A different level altogether.
It’s that good.
In fact, it’s bloody brilliant.
It’s wow after wow after wow.
It’s breathtaking.
It’s insanely peaceful and quiet.
It’s more beautiful than the beautiful offspring of Brad and
Angelina.
It’s greener than Dublin on St Patrick’s Day.
It has Lakes that are bluer than the Bluebells.
It has enough high mountains to keep Marvin Gaye from getting
to you.
In short, it’s fantastic and we’re in love.
We collected our camper in Christchurch and headed
west. We had a general idea that we
would cross over to the West Coast and head South but our plans were very loose
and we certainly had no idea of where we would be sleeping each night. We would also have to pay attention to the
weather but as it turned out, we had 2 weeks of brilliant sunshine, perhaps
only 1 day of rain. It took us a couple of days to get into the rhythm of
campervan life, the space was limited, it took us two hours on the first
morning just to get sorted but pretty quickly, we worked out how to organize
and manage life in a van.
So we headed west and our first stop was Arthur’s Pass National Park, spending 2 nights in this glorious area.
We trekked up the Temple Basin Track, a really tough climb which we mistakenly did in the heat of the afternoon. Guy had to stop after 2 hours so he headed back down with Shoshi while I carried on with Mili and Eyal, reaching the top lookout after another 40 mins and then almost running back down in around an hour. Really tough trek for us let alone the kids.
The next day we took it ‘easier’. In the morning, we did the relatively easy Otira Valley, winding through the Otira valley, surrounded by stunning mountains then in the afternoon, we joined a guided trek to the Devil’s Punchbowl, one of the most well-known waterfalls in NZ, standing at over 130m high. Both were nice treks, not amazing but a good end to our time here. As we left Arthur’s Pass, we were lucky enough to see the famous Kea bird, the one’s only alpine parrot, endangered to the point that apparently only 2000 or so remain in the wild. We were lucky and got to see 3 of them in one spot!
That afternoon we moved on through the pass, a stunning
drive through the mountains until we reached the West Coast, stopped for
showers and fish+chips in the picturesque town of Hokitika and continued on,
eventually camping in a random car park in the village of Ross.
The next day we drove on to the famous Franz Joseph Glacier,
apparently the lowest lying Glacier in the world at only 300m above sea level. The hike there is pretty simple, it was
around a 3-hour round trek and we loved it.
Scenery was amazing, the glacier just brilliant to see. However, all along the trek, there are
information boards showing where the glacier reached in previous years,
highlighting the devastating speed with which the glacier has receded in the
past 100 years. The most pronounced
reduction has been over the past 10 years, so if you are reading this Donald
Trump, yes, global warming is real and it is damaging our planet beyond repair.
After Franz Joseph, we headed to the nearby Lake Matheson
for a 2-hour hike to see the famous mirror view. This is the view that has been used on
countless NZ tourism campaigns and is the place where, on a perfect day, the
mirror reflection of Mt Cook and other peaks can be seen in the Lake. For us,
the weather wasn’t quite right, there was some clouds n the sky and a touch of
breeze which meant the mirror effect wasn’t too clear. But still, it is a beautiful place, set in a
vibrant and lush forest.
Tired from the trekking, we stopped to sleep in the Copland
Pass Trek carpark, with the aim of waking early to do the 20km return trek to
the first lookout. What we hadn’t banked
on was the atrocious sandflies that attacked us all night while we cooked, ate
and then slept in the camper. These are
notorious on the West Coast but we weren’t prepared and we suffered. Really suffered. Worst night in a long time, they ate us all
to bits and it took us another 7 or 8 days to recover, physically and
emotionally. Even now, Shoshi still
takes a swipe at anything that moves too quickly, resulting in a black eye for
Guy and 2 broken ribs for Mili!
So we changed our plans, made an early exit and drove on to
Haast and down toward Wanaka. On the
way, we stopped at the Blue Pools and another couple of spots, great places to
stretch the legs for 30mins or an hour, beautiful lakes and rivers, fantastic
pebble beaches, all wrapped by those towering mountains. But still, sandflies everywhere and it
definitely took the edge off the enjoyment.
We stopped for the night at a quite breathtaking campsite on the shores
of Lake Wanaka, certainly the best campsite we have stayed during our 2 weeks
in the camper. No sandflies, stunning
views, blue water. Same old, same old,
but it never gets boring (I’m sure it does when reading this, so apologies).
The next morning, we arrived into Wanaka to be met by one of
the most picturesque towns you could ever imagine. Mountains and a lake, a
Scottish pipe band playing near the beach, quiet and peaceful. A place I could move to!
We headed to the local Tourism Center to check what trek they could recommend for us. The most famous in the area is Roy’s Peak, which at 1588m, makes it 200m taller than the tallest mount in the UK. “It’s not suitable for kids” said the tourism officer. She hadn’t met our kids…
We headed to the local Tourism Center to check what trek they could recommend for us. The most famous in the area is Roy’s Peak, which at 1588m, makes it 200m taller than the tallest mount in the UK. “It’s not suitable for kids” said the tourism officer. She hadn’t met our kids…
We got up at 6am the following morning and were on the trek
by 7am, in the pitch dark. 8 hours
later, we had reached the summit and made it back down. 4 hours straight up, 1.5 hours for lunch and
a rest at the summit, then back down. A tough trek and despite a couple of
difficult moments, the kids made it with plenty to spare. This was proper trekking, no walk in the park
and they blew us away with their exuberance and resilience. We didn’t see
another kid on the mountain all day, let alone a 5 year old like Guy who
literally ran most of the way down and reached the camper before any of us. It
set a benchmark for what was to come but remains the toughest trek we have done
so far. The kids were so proud of
themselves, they understood they had really achieved something that plenty of
adults couldn’t do.
