SI Road Trip 2023

We woke at around 6am to an outside temperature of 4C and inside 8C! I quickly got up and switched on the Diesel heater and the hot water. After an hour or so it was time to get up and shower before our final breakfast before heading up SH1 for Kaikoura. Mostly just a driving day with a major shop at the Countdown in Amberley to stock up on the groceries we will need over the next week. Total distance travelled was 2,300km which is our longest trip yet. Lots of ideas for future travels to visit places we missed this time. Next time we'll travel in the summer when the days are longer (and warmer). We passed lots of traffic heading south as we neared home. It must have been a good long weekend in Kaikoura as there were many caravans, motor homes and cars towing boats. The guys I play golf with always avoid holiday weekends when it comes to fishing as they get frustrated with the out-of-towners clogging up the boat ramps. We got home around 3:30pm and were greeted by a very grumpy cat...

We left Warrington fairly early and did a drive past the beach. There doesn't seem to be any easy access to the beach itself even though there is a rabbit warren of roads in this wee peninsula. This is as close as we got without braving the cold wind! To get back home tomorrow we needed to hit the road so first stop was the Moeraki Boulders. I have been here before but they are quite amazing so I walked up the beach from the free parking area and took a few photos. Back on SH1 we had a repeat of yesterday's ham sandwiches and a coffee in the van just over the Waitaki River. Miriam had never been to Waimate so we deviated from SH1 and checked it out. The derelict Quinn's Arcade is quite an amazing site with its history going back to the early 20th century first as NZ's first mall and then as a cinema until a disastrous fire in 1956. Next stop was Timaru where we did some King's Birthday shopping at Briscoes!! Having lived in the van for the past 12 days a few things ...

Last night was a bit of a wild one with wind constantly shaking the van. We were warm and dry but had difficulty sleeping due to the constant rocking! I could have extended our two stabiliser legs but didn't think of this until we were already in bed. Getting up to do it would have entailed getting very wet and doing it in the dark which would not have been easy. By morning the weather had passed so we had sunshine but still a cold wind blowing. We met our host Harry and the other campers, had a quick explore of the 9-hole Golf Course and took a few photos before departing Fortrose around 11am. We need to be back by Monday so have decided to spend three days travelling back to Kaikoura. This means we won't be hitting Invercargill today. We'll save that for another trip when we can also get to Te Anau and Manapouri. First stop was Edendale to dump our tank waste and load fresh water. Then we headed for Gore where we seem to have arrived during a music festival weekend! Most ...

Our night in the DOC camp was OK but after dark a number of small so-called 'self contained' cars arrived. It's a bit weird as we sit in comfort with the heater on, TV or stereo playing enjoying a glass of wine and a great meal. Outside we can hear the opening and closing of car doors as the inhabitants of these other vehicles have to keep getting out and in again to do whatever their evening requires. That sort of travelling must be pretty tiring and uncomfortable when the weather was as bad it now is! It rained off-and-on through the night and we were occasionally rocked by wind gusts. After a mushroom omelette for breakfast we re-traced our route from yesterday around to the Curio Bay Café for a late morning coffee. The trip was quite slow as the weather was terrible and the wind gusts make it tricky driving a large vehicle like ours. I kept the speed to a very sedate 65-70 kph and we had no drama. Next stop was the southernmost point of the South Island - Slope Point. B...

We got up early but, given sunrise isn't until 8:20am at this latitude, it wasn't that early! After breakfast and sorting out the van ready for a couple of nights off-grid, we went for a 3km bush walk and left the camp for Owaka at 11:30. We checked out the Museum and i-Site to get our bearings on what to do today and decided to have an early lunch before doing the exploring. The Catlins Café was a great place for an early lunch. The pies they had in their cabinet were huge and sounded delicious but we didn't buy any! First stop was the Matai falls. This was a fairly easy 2km walk. Next stop was the DOC campsite we decided would do us for tonight. It was easier to sort out what facilities they had and where to park in daylight since we knew we would probably get to it later in the afternoon when it was dark. The view of Tautuku Bay was amazing as shown in the following photo: After that we headed for the McLean Falls - which is about 6km off the main road and then a 45 minu...

We left Keith and his cute dog Charlie around 10am and headed for Balclutha for a bit of shopping. With stops at: Countdown for some critical supplies, The Warehouse for some night attire for Miriam (she managed to leave her PJs behind!) and McKeowns to top up with diesel. Then we finally set course for The Catlins! Still no rain so we made the right choice heading east. First stop was Nugget Point where we ate our lunch (fantastic chicken mayonnaise and salad sandwiches from Countdown) before walking along the peninsula to the Nugget Point lighthouse. The views were fantastic but the wind quite cold. We stopped on the way back to see if we could spot some Yellow-eyed Penguins coming home but we were probably a bit early. DOC have a hide set up so you can watch them coming ashore after feeding during the day. No-one is allowed on the beach after 3pm to avoid upsetting their routine. All we saw were a couple of fur seals. Then it was off to Owaka and our accommodation for tonight - the ...

A driving day today. We left Naseby relatively early (for us) and followed the Pig Route through to Palmerston and then Dunedin. The road winds up and down a lot and it feels in places like the Lindis Pass or the Desert Road with tussock everywhere. At a spot intriguingly sign-posted as Dead Horse Pinch I stopped to read a plaque. During the Gold Rush days, 8-10 horse carts used to make the difficult trip from Dunedin through to the gold fields. Many of the horses died along the way, especially at this last steep set of hills. Once the railway was put in to Middlemarch, things got a little easier! We also had to pull over twice for large loads coming the other way. On close inspection, each load was just a single massive digger bucket presumably heading for the Mcrae's open cast mine!! I hate to think how big the digger is. In Dunedin we visited Olveston Historic House and had a guided tour. This was built in the early 20th century by a very well-off family couple David and Marie T...