Round Island Trip In South New Zealand
18 glorious days, breath-catching natural landscape, river waters so clear and clean you can drink direct from it, extreme sports, vineyards, and hanging out with the people I love most. Regrettably, the recent earthquake has damaged much of the beauty and access to Kaikoura, which was part of the original route.
The itinerary for those who are good at Geography and navigating: Christchurch – Hanmer Springs – Blenheim – Picton – Nelson- Moteuka – Abel Tasman – Punakaiki – Hokitika – Franz Josef and Fox Glaciers – Wanaka – Queenstown – Te Anau – Dunedin – Oamaru – Mt Cook – Akaroa – Christchurch.
Whilst New Zealand is 384 times bigger than Singapore, our population is almost 6 million compared to New Zealand’s 4 million; of which 3 million live in the smaller overpopulated North ( A staggering 1 million in Auckland ) , while the other 1 million occupy the entire South, which is bigger and sparser. Yes, there are sheep and cows grazing everywhere in the sprawling terrain.
Blenheim
This area spans a belt of multiple vineyards dotting the entire stretch, dominated by the renowned Cloudy Bay. We decided on a family-owned lesser cousin, Allan Scott, which has a restaurant on site, where the price tag for a tipple is half that of Cloudy Bay, and the same pretty much applies for most other wines too. The vineyards with restaurants comes with free -wine tasting if you eat there and buy their bottles to drink with your meal. Otherwise it is about $10 for a sampling. This being our first stop, we got a little excited and bought quite a few bottles. That enthusiasm got dampened when a trip to the supermart came with the realisation that they cost even less there when there’s a sale. Thereafter, that’s where we’ll head when supplies got low.
Picton
About 25 minutes drive from Blenheim is the pretty seaside town of Piction, which is a good stop for souvenirs and kiwi memorabilia. It also has a thriving pub scene. One hour is about all you need to soak in the sights and sounds of this area with a population of 3,000
Pelorus Bridge Reserve
Halfway between Blenheim and Nelson is a swing bridge that crosses the Pelorus River – a stopover not to be missed. Depending on your level of fitness and sanity, the walks can range from 5 min to 4 hours. We went for the obvious. After a long drive, you are a captive diner at the Pelorus Bridge, with little else in sight. Thankfully, the food was more than decent.
Abel Tasman Canyoning
Nelson was a convenient gateway to our first rather extreme sports in NZ – canyoning. The dictionary definition reads as “the sport of jumping into a fast-flowing mountain stream and allowing oneself to be carried downstream at high speed.” Essentially, you trek, get into wet-suits to slide down waterfalls, make your way gingerly across slippery boulders and rocks, abseil, zipline, climb, crawl…to get out of the canyon. The things I do to bond with teenage off-spring. With a lot of huffing and puffing ( and some swearing in between ) I made it across in one piece, but just barely. Towards the last lap, I was about to collapse like a sack of potatoes when our young, gallant and rather good-looking canyon instructor spontaneously swept me off my feet and carried me across the finishing line. He was totally embarrassed and blushed when this aunty gave him a grateful peck on the cheek.
Nelson
Nelson has a rather youthful and energetic vibe about it. It is compact, lively and compatible with city folks. It marked our foray into thrift shop rummaging when we had to get cheap and hardy shoes for that canyon experience. There is a quaint historic precinct on South Street, where houses built in the 1800s for local trademen were tenderly restored and preserved. Restaurants dotted the main street and we checked ourselves into one that called itself ” Cod & Lobster Brasserie” with none of those on the menu. That aside, the plates were above average.In NZ, expect to pay about $3.50 for soft drinks, $4.50 for coffee, $8-10 for a glass of wine, $20 -$25 for appetizers, $25-$35 for mains, and $15-$20 for dessert, plus twice your average grocery bill. Drink as much wine while you can.
Cape Foulwind
Took this route, determined to spot some seals, after being sealed off from Kaikoura, where the main seal colonies are. Success, mission accomplished. Managed to locate the seals frolicking in their natural habitat some way off after a short, pleasant walk to the look-out point. Stumbled onto The Bay House Cafe at Tauranga Bay nearby, which turned out to be one of Lonely Planet and Trip Advisors picks. The reviews did not disappoint and the cafe delivered.
Punakaiki
This is the home of the ancient “pancake rocks” that looks like the Japanese version of mille feuille pastry and blowholes where water shoots out through the rocks. We did not see anything that spectacular though because it only happens at high tide. One very enterprising cafe offered pancakes on its menu, of course,, and yes, we fell for it…
Hokitika
Access to its enigmatic beach is just next to the town centre. Step off the curb onto the sandy shore and you find yourself surrounded by black sand, smooth pebbles of all shapes, and driftwood galore strewn carelessly all around. It felt surreal, very “unbeachlike ” but hauntingly beautiful in essence. Another attraction here was the Glow Worm Dell just off the highway at the entrance to the town. There is FREE public access to this short stretch of road for about 100 m which leads to a dead-end. Go at nightfall, armed with a small touch to guide you along in pitch darkness, to be awed by a myriad of tiny twinkling lights as you cast your gaze upwards. I have been to a glow worm tour in North Island but this one is magical in its simplicity, untouched by the tentacles of commercialization. The life of these little creatures is rather sad – they hatch from eggs within days, stay as a larvae, flashing their lights, for nine months, transform into a pupae for another couple of days, then become an adult that dies a horrible death by starvation because they have no mouths!
Glacier Valley Walk – Fox and Franz Josef Glaciers
It is a decent 30 – 45 minute walk to the public glacier viewing point, if you can call it a glacier. At least, that’s what it used to be a long time ago. What is get is a trek through a rocky and sometimes undulating walkway with no-stopping signs scattered all over in case you need reminders. Skip this and go straight to Mt Cook.
Do remember to book early for accommodation as demand is higher than supply. We ended up at a Holiday Park where the toilet and bath facilities are shared and it’s the luck of the draw how far your room is. If you want to use the kitchen facilities, you pay to rent the equipment. I was happy to up and go early the next day.
Haast Pass to Wanaka
This was a long drive with lovely scenic views along the way. We stopped at Fantail Falls, a 5 minute walk from the road; and skipped the much touted Blue Pools which warranted a 30 minute walk. Regrettably, it turned out to be magnificent but we were outvoted 4-0 to remain in the car. ” Welcome to Wanaka”s Wonderful World of Weirdness” – the tagline to Puzzling World reads. Walk into rooms that wrecks havoc on your sense of perception and rationality, invented by someone bizarrely eccentric. Combine that with a challenge to work your way out of the outdoor maze, with varying difficulty levels. It was way more tricky than it appeared. The leader of my group opted for the most difficult, but struggled with the elementary. It took the quiet resolve of a young man on the thresh-hold of adulthood to show up his Dad and walk his way out of the maze while the rest of us remained stuck.
Queenstown
This was the high point of our trip, literally. We arrived on Christmas Eve and checked into a cosy holiday home by the lake, about 30 min away from Queenstown. This stay would have been a perfect 10 if it had wi-fi and provided basic necessities like bed linens and towels. That said, everything else we ever wanted was provided. There would have been an additional charge and we politely declined. Instead we brought our own which has seen better days, and gave appropriate feedback. Our Christmas Eve and Christmas dinners were simple home-cooked fare put together with whatever we can find in the supermarket that is easy and convenient. We ended up eating a lot of pasta on this trip.
Extreme sports prevailed in this stretch of our journey. The girls retained their sanity while the boys decided to go sky-diving. I don’t know what was worse – waiting for that momentous safe landing and chewing out my nails in between, or jumping along with them. It was a memorable night, with the boys celebrating their jump on waves of euphoria. Watching father and son on a soft landing and catching hat ever so imperceptible side-long glance at each other – it was a precious moment, deeply cherished.
Some shops stayed open on Christmas Day. These were the more enterprising ones, mainly owned by Asians. We shopped, bought more de riguer souvenirs, soaked in the sights of locals lounging at the waterfront, played a delightful game of disc golf where you throw a frisbee on a round of 18 holes to land in a special net ( free, but you have to rent the frisbees ) We thought we were being clever by buying our own cheap frisbee sold by a Chinese lady, but it turns out there are frisbees that are meant for little ones and the serious ones for gamers. Ours went everywhere except for where they were supposed to go. Wished there were facilities like these in our parks and gardens for wholesome family fun!
We had another shot of adrenaline high collectively on Boxing Day riding the Shotover Jet over a different canyon. This is a bumpy ride across narrow stretches of canyon, with the driver testing your endurance by sporadically doing 360 degree spins in tight places.
A must-try in Queenstown is the iconic Fergburger on Shotover Street. Join the long, sprawling tourist queue to sink your teeth into one of these. We queued for about 45 minutes, while the Pokemon enthusiast in the party went hunting and gathering. He is so thrilled to have caught the Kangaskhan during our layovers in Sydney and Brisbane, a site-specific species that does not appear in our part of the world.
Te Anau
The long drive from Queentown to Te Anau took us across rolling hills and beautiful blue lakes. There is another commercially run glow-worm tour in this area but now that we have seen them, we stayed warm in our motel room, playing cards instead. It is nice to do something together instead of individually hunching over a small device, with overworked fingers.
Dunedin
Dunedin is a beautiful city, with strong British influence. We spent half a day on the street art trail, tracking down the 25 odd painted walls in and around the town centre. Others who failed to make it to the hall of fame get to be labelled as graffiti but they were some of the best I’ve ever seen. A college friend whom I’ve not met since leaving school invited us over for dinner. She sent her children to NZ for studies, worked here, and eventually decided to settle here for a better quality of life. She grows her own fruits and veggies; and gets to pick cockles and oysters at the beach for free. Our B & B host related to us that he moved from Auckland to Dunedin because Auckland was getting too crowded but not many choose to stay in Dunedin because there are no jobs for the people.
Moeraki – Oamaru – Mt Cook
This was our longest drive of some 300 km but by far, the most enjoyable. First stop enroute is the Moeraki Boulders . These are mysteriously large stones, spherical in shape, across Koekohe Beach. There was one particular rock with a depression in the centre, looking like a huge crater. We collected seashells on the seashore. ( Nope, these are not for sale! ) After driving for another half hour, we stopped at the quaint city of Oamaru, which is home to little blue and yellow-eyed penguins. But they only come out at night and we couldn’t wait. What we could do was to browse at the shops set up at the refurbished warehouses of old for a touch of antiquity and quirky.
The next stretch to Mt Cook was another 2 hour and 30 min long. During these long drives, I struggled to stay awake as the front seat passenger calls for certain obligations to the driver to keep him alert. This requires regular feeding of sweets, chocolates, nuts, crisps, and whatever else that is edible. We brought along a bluetooth with downloaded audio books to keep sleepiness at bay and most of the time, it works.
There were two other stops of a rather mystic nature forming part of the Vanished World Trail. At Duntroon, there were rock formations bearing ancient maori drawings and symbols. The more adventurous can even navigate a trail in search of prehistoric presence. We are not part of this group. Further afield, we took a detour to a gravel track ( on wheels, of course ) which led us to the clay cliffs, which as the name suggests, look as if they were molded from clay. Some enterprising person bought over the road that leads to these cliffs, and now earns a tidy sum by charging a fee for access.
Soon after, the splendor of the snow-capped Mt Cook beckons at every bend and turn until we reached our motel – the motel at Mt Cook. A hybrid between a hostel and motel, it has a warm and buzzing atmosphere, and yes, built in bathroom facilities. Eateries here are basic but adequate. On a clear night, you can see a very starry sky. We played cards at the communal living room and retired early to bed, tired after all that time on the road.
The next day, we did a short trek on the Tasman Trail to be rewarded by a breathtaking view of the glacier at the end of a gentle peak.
Christchurch – Akaroa
Another home-cooked dinner and we heralded in the new year of 2017. Much of the damage caused by two earlier earthquakes is still taking a toll on this city. While the Cardboard Cathedral bears testimony to the resilience of the people, and the arts scene is vibrant, lurking in the shadows is still that sense of uncertainty, tentativeness, an uneasy apprehension of when the next one is going to hit. We headed to the Akaroa Peninsula and found ourselves wondering if we landed in France. Historically, Akaroa was the only French settlement in NZ and it has retained its charm and character.
Home
This is one trip where I pause and reflect on other things besides food, sight-seeing and shopping. For one, I am happy to be home, surrounded by creature comforts and in familiar territory. I return with a truly thankful heart. During the Abel Tasman Canyoning, I would not have made it had it not been for my dependable other holding on to me and helping me brave slippery rocks and boulders to complete the course. ( the last bit was a bonus )
How often in life itself do we need that helping hand in difficult circumstances, or to flip the coin around, can we be that helping hand to a certain someone?
There were morbid thoughts of sorts running through my head apart from abusing my nails during the nerve-wrecking wait for the skydive to be over. It struck like a bolt of lightning how important these people I call family are to me.
And finally, I am thankful for this place I call home. For all the travelling and restlessness, this will be where I return to.
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