In 2009 we did a 4 week road trip of South Island visiting the “big” attractions like Dunedin, Milford Sound, Queenstown ect so this time we decided to do the maybe less travelled parts. We hired a car in Christchurch and then travelled north up the inner scenic route which was beautiful (and much quieter than the Highway 1), passing the Mt Lyford ski lodge – all closed up for the season and then back onto the coast. Mt Fyffe has snow on and looks stunning high above the Kaikoura Cove.
We didn’t go whale watching this time around (what this area is famed for) but did see a couple of fur seals enjoying the sunshine and of course we had to have a seafood lunch at the famous Kaikoura Seafood BBQ – a small hut on the road up past Fyffe House – it was lovely in 2009 and again in 2023!!!!
We left Kaikoura, travelling up the repaired Highway 1 (it was badly hit and closed on 14 Nov 2016 in the 7.8 magnitude earthquake here). We stopped off at Ohau Point Lookout to look for the fur seal colony – and found it!! Lots of pups, and as we were watching them playing in the pools, we also spotted a small pod of dolphins swimming across Half Moon Bay.
We drove up through the Marlborough area with its acres and acres of vineyards and on to Havelock, the green mussel capital of the world, and stayed in a lovely AirBnB for 2 nights. Whilst in Havelock, we visited the Omaka Aviation Heritage Centre for Andy to get his aeroplane fix (Peter Jackson’s World War 1 collection is presented here), only to find the WW2 section was closed, then my treat was supposed to be a tasting at Cloudy Bay winery – nope, they were full (pre-booking is seemingly essential here) so we ended up having a very good pint in the Moa Brewery instead.
We returned to Omaka the following day for the WW2 section before heading off to Nelson.
In Nelson, we stayed at the fabulous Ah House B&B right in the middle of the city – a lovely place to walk around with lots of interesting snippets. Where the Lord of the Rings “Ring” was made (my precioussss…), has a lovely cathedral (quite simple but interesting in design and still uses the Ellacombe chiming apparatus where one person can ring the bells using a pulley system to swing hammers at the bells rather than move the bells themselves), has preserved a street (South Street) of original houses from the 1800s, has a vintage heritage museum, lots of arts and crafts including the Suter Art Gallery (one of the oldest in New Zealand) and is close to the stunning Abel Tasman National Park (didn’t visit this time around but we did a 3 day hike there in 2009 which was fabulous).
We did take a trip out to Mapua and had a wander around the market and wharf,
then up the Moutere Ridge road to the Moutere Inn (supposedly the oldest pub in New Zealand) and then back to Richmond to sample the beer at the Eddyline Brewery – well Andy did whilst I remained the responsible driver and admired the 4 tiny minis that turned up in the car park!!!
We left Nelson (but not before spotting a Weka in the garden – a very strange sounding chicken like bird with a longish beak) and started our trip across the island. We stopped off in Wakefield to visit the Heritage Museum there (sadly missed the steam day) and had a mooch around the sheds – lots of small engines, tractors and trucks. Then, we headed down to Lake Rotoiti for a bit of a hike, but sadly, the rain came through from the far end of the lake, so we just did a photo stop,
checked out the eels that live under the jetty (some of the biggest and oldest long finned eels in New Zealand),
and headed for coffee and cake before moving on to Murchison for the night. A nice little place to break our journey and where we were lulled to sleep with the curious sounds of the morepork owl – the only endemic owl in New Zealand.
Then, from Murchison, we drove through to Westport along the beautiful Buller Gorge. We took a detour to see the Maruia Falls, which did not exist up until 1929 – this is when a 7.3 earthquake (known as the Murchison earthquake) hit the area, caused a landslide in the Maruia Valley and diverted the river. Seemingly, the falls started at about 1 meter drop but are now at about 10 metres.
We then went back onto the Buller Gorge Road and stopped off at the swingbridge (marketed as the longest in New Zealand at 110 metres long and 171 metres above the Buller River). Did Andy cross it – yep, but then realised he had to back over it again to get to the car (oops!).
There was a loop Bush walk at the other side with some information boards about the gold mining history and markers where the flood levels had been – the 2021 level was pretty scary, just a metre or so below ghe swingbridge!
Then, back on the road, through more stunning scenery down to Westport for a couple of nights.
We took a drive up the SH67 through the tiny historic mining towns of Seddonville, Hector, Ngakawau, Millerton and Granity. There’s still an active coal mine at Stockton (New Zealand’s largest open cast mining operation) – you can’t see the mine from the road but you can see the aerial tramway bring coal buckets down the hillside (of course it wasn’t in operation when we saw it!!!). We then took a rather hairy road trip (half the hillside seemed to have slid away and was being repaired) up to the Denniston Plateau and the historic coal mine site.
An amazing place, littered with old mining equipment, some extremely well written informative boards about life in Denniston and what they call here the “8th wonder of the world” – the Denniston Incline.
Coal was hauled by horse and cart to start with, then by an aerial tramway in the 1950’s to the edge of the plateau and then the buckets were lowered down the hill via the Incline – quite a feat of engineering – 1670 metres total length of incline with a vertical drop of 518 metres with each wagon carrying 7 tons of coal. It operated up until August 1967. Well worth the windy road up – oh and the view was spectacular as we had a gloriously sunny day! Then, back down the hill for a pie at the lovey Scullery and on to Westport for a wander around before heading back home.
From Westport, we took a slow drive down the West Coast road, first stopping off for a quick walk to Cape Foulwind and its little lighthouse, then on to Tarunga Bay and a small fur seal colony, and on to the Punakaiki Pancake rocks. These are quite spectacular limestone rock formations that look like tiny layers of stone but are actually huge blocks. There is a good path around the site with various viewpoints along the way.
This whole area seems to have lots of Weka (the chicken like bird) and we even spotted some chicks.
Then, onto Greymouth for the night. We’d intended to go to the Coal Creek Falls but somehow missed the turning but did stop at the Strongman Mine Disaster 1967 Memorial.
The rain that had threatened all day finally caught up with us but passed through, so we took a walk to the local pub for dinner.
We left Greymouth in the sunshine and travelled up Coal Gorge, along the Grey River, stopping off at the Brunner Mine Historic Site. One of New Zealands important coal mines and sadly the site of the deadliest mining disaster in New Zealand with the loss of 65 lives in 1896.
Then, on up the Gorge to the poignant Pike River Memorial (on 19 Nov 2010, an explosion killed 29 miners, whose bodies were never retrieved).
Then up to Reefton (City of Light) – an old gold and coal mining town that is famous for having its own electric power supply in 1888, making it the first in the Southern Hemisphere.
To those of you with maps, you’ll notice that this really is a rather odd roundabout journey! We decided that because we travelled through Arthur’s Pass in 2009 (a stunning drive), we would go through the Lewis Pass (907 metres above sea level) this time and stop off at the alpine village of Hanmer Springs (famous for its hot springs). It was 17 degrees and sunny when we left Greymouth – and 7 degrees and raining when we arrived at Hanmer!! The drive was beautiful all the same with lots of stunning changes in scenery from high mountains to vast plains, and in the morning, we awoke to fresh snow on the mountains around us.
We woke to clear blue skies and more fresh snow in Hanmer Springs and as we made our way back to Christchurch to return the car we were surprised at how much more snow there was on the South Alps than 12 days ago when we started our trip – and New Zealand’s summer starts on Friday 1st December!
Before heading back into Christchurch for 3 nights, we dropped Andy at the Air Force Museum for him to see a few more planes! The hangers here survived quite well during the earthquakes and were used to house other museum artefacts during the recovery/renovation period.