NZToday Special Edition South Island Road Trips Collection

Special Edition NZTODAY RV LIFESTYLE COLLECTION South Island Road Trips

collection

YOUR PERFECT TR A COMPANIO VEL TO EXPLOR N THE SOUTHE ISLAND

South Island

Queenstown to the Catlins Karamea to the glaciers & Jackson Bay Christchurch to Motueka via Lewis Pass Allan Dick’s Top 10-day roadie ex- Queenstown

ROAD TRIPS Central Otago gold trails Takaka Hill to Golden Bay $9.95

Mackenzie Country - SH8 Timaru To Tekapo

inc.

GST

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18/05/2020

Greymouth to Okarito - Google Maps 18/05/2020

Nelson to Wharariki Beach - Google Maps

Special Edition

Picton to Greymouth - Google Maps

ROAD TRIPS

161 km, 2 h 53Picton min to Greymouth Greymouth Drive to Okarito

n to Wharariki Beach

South Island

collection

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18/05/2020

Gillespie Beach Campsite to Haast Pass-Makarora Road, Haast 7886 - Google Maps

18/05/2020

Oamaru to Motueka - Google Maps

Gillespie Beach Campsite to Haast PassMakarora Road, Haast 7886 Okarito, 7886 to Gillespie Beach, West Coast - Google Maps

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Map data ©2020

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20 km

161 km

227 km

Explore Okarito

Map data ©2020

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20 km

via State Highway 63 and State Hwy

3 h 9 min

3 h 9 min without tra c

Map data ©2020

50 km

8 h 21 min 583 km

8 h 21 min without tra c

Explore Greymouth

18/05/2020

Oamaru to Oamaru - Google Maps

Oamaru to Christchurch - Google Maps

Rd and State

Drive 694 km, 9 h 4 m

Drive 79.9 km, 1 h 35 min

2 via h 53State min Highway 6

Oamaru to Oamaru

Drive 806 km, 11 h 16 min

Drive 440 km, 5 h 42 min

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Groceries

Drive 245 km, 3 h 22 min

Oamaru to Motueka

karito, 7886 to Gillespie Beach, West Coast

church ions Parking Lots

Drive 583 km, 8 h 21 min

Drive 227 km, 3 h 9 min

Hotels

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Map data ©2020 5 km Gas stations Parking Lots

MoreGroceries

1 h 35 min 79.9 km

tra c

via State Highway 6 3 h 22 min without tra c

, 9679 to Queenstown

Gas stations Parking Lots Map data ©2020

More 20 km

3 h 22 min

Manapouri, 9679 to Queenstown - Google Maps

ch

Hotels

245 km

Drive 1,361 km, 17 h 35 min

Explore Haast Pass-Makarora Road 18/05/2020

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Queenstown to Invercargill - Google Maps

Queenstown to Invercargill

+Hill/Takaka/Collingwood,+7073/Pakawau,+7073/Puponga+hilltop+walk+-+Farewell+Spit+%26+Puponga+…

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Groceries

5 h 42 min

out tra c

440 km

Hotels

Gas stations Parking Lots

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via SH 1

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Map data ©2020

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via SH 1

Drive 541 km, 8 h 16 min

Map data ©2020

9 h 4 min

11 h 16 min

11 h 16 min without tra c

806 km

https://www.google.co.nz/maps/dir/Picton/Westport/Granity/Karamea/Seddonville,+7891/Greymouth/@-41.8436108,171.4847765,8z/data=!3m1!4b1!4m38!4m…

9 h 4 min without tra c 694 km

rch https://www.google.co.nz/maps/dir/Greymouth/Hokitika/Hokitika+Gorge,+Kokatahi+7881/Ross,+7812/Okarito/@-42.8668915,170.1259298,9z/data=!3m1!4b1…

Explore Oamaru

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Explore Motueka Gas stations Parking Lots

100 km

20 km

Google and the Google logo are registered trademarks of Google LLC, used with permission.

as stations Parking Lots

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Groceries

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,+7886/Franz+Josef+Glacier,+West+Coast/Fox+Glacier/Lake+Matheson,+West+Coast/Gillespie+Beach,+West+Coas… 1/1

Live tra c

Fast

Slow

Map data ©2020

Groceries Map data ©2020

via Crown Range Rd and Cardrona 8 h 16 min Hotels Valley Rd Gas stations Parking Lots

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541 km

8 h 16 min without tra c

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CONTENTS 8 Golden Bay

From caves and golden-sand beaches to the Heaphy Track and Cape Farewell, Golden Bay lives up to the promise of its name. Jane Dove Juneau takes a roadie over the Takaka hill to Golden Bay’s Farewell Spit, exploring Takaka, Collingwood and Cape Farewell, as well as birdwatching and collecting cockles. Accessible from Nelson, Picton and Christchurch. NZT70

14 West Coast Karamea to Jackson Bay Maps: 14-19-26-33

A drive like no other in the country – Picton to Westport and north to the end of the road at Karamea, then south through Westport along the stunning coastal drive to Punakaiki Rocks and on to Greymouth. Explore the Grey District before continuing south down through Ross, Hokitika, Franz Josef, through history-laden gold-and-glacier countryside right to the end of the road at Jackson Bay, by editor Robyn Dallimore.

Accessible from Picton, Christchurch or Queenstown via Wanaka. Extracted from four editorials in NZT issues 67, 68, 69 and 70

38 Canterbury to Tasman

A road less travelled – Christchurch to Motueka via Lewis Pass and the Shenandoah. Allan Dick heads north exploring well-known villages along the way, while following SH7 into the Southern Alp mountains and heading north to Motueka via Murchison. Accessible from Nelson, Picton or Christchurch. RV-NZTL Vol 3

50 Canterbury to Mackenzie

A quick round-trip from Ōamaru to Fairlie and Lake Tekapo, Allan Dick heads off for a couple of days, taking in the history, villages and people along the way. Accessible from Christchurch on extended road trip, or from Dunedin. NZT80

58 Central Otago

Allan Dick leaves Ōamaru in his 4WD Nissan to traverse the roads – both tarmac and off-road – through Central Otago on a round-trip from Ōamaru heading south to Dunedin, weaving across Central Otago, through Clyde and on to Cromwell, then returning via southern Mackenzie country to Ōmarama and down the Waitaki Valley back to Ōamaru. On the way regaling readers with golden tales from the past while remote DOC camping, exploring and meeting characters along the way. This route can be accessed from Queenstown, Dunedin and Invercargill. NZT 67

68 Central Otago-Southland-Fiordland

Allan Dick shares his top 10-day South Island roadie, a round-trip starting from Queenstown and encompassing Central Otago, Waitaki, Dunedin as well as a Southland side trip to Te Anau and Milford Sound.

The quintessential southern road trip experience. Accessible from Queenstown, Dunedin and Invercargill.

RV-NZTL Vol 1

84 Queenstown to Catlins Coast

Lake Wakatipu to the Catlins – Justine Tyerman explores Southland, driving, camping, cycling, tramping and taking in the villages and historic trails along the way, starting in Queenstown ending at the Waipapa Point lighthouse on the Catlins coast. Accessible from Queenstown, Dunedin and Invercargill. RV-NZTL Vol 3

Now is a great time to get out and explore your backyard. We’ve been carrying vehicles across Cook Strait for over 50 years so we know a thing or two about keeping you and your motorhome or caravan safe. On our two biggest ferries Kaitaki and Kaiarahi, you can drive on and off without having to turn your vehicle around onboard the ship. Easy for everyone and perfect for fifth wheelers.

We can’t wait to welcome you onboard.

THE GREAT JOURNEYS OF NEW ZEALAND

Find out more at

greatjourneysofnz.co.nz/NZMCA

SCENIC SOUTHERN STUNNER ROADIES

W

hen the going gets tough, the tough get going, on the road that is.

Exploring our own country is on everyone’s minds as we move through winter, dreaming of our next holiday away from home. Many Kiwis are starting ‘must-do’ lists around their local regions and master lists of destinations further afield that should be visited in the future.

We have compiled a collection of popular road trip stories from previous issues of the magazines. We know our readers use our travel stories as a reference point and a ‘guide’ for looking to get the best and most from the magazine to plan their own personal adventures around the country – deciding which places in New Zealand they would like to explore first, out of all the places they have read about or seen pictures of, and then planning to make it happen.

The Rock and I have travelled New Zealand extensively, as has our most loved writer Allan Dick – I would say between us we would have covered 2–300,000km up and down dale over the years. Allan shares his ‘best 10-day road trip’ out of Queenstown here. For Bruce and me personally, driving from Picton to the West Coast then down to Haast is up in the top three trips, along with the drive from Haast to Wanaka – it’s only about 170km, so can be driven in less than two hours, but is so stunning it can easily take a whole day, especially if you stop at all the DOC and pull-over spots and take in the walks. The Blue Pools and Thunder Falls at the least should be explored. I love this drive so much, dramatic landscape, sparkling clear water, and ferns, moss and greenery abound as you drive through to the lakes’ region.

Another drive that battles for top place really is the drive from Te Anau to Milford Sound – that really can’t be beaten, and I now put that to number one as I think about it. Stopping at all the DOC pull-over spots and view spots can take hours, seeing and going through the Homer Tunnel is another incredible highlight. If you’re lucky it will rain either during the inward or outward leg of your drive here as the waterfalls are almost magical, in a soft mist, no actual hard rain just the stunning after-effects. Allan writes of that drive in his story

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in these pages. Then the Blenheim to Kaikōura drive – we have driven that hundreds of times, and recently took the train trip as well. This coastline is spectacular. I would love to have shared this trip with readers, but alas there weren’t enough pages in this issue to cover them all.

On a more general note, we look forward to bringing our readers more inspiring road trips to enjoy in the North Island in spring time.

The entire world has been through and is going through such a dramatic and anxious time with COVID-19, a time such as we’ve seen in entertaining fictional movies and TV shows, not a time we imagined we would actually live through.

Now we need to move forward to a different future, with many businesses disappearing, or morphing and changing to meet the new normal. Our ability to travel and to spend a few dollars as we go is going to be the vital blood in the veins of numerous businesses around the whole country, so we hope this magazine goes some way to inspire you all to do just that – get out and explore your local area and your neighbouring regions, spread out and do what must be done, have a thorough look around and explore your own country; the best and most beautiful country in the world – millions of overseas visitors can’t be wrong – right? Think of a place like the Tongariro Crossing – just hours away from millions of you readers. Tongariro usually boasts 3000 walkers per day but now there’s only a handful of people on the track.

Abel Tasman is the same. Queenstown has dropped back into the 1970s and I can’t wait to visit down there again – which is funny as the last time we went there we decided we were done with the touristy very busy vibe there, but now we are champing at the bit to get south.

Safe travels, happy dreaming and planning, but most of all take care out there.

Robyn Dallimore Editor Publisher

Bruce Mountain Publisher

Editor Robyn Dallimore E: robyn@nztoday.co.nz Sub edit + proofing team Thiers Halliwell, Allan Walton Advertising Enquiries Bruce Mountain E: bruce@nztoday.co.nz M: 021 657 090 Office / Subscriptions Laura Atkinson E: subs@RnRPublishing.co.nz Design + Production Cameron Leggett - camleggettphoto.com Contributors Robyn Dallimore, Allan Dick, Jane Dove Juneau, Justine Tyerman Cover Photo Bruce Mountain – Shotover Bridge Queenstown Image + Printing Ovato

Disclaimer RnR Publishing Ltd uses due care and diligence in the preparation of this magazine, but is not responsible or liable for any mistakes, misprints, omissions or typographical errors. RnR Publishing Ltd prints advertisements provided to the publisher, but gives no warranty and makes no representation to the truth, accuracy or sufficiency of any description, photograph or statement. RnR Publishing Ltd accepts no liability for any loss that may be suffered by any person who relies either wholly or in part upon any description, photograph or statement contained herein. Advertisers are advised that all advertising must conform to the ASA Codes of New Zealand Advertising; full details and codes book available from asa.co.nz. RnR Publishing Ltd reserves the right to refuse any advertisement for any reason.

The views expressed in this magazine are not necessarily those of the publisher or editor. All material gathered in creating NZTODAY RV Lifestyle Collection magazine is copyright 2020 RnR Publishing Ltd. All rights reserved in all media. No part of this magazine may be reproduced in any form without the express written permission of the publisher.

NZTODAY RV Lifestyle South Island Road Trips Special Edition

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TIA WELCOME

A

s we begin to emerge from a crisis that saw the tourism industry forced into a deep slumber, I’ve started posing a question to those closest to me. How much of our own backyard have you seen? Have you done your own great Kiwi road trip yet — the one our friends from overseas spent years planning and saving for?

When we tell others about our nation’s breathtaking natural landscapes, are we doing so from second-hand news or from lived experience?

If you can, now is the time to carve out your own great Kiwi adventure. This is an opportunity like no other.

Tourism has been hit harder than any other industry by the COVID-19 crisis, but New Zealand’s offering remains as sound as ever.

We have the natural assets. We have the quality businesses, offering experiences both safe and exciting, with something to suit all ages and tastes.

We have extremely passionate tourism people waiting to show us just what it is that attracts so many people to New Zealand from all corners of the world.

Doubtful Sound is still there; a new and vibrant Christchurch is open and ready to explore. From the wineries of Marlborough, Central Otago and Waipara, to the turquoise waters of the West Coast’s Hokitika Gorge, and the kiwi-filled forests of Stewart Island, the South Island is alive and well.

What we don’t have is the international visitors, whose decisions to spend in New Zealand helps all of these places to thrive. So, to make sure our tourism industry remains one of the world’s greatest, we need as many Kiwis as possible to get out there and support it.

Before the COVID-19 crisis, tourism accounted for over 20% of New Zealand’s exports, supporting almost 400,000 jobs across the country. It is too

important to be written off and forgotten about.

We need to protect those passionate tourism workers, support the survival of their businesses, and promote the recovery of New Zealand’s tourism so that it can emerge as an even more sustainable, world-class industry. Every New Zealand region, home and family will be worse off if we fail.

Those international visitors are no longer here to take tales of majestic Fiordland or adventures in Queenstown home with them. We may be able to soon welcome our Aussie cousins again, but we cannot expect to see international visitors from other countries for quite some time. If other countries do well in controlling the virus, there may be a gradual opening of other borders.

But our businesses can’t survive on that hope.

So, from the breathtaking beauty of Aotearoa’s highest peak to our very own Dunedin castle, this is the time to see it all. While it’s quiet, and when your neighbours really need you.

If you can, get out and travel your own backyard.

You don’t have to spend big to make a huge difference. But do use the local tourism businesses, knowing that you are helping to save jobs. Choose a destination, find out what’s on offer and enjoy the ride.

A few years ago, our family spent four weeks touring the South Island. Our boys, now young adults, still talk about that trip as one of their life’s highlights. I’m looking forward to seeing some of you in the South Island on my own next great Kiwi road trip.

Ngā mihi,

By Chris Roberts, Chief Executive Tourism Industry Aotearoa

Chris Roberts Chief Executive Tourism Industry Aotearoa

NZTODAY RV Lifestyle South Island Road Trips Specail Edition

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TASMAN

Golden Bay

GOLDEN BAY REMOTE FAREWELL

At the northwestern corner of the South Island, an unusual looking finger of land reaches far out into the ocean - if the arc continued from the end of Farewell Spit it would encircle Golden Bay. From caves and golden sand beaches to the Heaphy Track and Cape Farewell, Golden Bay lives up to the promise of its name.

Words + Photos Jane Dove Juneau

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he road over the Takaka Hill winds up out of the Motueka valley to the saddle at 791 metres. The views back down to Tasman Bay are impressive, and looking north we can see Golden Bay with the mountains of Kahurangi National Park to the south. A number of caves and sinkholes have been discovered here near the top of Takaka Hill in the marble karst rock formations, including Harwood’s Hole the deepest vertical shaft in New Zealand.

Nearby, guided tours operate into the Ngarua Caves, where there are examples of stalagmites and a skeletal display of an extinct moa.

We wind down the hill past the Cobb Valley into the bustling town of Takaka. A group of young, slightly scruffy wannabe hippies hang

out in the park in contrast to the healthy, tanned alternative-lifestyle folks from the 1960s and 1970s I see running errands.

The Arts Bank Building catches my eye. I wander into the old bank and enjoy the amazing art exhibition with a wide range of local art.

At the desk there’s a bearded man with long dreadlocks in animated conversation with another dreadlocked man from East Africa. I interrupt their conversation, which happens to be an interview for the local radio station. Grant Knowles, chairman of the Golden Bay Arts Council-come-breakfast show host/wood sculptor, is enthusiastic about the local arts scene.

“I love the way Golden Bay has such a high percentage of artists and creative people,” says Grant. The gallery supports over 50 artists, professional artists alongside emerging artists. There are 11 galleries in the area and a brochure on the Golden Bay Arts Trail will lead you to some fine artwork that includes painting, sculpture and jewellery.

Grant continues with his interview with Muiggi Kimani (aka ‘Kim The Crazy.’)

1. Farewell Spit stretches as far as the eye can see 2. Wharariki Beach is a 15-minute walk from the road end 3. Cape Farewell was named by Captain Cook in 1770,

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as it was the last bit of New Zealand seen by his crew as they sailed home 4. After walking up from the farm car park, this is the view from the cliff edge out to the tip of Cape Farewell latitude 40° 30′, longitude 172° 41′ 5. Muiggi Kimani, a performance poet, with Grant Knowles at the Takaka Arts Bank Building NZTODAY RV Lifestyle South Island Road Trips Special Edition

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TASMAN

Golden Bay

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NZTODAY RV Lifestyle South Island Road Trips Special Edition

rvlifestyle

Kim, a performance poet was visiting Takaka and had performed in the village market.

In summer the population of Takaka/Golden Bay triples in size. The colourful town has a good supply of healthy restaurants, cafés and bakeries.

I’m attracted to the Wholemeal Café in the Takaka theatre building. The Wholemeal Trading Company was started in 1977 by a group of young settlers lured to Golden Bay by cheap land and the dream of a simple lifestyle. They started as a bulk food co-op, transforming into a wholefoods shop and café in the theatre. I love the old movie star posters and the atmosphere created by the colourful décor in the café.

The Golden Bay/Takaka area has many interesting places to visit like Te Waikoropupū Springs (often just called Pupu Springs), Rawhiti cave or Anatoki 7 salmon farm, or you can walk the Heaphy Track, visit Kahurangi National Park, Abel Tasman National Park, or enjoy the golden sand beach of Totaranui at the northern end of the park. As we have limited time on our trip we move on towards our final destination of Farewell Spit.

Collingwood is an interesting little town on the banks of the Aorere River. Gold rush fever erupted here in 1856 when gold was discovered in the Aorere River. It was one of New Zealand’s first major gold fields, but after three years the diggers left. At Collingwood, a road branches

off up the Aorere River, ending at Brown Hut, the start of the Heaphy Track. The 82-kilometre track through Kahurangi National Park, combines alpine environment with a nikau palm coastline on the West Coast. The hike takes five to six days and travels though ancient beech forest, alpine tussock, across rivers and by limestone caves.

At Pakawau we find a grassy campsite overlooking the beach to use as a base to explore Cape Farewell and the wild Wharariki Beach. There’s also camping at Puponga and at Wharariki about 15 minutes’ walk from the beach. The water is warm so we both have a swim while the tide is in and wash off the day’s travel. After dinner the clouds showed potential for a good sunset. The tide is out as we wander along the wide expanse of sand, on the lookout for cockles.

The bay lights up with colour as the sun goes down.

In the distance the blue hills behind Takaka are the only interruption of the wide expansive landscape.

As the road meanders along the shoreline towards Farewell Spit, past the cockle factory, the sea disappears further into the distance. At low tide a thin blue line shimmers like a mirage across hundreds of hectares of sand and mudflats. The inner side of the spit is very shallow and the tidal flats provide a haven for New Zealand and migratory birds.

Hundreds of black and pied oystercatchers dot the sand flats far into the distance feeding on cockles and other small creatures living in the sand.

6. Windswept trees on the track to Pillar Point 7. The Takaka Theatre building is now home to the Wholemeal Café 8. Looking east from Cape Farewell towards Farewell Spit 8 NZTODAY RV Lifestyle South Island Road Trips Special Edition

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TASMAN

Golden Bay

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Curious to see what the cockle beds are like we walk down across the sand towards the ocean. Thousands of cockle shells are on the beach.

Every now and then a trailer with sacks of cockles goes by, collected from a spot away in the distance along the beach. The harvesting operation is run by Westhaven Shellfish, which holds a quota to collect the littleneck clams from the sustainable fishery at Pakawau. The clams or cockles are placed in a wet-store pool to purge sand and grit before processing.

After digging many holes, we have a bag of cockles for dinner.

The phenomenon of Farewell Spit is remarkable. It’s like a long white finger that points towards the east. From the viewpoint above the information centre, the spit almost appears to reach the distant hills of French Pass – it’s as if two outstretched arms wrap towards each other to make a circle. And curiously the spit faces east–west, not north–south as I imagined.

In the lunch line at the Farewell Spit Café I meet a very excited older lady who describes the lighthouse trip as “the opportunity of a lifetime.” When I was young our family took the four-wheel drive tour out to the lighthouse at the end of Farewell Spit, but as there are a number of interesting walk options I want to explore, we pass on the Farewell Spit tour.

The café doubles as a visitor information centre and has detailed

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NZTODAY RV Lifestyle South Island Road Trips Special Edition

information about bird migration at Farewell Spit. The New Zealand Ornithological Society has studied shorebirds here for 40 years and a total of 37 different species has been recorded. Farewell Spit is on the East Asian–Australasian flyway. Each year over four million shorebirds migrate between their breeding grounds in northern Asia, Siberia and Alaska to non-breeding grounds in New Zealand and Australia.

Farewell Spit is an important staging area for both migratory and resident shorebirds called waders.

We drive into a farm paddock to access the track to the cape. After a short uphill walk we reach Cape Farewell. The view from the cliff top is dramatic, with a scary drop down to the ocean. The rock faces below have been carved by centuries of pounding waves. I decide to take the scenic route along the cliff top at Puponga Farm Park to Wharariki Beach. Rick follows under protest. The walk along the cliffs has some steep sections — ideal if you’re part mountain goat — but the reward is the view over a series of dazzling white sand dunes down to a line of hollow windswept waves at Wharariki Beach. We follow the lagoon down to the beach and discover the rocky Archway Islands. There’s something about Wharariki Beach that makes you feel as if you’re near a cape. There’s a remote sense of place here.

It’s late afternoon by the time we get back to our car and we’re hot

9. Archway Islands, Wharariki Beach 10. People are dwarfed on the dazzling white sand dunes at Wharariki Beach

and tired. Rick cooks up the cockles. Revived, I make a late afternoon charge up to Pillar Point lighthouse, looking for a view of Farewell Spit.

Unless you have a helicopter or drone, it’s difficult to capture a sense of the spit. Rick thinks I am slightly possessed. He could be right.

The late afternoon light softens as I stop to photograph a cluster of manuka trees, growing sideways, blown by the prevailing wind. It’s a magic time of day, just me and a few disinterested cattle. I race up the hill by the lighthouse and am finally rewarded with an elevated view of Farewell Spit.

The Old Man Range presents a craggy face looking down towards Puponga. I don’t linger, as the sun will soon be down. I meet Rick partway down the track, and we race over to the cliff top in time to see the pastel sunset colours over the ocean at Cape Farewell.

From the sheltered bays of the Marlborough Sounds across the varied landscape to the West Coast, we’re now at the northernmost point of the South Island: latitude 40° 30′, longitude 172° 41′.

The remoteness and wild beauty of Cape Farewell stirs a primal sense of place. Our land is amazing.

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WESTCOAST Karamea to Greymouth

KARAMEA TO GREYMOUTH Black gold, pancake rocks and a Great Walk, Robyn Dallimore traverses the rugged and beautiful coast Words Robyn Dallimore Photos Bruce Mountain

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NZTODAY RV Lifestyle South Island Road Trips Special Edition

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t’s always a question when we drive off the Interislander ferry: “Shall we go right to the West Coast, or left to the East Coast?”

I always hold my breath just a little because I love going west myself, love the grandeur of the mountains, the green lush ferns and the sparkling clear water tumbling over itself to get to the larger rivers and out to sea.

A recent trip saw me cheering as the West Coast won. Now, which way should we go? Through stunning Queen Charlotte Sound via Nelson, then down to Westport? This drive has a fair few hills to climb and our wheels are not light and fleet underfoot – we travel in a 7m Mitsubishi Canter motorhome called the RocknRobyn.

An easy decision – in this case, we take our favoured route through Renwick, then through to St Arnaud stopping at the most beautiful Lake Rotoiti for a break, then through to Murchison and onward to the picturesque Buller Gorge. A lovely drive following the Wairau River, with glorious vineyard, and mountain vistas along the way.

We stopped for a break at the Buller Gorge Swing Bridge Adventure and Heritage Park.

Our mission on the day is to reach Westport, so it’s back on the road, resisting the temptation to stop at one of the many historic sites at Lyell, the site of a gold rush ghost town – now a campground and the start/ finish of the Old Ghost Trail cycleway – and Inangahua Junction which shows the land scars of the large earthquake in 1968.

We did pull over just before the infamous ‘Hawks Crag’, which to me is symbolic as the entrance to the West Coast-Buller region. Here the road narrows to a single lane and passes under a rock bluff with a hard rock wall on one side, and the mighty Buller/Kawatiri River on the other.

You can experience the river by jet boat or rafting – a couple of operators have licences to operate on the river.

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Westport is the second-largest town on the Coast, a service town for around 10,000 residents in the Buller district. It has trendy cafés serving yummy food as good as anywhere in New Zealand, historic and art-deco buildings, and for those interested in looking through the area’s history, the Coaltown Museum is well worth a few hours.

There’s a variety of accommodation around the town to suit all budgets, from the Westport Holiday Park for campers and RVs, to motels, hotels, lodges and B&Bs. Glamping or canopy-camping is becoming popular, and there are various options available in this genre as well as backpackers and hostels.

We head to the supermarket to stock up, then head up to Granity to visit a friend who lives right on the beach in an old cottage. The next day we plan to head to Karamea.

Granity is a small village of predominantly older miners’ houses lined up on both sides of the road for a couple of kilometres. The distance between the beach and the mountain is only a few hundred metres in places.

The community has a small museum and a couple of café-restaurants.

One of them you’ll find behind the more obvious pub/bar out the front. There are a few accommodation options and a craft shop and – depending on the day – the local ‘upcycling’ shop could be open as well.

It’s always great to stop over here at friend Jodene’s old cottage – standing on the back step looking at the ocean, you’d swear it’s higher than the house and is practically in her backyard. In fact, in winter and with a big stormy sea, it is in the backyard, wild and wonderful but worrisome!

The Rock isn’t happy though because I have this penchant for collecting rocks, and the pink and yellow ones from this area are particularly enchanting, especially as they aren’t common in many parts of New Zealand.

1. Hawks Grag, Buller Gorge, looking eastward 2. Cape Foulwind - Westport. Great walking tracks and views 3. Westport 4. Westport’s main street. A variety of cafés, restaurants, pubs and accommodation are available in this bustling town, and for us, a supermarket stop to stock up the cupboards NZTODAY RV Lifestyle South Island Road Trips Special Edition

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WESTCOAST Karamea to Greymouth

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The rocks and stones I collect from these beaches go into my garden at home for decoration, and so I can share our South Island travel stories with friends. The beaches in this small area have polished gemstones – you just need to sharpen your eyes and they’ll come to you.

It’s just over an hour from Granity to Karamea, and there’s a bit to see on the way. From Granity, you can go to the historic Millerton mining site, or take one of the Stockton Mine tours. There are a few cafés as you travel up the coast as well.

We stop at the Cowshed Café at Gentle Annie, at the mouth of the Mokihinui River.

The drive to Karamea goes inland at this point and we climb the Karamea Bluff, stopping at Lake Hanlon on the way down for a bit of a walk-around to stretch the legs, then down to the village of Little Wanganui where we stop at the pub for lunch and a chat with locals. Then back on the road to our ultimate destination, the village of Karamea.

I’ve heard this area is a microclimate, and this shows with the profuse number of beautiful nikau palms and ferns growing through the bush – very lush and sub-tropical looking.

The number of permanent residents in Karamea fluctuates between 300 and 600 depending on what website you look at. The surrounding rural area supports a dairy industry, as well as horticultural activities growing feijoas, tamarillos, limes, cranberries, capsicums and lettuces to name a few, both in the backyard and commercially.

Of course, tourism is big as well and it’s not surprising with so much to do, like a variety of walks from 15 minutes to five days, that’ll work for all age groups.

The Oparara Basin features magnificent arched rock formations and limestone cave structures – you can undertake your own trek to these, or a local business offers guided tours. You tend to see and learn so much more on a tour, especially in a rainforest area like this which is famous for sightings of giant spotted kiwi and giant carnivorous land

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8 NZTODAY RV Lifestyle South Island Road Trips Special Edition

snails (Powelliphanta). Many trekkers coming off the Heaphy Track have ticked these off their list of ‘most amazing sightings’ from this area. Adventure-wise, you can explore mountains, rivers and canyons, raft through glow-worm grottos, explore underworld tunnels, jet boat a mighty river, fish freshwater tributaries or take on the Tasman for gathering your kai moana, or even see dolphins from the beach. Or just kick back on a beautiful white sand beach, build a shelter from the driftwood – maybe a fire even – and enjoy a piece of paradise.

We head now to the end of the road, 16km into the Kahurangi National Park, to the Kohaihai River mouth, the official start/end of the Heaphy Track.

What is surprising to a lot of visitors to the coast is the abundance of gorgeous white sandy beaches, and this is no different – it’s such a stunning area to stop and stay if you get the chance.

We explore the tracks and do the loop walk across the suspension bridge and around the Nikau Palm Grove area. Even up here the riverbank offers up a white sandy beach for a picnic. If you have time and the energy, you can do the first hour or so of the famous track.

Scott’s Beach, Fenian Goldfield and Adams Flat areas are achievable, and historical gold mining tailings and workings can be seen on the way.

Staying a couple of days here is a must, just to absorb the peace and serenity – it’s so beautiful – then it’s back to Westport we go. This time, we stop at the places we missed on the way up – Seddonville has a lot of history, and the pub is a must-stop of course. We also explored the start of the Old Ghost Trail walk and cycleway, and the old school that has been converted to a lovely campground for travelers. There’s accommodation available here as well. The Old Ghost Trail starts here and finishes over 80km away in Lyell.

Moving on, we stop at the Charming Creek walkway for a look around the 5.5km old tramway track walkway, but the Denniston Plateau is in our sights, so we keep going.

This is one spot on the West Coast that’s unlike any other, with history, views, a hairy drive up, unpredictable weather conditions, and a unique historic attraction, the Denniston Mine area and the 150-yearold Banbury mine. Located about half an hour north of Westport, the Denniston Incline is classed as the eighth wonder of the world by locals, and when you stand at the top of the precipice where the coal buckets dropped over to make the quick trip to the bottom, you see why.

The road is about 9km up from the Waimangaroa turnoff, 15km north of Westport and is narrow, steep and windy for the motorhome.

Alternatively, you can walk or cycle up, with a track ascending from Conns Creek (yeah right – the incline is really steep!)

Denniston has been a historic site destination for many years, but recent times have seen a complete upgrade and renovation of the historical Incline area. An interactive guided mine experience has been developed out of the original Banbury coal shaft. The Department of Conservation, with the aid of many volunteers and workers, has done an amazing job on this site. Top-class restorations of the railway lines, brake head, mine, Q-class hopper wagon, Banbury Arches, and the entire site, are a fantastic tribute to the men and women who eked out a living and survived the harshest mine site in the country.

No wonder they won the 2008 Railway Heritage Trust Award for the restoration work.

The Denniston Mine Experience is not currently operating with a change in mining regulations, but on our trip in 2011 we did the experience with a media famil, it was an incredible experience.

As I looked into our past coal heritage, I learned about the new products which use this resource today. The peaks and flows of worldwide demand for coal, mirror developments in engineering and the industrial evolution. Today the dirty black 30-million-year-old compressed carbon is used in a wide range of products, from soap and washing powder to perfume, printing ink, sheep dip, antiseptic, weed killer, adhesives, timber preservative – the list goes on.

Mining methods have changed as well, with opencast mines being cheaper and safer to operate. Coal from the Denniston Plateau has been classed as some of the best bituminous coal in the world – shiny black gold.

After a night in the motorhome on the top of the plateau, we headed back south to Westport to top up the food, with a stop-over at Cape Foulwind, an excellent walk around the cliff top, a visit to the lighthouse, and over to Tauranga Bay to see the seals. True to the name, the wind was pretty good on the day, brisk and refreshing.

Next objective – down to Greymouth for the night. The 100km trip from Westport to Greymouth along the coast road, takes in the historical Charleston village, still home to a couple of gold mining historical sites, or you can take a rainforest train up the Nile Valley, and explore caves in one of New Zealand’s largest unmodified cave systems.

That comes complete with abseils, climbs, crawls and squeezes – basically that leaves the Rock and me out. Me wriggling through a crack in the ground? That’s just not happening!

For a slightly more sedate adventure, try underground rafting and check out the glow-worm caves. There is a lovely café here and a variety of accommodation options can be found on this piece of coast. The

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walks along the cliff tops and through bush are great as well.

Pancake Rocks or Punakaiki is part of the Paparoa National Park and is the most popular stopover for the majority of tourists. There are excellent accommodation and café options here that’ll meet all budgets; the walk out over the rocks is amazingly buffered with the bush and flax plantings.

It can be quite windy at this spot, but amongst the walkways, it can become peaceful and quiet with excellent pathways that allow access for most people, including those in wheelchairs.

5. Three girlfriends, a sunset on Granity beach – great times 6. Karamea has a village at its heart, and is the last stop for supplies as you head to the start of the Heaphy Track 7. The verification of your achievement – yep all walkers who complete the Heaphy Track Great Walk get one of these to mark the moment 8. Cyclists at the start of the West Coast Wilderness Trail in Greymouth 9. The most accessible short walk at the start of the Heaphy Track, the 40-minute Loop track through the beautiful nikau palm grove. You cross the Kohaihai River over a suspension bridge, the official starting or ending point of the Heaphy Track 10. Denniston Mine, a worthwhile drive up to the plateau displays

Breakers Boutique Accommodation is a beach front bed & breakfast on the Great Coast Road 14kms north of Greymouth. Set on 2 acres of native bush and landscaped gardens Breakers overlooks the Tasman Sea with private access to remote West Coast beach right in front.

Four guest rooms all with en-suite bathroom, balcony access and fantastic sea views.

Lie in bed and watch the rolling surf and be lulled to sleep by the sound of the breaking waves.

Come share our little slice of paradise…

For bookings email: stay@breakers.co.nz Ph 03 762 7743 | www.breakers.co.nz

Photos by: Shakey Finger Photography

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WESTCOAST Karamea to Greymouth

11. The flat rock effect is from resistant bands of limestone, separated by softer, thin, mud layers.

The wind, water and salt spray strip off the exterior of the rocks exposing the edges, and eventually resulting in a collapse on the outside. This area offers a nice walkway, blow-holes and wicked ocean views. Nearby beaches offer a different view again, looking up at the grandeur of the rockscape. Photo TWC.

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Keeping going, we stop next at Runanga, 6km north of Greymouth, where we visit the Dunollie Hotel, a business we very nearly bought back in 2004 when we were looking for a new life. Thankfully that deal fell through at the time, and we ended up in Martinborough with a vineyard café, but we do enjoy stopping by and seeing how the hotel is doing. The historical miners’ union building still stands a few streets around the corner.

Greymouth is the end of the first part of our trip. This is the epicentre of the West Coast; the main highways from Christchurch, Nelson and Blenheim end here, as does the TranzAlpine train from Christchurch.

And it’s the start of the rest of the West Coast highway heading south to reach Haast and the road through to Wanaka.

The accommodation options again are numerous from backpackers, campgrounds and budget motels to luxury apartments and houses.

Adventure activities are varied and definitively West Coast style. You can do a 4WD tour into the Southern Alps, then white-water raft back down the mountains, or kit up in wet weather gear and take a quad bike ATV or off-road buggies on a guided tour through bush and streams.

IMMERSE YOURSELF IN OVER 100 YEARS OF HISTORY AT ONE OF THE MOST ICONIC HOTELS ON THE WEST COAST ☛ Enjoy friendly atmosphere at our renowned restaurant and bar where you can meet the locals. ☛ Cosy accommodation with room for groups. ☛ Powered motorhome sites available. ☛ Free WIFI. 26 Hart St, Blackball · 04 3732 4705 · bbhilton@xtra.co.nz · blackballhilton.co.nz 18

NZTODAY RV Lifestyle South Island Road Trips Special Edition

Greymouth to Franz Josef

WESTCOAST

GREYMOUTH TO FRANZ JOSEF

Prospectors rejoice there’s gold to be found in those mountains. In the second part of our extensive West Coast adventure, we explore the history-rich area of Greymouth, where gold and jade still tumble down the mountains, carried by the waters of their crystal-clear streams.

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Words Robyn Dallimore Photos Bruce Mountain

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his region is so rich with history – there are remains of coal or gold townships all over the place, and there are multiple opportunities to walk tramp and cycle to explore them all.

Greymouth is the perfect spot to stay a few days to explore the Grey District fully. Locals travel to places like Lake Brunner for their weekends or head up to the infamous Blackball village for lunch at ‘Formerly the Blackball Hilton’ hotel, and to stock up the fridge with their specialty Blackball salamis.

This trip saw us relaxing around Greymouth itself for a day, walking part of the river flood wall which now forms part of the new West Coast Wilderness Trail, the four-day, 139km trail that goes from Greymouth to Ross.

The Grey River has a long history of flooding, not surprisingly as the mountains behind it get metres of rainfall every year, and the river is the main arterial route for probably hundreds of streams. The town has found itself under water more than 20 times in European history.

Blackball

2 1. Lake Mahinapua, the views of the mountains on this lake will blow your mind, so perfectly mirrored it’s hard to believe 2. Greymouth or Māwhera, the railway lines cross the main street. The Grey River on the right with the flood wall, which is now a very popular walk and cycle trail

This tiny village has a wonderful history, beginning life as a small gold settlement in 1865, but it was the coalfield development in 1893 that really kicked it off. By 1928 the population peaked at 1200 people, today around 320 people live there. Famously in 1908 the miners and their union achieved a half-hour lunch break for workers around the country after a long three-month strike. The status quo had been 15 minutes for the miners, which meant they had to eat inside the mine. Their bosses also wanted to increase work to a 10-hour day – the union said ‘Yeah Yeah Nah’ and demanded an eighthour workday and half-hour lunch. After much drama, hardship and the three-month long strike, the miners won. This led to the formation of the Miners’ Federation, which in 1909 became the Federation of Labour and which in 1987 merged with the Combined State Unions to become the NZ Council of Trade Unions.

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WESTCOAST Greymouth to Franz Josef

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In 1988 Barry Dallas, the mayor at the time, started the momentous project of building a flood protection wall around the town, that was completed in 1990. This gave the confidence to build and develop more of the town centre, and it has worked a treat.

The cycle trail goes from town to the coast, which you then follow for 7km before starting to head inland to Kumara. We walked part of the coastal path, then headed back to Greymouth and Monteith’s Brewery Co – we heard from many people this is a ‘must-visit’, so thought it was time to tick it off the list with a nice lunch in what was a lovely building and set-up.

That afternoon we explored the shops, of which there are plenty.

We loved the photography gallery, Nimmo’s, and took in the History House Museum. That evening we spent relaxing on the beach, watching the waves roll in, until I spotted a beautiful round white rock which seemed to call out “I want go home with you”, and ran to get it for my collection before it was swept back out to sea.

The next day we headed south and stopped in at Shantytown Heritage Park, an 1880s replica gold town. There’s a lot to do here with the ‘living history’ museum with over 10,000 items, or the latest holographic technology in the theatre and a steam train ride. If you’re travelling with kids, they’ll love this place. We practiced our gold panning skills, loved the steam train ride through the bush, and had a cuppa at the café

WEST COAST ROAD TRIP ITINERARIES – GREYMOUTH/MĀWHERA

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entral to the West Coast is the largest town in the region Greymouth – Mawhera. A perfect place to base yourself when visiting the region with its access to many of the attractions that bring our visitors to explore our district and the wider West Coast.

On our door step you enter into one of the World’s TOP 10 Coastal Scenic drives! Along with one of our national parks offering tramping, day walks and mountain biking. You can access the Glaciers within one day and visit the many historical sites that are throughout our district.

Sit back and relax with the world famous TranzAlpine train bringing you over to the West Coast. We can arrange a rental car or campervan for you to continue on your road trip holiday.

The Grey District offers a range of freedom camping sites, DOC campsites and seaside holidays parks, the perfect place for that beach bonfire as you watch the sun setting with our famous West Coast sunsets!

The Greymouth i-SITE Visitor Centre can offer you itineraries for your road trips. Contact us with what you are interested in seeing and how many days you have to spend exploring our area. The team will put together your Must Do! Must See! Best Deals! Road Trip!

✔ Hidden Gems ✔ Local Experts ✔ Shop Local ✔ See the Best Deals through good i-SITE! ✔ Trusted National Visitor Information & Booking Centre

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NZTODAY RV Lifestyle South Island Road Trips Special Edition

Greymouth i-SITE Visitor Centre West Coast Travel Centre 164 Mackay Street, Greymouth +64 3 7687080 – 0800GREYMOUTH info@westcoasttravel.co.nz www.westcoasttravel.co.nz www.explorewestcoast.co.nz

before we headed off, next stop Goldsborough DOC camp.

As we drove, we could see the cycle trail heading to Kumara on SH73.

We kept going down the main road and turned inland at Awatuna following signs to the DOC camp. A gold rush kicked off here late in 1864, and the population spiked at 1000, then dropped back to zero as the gold ran out. Nowadays, DOC has a great campsite and lots of walks to be explored but stay on the paths because the bush still hides mine shafts for the unwary. We wanted to stay here because it’s a public gold fossicking area in the creek, and if you believe a word here and there, gold is still to be found. We met a couple of other campers crouched over the creek, as we went in to have a go.

Turns out my knees aren’t good at squatting, kneeling was a no-goer for me as well, and I wasn’t very good at digging down with my pan to get the stuff under the bigger stones. In other words, this gold panning wasn’t, er, panning out for me right then. I’ll need a little stool to enjoy this activity.

To me, gold panning is a bit like fishing – if I don’t get a bite in the first half hour, we have to move, so no gold and my attention is soon gone. The thought of gold panning and finding gold is a little more romantic than the reality methinks.

Off we went for a walk instead, followed by lunch and then the decision was made to get back in the motorhome and head to Hokitika for the night. It’s typical of us at times – can’t sit still, and we have friends in Hoki, so we just had to drop in.

The entrance to Hokitika’s main town area is dominated by a very grand-looking clock tower, officially called the ‘The Westland South African War and Coronation Memorial Clock Tower’. It was unveiled in 1903 by Mrs Seddon, the wife of Premier Richard John Seddon (King Dick), a well-known West Coast politician and identity.

Today, there isn’t a row of pubs lining the main street—Revell Street—as there was in 1864 when there were 84 – now the shops are dominated with art studios and pounamu carvers, painters, glassblowers, sculptors, and gold and silversmiths, and there are cool cafés, pubs and restaurants with lots of yummy food options.

I have one favourite shop here, which is ‘The Possum People’ on the main street. From all my travels around our land, I’ve found possum products to be cheapest here on the Coast, excellent quality and everything you might want – just saying …

We looked into one of the pounamu shops where you can pick your own piece of raw greenstone, and then spend the day learning to design and carve your own piece of jewellery. Or you can purchase something from the lovely pieces on sale.

The history of the area is well represented in the Hokitika Museum telling the stories of gold, mining, tree felling and even whitebait (unfortunately closed for earthquake work at present). There is also the Sock World and Sock Knitting Machine Museum in town, I kid you not.

4 3. Greymouth, view over the Grey River. Photo TWC. 4. The buildings in Shantytown are themed inside, staff dress in theme as well 5. The river flood wall now forms the start of the new West Coast Wilderness Trail, for walking or cycling

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WESTCOAST Greymouth to Franz Josef

6 Hokitika is a lovely little town of around 3300 people that really has come a long way since my first visit back in 1980. It’s another town born out of a gold rush in the nearby Taramakau Valley in 1864. It’s sited beside the Hokitika River mouth, the closest anchorage to the discovery.

Unfortunately, the sandbars here are on the move constantly, so the waterway really wasn’t suitable as a port and harbour. Between 1865 and 1867, there were 108 vessels stranded on the bar, with 32 totally lost. It’s said that more than 37,000 people landed at Hokitika in that period, and of that 44 per cent of New Zealand immigrants at the time arrived here, many of them from Ireland. At its peak, the main street boasted 102 hotels within an 800-metre radius, and 6000 people were based here. Hokitika means ‘direct return’.

6. The Westland South African War and Coronation Memorial Clock Tower. What a majestic piece to grace the entrance to the town

7. All Kiwis know about whitebait, and West Coast whitebait is highly prized. Inset Bruce is having a go with the net at the entrance to the Hokitika River. Main picture, view of the hardstands up the river

The shop I loved most was the Gold Room, where gold prospecting history is represented with miniature displays, but more importantly I got to play with a large gold nugget, which was amazing.

The Hokitika area has a lot to offer, with Lake Kaniere and the Hokitika Gorge not far away, so it’s an area well worth taking time to stay and explore, this is one of the most stunning ‘gorges’ in the country to see.

The cycle trail comes down the Lake Kaniere road to Hokitika, and from there it continues the 36km section to Ross, taking in the historic tramline to the West Coast Treetops Walk A favourite place to camp when we have the motorhome is Lake Mahinapua, just south of Hokitika. There’s a long windblown bush/ tree line running parallel to the road, then on the left, a brown tourism sign to the lake. You see a hole in the bush where the road access is, and the road disappears. It’s a beautiful drive into the DOC camping area, and another stunningly clear lake, today reflecting the Southern Alps behind it in the most spectacular way. There are some great short and longer walk options here and historical remains to check out.

With bush all around, this is a sheltered spot to stay, and so beautiful.

Not far from the lake is the Treetop Walkway, where you can climb up 20 metres to get a bird’s-eye view of the tops of the ancient rimu and kāmahi trees – if that’s not high enough, they have 40-metre tower to really get the heart going. But, if that’s not for you, you can just sit down and have a cup of tea and enjoy the environment.

Ross is just down the road—about 27km—another gold town settled in 1865. Its population peaked at 2500, but today averages around 300.

In 1909 the biggest gold nugget ever found in New Zealand was discovered near here. It weighed in at 3.1kg and being so large was christened ‘the Honourable Roddy Nugget’, after the then-Minister of Mines Roderick McKenzie.

The Ross Goldfields Information and Heritage centre is worthy of a stop, with gold panning available to learn and try in the creek.

A great walk around the water race takes you past mining relics to a mine tunnel entrance. It runs alongside a lake, which has been created by gold mining over the year. The current owners are the Birchfield gold mining operation. An aerial view of the open cast mine is a little disturbing, but the resulting lake is picturesque.

The main street boasts a couple of cafés and petrol as well, Ross is the last stop before Franz Josef, so you’re heading into the more remote South Westland region. We stocked up with bits and bobs and fueled-up the motorhome.

Time to hit the road again – destination for the night, Ōkārito, on the coast about 100km south, just before Franz Josef.

Moving south we pass Lake Ianthe, Hari Hari, a small village mainly famous for the replica bi-plane displayed on the side of the road – a memorial to Australian, Guy Menzies, who by all accounts took off from Sydney in 1931 to attempt the first solo Trans-Tasman flight, without telling mum and dad. They couldn’t believe the news when they were contacted to say Guy had crashed upside down in the La Fontaine swamp, on the West Coast of New Zealand. Menzies survived but was killed when his RAF seaplane was shot down over the Mediterranean in 1940.

Another spot here that we haven’t been to as yet, is the Amethyst hot springs – yes, natural hot springs on the side of the Wanganui River.

Box of Delights is an Old Fashioned Lolly and Giftware Shop in the Heart of Hokitika. We stock Candy from all over the world, Souvenirs, T-Shirts and Gifts.

86 Revell Street, Hokitika

Phone: 03 755 7145 or 027 256 5692 Email: boxofdelightsnz@hotmail.com

you can also Order online at www.boxofdelights.co.nz 22

NZTODAY RV Lifestyle South Island Road Trips Special Edition

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Ross Beach TOP 10 Holiday Park is a boutique holiday park, unlike any other Top 10 you have seen…

All our accommodation and amenities are in repurposed and upcycled shipping containers. It’s amazing how much comfort you can fit into a small space. We sit right next to the Tasman sea and most nights you can drift off to sleep listening to the sound of the ocean breaking on the shoreline. Blissfully relaxed amongst our natural landscape of NZ Flax.

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145 Ross Beach Rd Ross Westcoast New Zealand 03 4298 277

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021 428 566 info@rossbeachtop10.co.nz

NZTODAY RV Lifestyle South Island Road Trips Special Edition

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WESTCOAST Greymouth to Franz Josef

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arrive in spring each year to breed and leave around January. There’s a local business that has the concession to run tours out to see them during the season.

Out from Whataroa we take the Forks Ōkārito Road turnoff and drive on sealed road the 13km to Ōkārito on a lagoon on the coast. This was a pop-up gold town in 1865-66, but now it’s a small settlement with a few houses and around 30 residents. The population got up to 1250

Being that this area sits on the Alpine Fault where the Australian and Pacific tectonic plates meet, pushing up the Southern Alps by 7 to10mm a year, there are hot water spots to be found. Campermate has the exact location, apparently a 15-minute walk from a car park, but do take a shovel to dig a pool, and lots of waterproof sand fly repellent!

Continuing south, we come through Whataroa, this small area is home to the only breeding colony of white herons in the country. They

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Hokitika’s Kiwi Holiday Park and Motels

• Ideally situated for cyclists experiencing the West Coast Wilderness Trail • Centrally located for visiting attractions including Lake Kaniere, Treetop Walkway, Hokitika Gorge, Goldsborough • Situated close to town centre & beach • Registered bike hub. Plenty of space for guests to leave their van’s while cycling the trail – overnight if necessary

Accommodation for all groups & budgets. Undercover BBQ area, free Wifi and free showers. Large communal area including two kitchen spaces 160 Davie Street, Hokitika | Free Phone: 0800 115 322 | Email: office@hokikiwihp.co.nz | hokitikakiwiholidaypark.co.nz

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NZTODAY RV Lifestyle South Island Road Trips Special Edition

in May 1866 – some reports say 1500. It’s hard to believe now, but this lagoon was once one of the busiest ports on the Coast for a short time, and was supported by 33 stores, a lot more pubs, and apparently, they started talking about building a university. But, by 1867 it was all over and the area was virtually deserted.

What remains on view now is Donovan’s Store, the oldest known building on the Coast, and one of the last remaining buildings of the original old town. Built in the first months of the gold rush, it started life as the Club Hotel, and in 1890 was converted to a general store that was run for 60 years by James and Eva Donovan. In the 1950s, a family called Robertson took over ownership until 1987 when they bequeathed the property to the Crown; DOC now manages the building and site.

We’ve stayed here a couple of times at the campground.

There’s quite a range of accommodation options out here, and the lagoon, which is the major geographical feature of the area, is beautiful. The birds think so as well, possibly to do with the raupō (bulrushes) around the lagoon – Okārito means young raupō shoots, hence the name.

There’s more than 2000 hectares of shallow open water and tidal flats here, which makes for the largest unmodified wetland in New Zealand. It’s a bird-watchers’ paradise with over 70 native species on record in the area. The shoreline has stands of huge kahikatea and rimu, with other conifers and tree species as well – a perfect bird paradise. Also unique to this area are the Rowi kiwi species, the rarest of the world’s five species of kiwi. You can take a local guided tour to see these 11 little guys at night.

8. Ross is the end of the road for the Trail 9. Bruce in the stocks at the Ross Information & Heritage Centre. There are a number of interesting historic relics here including a restored miner’s cottage and a pioneer’s cemetery.

10. Ōkārito, Donovan’s Store building managed by DOC, is the oldest known building on the coast 11. Ōkārito Lagoon is fringed by trees and the mountain vista behind is stunning. From sea to snow - wow!

Photo: Tourism West Coast

NZTODAY RV Lifestyle South Island Road Trips Special Edition

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WESTCOAST Glacier coast

VALLEYS OF ICE

The next part of our journey takes us through the amazing glacial mountain area, checking out Franz Josef village and surrounds, and Fox Glacier, and the adventures to be had there.

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Words Robyn Dallimore Photos Bruce Mountain

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NZTODAY RV Lifestyle South Island Road Trips Special Edition

Franz Josef was originally named Kā Roimata o Hine Hukatere or ‘The tears of Hine Hukatere’ by local Māori. The Māori name for the Fox Glacier is Te Moeka o Tuawe. The ancestor Tuawe fell to his death while exploring the area, and the bed of the glacier became his final resting place (moeka)

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aking early in the morning and heading out for a walk around the Ōkārito lagoon started our day off nicely – the crisp cold air even got us going into a little jog before we headed back for a good breakfast in the motorhome, enjoying the stunning back drop of Aoraki/Mount Cook as we ate.

Then it was time to head back to the main road and turn right – we were going south into glacier country. Our first stop was Lake Mapourika, 8km north of Franz Josef on the main road. Known for its salmon and brown trout fishing, the lake’s tranquil waters are perfect for kayaking, or you can take a scenic cruise with one of the local companies who operate there.

This is the largest of the West Coast lakes and was formed as the Franz Josef Glacier retreated over 14,000 years ago; such lakes are called kettle holes.

The intense dark water is common to lakes in this region. When rainwater – the lifeblood of the rain forests – seeps through the forest floor, it collects tannins as it flows into the waterways. The dark colour intensifies the reflective qualities, and on a clear day the reflective views of the snow-capped and bush-clad mountains in the still waters are breathtaking. There’s an easily accessible parking area, toilet and boat ramp here, so we pull in for a sit down and cup of tea, one of those nice things we can do with a motorhome.

Sitting in silence, you’ll most likely hear the birds around you; there is quite a variety in this area, even the rare Australasian crested grebe (kāmana). At the least, you’ll enjoy the grey and mallard ducks and

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black swans as they glide by and if you know your sounds perhaps you will pick out tūī, bellbird (korimako), grey warbler (riroriro) and, in the right season, the rare white-faced heron (matuku), which have been known to land on the lake at migration time. Around the lake are 900-year-old kahikatea trees, and its shores are home to the Ōkārito Kiwi Sanctuary, home to the rarest of our kiwi species – the rowi.

We press on to Franz Josef village and find a park in the main street.

We head to the West Coast Wildlife Centre, a big green building you can’t miss just off the main road. There’s quite a bit going on here with a busy café and a movie area where watchers can learn history, local stories and legends of the coast.

1. Franz Joseph Glacier face back in 2012 2. This is one of the first parts of the walk

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where you get to view Franz Josef Glacier.

The water is sparkling clean coming off the mountains, the opposite of the grey, glacial flour-filled water that comes from the glacier mouth to form the river 3. Easy to find off the Main Street, take the backstage tour and see kiwi eggs being incubated, or watch movies on the history and characters of the area 4. The rocks and boulders that come down through the glacier are one hazard, but the sides of the mountains where the glacier has disappeared from, pose another hazard with slips and slides happening at any time 5. Lake Mapourika is a classic example of a kettle lake; rainwater filters down through the forest and becomes dark, stained by natural tannins NZTODAY RV Lifestyle South Island Road Trips Special Edition

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WESTCOAST

Glacier coast

The river that flows from the Franz Josef Glacier face is the Waiho River, the Fox River comes out of the larger Fox Glacier. River water is coloured to a muddy grey by the fine rock flour dust that is typical of glacial waters. The water is at a constant 2°C temperature year round, and because the rivers often have chunks of ice in them, they need to always be treated with caution.

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We move through to the glacier attraction, where you can learn about the local glaciers, how they’re made and their history of growth and recession – this is a really informative display and great for kids and adults alike.

Next we go through to the DOC Kiwi attraction. The local rowi and Haast tokoeka (Southern Brown Kiwi) are the most endangered kiwi in the world and live in very restricted areas here on the Coast. The rowi live in the Ōkārito Forest where we’d just come from, and the Haast tokoeka live in a forest near Haast. A plan was hatched between DOC and the BNZ called Save the Kiwi ‘BNZ Operation Nest Egg Trust’ – that involves taking eggs from their natural environment, bringing them back to this centre, which has a purpose-built hatchery environment, and hatching them into safe captivity.

Once hatched, the chicks are introduced into a predator-free environment until they’re big enough to feed and fend for themselves, at which stage they’re returned to the wild. What makes this centre so special is that you can see the rowi in a nocturnal walk-through area or go behind the scenes and learn all about the hatching programme and see a kiwi egg or baby kiwi up close.

It’s hard to believe at times, but this little village is home to only around 441 permanent residents, but it can bed-down up to 3000 tourists a night in the summer high season if required.

Franz Josef is a service town for locals and tourists alike, where you can stock up on food at the Four Square, fill the petrol tank, and drink and eat at a variety of good restaurants and cafés around the main and side streets. Accommodation is well catered for on every level; backpackers, campgrounds, hotels and B&Bs are available.

Hiring a motorhome or campervan is always another alternative, naturally one I’d recommend although I acknowledge that this isn’t everyone’s cup of tea. Lots of our friends dream of lovely hotels, gorgeous meals out cooked by someone else, spa treatments and hot pools after their glacier walks and explorations – fair enough too, it is holiday time after all. All of these luxuries can be enjoyed in these alpine villages.

The weather changes quickly here, as it does in all rainforests, and with rain coming down, the Glacier Hot Pools beckoned. This is a very classy place with a gorgeous main pool and hidden private pools in the bush, and which offers luxury spa and massage treatments, all surrounded by lush ferns and a rainforest bush environment. (unfortunately closed as part of Ngai Tahu Tourism whose tourism businesses are mothballed waiting on tourism recovery May 2020).

As we had been on the road for a wee while, we elected to hire a private pool, but alas no extra massage treats for us! We had a lovely long soak sheltered under the roof, then luxuriated in the large bathroom-cumdressing area. At night-time you can get candles and aromatherapy oils to stimulate the senses even more – but for us it was time to get ourselves fueled up both with diesel and food, and head down the road.

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Next stop Fox Glacier, with our destination for that evening being Gillespies Beach on the coast.

The best views and safest exploring opportunities of both glaciers are to take one of the guided trips up the mountain by helicopter, enabling you to land and explore with professional guides.! Or try a fly-over tour without ever touching down.

Bruce and I did the latter back in 2010 – we joined another couple in the operator’s van in Fox Glacier village and were whisked to the local airport where our small aluminum ball awaited us. We shoehorned ourselves into the small space and with belts tightened, headsets on and cameras at hand, headed off for the ride of a lifetime.

Words can’t truly describe the views that unfolded below us. Snow covered sides of mountains that had looked smooth from a distance, soon took on a dangerous and treacherous reality as we skimmed low over the surface and were able to see into otherwise hidden sheer chasms and crevices. We saw climbers on one mountain and on another, a helicopter set down on one of the glaciers.

This trip took us from Fox up the coast to Franz Josef Glacier, skimmed up over the mountains and then back down the Fox Glacier Valley. Words like awesome, incredible and mind blowing didn’t really cover it. To me the views and the total experience were well worth every cent, so I’d suggest putting some $175 or $200 in the budget per person and making it happen.

If our warm summers, low rainfall and therefore low snow fall winters continue, who knows how long these glaciers will be accessible in the future?

The drive to Fox Glacier is only about 23km, but the drive is up through steep mountains, often with native bush and trees on one side and steeply dropping ravines on the other. I would advise always driving in daylight and feeling fresh. The views are stunning for one, but it pays to be sharp on these roads and very aware of overseas tourist drivers around you. It’s surprising how many visitors can be really challenged by windy steep roads when they’re more used to straight motorways and the modified hill roads of larger countries.

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Tourism to these glaciers began way back in 1897 when William Batson opened the first tourist hotel at Franz Josef to meet growing demand.

Miners, farmers and a logging industry supported the small village settlement; many of these people had stayed and settled after the gold rush between 1866 and 1868. Getting to this area was challenging and initially took weeks along the coastal trails from Greymouth. Initially a track was created, and eventually a road of sorts opened up around 1911, enabling the first car to come to town. The road from Wanaka to Haast opened in 1960 and finally connected to the glacier towns in 1966, which then made it possible to do a circuit around the east and west coasts of the South Island.

Fox Glacier is another very picturesque alpine village with lush green rainforest, with bush and trees in the foreground and background, and snow-capped mountains lined up behind. It’s no wonder more than a million overseas tourists visit this area each year and to cap it off Fox is an even bigger glacier than Franz Josef, by around 2km and varying.

This glacier has a bit of a bend in its flow between the mountain valleys, which gives it a slightly slower melting rate.

We turned right onto the Lake Matheson road, and pulled in at the DOC car park at Lake Matheson. This lake has a reputation as one of the most photographed in the country; the deep tannin-stained waters are so silky smooth on a clear day you can hardly discern the line between reality and reflection, with mountains, bush and Aoraki/ Mt Cook in the background.

DOC has created a boardwalk around the lake for an easy hour’s walk, through rimu, kahikatea, koromiko and lancewoods, with ferns growing prolifically all around. The miniscule umbrella fern grows next to the whekī, the slimmest of the tree ferns, and moss carpets trees and rocks alike. The flying-buttress roots of kāmahi create tiny caverns from which tiny light blue fungi grow. I found myself taking photographs of tiny flowers and ferns as we walked around the lake. Sitting back at the café when you’ve finished the walk is a must – the views looking east to the mountains and Aoraki/Mt Cook are unbeatable on a clear

6. On a wet day the waterfalls stream down many of the sheer rock faces to drain into the Fox River below 7. These huge rock cliff faces show the scars of the glacier grinding over its surface over the centuries. Interesting that this area of rock originated from the north Queensland Australian coast over 350 million years ago (Gondwana land). Bruce went quite contemplative when I shared this little gem of information with him, connecting with his Aussie roots 8. Okarito is a small settlement on the coast 9. Guided tours by helicopter are the only way to hike on the glaciers nowadays, and explore their snow caves and chasms – but not recommended for the faint hearted NZTODAY RV Lifestyle South Island Road Trips Special Edition

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WESTCOAST

Glacier coast

These two glaciers are quite rare on the world glacial stage, as they descend low into temperate rainforest only 300m above sea level, giving an ease of access not usually attributable to these high mountain frozen river features.

Both glaciers are located in the Westland Tai Poutini National Park, originally formed in 1960. This region was listed as a UNESCO World Heritage area in 1990.

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day. You can obtain a locally produced pamphlet for the walk that will take you on a self-guided tour of the trees, birds and ferns so you can learn and see specific examples. These are very worthwhile to have – you can get them from the Top 10 Holiday Park on the way down, or from the shop at the lake.

Time to get to Gillespies Beach, another 20km or so down the road.

It’s partially gravel for the last half of it, and we are careful not to get too close to the road’s edge as we go through the last few kilometres.

The edges are often running with water and can be a tyre trap, as a

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NZTODAY RV Lifestyle South Island Road Trips Special Edition

fellow motorhomer found out on their way in recently. Fortunately, a 4WD vehicle came through to pull them out. This road is not suitable or recommended for caravans or towing vehicles.

The beach curves around the coast between two points, Otorokua and Kōhaihai (Gillespies) – there are old goldmine tailings here and the reedy trenches left by the gold dredges are lined with a swampy wilderness of flax and manuka, with kahikatea and silver pine (manoao) towering over the native scrub – it’s a fantastic environment for the birdlife.

We got to the parking area in good time and set up for the evening, sorting dinner plans, then going for a walk to the old miners’ cemetery we spotted on the way in. There were quite a few cars and smaller campervans pulling into the car park for the night, the air was settled, there were a few clouds in the sky, and over the next half hour most of us gathered on the beach to enjoy the sun going down on this remote West Coast beach – how much better could life be?

Well, sometimes on the West Coast it could be better if you had one of those crazy bee hats with mesh all over your head – you need them for the sandflies and midges that can drive you nuts in these areas. We went back to the motorhome, really glad that we have fly screens on the windows, doors and air-vents!

We were up early next morning, and out walking the beach, skimming stones over the waves – well trying to. Lots of the stones on the beach are smooth and flat with gleaming

schist flakes, and the beach itself has lots of coarse white pebbles with black sand streaking through the white sand. Depending on recent storms and rains, there can be a lot of driftwood on the beach.

We saw some very woolly, perhaps wild sheep running along the beach before heading into the gorse and scrub along the shoreline. Back to the RV for coffee and breakfast, then we headed up the Miners Tunnel track to seek out the remains of the gold dredge that ran in the area in the 1930 and 40s.

As with many areas along this part of the coast, there was a gold rush here in the 1860s till the 1890s.

A second run was taken at gold extraction in the 1930s with a fancy new dredge designed for the site. It wasn’t successful initially because the dredge wouldn’t work in the environment, so it was rebuilt with some Kiwi ingenuity into a more traditional 12 bucket dredge, and the remains of the dredge and some other equipment can be seen along the walkway.

If we had kept going, we could have gone to the headland to see the seals there, whose ancestors were hunted by Australian sealing gangs who were dumped on the beach to work on the colony, sending back tens of thousands of pelts to their owners, though many of them starved to death in the tough environment. The local seal population is still recovering from that period today.

Other walks, both short and long, can be found along this foreshore.

An old miners’ road is cut into the hillside – in its day some 650 miners walked its length, but now only woolly sheep appear between scrub and gorse bushes to scare you a little as you walk along. Further on, a tunnel along the track takes you from the silent wind-protected bush walkway through to the pounding Tasman Sea.

10. Fox Glacier is longer and bigger than Franz Josef, partially I’m told because of this bend in its flow down the mountain.

You can clearly see the rocky moraine on the top of the glacier to the right, and the deep cuts in the rock face above it. To the top left of this photo you’ll see lines showing the height of the glacier at other times. This image was taken in 2010 11. A café and retail therapy sit by the car park at the entrance to the Lake Matheson boardwalk 12. The last 10kms into Gillespies Beach is a flat gravel road, lined with ferns and trees 13. Visitors gather along the waterfront to watch the sunset on Gillespie Beach

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Mahitahi Lodge is your ideal Westland boutique bed and breakfast accommodation within easy reach of Fox Glacier.

Wake up in the morning to the sound of birdsong before experiencing one of John’s delicious breakfasts. At the end of your busy day exploring relax in our upstairs lounge then enjoy the local produce and fine NZ wines at dinner. You are also welcome to join John on a walk or short tour when time permits where you will learn about the interesting history and local environment and maybe even view Mt Cook, New Zealand’s highest mountain.

4667 State Highway 6, Bruce Bay 7836, South Westland | Ph: +64 3 751 0095 | Freephone within NZ: 0800 751 009 | Email: stay@mahitahilodge.co.nz | www.mahitahilodge.co.nz

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Fox Glacier to Jackson Bay

WESTCOAST

TE WĀHIPOUNAMU - A PRICELESS POSSESSION

From Gillespies Beach, through Haast and to the end of the sealed road at Jackson Bay - the final leg of our RV road trip from Karamea to Jackson Bay, on the West Coast of the South Island.

Words Robyn Dallimore Photos Bruce Mountain

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e’ve enjoyed a great trip so far, and after our morning walk on the ever-changing Gillespies Beach and exploration of the remains of the gold dredge on the Miners Tunnel Track walk, it was time to pack up the RocknRobyn (our motorhome) and get going – destination Jackson Bay, the end of the road for the coastal traveler and for our road trip for these pages.

It’s only about 180km to our destination, so for those on a tight time schedule it’s possible to do a quick blast down for a look around before heading back to Haast then eastwards through the Gates of Haast and over into beautiful Central Otago. Not for us though – we plan on taking all day and enjoying this Westland area.

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We drive the 15km back to Fox Glacier village, turn right back onto SH6 and head south, soon passing the starting point of the Copland Pass Track.

This is where Charles Edward Douglas (1840-1916) is acknowledged in the region’s history. Douglas, who came to be known as Mr Explorer Douglas, was a solitary, fascinating man who dedicated around 40 years of his life to exploring and surveying this challenging area of the South Island, often with his companion dog with him. He wasn’t well acknowledged at the time for his work exploring and charting the majority of this south Westland region, but now the start of the Copeland Track has a memorial to him, and there’s a mountain peak, a river, a pass and a glacier named after him.

The Copeland Track is good for those more serious trampers who like a nice five to six-hour walk into a hut situation, and I hear there are hot water pools to be dug near the hut as well, but that’s not for us, so we keep going.

Next is the Karangarua River Bridge, a tremendous example of a Public Works Department suspension bridge from the 1940s. With a span of 130 metres and big tall braced steel towers, it is allegedly the longest single-span suspension bridge still in use in New Zealand and is the statement bridge on our West Coast road trip for sure.

1. Copland Track, some challenging terrain, but fantastic fresh environment NZTODAY RV Lifestyle South Island Road Trips Special Edition

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WESTCOAST Fox Glacier to Jackson Bay

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The roadside is lined with native bush, ferns, rimu and kahikatea trees, with mountains views to the left of us – it’s a truly beautiful drive. Our next stop – Sandy Beach at Bruce Bay – is just 20km further on and is a very popular stop-and-refresh pullover spot for tourists driving this road. Beachcombing for polished white rocks and worn driftwood for sculptures are great attractions, and there’s a collection of rocks with messages and names written on them at the northern end of the beach car park. Often over the years when we’ve come through here, there’s been a multitude of stone and wood sculptures balancing along the road foreshore – they can last for months at times, until a big stormy sea rocks in and washes right over the road.

Bruce Bay has a short-lived gold history similar to many spots along the coast and today only a handful of people live permanently around the bay, enjoying the abundant bird life, hunting in the hills or fishing the waters for big fish, and seeking out the tiny and highly prized whitebait in the rivers along the coastline. Antarctic penguins nest to the south of the bay in the native bush, while the endangered Hector Dolphins live in the waters off this coast.

2. Charles Douglas, 19th century explorer and surveyor, with his dog Betsey Jane, photographed at Karangarua around the turn of the century.

Photo: Alexander Turnbull Library Wellington 3. Bruce Bay is a must-stop spot, I have collected some mighty white rocks for my garden from here - just one or two at a time...

4. Karangarua River bridge, just one of the many one-way bridge spans on this amazing drive south 5. The Rock (aka my Brucie) loves this bay’s name, this sign is a recent addition in the last year or so. The pile of stones behind him and shown on top of the sign are covered in messages from tourists who have stopped here 6. View from Knight Point lookout, wild and wonderful west coast with the hills rising up out of the ocean 7. Ship Creek boardwalk goes from the sand dunes to the coastal forests 8. Tauperikaka or Ship Creek, well worth stopping for a break, take in the history from the information boards, stretch your legs on one of the short walks

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NZTODAY RV Lifestyle South Island Road Trips Special Edition

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There are many local Māori legends in this area – one tells of Maui first landing in New Zealand from Hawaiki right here at Bruce Bay, it’s said that he traversed up the South Island from here to then fish up the North Island.

So the saying that the South Island is the mainland could be true!

Other interesting history in this area was the set-up of the first successful mail delivery service by airplane. It was started by Air Travel (NZ) Ltd in December 1934 between Hokitika and Haast, with stopovers along the way including landing on Bruce Bay beach. This air service revolutionised not only the post but also travel around the Westland area. Usually it would take up to four days for the journey from Hokitika down to Haast, but with the plane service, this was reduced to two hours. Up to two passengers could be taken initially as well as the mail, and the scenic flight business that is a backbone of Franz and Fox Glacier tourism started from this small company as well. The last flight for Air Travel (NZ) Ltd was in 1947.

We get back on the road as it leaves the coast to head through mountain valleys and windy hills towards our next stop just over 20km south,

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the Salmon Farm café near the Paringa River. Paringa was the end of the road south until the 1950s, when it was extended to connect Haast with the rest of the West Coast.

Down the road we go, passing Lake Paringa on the right – another birdwatcher’s paradise with Australasian crested grebes, scaups and shovelers joining the other ducks and swans on the lake. In the surrounding forest you can spot mātātā (fern birds), kākā, kākāriki, kārearea (bush falcon) and kererū. There are also mouse-sized bats that nest in hollow tree trunks, something to look out for at night if you camp or stay nearby. Salmon fishing has a six-month season from October 1 to March 31, but you can fish for brown trout all year around. These lakes are magic for a bit of kayaking or swimming as well.

This area is the start of what is known as the ‘beech gap’, a botanical anomaly where beech tree podocarp rainforest has regenerated more than 18,000 years after the glaciers of this area disappeared. It’s interesting how many varietals of beech tree there are, and how each one can live in a different ecological environment – one of the reasons why there are bush and trees around all the waterways, and the vegetation and trees change species as the mountains rise higher and higher.

Further on, we pass Lake Moeraki on the left – another dark but clear water lake —then on the next corner to the right we pass the entrance to the walkway to Monro Beach, home to the Fiordland crested penguin (tawaki) in spring, and seals year-round. The 4.7km return walk takes about an hour-and-a-half at an easy pace through the coastal forest.

Not for us this time though, so we keep going up the windy road till it

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gets back to the Tasman Sea, where we stop at the top of Knight Point lookout. It’s a toilet stop with a large car park (no overnight camping), information boards and great views up and down the coast and is always worth a stop and walk around regardless of the weather.

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Tauperikaka - Ship Creek

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Yes, there is a shipwreck history behind the name. Back in 1871 a large piece of an unusual wood-constructed ship was found at the mouth of the Tauperikaka Creek. No ship of its sort was known to have been in New Zealand waters. A few years later more pieces were found, then again in 1920 more were found. It wasn’t until 1973 that the remaining wreckage was located by divers, off the southwestern coast of Victoria, Australia. It transpires the 1855 Scottish-built clipper Schomberg was the finest and fastest ship in the world, with a daredevil captain, James ‘Bully’ Forbes, who boasted he would set a record sailing from England to Australia. That was until he hit a part of Australia named Shipwreck Coast, and the ship was lost. Luckily the 300 passengers got ashore safely. The mighty tides delivered pieces of the ship to our shores for decades after.

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WESTCOAST Fox Glacier to Jackson Bay

Then it’s back in the motorhome and down the coastal road to Ship Creek (Tauperikaka), a DOC-managed area with information boards, toilets and two easy walk options for travelers to explore. The 800m return Kahikatea Swamp Forest walk has an easy track that loops through a dense swamp forest, and has great examples of our tallest tree, the kahikatea or white pine. The second walk – Dune Lake walk – starts out on a well-constructed boardwalk along the sand dunes, then changes to a short-graded path that winds up and down through dense coastal forest, taking in a platform that looks over the lake and down the coast to Jackson Head.

We’re only about 18km from Haast now, so with one last stop in mind, we hit the road again until we get to what must be the most popular shop in Westland – Curly Tree Whitebait – which is 10km north of Haast. Bruce just has to stop here if the season is right.

Tony or Moana Kerr will greet you and in season will whip up a fresh whitebait fritter and send you away with a package of the tiny delicacies to take home. They say it’s the best whitebait in the country, and we wouldn’t argue with that.

Tony is great fun – his great-grandparents established one of the early huts here back in the ‘60s and five generations have enjoyed the family tradition since.

Back on the road, and very soon we find ourselves crossing the very long one-lane Haast road bridge. At 737 metres long, Wikipedia states it’s the longest single lane bridge in New Zealand, and our seventh longest overall. I bet it has the best view from a bridge in New Zealand – the river and mountain on one side, the sparkling white sands and Tasman Sea pounding into the beach on the other, and on the riverbanks, white baiters in every guise imaginable.

We stop in at Haast and stock the diesel tank, then head straight down the road for Jackson Bay. Haast is the hub for State Highway Six – from here you can go north or south, or head inland up and over the Gates of Haast, traversing one of the best drives in New Zealand to Wanaka and civilization.

We stop briefly at the small settlement of Hannah’s Clearing 20km south of Haast. A few years back, we had the most amazing experience doing the jet boat tour up the Waiatoto River, highly recommended trip. (Not opening until Alert Level 1, then they will operate the 11am tour time. Will return to Summer tour hours from 26 December.)

We keep going south, past the Haast Beach holiday park on the beach, and the Hapuka Estuary Walk in Jackson Bay, another DOC project with a great boardwalk around the estuary. The boardwalk goes about 1km around a short loop, it’s easily achievable, and bird watchers will love the tūī, korimako (bellbird) and kererū that can be seen and heard here.

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NZTODAY RV Lifestyle South Island Road Trips Special Edition

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Onto our destination for the evening – the small Jackson Bay by Jackson Head. We’ve stopped and enjoyed so many different spots on this leg of the journey that what should’ve been a two-hour trip, has taken us over six hours, so finding our camp site for the evening and getting set up is the priority now.

We’re in time for sunset and sitting outside on our chairs it feels like we’re alone in the world – not another person in sight, no vehicles can be seen or heard. It’s peaceful and serene on this visit – good for the soul to sit back and absorb its energy.

In the morning we take to the walkway through to Ocean Beach along the Wharekai – Te Kou walk. It’s a short, easy walk through the bush, and I felt like we’re at the end of the world sitting on the rocks looking out to the Tasman Sea. There are a couple of different walks around the area, short and long options, and if you have your fishing rod on-board, as we do in the RV, then a bit of time surfcasting can get some great results with blue cod, groper and terakihi plentiful in these waters. If you have a boat, then tuna could be on the menu as well.

On the foreshore of the harbour is the renowned Craypot Café, originally the Timaru pie cart that was later moved to Cromwell before being relocated to Jackson Bay many years ago. If you can be there for lunch, I hear the seafood is amazing – crayfish, whitebait and fresh fish served in a delightfully casual environment, with a view that can’t be beaten, unsure of winter hours though. But yeah, those sand-fly midgies can be really vexing – bug-spray is as vital as drinking water down here. We didn’t manage to be there during open hours, but we did have our morning tea on their outdoor seats and can recommend the views.

This is the end of our journey down the West Coast.

From this point on, the narrow strips of flat land give way to vertical mountains jutting out of the sea, and the Fiordland area with its well-known fiords and glaciercut valleys take over.

The Coast needs to be absorbed in detail. It’s only by stopping at all the DOC parks and memorials that you get even the smallest clue about its history.

It’s very easy to just drive by, taking in only the views through your window as you accelerate away, concentrating on your end destination and not your current environment. It’s easy to miss what you actually came to be part of – the amazing rainforest and beaches that wait for your footsteps of exploration.

I love reading and tend to get caught up in books and Internet sites while seeking out nuggets of information and history. I’m constantly amazed at the tremendous challenges and achievements of the settlers of the 1800s, and the conditions they endured. The South Westland region is very challenging with up to 7m of rainfall each year, which makes for a very wet landscape. Setting up farms by clearing bush land would have been awful. (I wonder what bug-spray they used back then?)

What amazes me also is how tourism has been a priority for West Coasters all this time. We have it easy now with roads and planes to take us in and out of anywhere we want quickly, without a two or threeweek bullock or horse trip.

I’ll finish with some slightly paraphrased quotes from the previously mentioned explorer, Charles Douglas, taken from my favourite reference book (not everything of interest is on the internet), the Readers Digest Guide to New Zealand. Douglas had these comments about this Westland region that stuck with me: “It isn’t by trotting out of a hotel and back again the same day that nature’s true wonders can be seen – they don’t disclose themselves to day-trippers. It’s a place to linger.”

Douglas also recognised that Westland’s future depended on its preservation from exploitation: “The mines they need to develop are the silver and gold in the pockets of tourists – no more roads for diggers but tracks to waterfalls and glaciers.”

I was also fascinated with the thoughts of Leonard Cockayne, one of New Zealand’s greatest botanists and a founder of modern science in this country. He hiked 16km from Franz Josef to the sea back in 1910

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and recorded 38 plant families with 315 varietals of those plants. He judged Westland’s forest to be “a unique production of nature, found in no other land – a priceless possession”.

9. Our jet boat ride up the Waiototo was fantastic fun 10. Whitebaiters line the banks of every available river and stream in season, trying to capture the elusive ‘wriggilus evadus’ or whitebait 11. Monro Beach: a great walk to get to the beach, and if you’re lucky, seals and penguins to be seen

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Air Safaris https://www.airsafaris.co.nz/ Matheson Café https://www.lakematheson.com/ http://www.bazils.com/ Bazil’s Hostil & Surf School Monteith’s Brewing Company http://www.thebrewery.co.nz/ Bella Vista Franz Josef https://www.bellavistafranzjosef.co.nz/ Okarito Boat Tours http://www.okaritoboattours.co.nz/ Bella Vista Motel Fox Glacier https://www.bellavista.co.nz/our-motels/fox-glacier Okarito Kayaks & Accommodation https://www.okarito.co.nz/ Blackball’s Inn and ‘08 Café https://www.blackballinn.co.nz/ Omau Settlers Lodge http://omausettlerslodge.com/ Bonz & Stonz https://www.carveyourown.co.nz/ On Yer Bike http://www.onyerbike.co.nz/ Breakers https://www.breakers.co.nz/ Oparara Experience http://www.oparara.co.nz/ Buller Gorge Swing Bridge https://bullergorge.co.nz/ Paramata Lodge http://www.paramatalodge.co.nz/ Carters Beach Top 10 Holiday Park http://www.top10westport.co.nz/ Precision Hellicopters Ltd https://helicopterhokitika.co.nz/ Coleraine Suites and Apartments http://colerainegreymouth.nz/ Punakaiki Beach Camp http://www.punakaikibeachcamp.co.nz/ Explore West Coast https://www.explorewestcoast.co.nz/ Punakaiki Canoes https://riverkayaking.co.nz/ Fire House Apartment https://hokitikafirestation.co.nz/ Punakaiki Resort http://www.punakaiki-resort.co.nz/ Fitzherbert Court Motel http://www.fitzherbertcourt.co.nz/ Rainforest https://rainforest.nz/ Formerly the Blackball Hilton http://www.blackballhilton.co.nz/ Ross Beach Top 10 Holiday Park http://www.rossbeachtop10.co.nz/ Fox & Franz/Haast Heli Serives https://www.heliservices.nz/ Scenic Circle Group https://www.scenichotelgroup.co.nz/ Fox Glacier Guiding http://www.foxguides.co.nz/ Shining Star Beachfront Accommodation http://www.shiningstar.co.nz/ Fox Glacier Top 10 Holiday Park https://top10.co.nz/park/fox-glacier-top-10-holiday-park Skydive Franz http://www.skydivefranz.co.nz/ Franz Josef Top 10 Holiday Park http://www.franzjoseftop10.co.nz/ Station Inn Boutique Country Hotel http://www.stations.co.nz/ Glacier Country Kayaks https://www.glacierkayaks.com/ The Ashley Hotel https://www.hotelashley.co.nz/ Glacier Country Lake Tours http://www.glacierlaketours.co.nz/ The National Kiwi Centre http://www.thenationalkiwicentre.co.nz/ Glacier Valley Eco Tours https://www.glaciervalley.co.nz/ The Theatre Royal Hotel http://www.theatreroyalhotel.co.nz/ Glow Worm Accommodation https://www.glowwormfranz.co.nz/ The Westport Motor Hotel https://westportmotorhotel.co.nz/ Golden Sands Horse and Wagon Tours http://www.wagontours.co.nz/ Totally Tourism (Glacier Helicopters, Franz Goldfield Suites https://goldfieldsuites.co.nz/ The Helicopter Line, Franz Heli Hike, Fox Glacier Greenstone Helicopters http://www.greenstonehelicopters.co.nz/ The Helicopter Line & Fox Glacier Helicopters) Greymouth Kiwi Holiday Park and Motels http://www.greymouthkiwi.co.nz/

https://www.helicopter.co.nz/

Greymouth Seaside Top 10 Holiday Park http://www.top10greymouth.co.nz/

https://www.glacierhelicopters.co.nz/ Haast River Motels & Holiday Park http://www.haastrivermotels.co.nz/ Treetop Walk & Café http://www.treetopsnz.com/ Havenz http://www.havenz.co.nz/ Ultimae Descents NZ http://www.rivers.co.nz/ Hokitika ‘s Kiwi Holiday Park & Motels https://hokitikakiwiholidaypark.co.nz/ https://caverafting.com/underworld-rafting/ Underworld Adventure Holly Homestead https://www.hollyhomestead.co.nz/ West Coast Encounters https://westcoastencounters.com/ Hotel Lake Brunner- Kingfisher Restaurant & Bar https://www.hotellakebrunner.co.nz/ West Coast Scenic Waterways http://westcoastscenicwaterways.co.nz/ Inland Adventures http://www.inlandadventures.co.nz/ https://www.wildkiwi.co.nz/ West Coast Wildlife Centre Lake Brunner Country Motel and Holiday Park http://www.lakebrunnermotel.co.nz/ Westwood Lodge http://www.westwoodlodge.co.nz/ Lake Brunner Long House http://www.lakebrunnerlonghouse.com/ White Heron Sancturary Tours & Accommodation Lantern Court Motel http://www.lanterncourtmotel.co.nz/ http://www.whiteherontours.co.nz/ Last Resort http://www.lastresortkaramea.co.nz/ Wildernesss Lodge Arthur’s Pass Last Resort Karamea https://www.lastresortkaramea.co.nz/ http://www.wildernesslodge.co.nz/new-zealand/arthurs-pass-wilderness-lodge/ Mahitahi Lodge http://www.mahitahilodge.co.nz/ Wildsouth Discover Ltd http://www.wildsouth.com/ Maruia Hot Springs http://www.maruiahotsprings.nz/ YHA Franz Josef Maruia River Retreat http://www.maruia.co.nz/ http://www.yha.co.nz/hostels/south-island-hostels/yha-franz-josef/ NZTODAY RV Lifestyle South Island Road Trips Special Edition

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CANTERBURY TO TASMAN

Christchurch to Motueka

A ROAD LESS TRAVELLED

– BUT IT WASN’T ALWAYS THAT WAY From Christchurch to Motueka via Lewis Pass and the Shenandoah Story + Photos Allan Dick

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NZTODAY RV Lifestyle South Island Road Trips Special Edition

T

he Kaikōura earthquake struck at two minutes past midnight on November 14, 2016. The damage was immense but there was no loss of life, because this region – apart from Kaikōura itself – is very sparsely populated. However, New Zealand’s transport infrastructure was thrown into chaos with both the railway line and SH1 damaged to such an extent that wise people scratched their heads and wondered if we needed to look at alternative routes or methods of transport – alternatives such as coastal shipping.

The first priority was to see if there was any way that road traffic, at least, could flow again via ‘the inland route’ – Lewis Pass, Springs Junction, the Shenandoah, through Murchison, turning off at Kawatiri, through St Arnaud and down the Wairau Valley.

Apart from the greatly increased distance, this route – while extraordinarily scenic passing through the heart of the Southern Alps – is narrow, narrower again in places, twisting, tortuous and much more suitable for a leisurely drive than for fast trips to catch ferries or deliver perishable goods.

But where there is a will there is a way, and for the best part of the next two years this route played a vital role in keeping the entire South Island operating.

It wasn’t easy.

Traffic volumes went through the roof. The road hadn’t been built for 50-tonne juggernauts rumbling over it day and night, and an army of roadworkers was kept busy patching broken tarseal, easing corners and widening bridges.

Life changed dramatically for the people living in the small towns and villages along the way. Some never understood that trucks were that big, nor that there were so many people living on the planet.

Pop-up cafés and coffee shops appeared in Springs Junction as well as in paddocks and rest areas along the way – providing sustenance for the travelling hordes.

It’s unlikely that anyone who used this route during those two years really took much notice of the countryside they were travelling through. It was a drive that required maximum concentration and lower average speeds.

2 1. Much of the Lewis Pass and Shenandoah highways are like this – through heavy native forest 2. Frog Rock in the Weka Pass — if you look you can see a similarity 3. Historic pub at Hurunui suffered earthquake damage but has since been restored

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CANTERBURY TO TASMAN

Christchurch to Motueka

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However, it ended as quickly as it began and with the reopening of the Kaikōura Coast route, life returned to more or less normal for the people along the way.

Travelling from Christchurch to Motueka, using the Lewis Pass route, the Shenandoah, Murchison and the Motueka Valley has always been one of my favourite drives, and with traffic flows back to sanity level again, I decided on a leisurely drive and an opportunity to soak up the sights.

Our unsettled spring weather continued on the eve of departure from home base in Ōamaru, but I never bothered to check road conditions; had I done so, I might have delayed the start as, later that day, I learnt that the Lewis Pass had been closed by snow between Maruia Springs and Springs Junction!

My route leaves SH1 at Waipara north of Christchurch and heads inland through a continuation of pretty-typical North Canterbury farming country where farmers wear their shirt collars up, and twinsets

and pearls are still favoured by mature farmers’ wives. This is a region steeped in Canterbury traditions – and the creation of a medium-sized wine industry seems to have further ingrained those traditions.

The weather couldn’t make up its mind if it was raining or not as we stopped in Amberley to load up with food and beverages for the three nights ahead. We were hoping for good weather as we planned on using DOC camps along the way – of which there are plenty.

After paying homage to Captain Charles Upham VC and bar, whose bronze statue graces the lawn in front of the local council offices in Amberley, we ambled on up SH1 to turn left onto SH7 in Waipara – once the home to a mysterious sect who were well-armed for some reason.

On SH7, traffic was surprisingly heavy. So many large truck and trailer units were coming against us from west to east, I wondered briefly if the Kaikōura Coast had closed again. But this rush of traffic, while heavy, was brief and was probably the backlog of traffic that had been held up at Springs Junction while road crews cleared the snow.

Driving conditions weren’t all that pleasant with intermittent rain and skies that threatened more.

From Waipara the road pretty much follows the Weka Pass railway line which is the remnant of a main line that once ran to Culverden and on to Waiau. The original plan had been to extend this line north through the mountains to link up Blenheim and Nelson, but it was decided that was too difficult and the Kaikōura Coast line was constructed instead.

Enthusiasts saved the bit of line from Waipara to Waikari and run trains frequently on this, passing famous ‘Frog Rock’ on the way.

4. Weather-worn clay cliffs near Hanmer turn-off 5. Heavy snow had closed the road a day before 6. An old railway carriage serves as a sleep-out in the Boyle settlement 7. Spectacular alpine scenery — road, mountains and snow

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NZTODAY RV Lifestyle South Island Road Trips Special Edition

Waikari is an odd little village, built on a slope, that doubtless is busy when the trains are running, but it’s also the turn-off to places you may never have heard of – Hawarden, (pronounced Harden), Pyramid Valley and Medbury. If you have the time, it’s an interesting enough side trip.

We didn’t, so pressed on past the gorgeous old Hurunui pub that has reopened after suffering earthquake damage, past the Balmoral Forest with its camping ground, and into Culverden – a rural service town and convenient stopping place for travellers, with a clutch of cafés and bakeries. There’s a feel of the fifties about Culverden.

Shortly follows the turn-off to Rotherham and Waiau with its famous Red Post marker – this is ‘Rutherford Country’. The Rutherfords were early settlers and had a significant impact on the region as well as business interests in Christchurch.

Duncan Rutherford, who died about a decade ago, was an eccentric who divided his time between his massive car collections in Nelson and his farm, flying back and forth in his light aircraft.

From here there is a gradual change of scenery as SH7 dives into the mountains.

I don’t use satnav much, if at all, but a perusal of an old-fashioned map of the upper half of the South Island gives you a very clear indication of where you are heading.

Strike a line from Christchurch across to Greymouth and north of that are virtually only three roads – SH1 up the east coast, SH6 up the West Coast and ‘our road’ (SH7 and ‘SH65’ Springs Junction. Shenandoah road) up through the middle. This is vast, difficult and remote country by any standards. And when you consider that the entire South Island has a population of about one million people, and that most of them live south of that line from Christchurch to Greymouth, you begin to understand just how sparse the population is where you are heading.

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41

CANTERBURY TO TASMAN

Christchurch to Motueka

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Māori used this route to get to the greenstone on the West Coast, but Pākehā didn’t use it – even in the height of the various gold rushes – and it wasn’t until 1937 that the Lewis Pass became a proper road.

Of course we had to make the detour into Hanmer (not Hamner) where the weather had decided it was going to snow if it could – the result was that messy stuff called sleet.

It was school holidays, and although it was now getting late in the afternoon, you couldn’t find a park outside the famous thermal pools.

Hanmer has got a touch of ‘the Queenstowns’ but a little more grounded.

The Navigator applied pressure to shop for half an hour then take a restorative plunge in the pools, but I objected saying we needed to press on and find one of the DOC camps before it got too dark. Truth is, there is nothing I like about sitting in a hot pool for 30 minutes or more. I get bored, tired and end up pink and wrinkled.

Back onto the main road and we pressed on westwards into the

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mountains proper.

This is a sensational drive. The road is crowded in by heavy native forest and ferns. It’s narrow, twisting and mountainous.

We turn off at ‘the Boyle’ – the start of the St James Walkway where there is an outdoor education centre and a small collection of holiday cribs. The Navigator’s mother and stepfather once owned one of these houses and we take a nostalgic look in.

We pass the lodge at Maruia Springs and the forest continues. In the middle of a long clearing you find ‘Engineers Camp’, once operated by the Ministry of Works to keep the roads open, but now it’s Downers.

Workers were putting away snow ploughs after a day spent clearing the road further on.

It was getting towards evening, and surprisingly the weather had improved inasmuch as it was no longer raining, but the skies were patchy so we started looking for a campsite. We’d already passed three

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11

or four, but came across Deer Flat and decided it looked like home for the night.

A pretty standard small DOC camp – toilet and half-a-dozen gravelled car parks set in native forest and with access to a river. Charge was $8 per person per night which we are always happy enough to pay even though (because of the remoteness) we knew there’d be no early morning visit from the local ranger to check if we had paid.

As we set up camp, one of the locals paid us a visit – a small and charming robin who showed absolutely no fear at all.

This was a beautiful location, with a towering snow-covered mountain visible through the bush, but man it was cold with a capital ‘C’. Best quality eiderdown sleeping bags and TWO blankets! It clouded over during the night and while there was no frost there was a cold and clinging dew.

Camp coffee (Nestlés Coffee and Milk) was welcomed in the morning even if it was made with chattering teeth.

On the road again early and soon it became obvious where the road

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gangs had been busy clearing the snow off the road the previous day.

Snow may be cold and wet as it turns into slush, but there is no disputing it can double the scenic value.

At Springs Junction there was no sign of the life there had been the last time I was through. The pop-up cafés have closed, or been moved, after the reopening of SH1 through Kaikōura.

8. Spectacular Maruia Falls were created by the 1929 Murchison earthquake 9. The Navigator ponders an early morning dip at Deer Flat DOC camp 10. Friendly robin at Deer Creek DOC camp 11. Yorkshireman Lee has found his new home in Murchison — baking pies and bread and doing a roaring trade 12. French themed bakery in Murchison is also into the home-made pie business 13. Step into Hodgson’s Store in Murchison and you’re stepping back in time

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43

CANTERBURY TO TASMAN

Christchurch to Motueka

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Springs Junction is a scattered town with a service station and a restaurant/motel and some houses. It’s also where SH7 turns left to continue the Lewis Pass route, while turning right becomes SH65 and heads through the Shenandoah to Murchison and beyond.

Here, the mountains take a bit of a rest and you are in farmland with dairy cows being the most common inhabitants. It’s attractive country with lush, vibrant green pastures bordered by dark and brooding native forest.

But, it doesn’t last long before you are back into the mountains.

We stop to have a look where the 1929 Murchison earthquake raised

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NZTODAY RV Lifestyle South Island Road Trips Special Edition

the bed of the Maruia River by several metres, creating a new waterfall.

We depart SH65 and join SH6 at a point where there’s a left hand turn to Westport. We are skirting around the eastern edge of the Kahurangi National Park and there are some no-exit roads that lead into the dark mountains. If we had more time, we would have explored.

Up until the change of highway we had been following the Maruia River, but the point where the road goes left to Westport is also where the Maruia joins the Buller which has been coming from an easterly direction. Soon we are in Murchison.

I like Murchison.

16 14. One of the two pubs in Murchison — traditional in every way 15. The old stables in Murchison — a wonderful historic building now with another use 16. Donna Thurlow from ‘Somebody’s Treasure’ in Murchison where the Navigator has bought many collectibles!

17. A bizarre sight at Kawatiri Junction — a railway platform!

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45

CANTERBURY TO TASMAN

Christchurch to Motueka

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It’s an attractive little town set in the middle of this vast and remote bit of New Zealand.

It’s had its difficult times. In 1914 much of the town was destroyed by fire. But the Big One came in 1929 when a large earthquake struck at 10.17am. The epicentre was 65 kilometres north of Murchison and resulted in 17 deaths, two of them in a coalmine but the majority in landslides that followed the long shaking.

There were more than 10,000 landslides and the damage was great – roads and rivers were blocked and 38 new lakes were created.

One of the largest landslides occurred up the Mātakitaki Valley where 18 million cubic metres of material was hurled off the face of a mountain.

In a previous life BA (Before Allan), the Navigator had owned the piece of land where the slip landed – appropriately enough, the farm was called ‘The Slip’ – so we took a short nostalgic drive to see it.

Today, there is no easily visible sign of this massive displacement of soil and rock.

In Murchison we had brunch at Rivers Café – the town is spoiled for choice with at least three excellent cafés and a quite traditional ‘tearooms’ – and we both chose homemade lamb-and-mint pies. They are very, very good and loaded with meat.

The bright green exterior of what appears to have been an old garage and service station gave no clue to what was inside – it’s funky and fascinating.

After eating, the Navigator goes shopping in ‘Somebody’s Treasure’, a large second-hand shop, while I go walkabout.

One of the most fascinating old buildings in the town is the former ‘Commercial Stables’ and it was apparently empty and unused for many years. These days, it’s a second-hand shop of sorts, but there’s no further exploration as it’s closed.

As good as our pies were, I wish we had waited; alongside the museum (in the former post office) I find Lee, a native of Yorkshire, selling homemade pies, bread and cake from a caravan that’s almost hidden. A line up of locals buying lunch seems to attest to the quality of his tucker – “it’s all hand made,” he explained.

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NZTODAY RV Lifestyle South Island Road Trips Special Edition

And along the road a French-themed café also boasts ‘homemade pies’.

Like many New Zealanders, I admit to being a pie enthusiast.

But the shop I want to see is Hodgson’s General Store. It’s not on quite the same level as the Bainham Store in Golden Bay, but it’s certainly a step or two back in time.

The Oxnam family bought the store in 1902 and it remains in family ownership today. Barbara Oxnam ran the place until her death earlier this year at 88 years of age. The family now have two local staff running the place.

The façade tells you this is something special, and inside is a total mix of goods enough to get you through life. Mixed among the goods on the painted shelves that line the walls are tins from years ago, so you get a picture of a shop that is part museum as well.

I meet up with the Navigator, laden down with her purchases from the second-hand shop. Last time we were here, two months earlier, she bought half-a-dozen large Victorian breakfast plates and I bought some rare books.

I spoke to several locals in the town about the two years the Kaikōura Coast road was closed and Murchison underwent huge changes.

“It wasn’t all good,” one said. “The town was overwhelmed. We didn’t have the infrastructure, and while there was initial celebration at the increased level of business, it quickly became a huge strain. Not only on the business owners and staff, but also on ordinary locals who felt they had ‘lost’ their town.”

Oil is to be found in several places on the West Coast, and around Murchison is one of them, but there was never enough for an ‘industry’.

Instead, Murchison found its place in mining, logging, farming and, for some years now, in tourism – first as a stop-over, but more recently adventure tourism.

While the boom times of the Kaikōura Coast closure are over, Murchison is still busier today than it was before.

A large motel is under construction and that’s a clear vote for the future.

We’re back on the road and our destination is Motueka – a place I

could live as an alternative to Ōamaru.

There are subtle changes in the geography now. There are still mountains and heavy native bush and we are still following the Buller River, but there’s also more farmland.

We p ass t he O wen R iver hotel and c ar r y on t hroug h Gowan Bridge where, until comparatively recently, there was a shop that specialised in fishing gear, or so I have been told.

Soon we are at Kawatiri Junction – remarkable for its old railway platform.

This was part of the line that was built in stages from Nelson, heading to Inangahua with the aim of connecting up with the West Coast lines.

But Kawatiri was as close as Nelsonians ever got to the dream of being connected by rail to the main railway system.

This is also where SH63 branches off to St Arnaud and Lake Rotoiti and on down the Wairau Valley to Blenheim – the route followed by traffic over those two years of the closure of the Kaikōura Coast.

After Kawatiri the changes in the geography quicken pace – there are vast tracts of pine forest – and as we reach our turn-off down the Motueka Valley at the old Kohatu Hotel, we are pretty much into civilisation again. The Kohatu Hotel has survived over the years and has become a significant stopping spot in recent years after the addition of a café.

After leaving SH6 at Kohatu (it goes on to Wakefield) we are on the last leg of our journey to Motueka.

I love the Motueka Valley. It’s a slow drive, with the little town of Tapawera on the way and many lifestyle blocks and small farms.

This was once ‘tobacco country’ and you can still see many of the tobacco sheds where the large tobacco leaves were hung up to dry.

This was a romantic time for the region. Each year, at harvest time, Motueka and the surrounding area became a magnet for thousands of workers – many, students on holiday, and others, just looking for a lifestyle change.

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18. There are several side roads with interesting bridges over the Motueka River off the Motueka Valley Road 19. Humorous carving of a bull has been at the roadside up the Motueka Valley for many years 20. Ngātīmoti church and war memorial are both worth the short side trip out of the Motueka Valley

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CANTERBURY TO TASMAN

Christchurch to Motueka

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When I was on Radio Pacific I made the Motueka tobacco-picking season a subject one Saturday morning, and it sparked huge interest – many romances began over the season, ending in many marriages.

Most of the workers lived in basic accommodation on the tobacco farms and buses were arranged to get them into Motueka for Friday nights. This was the era of six o’clock closing and the few pubs in the town did a roaring trade.

Tobacco plants are handsome things with big leaves, but picking them was a very sticky and dirty job. Despite that, many of the callers to the radio programme loved their time there.

But tobacco shared the region with fruit (mainly apples) as well as hops. After tobacco, apples became more important than ever and in recent years an experiment with Jax apples has turned out badly – nobody liked them – and the orchards have now been ripped out and replaced by more hops.

Hops are everywhere – and still spreading.

Apparently, Motueka and Nelson hops are the best in the world (challenged by Hawke’s Bay though, I understand) and the demand for them has been escalated by the boom in the craft beer market.

There seems to be no end of the spread of hop farms.

Overall, there’s a calm, ordered, almost colonial feel about the Motueka Valley with well-established properties.

We turned off briefly at Ngātīmoti just to visit the pretty church and impressive war memorial at the top of the hill before returning to the main road, and soon we were in Motueka.

The town has a population of under 8,000, compared to Ōamaru’s 11,000, but Motueka is much, much busier – the town centre is bigger and it’s thriving.

There is something about Motueka that keeps people there. The Talley family remain based here despite controlling a vast food empire, and the Goodman brothers (Goodman, Fielder Wattie) also maintained their own base in Motueka long after their business interests flourished and spread further afield.

In Motueka we have a look around, but don’t have time to visit Riwaka or Kaiteriteri. Instead we catch up with brother-in-law Stu’ who works

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NZTODAY RV Lifestyle South Island Road Trips Special Edition

for DOC in the greater region.

We decide to head towards Picton and ask Stu’ for some guidance about DOC camps along the way. Stu’ tells of three and, making mental notes, off we go.

The sun is out, it’s fine and warm. Our expectations are high.

We skirt Nelson and head into rain. It’s too wet to stop at our first suggested campsite just out of Rai Valley, ditto Pelorus Bridge where the rain is even more solid.

We press on to Havelock in the hope of finding better weather once clear of the hills. And we do – we now only have the wipers on intermittent!

We follow Queen Charlotte Drive feeling increasingly disheartened because we are sure we are going to get wet.

Then we see the sign we are looking for – Aussie Bay – another small DOC campsite with toilet, running water and space for about five or six vehicles.

We are in the place alone and have our choice of the best spot. By now the rain has begun a light drizzle, but I spy a secluded parking spot under a canopy of trees where the ground is dry! By the time we park and get out, the rain has stopped completely.

We’re in heaven – the trees at the end of our parking spot have been cut back so we have a view across the Grove Arm to Anakiwa.

I go off and deposit my $16 fee and return to settle in and have a glass of wine and cook a meal. Tonight we are having pasta with carbonara sauce and a couple of cheeky little reds.

Dinner over, dishes washed, we settle down in our chairs to finish off the day with a ‘camp coffee’, listen to the sound of the water below us and watch the twinkle of the lights over at Anakiwa.

We both agree – a perfect spot at the end of a sensational drive.

21. The start of the Talley’s food empire – the remains of Peter Talley’s father’s fishing boat, the Janie Seddon. It’s been left to rust in peace off the Motueka waterfront as a tribute to the company

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CANTERBURY TO MACKENZIE

Timaru to Tekapo

FAIRLIE & MORE

Allan Dick explores SH8 from Timaru to Tekapo.

Words + Photos Allan Dick 1

E

ver since my first visit to Fairlie 50 years ago, I’ve had a mental image of it being the last outpost of civilisation before the great expanse of the Mackenzie Country. It was where the spread of early European civilisation stopped quite abruptly and said, ‘Whoa, we’re not going there …’

Fairlie is set in a green and pleasant landscape, quite heavily wooded with English trees, and rolling pasture. On a quiet day with the sun in the sky and birds singing, you can almost hear “… and was Jerusalem founded here, in England’s green and pleasant land …”. But 15 or 20 minutes later, after passing through the tiny hamlets of Kimbell and Burkes Pass, you crest a rise at the curiously named Dog Kennel Corner

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NZTODAY RV Lifestyle South Island Road Trips Special Edition

and explode out of that green and pleasant land into the stark beauty of the Mackenzie Country where, before the arrival of Europeans, there wasn’t a tree to be seen – just unrelenting emptiness.

But there were trees here, once: totara forests in the valleys and on the tops. These were burned by Māori when they hunted moa and they never returned.

Fairlie was, literally, the end of the line.

If you can remember back to the early days of television in New Zealand, when it was black and white and Ena Sharples terrified the drinkers at the Rover’s Return, there were two ‘fillers’ that we saw once a month or so. One followed the scow Tuhoe up the Kaiapoi River, and the other, the AB steam loco at the head of a train called the Fairlie Flyer as it chuffed and tooted its way from Timaru to Fairlie. These ‘fillers’ had no spoken words, but were accompanied by music that bordered on being musak.

The Fairlie branch railway line was opened in stages between 1874 and 1884, and for a while it was so well used that there was a dedicated daily passenger train, the Fairlie Flyer. This ended in 1930 when increasing numbers of passengers opted to travel by road, but a mixed passenger/goods train continued until 1953 when it became a goods-only line, and that ended in 1968 when the line was closed, the rails torn up, bridges demolished and stations removed – save for the 2.5 kilometre section into Pleasant Point from the east. This is now used by the local railway society which has a significant operation involving two steam locomotives, passenger carriages and a Ford Model T-based railcar.

But, enough of the history, what of today? We’re about to find out.

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My original travel plans were delayed a week by Cyclone Gita, but it was a bright and sunny Friday morning when I cleared Oamaru and headed up SH1 for Timaru, where I turned up SH8 at Washdyke, the real home of legendary racehorse Phar Lap. Pleasant Point is the first town on the route – a place that lives up to its name. There’s a broad main street, with enough shops and businesses operating to warrant a stop, and a curious mixture of street names that include Kabul and Afghan!

It’s also the passenger pick up and drop off for the ‘Pleasant Point Museum and Railway’ which is all neatly based in the lovingly restored railway station.

There used to be a factory in Pleasant Point that made slashers for clearing the country of gorse and broom – Lienert’s, but that’s long gone. The township suffered a devastating flood in 1986 that saw one fatality and caused $120 million worth of damage.

You pass the operating base and workshop for the railway at the eastern boundary of the town, with the 2.5km stretch of line heading arrowstraight for the station/museum. I see a sign stating that the historic Model T railcar is operating daily. “Operating daily?” Can it really be?

Yes it is. I see the dark-red, square box of the railcar parked on the lines by the platform, waiting for passengers. A man is standing on the platform, talking to someone inside the ticket box. He is today’s railcar driver Gordon Somerville, and the ticket person is Dilys Looms.

Both are volunteers and both bemoan the fact it’s quiet. Gordon had a long career in radio as a copywriter, so we have plenty to talk about.

He offers me a ride in the railcar, but I’ve done it before and I want to get to Fairlie.

The railcar is a replica of a failed experiment for NZR back in the late twenties when three were built and used on the Waikaia and Glenham

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branch lines in Southland. I have no idea what prompted the Fairlie people to replicate a failed experiment, but I am glad they have because it’s (a) popular and (b) has preserved a link to a piece of history that would have otherwise been lost.

Gordon and Dilys show me through the station with its many historic displays. This is worth stopping at when you visit Pleasant Point – and the monument to Richard Pearse is nearby, so you can also go and pay homage to him.

I head for one of the most famous – and fascinating – businesses in Pleasant Point, G D O’Rourke & Sons, Taxidermists, but along the way cast a sad glance at the old Post Office. Shearer Steve Casey and his partner, once created a wonderful café here called Legends and ran regular talent nights. I was asked to be the MC on a couple of them. Sadly, it’s now closed and washing on the lines in the courtyard indicates it’s now a dwelling.

1. The Wolds (established 1876) mailbox near Tekapo 2. Poignant memorial to the soldiers that left the back country to go to war – some never to return 3. It’s square and it’s the Pleasant Point Model T railcar 4. Your driver of the Model T railcar today is Mr Gordon Somerville NZTODAY RV Lifestyle South Island Road Trips Special Edition

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CANTERBURY TO MACKENZIE

Timaru to Tekapo

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I’m sidetracked before I reach O’Rourkes. An old garage fronting onto the main street has been given a new lease of life by Gilbert Bailey and his partner Sharon. Best way to describe the place is that it’s a man cave devoted to cars and motorbikes, with Sharon running a shop within the cave selling fascinating and collectable knick-knacks. The place is called Frocks and Shocks, sub-titled ‘Obsolete Iron Motors’.

Gilbert’s ‘real job’ is as an engineer with PrimePort Timaru, but this is his passion and one day it will become full time. It’s a gathering place for like-minded people. Gilbert restores cars and builds motorcycles, including a Bonneville Salt Flats monster powered by two, three-cylinder Triumph engines. He’s been to Bonneville once and would like to get back again this year.

Almost next door is O’Rourke’s – probably the most famous place in Pleasant Point these days. The business was founded by Gerald O’Rourke almost 60 years ago and today is run by his two sons, Lance and Kerry, although the business itself was sold to local interests two years ago.

“We signed on to continue running the place for two years after the sale,” says the quietly spoken Lance. And when the two years is up in a month or two? “We’ll renew,” he says, with a laugh.

This is a busy place and it has an enviable record.

OK, some people aren’t going to be all that comfortable standing in a showroom surrounded by dead animals, but this is very much old, grassroots New Zealand – with the exception of a very large bear which has been in the showroom for years. How much does this sort of thing cost? A look at their website shows that ‘stuffing’ the head of an elk will cost $1795. That’s probably less than I expected.

I gave half a thought to grabbing a bite to eat, but then thought of when I was younger – and slimmer – and decided to carry on.

Pleasant Point is indeed pleasant.

The drive out of Pleasant Point and on towards Fairlie is through unremarkable, if pleasant (that word again)

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NZTODAY RV Lifestyle South Island Road Trips Special Edition

5. An acre of machinery at Sutherlands 6. Gilbert, Sharon and a motorbike. Shocks and Frocks in Pleasant Point 7. Small river stone church in Cave is almost hidden by trees 8. The Memorial Church over the hill from Cave is a Norman-style church that is almost a museum 9. Old limestone building was almost certainly a hotel near the Albury railway station

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farming country. Green is the dominant colour.

Next stop is Sutherlands – not much left here – just the old school set well back off the road, grounds which are now a paddock, and a war memorial to one side. The eastern neighbour is a man who collects machinery – he has an acre of fascinating looking stuff, including the boiler from a steam loco’ and some old Chevrolet cars.

I meet the neighbour on the western side – a young blonde mum in black shorts and gumboots. While the other neighbour has an acre of old machinery, she’s got an acre of grass – and she’s cutting it with an ordinary motor mower.

“Gidday,” she calls to me. “You’re another one. Lots of people stop and look at this place.”

“It’s the old school,” I reply, not sure if she knows that or not. But I have a more pressing point: “Why aren’t you on a ride-on mower with so much grass to cut?”

“Oh, it’s my exercise,” she says, taking a last puff on a skinny looking rollie and stubbing it out. “I put the little one down and get stuck in to this.”

I run an eye over the land she’s got to mow – it’s a young farm and I reckon there’s half a day’s yakka here.

“We’ve had a bit of rain – makes it grow and I hate those,” she says indicating daisies and clover flowers. “They bring bees and I don’t want the little one stung.”

We say goodbye and I go and look at the war memorial.

On the way back to my truck, the young mum mower shouts out over the two-stroke roar, “Seeya …”

I wave back.

Up the road a bit you start to get into the trees. In fact the next place, Cave, is almost hidden in so many trees you could call it a forest. Cave’s tucked off SH8 in a dog-leg. I guess the old road followed this at one time.

I know a bit about Cave. Two friends of mine spent time here.

Eoin S Young – known variously as ‘Buster’ and ‘Easy’ – who became one of the best-known writers this country has ever produced, grew up here. He started out being a bank clerk but ended up writing about motor racing, and in 55 years he produced thousands of syndicated columns and maybe a dozen books – all best sellers in their field.

He was my mate.

And Brian Conroy, a publican from Timaru, owned the pub here once. He bought a Vampire jet fighter off the RNZAF when they sold them off at give-away prices and he parked it outside the pub, just because he could.

Both have passed on.

The pub still operates, but the Vampire’s long gone. There’s a shop that sells groceries, petrol and ice cream. It has a noticeboard outside as many country stores have.

I drive around the handful of back streets. This is a quiet, peaceful place of mostly older, modest homes, and it seems to have more churches per house that any other town in the world. Cave has one very special church, but it’s over the hill a bit on the back road and I’ll save that for the journey home.

I drive on, into the thickening trees, under a blazing hot sun pouring out of a cloudless sky. I’ve left the dairy cows and irrigators behind and this is mainly sheep country – sheep and cattle – although I see freerange pigs and hens and grow to love this countryside. Traffic is light and I have the road pretty much to myself. I’m enjoying the drive so much, I switch off my iPod. Next stop is Albury. Where Cave was small and compact, nestled in trees, Albury is scattered – and open. The pub, long closed, has reopened, but with restricted hours. I see churches. Struth! there seem to be more here than at Cave. Lots of churches in this area. The shop is now a house, and I spot what could once have been two garages. I wonder how many people outside South Canterbury have heard of Albury?

Along the way there are remains of the old railway line – mainly concrete bridge abutments, but also the raised track bed. It’s a hobby of mine, visually tracing the route of old railway lines. About where I guess the Albury railway station used to be, is a limestone building that was almost certain to have been a pub for train travellers. Today it looks like it’s a holiday home. The end of this road ends in a thicket of willows and a couple of river fords.

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CANTERBURY TO MACKENZIE

Timaru to Tekapo

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On to Fairlie – the last leg – and I pass through quaintly named places called Cricklewood and Winscombe where there used to be towns – now they are just place names on the map.

Because I’ve been here before, I know that if I turn left just before Fairlie, I will find an old ammunition dump – a dozen or more, squat and solid looking, windowless, red-brick buildings half buried on the hillside.

Perhaps because Fairlie was so remote, it was chosen as the place where an ammunition factory was set up during WWII, and the ammo was stored in these red-brick sheds before being taken off to the various theatres of war. The ammunition was made in a factory in Fairlie proper, which is now the museum and a café, but Bill Hamilton, farmer, racing driver, engineer and inventor of the jet boat also had an ammunition factory on his farm at Irishman’s Creek over the hill in the Mackenzie Country.

Apart from the red-brick storage buildings, there are also a couple of very military looking weatherboard office blocks, one of which has been converted into rental holiday accommodation.

The arrival into Fairlie could be described as sensational. Or

10. Tekapo’s famous Church of the Good Shepherd - now with fence and gates 11. View down the side of Lake Tekapo towards the burgeoning town 12. Lake Alexandrina – idyllic, but spoiled by too many ugly signs

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NZTODAY RV Lifestyle South Island Road Trips Special Edition

beautiful? I settle for the latter. Trees which have covered an increasing area of the landscape are suddenly marched into order lining the highway, and are so big and mature they almost touch and form an arch. This is Peace Highway, created after the ‘Great War’.

Fairlie is like a bigger Pleasant Point in many ways, but with that edge-of-the-world feeling I mentioned at the beginning. While there are still many of the businesses that flourished here in earlier days, looking after the wants and needs of farmers, some have closed and now the place is a curious but attractive mix of those old-style rural outfits and newer ones catering to a new gold rush – tourism.

The quiet run I’ve had on SH8 from Timaru is about to change for it’s in the middle of Fairlie that SH79 from Geraldine ends, and that means I’ll be joined by the tourist traffic heading to and from Queenstown on the Inland Scenic Route.

As I arrive in town, I see the red and blue flashing lights of a police car. It’s stopped and the officer is out speaking to a ‘client’. The ‘client’ is a bearded face under a cycle helmet, astride a push-bike with packs.

I know we blame tourist drivers for bad behaviour on the roads – but cyclists? I wonder what offence this man has committed.

Later I pass him a dozen or so kilometres up the road; he’s pedalling furiously, teeth gritted, his forehead knitted in a scowl.

Fairlie’s most famous business these days is the new Fairlie Bakehouse which was established about 18 months ago, offering a vast range of designer pies along with other goodies. And the place has been a huge hit, with people driving from all over the region and then standing in line waiting to be served. In Fairlie! – where there have never been lines of people before. Except maybe at the annual A&P Show – which I have been to.

Last year, as a self-styled ‘Pie Expert’, I wanted to see what the fuss was about, but I was thwarted by a road rage incident when an angry woman threw a punch at me outside the shop!

On this mid-to-late Friday afternoon I look inside the bakery. Blow me down there’s a line of hopefuls waiting for the golden sachets of meat and goodness clearly on show in a huge pie warmer. I think of my figure and the fact that my evening meal is just a couple of hours away. So I decide to wait until the morning.

Some years back, encouraged by Eoin S Young, I visited Fairlie to see Ian Jones, a motor engineer who had ‘looked after’ Bill Hamilton’s racing Bentley. Sadly, Ian had died a month or so prior, but I was shown inside his workshop – all locked up and left like a shrine to a very clever man. Time capsule stuff with period spanners all neatly in their rightful place and, tucked away in a corner, something I was told was a motorised sled from the Scott Antarctic expedition. It certainly looked old, but Scott? I knew Scott tried sledges, but they failed, so he and his team marched into tragic history.

I call in at Mackenzie Country Motors, but Ian’s son, Paul, isn’t there.

I learn that he will be looking after the service station in the morning.

I want to talk to him about his father – and the sled.

Instead, I mooch around the town, looking here and there, all the time aware of the tourist traffic pouring off SH79 from Geraldine, turning right and beetling off for Burkes Pass and beyond.

Dotting the grass strip in the centre of town are trees (of course) and a series of stunning photographs of this region, for Fairlie is the centre of bureaucratic power for the Mackenzie District. There’s also a bronze statue of sheep stealer James Mackenzie and his dog.

Most of the shops have a history of the property displayed in their front window, giving information about the first and subsequent owners – very interesting. There are a lot of tourists enjoying the balmy late afternoon and patronising the numerous eateries.

Time is slipping by, so I decide to press on over Burkes Pass into the wild beauty of the Mackenzie Country and take a look at Tekapo.

On the way I pass through Kimbell with its pub and camping ground and artists’ residences – again, lots of trees – and through Burkes Pass where I want to spend time tomorrow morning, exploring.

The arrival into the Mackenzie Country is breathtaking – and dramatic.

Towering columns of white thunderclouds cluster around the horizon while the mountains fade into deep blue.

I mooch around Tekapo town for a while. The place is awash with tourists, and I am left with no doubt that Tekapo is going to be our next Queenstown. It has the lake, the mountains, breathtaking scenery, two ski fields, hot pools (heated by gas, not au naturel), an ice-skating rink and the developers are moving in. Mini suburbs of small, architectdesigned houses, sitting on postage stamp-sized sections, sprawl up the hill, and there are plans for a lakeside resort.

Tekapo is at an uncomfortable spot in its history – some traditional Tekaponians feel intimidated and threatened by what’s happening, and the row over access to the famed stone church is representative of that. It’s been fenced and gated off with restrictions on access.

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CANTERBURY TO MACKENZIE

Timaru to Tekapo

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You get the feeling that the juggernaut of tourist development is about to overwhelm the place.

Next morning I head off to visit the Mount John Observatory and have breakfast at the café, but I don’t want to spend the asked-for eight dollars to use the road to get there. That charge is new since I was last here. A pity, as the views from the top are incredible.

Instead I drive on to Lake Alexandrina, and here there is more evidence of the conflict between tourism and the locals. When I was last here five years ago, there was just a small collection of holiday homes at the outlet of the lake into Lake Tekapo. Now There’s a camping ground, which appears to be operated by the crib/batch owners, and it’s popular, but in this breathtakingly beautiful place there’s visual pollution in the form of proliferating ugly signs, most of which start with a huge black ‘NO’ then a list of things you aren’t allowed to do, ending with a row of exclamation marks.

There’s no indication as to which authority has erected these signs, nor whose rules they are; I find them ugly, bullying and unwelcoming in such a spot of paradise. I feel a bit gloomy about this and head back to Tekapo to buy some diesel before returning to Burkes Pass.

Here I visit the cemetery. It’s surrounded by trees (of course) with plenty of bunny holes pocking the hard earth. There is a mix of very old and quite new headstones – a fascinating place. One of the first headstones I read is a new one and I’m surprised to see it’s for William Apes – Bill Apes who was the local policeman for many, many years and was often in the news. Later I find a headstone to mountaineer Gary Ball who died on Himalayan Mt Dhaulagiri and who is buried there. He died in poignant circumstances – trapped by a storm but able to speak to the outside world by his satellite phone and to say goodbye to his wife.

Burkes Pass, as a village, has come and gone a bit over the years, and the fire that claimed the pub could have been the final act, but today it’s a must-stop place. Local boy Dave Taylor has created ‘Three Creeks’

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here where he makes and sells a wide range of outdoor furniture made from macrocarpa, but it’s much, much more than that. It’s a small village of sheds, shacks, shops, garages, signs, cars – and a coffee shop.

This is fascinating.

By now it’s 1.30 and the place is bursting at the seams. I look at the menu and see among the designer-pie offerings, ‘silverside and creamed cabbage’; there is also a ‘normal’ pepper steak pie which is my idea of a pie. I size up the situation and decide to come back later rather than wait as long as it seems I will need to wait.

Instead, I go and see Paul Jones who is now looking after the Jones’ family service station. Paul is third generation in the business, and although he’s never married, his brother has and has a son, and so there will be a fourth generation.

I ask Paul about his father Ian, his relationship with Bill Hamilton, and the story behind the motorised sled.

Ian Jones did indeed maintain the Bentley that Bill Hamilton raced at Brooklands in England in the thirties and brought back to New Zealand.

He also looked after several other important classic cars in the area.

Paul’s grandfather, Stan Jones, went to the UK with Hamilton when he raced the car, and it was Stan’s brother Charlie who built the motorised sled. It was built in the early 1930s, and it seems it was meant to be sent to the USA to see if Admiral Byrd would be interested in taking it on his Antarctic expedition. But something happened, Byrd didn’t take it and it was returned to Fairlie where it was used to deliver mail around the Mackenzie Country during a couple of winters when snow made wheeled transport impossible.

While we’re talking, the forecourt at the garage fills up with customers, so I say goodbye to Paul and head back to the Bakehouse.

Only a dozen people this time, so I order a pepper steak pie ($7) and a sausage roll ($4) and take them to a park table to sit and sample them in the sun.

I am joined by a couple from a campervan who are having a picnic lunch. They’re from Holland and I’m impressed with their preparations for this holiday in New Zealand.

“I looked at maps, Googled and came up with a route book of my own,” he explained. I asked where they’ve been and where they are going and he’d missed out nothing.

The verdict on the pie and sausage roll? The meat in the pie was sublime – big, tender chunks of steak in minimal gravy – but a bit light on the pepper for me and I didn’t like the oily, flaky pastry which made it very messy to eat.

The sausage roll was huge, but the same comment applied to the oily, flaky pastry.

Thirty minutes later I was back on the road, heading to where I’d come from the day before, but turning off at Cave for the trip over the hill and back onto SH1 at St Andrews.

On the way I stopped at the Cave store to buy a bottle of water and there was a family of three girls, a mum and a dad ordering what surely must have been the biggest ice 14 creams in the world. A couple of them were three scoops tall, with each scoop the size of a soccer ball. They were licking away to their heart’s content, obviously enjoying them.

I spent 15 years of my life, rolling ice creams in my parents’ store and that put me off ice cream in cones forever!

Just over the hill on the back road is St David’s memorial church, built in Norman style from river stones. This is a famous church, a work of hand-made art and a memorial to the early pioneers, but particularly the Burnett family, of Mt Cook sheep station fame, some of the original pioneers of the Mackenzie. It’s well worth the stop to look inside where it’s as much a museum as it is a church.

I stood in the sun and drank in the beauty of this place. The church

on one side of the road and a magnificent set of stone gates on the other.

Then I spent an hour tiki-touring the back-country roads, through the Pareora Gorge where I spotted an old dam far below, water spilling over it, finally emerging at St Andrews and then a straight run back to Oamaru.

Great couple of days.

13. The Three Creeks in Burkes Pass is a fascinating stop 14. Once someone lived here

Americana • Collectibles • Macro furniture and so much more

A MUST SEE

2119 Fairlie/Tekapo Rd, Burkes Pass Ph 03 685 8544 NZTODAY RV Lifestyle South Island Road Trips Special Edition

57

SOUTHLAND

Central Otago

A COUNTRY FOR SPANIARDS

The Giant Spaniard (Aciphylla scott-thomsonii) is a member of the carrot family, and is one of the largest and fiercest of New Zealand’s spear grasses. It wields large needle-sharp spears that threaten to puncture tyres or disembowel sheep and cattle. It’s found at high altitude and that’s where we were going this trip – up above the snow line!

Words + Photos Allan Dick

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W

hen gold was discovered in Central Otago in the mid-19th century, there were no roads and the miners that flocked here from every corner of the globe had to find their own way – usually by the most direct route which took them through some of the most inhospitable terrain in the country. Without doubt, some perished.

Later, the road builders found easier routes that were less susceptible to snow, ice and gale force winds, and in time the original trails became part of historic lore, wrapped in mystique and romance.

Dunedin boomed on the back of the gold rush and, for much of

the last part of the latter 19th century, was the wealthiest and most influential town in New Zealand. Miners arrived by ship and set out on the cruel and unrelenting march into the hinterland.

Those heading for the Lawrence and Waipori goldfields caught a paddle steamer from Dunedin that sailed down the coast, up the Taieri River into Lake Waihola and set them back ashore at the southern end of the lake. From there, they made their way, on foot, up the Waipori Gorge.

Those heading for Central Otago had it far tougher. They walked from Dunedin over the Taieri Plains to what is now Outram, then up what is now SH87, and then across the Lammerlaw Range, which still feels like the roof of the world, and dropped down into the southern corner of the vast Maniototo Plain.

Here there was brief geographic respite before the second part of the journey into the lower reaches of the Ida Valley – this was the Dunstan Road, also known as the Old Dunstan Trail.

GOLD MINING WILDERNESS

In the first few days of the New Year, the Navigator and I packed up ‘Old Blue’ – the faithful Nissan Pathfinder that has taken us to every corner of New Zealand for the past decade – to follow the Waipori Gorge and Dunstan Roads and, for good measure, a run through the Nevis Valley, another legendary gold mining wilderness region.

Five days on the road in total, with a few of nights camping in DOC parks along the way.

It was raining lightly when we set out from Oamaru for Dunedin, with the threat of heavier rain later, but clearing weather for the next few days.

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NZTODAY RV Lifestyle South Island Road Trips Special Edition

We stopped briefly in Mosgiel for provisions then headed out through the very pretty town of Outram, skirted along the foot of the Maungatua Range to the virtual ghost town of Woodside and on to Berwick where the Waipori Gorge Road heads up into what eventually becomes the Lammerlaws.

This is a spectacular, demanding gravel road that twists and turns its way alongside the Waipori River up through an increasingly steep and narrow, bush-clad gorge.

Back when Dunedin was wealthy, powerful and had great vision, the city built a series of electricity power stations up here, fed from a large dam and lake at the top – Lake Mahinerangi, originally set amidst the wild splendour of magnificent tussock country, but today largely surrounded by pine forest.

In a fit of what many people at the time thought was absolute madness, the Dunedin City Council sold off the entire Waipori power scheme – dam, lake and the generating stations – to Trustpower during the Max Bradford Electricity Reform, banking the millions of dollars but retaining the pine forests.

While the drive up the lushly forested gorge requires maximum attention, you can still get glimpses of the generating stations tucked into the bush.

When the Council owned Waipori there was a sizeable permanent staff and a village was established here, complete with dozens of small houses, a shop, fire station, hall, school and a swimming pool. This is the township of Waipori Falls, clinging to the steep hillside, almost invisible in the bush and you really need to take some time to explore the side roads to appreciate the size of this remote settlement.

Today, modern hydro-dam management doesn’t require on-site staff so the workers and the village became redundant decades ago and it

was sold off, I think first as a single unit, but then properties were sold off independently and some houses were moved away altogether.

What remains today, and there is still plenty, is a sad change from the proud, pristine halcyon days of Council ownership. It seems to be a mix of holiday homes and cheap permanent residences. For instance, a property advertised on Trade Me with an asking price of $85,000 has three bedrooms, is fully furnished and comes with a V8-powered jet boat!

We drive around, feeling saddened by the obvious neglect of some of the properties in such a stunningly beautiful part of the country.

We don’t see a single living human being, so head off for the dam and the lake.

Here Trustpower has locked everything up, but has established a picnic ground where some holiday makers have set up a small village of tents and caravans.

ROCK AND PILLAR RANGE

We push on through increasingly heavy rain, cross the lake via the causeway and the Edgar Stark bridge (named after the bridge’s designer) and detour to the old Waipori Cemetery to show the Navigator the memorial to Private Wilfred Victor Knight, the first ANZAC casualty of Gallipoli that I wrote about last issue, and to visit the grave of old mate, Norman McCraw.

On SH87 I look across at the Lammerlaws and can’t see them under a heavy blanket of cloud – “Hmmm, might be snowing in there,” I mutter to the Navigator and decide to take a quick return trip into Middlemarch, the centre of the region known as the Strath-Taieri.

On the way I see a large shining tube of aluminium in the schoolyard of the long-closed – and remote – Shannon School. The school is now a holiday home and the ‘tube’ is an American Airstream caravan!

1. Looking like angry triffids, this gathering of Spaniards needs to be treated with caution 2. In Middlemarch these horses were being given a training plod in readiness for the Cavalcade 3. The historic suspension bridge at Sutton was a work of art — until it was washed away by a flood shortly after the author took this photograph

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SOUTHLAND

Central Otago

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Middlemarch, a low, sprawling town in the shadow of the Rock and Pillar Range, is the meeting place of the Otago Central Rail Trail and the Taieri Gorge Railway both of which have breathed fresh economic life into a town that was going nowhere.

The pub’s open and doing good business and we view the ‘Middlemarch Submarine’ outside the museum and have a chat to a couple of Southern Blokes riding a large covered wagon drawn by two handsome draught horses – “getting them ready for the Cavalcade” we were told.

On the very last remaining section of the old Central Otago railway line is parked the dozen or so old carriages from the Coastal Pacific passenger train that runs from Picton to Christchurch. These were replaced three or four years ago with very flash, upmarket units built at Hillside workshops in Dunedin just before the place closed.

On the way back to Clarks Junction where the Dunstan 5 Trail begins, we look around the area known as Sutton where there was once an Army training base. We find a historic suspension bridge over the Taieri River and think seriously about taking the hour-long walk to the salt lake nearby, but decide the weather’s a bit tricky. The Sutton salt lake is the only one of its kind in New Zealand, a sort of mini-Utah Salt Flats. The land here is like much of Central Otago – dun-coloured and peppered with outcrops of schist rock. It’s spectacular.

Near Clarks I decide there’s still too much low cloud and decide to make camp at the roadside and hope for better weather in the morning.

I’ve been here before and got trapped by snow and don’t want a repeat.

Morning is clear and quite chilly as I point the nose of the Pathfinder onto the Dunstan Trail, following the path of those early gold-miners who were of much hardier stock than me.

With no snow, the bone-dry road is easy for the first 15km to Rocklands

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NZTODAY RV Lifestyle South Island Road Trips Special Edition

Station before it heads up into the wilderness of the Lammerlaws. Up here you feel close to God – there’s nothing above you, only sky, and an overwhelming sense of lonely beauty. A gentle breeze ruffled across the top of the golden tussock while the fearsome, angry-looking Spaniards stand stiffly to attention. There is serenity in this magic landscape – a serenity that was at the centre of the wind-farm argument a decade ago.

Whenever I come this way I stop to look around an old Dunedin City Council trolley bus that was hauled to a small peninsula when the Loganburn (a lake) was created in the early eighties as part of the Maniototo Irrigation Scheme. A Middlemarch man had plans to turn the trolley bus into a fishing hut but that never happened and, for the past thirty-odd years, the trolley has sat there surviving the weather, shotgun blasts and fires that have been lit inside her. She sits there

defiantly – a curiosity in this harsh and beautiful land. Sadly, since my last trip, someone has pulled her onto her side, apparently to get at her rear axle. I fume at such wanton vandalism and can only assume that someone restoring a trolley bus needed the parts. At least they could have rolled her back upright.

We stop here, savouring the beauty of the place and have brunch before pushing on to the Styx (aka Paerau) at the southern end of the Maniototo Plains.

Here there is a collection of buildings on private land including the old Styx Hotel and jail. The Styx was an overnight stopping point on the way to Dunedin before heading over the trail. Police taking prisoners for trial used the pub, while their prisoners were locked with leg irons in the jail. The leg irons are still attached to the wall of the jail.

The gate to the complex is open – I know the owner, Ewan Carr, so call in to see if he’s there. Ewan, along with painter Grahame Sydney, was amongst the leaders of the group opposed to the proposed windfarm. Ewan’s not there.

The Maniototo Plains were once arid, but home to large farms (runs) owned by well-established farming royalty. Today, irrigation has brought dramatic change – it’s lush and there are now dairy cows where once there were sheep and cattle. Many of the old farming family names remain.

We decide on a quick detour some 60km to Ranfurly up through Patearoa – a small, attractive little town sweltering in the early afternoon sun – and find Ranfurly very busy with holidaymakers and Rail Trail riders. It was once an important railway town.

Today the railway station contains the i-Site and public toilets, and the classic art-deco tearoom is a museum. We find an antique shop – The Curiosity Shoppe – in a brand-new building adjacent to the old loco shed on the outskirts of town.

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4. The Dunstan Trail winds its way over the top of the Lammerlaws, while pylons feed power from the Roxburgh dam to the national grid 5. Odd artefact at the Middlemarch Museum was lowered into the Taieri River, sharp end upstream, while men inside worked on the riverbed looking for gold! It was an idea that failed …

6. Before the Loganburn dam was built as part of the Maniototo Irrigation Scheme, this was the Great Moss Swamp – now a lake 7. Old Dunedin trolley bus vandalised and on its side at the time of this visit, but now back sitting on four wheels

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SOUTHLAND

Central Otago

With a few purchases made, fuelled up and with a shot of caffeine, we head back to Patearoa, the Styx and the second part of the Dunstan Trail.

THE NEXT STAGE

Much of the first leg of the trail – Clarks Junction to the Styx – is closed during the winter and so is the Styx to Poolburn dam section on the second leg. This ‘no winter use’ policy has paid-off because, while wreathed in mystique and legend, the Dunstan Trail is passable by pretty much any vehicle when the weather is dry – which is often.

Styx to the Poolburn Dam presents the most demanding section of the Dunstan Trail – it’s steep, bumpy and rocky in places. You also have gates to open and close and there are a couple of fords but it’s worth it.

Somewhere along here a track to the left leads to the famous Serpentine gold fields where the most remote church in New Zealand is to be found. I’m always tempted to find it, but each time I think about it I am reminded of warnings from locals of peat bogs and the advisability of travelling in convoy.

In due course, we reach one of my most favourite places in New Zealand, the Poolburn Dam – one of several irrigation dams built in Central Otago in the first half of the 20th century and completed in 1929 – the tall narrow concrete dam flooding a wide, shallow basin dotted with tall blocks of schist. The result is the most spectacular landscape in New Zealand – the views are wide across the lake and countryside with some of the schist blocks poking their heads above water like miniature islands. The surrounding land is also covered with these huge outcrops of stone and dotted among them are dozens of huts – this is a rich fishing region. The native Koura (fresh water

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crayfish) are so plentiful the limit is 50 per day per person.

All of the huts are old and many are ramshackle but much loved – notices say that the future refurbishment of any existing huts is now prohibited. This is a secret, spectacular, beautiful, surreal place at any time, but on a fine day without a cloud in the sky and no wind it is the Garden of Eden.

And so it is today. Even though it’s only 3pm we decide this place is just too breathtaking to leave so we drive off-road and down the slope towards the lake, stopping in the lee of two huge schist monoliths, get out the deck chairs, the table, the barbeque and a bottle of wine.

We go to bed early, content that we have found heaven.

I wake early to look out and see the whole basin wreathed in mist, but as the sun rises, the mist burns off giving us another glorious day.

But we move on, now on a better maintained, all-year road that drops

down into the southern corner of the Ida Valley where there was once a small township called Moa Creek.

Some of the filming of The Lord of the Rings was done in this area and the Falconer family at Bonspiel Station offer tours with accommodation in the old Moa Creek Hotel. It closed in 1974 in the era when pub licences were gold, and the licence was transferred to a new hotel in Whanganui.

I’ve been here before and the old pub’s always been locked up. This morning though, there are two vehicles outside – a red Ford Telstar and a Toyota Ute – and the front door is open.

We stop, we alight and are met by a man coming out the door. He is short, scrawny, wearing farm clothes, a beanie on his head, a scrubble of beard and a stubby of Speights in his right hand. He has the brightest blue eyes that shine like spotlights from his weather-beaten face. He’s Ash Pope and he’s worked on farms around Central Otago all his life.

He’s currently helping the Falconers out at Bonspiel and opens and closes the pub when tourists are staying.

Ash and I chew the fat and discover we both know a lot of people in common. He’s a good bugger and we talk for 30 minutes or so before we head into the pub and look around. The bar is as it was in 1974 and the place is clean and honest and colourful.

So too is Ash. “I’m buggered. Had prostate cancer 12 years ago when I was 49. It’s come back, nothing can be done. I’ve got about another year. But I’ve had an extra 12 years,” he says. “Doctor keeps fussing, asks how much I drink – I tell him 12 to 15 bottles and some whiskies. The Doctor asks, ‘Is that a week?’ Nah, I tell him, each day.”

I like Ash and could still be there, yarning to him but we need to get back on the road. I shake his hand, but really want to give him a hug and we head for Alexandra over the Crawford Hills through the farming district of Galloway and into town.

8. Hard-case Ash Pope kept the writer amused at the old Moa Creek hotel. Ash is facing terminal illness with great spirit 9. Looking for somewhere to get away from it all – this old shop in lovely Patearoa might be the answer 10. Halfway up the mountainside to Duffers Saddle and the Nevis, is the old gold-mining town of Carricktown – with Cromwell and Lake Dunstan miles below

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It’s hot and Alexandra is bursting at the seams. We have coffee and brunch at the Tin Goose Café and I go next door to say hello to the folk at Classic Gold Radio.

Owners Bill and Nola Willis are in and so too is their new morning star – comedian and broadcaster Peter Rowley.

Peter’s been there for just three weeks – “It’s like coming home, the Rowleys come from Central – a lot of them at Hawea,” he tells me.

They run a true blue, local community radio station and good on them.

CLYDE AND CROMWELL

Moving on through Clyde, we catch up with Andrea and David, who have finished their refurbishment of Olivers.

Originally opened in the 1980s by the legendary Fleur Sullivan, the Ritchies bought it empty six years or so ago 11 and started off by refurbishing and upgrading the accommodation to an incredibly high standard. With that completed, the restaurant is now open and at 11.30 in the morning it was full to capacity.

There’s a lot of traffic on the road through the Cromwell Gorge and the day is stunning. In Cromwell, Highlands Motorsport Park is humming – tourists and holidaymakers pouring in to see if everything they’ve heard about this ‘miracle in the desert’ is true. It is. Since I finished establishing the museum there two years ago, more and more attractions have been added. This place is unique and I’m proud to have played a small part in its creation.

We stop at the massive Jones Fruit Stall to buy cherries and dried apricots and head across to Bannockburn before travelling over the hill and into the Nevis. Bannockburn is a pretty little village that’s

NOW FOR THE NEVIS

Like the Dunstan Trail, the second half of the Nevis is closed during the winter to save unnecessary damage from 4WD hooligans, but the drive in from both ends, Bannockburn and Garston, is on reasonably wellmaintained roads – a mix of fine gravel and dirt.

But instead of this, we opt for the more challenging route via Carricktown and the ‘Young Australian’ – a waterwheel used by a gold mining company. This is an 1870s Central Otago gold mining route at its harshest – the track is almost vertical and barely formed with huge, sharp-cornered chunks of schist the size of footballs, deep wash-outs, sharp corners and steep drop-offs.

At times I can’t see which way the track goes over the snout of the Pathfinder. I gave its four-wheeldrive system a real work-out as, for an hour or more, we crept our way

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become a very fashionable ‘suburb’ of Cromwell and is the home of many famous wineries.

We drive down Felton Road past Mount Difficulty, and at the end Sam Neill’s vineyard, Two Paddocks, is serving lunch courtesy of the Flying Trestles catering company’s Airstream caravan to customers seated at tables under the fruit trees.

Then we drive around to Cornish Point and more famous wineries.

Before we leave for the Nevis we go behind Bannockburn and visit the ruins of Stewart’s Cottage where there are the remains of an old sluicing dam. On the way out we call in to have a look around the old Bannockburn General Store where there is a copy of NZTODAY sitting outside for customers to read.

NZTODAY RV Lifestyle South Island Road Trips Special Edition

up this rugged hillside, bouncing, lurching and crashing.

At the top, as you look down on Cromwell and Lake Dunstan so far below, you wonder at the stamina of the gold miners who built the stone huts whose remains are still evident, and who dug the numerous races that still carry water to orchards in Bannockburn. And what about the lunatics who lugged the Young Australian Waterwheel up the side of this mountain?

The Nevis (Valley) is fantastic. It’s a vast high-altitude valley of two halves, with the Garvie Mountains to the east and the Remarkables to the west, joined in the middle by a narrow gorge – the Upper Nevis and the Lower Nevis.

Too cold, too harsh and too difficult for the Tangata Whenua, it was the Pakeha who first settled in the area – the first arriving about 1860 and the reason they came was gold! Between 1860 (or so) and the Great Depression, the number of people who lived here reached as high as four or five thousand – some living alone working their claims and some in small scattered settlements with names as telling as North Pole.

The main settlement was Nevis and it boasted a pub, post office, general store, bakery, brewery, racecourse, rugby club and dozens of houses. The weather here is so harsh and extreme that many miners opted to leave in May and return in October. The Great Depression saw some of the married miners and their families move out while other single men were ‘manpowered’ in! But there’s no doubt that the thirties saw the end of Nevis as an established society.

After World War Two, the shortage of roofing iron, plumbing, water tanks and other building supplies meant that the dozens of empty homes

in the Nevis (and elsewhere around the country) became ‘fair game’ and were ruthlessly stripped of everything with any value. And once the roofs, doors and windows were gone, the weather got in and made short work of the mud-brick and schist buildings.

We find our favourite camping spot in the shelter of some huge rocks and by a deep and swirling pool in the Nevis River. Pioneer, the local electricity company, had wanted to dam this river and flood this part of the valley, but the Environment Court refused permission to the delight of many – including myself.

Before we settled down for the night though, we barrelled along the road to catch up with Ken and Anne Adie who, apart from the Heaney family on Ben Nevis Station, come the closest to being the Nevis’s only permanent residents.

Ken Adie’s great-grandfather arrived in the Nevis from Scotland in 1860 as a gold miner and Ken’s family still own the house his grandfather had built in 1898. Ken and Anne spend about six months of each year in the Nevis and the other six in Rangiora.

Theirs is a fascinating story which I will tell in a subsequent issue of NZTODAY. 11. Sam Neill’s Twin Paddocks vineyard with alfresco dining 12. Historic mud-brick cottage and fruit trees at Stewart Town behind Bannockburn. This was the centre of a successful business – building a dam and supplying water to the miners’ sluices down below 13. Once there was a small village here in the Nevis – now there are just the remains of two cottages and a small lake

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SOUTHLAND

Central Otago

The Navigator wakes me at some ungodly hour to ask the time. “Why?” I grumble. “Look at the sky,” she replied.

I do – it’s ten minutes to 11 and the sky just above the back of the Remarkables is still light from the setting sun.

Next morning heralds another brilliant day and we pack up and head for the southern end of the valley where there are 25 river crossings in 24 kilometres. On the way we stop again at the Adie’s where Anne serves us morning tea with home baking from the coal range they keep burning 24/7.

The climb out of the Nevis is as sensational as the route in – you feel you should be in an aircraft!

We meet an Invercargill family – mum, dad and 13-year-old son – who are off for a three-day tramp in the mountains and we feel guilty. Then it’s a young Swiss man having his lunch at the side of the road while he contemplates his mountain pushbike, which has developed chain problems – “I think I have to go back, 14 otherwise it will break entirely.”

We feel even more guilty because we’re driving.

Garston, at the foot of the hill, is – apparently – New Zealand’s most inland town. It should just be a place you drive through, but an enterprising French woman has made it a stop.

‘Bene’ (short for Benedictine) and her husband, Tony Sparks, live here and years back they bought the art-deco hotel turning it into a place of charm and style. They had a sign outside proudly proclaiming the hotel did not have pokies. I thought that was classy. But they sold it to focus on another enterprise, and since then the pub went backwards. So much so, that it closed and there was a hunt on to find someone who could restore it to its former glory. Bene bought the old garage across the road from the pub where she now operates a very, very stylish gallery and a honey shop.

Garston is small, but there’s a really good feel about the place – it’s neat and tidy with first class public toilets and fantastic tourist information boards. There’s plenty to show that someone really cares about Garston – and I suspect Bene is that person.

With the pub closed, there was no food in Garston – until Sharon and Mark Ford arrived and set up their B&B. They also have a wonderful roadside diner based in yet another Airstream caravan.

I have a Garston Monster burger, the Navigator has an American hot dog and we sit in the sun and devour them.

From there, we head on and stop in Kingston where I weep and wail, gnashing my teeth with rage over greed and stupidity at the sight of the Kingston Flier steam train, locked up and decaying. This is a disgrace and someone needs to step in, declare the train a national treasure and bang some heads together.

Traffic is heavy up the side of Lake Wakatipu and at Frankton I easily resist any temptation to turn left for a visit to Queenstown.

Like many Otago-ites I find modern Queenstown an alien place.

So it’s through the Kawarau Gorge, past Cromwell, heading for our last night by the ruins of the old Lindis Pass Hotel, deep in the

pass. This is another of my favourite places. We are first there, but are shortly joined by five or six other vehicles.

On one side we have Anne Stratford from Dunedin. Anne’s recently retired, bought herself a campervan and has just spent a week at Mount Cook. On the other side are Juha and his wife – they’re from Finland and “escaping our -40 degree winters. We love New Zealand – always the South Island, never the North. This is our 15th year here.”

I am astounded!

They spend four months a year here in the campervan, which they leave in Timaru. Juha is a computer programmer and is able to continue his work while in New Zealand thanks to the Internet.

Juha is unashamedly a ‘greenie’. The time he spends here allows him to get involved in environmental issues. He was involved in stopping the damming of the Mokihinui River on the West Coast, was involved in getting made public a secret report into pollution of rivers and streams on Molesworth Station, and now he’s worried about plans to dam the Hurunui River for vineyard irrigation in North Canterbury.

“He’s too much of an activist,” says his wife. “One day he will not get a visa …”

I hope not. We need more Juhas.

Next morning we’re reluctant to get up, pack up and get out, but home, Oamaru, is just 90 minutes away, so we dawdle along in the blaze of colour in the Lindis provided by the millions of lupins, stopping in Omarama for brunch at the excellent Wrinkly Rams Café.

It’s an easy drive down the Waitaki Valley to Chez Dick in Oamaru where there are lawns to be mowed – and a story to be written.

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NZTODAY RV Lifestyle South Island Road Trips Special Edition

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SOUTH ISLAND

Allan Dick’s Great Roadie

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NZTODAY RV Lifestyle South Island Road Trips Special Edition

THE GREAT SOUTH ISLAND ROAD TRIP You have 10 days to see the best that the South Island has to offer; can it possibly be done? Allan Dick has the answer to that.

Story + Photos Allan Dick

NZTODAY RV Lifestyle South Island Road Trips Special Edition

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A

couple of years back a survey of international travelers asked what destination they would like to see before they died. Pretty grim way of putting the question, but the results were interesting. In order of preference they were, the Grand Canyon, Queensland’s Coral Reef and the South Island of New Zealand.

That puts us in pretty exalted company and ahead of things like the Great Wall of China, the pyramids of Egypt and Machu Picchu in Peru.

Are you surprised? South Islanders won’t be because we are well aware of the incredible beauty of this place – a land mass about the size of England but with a population of only one million compared to 56 million! That leaves an awful lot of the South Island for the mountains, lakes, rivers, forest and remote beauty for which we are famous.

Each year, I get about 60 to 80 enquiries from people saying, “I’m coming to the South Island for 14 days later this year, do you have any suggestions as to what I should see?”

Well, there is so much – from the grandeur of the Marlborough Sounds, to the West Coast, to the Catlins, to Stewart Island and everything in between – but there is really no show of experiencing it all in just 14 days. Unless you drive like a speed racer.

I’ve thought about this for a long time and have had a route (or a loop) in mind for quite a while. In late autumn I set aside six days to do it.

The loop, with a couple of side trips, encompasses everything that the South Island is famous for – from the soaring heights of the Southern alps, the breathtaking beauty of our native bush, remote and mysterious fiords (or sounds), the harsh starkness and energy of Central Otago, the lakes, rivers and streams, and the gothic charm of Dunedin and Ōamaru.

While this loop could start at any point of the journey, for this exercise I opted to begin (and end) in Queenstown – it is, after all, our most famous tourist attraction. The loop goes from Queenstown back to Queenstown, via Alexandra, Dunedin, Ōamaru, the Waitaki Valley, the Lindis Pass, Wanaka and Arrowtown, with side trips to Aoraki/Mount Cook out of Ōmarama and either Milford or Doubtful Sound out of Queenstown.

I set out on this trip at midday on a Monday and completed it at 6.00pm on the following Saturday having covered 2106 kilometres and seen a

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NZTODAY RV Lifestyle South Island Road Trips Special Edition

bit of everything that makes the South Island so special.

Is this ‘The South Island’s Greatest Road Trip’? I think it is. In fact, I think it is New Zealand’s Greatest Road Trip.

LEAVING QUEENSTOWN

My advice is to get out of Queenstown after a couple of days because the place is so captivating and such a trap that there is the danger of spending all of your time – and money – there. Instead, save a bit of both for the end of your trip.

Many older New Zealanders don’t like the modern Queenstown – too big, too flashy, too commercial they say. They preferred it when you could arrive in town without a traffic jam all the way from Frankton, drive over the humpback bridge into what is now the mall, and find easy parking down by the waterfront.

In those days one of the most popular attractions was free – watching the fleet of enormous and almost-tame trout off the wharf. Back then the Lady of the Lake, the TSS Earnslaw, was a grubby working-class ship, carrying sheep, bales of wool and sacks of fertiliser to all points of the lake only accessible by water. Captain Frank, immaculate in crisply ironed white shirt and shorts with matching long socks, tennis shoes and skipper’s hat, drove the futuristic Meteor; the picture theatre had a roof that opened up to the night skies to keep patrons cool; and Buckhams made the local fizzy drinks. A meal out consisted of steak, eggs, onions and chips at a local hash foundry.

That was several yesterday’s ago. Today’s Queenstown is vast by comparison. Its growth is breathtaking and there seems to be no end to it. In many ways, Queenstown has become the engine room of the South Island economy.

I decided to do the side trip to Te Anau first, hitting the road to cross the sweeping new bridge at Frankton and down the side of Lake Wakatipu to Kingston where the overflow from Queenstown are creating their own mini boom. Here though I was heartened to see some progress has been made on getting the historic steam train Kingston Flyer back on the tracks.

The drive from Kingston to Te Anau is through rolling farmland with a few towns along the way – like Garston (awesome southern roasted coffee found at The Coffee Bomb!), Athol and Mossburn – but you get the ‘big sky’ feeling for which most of the South Island is famous.

Sweeping mountains to both sides with farmland in between. And few people.

Te Anau remains unspoiled despite the close to one million visitors who pass through or stay in a year. It’s still pretty much what Queenstown used to be when Captain Frank was at the helm of the Meteor.

From Te Anau, you can look west across the lake and see the dark, mysterious and brooding bulk of the mountains of Fiordland National Park. This is the edge of civilisation – beyond here there is nobody, except a few hardy hunters and trampers. Maybe the legendary Lost Tribe and maybe strange beasts such as moose – recently 3 re-sighted after many years of questionable existence.

In Te Anau you can make a decision – Milford Sound, Doubtful Sound or further afield to the lesser known fiords such as Dusky Sound and Preservation Inlet. A fisherman based in the sounds once said to me, “Dusky Sound is the best, but access is bit more limited.

But if Dusky is a 10, Doubtful is an eight and Milford is a six.”

Doubtful is accessed from Manapouri, 20 minutes further along the road, via a boat ride across the lake and a bus ride over Wilmot Pass to the head of the sound where the good ship Wanganella was based during the construction of the tailrace tunnel for the Manapouri power station. There are day cruises on Doubtful Sound, but I took an overnight one instead, and it remains one of my most memorable experiences.

Post Covid-19 cruise options will be less – but well worth seeking out.

On this trip I was using a two-berth camper van on a Ford Transit chassis and I opted to drive to Milford Sound simply because this is one of the really great drives in the world. Don’t rush it, take the chance to stop at all the scenic stops (there will be no buses just now) and soak in the sounds, sights and smells of nature at its best.

Milford Sound has started to earn itself a reputation as “over-crowded”, however this is only at certain times of the day. Turn up early in the morning or arrive later in the afternoon and you could have the place to yourself. And with the prospect of no international visitors in the near future this jewel in the crown is a must-see for every New Zealander.

ph: 0800

@monarchwildlife

wildlife.co.nz

1. Aoraki / Mount Cook (the Cloud Piercer), New Zealand’s tallest mountain. Breathtaking 2. Think Queenstown and one of the first things to come to mind is the grand old ‘Lady of the Lake’, the Earnslaw. She began life as a working ship but now is very much a gracious work of art 3. Milford Sound is spectacular – whether it’s raining or the sun is shining. Rain creates waterfalls – millions of them

est. 1983

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You can take a cruise or not, there are also options for sea kayaking, diving and scenic flights. You’d be crazy not to take advantage of all this on your road trip!

There is no way I would recommend staying in Queenstown if you want to ‘do’ Milford Sound. Pre Covid-19 each day was a veritable non-stop procession of tour buses departing Queenstown jammed with passengers who, I am sure, aren’t really aware of what they are in for – a 20-hour day! Staying in Te Anau or Manapouri makes so much more sense – only two hours to Milford Sound – but the tourist industry seems hell-bent on maintaining Queenstown as its major jump-off point for non-self-drive holidaymakers.

There is accommodation in Milford Sound – at the Milford Sound Lodge – and it is a pleasure to stay; great food and coffee, boutique cabins if you want a bit of luxury otherwise powered sites tucked into native bush. I’m a self-driver so I headed out on the Milford Road and stopped off at the first of the half dozen excellent Department of Conservation camps along the way.

It was dark as I organised my evening meal and prepared to eat at the outdoor BBQ table – my illumination being one of those lights you wear on your forehead.

I was focused on eating when I became aware of a noise to my left. I turned my head and there was a fully grown possum, just a metre away, helping himself to one of my ciabatta rolls. And he was in no hurry to leave. He just looked at me, his eyes shining red in my headlight, munching away.

When he did finally leave the table, he just ambled away clutching the roll in his left paw!

So, I looked around for any of his family and spotted a small bloke on the ground just looking at me. I squatted, clicked my fingers and

said “come here” as you would a puppy. He came towards me a metre or so and then slipped behind a tree to play hide and seek with me – popping his head out to see if I was still there as he moved from tree to tree. Eventually he got tired of the game, toddled off into the dark, and I went back to my meal.

The next morning I woke to the sound of light rain on the roof of my camper. In all of the times I have been to Milford Sound I have never experienced rain, but instead of cursing, I was joyous. I have been told, many times, that when it is raining, you see waterfalls.

And you do – thousands of them.

Traffic was light. I struck the Homer Tunnel lights on green and had a sensational drive into Milford – the rain, waterfalls, low cloud and the slightly primeval feel made this a very special drive.

The stunning Hollyford Valley is no longer accessible following devastating flooding in February 2020 resulting in the legendary and historic Gunn’s Camp being destroyed, the road and Hollyford Track being washed out with trapped tramper’s being evacuated by helicopter from hut rooves.

Back in Te Anau the rain had stopped. I made a quick trip to Manapouri – arguably New Zealand’s most stunning lake, and back before retracing my steps back to Queenstown, spending my night with other ‘vanners’ at a spot the council have set aside just past Kingston on the shores of Lake Wakatipu.

Up and on the road again early next morning and down through the Kawarau Gorge.

Once a rugged, lonely drive through spectacular and harsh country with rocky mountains to one side and the turbulent Kawarau River on the other, today it’s the host of many tourist activities including bungee jumping, wine tasting, beer and cheese tasting.

Phone 03 441 0288 146 Arthurs Point Rd Arthurs Point Queenstown 9371 www.thcnuggetpoint.co.nz

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You emerge from the gorge into even more vineyards. This is Cromwell – once just a town that served the local farmers and orchardists but today a place that is rapidly becoming the working capital of Central Otago.

The change began with the building of the controversial Clyde dam in the late seventies and eighties when Cromwell became the base for workers; a new town centre was built as the old one was to be drowned by the new lake.

Since then, Cromwell has taken on a new life almost as the service centre for both Queenstown and Wanaka, but also as the centre of the burgeoning viticulture area which continues to expand. And expand.

But in recent years, Scottish pet-food millionaire Tony Quinn has given Cromwell another reason to expand, taking over a project to create a motor racing circuit – and 30 million dollars later, Cromwell has a facility that is world class. But Highlands Motorsport Park is more than just a motor racing circuit; it is an experience in excellence with a car museum, a café, car sculptures, wild rides and dinosaurs in the forest.

All of this has made Cromwell a perfectly acceptable address with the upwardly mobile. For me, the old part of Cromwell and nearby Bannockburn are my favourite places.

At the east end of the Cromwell Gorge is the very pretty and historic town of Clyde – get rid of the cars, spread some gravel on the main street and it could be 1867. But Clyde too is on the move, with an expanding suburbia and a twin to the main street. Olivers, the famous restaurant started by ‘Fleur’, is back in business and as good as it’s ever been under the ownership of David Ritchie and his wife. David is solid Otago stock being of the family that launched (NMA) National Mortgage and food wholesalers J Rattray and Co back in the 19th century.

You are hardly into top gear before you are in the broad streets of Alexandra that, compared to Queenstown, Cromwell and Clyde, remain ‘unspoiled’ and the way Central used to be.

Alexandra’s role as the capitol of Central Otago is being taken over slowly by Cromwell, but it remains an attractive, easy-to-live-in town with plenty of opportunities for day drives such as up the Ida Valley to places like Ōmakau, Ranfurly and Ōtūrēhua.

I could live in Alex’… as it is called.

6 5. Rain creates the waterfalls for which Milford Sound is famous. To get a scale of this you need to look at the bus in the lower right hand corner 6. A side trip off the Milford Road into the Hollyford Valley will bring you to Gunn’s Camp — sadly it has been badly damaged y floods since this photograph was taken.

7. NZ Fur Seal – once hunted to near extinction now a common sight on rocky outcrops in Milford and Doubtful Sounds

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The drive from Alexandra to the even more ‘unspoiled’ Roxburgh is pure Central Otago – barren, harsh, a landscape strewn with schist rock where every tree is an immigrant. Blindingly hot in the summer and one of the coldest areas in New Zealand in the winter, the road is often closed by snow.

I overnighted in the camper at Butchers Dam – a freedom-camping area for self-contained vehicles on the shore of a man-made lake. There were half a dozen others there, but we were so scattered that privacy was ensured. No possums, but there was wildlife in the form of several armies of rabbits, as well as ducks on the lake.

The night was magical – the moon was out, there was snow on the nearby Old Man Range and ice forming around the edges of the lake.

I almost had tears in my eyes with the beauty of the place. I rugged up – beanie, gloves, scarf and heavy jacket – and took a glass of vin rouge outside for 30 minutes of reverie listening to the ducks gurgling to each other, and I toasted this blessed country.

Two years ago, I renewed contact with my very best mate at high school, Brian Murray Smith. Unbelievably, Smithy dropped dead at

8. Central Otago has, in just a few decades, become a producer of some of New Zealand’s best wines 9. The mighty Clyde dam with Lake Dunstan which stretches for kilometres behind it. It was created amidst a storm of controversy over the unstable nature of the surrounding land and the loss of so much of the landscape 10. The fruit sculpture at Cromwell was created before the arrival of grapes 11. Central Otago is dotted with ruins and reminders of the gold-mining history of the region.

This is near Bendigo

the gym the following week, so in honour of my old best mate I flew to his funeral in Auckland and met his daughter Audrey. Shortly after that she moved south and now owns Lye Bow Gardens on the shores of Butchers Dam and the adjacent Lake Roxburgh.

The property was established by a Chinese man, Lye Bow, in 1860 as vegetable garden and orchard and became famous for the produce.

Today, Audrey runs it as a Bed and Breakfast and has adapted well to the climate and the beauty of the place.

I arrived too late and left too early to see Audrey, so headed for Roxburgh, making a short detour off the main highway to visit spectacular Mitchell’s Cottage. This is a superb example of the stone mason’s art using Central Otago schist. The place is owned by DOC, is unoccupied but open 24/7 and is well worth a visit. If you have a 4WD vehicle you can continue up the road – which becomes almost vertical – and find yourself on the top of the Old Man Range which is as bald as an egg save for amazing five-storey-tall plinths of schist.

Roxburgh is a fifties time-warp, unchanged since the crews pulled out after constructing the Roxburgh hydro. Again, like Alexandra, it has a main street that is super wide and here you can find the home of South-Island-famous Jimmy’s Pies.

Thinking nothing of my figure I bolted down a standard Jimmy’s Mince followed by a cream bun the size and shape of a rugby ball. Truth is, I really organised this trip just so I could have the cream bun.

From there I crossed the Clutha River – now free and untamed in its way to the Pacific after being trapped behind the giant Roxburgh dam – to follow the parallel road down the other side of the river; I wanted to see the remains of the largest woolshed in the world at Teviot and have a coffee at the new café established in the old Faigan’s Four Square store in Miller’s Flat.

I also wanted to drive the Millennium Track from Millers Flat to Beaumont to see the Lonely Graves and the amazing Horseshoe Bend swing-bridge – the latter is a bit of a walk, but worth it. This track follows the old Lawrence–Roxburgh railway line and is a bit rough in places, so if you’re nervous, stick to 11 the main road down through Dumbarton.

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I rejoined the main road at Beaumont where there must be the oldest and most rickety bridge in New Zealand on a State Highway. And it’s in a state of constant repair.

The pub at Beaumont is owned by a progressive fellow who hails from Iceland. He also runs the adjacent camping ground.

It’s here the landscape begins to change from pure Central Otago to the lush green of South Otago.

I stopped and moseyed around Lawrence for a couple of hours. I love Lawrence – a former gold-mining town, it is full of history, old buildings, old shops and tree-lined streets. It’s in a valley, so it’s cold in the winter, often with an inversion layer trapping smoke from the wood fires. At one 12 stage Lawrence was almost a ghost town with just one or two shops left open. Today, it’s been discovered by tourists, but without becoming overdone or too commercial.

Lawrence is famous for being where God Defend New Zealand was written, and as the place where two lions escaped from a visiting circus and had to be shot by constable Mike Lodge in the dark of the night.

It’s also the place where a disgruntled farmer once dropped a load of manure onto the steps of the local council offices to show his annoyance over some matter.

From there it’s a pleasant run through green, hilly farmland to SH1 and the town of Milton, once a thriving industrial town and the home of the Bruce Woollen Mills. But that’s long gone and today Milton, famous for its kink in the main street, is a quiet rural community.

Instead of following SH1 all the way from Milton to Dunedin, I stopped at Waihola and visited the broad but shallow lake and wondered again why it hasn’t become a major holiday destination for Dunedinites. I then headed over the hill to the fishing and holiday village of Taieri Mouth and the spectacular coastal drive to my old stomping ground of Brighton where I allowed myself to wallow in nostalgia, remembering

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my misspent youth, messing around in dangerous old V8 cars and chasing girls, mostly without any success.

And on to Dunedin. I know it’s my old hometown, but Dunedin is my favourite city in New Zealand. It’s home to only 110+ thousand people and the weather can be unpredictable, but it’s sized just right to retain a strong sense of identity and community, and, more than any other city in New Zealand, it has long learnt to treasure its heritage.

There is so much to see and do here – just stroll the main streets looking at the original stone buildings, the churches, and soaking up the atmosphere. Dunedin used to be Scottish-Presbyterian-staid, but in the past 25 years it has blossomed into a beautiful place with a café and restaurant life that’s on a par with Wellington as consistently the best in New Zealand.

Dunedin was once the wealthiest city in New Zealand, and that wealth is still clearly evident in the huge number of amazing homes that line many of the streets. You can spend a couple of days just cruising the streets marveling at these homes. And there is also Otago Harbour and Otago Peninsula – home to spectacular views, experiences and wildlife.

And Larnach Castle – possibly the best known ‘home’ in New Zealand.

I know Dunedin like the back of my hand, so I only stopped here one night, staying with friends, before heading north to my present hometown of Ōamaru.

Again I detoured off SH1, heading first for Port Chalmers, an interesting and historic place to have a mooch around, then over to Waitati past the Orokonui Ecocentre before taking the Coast Road through Seacliff and Karitane – such a pleasant drive with sensational coastal views. Back onto SH1 and up through Palmerston and Hampden, stopping off to visit both Moeraki and the Boulders (each has its separate road) which are worthwhile detours.

Moeraki itself is a picturesque fishing village and home to ‘Fleurs’ – no apostrophe – and it will take you back to what seaside villages were like in the fifties. Maybe even the twenties.

The Moeraki Boulders are simply weird!

Hampden is a small town that straggles along SH1 and it has what seems to be a constantly changing speed limit. Vanessa’s Café is worth the visit just for Steve’s handmade pies.

Waianakarua is the home of the famous Millhouse – a once empty and abandoned stone flour mill which was rescued, restored and turned into accommodation and a restaurant by two gay characters from Dunedin called Bill and Ben. It’s a beautiful place to stay.

Here, I turned off again to follow the coastal drive through Kakanui to arrive in Ōamaru via the back door. But again, because I know the place and didn’t tarry more than an overnight break at home. Ōamaru flies below the proverbial radar. It’s a town that has never really discovered the confidence to market itself properly – and yet it should. Most of Ōamaru’s assets are hidden away from the main drive through on SH1, but get off SH1 and you will be as astonished as I was when I first discovered it.

14 12. The Lonely Graves on the Millennium Trail between Millers Flat and Beaumont 13. Lawrence, on the border between Central and South Otago, was the scene of a significant gold rush when the metal was discovered by Gabriel Read. Today it is making a comeback as a quaint tourist town 14. The statue of Scottish poet Robbie Burns in the Octagon, gives a clue as to where Dunedin’s early settlers came from

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The town’s old commercial centre – ‘abandoned’ when the main shopping centre was moved north – mostly remains in original condition – traditional Ōamaru Stone (limestone) buildings on a grand scale, and narrow streets all just reeking of turning back the clock a century or more. Here are artists and artisans, beer makers and steampunkers, all of whom your average Oamaruvian doesn’t even pretend to know.

Victoriana, steampunk, penguins – and the world-famous Riverstone Kitchen – are what make Ōamaru so special. But it’s easy to miss and the charms of the town are, sadly, still largely promoted in a way that is too modest. A must-see part of it is Ōamaru Harbour, a ‘Victorian’ harbour bounded on two sides by coastline and, on the other, by two artificial moles or breakwaters with just a narrow entrance. It is painfully picturesque.

From Ōamaru, head north up SH1 briefly then abruptly turn inland up the Waitaki Valley.

If Ōamaru is a bit of a secret, then the Waitaki Valley is For Your Eyes Only, in spy-talk. Take your time as you move from lush, irrigation-fed dairying country, through small towns and villages to a landscape that is as harsh as that of Central Otago.

There is plenty to see and do: detours to the weird and wonderful Elephant Rocks, Māori cave art, Campbell Park the grand baronial house at Otekaike, and some spectacular limestone rock formations. There are also three giant hydro dams – the first built in the Great Depression when conditions led directly to the creation of New Zealand’s trendsetting social welfare system, and the Kurow museum pays tribute to this history.

You are now in the midst of a wine-growing region that’s almost as secret as the valley itself, but fine wines are produced here. Kurow is also the secret host to one of the best cafés in New Zealand – Waitaki Braids.

This is Captain Richie McCaw country.

The next hydro dam is Aviemore, and here I detoured over the dam

to drive along the northern side of the lake to reach the top of the third dam, the massive Benmore, made of packed earth.

The views from up there are staggering.

Then it was back to the main road at the former hydro construction town of Otematata and on to Ōmarama (‘the place of light’). You are now in the vast Mackenzie basin where irrigation has brought many changes – including grass and dairy cows. Ōmarama is a small, pleasant junction town where you can turn left to Central Otago via the Lindis Pass, or right into the heart of the Mackenzie country. I turned right as my destination was Aoraki/ Mount Cook.

Actually, I made a bit of a sprint of it and went to Tekapo first, because I firmly believe it is destined to be our next ‘Queenstown’. I saw a huge new supermarket that had been opened and a new observatory that’s well on the way to being completed. There were hordes of tourists around the Church of the Good Shepherd, and construction sites everywhere.

Yep, 10 years and Tekapo will be Queenstown all over again.

I found a side road leading from near Tekapo to the northern side of Lake Pūkākī, but unless you are looking for adventure, stick to the main road.

I was astounded to find a small hut at the side of this road with a plaque on the door proclaiming it to be a roadworker’s hut dated 1914!

And it’s occupied! A big smiling face opens the door to reveal a tiny, but cosy interior with just enough room to swing a cat. Fire burning,

15. The coast south of Ōamaru is home to the famous Moeraki Boulders which sit on the beach, while nearby Shag Point is home to a more ‘rustic’ type of boulder NZTODAY RV Lifestyle South Island Road Trips Special Edition

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candles lit, meal just eaten. He’s a man ‘finding himself ’. He’s a squatter.

“Stay the night. Park up man,” he exhorted. I politely said “thanks, but I’ve gotta keep moving.”

We shot the breeze for 10 minutes before I moved on – it was time to find a spot to park up the camper for the night.

There were plenty of approved sites for overnighting. I found one in the dark and woke next morning to a glorious sight – the sun was out, the lake mirror-like and Aoraki/Mount Cook was gleaming. I was up and at ’em and on the road, turning off to head up the southern side of Lake Pūkākī – a magnificent drive with the ‘target’ visible directly

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ahead most of the journey.

I stopped at the midway point – Glentanner, where there are tourist activities and accommodation – to say “thanks for the offer of a campsite, but my travel plans have altered.” This is a lovely setting and not as crowded as Mount Cook can get.

Mount Cook village was basking in warm sunshine, so I headed for the huge Hermitage Hotel and had a coffee in the café. The tourist season was at its end and there was no overcrowding this trip.

I headed back to the main road (SH8) towards Ōmarama but detoured off to have a brief look at Twizel. This was where the work force for the giant Upper Waitaki power scheme was based, but unlike most other construction towns, it remained after the colossal job ended. It still looks like a power scheme town – in an ill-fitting ball gown – but people like it for its access to lakes, rivers and mountains, and it’s booming as a holiday town for ordinary Kiwis. It’s also a main base for the Alps to Ocean (A2O) cycle trail.

I decided to not make the short detour to Ōhau township and headed direct to Ōmarama where I girded my loins with a second coffee for the day at the famous Wrinkly Rams Café.

This is Big Sky country before heading into the magnificent Lindis Pass – a superb 100km ‘alpine’ drive through mountains to Central Otago. I have done this trip many, many times, but never tire of it. It’s a high-density traffic route through mostly isolated country splendid in its ruggedness. The Lindis Pass is one of the highlights of this odyssey.

At the other end I turned off at Tarras, a pleasant little hamlet and home of Shrek (the famous sheep), and headed for Wanaka.

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Wanaka is a more-grounded ‘Queenstown’ – it’s got an open feel to it with stunning views from the town right up the lake. You can still get an idea of what Wanaka was like before international tourism, from the traditional Four Square Store in the main street.

I headed for the bakery and scoffed a pie and a cream donut before going in search of the ‘Wanaka Tree’ – a small willow that’s been growing out of the lake for decades but which has become an international celebrity after a photo went viral. Locals wonder what all the fuss is about.

I left Wanaka behind and headed up a long, slow climbing road to Cardrona and its famous pub. What goes up must come down, and shortly after Cardrona village the road peaks, with spectacular views out over the whole Arrowtown basin. This is ‘gulp’ material.

The road down is slow, winding and full of hairpins. For decades this road – the Crown Range – was automatically closed each winter because of snow and ice. But pressure from Cardrona ski field developer John Lee in the eighties saw an all-weather road constructed and it’s now open all year round.

Returning to what felt like sea level after the giddy heights of the Crown Range, I was back into heavy traffic, turning off to visit Arrowtown.

Although the town has virtually been rebuilt in recent years, it’s been rebuilt ‘in period’ and is prettier than a picture.

I pointed the nose of the van up the trail leading to the remote goldmining area of Macetown; not for me this trip, I decided, but I did take a stroll through the partially restored remains of the village where Chinese gold miners lived in the nineteenth century – an interesting place.

Then I was back where I started and I stayed with a mate in Queenstown, with just one more mission to accomplish – a trip to Glenorchy at the head of Lake Wakatipu.

Next morning, before heading up the lake I explored old Queenstown and new Queenstown – to be honest, there is a sense of excitement about the place. The Earnslaw now gleams and glistens, Captain Frank and the Meteor have been replaced by two-person devices that howl across the lake in a spray of water, and there’s a general feel of ‘it all happens’ here.

It’s only in comparatively recent times that Glenorchy has been linked

to the outside world by road – before that the good ship Earnslaw was the way in and out. Despite much of the road now being lined with multi-million dollar lifestyle blocks, there’s still an edge-of-the-world feel to Glenorchy – a picturesque little village.

I called to see Dave Smith whose father Laurie arrived in the town in the Great Depression as a scheelite miner. But then he opened a workshop repairing tractors and trucks and later bought a diesel generator to become the Electricorp of Glenorchy, supplying power to the town.

Dave runs Glenorchy Motors, his father’s original business, but he was out delivering a load of rock to a new subdivision. Multi-tasking is what Glenorchy is all about.

Camp Glenorchy is a new place in the town. Built by a wealthy American, it’s a combination of hotel, motel and camping ground. I was given a tour of the place by a young woman who turned out to come from my hometown Ōamaru! The place is stunning, and if you wonder what happened to a lot of the demolition building material out of Christchurch, here is your answer. This complex is 75 per cent recycled material, with most of it coming from Christchurch after the earthquakes.

I have a mate who lives here – Bob Grubb – and I found him sitting in the sun at his home reading the Death Notices in the Otago Daily Times, something that you do at our time in life, to see who you know that has fallen off the perch.

16. Ōamaru is a Victorian-flavoured town with the best collection of unrestored Victorian buildings in New Zealand. This is Harbour Street 17. Elephant Rocks – a spectacular limestone formation near Duntroon in the Waitaki Valley.

The area is noted for its limestone formations 18. The Wanaka tree. The most famous tree in New Zealand. Like those at Glenorchy, it’s grown from a willow fence post NZTODAY RV Lifestyle South Island Road Trips Special Edition

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We nattered away for 30 minutes and then I was back on the road to Queenstown for another look round before making tracks for home base in Ōamaru.

I still recall the pleasure of that drive home to Ōamaru. Of course I ran into darkness, and this time I parked up in a designated spot, along with a couple of dozen others, alongside Lake Dunstan between Cromwell and Tarras. I’m impressed by way most councils have now

19. The Lindis Pass – a sensational drive through low alpine country that can be blocked with snow and ice in the winter. Much of the landscape takes the form of a gently folded felt blanket 20. It’s only in reasonably recent years that Glenorchy has been accessible by road.

Prior to that the Earnslaw – run by New Zealand Railways – was the only means of transport in and out

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grasped the concept of ‘freedom camping’ for self-contained RVs and have designated some prime spots.

Next morning, I was back home in Ōamaru.

I had seen wilderness, vast open spaces, wildlife, rivers, lakes and streams, gothic cities and towns. In short, I had captured the flavour of the South Island.

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NZ ADVENTURES BACK COUNTRY TOURS NZ Adventures, the long established four wheel drive back country tour operation is again offering five different tours in the 2020-21 season throughout the South Island and the dates for these trips have been set.

The tours are: HIGH COUNTRY HERITAGE A six day (seven in March) tour from Blenheim to Cardrona with overnights in Hanmer Springs, Methven, Fairlie, Omarama and Cromwell. The route of this most popular trip follows the eastern foothills of the Alpine Divide along the 1200 km trip.

WEST COAST EXPLORER A 5 day tour starting in Hanmer Springs with overnights in Murchison, Westport, Reefton and finishing in Greymouth.

46 SOUTH NZ Adventures most popular tour follows an imaginery line across the far south from the Catlins to Fiordland before turning north to end in Cromwell EASTERN EXPLORER From Geraldine to Alexandra this tour winds its way through the Eastern hillcountry of South Canterbury and Otago and is incredibly diverse.

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BIG SKY Six days touring from Geraldine south into the MacKenzie Basin and Central Otago before finishing in Alexandra.

NZ Adventures are also branching into the North Island in June 2021.

This is more of a backcountry road trip rather than a cross country tour.

This tour is the Heartland Tour.

Fo r f ur ther detai l s che c k out our w e bsit e w w w.nza dve n tu re s . co . n z

OTAGO

Central Otago to Catlins

SILENCING THE VOICES IN MY HEAD

Justine Tyerman defies ‘age-ism’ and ‘sensible-ism’ on an Easter road trip, revisiting places in Central Otago last travelled as a child, exploring new territory in the Catlins … and sleeping in the back of a station wagon.

Story + Photos Justine Tyerman

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yebrows were raised to the ex-hairline and there was much tut-tutting among our friends as they inspected the double bed neatly made up in the back of the JUCY Cabana station wagon and the little kitchen tucked into the rear of the vehicle.

“You’re a bit old for this sort of thing,” they guffawed, shaking their heads in disbelief. “And besides, it’s far too late in the season to be camping – you’ll freeze to death.

“Stay on here with us – play golf, go fishing and e-biking … sensible, age-appropriate activities. Or at least check in to a hotel along the way,” they said.

That’s all it took to galvanise the stubborn in me and harden my resolve to defy ‘age-ism’ and ‘sensible-ism’, throw caution to the non-existent wind and be daring – some might say reckless.

After all, we were only heading for a brief sortie to the Catlins, not a month trekking overland in Outer Mongolia, so there was always the

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option of a hotel or motel if the weather really misbehaved.

“Late-life crisis,” I heard them mutter as Chris and I piled our far-toolarge suitcases into the JUCY campervan and prepared to depart. The cases hadn’t looked so bulky in the palatial guest wing of our friends’ luxurious Wanaka home, but we were now wondering what the heck we’d do with them at night time. Note to self: ‘If you want to relive your youth, get a rucksack and travel lightly.’

We waved goodbye and drove off into the delicious unknown with an old-school paper map on my knee… and a new-age Roadtrippers App. They were off to golf and lunch at a winery; we were heading in the general direction of Kākā Point at the north-eastern boundary of the Catlins, revisiting places along the way I’d last travelled through as a child.

In our mid-60s, in the heady post-children and pre-grandchildren zone, we had lately developed nomadic tendencies that worry our adult daughters. It’s a classic case of role reversal – we get texts from Sophie and Bridget urging us to take care on the road and report in at the end of each day. Their parents love nothing better than to wander around the countryside going wherever the spirit wills and the weather looks most settled. The idea of not being tied to an itinerary or having to book accommodation ahead appeals to us. It gives us a giddy sense of freedom and brings back distant and fond memories of youthful road trips.

Following the untimely deaths of a couple of friends, the road trip also helped to silence a cluster of voices in my head urging me to make the most of my good health and ‘do it while you still can’. I felt so privileged to be able to enjoy the simple, unsophisticated pleasures of cooking outside in the fresh air, sleeping in the back of a station wagon and hiking in bright sunshine under clear skies amid the beauty of Aotearoa in all her autumn regalia.

We were so late making the decision to undertake the trip that the Cabana was the only vehicle JUCY had left. I was tingling with excitement and up for the challenge.

The weather certainly wasn’t promising as we drove out of Wanaka under a slate-grey sky like a duvet firmly tucked into the folds of the mountains. It looked ominously like the linger-all-day inversion layer common in these parts in May and June, but by the time we reached Lake Dunstan glimpses of blue peeked through holes in the ‘duvet’ and soon the sky cleared to reveal a dazzling autumn day.

Nowadays the man-made lake looks much more natural and at ease in its environment than when the Clyde Dam power station was commissioned in 1992 and the vast 26km2 hydro storage reservoir was formed from the waters of the mighty Clutha River. It took 18 months to fill and reached its full height in September 1993, but for many years it looked temporary and out of place.

There are smart new settlements on the shores of Lake Dunstan such as pretty Pisa Moorings 10km north of the township of Cromwell at the foot of the Pisa Range.

Where farmland, tussock, and stone and pipfruit trees once held dominion, vineyards now cover hillsides facing the sun, and huge cherry orchards under nets have sprouted up on the flat lands.

Cromwell was relocated to higher ground in the 1980s before the lake swallowed up its original location at the picturesque junction of the Clutha and Kawarau rivers – along with 2300 hectares of productive land. A resilient town, having survived many a boom-and-bust since its birth in the 1860s gold rush, Cromwell exudes a new sense of confidence.

Long in the shadow of self-important neighbours Queenstown and Wanaka, Cromwell has emerged as a thriving hub with a well-preserved historic old town, a colourful gold mining history, a beautiful lake for fishing and aquatic activities, award-winning wineries, excellent cycle and hiking trails … and affordable real estate, something its celebrity neighbours do not have.

3 1. Coal Creek Flat near Roxburgh 2. A quick bite at Kaka Point 3. Autumn reflections in Alexandra 4. Lake Dunstan at ease in the landscape © Regional Identity, Shirley Howden

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I vividly recall Cromwell of yesteryear, the mingling of the turquoise Clutha and the blue or sometimes muddy Kawarau at their confluence, the graceful old Cromwell suspension bridge with its cables and red brick piers and the huts of the Chinese gold miners, all now nine or ten metres beneath the water.

As a child prone to car sickness, for me the winding Cromwell Gorge to Alexandra was just another obstacle to endure on our long car trips from Dunedin to our little crib in Arrowtown. But the old gorge road is long gone, submerged under Lake Dunstan, and the new road is straighter and much higher up the side of the gorge wall, closer to the

5. The 103m-high concrete gravity structure at Clyde Dam holds back 26 sq km of water 6. The mighty Clutha Mata-Au River. Credit Regional Identity, Shirley Howden

craggy, weathered mountain tops that once towered above us.

Fifteen minutes from Cromwell, the curved rim of the Clyde Dam looms into view, the 103m-high concrete gravity structure that holds back the water thanks to one million cubic metres of concrete and steel.

Shortly after the completion of the Clyde Dam in 1993, we took a guided tour of the power station including a walk-through of the dimly lit, vibrating interior corridor of the dam wall. I doubt I would do that now, having researched the history of the dam’s construction during PM Robert Muldoon’s ‘Think Big’ era, and the discovery of fault lines above the dam as well as safety compromises made back then.

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Clyde has transformed itself into a seriously classy village since the days we used to drive through the sleepy settlement and stop for a cuppa beside the river. Now the start/end point of the immensely popular 152km Otago Central Rail Trail, Clyde has a great range of accommodation and eateries including Olivers – an upmarket craft brewery, bar, bakery-café, and gourmet restaurant with boutique accommodation – located in the old stone gold-rush-era general store.

Six or seven minutes further on is Alexandra whose claim to fame in my teenage years was the October Blossom Festival. I seldom managed to get there because I was always in Dunedin, buried in my books studying for end-of-year exams.

Alexandra reached its heyday during the late 1800s when huge gold dredges worked the Clutha River. The most successful dredge was the Dunedin, which extracted around 528kg of gold. Today Alexandra is better known for its pinot noir vineyards, apricots, peaches, cherries and apples.

In mid-winter, we used to go ice skating on nearby Manorburn Dam, the largest natural ice skating area in the Southern Hemisphere. The dam has been a popular place to skate and play ice hockey and the game of curling since the late 1880s. Parts of the dam still freeze over but most

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Phone 03 441 0288 146 Arthurs Point Rd Arthurs Point Queenstown 9371 www.thcnuggetpoint.co.nz

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people now go to the artificial rink in town.

They sure knew how to build beautiful bridges in the ‘old days’. The graceful stone towers that once supported the bridge over the Clutha/Mata-Au, built from 1879 to 1882, still stand strong and proud in New Zealand’s swiftest river. The vivid turquoise of the Clutha against the bright gold of the autumn poplars and willows on the riverbank and the deeply weathered rocks on the hillsides above is stunning.

The replacement bridge, built in 1958, looks so utilitarian and ordinary by comparison.

Near the bridge, van-loads of excited cyclists were setting off to do the three-stage Roxburgh Gorge Trail, a 34km trip following the Clutha River from Alexandra to Lake Roxburgh Dam with a boat link in the middle.

•A lexandra township to Doctors Point – 10km • Boat transfer Doctors Point to Shingle Creek – 25mins • S hingle Creek to Lake Roxburgh Dam – 12km Combining fascinating history, stunning scenery and wildlife, this is definitely top of my e-biking list. A remote 9 wilderness experience with no road access, the trail passes through what’s described as New Zealand’s ‘Grand Canyon’ with rocky bluffs 350m high on both sides of the river. It also takes in some of the best-preserved relics from Central Otago’s gold mining era and if you’re lucky, sightings of the magnificent kārearea (New Zealand native falcon) that’s made its home in the gorge – I can’t wait to experience it.

I’ve always regarded Roxburgh as the heart of Central Otago, “wellsuited to the making of ‘Westerns’,” my father used to say whenever we drove over the wild, barren landscape scattered with jagged, greybrown rocks.

Roxburgh’s hot, dry summers and cold winters are ideal for growing apricots, apples, pears, raspberries and strawberries. We used to stop at a friend’s orchard there to pick sweet tree-ripened sturmer apples.

Roxburgh is near the site of the earliest of the large hydroelectric projects in the South Island. Opened in 1956, the concrete gravity structure dams the Clutha River/Mata-Au, 9km to the north of the town of Roxburgh creating a lake 30km long.

The land flattens out towards Raes Junction so we took a detour just before Lawrence, opting for the Tuapeka West Road to Balclutha. What an incredible contrast. Suddenly we were surrounded by rolling green pastures populated with well-fed sheep and cows and barely a rock or weed in sight. A huge dairy factory stood in the middle of nowhere.

At Balclutha, we headed towards Kākā Point and the much-anticipated start of our Catlins adventure, all new territory for us. I stood there gazing in disbelief at the silvery sea and white sands of Molyneux Bay on New Zealand’s south-east coast. It all seemed far too easy to have left the snow-capped mountains of Wanaka in the morning, traversed the wild and arid heart of Central Otago and the verdant pastures of Tuapeka and arrived at the seaside by lunchtime. That’s one of the myriad things I love about New Zealand. The contrasts are huge but the distances are not.

7. The Junction at Cromwell in springtime.

Credit James Jubb, Tourism Central Otago 8. The graceful stone towers that once supported the historic Alexandra bridge still stands strong in New Zealand’s swiftest river 9. Vivid autumn colours in Central Otago.

Credit Regional Identity, Shirley Howden

Justine Tyerman travelled courtesy of JUCY Rentals

Pick up a JUCY campervan, 4WD, people mover or car from JUCY Rentals www.jucy.co.nz at Queenstown Airport. We’ve tried them all, but this time we had a two-berth JUCY Cabana campervan with a double bed and a little kitchen which gave us the freedom to camp out whenever we felt like it. The Cabana is not self-contained so we stayed at camping grounds and met some awesome people along the way. We liked the ease and manoeuvrability of the basic little campervan and the freedom of not being tied to an itinerary or pre-booked accommodation.

Phone 03 441 0288 154 Arthurs Point Rd Arthurs Point Queenstown 9371 www.parkresidence.co.nz NZTODAY RV Lifestyle South Island Road Trips Special Edition

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‘DO IT WHILE YOU STILL CAN’ Lighthouses and sea lions act as bookends to Justine and Chris Tyerman’s Easter road trip in the Catlins where they drove the Southern Scenic Route Story + Photos Justine Tyerman

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’m a great fan of information boards (I read every word, much to the extreme frustration of my travelling companions), and at Kākā Point on the south-east coast of the South Island, the boards told us we were standing where the Clutha River used to flow to sea until a massive flood in 1878 moved the river mouth to the north.

Molyneux Bay marked the much-anticipated start of our Catlins adventure, all new territory for us.

Māori settled here about 900AD living on moa and seal meat. Captain James Cook sailed by in 1770 but did not make landfall. He named the bay Molyneux after the ship’s master who died on the journey.

Whalers and sealers from England and Europe came to hunt the

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abundant prey in the coastal waters of the southern coast during the early 19th century, and European settlers arrived in the mid-1850s to mill timber. The name Catlins was bestowed upon the region in honour of a whaling captain, Edward Catlin, who purchased land beside the river from a Māori chief in 1840.

Late in April, just after Easter, we almost had the place to ourselves.

Ten minutes down the coast, the headland at Nugget Point looks as though it has thrust itself into the Pacific Ocean with such force that fragments have broken off. Captain Cook decided the rocky outcrops scattered at the tip of the long, deeply weathered finger looked like gold nuggets – hence the name.

A lighthouse, one of the oldest in the country, was built on the far end of the promontory in 1869–70 at the height of the coastal shipping era. The 600-metre walk to the impressive white beacon runs along a narrow ridge allowing breathtaking views of the coastline to the north and south. Vertiginous cliffs rise almost vertically in both directions.

Built from locally quarried stone, the Tokata Lighthouse stands an impressive 9.5 metres high and is 76 metres above sea level.

Watching the surge of the waves pummelling the rocks far below, even on this calm day, was a lesson in the awesome power of the sea to shape and fashion the face of our land. I’d love to return at the height of a storm and witness the winds that force all trees there to grow horizontal to the land.

A hotspot for marine diversity, over 40 species of seabird inhabit or visit the headland, and fur seals and sea lions are a common sight. Orca, southern right whales,

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humpbacks and dolphins are occasionally spotted off the point … but not today. We did however see fur seal pups frolicking far below in sheltered rock pools.

The information boards, especially the wood-framed stone plaques with beautifully written descriptions in Te Reo and English, are superb.

They read like poetry: “He wahi taoka – a special place … Toitu te whanua, toitu te iwi – As the land endures, so too will the people.”

Roaring Bay, just south of Nugget Point, is a breeding ground of the yellow-eyed penguin/hoiho, the world’s rarest penguin. Standing 65cm tall and weighing about 5kg, they are the fourth largest penguin.

Hoiho means ‘noise shouter’ a name given because of their shrill call.

We spent a good half hour scouring the seashore from a hide above the beach but there was no sign of the creatures coming ashore. Reading the information in the hide about their life cycle, we discovered that it’s uncommon to see them in March/April because they are moulting and confined to land until their new feather coats grow. They are not waterproof during the moult so they cannot forage at sea, relying on their fat stores to survive.

According to the Yellow-eyed Penguin Trust, despite efforts to protect this critically endangered species, there are only 225 breeding pairs left on mainland New Zealand, the lowest level since 1990–91.

This is indeed sad news.

Cannibal Bay was our next stop, a place name that conjures up all sorts of macabre visions. Long ago, a surveyor found human bones on

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the beach but there was never any evidence of foul play so one wonders why he leapt to the conclusion that the deceased had been eaten. It’s a remote, windswept bay with a huge rock standing sentinel at the northern end and a long curve of sand stretching south.

We walked the length of the beach, drawn by a cluster of people taking photos of large dark shapes in the water. As we got closer, we realised with great excitement that eight or so critically endangered New Zealand sea lions or ‘rapoka’ were having some sort of territorial dispute on the beach and causing a heck of a ruckus. Having read up on protocols about how to behave around sea lions, we kept our distance. But we were so fascinated with the battle being waged in the shallows, we were completely taken by surprise when two more large creatures suddenly appeared from the sand dunes behind us and came lolloping towards us at great speed.

We beat a rapid retreat but the pair were not remotely interested in us. They were intent on joining the noisy fray among the other sea lions.

The behaviour was fascinating but puzzling. A female appeared to be protecting a young calf on the beach while a large bull with a shaggy ‘mane’ was vigorously fending off challenges from younger rivals. The attacks were relentless. It must have been exhausting for him.

As the light began to fade, we found an excellent overnight camp site called Newhaven Holiday Park at Surat Bay named after the sailing vessel Surat that was wrecked there in 1874. We got there just in time to set up our comfy, cosy double bed in the back of the campervan and stroll down to the beach with a bubbly and beer to watch the sunset.

1. Built from locally quarried stone, the Tokata Lighthouse at Nugget Point stands an impressive 9.5 metres high and is 76 metres above the sea. Photo by Cicell Jenks 2. The silvery sea and white sands of Molyneux Bay marked the much-anticipated start of our Catlins adventure, all new territory for us 3. A group of New Zealand sea lions or ‘rapoka’, were having some sort of territorial dispute on the beach at Cannibal Bay 4. I envied the 20-30 bach owners with their properties right on Jack’s Beach NZTODAY RV Lifestyle South Island Road Trips Special Edition

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Visit southlandnz.com to find out more!

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Our campsite was on beautiful Pounawea Estuary, fed by the Owaka and Catlins rivers, a place rich in birdlife and virgin podocarp forest.

It was so mild, we cooked outdoors in our little ‘kitchen’ … so convenient, like an upmarket tent on wheels. And so much for freezing to death; during the night we had to open the doors, the campervan was so warm.

The young ones in tents around us thought it was pretty cool to see a couple of ‘oldies’ sleeping in the back of a bright purple and green station wagon. That really did make us feel like teenagers again. It brought back memories of the carefree roadies of our youth.

Next day we were up bright and early, our heads brimming with things to do and places to see. In our excitement, we nearly missed the turnoff to Jack’s Bay and Blowhole – so glad we didn’t.

Remote Jack’s Bay with its pristine white sands is unbelievably beautiful, especially on a calm, sunny autumn day. I envied the 20–30 bach owners with their properties right on the beach.

The blowhole is at the end of a scenic coastal walkway, about one hour return. It’s a giant gash in the earth, 55m deep, 144m long, 68m wide and 200m from the sea. Even on a calm day, the force of the water swirling and churning far below was riveting. I’d love to see it spouting up at the height of a southerly storm with a big sea running.

After brewing a quick cuppa in our handy little kitchen, we drove to pretty Pūrākaunui Falls, a very popular spot. The lovely 10-minute walk alongside the stream that feeds the falls is through a lush forest of tōtara, tāwhai, mataī and kōtukutuku with native birds flitting among the branches.

At the foot of the exquisite three-tiered falls, there were dozens of overseas tourists and photographers with tripods and extremely long lenses, trying to capture the perfect image. It’s one of the most photographed waterfalls in New Zealand, so if you want time alone here get up early or stay late.

The track to the 22m-high McLean Falls, the tallest waterfall in the Catlins, was closed by a rock fall so we consoled ourselves with lunch at the award-winning Whistling Frog Restaurant. The blue cod was the best fish I’ve ever tasted, washed down with an ice cold Monteith’s crushed pear cider. The restaurant is the hub of a substantial accommodation complex with cabins, motels, chalets and tent sites.

Well-fortified, we set off towards Cathedral Caves, stopping at Florence Hill lookout with its sweeping views of perfectly curved Tautuku Beach to the south and Tahakopa Bay and Long Point to the north. This is the

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only area left in the South Island where native forest covers the land from the hilltops to the sea. Some trees are over 1000 years old. There’s an abundance of wildlife with native birds, New Zealand sea lions, yellow-eyed and little-blue penguins and albatross frequenting the area.

Access to Cathedral Caves is across private Māori land so there’s a charge of $5 per adult and $1 per child. The 1.5km track through kāmahi/podocarp forest drops 100m to Waipati Beach and then there’s a 10-minute walk along the sand to the caves. Our timing of the tides was accidentally perfect. We were able to explore the entire sea cave system which has two huge entrances joined by a V-shaped passage.

It’s one of the finest in New Zealand, and at 199m, among the longest in the world.

5. Florence Hill lookout has sweeping views of perfectly-curved Tautuku Beach to the south and Tahakopa Bay and Long Point to the north 6. After descending through native forest, there’s a 10-minute walk along Waipati Beach to the twin entrances to Cathedral Caves 7. The V-shaped passage connecting the twin Cathedral Caves is 199m in length, one of the longest in the world.

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In contrast to limestone caves which form by the chemical action of water dissolving calcite in the rock, sea caves are formed by the action of the waves eroding or collapsing the rock.

We took a torch so we could examine the ceiling (up to 30m high) and deep recesses of the Jurassic sandstone that dates back about 160 million years. Just inside the west or first entrance, the ceiling is much higher, indicating an area of roof collapse. Over time, such features create skylights such as at Jack’s Blowhole.

The caves are outstanding and well worth the fee and the one-hour hike down and back up, but to avoid disappointment make sure you check the tides and the closing time of the track.

The petrified forests at Curio Bay had long fascinated me and again our timing was spot on. The tide was well out allowing us to explore this extremely rare phenomenon.

9 The incredible story of how the forest was formed is recorded on a series of excellent information boards overlooking the rock platform where the tree trunks and stumps are lying, set in stone.

A lush forest stood here about 170 million years ago, along with ash-covered volcanoes nearby. After heavy rain, a great flood occurred submerging hundreds of kilometres of land under mud, ash and rocks washed down from the volcanoes. The ash in the floodwaters was rich in silica which impregnated the trees, turning them to stone. Thousands of years of pounding by the sea have worn away the soil to reveal the fossilised trees.

I lost track of time as I wandered around the tree trunks and stumps, frozen forever in time, trying to imagine the forces of nature that could bring about such an event. The fallen tree trunks still look like timber but when you touch them, they are hard, cold stone. You can even see the growth rings in the stumps. The forest was alive when New Zealand was part of Gondwanaland – and we’re able to see the remnants of it today.

At the southern edge of the platform, I was transfixed by waves of kelp surging and swirling up and down a narrow channel in the rock. I stood there until the incoming tide began to lap at my feet and the kelp threatened to envelop me like a thousand slimy eels.

Hoping for a glimpse of the rare yellow-eyed penguins at this location, we found the perfect spot to park up overnight, at a camping ground right on the seashore. But Curio Bay’s penguins were also in hiding, along with the endangered Hector’s dolphins… so a return trip is definitely on the cards.

The recently opened Tumu Toka CurioScape at Curio Bay has a café and outstanding interactive museum with a wealth of information about the region.

8. The trees grow sideways on the Catlins’ coast 9. Justine at Slope Point, the windswept southern-most tip of the South Island 10. Waipapa Point is the site of New Zealand’s worst civilian shipwreck 11. In April 1881, 131 of the 151 passengers onboard the S.S.Tararua lost their lives when the steamer was wrecked on the reef just offshore

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Before heading south, we climbed to the top of a headland where the views are stunning. An information board there said that by 1840, with 1000 whalers operating in New Zealand waters, the southern right whale was already becoming scarce. The invention of the explosivetipped harpoon in the 1860s made other species of whale harvestable because the device caused whales to float when dead. I was horrified to read that 65,966 whales were killed worldwide during the 19611962 season.

Twenty minutes south, we reached Slope Point, the southernmost tip of the South Island. A 10-minute walk through private farmland, the point is a windswept, ruggedly beautiful headland where the trees grow horizontal to the land and the waves of the southern ocean crash onto rocks sending walls of spray high into the air.

A signpost marks the exact spot as Latitude 46° 40´ 40˝ South; Longitude 169° 00´ 11˝ East. From here, the Equator is 5140km north and the South Pole is 4803km south. It was blowing a freezing cold gale but photos had to be taken at the signpost and on the cliff edge above the pounding surf.

Our last stop on the Southern Scenic Route was the Waipapa Point lighthouse at the far south-

12. Waipapa Point lighthouse at the far south-west corner of the Catlins

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west corner of the Catlins. It’s the site of New Zealand’s worst shipping disaster. In April 1881, 131 of the 151 passengers on board the Tararua lost their lives when the steamer was wrecked on the reef just offshore.

It’s a short walk to the cemetery where many of the victims were buried. In response to this tragedy a lighthouse was built and became operational in 1884. Automated in 1976, it remains active today.

I read with great interest the 1866 Instructions to Lightkeepers: “Keepers are required to act as signalmen, telephonists, and undertake such duties as may be required of them, without receiving any extra remuneration.” Other duties included cleaning, routine maintenance, gardening and tending the ‘Tararua Acre’ gravesite.

A couple of sea lions were cavorting in the turbulent surf near the lighthouse. It seemed fitting that our Catlins odyssey began and ended with lighthouses and sea lions; they are quintessential images of the Catlins and my enduring memories of this remote and beautiful corner of Aotearoa.

The voices in my head are quieter now but they are still pestering me to ‘do it while you still can’.

There will be time for more ‘age-appropriate’ activities … when we grow up.

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