New Zealand - South Island
Queenstown
Flying from Auckland to Queenstown is quick, landing in Queenstown is exciting. Pilots who land here have had special training and have been certified to land in Queenstown. If you are lucky enough to have a window seat, the views are stunning. The approach is through a narrow valley surrounded by the Southern Alps with Lake Wakatipu below. The airport has only one runway, around 6000 ft. There are no jetways to funnel you into the terminal; when you exit the plane, you walk down ramp stairs to the tarmac and head on into the terminal to finish your arrival business.
Grabbed our luggage and very quickly found a shuttle ready to take us to RV rental headquarters, nice! More on that later.
Queenstown is small but vibrant and packed with good restaurants. Traffic is tight, but you can walk to many places from almost anywhere!
The Remarkables Mountain Range and Lake Wakatipu are largely responsible for the fantastic views.
There is a famous restaurant in Queenstown, Fergburger - We tried to see why it was so popular but could not do the couple-hour wait to get a burger, so it remains a mystery!
If you like wine, there are several great wineries around Queenstown. Great Pinot Noir!
This was our entry and exit point for the South Island; nice to be able to visit twice!!
Having had a week of driving (North Island) on the wrong side of the road from the wrong side of the car made negotiating the RV through town much easier.
It is a 21′ large class B, or a small 21′ class C by US standards. For the 2 of us, there was plenty of room. New Zealand has "Freedom Parks" and "Holiday Parks" where you can spend the night or a few days in your RV.
Freedom Parks are just a place to park, with no utilities (sometimes a public bathroom), but you can park legally and spend the night, or two or three if you are self-contained (for free).
Holiday Parks are more like RV parks in the US with these notable differences! Holiday Parks have very nice communal kitchen facilities. Multiple cooking stations with sinks, towels, etc. Communal refrigeration if you don't have the ability to keep your foodstuff cold. Also, all HP sites have electricity, most have water hookups, but none have sewer. All RV facilities have only one dump station; get in line and wait your turn...
Click here to watch a video tour of the rental RV
After getting checked out at Britz RV rental, the first order of business was to provision the RV. A couple of hundred bucks later, we're off to Queenstown Holiday Park for one night. We can unpack and stow our gear, get better acquainted with the rig, and try to get some sleep.
Adventure begins this morning, heading west.
Our first night out from Queenstown was to Brighton. On the west side of the South Island, we found "Ocean View Reserve Carpark" a no-frills Freedom stop along the beach. A gravel parking lot with a bathroom and no services. There is a limited number of overnight spaces, and they filled up before dark. Very windy and cold. It was the beginning of April or fall in the southern hemisphere.
We're in New Zealand boondocking at the beach, I know, tough duty! Lucia had her sights set on finding Razor Clams for our dinner. The beach seemed like the perfect spot, but to our disappointment, there were no Razors to be found. However, in a future post, I'll share our experience harvesting Razor Clams on Prince Edward Island in Canada. Stay tuned for that!
While exploring the beach, we had the pleasure of meeting a local full-time RVer. It was interesting to learn that there are full-time RV knuckleheads in New Zealand, too! This friendly local provided us with detailed local instructions (not found on any map) on where to find those elusive clams. It's always nice to connect with fellow travelers on the road.
Now, let's talk about the weather. It was quite windy and cold during our stay, and the overnight temperature dipped to a chilly 36ºF. Interestingly, this worked in our favor because we discovered an issue with the RV house battery while driving from Queenstown. You might be wondering why this matters. Well, the RV's refrigerator operates on 12V DC power, and when the house battery is depleted, we lose refrigeration. Unfortunately, the battery wasn't charging even when the engine was running. I suspect it could be a relay problem or a faulty battery. Fortunately, the converter worked perfectly when we plugged into shore power, ensuring that the refrigerator had a reliable 12V power supply. We made some adjustments to our routine and pressed on with our journey.
Ever wondered why in the world I'd include a picture of raw eggs in this post? Ok, I'll come clean!
We kicked off the day early, following our local friend's directions to hunt for Razor Clams. Though we didn't find many, the experience was a lot of fun. With our refrigeration on the fritz, we decided to head for Gore in search of a Holiday Park to plug in and sort it out.
On our way, we stumbled upon a roadside market (they're quite frequent here) and provisioned, grabbing some fresh produce, fruits, and local farm-fresh eggs. Little did we know that these eggs would surprise us when we cracked them open – the whites were yellow, and the yolks had a striking red hue. They tasted amazing, just like any regular chicken egg when cooked.
We spent the night in Gore, where we had the pleasure of meeting the new owners of the Holiday Park. It was a delightful encounter with a friendly man from Manchester, England, and his wife from Indonesia, truly exemplifying the Marco Polo effect of globalization.
With our refrigeration issues resolved, we continued our journey southward, making our way towards Invercargill and Bluff, later we decided to set up camp in Riverton.
Invercargill, the prominent city at the south end of the South Island, greeted us with its fascinating old buildings. Parking was a challenge, but we managed to explore the downtown area for a short while. And just in the nick of time, we found the only Starbucks we came across in New Zealand – quite a relief for a necessary pit stop. Interestingly enough, we learned this Starbucks holds the title of being the southernmost in the world! (See image attached)
As we ventured even further south to Bluff, we found ourselves merely 2500 miles away from the South Pole, with nothing but water separating us from Antarctica. Our future travel plans include visiting and exploring the Arctic Circle in the Yukon, Alaska, or perhaps even Norway.
Bluff turned out to be a quaint and touristy town, but the highlight was an amusing experience at a cafe where we ordered two different meals, and they served them both on the same plate!
Rain has been our most consistent companion but does let up at times. We sneak out often to walk around! The Riverton Holiday Park is our favorite to this point, rural, located amongst sheep farms and the southern coast of New Zealand. We encountered 3 backpackers emerging from the "bush" while an artsy-dressed lady played guitar. When they saw us the guitar-playing lady disappeared quickly... Maybe they didn't need background talent.
On our way to Milford Sound. To get there, we roll up the beach with our destination, Te Anua. Stopping at beaches along the way, Lucia found more cockles (clams) in the "Blue Cliff" area. At Monkeys Beach, you could stay for 28 days in your RV if you were self-contained. It was a beautiful sandy beach full of kids on a fall field trip while their parents dumped water from their boots. Gemstone Beach was not sandy, all rocks, weathered and challenging to walk on.
Milford Sound
So the burning question is: Is Milford Sound a "Sound" or a Fjord??? Geologist types will argue because glaciers carved it out, it should be called a Fjord. However, it is called "Milford Sound" because of a naming convention. Early European settlers in the area referred to these deep, narrow waterways as "sounds" after the familiar Scandinavian fjords, also called "sounds" in some regions. To you gentle reader you're probably asking - who gives a crap?
Gunn Lake Walk
The Wanaka Tree
The most famous tree in all of New Zealand some would say. Probably the most photographed. We found an overnight spot for our fashionable rental RV in Wanaka with the idea of rising before dawn to capture the sunrise on "Wanaka Tree" in its full glory. The night was clear and we could recognize the constellation Orion before retiring. Up before sunrise, thinking conditions were great to photograph "The Tree". A mile or so walk to be in position found a crowd of people (mostly mainland Chinese) already there, running over and getting in front of everyone trying to shoot the tree. Clouds came in at sunrise and did not provide the lighting I was looking for, coupled with the behavior of others I folded up my tripod and we continued our journey. I did manage to capture this...
We really enjoyed touring South Island in a rented RV. No problem with overnight parking, or parking for that matter. No lines to stand in, plenty of places to stop and see endangered penguins, seals at rest, beautiful landscapes, and a moonrise on the beach.
Parting Shots
