Week 4 - Te Anau to Christchurch – End of NZ!

Sat 13^th October – Left Wanaka in beautiful sunshine, the mountain views from the campsite were great, and drove via Cardrona to Te Anau: the "gateway to Milford Sound". We had been hoping to hike the Milford Track which takes 3 days, and kayak Doubtful Sound but we had got a tad excitable after a couple of rain-free, sunny days. We went to the DOC (Department of Conservation) to enquire about hiking and buying hut passes but were met with grimaces and bad weather reports. Plus, whilst the track officially opens on 23^rd October and people can hike all year round, no one has been in yet to clear avalanches and put in the bridges across the streams. It also began raining pretty soon after arriving in Te Anau and from 4pm Saturday until approx 6am Sunday morning it rained non-stop: big fat rain that soaks you through!!

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So after exploring our options at the various agencies and I-Site we went to a café to make up our minds and escape the rain. We decided to drive ourselves to Milford Sound on Sunday and depending on the weather book on a cruise from there. Monday we are going on an organized bus-boat tour of Doubtful Sound as you can only get there on a tour due to a private road. Monday evening we'll head on to Queenstown and chill out there on Tuesday. Wednesday: Mount Cook Village. Thursday: Christchurch. Friday: Sydney!

Like I said it rained all afternoon… and evening… and night on Saturday so we used the hot tub in the campsite to warm up and settled in with a DVD for the night.

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Sun 14^th – Got up early to watch the England v France Rugby Semi-Final….and we won!! I didn't know there were any French tourists in NZ but a substantial number appeared in the TV Room this morning. Ben and I were the only Brits so listened to shouts of, 'allez'… 'dommage'… and the best one was 'ooh la la' when they saw where Jonny Wilkinson's penalty kick was to be taken from :-)

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Now we were up nice and early, the game started at 8am, we were on the road for 10.30am. The rain had stopped (YIPPEE!!!!) and the sky was very slowly clearing but the prognosis wasn't good: the rainfall in Milford Sound is the highest in New Zealand, typically over 6000mm annually! The guidebooks say a raincoat and insect repellent are essential equipment. Sandflies are the other downer.

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For the best understanding of our journey, and the weather, on the Milford Road you need to check out our photos on Flickr. http://www.flickr.com/photos/theharlings As we set out with a newly replenished tank of petrol as there is only emergency fuel available at the end of the 120km/72miles road we saw signs stating snow chains MUST be carried…. The DOC leaflet for the Milford Road said road chains needed to be carried May to September and when we'd asked in the DOC if the road was okay to drive they said yes and didn't mention anything about chains so we continued on the road not wanting to part with cash without good reason. Another 56km in and we see another sign… we figure because of the changeable weather they don't want to keep changing the signs back and forth so leave them on worst case scenario…. Another few kilometers and we see a snow plough truck coming towards us!!! But looking decidedly un-snowy. We push on as the roads are perfectly fine and the weather is just a bit dreary… and then we see the snow! And the old avalanches and understand why the need for snow chains. The road was perfectly drivable today but if another snow came in and caused an avalanche you might need a bit of help getting out but realistically they'd close the road to clear the snow so you'd probs be alright without. To cut a long story short we were okay but we were worried we wouldn't get to go to Milford Sound.

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The mountains are snowy and cloudy but there is a tease of blue sky so we're crossing out fingers that it will clear up when we arrive in the Sound so we can see it! We enter another of NZ's masterpiece road efforts (NOT!) the Homer Tunnel completed in 1953 and by the looks of it hasn't been touched since. We reckon they're waiting for the earthquake that's currently about 80 years overdue as they'll have to replace bridges/tunnels then: sorry don't want to jinx it but it could likely happen shortly after we leave NZ given our current stats: Brazil – fatal plane crash, Peru – earthquake, Costa Rica – hurricane, USA – bridge collapse.

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We come out of the 1.2km tunnel and are delightfully greeted with near-clear blue skies and clear views of the snow capped hills and mountains! We were near delirious at our luck! Not sure what the official statistic is but a large number of people year round come to Milford Sound and don't get to see it properly. We had a fantastic afternoon and hope the photos reflect that. The weather was still changeable and we had a couple of spots of rain and hail but nothing was going to make me sit inside the boat and the sun made regular appearances.

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We parked up and all but ran to the water's edge to get some photos before the clouds came back in as we were so sure they would. With our photos taken we strolled over to the Visitors Centre and as the weather was still holding decided to go on a scenic cruise. We tried to bargain but no discounts were on offer so we booked with Mitre for a 2 hour cruise at 2.45pm. We went back to van for some lunch and it rained a little whilst we were eating. Thought we'd missed the sunny window but as we approached the boat the sun, and some dolphins, came out!

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Overall it was a beautiful day with stunning scenery. The waterfalls are all the better for the recent rains. We took lots of photos; I intend to put them on Flickr in the order they were taken so you can see how on one side of the boat it was sunny and the other cloudy but there was always something to look at. This is our favourite photo we took about 5.30pm as we got back to the car park after the cruise.

On the drive back we stopped at a few more scenic places, Chasm & Mirror Lakes. Spent night in Te Anau.

Mon 15^th – Doubtful Sound – You can only get to Doubtful Sound on organized trips and we found a cruise at a reasonable price. It was a small family company and just 20 people on the tour – not like some of the coach loads that fill huge boats. The trip started at Lake Manapouri where we took a boat across the Lake to Wilmot Pass and the Manapouri Underground Power Station. We had a brief tour of the Power Station then went across the Wilmot Pass to Doubtful Sound. The Wilmot Pass was built as part of the Power Station project and is only accessible by water hence you can't get there independently.

Out on the Doubtful Sound the weather was dodgy so we had our raincoats and waterproof overtrousers on. A few of the other passengers thought we were a bit keen at first but very soon realized we had the right idea as we could stay outside as long as we wanted and stay nice and dry. Doubtful Sound looks fairly similar to Milford Sound but is higher and wider; also different feel in the cloud and rain. What made the day though were the dolphins. Ben spotted them a few hundred metres away and alerted the driver-guide. He looped around and steered boat towards them and we travelled alongside the dolphins. When we went faster and created a good wake the dolphins started to jump the waves and completely breach the water! Was the best view of dolphins I've ever had – and I managed to get 3 good shots!

Travelled to Queenstown when we got back to Te Anau. Went out for dinner in Queenstown and had an extremely yummy pizza at Winnies – our first in nearly a month as you can't cook pizza in a campervan.

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Tues 16^th – Queenstown. It rained… all day! Also we experienced our first earthquake, well actually aftershock but the aftershock rated over 4. We were still in bed and the van started to rock: Ben blamed me and I accused him back and when we both realised neither of us was rocking the van we thought someone was shaking it – so we tore back the curtains and when no one was there we though it must be an earthquake. The radio later confirmed it.

The rain was depressing so spent morning in van reading and internet surfing and after lunch we made it as far as Starbucks before dinner at Fergburger followed by the cinema (we saw The Kingdom). Briefly stopped raining as we left the cinema but within minutes it started again.

Will let Ben tell you about the infamous Fergburger...
BEN XXXXXXXXXXXX

Wed 17^th – Today we left Queenstown – weather was marginally better: the rain wasn't so heavy. We made it as far as the outskirts of Queenstown and stopped to watch the AJ Hackett bungy. It's quite addictive watching people jump off; some people are boring and dive off calmly, it's the people who are obviously having second thoughts and get a little nudge from the staff that make it entertaining to watch. Not quite ready for a bungy myself so I do have respect to those who do jump.

We popped into an I-site to check out the weather at Mount Cook and it turns out the road to Milford is now closed until the weekend due to snow so we were lucky to get there!

The weather forecast for Mount Cook wasn't great but it's on the way to Christchurch so we decided to make the decision at the turn-off. The sun was shining on the beautifully blue glacial lake and whilst there were heavy clouds further down the valley blocking our view of Mount Cook we thought we'd chance it. Weather didn't improve but we did take a short walk to the Tasman Glacier. The LP isn't very nice about the Tasman Glacier calling it "downright ugly" but we thought it was pretty spectacular in its own way even though the cloud prevented us from seeing further up the valley to the main part of the glacier.

We decided to press on and check out Lake Tekapo – another beautiful blue lake with a cute little church perched on the waterfront. The Holiday Park looked pretty ropey so even though it was 7.30pm we decided to go another 50km's to a Top10 campground in Fairlie…. And when we arrived it said free wifi!! Yeah!! Well only kind of because the connection is pretty lousy but hey ho, it's free.

Thur 18^th – Christchurch. Parked up in the good old Top Ten Holiday Park – this was another very nice one, and busy too! Got bus into the City and wandered round for an hour or so. Really quiet town, even if it was a Thursday afternoon. Weren't really in mood for any more touristy stuff so chilled in Starbucks and started reading LP about Australia. Went out for dinner as it was our last night in NZ – had a good Indian (not as good as UK but tasty) and a beer.

Fri 19^th – Had a nice leisurely morning packing up our stuff…in the sun!! Typical the rain stops on our last morning! Though we had only bought 2 new sleeping bags and now had a few cooking condiments we struggled to get everything in our 3 bags… so we used the red shopping bag we'd bought in South America for the sleeping bags and down jackets… We were now travelling the world with 6 pieces of luggage! Crazy! We're leaving lots of stuff in Sydney whilst we travel Oz then we're shipping back a big box. Won't be needing warm gear in Asia. Took back our campervan – grown quite fond of it now so bit sad to see if go and went to airport. Good flight to Sydney – rubbish plane though so no TV's in back of seats :-)

Rest of our day in Australia Blog!!