Shilli-Fully Travels

We stayed at Franz Josef but also visited the Fox Glacier. Due to weather conditions our “heli-hike” was cancelled, so the closest we got to a glacier was 750m. This was still close enough to appreciate the majesty of an incredible force of nature.

We stayed at a “wilderness lodge” at Lake Moeraki owned and managed by a couple with a scientific/ eco-tourism background. It felt like the meeting of a conservation project, a luxury lodge and a geography field trip. The remoteness of the lodge and philosophy of the owners created an immersive experience which we quickly settled into. TVs and WiFi were dispensed with in favour of guided nature trails, star gazing and notes to accompany an extensive range of tracks through rainforests, to the lake in one direction and the beach in the other. The lack of air and light pollution, together with a clear night, meant we had our best view of the night sky to observe the Southern Cross, galaxies and the International Space Station.

The West Coast highway was only completed in 1965 and remains relatively quiet. Parts of it were washed away or covered by landslides in the recent cyclone, so much of the road is currently under repair, although passable with some patience. We stopped at a number of beaches, bays and lakes, including Jackson Bay usually by-passed by tourists as it involves a detour from the highway.

The journey from Gibbston to Lake Moeraki on the West Coast should take three hours. It took us seven due to the number of stops we made to take in the outstanding scenery and a detour to Arrowtown. The final part of the journey took us through the alpine Haast Pass. In addition we found ourselves in Wanaka at the same time as the local “A&P” (Agriculture and Produce) show (not as we initially though “apples and pears”). This show attracts 40,000 people over two days; Wanaka itself has a population of 8,500.

We stayed in a studio cottage on a vineyard at Gibbston, not far from Queenstown, as a base for vineyard visits. The long hot summer here meant that our visit coincided with the beginning of the harvest, three weeks earlier that expected. We particularly enjoyed a tour of Felton Road and our lunch, with wine tasting, at Mount Difficulty.

We headed North West from Dunedin to Central Otago, famed among other things, for its wines, especially Pinot Noir. The journey took us through valleys and by lakes. One of our stops was at Cromwell, a town that was moved in the 1970s to accommodate the building of a dam at Lake Dunstan for hydroelectric power. This resulted in the historic buildings being moved to a precinct by the Lake, taking on the feeling of a film set.

The fourth of the One Day Internationals between New Zealand and England was the highlight of our cricket experience down under. The ground is the university one and was a sell out at 5,500 with most of the “seating” on the banks. Equipped with our “fun fest” low level chairs we joined the crowd of students, locals and Brits. At the beginning of the day factor 50 sun cream was being dispensed to the crowd and by the end of the day we were reaching for the waterproofs and jumpers (typical Dunedin weather we were told). We saw three batsmen score centuries and an England collapse as Ross Taylor led New Zealand home on one leg….in the last over…..as we sat on the edge of our fun fest seats.

Only a short drive from Dunedin, Otago Peninsula has a great diversity of wildlife, including the world’s only mainland royal albatross colony and penguins on an adjacent beach.

Known as “Edinburgh of the South” Dunedin’s Scottish heritage is evident, together with its large student population, being home to New Zealand’s oldest university. We were there for three nights taking in a cricket match and some amazing scenery and wildlife on the Otago Peninsula.

We took the aptly named Southern Scenic route to Dunedin, including the most Southern point of the South Island and well worth the extra miles – mountains, rivers, beaches and an unexpected suspension bridge in the middle of nowhere.