May 2020 – OutandAbout

Its holiday time ! 10 whole days in New Zealand South Island travelling around in a hire car .

We arrived at Brisbane airport at 4pm and were through security quickly so settled down for a read until the flight was called. Everything on time we boarded and took off. The flight was just over 3 hrs and we landed at midnight NZ time. We had decided not to hire a car from the airport as we would be tired and then having to find our way to the hotel in Christchurch, so we took a taxi. We arrived at the hotel and checked in and went to our room – then I remembered the travel agent asking if we would be happy with a small room? Sure, we said, its only for a couple of nights haha – see picture taken with my back against the door!

Such a tiny room but it was ok for a couple of nights

After a walk the next morning we found the Avis car hire office and waited to be served. A nice lady began our reservation and then the computer system went down! “Ok” she said “I have everything I need, can you just sign here to say you have the car and I will email you everything later when the system comes back up ?” “erm but we haven’t seen the car yet,” I said? “That’s ok” she said all our cars are checked when they are returned it will be ok!!!! I wasn’t happy so I said I would be videoing the whole car and taking photos before we left – she shrugged. Bob sat in the car setting up the sat nav and finding his way round while I took about 10 mins of video – the car had only got 50,000kms on the clock but it had lots of scratches and dinks!

Finally we set off for the coast, stopping at a little place called Lyttelton where the first European settlers landed in 1850. We approached it through a 2km tunnel then dropped down to a quaint harbour village. This village was badly hit in the earthquakes of 2010 and 2011 and much of its heritage buildings were destroyed but it now has an arty vibe with lots of cafes and bars and shops. We dropped in on the tourist office and the lady pointed us to the best place to visit and an “off piste” route to take in the wonderful scenery on the way.

We set off for Akaroa, we took it steady as it is a 2 hr drive around some narrow country lanes. On the way we stopped at a craft shop in Little River and bought some bees wax (for my bees wax wraps I make) and noticed these Silos – I thought they were for sale but it was actually a holiday village and you stay in them? How fantastic? this is the link if you want to have a look https://www.silostay.kiwi.nz/book-now/gallery-2/ . The scenery was lovely, a beautiful blue sky, warm sunshine and green rolling hills as we made our way around the lake into Akaroa. We spent the whole afternoon there around the harbour, doing some window shopping, having lunch and just watching the world go by, waiting to see if any dolphins would show up – but they didn’t. Before it was too dark we drove back to Christchurch and went to a local Indian restaurant for dinner.

The restaurant wasn’t busy so we chatted to the owner who told us all about the earthquakes and explained that the photograph on his wall of Prince William was taken when he visited just after the earthquakes and he stayed for dinner in his restaurant because there was nowhere else open!

The next morning we were off to Dunedin, some 360km away. We noticed there were a great number of cattle and not many sheep, and the land is very flat along this coastline. The houses have an english country village look but with wide streets. We stopped for a coffee and then by mid afternoon we were about half way so we pulled in at a place called Oamaro. This is a weird town, Steam punk and Victorian. The penguins apparently come onto the beach every evening to settle for the night but unfortunately we can’t wait that long. We eat and wander, take some photos and then we are on our way again to Dunedin.

At last we arrive in Dunedin, its been a long day but the adventure continues as we find our accommodation half a km up a track to a log cabin house. The owner meets us at the door and shows us to our room – its big and comfy (well anything is big compared to the last place) and one of the ducks greets us at the patio doors from our room .

Leithview Cottage

Once settled in we went into the town to explore. It has a very Scottish feel here, hence the Scottish name and the land is very hilly. The owner of the cottage told us that some years ago, the price of lamb dropped so low that farmers were going bankrupt and committing suicide because of their desperation, to survive, some changed to cattle farming. The 60 million sheep in New Zealand have been reduced to 20 million and overtaken by cattle so that’s why we saw so many cows in the fields on the drive down. The houses in this area are colonial and large as you can see from the pictures. We found it a buzzing town with lots of young people, bars and cafes. Apparently it’s the students from the University that fill the town during term time but when they go home for the holidays it’s a completely different place .

The next morning before we left we went to look for the 2 new born calves, only 3 days old.

We began the long drive across country to Queenstown its only about 285km but its much slower driving over the peaks, we were expecting it to take most of the day again. Scenery change again, from the flat lands of Christchurch to Oamaro then hilly to Dunedin and now its mountainous terrain. I must say that I am finding the amount of time we are spending on the road somewhat tiring. We have 4 nights in Queenstown so some time to explore, more time to relax too without Bob having to drive far.

A vehicle that overtook us on the road- how many dogs ?

The journey did take us most of the day but we did stop off at a village called Ranfurly for coffee. We walked into what I thought was a cafe as it had a big sign saying REFRESHMENTS outside, only to find it was a museum of the old train station haha. The lady pointed us to the cafe across the road which she recommended as the best coffee house in the village. We were sitting in the cafe looking out of the window and along came a vintage car, then another and another – we sat for a while and watched as the rally passed through the village before continuing.

Onward, after refreshments, to Queenstown, not sure what to expect but looking forward to being in the same place for a few days.

Roaring Meg is a turbulent stream that drives a hydro-electric power station and merges with the Kawarau River, which runs between the towns of Cromwell and Queenstown . It was very noisy but an amazing sight.

The last stop was the oldest Bungee jumping bridge, the A. J.Hackett Kawarau River Jump. Its just outside of Queenstown so as we were passing we stopped – wow – these people are mad mad mad and they are paying around $300 each for the privilege. However, there must be a lot of mad people because there was a constant jumper every 10 mins or so. The best ones were the ones who screamed loudly haha. There was also a zip wire that shot people down into a ravine at great speed (it was a cheaper option to the bungee jumping).

Moving on we found Queenstown and our hotel – its not quite what I expected – but we will see tomorrow. Time for something to eat, we have a room with a kitchen so we went shopping in the supermarket and bought food for 4 days and cooked a nice dinner.

Its Sunday and day 4 in New Zealand -time to explore. After a good breakfast in the apartment we set off for the town, I haven’t felt too well, a cold I had before we left has gone onto my chest as it usually does and I am now coughing !! Having to clear my throat regularly as everyone keeps looking at me – a lot of mumblings about this Corona Virus spreading from China??? Anyway we spent the morning exploring the town and walked alongside the water up into the Botanical gardens. Some people were playing Frisbee golf alongside the lake which looked like fun and I would have played too if I had felt well enough. Instead we found a nice spot on the edge of the water for a coffee and to watch the antics of the tourists who are here for adrenaline rushes!

We have decided to go to Milford Sound so have booked the trip for Monday morning, pick up at 5am ! We cooked a pasta dish in the apartment kitchen and had a bottle of wine and watched some tv before turning in early so we can get up at 4am.

Milford Sound is something like 4.5 hrs drive away – if we could fly there its only 30 mins but we have to drive around a mountain and the only road has been badly damaged from torrential rains and flooding a couple of weeks ago. Because the maintenance crew are working hard to repair the damage the only traffic allowed along the road are buses and local cars 4 times a day in convoy. We have to be at the rendezvous by 8am to join in the convoy or we can’t go, this way the maintenance men can work between the 2 convoys going and returning each day. Its freezing as we stand on the side of the road at 4.50am, luckily we are first to get on the bus when it arrives and grab the front seats. Bob doesn’t like coach travel unless he is driving or sitting in the front seats with a full view of the road. We set off and I snuggle down to catch up on some sleep until the sun comes up and we can see where we are going. We stop for a coffee and breakfast and the loo at Te Anau at 7.30am and then we join the convoy. The scenery was spectacular now it was light and we pulled over to look at the Mirror Lakes which, on a sunny day with no ducks on it, is a beautiful mirror image of the mountains on the water, today it was ok but not perfect .

Back on the bus Wayne the driver told us stories of his previous life in the army working in the area helping build bridges and roads to access Milford. The next stop was a beautiful spot, where a few years before a film crew used the backdrop for Mission Impossible and Tom Cruise was seen flying and hanging out of helicopters doing his own stunts.

Tom Cruise flew his helicopter here and did stunts for Mission Impossible film

The journey continued through all the damaged roads as you can see until we finally arrived at Milford.

The boat was ready waiting for us as we arrived at the terminal, tickets checked and we boarded at around 11am. Thank goodness they sell hot pizza slices and hot drinks. Its quite misty as we set sail and the recent rain has caused many beautiful cascading waterfalls. Normally there are only a few but today there were many.

The trip was over all too soon, by the time the mist had cleared and we had been out to the end of the bay and not seen the one and only seal on a rock, the 1.5 hour trip was done and we were sailing back into the port. As much as it was lovely, we also realised that maybe its not worth the cost and the 12 hr round trip to see it, we were disappointed that it was just a boat trip, expecting much more from it??

Anyway, we soon settled back onto the coach for the trip home back along the windy road in the convoy. We did get to see the first part of our outgoing journey in the light this time so lots more photo opportunities.

It was 6.30pm by the time we arrived back at Queenstown and we were stiff from sitting so long. We took a walk then cooked dinner and early to bed – it was a long day!

Tuesday morning I’m not feeling good, my cough is worse and I feel drained but we decide to take a stroll around the shops then stop for a coffee by the lake, taking in the views. We watched the parasailers, the jet boats and some strange 2 seater submarines that dived under the water then emerged vertically at great speed.

Bob wants to go on the gondola ride up the cliff, I don’t feel I should be closeting myself with people in a small space when I have a cough so I walked to the skyline with Bob and wave him off. Time to put my feet up and have a read in peace. An hour or so later Bob appears with an album of footage and photos to show me what I missed – bless him !

After 4 days in Queenstown it was nice to leave the hustle and bustle and get on the road again. Its a long 350km journey over the mountains so we set off early stopping at Wanaka long enough to take a picture of the lake, its more of a skiing area here but as its March, there is no snow, so onwards towards Haast. After a coffee stop the road took us along the coast with some spectacular views. We stopped for a quick wee and arrived at Fox mid afternoon. We are in the same Bella Vista Hotel Group but this time we don’t have a suite, just tea and coffee facilities. Fox is a tiny place, a couple of bars, a restaurant and a spar shop. Petrol station across the road and half a dozen places to book a helicopter flight to the Glacier. The only exciting thing was some Ferraris parked outside but they only stopped for a few minutes before racing off again.

After settling in, we took a drive about 5 kms down the road for the best view point to see the Glacier and Mount Cook as the sun went down.

The view from the road to Mount Cook and the Fox Glacier on the left

I’m not feeling hungry so Bob went off to get a takeaway Indian, which when I smelt it, I did pinch some. Just down the road was the entrance to Minne Haha Walk, a forest walk loop where we were told the trees were alive with glow worms after dark. We set off as the light faded and walked into the forest, after a few minutes we saw some other people wandering around. We asked if they had seen any glow worms and they said yes, a bit farther in. We continued for about 15 minutes and spotted some in a low bush, we tried to take photos but they didn’t come out as it was pitch dark in here now. I got a bit scared because you couldn’t see anything at all. I was hanging onto Bob and had to put the light on my phone as I was afraid of tripping on the roots of the trees. We met up with lots of other people who had also walked for 20 minutes and not found the loop back to the start so we turned round and retraced our steps . I was so glad to get back to the road safely.

Thursday morning, I am still coughing, I don’t feel too bad but I don’t want to go up in a helicopter with my chest tight. Bob had decided he would like to go so he went up to book something straight after breakfast. He has a departure time of 11 am. I settled down in the sunshine on my balcony with a coffee and my book as Bob set off. He boarded the helicopter first, getting the front seat whilst a German couple and a New Zealand motorcyclist sat in the back. After a short flight up to the Glacier they landed, the Pilot pointed out the dirty snow was a result of the ash from the recent bush fires in Australia but this didn’t deflect from the spectacular views. The Glacier is presently 13 km long but has been steadily retreating over the last century. However, the sun was shining, it was a beautiful day and Bob said it was warm enough to have sunbathed on it! They were allowed a couple of minutes to walk around and take photos and then back into the helicopter to fly up to Mount Cook and then back down the Glacier to the heli-base.

After his exhilarating experience Bob took me for a walk to the Matheson Lake a few kms away. It was a picturesque walk, we had hoped that we would see another mirror lake but there was too much of a breeze. The path around the lake was easy walking and when we stopped to look at the lake I turned to see a little mouse sitting in the roots of a tree watching me. I stood for sometime watching him but he disappeared into the undergrowth as another couple approached. As we wandered along the path, we crossed over a long wooden suspension bridge where we had to wait for people to get off the bridge to get the photos. A very strange thing, I noticed a door knob screwed to a tree, could it be a secret doorway to the fairies?

Friday morning is our last day of travelling, we are heading for Greymouth to pick up the TransAlpine train back to Christchurch. Our train was leaving at 2pm and we had to drop the hire car off and pick up our tickets so we left Fox early again and set off on the shorter 180km trip. We had plenty of time, the scenery was amazing as we left Fox and we stopped at Wahapo lake on the way just to take a couple of photos as the setting was just beautiful. There were lots of cows in the fields along the route and some landslides had damaged some of the roads so good job we had allowed plenty of time. The train fare should have been around $200 but I left it too late to book and those seats were all sold out so we ended up paying nearly $400 for our seats. Our own fault, but no choice we had to be back in Christchurch for our flight back to Brisbane in the morning.

Our lunch stop was in a town called Hokitika, a bustling village of home grown crafts, greenstone glass, textiles and art. Plenty of cafe and restaurant choices for lunch among the grand buildings from the 1860’s goldrush days. After a walk along the beach and some window shopping we stopped for a toasted sandwich and a very large coffee, then we were ready for the final leg into Greymouth.

Arriving in Greymouth at 12.45 it took us a while to find somewhere to park the car as all the hire car spaces were filled. We went into the Avis office and explained about the computer going down and that we hadn’t received an email, as promised, from the Christchurch office, but I had videoed the car before and after. The girl said the computer system was always failing so not to worry, she checked the car and was happy with it. We picked up our tickets and with still half an hour to spare we bought a sandwich and a drink and went across the road to wait for the train to arrive.

The train was very comfortable which was good because our journey back to Christchurch was about 4 hrs. We had 4 seats and a table to sit at in Carriage C and on the other side of the aisle were 4 Chinese people who immediately started wet wiping everything in sight – the table, chairs, menu etc. Then they took several minutes getting all their food and drink out and finally they sanitized themselves and put on face masks. Some way into the journey they had taken the face masks off to eat, I had a coughing fit and their faces were a picture, they glared at me and immediately put their masks on again and chatted in Chinese! This was the start of everyone realising the Corona Virus was serious. The beginning of the journey was very pleasant, the changing view from farm land to spectacular gorges and rivers. We stopped on the way at Arthurs Pass where we took on several more people, a group of about 20 Americans came into our carriage and from then on we could hardly hear ourselves think- they were very loud. We concentrated on the views and looked forward to getting back to Christchurch and then hopefully Brisbane. In fact by now, there was lots of stuff on the tv and internet about the virus and we were starting to worry if we would be allowed to travel out of the country, concerned where we would stay if they closed the airports ?

We finally reached Christchurch at 6.30pm, we quickly disembarked and grabbed a taxi before the queue was too long. The Hotel was only 10 minutes away and we arrived just before a group on a coach arrived to book in. We asked about the shuttle bus for the airport for tomorrow as it was only 12$ each instead of about 70$ in a taxi and we were told that there would be lots more security to go through at the airport and we would have to be checked in 4 hrs before our flight. Wow, our flight was 3pm so they said we would have to take the 10am shuttle to be at the airport for 10.45am??? We were so annoyed as we had planned to have the morning in Christchurch and take some photos of the Cathedral and the earthquake damage and maybe visit the museum. Oh well, we dropped the bags in our “tiny” room again and went straight out to the Indian restaurant for dinner. We took a walk around the town before it got dark to walk off the meal and managed to get a couple of photos of the Cathedral which they are only just starting to renovate.

Saturday morning we are checked out and waiting for the shuttle bus. When it arrives, we are first on and for the next 30 minutes we get a tour of the city as the driver weaves his way around the city collecting passengers. Finally, with 12 occupants we set off for the airport. There is much chatter in the back from Americans, New Zealanders, Dutch and Australians but I am glad I am at the front and don’t need to speak because I don’t want to cough. We arrive at the airport and it is almost deserted, I ask the security man, “where is everyone ?” He asked when my flight was and I told him it was 3pm and the Hotel had advised us that we had to be here checked in 4 hrs before our flight? “No, 2 hrs” he said!! There were no extra security checks and in a few minutes we are through to the departure lounge which was empty too, so we settled into 2 nice easy chairs, got some breakfast and a drink and delved into our books. Every time I needed to cough, I went to the toilet and waited til it was empty, I was dreading the flight. The departure lounge began to fill up an hour before our flight and we boarded easily, the flight was smooth and uneventful and I managed to keep my coughs to a few small ones into my scarf!

We landed in Brisbane at 4.45pm but what normally takes 20 mins took us over an hour to get out of the airport. Firstly the luggage took for ever to arrive then we went through so many checks, temperature, baggage, questions, forms… finally we were through and outside – you can’t imagine the relief to actually be back safe.

We were so lucky, that evening it was all over the news that airports were starting to close their doors and anyone arriving from tomorrow would have to go into isolation for 14 days . We did self isolate anyway because of my cough but I had no temperature or any other symptoms and a few days later after a rest I was fine.

We enjoyed New Zealand South Island and without the problems of the Virus and my cough it could have been great but I don’t think it will be on my list to revisit now.