Author: Oli

After a few quick errands in Queenstown (the biggest city for some distance) we set out towards Haast on the wild west coast.

Our first stop was in Arrowtown, a beautifully restored gold mining town, which was no stranger to tourism. We joined the other day-trippers in taking photos along the town’s main street, which looked like it had been lifted straight out of a western movie. We then plonked ourselves down in the sun with a cone each of Hokey Pokey (vanilla and honeycomb) ice cream. Sara swears this Hokey Pokey was way better than the first time we tried it in Akaroa, although I think it’s just the first time she had a cone to herself.

Arrowtown is also famous for the preservation of its Chinese settlement located just outside the main town. This settlement was home to many gold mining immigrants, who were invited to New Zealand to work in gold mining and hoped to earn their fortune. Many ended up staying even after the gold boom, which was particularly surprising given the discrimination that they experienced, including verbal abuse, racist newspaper articles, and discriminatory government policies. In 2002, the New Zealand government officially apologised to the Chinese community for their treatment.

Back on the main road, we passed the iconic Kawarau Gorge Suspension Bridge, built in 1880 for access to the goldfields. However, after traffic was moved to a new two-way bridge in 1963, it became the world’s first commercial bungee jumping site. We watched one guy throw himself off the bridge before quickly concluding that it was our budget stopping us follow suit, and nothing to do with fear.

That evening, we stayed in the lakefront town of Wānaka. Maybe this says something about the town itself, but one of its top attractions is a tree which appears to be growing straight out of the lake. We enjoyed a cold but sunny morning walk along the lakefront to see what all the fuss was about, and with a typical “huh”, confirmed that the tree does, indeed, exist. The best bit was actually watching other people’s photoshoots in front of the tree – we just couldn’t compete. Instead, we took the obligatory quick selfie, and got back on the road.

As much as we’ve enjoyed taking public transport over the past few months, we’ve also missed the option of stopping on the spur of the moment as we pass a worthy-looking detour. And it was exactly this reason that made us pull over as we approached the Lake Hawea Lookout, which consisted of a single picnic bench with absolutely breathtaking views across the glistening lake. After enjoying our lunch, it felt only right to top it off with yet another Tim Tam Slam.

That night we stayed in the frontier town of Haast, which to be honest was less of a town and more of a gas station, a pub and a holiday park. We’d read mixed reviews about the owners of our holiday park, who appeared to shout at visitors for the most minor faux pas. For this reason, Sara opted to stay in the van, and sent me to the site office to check in. I told Sara that it would be fine and I’d just turn on the charm. She looked extremely doubtful, but I swear, I nearly forced a smile out of the site manager.

Still, the site was only a stone’s throw from Haast beach – our first proper look at the wild west coast. Standing on the stunning but completely empty beach that stretched for miles in both directions, it became clear that we’d left the Queenstown day-trippers well behind, and this was where Great Coast Road really begins.

Having left Stewart Island and bid a fond farewell to Mario, we took a shuttle north to Queenstown, New Zealand’s adventure capital.

Since the start our our trip, Sara had been excited to try out a via ferrata and we’d planned to do this here, but unfortunately it was mysteriously closed for bookings. Our other picks were paragliding or luge (think gravity-powered go-karts), but both relied on Queenstown’s gondola, which was undergoing maintenance during our visit. Not such an adventure capital while we were there! Instead, we used our time in Queenstown as a base for hiking and an opportunity to plan the rest of our time in New Zealand, as well as our upcoming trip across North America.

We were fortunate enough to have sunny and mild weather on our only full day in town, so we decided to take a hike up Te Tapu-nui (also known as Queenstown Hill) to a viewpoint overlooking the city and lake. The hike got off to a strong start when Sara noticed a beautiful cat in the bushes beside the trail, who was shortly joined by three other members of its family. Sadly, they didn’t all stick around long enough to take a photo once they’d seen us approaching. Still, we were delighted with the sighting, even if feral cats are pretty unpopular in NZ.

The route up to the summit involved over 500 m of elevation gain, mostly climbing gradually (and not so gradually) through pine forest. The forest was so dense that at times it felt more like dusk rather than midday on a sunny day.

As we approached the summit, we emerged above the tree line and were greeted with a stunning panoramic view over Queenstown, across Lake Wakatipu and to the mountain range beyond.

It made an excellent spot to enjoy a few of Fergbaker‘s famous pies, or at least two of the three pies that made it that far up the trail. The summit also had an awesome view of Queenstown airport, so we watched a couple of planes take off and land between the mountains.

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Despite appearing on most South Island itineraries, Queenstown isn’t a big city. In fact, with an urban population of just over 15,000 people, it doesn’t even make it into NZ’s top 20 largest cities, but it does occupy an enviable location beside Lake Wakatipu and surrounded by mountains on all sides. Besides adventure tourism, most of the city’s attraction is the lakefront promenade and park where we enjoyed an afternoon stroll to take in the views. That is, until we tried to pick up a coffee and were turned away by every cafe – apparently coffee simply isn’t available in Queenstown after 3pm 😱

Instead, we jumped at the chance to try some Bluff Oysters from Erik’s Fish and Chips van, having heard so much about them on our way to and from Stewart Island. While I’m not normally a huge seafood fan, I think I’d try just about anything if it was battered and fried with a squeeze of lemon on top. I enjoyed it way more than I’d expected – it was salty, meaty and, most of all, extremely fried!

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Leaving Queenstown, we took a ferry across the bay to the suburb of Frankton…

…to the airport, to begin the next leg of our journey. Not on a plane though, but via camper van! We’ve rented a converted Toyota HiAce, featuring a height extension for extra headroom and storage. Apparently it has space to sleep 3-4 people, although this would be quite a squeeze! And while it has a fairly impressive kitchen and fold-down table and bed, it doesn’t have much in the way of a bathroom, so our plan is to make the most of camp sites as we go.

A diesel-powered camper van isn’t exactly nearly neutral, but it does give us the opportunity to explore the wild west coast at our own pace. This has been on our bucket-list for a long time, so we couldn’t travel all the way to New Zealand without giving it ago. #vanlife awaits!

After cycling the 152 km Otago Central Rail Trail, we took a transfer from Middlemarch to the city of Dunedin. We were pretty knackered by this point, and just about managed a takeaway pizza at our apartment before falling asleep.

With only 48 hours in Dunedin, we split our time between a road trip around the Otago Peninsula and a street art tour of downtown Dunedin.

Day 1: Wildlife spotting on the Otago Peninsula

We set off bright and early to pick up a hire car for a one-day mini road trip around the Otago Peninsula.

Our first stop was Tunnel Beach, which appeared to be plucked straight out of a Famous Five novel. We followed a track down from the cliff top towards the sea, before the path ended abruptly at a 72-step tunnel straight down through the rock to a hidden cove. Sara (our local Enid Blyton expert) deemed that this was almost certainly used by smugglers.

The sound of the waves crashing against the rocks echoed around the cliffs surrounding the cove, making the noise almost deafening. We enjoyed climbing onto the huge sandstone boulders, which had a few convenient steps carved into the sides to make for an easy ascent. As with so many things in New Zealand, it was both stunningly beautiful and almost empty.

That afternoon, we headed along the peninsula to Allans Beach, with the hope of spotting some sea lions. The drive along the coast was stunning, and the road signs confirmed that we were on the right track.

We traversed a couple of sand dunes and immediately spotted some sea lions snoozing on the beach (below left). Although they weren’t particularly energetic, we did catch them yawning, covering themselves with sand, and twitching their whiskers while dreaming. After a walk along the predictably gorgeous beach, we returned to the car to continue further along the peninsula, before spotting a handful more sea lions on the beach at Harington Point (below right). These were much more active, with a couple of males fighting for mating rights with the female sea lions nearby. We were particularly tickled by the group of females who weren’t at all impressed and slept through the whole altercation.

The last stop on our road trip was Taiaroa Head, where we were hoping to spot both Royal Albatrosses and Blue Penguins. We didn’t have to look very hard for the former though, as we spotted our first albatross even before getting out of the car and got a great view of many more as they flew right past the Waiwhakaheke Seabird Lookout. We later learned at the visitor centre that the Royal Albatross is the largest sea bird in the world, with an average wingspan of just over three metres. They looked absolutely majestic soaring effortlessly over the cliffs, and made seagulls look the size of a sparrow in comparison.

Last on the day’s itinerary was a trip down to a viewing platform on the beach to watch the Blue Penguins’ daily commute back from the sea to their burrows in the dunes. Making the dash across the beach is actually the riskiest part of their day, which is understandable given that they’re only about 32 cm tall on average. To mitigate the risk from predators, they collect together to form a tight group, which is delightfully known as a “waddle” of penguins. Once the group is large enough, they dash across the sand before splitting up to find their own burrows. When they reach the relative safety of the dunes and nearby burrows, the penguins stop for a chat and a rest, before turning in for the night. It all added up to make an insanely cute ritual, and somehow, we managed to prevent Sara from sneaking one into her backpack before finally returning to Dunedin.

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Day 2: Street art walking tour in Dunedin

Having spent two nights in Dunedin but seen very little of it, we were keen to make the most of the morning before our departure. We were staying in an apartment on Dunedin’s “High Street”, which turned out to be named after its steep gradient more than its eating and drinking options. Still, it was absolutely surrounded by street art, where anything from tiny alleyways to huge buildings had been given a quirky facelift. I’m sure some of the art’s subtlety was lost on us, but we still very much enjoyed it at face value.

Dunedin boomed during the gold rush era of late 1800s, and in 1874 it surpassed Auckland to momentarily become New Zealand’s largest city. As a result of this influx of cash, Dunedin is home to plenty of beautiful municipal buildings and regional headquarters, many of which have been beautifully restored. The jewel in Dunedin’s crown is its train station, although today its handful of services are largely both weekly and seasonal. Upon arriving in Dunedin, our shuttle bus driver proudly announced that the city’s train station was one of the most photographed buildings in the Southern Hemisphere, which sounded only slightly more impressive than the record held by Picton’s Edwin Fox. Unfortunately, the station building was shrouded in scaffolding when we passed, but we still took a couple of photos to do our bit in maintaining its (definitely questionable) record.

Dunedin made it onto our itinerary largely as a jumping off point for the Otago Peninsula, but we were very glad to have lingered long enough to take in the city’s sights too. Next, we set our sights on the southernmost destination of our NZ adventure; the ecological reserve of Stewart Island.