Kevin&

Gemma

Travel Blog

Our South Island Trip

Image looking over Lake Wanaka from the Diamond Lake walk

Hunting for claims

Moeraki Boulders

Lake Pukaki

Clay Cliffs

Naseby

Blue Lake

Queenstown Hill

Our South Island Story...

Day one -
We started our holiday how all holidays should be started, getting up at 5 am to catch a flight to Dunedin. We would make it in time for breakfast, which was blueberry pancakes. Yay! Unfortunately, we were delayed on the tarmac for an hour, but we still had pancakes :)

We then went out to an estuary and went hunting for claims. It was wet and muddy work, but made for a fun afternoon. Later that night we went out for dinner at a Thai restaurant along St Clair beach. On the way home, we called into a family friends house that was covered wall to wall and exploding at the seams with Christmas decorations.

Huriwa Historic Site

Day two -

We woke up to the smell of bacon and eggs wafting down the hallway. We hit the road shortly after, making our way up the coast towards Dunsandel which was where the family Christmas was being held this year.

We stopped at a few throwback places where Kevin spent a lot of his childhood years. We walked through Huriwa Historic Site in Karitane, Carried onto Moeraki Boulders and grabbed some chips for lunch. Our next stop was Ashburton to fill up on food and Speights, a Southern man's beer of choice, for Christmas. Our tent was set up already and the drinking began.

Day three -

C hristmas day. As any kiwi Christmas is it involves lots of food, drink, and kids enjoying their presents. We played card games into the early hours of the morning.

Day four -

Boxing Day was a day for relaxing, With Leftover Christmas food, drinking, cards and mind games.

Lake Pukaki

Day five -

Our tour began... We drove the long way (scenic drive) from our Christmas spot to Naseby. All up there was about 6 hours of driving but didn’t feel like it at all. Good music, great company, and amazing views helped the time fly. As everyone says time flies when you having fun!

We stopped at Lake Tekapo and Lake Pukaki (which had some amazing views of Mount Cook and the bluest water we've ever seen) for a walk around and to take some sweet photos. We then stopped at Twizel for lunch (saw a workmate – small world huh?).

Drove past a sign for Clay Cliffs only 10km so we decided to go have a look, $5 cash to see them, so we hunted through the car and filled the honesty box with a bunch of coins, then continued down the gravel road for the final part towards the cliffs. Half an hour later we had made it if you have seen the video you will know it was worth the trip. If you haven't, it definitely worth having a look.

Now here is a lesson we learned the hard way, don’t always trust google maps to lead you the best way to a town, it may have taken us the shortest way to Naseby, but it was by far NOT the easiest way to go. To cut a long story short the journey took us about 30Kms down a gravel road that for most of the part was only made for one car. But it did have some amazing scenery which made it worth it!

We got to Naseby, checked in, went for a walk around the town, starting with the holiday camp, then to the dam, then down the water race area final off to the pub for dinner and a well-deserved sleep.

Danseys Pass

Danseys Pass

Blue Lake

Day six -

Left Naseby early that morning heading for Wanaka. On the way we sore another turn off to the Blue Lake in Saint Batherns, even though we were low on petrol and hunting for a station we decided it would be worth the risk and headed off on another detour.

Driving on to Alexandra where we had some lunch (and got some petrol, few!) and drove onto Wanaka. Had a wee look through the main street and found a short walk to do in the Rocky Mountain area called Diamond Lake trek. It wasn't as easy as it looked on a flat piece of paper, but with only a few short breaks we had made it to the top. Wow. Damn, the view over Lake Wanaka and down to the township, was worth the hard work!

Drove back to Cromwell for dinner, drinks and asleep on a self-deflating air bed at Kevin’s sister's place.

Roaring Meg

Day seven -

Another early start leaving Cromwell heading to Queenstown before the rush. Along the way, we discovered Roaring Meg.

We arrived and set out on a new adventure, Queenstown Hill walk. It was an uphill battle, but we got some really nice drone footage.

Frankton, another stop down memory lane for Kevin, and went for a short dip in the crystal clear waters of Lake Wakatipu.

Wanted to see what all the hype was about at Kevin’s sister's workplace, Gibbston Valley Winery. It did not disappoint. We highly recommend the lasagna and salmon entrees with a side of their rosemary fries.

Sadly this was our last stop as we were due for our flight home the next day. We were both keen for an early night but first, we had some cleaning to do. Kevin’s Mums car had to be cleaned off for its next adventure, hopefully with fewer gravel roads.

Day eight -

One last early start back to Auckland… Because some of us had to work over New Years :( Our holiday went WAY too quickly. Good thing we are planning our next holiday already!