I never really had time to blog while I was in NZ on our campervan trip, but I did keep a little diary. Because my blog is a good way for me to remember my trips and easy to access when I can't remember something, I'm going to write in my diary entries. They won't be super detailed because I don't want to spend ages during the summer working on this, but will give a gist of what we did. Also, I'm not going to be uploading photos, but in the future I will be putting all the photos up on facebook that you can check later.
2/21/18
We were delayed in McM a day due to tropical cyclone Gita hitting New Zealand
2/22/18
We were transported in the VIP section of the Kress on perhaps Shuttle Bob's last airport transport, as rumor had it that it was his last season. We arrived late into Christchurch, and we were put up in the *fancy* crowne plaza hotel
2/23/18
I had my doctor's appointment for the groin injury that I was still suffering from. I think she suspected a hernia and had me make an appt for an ultrasound in queenstown. We headed to the CDC and mailed some stuff home, and then headed to pick up our campervan at Rental Car Village. They had an incredibly cheap price on their vans (and came with recommendations from Linnah and Carolyn). Our van was a little Mazda Bongo. Slightly larger perhaps than our van in Iceland, but tiny all the same. To put it in perspective, the length of the car was shorter than my subaru (though my subaru has a lot of length in its nose) and definitely narrower than my suby. However, having a small car on the narrow roads of NZ is not necessarily a bad thing, nor is getting good gas milage in a country where gas was $2 NZ/ liter or roughly $6ish per gallon. We did some shopping at the cheap grocery store I had found, which would become one of Elisha's favorite (Pak'n'Save). We drove to Arthur's Pass NP that night to camp.
2/24/18
We climbed Avalanche peak. We had gorgeous views of the snow-capped and glaciated peaks of Arthur's Pass NP and the glacially carved valleys below. Interestingly, we had climbed that very peak with Jerod and Monica back in 2012 when Elisha and I were still unsure of each other...well, I was pretty sure, but her...haha. That year we travelled in a motorhome together with Jerod, Monica, and Shuttle Shafer for 1 week before going our separate ways and wondering if we'd be back to Antarctica and back together. The rest is history I suppose. Anyways, when we hiked it that day we had gorgeous views....of fog! From the top we couldn't see much more than a couple of feet in front of us. We were much luckier today! Actually we did hike a bit in the fog, but it cleared about the time I reached the top to reveal glorious views!
Here's the blog from our time in NZ together several years ago: http://travisjguy.blogspot.com/2012/02/campervanning-around-new-zealand-with.html
After the hike, we dipped our sore feet in the ice cold river and then continued down the valley. We stopped to walk around Cave stream, which is a hike you can do through a cave that a stream has carved out. We had done it on our previous trip, so decided not to do it this time. From there we drove to the Rakaia gorge area near Mt Hutt where we camped the night hidden away by some reservoir power plant
2/25/18
In the morning we drove to the little village of Mt. Somers (not in the mountains) and then took a remote dirt road, that had several river fords) to the Erewhon valley and Erewhon station. There were beautiful mountain views in this desolate valley and plenty of bone rattling ruts in the road. A true end of the world feeling. We parked and hiked to the top of a little hill known as Mt. Sunday. The wind was intense here! Would blow you over if you stood up. Mt. Sunday is famous because it is the filming location for Edoras in the Lord of the Rings. Neither Elisha nor I are huge Lord of the Rings fans, but we did watch the trilogy on my laptop while traveling through NZ, and it was cool to see many of the places where it was filmed throughout NZ.
In my opinion, the Lord of the Rings (combined with social media) has probably ruined NZ a bit. There will be more on this in a later blog, but NZ is overrun by tourists. More tourists than this country with a small population can handle. The locals are on edge from all the tourists, the most scenic areas can be over run, and nature itself is struggling in certain areas. I think visitation to NZ doubled or tripled or something crazy b/c of Lord of the Rings. It was definitely a different place--in terms of camper freedoms and friendliness of locals--than I remember from when my family spent 2 months campervanning through NZ in 1990. Of course, what would I know as a 6 year old, but having talked with my parents, we did get the idea that our experiences were much different. I don't blame the kiwis. The overcrowding due to tourists is not unique to NZ. Colorado is also overrun by tourists these days as well, and I believe it's negatively affecting the camping. This past May when we visited Zion, the awesome free campsite that Bro and I had stayed in back in 2011 was now closed to camping b/c of it being ruined by too many campers.
After the scenic Erewhon valley, we headed to Lake Tekapo (or lake take a poo as Elisha likes to call it). It's a beautiful and huge lake with a mtn backdrop. There is a pretty little chapel at the outlet of the lake. We had some NZ chips and then camped at a spot overlooking the lake.
2/21/18
We were delayed in McM a day due to tropical cyclone Gita hitting New Zealand
2/22/18
We were transported in the VIP section of the Kress on perhaps Shuttle Bob's last airport transport, as rumor had it that it was his last season. We arrived late into Christchurch, and we were put up in the *fancy* crowne plaza hotel
2/23/18
I had my doctor's appointment for the groin injury that I was still suffering from. I think she suspected a hernia and had me make an appt for an ultrasound in queenstown. We headed to the CDC and mailed some stuff home, and then headed to pick up our campervan at Rental Car Village. They had an incredibly cheap price on their vans (and came with recommendations from Linnah and Carolyn). Our van was a little Mazda Bongo. Slightly larger perhaps than our van in Iceland, but tiny all the same. To put it in perspective, the length of the car was shorter than my subaru (though my subaru has a lot of length in its nose) and definitely narrower than my suby. However, having a small car on the narrow roads of NZ is not necessarily a bad thing, nor is getting good gas milage in a country where gas was $2 NZ/ liter or roughly $6ish per gallon. We did some shopping at the cheap grocery store I had found, which would become one of Elisha's favorite (Pak'n'Save). We drove to Arthur's Pass NP that night to camp.
2/24/18
We climbed Avalanche peak. We had gorgeous views of the snow-capped and glaciated peaks of Arthur's Pass NP and the glacially carved valleys below. Interestingly, we had climbed that very peak with Jerod and Monica back in 2012 when Elisha and I were still unsure of each other...well, I was pretty sure, but her...haha. That year we travelled in a motorhome together with Jerod, Monica, and Shuttle Shafer for 1 week before going our separate ways and wondering if we'd be back to Antarctica and back together. The rest is history I suppose. Anyways, when we hiked it that day we had gorgeous views....of fog! From the top we couldn't see much more than a couple of feet in front of us. We were much luckier today! Actually we did hike a bit in the fog, but it cleared about the time I reached the top to reveal glorious views!
Here's the blog from our time in NZ together several years ago: http://travisjguy.blogspot.com/2012/02/campervanning-around-new-zealand-with.html
After the hike, we dipped our sore feet in the ice cold river and then continued down the valley. We stopped to walk around Cave stream, which is a hike you can do through a cave that a stream has carved out. We had done it on our previous trip, so decided not to do it this time. From there we drove to the Rakaia gorge area near Mt Hutt where we camped the night hidden away by some reservoir power plant
2/25/18
In the morning we drove to the little village of Mt. Somers (not in the mountains) and then took a remote dirt road, that had several river fords) to the Erewhon valley and Erewhon station. There were beautiful mountain views in this desolate valley and plenty of bone rattling ruts in the road. A true end of the world feeling. We parked and hiked to the top of a little hill known as Mt. Sunday. The wind was intense here! Would blow you over if you stood up. Mt. Sunday is famous because it is the filming location for Edoras in the Lord of the Rings. Neither Elisha nor I are huge Lord of the Rings fans, but we did watch the trilogy on my laptop while traveling through NZ, and it was cool to see many of the places where it was filmed throughout NZ.
In my opinion, the Lord of the Rings (combined with social media) has probably ruined NZ a bit. There will be more on this in a later blog, but NZ is overrun by tourists. More tourists than this country with a small population can handle. The locals are on edge from all the tourists, the most scenic areas can be over run, and nature itself is struggling in certain areas. I think visitation to NZ doubled or tripled or something crazy b/c of Lord of the Rings. It was definitely a different place--in terms of camper freedoms and friendliness of locals--than I remember from when my family spent 2 months campervanning through NZ in 1990. Of course, what would I know as a 6 year old, but having talked with my parents, we did get the idea that our experiences were much different. I don't blame the kiwis. The overcrowding due to tourists is not unique to NZ. Colorado is also overrun by tourists these days as well, and I believe it's negatively affecting the camping. This past May when we visited Zion, the awesome free campsite that Bro and I had stayed in back in 2011 was now closed to camping b/c of it being ruined by too many campers.
After the scenic Erewhon valley, we headed to Lake Tekapo (or lake take a poo as Elisha likes to call it). It's a beautiful and huge lake with a mtn backdrop. There is a pretty little chapel at the outlet of the lake. We had some NZ chips and then camped at a spot overlooking the lake.
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