Tuesday, September 12, 2017

New Zealand, Day 8 - Lake Tekapo and Clay Cliffs

It was raining when we woke up in Christchurch (notice a theme here?). I promise you it did not rain the entire time we were in New Zealand, or even most of the time. But it certainly seemed to rain a lot. We had an ambitious day of driving before us. We were trying to keep our agenda flexible, but with the plan to drive as far as possible so we could spend the bulk of our final week in Queenstown. So we left the campground first thing in the morning and drove straight through until lunch.

I didn't know what to expect. No, actually, I did know what to expect. I had read (and re-read several times) Tsh Oxenreider's blog post on the South Island, as well as the NZ chapter in her book At Home in the World. I thought I knew what we'd see, but instead, it was just straight roads through farmland and pastures as far as the eye could see. Granted, that wasn't very far since it was rainy and foggy for the first hour of our travels .










After driving well out of the city and any form of civilization in general, the rain stopped, the clouds parted, and THERE THEY WERE! The mountains. The superbly majestic, perfectly snow-capped, mountains of New Zealand. That's what we were looking for!

It was crazy. They were all around us. Just when I thought we had surely taken a wrong turn and would be driving straight into snowy peaks, the road would bend and the mountains would suddenly be beside us, then behind us, and new mountains would rise up in front. Needless to say, I have countless blurry photos of snow-capped mountains from the campervan windshield.

This was to be our longest day of driving on this trip and the kids did great. I'm sure it helped that it was the first day we figured out how to use the DVD player. We also pre-empted the winding roads with some Dramamine. Jude was on his second day of a fever (I think I forgot to mention this in my last post??), but thankfully, I had packed Tylenol for our trip knowing that he tends to get run down when we're traveling or doing a lot in a short span of time. Normally, I'd let a fever run its course, but if there's one time I'm okay with utilizing the miracle of Tylenol--it's on our "family vacation of a lifetime" on the other side of the world.









We made it to Lake Tekapo and pulled into a scenic overlook for a potty break and to make some sandwiches. Lake Tekapo is fairly well known in the tourist world and I'd read a few blogs on visiting it. We had our eye on a campground along the lake but since it was still early in the day and we were feeling good, we decided to push on through.



We did make some time to stop at The Church of the Good Shepherd. This is probably one of the top tourist stops on the South Island, but fortunately, we unintentionally timed our visit in between two tour buses. So we were able to capture some unobscured photos of the chapel as well as meander along the shoreline and teach the kids how to skip rocks. It was crisp and still, and with the mountains reflecting off the lake, it made for a stunning view. There's not a lot to do at Lake Tekapo, but there was plenty to see.










Reinvigorated from our rest stop, we continued our drive southwest--stopping every few miles for the occasional photo-op. While preparing for our trip, one of my friends' gave us the book NZ Frenzy for the South Island. There's also a volume for the North Island. These are your "off the beaten path" guides for both islands and, while they're nothing fancy to look at, I love the author's enthusiasm for adventure and appreciate his reviews and "obscuremeter" for each attraction. We didn't use the book as much as I'd have liked, since we were limited on time and easily filled our itinerary with all the "big" tourist attractions. But I did find one of his recommendations right on our way to Queenstown.

Not exactly campervan friendly but this gravel road just screams "adventure awaits!"
I assumed it was right off the main road, but what I didn't realize was you had to drive a few miles off the highway, then turn onto a gravel road and travel another 10km. It's private property, but they allow visitors and just ask that you drop a $5 donation in the box before opening the gate to drive the final stretch. Once you reach the end of the road there's a bit of walking involved as well. Jude wasn't feeling too well at this point and I think Jon wasn't as enthusiastic about the Clay Cliffs as I was, so just Jack and I made the trek.




We had a little mommy-son adventure and were both impressed by the Clay Cliffs jutting into the sky. We squeezed through a thin passage and entered "the cathedral" which was a beautiful and surreal open space surrounded by the cliffs. The sun was close to setting so we didn't stay too long (and also why my photos didn't turn out quite as dramatic as it looks in real life.) I thought it was worth the $5 and the short detour, but the experience would have been improved if Jon and the other kids had joined us and we had set aside more time for exploring.


"The Cathedral" (I feel like that word is used a lot in NZ.


There were some gorgeous views looking out from the cliffs too!
View of the Clay Cliffs from the motorway. If only you could drive straight across that pasture ...
As it was, we wanted to get to the nearest campground by dark. This was right down the road in Omarama. (I mistakenly kept pronouncing it OMA-rama--rhymes with that event in Virginia called "Homearama," but it's actually O-mara-ma.) It was another Top 10, but sadly I must admit, it was my LEAST favorite of the resorts we stayed in. There was no pool, and only one tiny playground. The kitchen and bathrooms were frigid and the lights would randomly go off if you were still for too long (or in the shower??) I also don't think it helped that the entire campground was basically empty. There was one other man staying there. I think he may have lived in a camper there. He was the epitome of "creepy guy that lives at a campground." In fact, if any of you are making a movie with a character of that description, may I recommend the man that lives at Omarama Top 10? He comes complete with long, gray beard and shifty eyes. But I digress.

One other campervan rolled in after we arrived so it wasn't TOO desolate.

Not quite what we had become accustomed to at other campgrounds.
The one thing this resort had going for it were the fabulous mountain views. Unfortunately, those same mountains also blocked the sun, which made it seem to get darker even earlier. And this may have been the coldest night during our visit to En Zed. It got down into the 20s (fahrenheit!!) For dinner, I attempted to bake a frozen lasagna in our tiny oven but after 45 minutes gave up and decided to microwave each portion individually. It actually wasn't too bad, especially with a side of garlic bread and cucumbers.

Speaking of which, we loved the cucumbers in New Zealand. Now that I'm thinking about it, we enjoyed most of the produce. After living over a year on an island where so much of our favorite produce has to be shipped in, it was nice to eat some local vegetables again! It was good we ate our fill, because our next stop was Queenstown--a region known as "the adventure capital of the world." And adventure is something our family just can't say no to!
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