Roadtrip!

A few weeks ago, the German efficiency machine that is my fellow internship workmate came across the opportunity to relocate (meaning that the car company needs to move the cars/vans from one city to another so anyone willing to do it doesn't have to pay anything) a campervan from Christchurch to Queenstown.  Giving that convincing me to travel, especially if it is virtually for free, never takes more than 3.5 seconds, soon enough everything was booked and one week later we were hitting the road down south. Let me now take all of those km’s and putting them into words. 

 

the sweet ride!

 

Day 1: Christchurch – Timaru – Oamaru

 

Calling any allocation of people in New Zealand, with the exception of Auckland, Wellington and Chirstchurch, a city it’s an over stretch. There are, at the very most, towns. Ask any New Zealander what you should do in their country and the first thing they will say is ‘skip the towns’. Even the activities proposed by Lonely Planet for the towns themselves were certainly written just to fill what would otherwise be awkwardly blank pages. But I’ll be damn if I leave this country without a list of towns crossed off my to-do list! And so the first day was dedicated to two of the three main ones along the east coast south of Christchurch: Timaru and Oamaru. The third, Dunedin, will be targeted later this month on a weekend trip.

 

Timaru

Timaru

Oamaru

Oamaru

So, the towns. The formula seems to be the same anywhere: there’s an architectural mixture of pretty colonial British buildings with a central commercial street evoking the likes of small American towns. There’s maybe a beach, maybe some penguins and that is that. If you want to avoid death by boredom in a New Zealand town you need to a) go into the wild by yourself, b) pay a lot to enter the wild (tours, boat trips, skydiving, even hiking). But then again, it’s the country of Lord of the Rings, not the Matrix so it’s a known (and appreciated) fact that Nature rules over humans here. 

 

Sensitive Dunes in Timaru

Peguins have feelings too in Oamaru

 

In the evening, we drove to the free campsite located in Kakanui, a tiny town by the sea, south of Oamaru. It was a very pleasant small camping spot on a cliff of a beautiful beach, which made for an amazing waking-up in morning experience made of bright warm sun, the sound of waves and surfers hitting the water in the early hours of the day. One of those surfers was a Belgium young guy travelling by himself who played the guitar in our van the night before while it was pitch black and ruthlessly cold outside.  

 

Neighbours

 

Morning View

 Day 2: Danseys Pass – Omarama – Lindis Pass

 

The day looked promising with such a good start and, indeed, it was. With no “big” towns on the schedule, the plan was to drive through valleys and mountains and stop wherever Nature offered something cool to see or do. As a movie addict, the best way to describe this day for me is: something straight out of Hollywood blockbusters set in mystical lands. Morning session: The Chronicles of Narnia. As we drove into mainland near Duntroon, a sign pointing to a secondary road caught our attention – The Elephant Rocks. 

 

As we turned to check it out, I opened Lonely Planet to see if there was any mention of it and there was! The rocks, resembling elephants and lost in the middle of nowhere with just a sign indicating the way to find them, were feature in the Narnia movies. My travel partner couldn’t care less about this fact but I felt myself having a little geeky orgasm for being there. After leaving the Rocks, we stopped at Danseys Pass, by a river running through two mountains, where the weekend hobby for local men is to find gold (and they do!).

 

Narnia to the right

The Elephant Rocks

Danseys Pass

Part-Time Gold Digger

 

Next stop on the road was Kurow, a little town (population: 300) which made for the second movie location of the day: it seems like it was a recently built movie set of a tiny town of the American Midwest. Following Kurow, we headed to the water along the Waitaki River, Lake Waitaki, Lake Aviemore and Lake Benmore. The most incredible thing was seeing up-close the incredible Waitaki Hydro Dam. Oh, and just FYI, I was prohibited to publicly say that we stopped for a hike in one of the mountains next to the dam (“it is a WALK so don’t go say on your blog this is a HIKE”)  but as any step I take into nature seems very radical to me, I’ll call it just that, a hike. 

 

Kurow - just like a movie set

Waitaki Dam

Lake Waitaki

Walking Hiking!

 

Through the mentioned lakes and rivers, we finally arrived in Omarama (population: 230) where we were supposed to spend the night. However, after discovering that the free camping spot we were planning to stay in was beyond horrific, we only stayed there long enough to take a very cold bath in the near river (shampoo included) and to leave for the second option of free accommodation in Nature. With this decision we manage to change the plans of two german and two dutch girls who also didn’t want to stay in the place that Gandalf obviously destroyed in anger. 

 

 (sorry, no picture of me taking a shower will ever be available for public display)

Finding the second camping spot was, by itself, a whole adventure that led us to the third movie session of the day: Jurassic Park meets Lord of the Rings. While driving through cinematographic mountains, my mind kept wondering if I would be lucky enough to see Frodo being chased by a T-Rex. When we finally found the camping site, it was completely worth the time and fuel we spent on the search – a beautiful green grass place in a valley, surrounded by tall trees in the mist of the ruins of a hotel built during the gold rush era of the XIX century to serve miners, abandoned for many decades now. To end the journey, the theme of the day was kept and while the night fall outside, three germans and me set inside our campervan watching The Little Shop of Horrors (which reassured my deep hatred towards musicals and the whole 80's decade). 

 

Where's Frodo?

Finding the camping site

Lindis Pass Hotel at the Nine Mile Historic Reserve

 

 Day 3: Wanaka – Queenstown 

 

Day three was occupied with the main resort towns on the south island – Wanaka and Queenstown. We were welcomed by a sunny day in Wanaka, a town located at the southern end of a Lake with the same name. For most people that come here, New Zealand is about hiking and exploring nature to the fullest but, for me, the simple act of taking a swim in a lake of crystal clear water with mountain tops full of snow in the horizon is enough to have one of those moments that remind me why I came. To reach our finally destination, we drove by the breathtaking scenic Cardrona Valley Road, with those views where postcard pictures are born.  

Lake Wanaka

Cardrona Valley Road

And now a question to the audience: what’s the most stylish way to arrive in Queenstown? Walk the 10 km between the airport and the city center, of course. After dropping off the van at the airport we decided that the best use of our money would be to spend it in a well-deserved cappuccino and muffin and afterwards walk the trail by the river between Frankton and Queenstown. A decision not regretted. After slightly losing our sense of direction of how to get to town, we accidentally bumped into a jaw dropping view from the shore of Lake Wakatipu and we were lost no more. 

 

4km done, 6km to go!

 

First sight of Queenstown

 

After letting our eyes contemplate the views and our legs enjoy their accomplishment, we headed to the Hostel (chain hostel but very nice and very central: Base Queenstown), followed by watching the sunset at the beach (it's utter romantic if you do it with your better half, it's awesome if you do it with friends so win-win anyway), while holding what might just be the best burger I ever had – Fergburguer. After our cholesterol was fully satisfied, we 'hit the night scene' (whatever can be hit on a sunday night) in a very cool bar with good music just in time to catch the Australia Open final match (sorry Nadal). 

 

View from the Hostel room window

In the evening

 

Day 4: Queenstown – Lake Tekapo – Christchurch 

 

There’s not much to this day besides reporting that we caught a bus at 8 a.m. in Queenstown, stopped for lunch at Lake Tekapo and arrived back in Christchurch in late afternoon. Just a note of advise for those planning to travel with NakedBus – you can get very good deals with them (trips for 10$ or even 1$ and normal prices around 35$) but the buses are old with no suspension (prepare yourself to feel every bump in the road for 8 hours).

 

(Damn, it was more exhausting to write this post than the trip itself!)