Hello from Oamaru! A sleepy little fishing town about 3 hours outside of Christchurch. Tonight is our last night in Pirate, as tomorrow we’ll arrive in Christchurch and probably stay in a motel for our last night in NZ. It’s hard to believe that our NZ touring leg is nearly over. It’s been 3 weeks of absolutely magnificent scenery, spectacular driving freedom and a really special camper vanning experience. Lets just say, Andrea and I have spent enough quality time to last a lifetime! We’ve traversed this country, and yet still there is so much more to see. Thank you NZ, you’ve been really special. But a little back tracking to catch up on what we’ve been up to….
We left Hokatiki and headed for the Franz Josef glacier. You can walk up to 500 meters of the glacial face. Hard to describe the scene, but the white-blue tinge of the ice and the brown stark rock are absolutely breathe taking. And the size is amazing, and the you realise that it moves all the time – mind blowning. From there we did a walk around the iconic Lake Matheson and got the calendar picture of Mount Cook reflected in the water. That night we slept in a camp without electricity. It was amazing to sip our Cloudy Bay Sauvignon Blanc, watch the sun set over Lake Paringa, and then go to bed at 8pm! Life’ pleasures are actually pretty simple.
The next day it was on to the town of Wanaka, where we took a 45 minute scenic flight over the glaciers to the fiord of Milford Sound, and then caught a fiord cruise. I had never been in a Cessna plane before (a four seater) and the air journey was a brilliant way to see the glaciers and the fiords from a perspective you can’t really get from ground-level. We really liked Wanaka, and so spent two nights there, in the absolute comfort of a self-catering motel apartment. I nearly cried for joy at the sight of a proper bath! Don’t get me wrong, I have loved pirate, but to get up and walk outside to the loo in the middle of the night gets old pretty quickly! Good food, good wine and great walking country in Wanaka, well worth the two days.
After that we spent a day in Queenstown, and then a night in Invercargill, which is right at the Southern most tip of the South Island. This kicked off a few days for us in the very rural and rugged area of the Catlins. There was no electricity in these parts of NZ until 1960, and the scenery is a mix of pastoral land on steep rocky cliffs, jet-blue seas, outcrops of fishing villages and really salt-of-the earth towns people. We were out of mobile phone range for a while, so great to get back into reception and get the text that our friends Fiona and Dave were engaged! We may be back in NZ before we know it J
We ended the Catlins leg in Dunedin, where we spend two nights. Our luck with the weather seemed to run out, with mist and fog coming in. They call Dunedin ‘Scotland in New Zealand’. The town looks and feels very similar to Edinburgh and there is a big student community there too. The weather is also pretty rubbish a lot of the time! The definite highlight was attending the Stormers vs Highlanders rugby game, as part of the super 15 series. We were probably the only 2 Stormers supporters in a sea of NZ rugby fanatics, but hey, you gotta storm saam! Then today we left Dunedin and made our way along the east coast to the little village of Moeraki. The Moerake boulders are an amazing rock formation on the beach, looking like massive concrete bowling balls. There are over 60 million years old and are totally naturally formed. There we had a phenomenal seafood lunch at Fleurs place, with fresh bluff oysters and salty fish, downed with crisp white wine overlooking the sea – and the weather was back on sides again today, so the sunshine was a perfect addition. Then it was on to Oamaru, which is where I am writing this from, and time to make our last braai supper (perfect NZ lamb chops!)
So tomorrow we will head for Christchurch and probably just check out the city. Should be interesting to walk through the red zone and see the damage an earth quake can really do. We spend tomorrow night there, and then catch a flight to Singapore on Tuesday morning. I think both of us will be sad to say goodbye to Pirate….you can imagine the sailing ship analogies that have gone on for the last 3 weeks! But she has been a hardy old schooner and has seen us through many storms….ok, ok, I’ll stop.
We arrive back in London on Wednesday morning, and have a week there until we head for South Africa. Hard to believe that we last saw old London town back in January. Our nearly 3 months of being on the move is over. New Zealand has been incredible, and I can’t recommend it as a holiday destination highly enough. It’s got sea, mountains, adventure, cool cities…basically something for everyone. And above all, it’s a beautiful place with really down to earth, friendly people. You have to come if you can – and get yourself a pirate!
I may blog from time to time when we are in SA – just to make sure I keep a record of how we’re spending our time, even if it’s not that exciting! Thanks for keeping us with us over this leg of our travels. Keep reading, because there are more adventures and cool destination to come. Hope to see everyone, wherever they may be very soon!
xxxx
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