Road trip with Francis and Linda - Day 6 (26 Nov)

We woke up early in the morning, and as Hannah suggested, we took the Highcliff road back down the peninsula. The plan is to check out the other side of the peninsula before we drive back to Christchurch. We reached a sign that says "Not suitable for large vehicles". I looked at Hannah and she responded - We are not that large, and off we carried on the road. I was thinking to myself - the road doesn't seem too bad, and then the cement road turned to a very narrow, winding road along a drop-off cliff! At that point, I was praying that there were no cars coming from the other side because this road WILL NOT be able to fit both of us! Lucky for us, it was early enough that there was no traffic. We finally reached our destination, and it was worth the challenging drive. We stopped to do a walk to The Chasm and Lovers Leap - lovely views.

After that, we quickly drove out of the peninsula and headed north on SH1 toward Christchurch. The drive was a bit more challenging today with strong gust of wind along the road. At one point as we were travelling along a bridge between two valleys, the van was literally blew across the middle line! We ended up taking the inland scenic road (SH72, which was about 8km longer) instead of SH1, because it has weaker winds and less huge tractor trailers.

View from the carpark

At the chasm - can spot Hannah.. she is standing at the
edge of a 200m drop! Nerve wrecking

I took A LOT of sheeps' pics that day. They were being good posers.

We stopped in Moeraki to see the giant spherical boulders. I think Francis loved the ways these boulders were formed. He was explaining to us his theory, which made sense to me :)

We ate lunch in Oamaru at the public gardens (which was here since 1876!). Hannah said we should come back here again in another trip to visit the garden since we did not get the chance to walk around much this time.

We stopped at the Rakaia Gorge for more pics before finally hitting Christchurch to cheers and applause. We spent the night at the airports closest campsite, North South Holiday Park. What a trip! :)

Moeraki rocks

Last dinner on the road trip...

Road trip with Francis and Linda - Day 5 (25 Nov)

We had decided that we had enough of the mountains and it is time to see some ocean! This day was a bit of a slog as we went from Fiordland (West Coast) to Dunedin (East Coast). It was a long drive and the not much of scenery - mostly just drove straight through acres and acres of rolling farmland. After eating lunch at a roadside picnic area over-looking sheep, we made a quick stop in Gore to take a picture with a giant brown trout statue. Hannah also went to the local Warehouse to buy a FM receiver for her iphone so that we can listen to music for the long drive. The campervan only has a stereo system that plays CD and radio - we were tempted to buy an INXS CD from the local gas station if we still couldn't find a FM receiver! :)

Gore and its famous brown trout

We finally made it to Dunedin by  2 pm, and spent some time wandering around the octagon area. It was raining lightly which gives the town a old English feel to it. It was a lovely place with lots of old buildings. Hannah and I thought that if we were to stay in NZ, we would love to stay here in Dunedin, Otago. Francis and Linda split up with us to go wander about the town for an hour. Hannah and I went to visit the railway station and the local market where Hannah bought some alpaca wool.

Dunedin

Railway station

Then we headed out on the Otago Peninsula and found a campsite at the Portobello Holiday Camp. We had the owner book us in for a tour at Penguin Place to see rare yellow-eyed penguins up close. It was interesting to spy on these penguins at close distance through a network of "underground" tunnels. It was a cold, raining day which was good for penguin watching since they love this type of weather!

Getting ready to spy on the yellow-eyed penguins

There he is!

Road trip with Francis and Linda - Day 4 (24 Nov)

Today is the day which is going to be the most taxing on me because we estimated nearly 5 hours of driving. We took the stunning Crown Range Road, at 1120 m NZs highest public road, over the mountains and down into Queenstown. It is filled with tourists, so we did a quick refuel - both gas and food - and then hurried down and around the Eyre and Livingston Mountains to get to Fiordland National Park.  A brief stop for coffee and to stretch our legs in Mossburn since we were all feeling tired and restless from the drive. After one more hour, we soon passed Te Anau and headed into the National Park. As we continued to drive along the shores of Lake Te Anau (NZs 2nd biggest, 417 m deep), I knew that the extensive drive today is worthwhile. I could hear Hannah and Francis's cameras clicking away as I drove past mountains and spectacular beech forests.

Views along Crown Range road

The only way to see the whole view is using the
Panoramic function of the camera

Lunch along the way

As we entered Eglinton Valley, I immediately knew that we had to stop to gape at mountains surrounding a field. It was beyond what words can describe. Beautiful huge field surrounded by mountains ... it is very surreal. Along the way, we stopped again at Mirror Lakes to see the mountainous reflections, and of course, more photos.

We went through one more pass, The Divide, which is the lowest of all Southern Alps passes, stopped at Pops View for again, more pics, and entertainment from a couple of kea. The kea are really clever and inquisitive, but they are notoriously destructive as well! We have heard horror stories of them destroying windscreen rubber seals, and radio antenna, so I made sure they were NO WHERE near our campervan :)

Eglinton Valley

It is very surreal

Mirror lake

Kea... not on our campervan... some other tourists' car
who have no idea how cheeky these guys are :P

After the short encounter with the kea, we continued driving along the winding and steep hills. It was about this time Hannah and I joked that Mom would not enjoy this drive at all. Some of the slopes were as steep as 18 degrees incline, and because the van was so heavy, it was rough on the brakes and engine. We finally hit the jaw-dropping and scary Homer Tunnel. (1.2 km long, 1929-1953 to build), and came out at the head of the Cleddau Valley. We nearly had heart attacks from the scenery - it was like we were finally in MIDDLE EARTH! We pulled over to take pics - A LOT of pics. After the breath-taking view at Cleddau Valley, we stopped at The Chasm to again take more pics - although we all agreed that it is hard to describe the place in the photos that we take, this is probably the only way we can remember this place! Finally, we are on to Milford. 

We reached Middle Earth

The Chasm

Milford Sound

We finally reached Milford Sound around 5pm, which was great because the place is almost empty! All the tourists were done with the day and they were heading back. Due to the constraint of the number of days on the road trip, we were not able to plan the ferry ride around the Milford Sound. However, we wandered around the harbour, took pics of Mitre Peak, and it was equally amazing. We then turned around and headed back out to find a campsite.

We stayed at Cascade Creek, a DOC site where the aforementioned icy creek empties into Lake Gunn. Hannah and I had the same idea of taking our shoes off and walking in the icy cold waters of the river. IT IS COLD! I think the water temperature must be 10 degC or lower because our toes were numb for a couple of hours later. It was refreshing :)

Camping for the night along Cascade Creek

Francis taking pictures of clouds

Hannah testing out the water!