Week 1 in NZ – Dunedin and Mount Cook

After leaving Christchurch, we planned to split our first week in NZ on the east coast, starting in Dunedin and then moving inland to the Mount Cook Area.

It was to be a brilliant week of good views, great views and breathtaking views.

On our first day, we stopped off at the Rekaia Gorge for a 3-hour trek, quite amazing blue-coloured river, surrounded by stunning mountains.  It was a scene that was to become more familiar over the coming weeks, but our first exposure was certainly a ‘wow’ moment.

We stopped for the night at Temuka, finally finding a great motel at 10pm, then the following morning took the coast road down to Dunedin.  The 3-hour drive took us 8 hours as we stopped off at various points to look for penguins, seals and sea lions, the most impressive being at Shag Point.  The Penguins eluded us, but we saw plenty of seals and sea lions, the kids were so excited, it was like they were living in a real-life Disney movie. Some beautiful scenery, the rugged coastline and beaches set against rolling hills.

We arrived in Dunedin in late afternoon and headed to where we were staying – at the home of Hazel, a lovely lady who offers free accommodation to traveling Israelis.  She has converted the whole upper floor of her house into a guesthouse, hosting up to 10 people at any time.(ובכל בוקר ממלא את הקופסא במטבח בעוגיות שוקולד צ'יפס טעימות שהיא מכינה במיוחד לאורחים שלה)  We spent 3 days there, sharing with a number of younger Israeli travelers, it really felt like being at home with a kitchen, living room and dining table, made a real change from 5 months of going to restaurants.

We had a great 3 days in Dunedin.  It’s a beautiful town on the coast, set between green hills and the blue ocean, a real Scottish influence and just a really relaxed feeling.  We climbed Mt Cargill for some great views of the town and the Otega Peninsula, we walked up Baldwin Street, the world’s steepest residential street and were lucky enough to see sea lions and more seals at Sandfly Bay.  In our quest to see the famous NZ penguins, we spent a cold and wet night on Allan’s Beach, we were the only people brave (stupid) enough to stand in the gale force winds and driving rain for a couple of hours.  Suffice to say, the penguins were probably all safely tucked up in bed with hot water bottles and a good book, they certainly were nowhere to be seen for us.

Our next stop was the tiny village of Otematata, 1 hour from the Mt Cook area, where we took a great AirBnB, brilliant new apartment, we were the first people to stay there so it was to a real show-home standard.

The following morning, we drove to Mount Cook village and had an absolutely brilliant day.  The drive itself was fantastic, winding past Lake Pukaki, breathtaking blue water surrounded by alpine mountains. Once at Mt Cook village, we walked the Hooker Valley Track, with stunning views of Mt Cook, then trekked up to see the Tasmin Glacier and Lake.  Truly breathtaking scenery, Mt Cook is the highest peak in NZ at over 3700m, the rugged alpine scenery, snow-covered peaks and turquoise coloured lakes were just incredible. We walked over 17km and around each corner seemed to be another ‘wow’ moment.

The kids slept well after that so the next day we decided to take it easier.  We took the short drive to walk the Benmore Peninsula Track, a short 3-4 hour loop trek which we read offered great views over Lake Benmore.  ‘Great views’ must be the understatement of the century, the views at the top were some of the best Shoshi and I had ever seen.  (As I write this blog post, I realise that I am using the words, ‘wow’, ‘stunning’ and ‘breathtaking’ over and over again – just to warn you all, this is likely to be a common theme on our New Zealand travels, things just keep getting better and better!)

The following day, we headed back to Christchurch to swap our hire car for our campervan which was to be our home for the next 2 weeks. We dropped the kids off at Bet Chabad to make some ‘Homentashen’ for Purim while we headed to the supermarket to stock up on supplies.  

As we finally drove off in the camper, the kids were overly excited, Shoshi was a little concerned about us all squeezing in and I was looking forward to reliving some childhood memories of green, open spaces, caravans and watching my dad empty the portable toilet.