After coming ashore on the South Island, we drove from Picton down to Kaikoura. During this journey, we got to see a colony of New Zealand fur seals, just relaxing on the rocks by the side of the road! We spent our first night on the South Island free camping outside an Irish pub. The following morning, we walked along its pebbly beaches and the Kaikoura Peninsula Walkway, hoping to find more seals.
We managed to find loads of fur seals at Point Kean, where they lazed on the pavements and growled at us like dogs if we got too close.
After spending some time with the seals, we drove through the mountains to a town called Springfield (complete with giant pink doughnut!) The drive offered some wonderful views over New Zealand, however, the narrow winding roads and sheer drops made the views quite hard to appreciate from the passenger seat of a large campervan!
The following day, we drove the Great Alpine Highway to Arthur’s Pass, which was a very impressive and picturesque drive, full of snowy mountains, lakes and waterfalls.
Once there, we had lunch in a café and completed the Bridal Veil Walk, before driving across to Franz Josef Glacier.
The next day, we drove to Lake Wanaka, where we stayed at a campsite with the most gorgeous views of the lake and mountains. Even better, it was inhabited by loads of baby bunnies that were running around everywhere!
The next stop on our South Island road trip was the place we had both been most looking forward to visiting: Queenstown.
Queenstown absolutely did not disappoint. It is one of the most beautiful places I have ever been and, although we only got to stay there for a short time, it quickly became one of my favourite places we have visited whilst travelling. Surrounded by snow-topped mountains and built around a crystal blue lake, the whole town felt like something out of a fairy tale. It has a very magical and charming atmosphere, and is somewhere that I would definitely like to return someday.
After arriving, we went for a walk around the town and then through the park surrounding Lake Wakatipu. Whilst on that walk, we found a tire swing hanging by the water’s edge that we had a lot of fun playing on!
We passed a stand selling duck food for $2 in order to raise money for community projects. We bought a bag, which led to Nick being bombarded by a huge flock of hungry ducks. They jumped out of the water and all ran towards him at once; surrounding him and pecking his ankles for more food, whilst I laughed and took photos from a safe distance.
On our first evening in Queenstown, we had to try the world famous Fergburger. We’d heard such glowing recommendations about this burger joint, including people claiming that they would fly back to Queenstown just for one of their burgers. The place is always absolutely heaving with customers, who queue out the door and round the street for a chance to get their hands on a burger. We wondered, “How great can a burger be?” Turns out… not that great. They were okay, but they would have to contain some sort of illegal, taste-enhancing drug to live up to that kind of hype. I’ve had better. If you really want to try something delicious whilst in Queenstown, get yourself next door to Fergbaker and order ‘Ferg’s Famous Boston Cream Donut’. Oh. My. God. Now, there’s a doughnut that must contain some sort of illegal, taste-enhancing drug. Plus, there are no queues!
Top tip: If you’re in Queenstown and want to see for yourself whether Fergburger can possibly live up to the hype, simply phone ahead to place your order and skip the queues when you arrive!
The following day, Nick completed The Nevis Bungy – New Zealand’s highest bungee jump and the third highest bungee jump in the world! As will come as absolutely no surprise to anyone who knows me… I did not. However, I was incredibly proud of him!
Whilst Nick was jumping off a 134 metre high platform, I had a much calmer afternoon: sat outside a café by Lake Wakatipu, writing my blog post for the North Island and enjoying a latté. Much more my cup of coffee.
That evening, we celebrated Nick’s bungee jump by going on a bar crawl around Queenstown. Add Queenstown bars to the list of things I absolutely love about this town! We started out in a dimly lit, chalet-style bar called Lone Star, where we drank glasses of red wine in front of a wonderfully cosy open fire. We then went next door to a bar called Muskets and Moonshine. This is an American themed bar that plays British indie music from the noughties, in the middle of beautiful New Zealand scenery. Sign me up! Like Lone Star, Muskets and Moonshine also had an open fire, as well as a wall full of antique books and board games. I had a moonshine cocktail whilst we played Guess Who.
The final stop on our bar crawl was Perky’s Floating Bar and Coffee Shop – the only floating bar in New Zealand. We floated on Lake Wakatipu, surrounded by the mountains and dazzling Queenstown scenery, sipping our glasses of wine with blankets on our laps and heaters warming us. It was a perfect way to spend an evening.
The night finished with a trip to Cookie Time (a New Zealand cookie shop that doesn’t close until 10:00pm), where we bought delicious hot cookies to take back to the campervan.
The next day was our last day in Queenstown. In order to make the most of it, we had booked to get the gondola up to Skyline Queenstown so that we could ride the luges. This would have been a really good plan if it weren’t for the fact that it was absolutely chucking it down with rain! As there was no time to reschedule, we persisted despite the awful weather conditions that kind of put a dampener (puns always entirely intended) on the day. It was a real shame because I think the luges would have been so much fun in nicer weather. Instead, I persisted for three of my six paid for rides (Nick made it to five), getting carried up on the ski lifts like drowned rats, and luging our way back down again like gluttons for punishment; our jeans squelching on the soaking plastic and our fingers freezing around the handlebars. We returned to the van soaked to the bone and shivering in front of our small fan heater. My advice to anyone visiting Queenstown: definitely get the gondola up to Skyline Queenstown and definitely have a go on the luges – just don’t try to do it when it’s chucking it down with rain!
But, as Dolly Parton would say: you can’t have a rainbow without a little rain. I wouldn’t have been able to capture this beautiful photo of a rainbow shining over Queenstown if we hadn’t been on top of the Skyline on that miserable, fun, cold, wonderful, rainy day.
The following day, we left Queenstown and began to make our way up to Christchurch. Our first stop was in Dunedin, the town centre of which actually reminded me a bit of my hometown, Burton-on-Trent. From there, we drove to Timaru; took a bit of a detour to Akaroa (on the advice of a friend who told us it was worth a visit) and, finally, ended up in Christchurch. In Christchurch, we walked through the Botanic Gardens and explored the city centre, before returning the campervan the next day.
And so draws an end to our New Zealand road trip adventure. We had a really amazing time exploring such a beautiful country and loved every minute of it. However, having chosen to do our exploring in a campervan in the middle of winter, we were very much looking forward to moving on to somewhere a bit warmer. As I sit writing this by our pool in Fiji, I can confirm that this has definitely been achieved!
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