Coming from London, this is the furthest place I've ever visited so I was super excited, a lovely 13 hours from home!
Day 1-2: Christchurch & Lake Tekapo
I started my tour of the South Island flying in to Christchurch on the NE coast. Writing this blog in Feb 2017, the city still has so much devastation from the big earthquake over the last ten years and the subsequent smaller quakes and aftershocks. I found it difficult to find the ‘centre’ as such, as so much building work is still ongoing there with new earthquake proof buildings being constructed. There are some really quirky nice parts of the city dotted around including lots of ‘pop ups’, some in shipping containers, and also lots of green space, its just sad so much devastation happened here. Further up the coast north of the city in Kaikoura, we had heard the main road to get there had only just re-opened due to the earthquake. We had just left but some wildfires outside the city were also destroying the area….poor Christchurch!
Near the airport is the Antarctic Centre, one of the main hubs for everything Antarctic in the area. It’s a real live base for expeditions there with the huge planes sat outside ready to take people there. The centre itself has a number of cool attractions for people to explore and experience. One of the best is a Hagglund Ride, these are the actual vehicles they use in the harsh ice conditions, kind of a cross between a truck and a tank! They have a track set up in the grounds which you get taken around in one where they show you how it crosses the rough terrain, how it can cling to the side of a hill at a 30 degree angle, how it can climb a steep five story building and how it can cross gaps of up to two metres in the ice! Very cool and very bumpy! Another few of the fun things here are an ‘Arctic Experience’ where you put all the gear on then go in a room and experience -30 with the wind chill, a 4D ride, meet the Huskies, Penguin feeding, a cinema room, and an attempt at seeing how long you can hold your hands in freezing water….I managed only 20 seconds! A good attraction for half the day which does make you realise how harsh this place must be to live or visit.
Driving south a few hours, we came off around the town of Geraldine and headed in land towards Lake Tekapo where the scenery starts to change from normal countryside to hill and large mountains with snow capped peaks, the latter strange considering it was 28 degrees! I have never seen anything like Lake Tekapo before - the whole lake is this bright vibrant blue colour as if someone has poured a thick can of bright blue paint in. The pictures are not filtered, it really is that blue! It must be from all the minerals coming from the glacial mountains. There’s a lovely small church perched on the side of the lake which make for a good photo, esopecially inside looking out.
Day 3: Balclutha & Dunedin
Heading further south it was a stop in the city of Dunedin and the smaller town of Balclutha on the SE coast. Dunedin itself is a nice pretty place and a university city. It also has the worlds steepest street which we checked out. It really is steep! There were several tourists taking pictures when I got there and attempting to drive up and down it which we did. It nearly didn’t make it up but as you can imagine, was super fast coming down! How anyone one could live on that street particularly in winter is beyond me! Balclutha is a nice little town an hours drive south of Dunedin. The main reason for me coming here was to visit friends but there are a few places to go out and explore nearby such as waterfalls and parks.
Day 4: Te Anau
A few hours drive west from Dunedin is Te Anau, the gateway town to Milford and Doubtful Sounds Fiordland National Parks. Te Anau itself is perched around a large lake of the same name drawled by forest and snow capped mountains. We did a 3 hour trek around the lake (there are much longer ones!) to Dock Bay which is about a 10km return from the town. The scenery really is dramatic which is why you can see the Lord of the Rings films were based here. Theres not a huge amount to do in the area but you can hire boats, do watersports or different treks, but as above, people mainly use the town as a base for exploring Milford Sound as there is only one hotel there.
Day 5: Milford Sound
Two hours drive from Te Anau is Milford Sound - it’s one road in and one road out. You need to get there early though as once the car spaces are gone they are gone! For one of the wettest places on Earth, I really was lucky as it was sunny all day long! The ideal is for the day before to be chucking down with rain as this literally creates nearly 10,000 waterfalls flowing off the mountains as you sail below them. Today really was one of the highlights of the South Island for me. The whole place was carved out of the Ice Age and is full of mountains, forests and large peaks rising out of the sounds all the way to the Tasman Sea. I took one of the 2 hour cruises with the company Jucy for around $50. They took us right up to the edge of the Tasman sea and back again. We were lucky enough to see bottlenose dolphins and seals sat on the many rocks (the seals, not the dolphins!). There are two main huge waterfalls, the Bowen and Stirling Falls. The latter we actually went right up to in the boat, so close that everyone who wanted to, could go to the front of the boat to get soaked, of which I did. Great idea at the time and fun but it was freezing cold wth the glacial water!
In the afternoon we booked a Kayaking and Trekking trip with Go Orange. we went up the Arthur River in Milford Sound which was great as it gave another perspective to the area, right up close to the mountains and kayaking down the many inlets off the sounds. We docked at Sandfly Point to start our min trek. I can see why they call it Sandfly Point, the flies are horrendous!! So many and they bite, my legs are still itching 3-4 days afterwards! The trek gave us a taster of the Milford Track which is actually a 4 day trek from Te Anau if you did it all. The landscape was stunning and very picturesque. We even were able to fill our water bottles up from the river at it is pure glacial water. Tasted good!
Day 6-7: Queenstown
After the long 4 hour drive from Milford Sound, we hot Queenstown, the adrenaline capital of the world! So many activities to do, everything from bunny jumping (the home of the bunny!), skydiving, water rafting, canyoning etc. You can get combo tickets to make it cheaper but it’s all pretty expensive in general. Queenstown really surprised me, it’s a beautiful place nestled on a huge lake surrounded by mountains. We started by getting the cable car up to the top of the mountain to do the famous Luge, similar to a toboggan ride but on concrete. These things go pretty fast down the mountains! We did 5 rides for $55. You get a spectacular view on top of the mountain and can watch the bunny jumps and paraglider too taking off.
The afternoon we decided to do a jet boat ride across the lake for an hour. These things are FAST!! They are specially designed that they can go in incredible shallow water near rocks and plants which we found out, go very fast and can spin in the water. I was sat on the edge so inevitably got wet but so much fun!Queenstown is also home to the famous ‘Fergberger’ restaurant. So many people have told me about this place. We passed it around lunchtime and the queue was already out the door and down the street at this time. We went back in the evening and it was the same! However, I still queued up for 50mins and it tasted amazing! It a pretty cool upmarket place.
The next day we headed to the AJ Hackett Bunny site just outside Queenstown which is the home of the bunny, this is where it all started! You can get right up close to the bridge and watch the jumpers jump right off above the river. A great setting and it was quite addictive just watching. Still didn’t sell it to me to do it though myself!
Day 8: Fox Glacier & Franz Josef Glacier
A few hours north of Queenstown are the Fox and Franz Josef Galciers. We first started with a trek around Lake Matheson which has a great viewpoint of Fox. It has a great reflective view of Fox and the mountains at an aptly named spot could ‘Reflection Point’. Next we did the hour return walk to the base of Fox Glacier. You can get a helicopter ride up to the top and do a trek but it’s pretty pricey. The glacier is impressive but it’s receded so much due to climate change. It should be all the way down the valley that we had just trekked up!The Franz Josef glacier is about 20km further north, is bigger and more impressive but again you can only trek to the base and only within 700 metres here due to the dangers of rock falls etc. As with Fox, it should be much further down the valley.
Day 9: Greymouth - Picton
Staying overnight in Greymouth which was a base before the long drive to Picton to catch the ferry to the North Island. There is a lot to do around this town and adventure activities but this was merely a base for me.Currently writing this blog on the Interisland car ferry from Picton to Wellington which is nearly a 3 hour journey and cost $255. The South Island really delivered so I’m really excited to see what the North Island has to offer!
