South Island Part 4 - Queenstown to Picton

After the weekend in Queenstown, I needed to get back up to the top of the South Island by Thursday lunchtime for my ferry over to Wellington. I chose to deal with a lot of the drive in one go and get as far as Christchurch by Monday evening.

By now I should have realised that any drive in the South Island would take me through some impressive scenery. The first part of the drive took me past Lake Tepako and several other lakes, all of which are a vibrant shade of blue due to minerals washing down from the mountains. With the sun shining off the surface they are quite a site. Much of the drive is also across big arid plains that stretch out between ranges of mountains that blur in the heat haze rising off the ground.

Lake Tekapo (It really is this colour, no photoshopping)

It was early evening by the time I arrived in Christchurch. While I’ve been to the city a few times because of work this was my first stay. I hadn’t booked any accommodation, but I planned to try and stay out by the surf beach on the coast rather than in the city, unfortunately all the places were easy closed because of earthquake damage or fully booked. After ringing round quite a few places I found a motel in the city centre. It must be a good sign that so many people are staying in the city and contributing to the economy.

The next morning I drove back out to the coast for a quick surf, the conditions were pretty messy but it was good to get in the water and I can now say I’ve surfed both islands of New Zealand. I drove back into the centre as I’d read about an innovative ‘container mall’ that had been opened to replace some of the damaged shopping. For a long time after the February earthquake the entire CBD was shut off, much of it is open again but diversions and buildings that are cordoned off make it a mission to navigate around. The mall was more elaborate than I expected, rather than just being standard shipping containers, they have sections cut out for windows and have been connected together in different ways to make some really clever commercial spaces.

From Christchurch I head up to Hanmer Springs, nestled in the mountains below Lewis Pass, one of the connections over to the West Coast. It’s a pretty little town centred around some natural hot springs. I stayed in a really friendly hostel with loads of nice touches like free fruit and ice cream (Hanmer Backpackers). It was still afternoon when I arrived, so I went for a short hike up to a lookout point then headed over to soak in the spa pools as the sun set.

The next morning I set off for a longer hike to Dog Stream Waterfall, a 42 metre waterfall hidden away in the forest. It was great to get out into the forest for a proper walk.

Hill-top view of Hanmer

Dog Stream Waterfall

In the afternoon I drove on up to Kaikoura. The town is most famous for whale watching tours, but this didn’t really tempt me. I had hoped to surf again, but the waves just weren’t keen to play, so I set off on Thursday morning towards the ferry terminal. On the way I had some time to kill so I stopped in to a museum of WW1 aircraft. It was a great display with a mix of preserved and replica aircraft and a huge amount of attention to detail in each of the displays. They even have a range of planes that they regularly fly for displays, as I arrived a Fokker was taking off.

A pilot managed to land his badly damaged plane by steering it like this!

It had been pretty windy so there was a good chance the ferry crossing was going to be rough. The ferry was delayed coming over from Wellington due to the waves, which wasn’t a good sign. Luckily the swell was dying down so while it was a bit bumpy it wasn’t too bad, which was good as right after I arrived back in Wellington I was off to dinner with some friends and it would have been a shame to have been feeling too seasick to enjoy it.

I spent a day in Wellington sorting odds and ends and catching up with people. I also went to pick up Hollie from the airport, who is the latest person to come over from the Department to work in the team I was in at the Ministry. Dropping her at the same apartments I stayed at when I first arrived made me think back to all that I’ve seen and done over the last year. I’m jealous of all my friends who have just arrived and have so much ahead of them.