We woke to a dreary old day in Reefton and it was even a little cool. So we headed off early, wanting to explore the Nelson Lakes. By the time we got to Murchison, the weather had cleared and it was hot! 

We took a little detour to Lake Rotoroa, and it was a beautiful spot surrounded by mountains with a doc camp beside it. But as soon as we got out of the car we were attacked by sandflies and bumble bees. So we jumped back into the car and quite a few sandflies came with us. Bloody things were hungry too, gnawing away having a good suck. I killed a few on the windscreen and wondered if it was my blood or someone elses.

Then we stopped at St Arnaud and looked at Lake Rotoiti. This was another spectacular spot, with slightly less sandflies. Under the pier were loads of big black eels. They were really cool to watch and they were friendly too.

It was an absolutely stunning day, but we both felt a bit over it. We were covered in bites and felt like we were ready to go home. So we continued on to Picton in the hope that we could catch the 2pm ferry. It’s pretty normal to do this in Europe, but apparently it doesn’t work like that here. We rocked up at 1.25 pm only to be told we were too late. So they put us on standby for that evenings ferry.

In the meantime we had a look around Picton. We had some fish and chips in the main street and wandered around the foreshore which was beautiful and clear. We even enquired about water taxis for the Queen Charlotte track. It’s $129 each and thats for drop off and pick up. And we don’t need to book anywhere if we take our own tent. We might come down and do that another time.

We only had an hours parking so we headed back to the Bluebridge terminal as it was free parking and they had airconditioning and toilets. I decided to check again to see if anything had come up for the evening’s sailing. Mike said I was stupid as we’d checked earlier. But people are changing their bookings all the time, so I was hopeful. And sure enough, we got onboard the evening’s sailing.

Then we went and popped Poppy’s top to get some airflow through and had an afternoon nap. I was just so tired for some reason, and fell asleep through the constant truck noises coming and going. Mike had the foresight to make the bed before we got to the other side. Then again on the ferry, I basically slept the entire way. It was a really calm crossing, and not too busy.

We arrived in Wellington at 11pm, but didn’t get off the ferry until 12pm. They really are slow to load and unload, it is ridiculous. We drove to Mana freedom camp, and drove around following two other campervans who were also looking for spots. Then I saw a spot, on a slight slope between two campervans. It was perfect. We popped our top and crawled into our nicely made bed and passed out. It was the perfect ending to our South Island holiday.

We had a great nights sleep in Greymouth but woke up to cold windy weather. It was really relaxing sitting in the van overlooking the ocean, but it was a bit grey so we headed off.

As we headed inland the weather cleared and warmed up. We didn’t get very far. I think we drove about 2 hours and stopped for lunch in Reefton. We had no plans to stop for the day, but the freedom camp there was gorgeous, overlooking the river. So we parked up while we cooked up some burgers for lunch. 

Then we took a stroll around Reefton. It’s a cool old gold-mining town with charming shops like in Coromandel. But it was so hot! We stopped in the tourist centre to get out of the heat and that had a film on about Denniston, so we sat down to watch it.

Then we went back to our camp, and decided a swim was in order. The river water was a bit cool to start with but once we got in, it was beautiful and refreshing. We spent the afternoon lazing around, and meeting people. We met a couple from Whitianga, and a guy from Ngatea! And a couple who are living in their motorhome who said they saw us way back at the arches up past Karamea!

The weather is so weird. We’ve gone from freezing days and nights to absolutely hot. For the last week i’ve been sleeping in my thermals, tonight I am sleeping in a singlet with the windows wide open and the fan on! Crazy!

We were reluctant to leave our beautiful spot overlooking Lake Pukaki and the mountain, but the weather is supposed to be turning yuck tomorrow and we wanted to drive the Arthurs pass while it was fine. It was another glorious sunny day and a beautiful drive. 

Tekapo looked lovely, but too many people so we kept on driving. Jenny had told me about a pie place in Fairlie, so we were keen to make it by lunchtime.

We arrived at the Fairlie Bakehouse about 11.15 and there was already a queue of about 4 people. So I left Mike to order and went and got a table outside. It didn’t take long and he arrived with our Pork belly and Apple pie with crackling on top. We decided on one to share, and if we liked it we could get another one.

It was absolutely delicious. The buttery pastry, and the tender pork and apple all paired amazingly together. It was very rich though, so I’m glad we didn’t get one each. And I’m even more glad that we didn’t want another one as when the left, the queue was up the street! We’d timed it perfectly!

We continued on, then made my first mistake of the day. I decided on a tiki tour to the Ashburton Gorge and the lakes. But it was a lot further than I expected. We ended up on a rutted gravel road full of potholes and corregations and it was really slow going. It was a beautiful area though. A large flat area surrounded by mountains and it felt like remote prairie land. The TA trail comes through here too, so maybe Susan has walked through here.

At the end we came to the Heron Lake, which I think would have looked amazing on a calm day with reflections of the mountains, but today it was all roughed up and looked ordinary. So that little detour took 2 hours out of our day.

So we backtracked and continued on, determined to see the Arthurs Pass on a nice day. And it delivered. What an incredible drive. I felt like I’d been transported back to Alaska (but less snow). Beautiful riverbeds surrounded by mountains, and probably the most scenic drive we have done on this trip. 

After that, it was time to find a place to camp. But there really wasn’t anywhere so we ended up pushing it all the way to Greymouth. Because our of little detour earlier, it was almost 9pm by the time we arrived. Of course, the freedom camping carpark was full. But we had intel from last time. There is another (better) area right next to it where we saw people camping up there last time. We drove up a short gravel drive and there is a huge gravel carpark overlooking the beach. It’s an absolutely magnificent spot. Driftwood guy was here again, in his driftwood castle with his beach fire burning. And we managed to catch the last of the sunset. A nice quiet night.

Wow, wow, wow, today was amazing.

We started the morning by cancelling our car relocation for the routeburn, and thankfully got 70% of the cost back. I’m feeling quite relieved now I have cancelled and looking forward to heading north to warmer weather.

We were on the road early. It was a glorious day and I really wanted to see Mount Cook. We’d been up there a few times before and it’s always been in the clouds.

It was a beautiful drive through the farm land and over the Lindis pass. But the drive up to mount cook was just incredible. The bright blue water of Lake Pukaki and the mountain sitting proud in the distance.

At the end of the road, we did the Tasman glacier hike, which took us up some steep steps. The first viewpoint was the blue pool which was actually green. It was named the blue pool because it used to be fed by the glacier flow, so it did in fact used to be blue. But since the glacier has receded, it is now green. 

At the top were many people. I’m sure there was a stunning view over the Tasman Lake and the glacier, but all I could see was people. So I took a couple of snaps and got the heck out of there!

It was really warm today, no wind and we were both down to our shorts and t-shirts, and even had the a/c on in the car!

We stopped beside Lake Pukaki for lunch, admiring the blue lake. Then continued to a freedom camping spot overlooking the lake and Mt Cook bang in the middle. It was only 2.30pm, but we were not going to turn down a perfect spot like this. We sat for the afternoon just staring at the mountain.

Some really cool Americans parked next to us, so we spent the evening chatting to them. They are really nice. They met a NZ guy in the States who invited them out and offered them his campervan. Then he said bring friends, as he had two vans. So here they are, touring NZ on the generosity of a kiwi from Rotorua. The other funny thing is, the guy from Rotorua also has a campervan in the USA and also the UK. I think I want to meet this guy who sounds like us!

It was a perfect afternoon and evening.

We woke up this morning and didn’t feel like moving. We said goodbye to Susan and Gary and decided to stay put. Our campsite is overlooing lake Hawea and the weather is lovely and sunny.

I forgot to mention yesterday I tried my loaded pack for the first time.  I’d been pain free for a few  days and the physio had suggested trying my pack about 6 days before the hike, and to try wearing it for 60-90 minutes. If I remained pain-free the next day, I should be fine for the hike,

Well, as soon as I put my pack on I felt a pain. It wasn’t as bad as it had been, but it felt like a warning sign. Later that day I tried it again around the campground, for only about 20 minutes. The pain was still there but not getting any worse.

So, today we did a walk into Hawea, only about an 1.5 hour round  trip, no pack on my back. It felt fine, until later in the afternoon. It’s still not as bad as it was in Nelson, but it is causing me discomfort every time I move. I figure this is a sign, and my gut is telling me not to do the walk.

So I rang Robyn to tell her we’re probably bailing. John suggested I just take ibuprofen regularly during the hike to cope. That might work for some people, but masking pain during a multi-day hike doesn’t sit well with me and could easily turn a minor strain into weeks of physio. With our upcoming European adventure only 7 weeks away, I’m not willing to take that risk. I’ve learned to trust my gut with these things. So I think we’re going to start heading north tomorrow. It’s too frikking cold down south anyway!

We had heavy rain overnight,buffeting the van and I was hoping the canvas on our pop-top was waterproof. But in the morning it cleared and we were on our way along the haast pass.

We stopped at the roaring billy waterfall which was a short walk through the bush. At the end of the bush it opened up onto a wide river bed. There were loads of neat shaped and coloured rocks. It was a gorgeous spot surrounded by mountains. On the other side of the river was an impressing waterfall cascading down the mountain.

We continued our drive, stopping off at little spots to admire the river and surrounding mountains. It really was a beautiful drive. A bit further on was another waterfall. It was only a 5 minute walk to this one, which was a skinny waterfall spilling out of the mountain.

We were going to stop at the blue pools, but the carpark was full so we skipped it and continued. The drive beside Lake Wanaka was as beautiful as I remembered, but the real wow factor was when we reached Lake Hawea. The views of the beautiful blue water from above was incredible, and I probably too more footage than I should have.

We arrived at the camping ground in Lake Hawea and decided to stay and catch up with Susan and Gary. They had no powered sites left, so we found a gorgeous non-powered spot overlooking the lake.

Susan and Gary arrived just after us, and we had a burger at the on-site camp restaurant. It was delicious.

Today we woke up to rain. It wasn’t heavy, just enough to know it was damp outside. We decided not to make coffee in the van and instead headed for a cafe so I could get a video uploaded. The coffee was nice too.

After that we headed off, driving south. It was quite a dramatic scenery drive today. The mountains were covered in mist and it felt really moody.

We turned off before Haast abd detoured down to Jackson bay, leaving all the tourists behind. It was an incredible drive and we barely saw another. It felt like we were driving in the Daintree forest with the lush trees either side of the road. 

And then we went over a long one lane bridge over the brilliant turquoise water of the river. After that it was the most magnificent drive along a narrow coastal road. It was a wild west coast day with waves crashing almost over the road. At the end we found all the campervans (ok, about 6 of them) but they were all in the restaurant at the end universe (well the end of the road, but could have been the universe). The restaurant is called the Craypot, and it looked really yummy, but they had a waiting list so we decided not to.

It was absolutely pissing it down with rain so we didn’t stay long. I would have liked to have taken a walk along the pier, but being such a wild and windy day, we headed back. There was a nice freedom camping spot I had eyed at on the way up.

We arrived at the spot and pulled in and were the only ones there. It had a gorgeous outlook over the inlet and we couldn’t believe our luck finding such a perfect spot. But when we got out of the car we were attacked. Sandflies came at us, ready to eat us for dinner. We decided this wasn’t such a great spot after all, and headed into Haast.

We stopped at a lodge which had camping for campervans. We were right opposite the kitchen and lounge and it was set up like a backpackers, with a great kitchen and loads of lounging chairs. We had much needed showers as we were minging, and also got our laundry done. We are also on a powered site so we were able to use our new heater.

We are both exhausted. We spent the morning drinking coffee before heading on about 11am. We wanted to find somewhere nearby to chill out for the day. We drove down to a freedom camping spot at the beach, but it didn’t have the vibe. The plan was to have a quiet day, then race past the tourist hot spots of Fox and Franz josef glacier.

But we didn’t find anything and ended up camping in the middle of Franz Josef. But it’s a really nice spot at the NZMCA park here. I was worried about mike’s elbow that he scraped on his fall yesterday, so I made him go to see the nurse. She cleaned it up and said it would be fine, so at least that’s something we don’t need to worry about. 

We spent the afternoon relaxing. I finally got my next video finished, now I just need to find somewhere to upload it.

This morning we had to go to the hospital. But don’t panic, all is ok.

We had a great night sleep at the Greymouth freedom camp. We headed off about 9am as Mike needed to go to the hospital for blood tests. With this new medication he is on, he needs to have fortnightly blood tests. And they don’t have pathlabs in the south island, so we had to go to the hospital for it.

It’s quite different here going for blood test. In Hamilton, every sits in the waiting room, ignoring eye contact with anyone else. In Greymouth, everyone is chatting, making small talk about the weather, and joking and laughing. It was kinda cool.

After that we headed to Lake Kaniere. Some YouTubers we follow invited us to visit, so we did! We’ve been following each other for years, and they are the best NZ channel we follow. They are @LeopardsGoWild and they live full time in their caravan with their 3 kids. So, it was so cool to finally meet them. 

We didn’t feel like staying at the doc camp they were at, so we continued on towards the hokitika gorge, taking the gravel back roads. On the way was an incredible waterfall, which of course we had to photograph. Except Mike fell over on the slippery rocks and grazed his elbow rather nastily. I put a plaster on it and hope it will be ok.

We continued on to the Hokitika gorge, arriving just before 5pm. It was a great time to visit, the rou buses just leaving and not too many people. And the water was just unreal! We’d been here before but the water wasn’t this blue. Last time it was like a murky floury blue, this time it was a bright turquoise, almost fluorescent. It was so beautiful I couldn’t stop looking at it.

After that came the time to look for somewhere to camp. I had the NZMCA park in Hokitika lined up, but it was absolutey chockers. So we continued on. We were both feeling really tired. There was a park over property in Ross. We drove up, saw the gate across, and decided we didn’t like the look of it, so turned back. Then I realised how tired I was, so we did a double take. I suggested we just look at it, and if we still don’t like it, we move on.

It was actually a beautiful spot surrounded by trees, and was already very full with motorhomes. But we found a spot, and for $10 a night it felt safe and was very peaceful. (Incidentally, Jenny and Barry checked out this spot the previous day and turned away too!)