Camper Van New Zealand

Lots of people had told us that the best way to see NZ was via camper van (aka motorhome). We thought chilling in Devonport and sailing the Hauraki Gulf were not such bad ways either, but we wanted to see more of the south island and camper van seemed the best way. So we booked a 4 berth motorhome out of Christchurch, and flew down there from Auckland to pick it up. Campervanning is a high-class affair in NZ. The people from Kea picked us up at the airport, served us coffee on a silver platter at the office, gave us tons of helpful information and maps, and showed us around our home on wheels for the next 12 days. I was maybe as nervous taking the helm of that beast as I was of the sailboat - driving a giant motorhome through the cramped parking area, and out onto the wrong (left) side of the street - but I got the hang of it quickly and felt comfortable the rest of trip.

We drove west out of Christchurch and quickly headed up into the mountains, straight into the heart of Rohan and Gondor. We skirted Eisengard and made quickly for the safety of Helms Deep, with Aragon and Legolas serving as forward scouts...

It felt that way anyways, especially when we put Zep 4 on and listened to the Battle of Evermore and the Misty Mountain Hop. The scenery was instantly spectacular: grassy plains dotted with rocky spires, crisscrossed by granite strewn river beds, gushing with turquoise green water, and huge mountains rising up above everything. We stopped for a quick hike and found a limestone cave with a stream that runs for a good 1/2 mile underground. We weren't exactly equipped for that, but we did thoroughly explore the first 10 yards or so. 

We camped at Arthurs Pass that night, beside a river, surrounded by huge mountains. It was cold at night and the wind picked up and blew the motorhome back and forth, but we were snug in our beds. Earlier, before the wind had picked up, we had a visit from a large, greenish parrot-like bird called a Kea, the name sake of our camper van rental company. Keas are extremely intelligent and curious, and this one came right up to us, inspected various socks and things we had laid out, and generally hung around waiting for us to give him food, which we knew better than to do.

Day 2, after a late start, brought us to the beautifully-named Greymouth, on the west coast. We stayed at a holiday park on a beautiful beach. We had to share it with lots of other campers, unlike the night before when we had our riverside spot all to ourselves, and we learned that the benefits of power, playgrounds, and showers are outweighed by the benefits of having a beautiful spot all to yourself. 

Day 3 we drove down the coast to near the Franz Joseph glacier, and before we knew it we were climbing into a small helicopter for an up-close tour of the glaciers. Outside of Antarctica, this is the only place glaciers are found so near to the coast and at such low elevation. It's striking setting out from a lush, tropical, fern-covered area, and minutes later being up in the icy, rocky, barren mountaintops. It was my first helicopter ride, which was cool enough in itself, but flying over the glaciers and yet more LOTR settings was incredible. The glaciers were striated and cracked in places, and the pilot told us that some of the crevasses were 100 meters deep. I won't try to describe them any more - the pictures will do them more justice.

Rather than continue down to Queenstown and the Fiordland we decided to turn around and spend the rest of our time exploring the north part of the south island. We had already seen the fiords from the cruiseship, and we wanted to have some time explore the north, do some kayaking, etc. We stayed at a nice lakeside campground that night, and we headed north. We spent the next night in Westport, again at a beautiful stretch of beach, and after stopping to see the seal colony the next morning, and the pancake rocks, we turned inland to cut across to the north coast. We made it to Old Macdonalds Farm, a nice campground on the edge of the Abel Tasman national park, and we settled in for 3 nights there. Most of the park can only be accessed on foot or via boat. We opted for a little of each: we took a water taxi to one beach, hiked a couple hours across to another beach, and spent the afternoon lounging before getting picked up again by the water taxi. The tide was so extreme that the boat had to be towed out about half a mile by a tractor to reach the water when we left, but when we returned that afternoon the water had come all the way back in, and the boat pulled right up to the dock. The next day we took a beautiful kayak ride with our friendly Kiwi guide Brett (who pronounced his name Brit, and I was not sure all day whether it was actually Brit or Brett until I finally asked). We saw the split apple rock and had gourmet coffee freshly prepared on the beach by Brit, I mean Brett. Later he took the kids spelunking and showed us some creepy giant bugs that live inside the caves. Again we slept well that night.

We set off the next day for Nelson, and after spending a good part of the day taking care of business (taxes!) at an Internet cafe we found a funky little campground in the Maitai valley with a great little swimming hole. Unfortunately we couldn't spend too much time there because of the awful little biting flies (a problem to varying degrees throughout NZ). We moved on the next day to Picton, found a nice campground, and spent the next day on a beautiful hike out to "the snout" of a little peninsula that jutted into the Queen Charlotte Sound. This is within the Marlborough Sounds area, a beautiful corner of NZ known especially for it's wine. The view from our hike was spectacular, with bright green islets and peninsulas everywhere jutting into the turquoise water. The landscape is all thick green tropical vegetation, with millions of deafening crickets. David occupied himself by cricket-spotting, and stopped when he got to 60! 

We headed down the spectacular northeast coast of the south island, with seals everywhere. I kept spotting them for miles from the car and finally pulled over at a random spot on the side of the road, got out, and sure enough there were 15 or 20 of them sprawled on the rocks just 20 or so feet below us. After a while we turned inland and made our way to Hanmer Springs. This was more touristy and developed than we had been expecting, and arriving on the weekend didn't help, but we all enjoyed the water slides at the hot springs park, and mommy and daddy had a nice stinky soak in a sulfery pool while the kids did even more water sliding. We made our way back to Christchurch for the last night, dropped the motorhome off early the next morning (with no new dents!) and caught a flight back to Auckland. 

We picked up our rental car and drove out to the Coromandel Peninsula, and we reached the hot water beach at the perfect low tide time. There is thermal activity under the beach, and at low tide you can dig your own hole (or take over someone else's after they've left - my recommended strategy) and soak in your own hot tub on the beach! The thermal activity is extreme, and in parts the sand is actually too hot to sit on, so you have to get it just right. Next to us was a small hole that someone had obviously started digging but gave up on because it was too hot, and every few minutes someone would walk by and step in it and let out a quick painful "Youch!" before jumping out and moving on.

We stayed at a friendly B&B nearby for our last 2 nights in NZ. The next day we ran some errands and had some lunch, and then found out that Christchurch, where we had been only 24 hours earlier, had been hit by yet another earthquake. They had had a 7.1, I think, about 6 months prior, and luckily no loss of life in that one, though still fairly extensive damage. But this one was quickly proving to be a different story, and as the details emerged we were shocked and saddened by the destruction and loss of life. And at the same time we were grateful that we had left when we did, though I couldn't help but think how LA is overdue for another major quake, and wonder whether we are any better prepared than Christchurch was.

We enjoyed our time in NZ immensely and were sad to leave, though excited to begin the final, European phase of our year of traveling, and especially excited to begin it in Spain!