New Zealand - South Island

The ferry ride to South Island lasted 3.5 hrs, we waved goodbye to Wellington and North Island and eagerly sat outside until the winds grew too strong and the air too cold for us to handle. At one point a gust so strong nearly took Al off his feet, so we decided to retreat inside, emerging when we approached the Marlborough Sounds and the port of Picton. We disembarked at around 4.30pm and drove for the Sounds which were just round the corner.

The Marlborough Sounds are a series of inlets and islands, where the sea cuts into the mountains and has formed little white sand beaches and shallow pools. It is stunning on a clear day with the blue sky and blue sea illuminated by the sun. We drove up a small peninsula called Kenepuru Sound looking for somewhere to spend the night. We found a small layby on a quiet country road and pulled in. The cliff overlooked a small village, dwarfed by the rolling hills which shone with the setting sun – as you can see from our lovely photo – and a perfect place to cook dinner. Unfortunately by the time it came to washing up it was dark and so I had to make do with washing up without the nice view.

We had the usual cull of the pesky sandflies that managed to sneak in when the doors were open. For those of you who haven't been to NZ our biggest problem with camping has been these nasty little buggers called sandflies. You park up your campervan at a beautiful white beach and jump out to take in a breath of fresh air. However as soon as you relax you begin to notice several small black dots all over your skin? Strange. You brush over these black dots with your hands and they fly away leaving a painful small red bitemark as evidence. They're a real pain. I've been bitten a few times, however Al has again been unlucky – as in Peru – and become their main victim. He must have sweet blood, they don't like me much though. The main problem is that when campervanning for free, the best places to stay are by the by the sea, so we have to do a nightly cull when the doors are closed to ensure that we don't get bitten while we sleep.

The next morning we headed round the sounds. We stopped by a well-known track called the Queen Charlotte Track and set off for a couple of hours trekking. However the best view of the coastline was actually from the road and so we drove round to a couple of inlets to admire the beautiful view.

After a day on the sounds we decided that our next stop would be a nearby national park – the Abel Tasman. We headed west with a mission to arrive in time to book a kayaking tour of the park's coastline for Al's birthday, 21st November. We arrived at the small town of Marahau and found a great local kayaking company called Kahu Kayaks. We pre-booked the tour for the next day and asked them to recommend a nearby 'free camping spot', we were directed to a spot covered in signs forbidding 'camping' but, we reasoned, campervanning is not really camping is it?!
Another van pulled up nearby and two Canadians came over to chat, they happened to be on the same kayaking tour as us. They were a bit worried about not being able to park in the same spot overnight, but, as we discovered, about 20 other campervans and cars had decided to ignore 'no camping' the sign. The next morning we awoke early and met the group at the kayaking office at 8.30am, the sun was shining and the wind was light. In the carpark we all piled into a boat (that may sound strange) being towed by a tractor which was towed straight into the sea.

We sped off across the sea further up the coast to a large white sandy beach where we all jumped out of the speed boat and into our kayaks with our guide. I took up the front of the kayak and Al took up the rear, commanding the steering peddles.

We steered around the coastline watching the seals and penguins playing in the water. We were able to row right up close to the rocks and the seals swam around and under our boats. We stopped on a deserted sandy beach for a coffee break (we had a choice of cappuchino, mocha, latte... top notch service) and relaxed in the sunshine. The guide informed us about the history of the area (Abel Tasman was a Dutchman who first sailed to the shores of NZ to attempt to start trade links with the Maoris. As his ship anchored a group of Maoris rowed out in their canoes to determine whether they were friend or foe. The Maoris blowed a message into a conch shell and Abel Tasman responded by blowing into a trumpet – unfortunately this was a war signal for the Maoris and they attacked a group of officers sent over in a small boat. He named the bay Murderer's Bay (now renamed Golden Bay) and left. Abel Tasman never set foot on the shores of NZ but the park is named after him).

We continued rowing round the shoreline, through the rocks, until we came to another beach for lunch. We were so hot by this time that we all quickly changed and jumped into the sea to cool down. It was freeezing! But very refreshing.

Lucas, one of the Canadians, went on a walk and found some treasure around the rocks – he actually found an old NZ shilling with the face of King George V on it. Pretty amazing! After lunch and a cappuchino we jumped back into our kayaks and proceeded down the coast. A brisk wind picked up and we hoisted the spinnaker (the tablecloth held up with two oars from the guys at the back and the corners held up by two of us girls at the front). We sailed along at top speed, water rushing into our boats and the waves lifting us up. We covered a lot of ground like that and gave our aching arm muscles a small rest in the process. After a further hour paddling round we put down our oars for the day and sped back to the port by speedboat.

Al and I enjoyed some spring rolls from this cool little stall near the office which sold 'Cow Pat' and 'Ewe Beut' burgers. It was a brilliant day and a great way to spend Al's b-day.

The next day we awoke to strong winds and rain... really unpleasant when you're camping, but we were thankful that it had held off for Al's birthday. We had a mission - to get down to the West Coast of NZ – a place described in our guide book as the 'real NZ'.

We drove down in the rain, windscreen wipers on full blast. It took a few hours to get down to the West Coast from the North. We took the coastal road from Westport and headed south to Tauranga Bay, Cape Foulwind where we had dinner at a little restaurant (green-shelled mussles - a local speciality), took a look at the local seal colony and found a place to camp up for the night.

The next day we followed the coast road south in the persistant rain, our clothes and van a little damp by now. The guidebook described the road as 'one of the world's top roadtrips' but unfortunately due to the rain and cloud and mist we couldn't see the mountains or the best of the coastline. Apparently that weather is typical for the west coast and it can rain non-stop.

We drove on to the famous Pancake Rocks – rocks which are formed of layers stacked up like pancakes and which form blow holes that the sea rushes into and spurts out of at the top. Along the way Al noticed a small puncture in the tyre, just enough to begin to deflate the wheel slowly. Al dealt with it swiftly, showing off this competence at these things that I have no idea about. He managed to change the tyre and find someone to repair the old tyre for a very reasonable price – bingo, I have a great boyfriend! We had however... encountered another problem.... a rather large chip at the bottom of our windscreen which we watched slowly forming into a crack of about 7cm. At first we debated telling the hire company (maybe they won't notice?!) but it soon became apparent that it would be unavoidable. We took the car to a glass-fitter who said that we would probably have to fit a whole new windscreen :.-( $350 down the drain, we were pretty upset, Al had even seen the stone coming, flying out from the wheels of another car but there was nothing we could do. So our trip wasn't without it's little dramas... the final one which hit us on our last evening of camping, but I'll leave that til later.

On our third day on the west coast it still hadn't stopped raining. It rained constantly (although there was one two hour reprieve one evening which gave us a chance to do some cooking), our clothes were all moist, the floor of our car dirty, and we caught colds. We invented a new way of getting from the driving seats to the back compartment without having to step outside but when you gotta go outside, you gotta go outside... and toilet trips where a bit of a nightmare. We were also worried that our car would get stuck in mud in one of the campsites, a fear very well founded as we drove past numerous houses that were floating in their gardens, completely flooded.

Our aim on the west coast was to get to the Franz Joseph glacier to do a sky-dive, but after three days of rain we decided 'that's it, we need sunshine and a chance to dry our clothes' and we turned tail and fled across the mountains to the east coast sunshine. 'Cowards' you're probably thinking... but we would have persisted had we not actually discovered that we were very short on time now – yes New Zealand turned out to be a lot bigger than we thought it would be, and traversing the high mountains on small winding roads in a bulky campervan took a lot longer than we had anticipated. We were disappointed to have missed some of the main attractions that the south island has to offer, but it gives us a good excuse to visit again!

As soon as we passed the main mountain range dividing west from east the weather improved. The rain stopped, the sky cleared, the temperature soared – we had just entered into an east coast heat wave – some of the hottest weather they've had for a while apparently. And according to the same news report we had just left behind some of the worst rain and flooding that the west coast has seen for a very long time. We were treated to one of the most beautiful roads we have driven on in our travels so far (from Greymouth to Kaikoura) – mountains, fields, rainbows – it was stunning and a welcome change.


We arrived in Kaikoura and set up camp in a small patch of unused land near the sea (it took about half an hour of driving round to find). It is always a bit of a challenge to find somewhere before the sun sets. We cooked up some pasta and slept, ready for our big day of whale watching. We awoke to a glorious day of sunshine and set off to our campsite. After a few days of not showering we decided that we would treat ourselves to a powered campsite with kitchen facilities and hot showers. It was gooood! We went to book the whale tour but found that unfortunately the sea was too rough and the tours canceled for the day. 'No worries' we thought, booked the tour for the next day and took off to spy on the local seal colony. It was fun watching the seals sunbathing and swimming. Al says that seals are his new favourite animal.

We spent the rest of the day strolling along the beach and chilling in the sun.


The next day we woke early and sped off to the whale watching departure point. We hopped in a bus which took us to a boat and boarded (along with about 50 other tourists). We were both very excited as this was something we have always wanted to do. The tour was very good and told us about the whales we would be seeing (sperm whales), about the geology and ecology of the area complete with video displays. The team used a detection devise to discover the whereabouts of the whale and we waited... for a long time... eyes staring out watching for the whale. Apparently the whales dive to the bottom of the sea for around an hour to feed before surfacing for ten minutes or so to fill their lungs. After waiting quite a while we began to worry that the whale had swam off in another direction maybe, bored of being stared at by tourists. We waited in anticipation... and then there was a shout from Al “there it is!” and everyone started gasping as the whale rose above the surface, his nose and head in the air. He was actually quite far away so our boat had to rush, full speed ahead, to catch up with it. We hovered nearby, out on deck watching the magnificent animal. Most of its body was below the surface but we could see the head, the surface of its back and the spout ejecting water. It was beautiful and a moment to remember. Slowly the whale took its last deep breath and dived under the sea again, waving its tail at us as it went.

Kaikoura was our last major stop before the great journey back up north. We returned on the ferry to Wellington and headed up north. We spent the night at a beautiful beach which it took us a while to find, but which had an amazing sunset.

And Al did the washing up - a rare sight...

On our way up to Auckland we decided that we can't leave NZ without seeing a kiwi. As they are nearly impossible to see in the wild (being endangered and nocturnal) we stopped by a bird sanctuary to inspect. The were a lot bigger than we thought they would be but very cute and cuddly looking. We weren't allowed to take pictures but I took a bit of a hazy one without a flash:

We also detoured through a stunning national park to see Mt Ngauruhoe – those Lord of the Rings aficionados among you might recognise this as the famous Mount Doom.
On our last evening of camping we ran into a spot of bother. We were trying to find a place to park at and sleep but we were quite near to Auckland and therefore space for free camping is scarce. We drove off route 1 and deep into the countryside in an area populated mainly by Maori people. We ended up in a remote logging area which wasn't quite what we had envisaged and so Alex made a three point turn on a narrow dug-out road to turn back. As he was preparing to finish the turn the car stalled and stopped... strange as it is an automatic and hasn't stalled once. We couldn't restart the car. Al tried and tried but it wouldn't start. We started to panic, we were blocking off the whole road but luckily there were no cars coming for miles – or was that maybe a bad thing?! We ran round to the back of the car to find that our exhaust had embedded itself in the clay soil piled up on the sides of the road. It was a thick, gooey soil and the exhaust was completely stuck. In desperation Al got a spoon and began digging around the exhaust, but to no avail (unsurprisingly). Just as we were about to give up I saw a trailer speeding our way. Hope!
It stopped next to our car and before we could explain the problem three large Maori men and a dog jumped out, took a chain from the back of their trailer hooked it to the underside of our car and began to pull us out of the sand – all with about three words muttered. We then saw two bicycles whizzing up the hill towards us, the local children had come to watch the evening's entertainment.
The next issue was to expel the soil which had become lodged in the exhaust pipe. We tried with the spoon but it proved just as useless as before – spoons are really not made for this kind of thing. “Jus' press on the accelerator mate!” said one guy. Al pressed hard on the accelerator and the soil shot out from the pipe like a bullet, much to the glee of everyone watching. We were back in action! We chatted to the guys for a bit, they lived round the corner and had seen us in difficulty. Their accents were unlike any we had heard before – almost South African sounding, very peculiar. So they jumped back in their trailer and off they went and we continued on our merry way and found a great place to sleep a few minutes later and we slept very well in the knowledge that we didn't have a thousand pound debt to pay to the car hire company.

The ride into Auckland wasn't entirely straight forward as there was a Christmas parade on and the whole of the centre of town was closed to cars. We eventually found our way to our campervan office and dropped it off. We showed the man our cracked window screen and he called a mechanic for a second point of view. Luckily for us they decided that it could be repaired and so we were only charged $75 (still a bit of a dent to the already diminishing wallet, but not as bad as it could have been). We checked into our backpackers and the lady at reception handed us a key “Room 101” she said... we have just finished reading 1984 together and so this was a little daunting for us,. We headed up the stairs with trepidation and opened the door to Room 101... a smell, a terrible smell of rotting feet hit our nostrils... “hi!” called out one of our new roomies, “welcome to the room that smells of dead goat!” After settling into Room 101 (aka Dead Goat Room) we headed outside to check out the Auckland Christmas Parade.


The main streets were lined with children and parents cheering at the floats and marching bands passed by. At first we thought nothing of it, we cheered with everyone else, then we began to notice that the 'Christmas' parade was nothing more than a carefully planned marketing scheme – and a not too subtle one at that. The main sponsor was Farmers supermarket and their logo was emblazoned everywhere, there were floats with people dressed in Farmers t-shirts waving to the crowd and a float with a giant birthday cake saying 'Happy Birthday Farmers – 75!' There were also adverts for mobile phones, Mcdonald's hats for kids, ads for cars and a huge float for Nickelodeon with a giant Spongebob Squarepants waving at the crowds of children who cheered “Spongebob! Spongebob!” It was quite sickening and we left as soon as we could – very disappointed with Auckland's council for allowing such an unashamedly tacky event to take place. Having said this I did like the bagpipe parade which made me feel 'at home'.

We next made our way to the Sky Tower – tallest building in the southern hemisphere – and took the lift up to the top floor. At 230m above the ground it was an impressive view. We could see the whole of Auckland below us at 360 degrees, complete with glass floor. Al was running around pretending to leap out of the window and jumping on the glass floor, I took more of a backseat, a bit dizzy at the prospect of getting too close to the edge – heights aren't my thing. We had a little coffee in the restaurant, staring at the hundreds of sailing boats out on the bay and departed for our next treat of the day the new James Bond - 'Quantum of Solace'.

New Zealand is an amazing country and we definitely want to return. 2.5 weeks isn't enough to see everything but we crammed in a fair deal. There is a great quality of life here – even the brickies eat in nice cafes and read broadsheet papers: We hope that next time we can catch up on the bits we missed – there will definitely be a next time – we're definitely returning to this awesome country.