Milford, Auckland: 1 – 3 December
On 3 December we caught a bus to Brown’s Bay and ran back to the hotel. Had a tasty Indian lunch in Takapuna and then hopped into a taxi to Auckland airport for our flight to San Francisco.
On 2 December met up with Alan’s ex-colleague, Andy Ryan and his wife Su. Had a lovely lunch with them in Devonport.
On 1 December dropped the motorhome at Dunedin Airport car park. Flew Air New Zealand to Auckland. We are staying in the City of Sails Motel in Milford just north of the city. A rather noisy evening with some motel guests getting drunk and rowdy. They were kicked out later so things improved late evening.
Portobello, Dunedin: 28 November – 1 December
On 30 November, our last full day in Dunedin, we explored the other side of the bay and the mole and beach at Aramoana. Alan tried fishing off the end of the 1200 metre mole but had no luck. A grunting noise to his left turned out to be a huge male fur seal ten metres away resting behind a rock! No wonder there were no fish! Caroline explored the pristine beach and found collections of shells in a few eddy spots.
On 29 November we ran to the aptly named Allan’s Beach to view New Zealand Sea Lions. There were three on the beach just lolling about in the soft sand. The New Zealand Sea Lion is the rarest of all Sea Lions. Later we drove to Taiaroa Head on the point of the Otago Peninsula to see an Albatross. We were lucky and saw several. Quite majestic. Seagulls were openly nesting in the same location with many chicks visible.
On 28 November a four hour drive from Te Anau took us to the city of Dunedin and beyond to our campsite at Portobello on the Otago peninsula. Very wet and windy shortly after we arrived but improved late evening, The Otago peninsula is famous for sightings of Albatros, Blue Penguins and Sea Lions.
Te Anau (and Milford Sound): 25 – 28 November
Stayed at the Lakeside campsite with great views of Lake Te Anau. On 26 November we went on an organised trip along the lake to Milford Sound. A truly memorable experience! The Sound is actually a fiord with a terminal moraine at the entrance to the sea. The trip was with Fiordland Tours and we would recommend them to others.
Lake Hawea: 24 – 25 November
The campsite at Lake Hawea was perfectly situated on the shore of lake. Nice location spoilt by noisy weekend visitors.
On 25 November we drove to Te Anau, stopping at Arrowtown. Highlight of the visit to Arrowtown was a classic car/bike show at the local school. The town itself was too tourist-centred for our taste.
Twizel: 22 – 24 November
On 23 November Alan fished the hydro-electric canals near Twizel. The canals and dam structures are quite an engineering fete with amazingly blue, clear, fast water running through them. A number of salmon farms are situated along the miles of canals. Conditions were tough with a 30 mph wind and strong currents but patience paid off with Alan landing a 4 lb Salmon and half a dozen 10 inch trout from the dam area on the Pukaki Canal. They were all caught on a trout/salmon spinner.
Caroline hired a bicycle and explored the area around the canals. Difficult pedalling in the strong wind!
We left the surprisingly pleasant town of Methven and headed for Twizel. On the way we stopped at a great museum in a lovely heritage town called Geraldine. It was full of agricultural equipment, classic cars and bikes and memorabilia from the 1950/60s.
We had to stop for photos at Lakes Tekapo and Pukaki. The latter provided stunning mirror images of the surrounding mountains including the highest in New Zealand, Mount Cook, thanks to a lull in the wind.
Twizel is a town developed in the 1970/80s as a consequence of hydro-electricity construction from Lake Pukaki. Large canals have been constructed to carry the water from the lake and dams. Monster trout and salmon have been caught in the canals. Surprisingly for a town with such an abundance of electricity, when we arrived at the town campsite, there was an all day power outage!
Arthur’s Pass: 19 – 21 November
On 21 November we drove from Jackson’s, through the Otira Gorge and Arthur’s Pass to our next stopover – Methven, back over to the east side of the Southern Alps. We then crossed the fantastically blue Rakaia river on the aptly named Southern Scenic Route.
On 20 November we explored the sights around the Jackson’s Retreat campsite, first a waterfall and then a quartz crushing mine (for gold). We initially had to give up on the mine as the path we were following had not been used for years and, as we had no machetes, we could not fight through the jungle to make progress. Back at base we established an alternative route and ran that later in the day.
On 19 November we drove south on highway 6 from Westport down the west coast. Another great road very suited to motorcycles. We stopped at Punakaiki to view spectacular “pancake rocks” and not quite so spectacular glow worms. Just after Greymouth we headed south east towards the mountains and Arthur’s Pass stopping at the Jackson’s Retreat campsite for two nights.
That night we visited a glow worm site next to the campsite. It reminded us of the rhyme :
Oh, I wish I were a glow worm,
for a glow worm’s never glum,
’cause how can you be grumpy
when the sun shines out your bum?
Westport: 18 – 19 November
We followed the Buller River from its source, Lake Rotoiti at St Arnaud, through gorges to its estuary on the Tasman Sea at Westport. Stayed in the Carters Beach campsite which has the best kitchen facilities so far!
We observed New Zealand Fur Seals a few miles from the campsite at the curiously named Cape Foulwind.
St Arnaud: 16 – 18 November
We stayed at the Kerr Bay national campsite in Nelson Lakes National Park. The site is on a terminal moraine that terminates the six mile long glacial moraine lake of Lake Rotoiti. The lake is full of brown trout and Alan regrets not having room to bring a fly rod on the trip!
We both regret not having our own kayaks!
The site is surrounded by woodland and full of Tuis and Bell Birds with amazing voices.
Picton 15-16 November
On 16 November we joined a group kayaking on Queen Charlotte Sound. A great experience which provided excellent views of the Sound’s spectacular mountains, vegetation and sea life. We paddled from a bay just north of Picton and crossed the Sound, landing at Mistletoe Bay for a lunch break. The return trip was a little choppy as the wind had strengthened. Total distance paddled was 12 miles.
Arrived in Picton on 15 November and stayed overnight at the Picton Tasmin Holiday Park.