New Zealand - South Island 18th - 29th February

We have arrived in New Zealand! After a 3 hour flight and very scenic approach to Christchurch Airport we headed to the rent a campervan site to pick up our beast for the next 3 weeks! We decided, very last minute, that flexibility was what we needed on this trip, and booking accommodation and trying to get to it on time was not going to be an option!

 The West Coast of New Zealand

Over the Southern Alps

 Coming into land at Christchurch on the East Coast

The Beast!

Our first visit was to Christchurch city center to witness the damage caused by the earthquake exactly a year ago today, 22nd February, the whole center was sealed off, known as the red zone. All the condemned buildings still standing and left as they were a year ago. Slowly buildings are being demolished but there is still a long way to go. The above picture is the writing that was on all the windows showing they had been cleared. Only recently have the cups and plates on restaurant tables been cleared away but all the offices are exactly as they were a year ago, no one is allowed in. There are still mini earthquakes happening all the time, two when we were there but only 2 on the rictor scale to which locals do not even raise an eyebrow and you cannot feel it at all. 

Due to the center being inaccessible the new container shopping center has recently been opened....it looks great! We purchased some bits and pieces and one shop owner thanked us for shopping in Christchurch as they are all feeling the pinch.

Many shops like this pharmacy are closed with all the stock still sitting on the shelves.....

One of the many deserted buildings, 4th row of windows up 3rd in you can see 'HELP' written by a stranded person on the day

Loose tiles dislodged by the lift and drop of the quake

The landslide....very lucky home owners but all condemned to be destroyed in time

Whole areas of the town are condemned with every house eventually being destroyed and not to be re built, this one has sunk into the ground due to liquefaction. There are some determined residents still living in their homes but soon the electricity and water will be turned off and they will have to move before the whole area is demolished. Interestingly we visited a Kiwi family who have lived here for generations and they showed us a painting of Christchurch before it was built on...the whole area was once a marshland!

First stop in New Zealand was to visit Merrilies Rebbeck. She and her late husband Peter were very good friends of Mike (Fi's Step Dad). Most of the James Duff siblings have enjoyed the incredible Rebbeck hospitality over the years and this was no exception. The last time we were here, daughter Lizzie was just pregnant with her first child - it was great to see them again - now with three children and a very good evening was had by all, in the beautiful outdooor dining area in the garden built by Peter (under Merrilies' instruction) for his own 60th birthday celebration. Merrilies roasted pork from one of her own pigs - DELICIOUS! The Camerons girls got on like a house on fire with the Dyer (Lizzie's children) clan - it was great for them to have some different playmates for a few hours.  

Saying goodbye to Merriliess before our New Zealand trip kicked off....

Banks Peninsula south of Christchurch, a very old volcano, this is the crater

Our first night was spent here by this lake very near the wonderful town of Akaroa, we went to one of the top ten campsites for our first experience and made a sharp exit due to it being packed with parking slots of caravans side by side....! Not the sort of thing we were expecting at all and hope it is not the case throughout our trip!

Our view from the beast.

We booked a trip out to swim with the very rare breed of 'Hector' Dolphins.....putting on thick wet-suits in the temperature outside was HOT but we hoped it would be worth it to see and swim with the dolphins

Larva rocks....no dolphins...?

Fi up front spotting for the dolphins but sadly for the 1st time, apparently, this season we did not see a single one..........great shame. The chat was that they must have been scared off by a killer whale or the water was too clear, they like murky water for safety.

Very quick visit to the Peacocks sadly.....  Rosa looked after the Forsyth children many years ago and has stayed in close touch with John and Dee ever since. Her funniest story was taking the young Angus down to the river and teaching him how to skim stones - only to be roared at by John who explained how much money the fisherman slightly downstream were paying to be there!!!!

Their lovely house which has been in the same family since the 1800's

On our way to Invercargill....had to take a detour due to flooding......summer??? 

Reminded us of home....the hills from Dunkeld to Milton

Great to see Kelly again....with her family and one on the way...since been born a wee boy! Kelly came and helped us when Grace was 10 weeks old. She also laid a large portion of the lawn at Milton!

Heading to Lake Tepako - terrible weather pouring with rain...aghhhh Did remind us of home though!!

Lake Tepako looking towards Mt Cook...seriously hope tomorrow's weather is better!

Girls catching up.....

Church of the Good Shepherd - Lake Tekapo

 Lake Pukaki - the blue was fantastic! This is were we took the photo of Mount Cook at sunset which we have blown up at Milton - sadly, no sign of the mountain this time.

Mt Cook is hidden in the low clouds off to the left....

Typical landscape shot on our way to 'Clyde'

Lake Mt Cook hidden by clouds to the left....

In the Beast! Everyone settled in to 'camper living' very quickly. I think that being on a boat had been very good training. The only sticky times came when everyone was trying to get ready for bed at the same time - ditto, doing the washing up etc. It is a fantastic bit of kit and the girls were able ((perhaps not legally), to go 'upstairs' in the afternoons if we had a long drive. They could hook the net up and lie on the bed reading or listening to music, or just lie giggling and joking with each other. They really have been getting on so well; it is absolutely lovely.

Woof - This chap thought we were barking overtaking him in the van and taking a photo!!!

Typical drivers view 

Scenery on our route up from Invercargill. What is so fantastic about the van is that when we feel like it, we can just stop, enjoy the view, go for a walk and then have a cup of tea, or a drink or lunch or whatever - am  I sounding like a committed camper van spotter now!!

View from Queenstown. This is the most fabulous spot, but is very very commercial now - very cleverly, then have added all the adventure sports to their already active ski season. This means that they now pretty much have a year round resort going on. Not really our cup of tea to hang around for too long though, so we headed to one of the DOC (Department of Conservation) campsites. There are several of these on each island and they typically have a couple of long drop loos and a water supply and not much else which suits us perfectly. Below is Moke lake where we spent our Queenstown night in very close proximity to Holly Hunter and the girl who plays 'Peggy'? in Madmen, as they were filming a thriller called 'Top of the Lake' nearby.

The road to Lake Moke

Lake Moke - just outside the rush of Queenstown

 Still getting along brilliantly!

 Lake Moke dins - unfortunately, this turned out to be one of only a handful of evenings that we could eat outside  because of the rain! It really felt very special that night, even though Charlie did not like his supper..... As a result, the girls teased him furiously and set him up a table on his own - very funny! That is something which really seems to have been changing on this trip - they tease us both (particularly Charlie) and do not just see teasing a something which we do to them anymore.

Mmmmm a mans dream whilst travelling with 4 ladies....!!!

Bye bye Moke

On our way to Wanaka from Queenstown...a fabulous drive! This drive was amazing - we did it with Nic Nac in 1999, but the road was not sealed then.

Lake Wanaka - swim!

Can't go to New Zealand without a Jet boat trip - fantastic, need to be slightly mad as driving at 80 Kilometers up a narrow river tests ones brain! Lots of screaming and squealing all round.

Lake Wanaka

Rapids in a boat the wrong way - why not???

Gives you an idea...????? Look how close we got right hand edge of image!

Donuts - boat equivalent....!

On the road....truly stunning all the way 

An explorer by the name of Mr Charles Cameron in 18 fruitcake was the first European to cross from East to West over the Alps so in his honour this creek was named after him and also a wee village!!

Rain Forest West coast

Waterfall Hasst Pass - remember this Nicola? Thunder falls - dont think this is the Haast Pass Charlie - but will check!

We have arrived on the West Coast

Fox Glacier in all its glory!

Fox Glacier - awesome site....sadly the weather was not great! We flipped a coin that afternoon to decide whether or not to do a flight that afternoon when it was a bit cloudy, or to do a Heli Hike the following day on Franz Josef Glacier. The Heli Hike won and we were all very excited about it. They were slightly concerned that our 7 year old who they had not seen at this point, would be able to weigh the crampons down enough to walk on the ice. Clara chipped in quite cheerfully - 'oh don't worry - she is WELL built'!

Fox .... which is apparently advancing again now, having spent years going backwards - sometimes as much as 5 metres forward per day.

We parked the van at Lake Matheson that night and thought of our own friends the Mathiesons who live up the road from us at home. They had what was described as a cafe there; it was in fact, an extremely good restaurant - in fact as I write this, I cannot think of one bad meal that we had in New Zealand. I gave the girls some pasta salad and ham and then putting some lipstick and proper jeans on for the first time in weeks, Charlie and I went out for dinner! The girls played on the lawn outside and then wrote their journals and got ready for bed, by which time, Charlie and I had eaten a completely delicious supper. A perfect evening!

The following morning we dragged three sleepy girls out of bed and in to their trainers to walk around Lake Matheson. Apparently dawn is the best time to see a perfect reflection of Mount Cook and the Tasman Glacier in the lake. Sadly, Mount Cook continued her determined quest to stay hidden from us on this trip and so we just had a lovely dawn walk instead. Back to the camper with not a minute to spare and we raced off to Franz Josef with me making Peanut butter sandwiches in the back of the van. On arrival at Franz Josef, we were told, what we had already begun to suspect, that our heli hike was cancelled due to cloud - what shame.............

As an alternative, the girls and I went to the Wildlife centre in Franz Josef to see the rarest of the already rare Kiwis - the Rowi. It was an absolutely brilliantly done exhibition, with short films explaining their work etc. Basically the stoat and the possum (but mainly the stoat which was brought in to control rabbits) were close to wiping them out completely. The Rowi was so rare, that it did not even make it on to the endangered list as it did not count as being a species. What they do now is to take eggs from Kiwi nests and incubate them in the centre, finally releasing the bird back in to the wild when it is around 4 years old, by which time it is strong enough to take on the stoats itself. We saw three Kiwis in their dark enclosures which was pretty amazing. The lady told me that a new employee had seen the lights on when she left work one day and unthinkingly turned them off, not realising that this was meant to be the Kiwi's day time (in order for us groccles to see them during our day time). When they got in the next day, the kiwis were absolutely exhausted by mid morning because they had been up all night!

From the Glaciers, we headed up the West Coast in to Gold country. The largest New Zealand nugget was found in Ross weighing an amazing 2kgs - makes the cochil burn ounce look pretty paltry!

They are still mining here.

Girls getting back into their Ballet!

Limestone..taken from our beach beside the amazing pancake rocks - need a photo of them....

Wonderful spot on our own beach.....no other Cassa's to be seen on the West Coast but soon we understood why when we were swarmed by the retched sand fly....what a brute. Puts Midgies to shame!

Swimming on the West Coast just above Pancake Rocks.....

From Pancake Rocks, we headed for Marlborough, where we worked in 1999. We caught up with Dave who Charlie worked with at Whitehaven and then went to see Mands Gibbs who we met also in 1999 through Cath Dick. Sadly, Blair wasn't there, but it was fantastic to catch up with Mands and two of their children and hear about all they have done with Spy Valley wine in the last few years since we last saw them in 2003.

In the gardens of Timara Lodge with Mands - Marlborough

Marlborough hills behind Blair and Mands house

Moving in to completely different terrain going from West to East Coast

CC overlooking the vineyards of Marlborough

AC

GC

Kiwi's ....

Spy Valley Vines - Marlbourgh

Spy Valley Vinyard and Winery run by friends of ours Blair and Mands - taken from their lovely house

Swim with a view..

Amy's pet lamb!

Leaving South Island just in time before monster storm....as I write all ferries and flights have been cancelled and we are stuck with flooding which will hopefully clear tomorrow...

Our South Island route