't wait to go back and explore more! Punakaiki is known for the famous pancake rock formations and they are incredible. Although there are also some amazing hikes through coastal rain forest and even some limestone caves to spelunk around in. We cautiously explored the dark recesses of the caves until I freaked out and decided to turn around. We stayed the night in an amazing cabin tucked into the nikau palms and rain forest and saw our first Wekas! These flightless, Jurassic-looking birds are very curious, one even mooched around in our car boot (trunk), looking for nibbletts!

Pancake Rocks, Punakaiki

Paparoa National Park, Punakaiki

Weka!

We then headed south to Hokitika, which is known for arts and crafts, especially jade carving, and the wild foods festival that serves rose petal beer, wasp larvae ice cream, and huhu grubs. Yum! Hokitika was rather un-inspiring, although we did stay at a very nice beachfront cabin that had great water pressure in the shower (a rare thing in NZ)! The next day we explored ancient Kahikatea and Rimu forest along the beautiful Lake Kaniere just inland from Hokitika. Despite reports of a storm over the Tasman Sea, the weather was incredible and we soaked up the sunshine! We also made a quick stop at Okarito Lagoon, a peaceful estuary that was the setting for the book The Bone People by Keri Hulme.

Lake Kaniere

Okarito Lagoon

It was then onto the glaciers and Southern Alps. Wait, that's "glass-ears" not "glay-sures" if you speak Kiwi (sorry, it still cracks me up). Both Franz Josef and Fox glaciers are incredible, although you can't get too close to them, especially since 2 boys died at Fox glacier earlier this year when they were buried in ice when the glacier calved. Yikes! You can pay top dollar for a guided hike on the glaciers, or have a helicopter land on them, but we settled for independent hikes to wonderful viewing platforms. After a surprisingly good dinner in Fox, we drove on to Haast, a tiny town at the mouth of the Haast River and the furthest South you can drive on the West Coast. It was late when we finally pulled into town and we couldn't believe how dark it was. I mean pitch black! There is absolutely no ambient light from a city to light up the sky and the stars were insane.

Franz Josef Glacier


Fox Glacier

After a short detour through the UNESCO World Heritage Forest near Haast, we left the coast and headed inland on Haast Pass through the Alps. It was another incredibly scenic drive, with waterfalls, ancient forests, rivers and SAND FLIES! The West Coast is known for the pesky sand fly and though we had been fairly lucky so far, we encountered them on Haast Pass. For whatever reason, they liked me and I unwillingly donated my blood to more than a few sand flies. Man, do they itch!! We arrived in the resort town of Wanaka, on the south shores of lake Wanaka. We had some delicious Thai food for dinner and ended the night early in our teeny tiny room (we were beginning to notice a shrinking trend in our accommodations...).

Haast UNESCO World Heritage Park

Fantail Falls, Haast Pass

The next day, after an exhilarating hike up Mount Iron for a 360 degree view of the entire area, we made a quick visit to the quirky Puzzling World. Built by some eccentric man, Puzzling World houses a maze and some illusion rooms just outside Wanaka. We didn't do the maze (it can take up to 2 hours) but we did take some photos in the Roman bathrooms! We drove to Queenstown via the Cardrona Pass through tussock-covered mountains and gold mining country. Once in Queenstown we marveled at the madness of it all and declined to sky dive, bungy jump, sky swing, jet boat, or river raft. Although we plan on doing the Luge at some point. The next day we went on a beautiful hike through beech forest that we had hiked just after New Years. This time we found the historic tunnel that miners built through the mountain rock to access the river better. Good thing we're not claustrophobic!

Roman Bathrooms, Puzzling World, Wanaka

Tussock-covered hills, Cardrona Pass

From Queenstown it was on to Central Otago, which is very much like California's gold-mining country turned wine country. We stopped along the way to watch the bungy jumpers at AJ Hacketts famous bridge and sipped wine and tasted cheeses at Gibbston Valley Winery & Cheesery. We stayed the night in Clyde, a cute little town with historic stone buildings. Our bed and breakfast had a resident dog, a cat and a tiny kitten who was happy to play with me (I miss the family pets back home)! After some scenic drives, purchases from the local fruit stands and a failed attempt to photograph Merino sheep, it was back to Dunedin for some much needed rest (and laundry).
Stay tuned for Road Trip #2!