From Gore we drove up to Christchurch to rent a campervan for 5 days (4 nights). It was a bit of a splurge but a very cool experience.
Heading out with smiles all around, despite the rain, and even hail!
I was also thankful for all the left-side driving I had already done by that point because a lot of the drive was narrow one-lane bridges and very winding switchbacks.
Lake Tekapo
A pretty blue lake that had a Scottish stone church on the shores. It wasn’t hard to see that the Scots would feel at home in this area with wind swept hills and mountains with long skinny lochs.
Lake Pukaki
Our first camping night was a wonderful introduction to what they call ‘freedom camping’ in New Zealand. The camper is self-contained and you can live off grid for a few days. We found an isolated spot all to ourselves and enjoyed the views of Lake Pukaki.
Dinner with a view of Mount Cook down at the end of the lake.
Getting in and out of that spot was a family affair.
Lindis Pass
One of the passes we drove over from the East side of the South Island to the West side. It shows the really dry areas on this side which is is sharp contrast to other areas that are rain forests.
Lake Hawea
To get to our campsite on this lake, we had to drive through a number of fields with sheep and cattle with this amazing view.
This site was at one of the New Zealand parks so not as private. We got a good spot at the end by the lake, with more people arriving after us as it got dark. A bit different than Canada as there weren’t any designated spots. We woke up to another amazing view.
Blue Pools Trail
Thunder Creek Falls
Fox Glacier South Viewpoint
Our last stop for the day which is along the west coast. This viewpoint was up a really wide trail which we discovered was the original gravel road up to the view point. Part of the road had been washed away so they ended up building a new parking lot at the bottom and you hiked up to the lookout off the old parking lot.
Along the old road was another trail called Moraine Walk. This was a fun narrow little path that really felt like you were walking through an enchanted forest. This isn’t where they filmed Mirkwood, but they easily could have.
It was getting more overcast as we went and we were concerned we wouldn’t see anything. At a breaking point along the trail we could see up the valley where we were going and the clouds parted enough for a partial glimpse of the glacier and the mountain top it comes from.
Unfortunately by the time we got up to the lookout, you could only just see the very bottom of the glacier.
In that area there weren’t any good freedom camping areas so we spent a night in a more traditional camper park which was definitely not picture worthy.
Franz Josef Glacier Hikes
The second glacier we visited we discovered you couldn’t actually get to anymore. A few years ago the trail to it got washed out and stranded some hikers so now that part of the path is barricaded. And with the yearly retreat of the glacier you can no longer see it from that stopping point. There was an alternative 14km trail but that was a bit much to do given our timeline so we settled for the short walk to see the glacier valley with all the tumbled rocks.
Arthur’s Pass
Our last evening was again at another freedom camping spot which we had all to ourselves.
Because we had mobile internet with the camper the girls could do some school work in the evenings and Julia and I could do research and blogging. However for the last night we hooked up the mini-TV in the camper to one of the computers and streamed the next episode of The Great British Sewing Bee. Thanks Gran!
Once last look before heading out the next morning.
Castle Hill
Our last hike on the way back to Christchurch was Castle Hill. This is another one of those locations that looks like it could have been used in the LOTR movies but wasn’t. It is famous for bouldering and we saw some people hiking in with mats to try and climb some of the rocks.
Christchurch
Though not of Christchurch, these were some photos taken from the campervan as we drove from and to Christchurch. We enjoyed our time in the campervan, in part because of views like these.
We arrived back in Christchurch in the afternoon and after returning the campervan we decided to visit the downtown area and the memorial for the earthquake victims of 2011.