South Island Adventure

On 22nd February a 6.3 magnitude earthquake hit Christchurch, where nearly 200 people lost their lives. I feel very lucky not only to survive this natural disaster, but also for my house and belongings to be in one piece. I was also very pleased that my friend Gemma had flown to Wellington the day before, and managed to miss the entire thing. And what better time to get away from Christchurch to go on a road trip around the South Island...

First stop was the Abel Tasman up North. We picked up Gemma from the ferry terminal and set off for our campsite at the start of the Abel Tasman track. We had booked to kayak around the coast for 3 days, stopping at campsites on the beach on the way. After a 2 hour instruction of how to recover after capsizing, setting off and landing on the beach, and trying to get all our luggage into the kayaks, we were allowed to set off on our own for 3 days of paddling. We had 3 days of perfectly calm weather, allowing us to explore all the secluded beaches and islands where seals and cormorants lazed about. It really was golden sands and turquoise waters.

Camping spot on the Abel Tasman

Kayaking into the lagoon

After 3 days of great weather, Gemma and I left the others, rented a very girly, blue Rava 4x4, and headed to Greymouth in the rain. Luckily my old flatmate lives in Greymouth, and was kind enough to put us up for the night so we didn't have to camp in the rain. We managed to catch Punakaki (the Pancake Rocks) in decent weather before continuing our journey down the West Coast.

Punakaki Pancake Rocks

We were met with a mix of drizzle, rain and sun on our way down the West Coast. Our next stop was Fox Glacier, where Gemma booked a full day guided hike on the glacier and I headed up steep West Coast bush to Mt Fox for an awesome view of the glacier. Although the recommended hiking time was 8 hours, I was back at the car by 2pm and decided to do a few of the easy walks around Fox Glacier which also gave some great views of the glacier, with a fairly hairy river crossing in order to get there. Our night was spent at Gillespe Beach, a random beach at the end of a long gravel track with enormous waves to keep you awake all night (glad we got that 4x4!). Glad we had a waterproof tent... unlike some other English guy, who ended up sleeping under the picnic shelter to keep his tent dry!

Fox Glacier

Heading up Mt Fox through West Coast bush

After the glaciers, we made our way over Haast Pass deciding to give the hike up to Brewster Hut a miss because we couldn't even see the mountains. Another rainy day on the West Coast! We did see some great waterfalls though, and by the time we drove past Lake Hawea  and Wanaka and arrived in Queenstown the sun had come out. I introduced Gemma to the chai latte and famous Fergburger (for a burger of course).  Now she just can't get enough chai lattes! Once Gemma realised you really don't get much radio or phone signal in NZ unless you're in a fairly large town, we made our way to Moke Lake campground just outside Queenstown, where of course we lost phone and radio signal. Another very long gravel track later and we reached the campsite. It was a beautiful spot by the lake, and although another gusty night, our tent survived. Funnily enough we met the same English guy from Gillespe Beach campground, who came looking for his tent in the morning. Apparently he put it up, put some stuff inside it, didn't bother to peg it down, and then headed back to Queenstown, during which time someone had 'stolen' it. It wasn't waterproof anyway.

Lake Hawea

I then decided to introduce Gemma to a NZ hut... this entailed heading to Mavora Lakes for a '1.5 to 2 hour' hike along a 4WD track to Careys Hut. It was a good 2 hour hike to the hut. I was beginning to think we'd missed it, because it isn't very often that I don't make those DOC (Dept. of Conservation) times. We were both pretty pleased when we saw the hut... which came with 3 very drunk hunters, half a deer and 2 dead trout. At least we got some strawberry flavoured wine (in a bottle),  and some freshly caught venison and trout. A very random night, but at least we were kept warm by the fire.

Morning at Mavora Lakes

After the 2 hour walk out and 34km gravel road from Mavora Lakes we were on our way to Milford Sound. Gemma continued to take photos out the car window, but we did make a few stops on the way to admire the glaciers, Mirror Lakes, the view from Key Summit on the Routeburn, mountains in general, and the chasm. We were lucky to have 3 days of sun in the wettest place in NZ, and camped at the Milford Lodge with a little glow worm trail for evening entertainment. Gemma took a boat cruise around the fjord (it's technically a fjord not a sound) while I went for a run (I was in training for a marathon) and got eaten by sandflies just admiring the view.

Milford Sound

We managed to hike up to Lake Marian and Gertrude Saddle in sunny weather to get some more amazing views of what the South Island has to offer. Then we were back on the road and on our way back to Queenstown, where we found another great DOC campsite by Lake Wakatipu. Gemma convinced me that the lake wasn't that cold, when in fact it was, but we both got in anyway... briefly.

Black Lake on the way up to Gertrude Saddle

Lake Marian

We then headed to Wanaka for some ice cream, and Gemma attempted to do some souvenir shopping. Wanaka was lacking choice of souvenirs, so we decided to head to Mt Aspiring National Park and walk up Rob Roy Valley for some amazing views of Rob Roy Glacier. It was only a 3 hr return walk, but one of the best I've done. Once back at the car we had a failed attempt at finding a nice place to camp without checking in to a holiday park. Unlike Queenstown there doesn't seem to be any DOC campgrounds in Wanaka. Eventually we gave up, and headed to Glendu Bay to pitch the tent in the holiday park. Although a little more expensive than we hoped, we were right on the lake and the view towards Mt Aspiring was beautiful.

Rob Roy Glacier

Mt Aspiring from Glendu Bay

The next day we headed up Roy's Peak track in Wanaka to get a great view of the lakes and mountains in the area, before wandering round the A&P (Agricultural and Pastoral) show. It was like an English country fair, with tractors, show jumping, people selling hot tubs, and advertisements for schools...

Gemma heading up Roy's Peak Track in Wanaka

Finally, Saturday 12th March arrived and it was time to run an off-road marathon. Tom arrived at Glendu Bay on Friday night, and we had a feast of pasta, bacon and pesto to fuel us for the next day. Tom and I left Gemma at 6am Saturday morning to make our way to the start line, and at 8am we were off... 42km of off-road with 500m elevation gain. It was a perfect day for running - not too hot, but not raining! I couldn't quite run all the uphill sections, or the river crossings, but after 4hr 37min I was crossing the finish line (31st out of 120 females). Tom finished in an amazing time of 3hr 52min (21st out of 110 males). Gemma had agreed to meet us at the finish in Arrowtown, so we had our complementary beer and finally found Gemma amongst the crowd. The event finished with Christchurch bands playing to raise money for the earthquake.

Fortunately I wasn't too stiff the next day, so we all went rock climbing in Wanaka before Tom headed back to Christchurch, and Gemma and I headed to Mt Cook Village for our last stop on our South Island adventure. We had a very sleepless night in the tent at Mt Cook because of the strong winds, and decided against the hike up to Mueller Hut because of predicted 110kph winds at all levels later on in the day. Instead we walked to the Tasman Glacier before making the journey back to Christchurch.

Me and Gemma by Tasman Lake and the Tasman Glacier

Thanks Gemma for a great trip around the South Island!