New Zealand South Island in a Little White Car
During my travels of New Zealand my new found friends and I decided the perfect way to get from Nelson to Wanaka was to road trip by car. We went to a local café and perused the hire car options. Our goal was to save as much money as possible by having the three of us sleep in the back of the car, requiring a decent space. Having booked, we made our way to the pick up the car only to say “I swear it looked bigger in the picture”.
*Note most of these pictures were taken by the others on the trip as my camera was super bad!
We ended up calling the car Burt and set off on our way down the west coast from Nelson. Unfortunately, we couldn’t change the language of the satnav and ended up lost within 10 minutes down a rather rocky dirt road. Luckily, Sara decided to pack a kilo of carrots so we didn’t risk running out of food.
Our first destination was the Nelson Lakes and a five-hour trek up Pourangahau / Mt Robert (1421 m). Well, to some this was a walk but for 2/3 of us it was a trek to the summit filled with constant breaks. Luckily for us, the sunny weather known to Nelson permitted and we were met with the most amazing 360o views at the top. On our steady descent, we soon discovered that we had in fact walked up the wrong way, meaning we took the steep hill first rather than leisurely on our descent like everyone else.
It is a travelling tradition to jump off the pontoon at Lake Rotoiti but with the cold and the long hike we decided there was absolutely no way we would be jumping in the lake. Therefore, a cute photo was sufficient. Another pre-warning to fellow travellers, we were not told about the swarm of sand flies that descended upon us as we arrived back at the car nearing dusk. Despite running to avoid the painful bites, we found the ordeal rather amusing and soon set off again.
Our next destinations were Hokitika to Greymouth and then onto Franz Joseph where we encountered the most amazing pancakes in a café at pancake rocks, whilst overlooking a seal colony. It is called pancake rocks due to the spectacular rock formations along the coast which resemble pancakes. These limestone rocks are the remains of ancient sea creatures and are thought to have formed 30 million years ago. Situated between the rocks are a series of blowholes that go off periodically. Excitingly, there are walkways around the rocks meaning you can see these spectacular events relatively up close without damaging the rocks themselves.
Greymouth was an interesting city but we were only able to find a place to park overnight at a carpark next to the petrol station. After a few nights in the car, we were all a little grouchy and decided to have a lovely walk to the beach. It turns out, however, that my tired mind is less efficient at map reading and once again we got lost in a housing estate with me saying "I swear the beach is just over this hill". We did eventually find the beach but unfortunately, didn't stay long due to the sun already setting. One member of our trio was getting more and more grouchy which simply amused the rest of us more. We did end with a good night with a takeaway and watching "definitely maybe" in the boot of our car, once we worked out how to get back to it.
The drive itself was mostly coastal with constant viewpoints. It is a shame that I was not in possession of a decent camera but I tried my best on my cheap smartphone. This replaced my other phone that I somehow managed to drop at at the side of the road (but was amazingly handed in and returned to me weeks later).
Entering Franz Joseph, we found Sir Cedric backpackers which had both a hot tub and free soup every evening. Meeting up with mutual friends that turned out to also be glacier tour guides, we soon realised that the choice of drink in Franz Joseph was tequila. Due to common incoming fog, we postponed our departure for a few days which was a blessing after our late night at the bars. We did manage a small walk towards the base of the glaciers but I must confess it was less enjoyable due to a terrible hangover and the strong, persistent rain.
Next on our stop was the town of Wanaka, a place I would end up spending over three months working after this trip (a quainter Queenstown in my opinion). Walking around the lakeside, we found the famous Wanaka tree and climbed the hills to try some wine tasting. I must admit wine is not my drink of choice so instead, I helped myself to all the free snacks and chocolate. Later, we again encountered another friend (this is a common occurrence when travelling around new Zealand) and discovered a magic show happening at the hostel. After watching the fire breathing and card tricks we slept in the car and drove to Lake Tekapo.
Lake Tekapo is mainly known for its incredible night sky and is argued to be one of the best night skies in the world. Finding a nearby campsite we managed to have the clearest night that week and saw the most amazing stars and view of the milky way. Here is a link to some incredible photography as my description will not do it justice. To make our little car as comfy as possible we all bought our own duvets before setting off. With the boot open we curled up in our duvets with a few ciders and watched the night sky whilst playing the "name the states" game.
Another highlight near Lake Tekapo is Aoraki/Mt Cook. We began at the Sir Edmund Hillary Alpine Centre, a museum detailing the history of the area including famous explorers. Please click here to read about the Maori heritage of the area and the story of Aoraki as they tell their story far better than I ever could. From the centre is a 2-hour easy trek (no hills this time) that you can take towards the glacier pools with Aoraki over ahead. This mountain is the highest mountain in New Zealand (2014: 3,724 metres (12,218 feet)) The views were absolutely incredible and a place you could definitely sit for hours. There are a number of more adventurous routes, some that even include a shelter en-route for hikers to camp in with their gear overnight. If I were to return this would definitely be one of the first places I would revisit and invest in a hiking backpack to explore further.
Finishing our little roadtrip in Queenstown, we treated ourselves to a Devil Burger and went to chill out by the lake. It was only when we were offloading our luggage and dropping our rental car back that we realised the back seats were able to completely fold away flat. Instead, we had been sleeping for the past two weeks at a slight angle every night and ended up opting for more hostel nights than we previously aimed for. However, this was such an amusing way to see the South Island and I wish we did it for longer.
If I were to do another road trip I would probably chose a campervan or keep to a maximum of two people per car and maybe spend longer at each place. However, it was cheap and a great way to see many locations whilst moving to the next area for work.
I don't know if its common to have a piece of music to associate with the trip but our soundtrack of choice was Modest Mouse and this song in particular will always remind me of my time travelling in Bert with friends
I plan to do another post soon about my other adventures during my time travelling in New Zealand, as well as some lessons I definitely learned as a naive 19 year old travelling for the first time. A final note; I was honestly only able to write this post due to keeping a complete journal during my travelling something I think is an absolute must for people to do