The Big South Island Road Trip

From Mount Cook to Dunedin

The time to review our itinerary has come around again, which must mean we’ve finished our second week of road tripping already! Just a few days ago we were counting how long we’ve been living in Carina (our van) and road-tripping through the South Island... time really flies. Anyway, let’s get straight to the point and review our last week, before then introducing next week’s plan too.

A look back at last week...

Monday (14/10/2019)

The Plan

• Kea Point Viewpoint (1hr return) - Not a long walk to a viewpoint from where we could see bits of Mt Cook (occasionally between the clouds) in the distance behind Muller Glacier Lake. For the most part though we enjoyed the views of Mt Sefton and its Huddleston Glacier which were right next to us.

• Hooker Valley Walk (3hr return) - This 3 hr return track is the most popular in the area and it’s not hard to see why. Even without seeing Mt Cook we still got amazing views of Mt Sefton, this time in its whole beauty and throughout the entire walk. We also saw some more icebergs floating on the Hooker Lake at the end of the track.

• Lake Wardell Campsite

What Happened

Sleeping at the same place in which both the tracks we had planned for the day began, made our morning much easier and more relaxed then it would have been had we driven to the destination from the next nearest campsite. Starting the walks from the Whitehorse Hill Campsite also shortens both of these walks for a half an hour in each direction when compared to starting from Mt Cook village. The expectations for the start of our second week were the same as everybody else’s around us - we came to Mt Cook Village to see Mt Cook (the highest peak of New Zealand). Unfortunately, we weren’t lucky with the weather but still managed to have a great time and stick with our plan. The story would be different if the weather had been terrible but even despite the clouds stopping us from getting what we came for, in this instance second prize also happened to be pretty neat.

Tuesday (15/10/2019)

The plan

• Pelennor Fields (A Scenic Drive) - We drove past the Pelennor Fields with the canal to our right. The landscape(s) around are nice but not something you should feel bad about missing.

• Ben Ohau Peak (4hrs return) - After arriving in Twizel we managed to get distracted with other things and well... long story short, we didn’t go on this hike. It happens.

What Happened

Tuesday didn’t go very well in terms of following our itinerary. A food and cooking gas shortage (poor planning on our part) meant we missed out on breakfast. With this as our priority, we rushed past the Pelennor fields to Twizel where we bought food at a bakery. As it happens, we bumped into a familliar face there - Hubert, who we sold our Honda Odyssey to. That day we got our laundry done, tried to make a little progress with our next visa applications, visited the local library and went to the clay cliffs (surprisingly good). That night we stayed at Ahuriri Bridge Campsite.

Wednesday (16/10/2019)

The plan

• Lindis Pass Lookout (View from a hill) - No views for us, as it looks like the DOC have fenced off this area. It’s still technically accessible if you feel like breaking the rules while everyone else watches on, but as you may have guessed... we didn’t.

• Clay Cliffs ($5) - We ‘did these’ on Tuesday, and by that we mean you can actually climb up them. It’s more than worth the money but be prepared to get dirt on your trousers!

• View penguins at dusk at Bushy Beach - The DOC closes the beach at 3pm to protect the penguins and provides a viewing platform. Unfortunately, unlike in Timaru, we weren’t lucky enough to see any penguins this time.

• Camping at All Day Beach - A free campsite near the beach with toilets.

What Happened

With Lindiss Pass closed off, we gained some time in the morning and used it to get our cooker gas re-filled. We also did the short but nice Otematata Wetlands Walkway and checked out the Elephant Rocks on the way to Omarama, where we spent more time playing with a lamb and it’s mother than actually admiring the scenery. By this point it was fairly obvious to us that we weren’t going to be sticking to the schedule that day.

Thursday (17/10/2019)

The plan

• Herbert Forest Walking Tracks (5hrs) - The walk in Herbert Forest was not really typical of New Zealand, in fact it was very similar to what we would expect to find in Europe. Also, the cave was very shallow, and the incredibly small waterfall looked like it was operated by a pump that ran on AA batteries. In addition to all this, the track was super muddy. After feeling disappointed by the track, it was easy for the changing weather to pursuade us to cut the walk short, and turn around after finishing the Glenburnie Loop and head back to the Car Park.

• See the Moeraki Boulders on the beach - Even though it was cloudy and eventually started to rain, we had a lot of fun jumping across the boulders in the sea. We both got a little wet but also witnessed another man fall into the sea. We didn’t laugh... much.

• See the penguins at Katiki Point Penguins (dusk) - Access to this area is via a gate which is locked daily at 17:30. We arrived at around 6, only to see the gatekeeper wait for a family to go out of sight before locking them in and driving off.

• Katiki Beach North Reserve - Great spot right by the beach with toilets.

What Happened

On Thursday we tried our best to follow our plan and didn’t do too bad if we’re honest. Had the Katiki Point not have been closed then we would have ticked off everything for that day. On the other hand however, we were very lucky not to get locked in.

Friday (18/10/2019)

The Plan

• See yellow eyed penguins at Shag Point (Dawn) - No luck again. It is hard to tell exactly where the nests are because there are no signs and the sound of the sea masks their little voices. We’re getting good at not seeing penguins.

• Go surfing at Warrington Recreation Reserve - We tested the water to check the temperature. Nope. Maybe in a couple of months...

What Happened

With surfing planned as our main activity for the day, we ended up having a lot of time spare on Friday. Instead of freezing ourselves in the sea we went to Dunedin to sort out Carina (Yep, the van). In town we had to visit 6 or so places to source the parts we needed to fix the problem by the side of the road because we didn’t want to pay a garage to do the work for us. It was a lot of effort but we saved a few hundred dollars by replacing the bearings in one of our pulleys ourselves. Later we went to the gym (read : had a hot shower) and spent the night in the carpark/ temp campsite behind the railway station.

Saturday (19/10/2019)

The Plan

• Explore the Natural Cave (accessible at low tide - 10min) - We intended to explore the cave yesterday but missed our turn.

• Organ Pipes Track (1-2hrs) -We skipped this one.

• Go to Baldwin Street (Steepest residential street) - We decided to visit the street on Sunday instead. Busier than expected, but a nice stop.

• Check out the First Church of Otago - Avid multi-taskers, we checked out this landmark whilst simultaniously driving to our next stop, but for that reason we can’t tell you much about it... or indeed anything at all really.

• Whakamana: The Canabis Museum - We were really looking forward to this, so imagine our dismay when we realised it had been moved to Christchurch:(

• Tunnel Beach Track (1hour) - Something we actually managed to do. This is a beautiful little beach and we’d recommend it to anyone.

What Happened

We started our day by grabbing breakfast at the Dunedin Farmers Market next to the train station. After exporing the market we picked up a new auxillary belt for Carina and by lunch she was running sweet again. With the afternoon still free and the weather on our side, we started by visiting a few more beaches before making it to Tunnel Beach. We then had a quick look at St. Clair’s Beach, went to Okia Reserve and finished our day parked next to Harrington Point Road.

Okia Reserve was much better than we expected. We picked up an information sheet at the start of the track and took the loop walk down to the beach. The info sheet guides you through the wetlands surrounding Okia Reserve Beach, giving interesting facts about your surroundings and eventually leads you to the seafront. We practically had the beach to ourselves, with the exception of some resting sea lions.

Sunday (20/10/2019)

The Plan

Spare day

What Happened

On Sunday we were woken up by chickens living in a tree that we parked next to, and that morning we continued exploring Otago Peninsula. Our fist stop was the Pilots Beach right next to the Royal Albatros Centre. Unfortunately, the beach was closed - we could have payed $52 to see some albatrosses but the birds didn’t really interest us.

From the north tip of Otago Peninsula we drove to Allans Beach, which is another beautiful beach along the peninsula. We spotted a few sea lions sleeping on the rocks and didn’t spend too long there.

Being already in Dunedin, we thought we’d check out the one and only castle in New Zealand (Larnach Castle). We were only after a glimpse from the outside and not wanting to pay any entry fees, but the castle is well covered from all directions so we actually got nothing...

The highlight of this day was definitely Sandfly Bay. This beach is absolutely gorgeous. We saw some really big sea lions lying around the beach and one penguin making his way back home.

For the night we chose to stay at Ocean View - a public car park.

Summary

Things ticked off our itinerary: 12/18

Things outside of the plan: 7

Money spent: $778.35

- activities: $5

- accommodation: $0

- petrol: $223.70

- other: $549.65

Kilometres driven: 807km

After comparing our second week to the plan, you might wonder why we even make plans in the first place just to change them completely... it happens though and to be honest it’s all part of the journey. We can at least agree that this week was productive; we may not have seen everything we wanted but we also saw some other great places and fixed our van in the process.

For our third week we plan to put some time aside for fixing up and improving our little home on wheels (we seem to be doing a lot of that lately). Hopefully by mid-week we’ll be back up to full speed and hit the road again. We plan on making our way through the Catlins, seeing the most southern point in New Zealand and celebrating Halloween in Invercargill.

Here’s next week’s itinerary:

Monday (21/10/2019)

Starting point: Public Car Park - Ocean View (A free campsite for all types of vehicles)

• Shopping for all the little bits and bobs while we’re still in the city (Dunedin)

Tuesday (22/10/2019)

• Install an audio system in Carina so we can drive in (even more) style.

• Tidy up and reorganise Carina.

Wednesday (23/10/2019)

• Stop by “Old Sod Cottage” at Lovells Flat

• Go to the Nugget Point Lighthouse

• Stop at Roaring bay, maybe see some penguins...

• Visit Cannibal Bay or Surat Bay (or even both)