South Island Holiday Jan 2019

On Tuesday 1st January we headed off on our South Island adventure. We had an 8am ferry crossing and it was an absolutely stunning morning, with the harbour like glass.

As we got closer to Picton we got some lovely views of the Marlborough sounds.

We had 2 nights at an Air BnB in Picton. We love kicking off a South Island trip with a night or two in Picton, it is such a great wee place.

We spent Wednesday at White's Bay, just a short drive from Picton. This is another favourite spot in this part of the world. It was a stinking hot day, perfect for a day at the beach.

Below you can see Will heading out for his first swim of 2019.

On Thursday we had a big driving day to Christchurch where we stayed in a lovely Air BnB with nice views over the Avon River.

I had never been to New Brighton before and we enjoyed wandering the pier and exploring the area before heading back  our accommodation with some excellent wood-fired pizza.

I'm not sure what I said to Will in the pic below, but it was obviously pretty funny!

The next day we had an incredibly scenic drive to Wanaka. Our first stop was Tekapo.

The previous time we visited Tekapo it was a grey rainy day, and you couldn't even see the mountains that surround the lake, so it was nice to visit on a day with some blue skies and sunshine.

The Church of the Good Shepherd is incredibly picturesque. We were lucky to get the pics above, because below is what it is usually like, absolutely crawling with people.

Lake Tekapo is stunning, the colour of the water beggars belief, and it is so clear.

The next stop was another gorgeous glacial lake, Lake Pukaki. Behind it you can see Mt Cook, New Zealand's highest mountain at 3724m.

We eventually arrived in Wanaka where we were booked into probably our favourite hostel in NZ: The Purple Cow.

On Saturday 5th Jan we had a nice day chilling out in Wanaka, including a nice walk around part of the lake. It is such a beautiful spot.

The weather wasn't as kind to us the following day, but we met up with Barb Beable who I used to work with at QMC. She has retired in Wanaka so it was lovely to see her again. We went for a rather wet river walk!

The next day We headed further south to the Caitlins area, 2 and a bit hours south of Dunedin. We were meeting up with Rich and Rach Roe who we usually do a summer camping trip with, as well as Rich's brother Dave and his partner Debbie. It wouldn't be a road trip in the South Island without getting held up by sheep at some stage of the trip!

We camped at a DOC campsite at Purakaunui Bay. This was a beautiful wild beach, and we were treated to a lovely sunset that night.

The next day was a big day exploring some of the sights the Catlins had to offer. The first stop was the Purakaunui Falls.

Next we headed to Papatowai where there was a very cool looking campsite next to a beautiful beach. We would be tempted to stay there if we ever do another camping trip in the Catlins.

Also in the area was the Lost Gypsy Caravan which was interesting to look around. 

Next up was a visit to Lake Wilke which is a cool little mirror lake.

A late-lunch stop at the Whistling Frog Cafe was next. While there, one of the staff told us about a walk to a little-known waterfall, the Koropuku Falls which was nearby. Basically, two local retired men spent years building an amazing track to the falls so more people could access the place. The falls are probably a little better known now, because a few days after we visited, media picked up on the story and they ended up on the front page of the local newspaper, and also on the national news!

Our last stop for the day was the Cathedral Caves which is one of the largest beach sea caves in the world. They are only accessible for a certain time around low tide, and we were right on the cusp! Nevertheless, the warden let us in. I didn't really fancy getting my bottom half wet, so I didn't go right into the cave. The others did though, and Rich got some cool photos of his daughter Georgia posing.

That night we chilled out in front of the campfire with a bit of 'Cards Against Humanity'. That 'poor life choices' card is one of my favourites, and always makes me think of a friend of mine, so I took that pic to send to him!

The following day we headed out in the opposite direction to Nugget Point which was quite an impressive spot.

We also stopped at Surat Bay and went for a nice long walk along the beach to spot some sealion. We saw this pregnant one right at the start of the walk.

We didn't have to go far from home to spot wildlife, as we had a couple of resident sealion at the end of the beach where we were camping.

On Thursday 10th Will and I headed off for a couple of nights in Invercargill. I hadn't made it there in the first 40-odd years of my life, so thought it was about time! Especially as I had played badminton for the Southland team the previous year and was getting a bit of stick from friends in other teams about not knowing the name of the main street in Invercargill!

On the way down south we spent some time exploring more of the Caitlin's. Porpoise Bay is a beautiful expansive beach with a fantastic-looking camping which would be another good accommodation option. Unfortunately we didn't spot any of the bay's namesakes....

Curio Bay is the next one over and has a 180-million year old petrified forest. The area is also known for being home to rare yellow-eyed penguins, but they weren't showing themselves either.

Our final stop before Invercargill was Bluff, right at the bottom of the South Island.

After taking the obligatory tourist pics we headed on to our accommodation in Invercargill.

On Friday 11th we had a very enjoyable day exploring Invercargill. The highlight was a visit to E Hayes and Sons. This is part regular hardware store, part motorcycle museum and a shrine to one of Invercargill's most famous residents:Burt Munro. Burt set several world speed records on his modified Indian motorbikes, one of which still stands today.

The next day we checked out a few more Invercargill sights including the 1889 water tower, and also Queen's Park which had extensive gardens as well as a little mini zoo.

We then headed back to Dunedin where we were staying a night with the Roes. Dunedin definitely turned on the sunshine for us, and we got to enjoy the deck that Rich had recently built.

We also took advantage of the stunning weather to go for a long walk on St Clair's beach.

On Sunday 13th it was time to start the journey back up north. We spent that night in central city accommodation in Christchurch and went for a nice late-afternoon walk when we got in. We grabbed some dinner from the food trucks in Cathedral Square.

Will enjoyed checking out the new-ish Margaret Mahy playground! He went down that big twirly slide. You can just see him climbing up it in the bottom pic.

After our night in Christchurch we spent one night in Kaikoura to break up the journey, before our 2pm ferry crossing back to Wellington on Tuesday 15th January.