Posts from — February 2025

This is the last night camping on our New Zealand adventure.
Tomorrow we return the Campervan and spend the night in downtown Christchurch.
Our destination today was Geraldine, it’s a really nice little town that we had passed through on our way south and we enjoyed the couple hours we had spent here on our way south so much that we decided to make it an overnight stop on the way back to Christchurch.
When we left Moeraki Village we stopped at a local tourist site called Moeraki Boulders which was about 5 km north of the village.
The boulders are spherical shaped rocks and for a full explanation go to Google to get a better geological explanation.
Trust us they are cool and not sure where else they can be found. On the beach we were at in about a 400 metre stretch there were about 45 boulders or pieces of boulders. Plus you could see on the hillside evidence of another boulder waiting for winds and sea to expose it from the hillside.

Once we arrived in Geraldine we got the Campervan set up and went for a walk through town and visited a few souvenir shops. Then back to the campsite to pack our suitcases for our next adventure to Australia.

This morning we left Queenstown to spend the night in Moeraki.
Today was going to be a bit of a drive as we have to start heading north to get back to Christchurch on Thursday, as we fly to Melbourne Australia on Friday.
Driving today was not on generally travelled routes, lots of farm country with sheep’s, cows and vineyards. Much that we drove through reminded us of the Oliver, Osoyoos and Keremeos area of BC.

Our stop tonight was at Moeraki Village Holiday park. It was an older camper park, but a tidy holiday park and our view was of the local harbour which was beautiful.

A later lunch today was at the local tavern. We shared a lunch called fishermen’s catch which consisted of blue cod, shrimp, prawns, calamari rings and fries. Nice view from the Tavern deck Eh?

Our plan was to spend 2 nights in Queenstown and use one of those days to go to Milford Sound.
Milford Sound is a fiord which is a long narrow inlet of sea with steep sides gouged out by a glacier.
There are 4 ways to get to Milford Sound
#1 Drive your own vehicle. Bad decision it’s an 8 hr return trip on very narrow and steep roads
#2 Take a tour bus. Same on the roads and travel time and your with 50 of your closest friends
#3 Fly into Milford Airport. A much better solution, however flights are hit and miss due to local cloud banks and a short runway
#4 Take a Helicopter flight. Now we’re talking. Take off on time, pick your way amongst the clouds find a whole in the clouds that opens up to sunny weather, land on a glacier on the top and side of mountain for a photo opportunity. Land at the Milford Sound airport, take a 2 hr return trip cruise then board your helicopter to take you back to home base.
JUST GUESS WHICH ONE WE PICKED?

You got it we opted for the helicopter flight and it was amazing. An extremely memorable experience and moment!

Where we landed, three of the sides were a 3 – 4 thousand foot drop to the valley floor. That in itself is invigorating.

A glacier lake

Approaching Milford Sound airport

Pictures from the Milford Sound Cruise

A final picture from the helicopter

We left Lake Tekapo and headed towards Lake Pukaki and specifically the White Horse Hills hiking trails which are at the foot of Mt Cook.

We had hopes of freedom camping but checking online showed all the sites were taken. Oh well we’ll figure it out when we get there.
The traffic all the way was pretty steady so we figured by the time we got there that parking would be at a premium.

We first stopped at the Sir Edmund Hillary Alpine Centre which is next to the DOC (Department of Conservation) tourist information desk. We queried if they had any spots available, referencing the website information and the attendant said they had lots since they only put up 100 openings on the web booking. So we grabbed a site for the night. Basically it ended up that we were in a parking lot, but it was approved and perfect for the night.
We found a spot on the side of the road to park the Campervan since all the parking lots were full then we went for a 2 hr hike

After the hike we moved the Campervan to our spot for the evening.

The following are some of the photos from the hike

Our camping spot in the parking lot, we could have moved but decided not to.

This is the view we woke up to the next morning

We got an early start and headed towards Queenstown. Queenstown reminds us a lot of Whistler. There is a gondola from the town to a peak overlooking the city, lots of young people working in the stores trying to afford the lifestyle, high end clothing stores and lots of outdoor activities.

After taking the ferry from the north island to the South Island we ended up in Picton for the night. The Campervan Park was nice but a little noisy as it was right on the main highway.

The next morning Dean and Judy headed off to Nelson and the west coast on NZ and we headed towards Kaikoura on the east coast. On the way we stopped for a couple hikes and since we were right on the ocean we saw lots of Seals and nursing Pups plus a pod of Dolphins. Kaikoura is also known as a place to see lots of whales.
Kaikoura is a cool little seaside village and we did a long walk along the water front before hitting the road for the day
We made the holiday park reservation while travelling and got the last spot as today was the start of a national holiday. ??????

From Kaikoura we headed towards Rakaia to stay at a river side holiday park.
For the first part we drove along the coast and the scenery was amazing.

Rakaia was another holiday park where we got the last spot. We went for a walk to the river and just about got there before hitting a muddle puddle that was trail wide and you could see where the Quads had chewed if up pretty good. This was definitely a family oriented camping park and lots of activities going on.

From Rakaia we drove to Geraldine on our way to Lake Tekapo. The Geraldine information centre lady was very helpful after getting loaded up with many things to do we arrived in Lake Tekapo. It was another campground that was full, but we had pre booked, so no problems getting a spot over looking the lake.
Lake Tekapo has a great beach walk and pedestrian bridge which makes getting around really easy.

We are into the last few days of being on the north island of New Zealand and are currently sitting in the Islander Ferry Terminal line up.

Below are a few of the pictures and sites we’ve seen over the last few days.

We are starting to get into sheep country, lots of fields with lots of sheep.

This is also where we have started to see lots of wind power energy generation in windmills

Foxton Beach holiday park, where we camped just off the Tasman Sea and the sand dunes were amazing. It was very windy so you can just imagine how much the sand dunes drift over time.

Our last stop before crossing on the ferry was in Wellington. Here we are having lunch on the Seaside boardwalk and waterfront

This morning we had a local bird visit us during breakfast

and here are some pictures from the ferry lineup waiting to board headed for the South Island and the town of Picton.

The following pictures are a few of our highlights so far.

Katikati Bird Sanctuary

Arapuni Suspension Bridge from 1925 used by works to get to construction site building hydro power station

Orakei Korako thermal hot springs that we had to take a ferry for the 2 hr hike

Opepe Bush Historic Reserve with huge trees and an amazing trail through the forest

Clifton Road Preservation Area – Freedom Camping on the beach