New Zealand 1 - Christchurch to Queenstown

Christchurch

15^th - 17^th May 2012

Suddenly, we are in what feels and looks like an English autumn. Vivid colours of falling leaves contrast with the green grass. Sparrows and blackbirds dash around and all the names are familiar; for instance, this city sits in the Canterbury region.

It is also much colder than Sydney as we found when we went out for a walk soon after arrival and straight into a biting wind that bowled us down the long, flat and straight roads to the nearest supermarket to buy hats, gloves and a hot water bottle for Celia!

Detail of the Day: You feel a much stronger connection with the British Isles immediately here because you can get an excellent, and most importantly, a very hot, cup, or pot, of tea. This may not seem important to some, but to Celia this is absolute joy. She was raised by a mother who cared deeply about a good cup of tea and she passed this essential required standard on to her daughters. The New Zealanders understand. More than this cannot be explained.

The centre of Christchurch is a sad and sorry scene. The devastation from the 2010 earthquake is only very slowly being cleared, partly because there is so much of it and because after shocks are frequent and severe, thus hampering rebuilding work.

Not Graffitti

It's a complicated situation as the town is built on reclaimed swamp land and is very unstable, made worse by the quake, but even before the earthquake happened, out of town shopping malls were killing off the town centre and it was already becoming more of a tourist destination than a place for locals to shop. 

Many people don't want to work there any more because of the danger or because it holds too many bad memories. On top of this, the authorities are undecided what to do about the centre and the insurance companies are slow to make decisions about rebuilding because the aftershocks keep happening.

What strikes you first about the atmosphere in Christchurch is a quiet stoicism, coupled with a total lack of self pity about what has happened. New Zealanders just get on with it and that is no easy task. There is just a slight tinge of sadness when people tell us of their experiences.

Loads of people are still living with friends or family, or in temporary accommodation. Some are living in their damaged homes but can't get them repaired until the shocks stop and the insurance companies give the go-ahead. Also sewage and drainage is still under repair in some areas.

Shops and businesses have moved elsewhere except for a handful who have set up in shipping containers that gives a small heartbeat back to the centre. The only place you can really visit is the beautiful Botanic Gardens.

Carrying on with the “I think I'm in Britain” theme we walked through the gardens and along the River Avon and watched people being punted along by men in straw boaters past ducks and an old-fashioned boat house selling Devon Teas.

Christchurch to Geraldine

Friday 18^th May 2012

The start of our next road trip! We hired another Jucy van and this one is large enough to stand up in and walk around. It has a little kitchen area, sink, double burner and cupboards for everything, plus comfortable seating, but the reason we took this rather than the smaller version is that it has electric hook-up and we're going to need this for heating at night.

We set off south across the Canterbury Plain to the town of Geraldine, famous for it's fruit growing and making preserves. It's cold but sunny and it's pretty country. We start to see hills and then mountains with snow on the caps. 

Geraldine is small and quiet but it has character and very good fish and chips, and these, washed down with an excellent bottle of NZ wine, a fiercely contested game of scrabble, the heater running and music playing, made for a perfect first evening. We snuggled under our covers into the arms of Morpheus.

Geraldine to Lake Tekapo

Saturday 19^th May 2012

Woke early to a beautiful morning, clear and sunny . . . and to find frost on the inside of the windows, apparently is was -2C in the night. Got the heater going and cooked ourselves a great breakfast in our van, which we have fallen in love with already. We have eggs and toast, yes toast! This vehicle is a dream. We wished for a tea pot to make van life complete and we spotted that there was a charity garage sale that morning (a jumble sale really, but outside). 

Sure enough there was a metal teapot with a copper bottom, a snip at $2, plus a couple of wine glasses for $1 and 2 egg cups and we were all set. This also indulged John's passion for second hand shops and gave us a chance to start chatting to New Zealanders, who are friendly and have a subtle and dry sense of humour.

From this point on our blog could be full of us saying 'wow!' so we are going to try and avoid that by saying we will do our best to describe what we see accurately without the superlatives. Suffice to say this is a land of jaw-dropping beauty. We drove through a long plain with snow-capped mountains all around and had to constantly stop to take photos.

We arrived at Lake Tekapo camp site in the early afternoon and went straight to the hot springs for a couple of hours, gazing at the woods, mountains and lake. There was a little bit of snow and frost on the path up to the pools but the sky was blue and the air crisp. For $20 each, we could use the three pools; hot, very hot and really, really hot. There is no finer way to spend an afternoon. It was balm to the soul.

There is an observatory here because the sky is so filled with stars and when night came we got all wrapped up and walked down to the lakeside to look at the water and to star-gaze. It was gorgeous, we couldn't see the sky for stars and the Milky Way was a thick band of light.

Lake Tekapo to Twizel and Mount Cook

Sunday 20^th May 2012

The lake looked fantastic in the early morning light with some patches of mist and the low rising sun coming up over it with the mountain back drop and the air as sweet and fresh as you could ever wish for.

Drove through the mountains to Twizel (Not pronounced Twizzle as we had hoped, but with the 'I' as in 'tie' – most disappointing), but good enough for stocking-up on food and fuel and we carried on across the glacier-made plain surrounded by huge snow covered mountains to the Edmund Hillary Centre, where the sun came out for us and we ate lunch gazing at Mount Cook near the statue of the great man who conquered Everest. 

This was where he trained and this is a place where climbers from everywhere come. There is a hotel and training centre and then the road ends and it is just the glorious views. These peaks are also sacred to the Maori people who have many stories and legends about them.

Heading back to Twizel, we took a 17 mile side road to Mount Tasman and the Tasman Glacier. A short hike took us up to look across a lake to the wall of green coloured ice of the receding glacier. 

There were big chunks of it that had broken off and are just lying in the water, quite still, like small icebergs. The reflection of the mountain peaks in this water was breathtaking, until you turned and looked back and then you really had to catch your breath. 

 The vast plain faded away into the distance and huge mountains reared up at the end of the view. For Lord Of The Rings fans, we are told this was where they filmed the final battle of Minas Tirith and the Pellenor Fields.

Detail of the Day: Jucy van drivers always wave to each other here and we have a jolly time smiling and laughing at each other as we pass, because we all know we are on holiday. It is a strange camaraderie but one that has a simple enjoyment.

It was an equally fantastic drive back to the camp site at Twizel where we shared the camp kitchen with two friendly Danes and an equally friendly American. No problem getting a space on a site at this time of year, we didn't book ahead once on this trip.

Twizel to Queenstown

Monday 21^st May 2012

It was clear, starry and cold night, -5C we were told, and the frozen grass crunched pleasingly under our feet next morning. We Skyped James and Katie and we were all intrigued to find that they were watching the sun set as we were watching it rise from the other side of the planet. Also, they were in our yesterday and we were in their tomorrow. Phew!.

There was no heating in the showers or toilets but a shower must be taken regardless, and once you are under the hot water it's fine! We were reminded of the cold bathrooms of our childhood in the 1950s before central heating. We had breakfast with our friends from last night and then we were off.

The stunning trip through the Lindis Pass and valley and across the Dunstan Downs left us speechless – again. We are starting to enter wine country and vineyards are all around.

 They are very switched on to the tourist trade here and we stopped in Tarras for a bowl of warming soup before visiting the Norwood Winery and bought some of their wine – of course – and a rack of their own Merino lamb and some local cheese. They are such enthusiasts about their produce and justly so as it's all delicious.

The gorges you go through have old gold prospectors cabins perched precariously on the edges and the mountains soaring above. You can see the steep old tracks they used to get down to pan for gold in the river in the early part of the twentieth century. There are places where you can have a go yourself and some people still get gold but it is in very small amounts.

More wonderful scenery brought us to Queenstown, an upmarket ski resort, thriving finance and business centre, exquisite lake, mountains all around and a hip and happening scene of snowboarders, music and laid back fun.

Never mind all that, our first port of call is the Salvation Army shop. We need some warm items for us and the van. The first one we go in is down-town and the lady behind the counter informs us that they get such fantastic donations of clothing from the rich of Queenstown that her shop is strictly 'fashion labels' and that their more normal household items and clothes are in a larger outlet on the edge of town. 

 We patronise both establishments with great success – blankets to insulate the van a bit more and warmer clothes for us at very good prices. Plus a sense of virtue for contributing to a good cause.

We camp at a site below the cable car station at the top of the town, looking down on the lake. It's a bit more expensive than out of town but it has heated facilities – oh joy! We cook the rack of lamb with roast potatoes and wine with cheese and biscuits to finish . . . dead posh in our van.

Queenstown

Tuesday 23^rd May 2012

“Look! I can see our van from here!” What is it about seeing something that we are connected to, from a great height, that causes such excitement? Anyway, that's what we do when we see the van from the Skylift gondola as we go up the mountain.

The views up there don't disappoint and John is enticed to go up higher in a chair lift and take a couple of luge trips down – it was a very fast run, fast enough even for John.

We took a walk along the beautiful lakeside in the sunshine and bought a video for the evening. 

Our van has a good DVD player and so we eat dinner, get toasty warm, drink far too much Pinot Noir whilst viewing “The Jane Austen Book Club” and fall asleep – perfect. We know that tomorrow is a long drive down south to Dunedin but the rebel in us took over, or maybe the drink!

Lake Tekapo

Tasman Glacier