North to Greymouth

We spent a couple of nights back at the Hokitika NZMCA park, and walked down to the river mouth.

We have been watching the TV series made from Eleanor Catton’s book, The Luminaries. It was interesting to be at the river mouth where so many ships were wrecked and people drowned in the gold mining days. Hard to imagine on a calm, sunny day.

Next stop was a night in Greymouth at a CampSaver. It was quite close to the town centre. Greymouth is still a sad looking little town, although some efforts have been made to make it look better, including a town square and a new viewing platform out over the river. There were also a number of pounamu memorials to mark some old and not so old events.

Oh, and one commemorating the gold rush.

Franz Josef Glacier

After Hokitika, we headed south to Franz Josef Glacier.

We stopped for lunch at Lake Ianthe. Although it was overcast, there was no wind, so the lake had some perfect reflections.

It was quite sunny when we arrived, so although we don’t have our table with us, we managed to make one out of storage bins, and cook, then eat a brunch outside.

Next day it rained, but we still went for two walks into town, one for coffee and then later for a pizza at a very nice restaurant with lots of outdoor heaters. An added bonus was there was a game on, and the Crusaders beat the Chiefs.

Franz Josef had a good vibe. There were several trainee staff at the restaurant and cafe. And quite a few helicopters taking people up to the glacier. There were also plenty of kiwis taking advantage of the cheap prices for camper vans at the moment.

Heading south to the glaciers

After three nights at the NZMCA park, and stocking up on a few groceries in Hokitika, we drove just a couple of kms down the road to a $20 camping ground, Links View. We were surprised to find more people there than there had been up the road, but even with sunshine, solar doesn’t always keep up in the middle of winter. The owners were very friendly and the facilities new and clean. The sun was so hot and low in the sky that the awning was useless and we had to retreat inside to cool down! We made use of the power to cook some lamb chops in our new multi cooker. They were delicious. Next day we headed for Ross.

We stopped off at the Treetops walkway for a coffee. We had intended to do the walk, $26 with 20% NZMCA discount, but after talking with two couples in the past week who had been rather underwhelmed with the experience, we settled for just coffee. The owners have made a great job of setting the place up. It was obviously designed to cater for bus tours, but only us and a few other kiwis there. Oh and weka, pukekos and paradise ducks.

From there we travelled on to Pete’s Pop in Ross. A wee gem of a place for $5 per night.

We walked around the town and did a few of the tourist things.

Although we’d intended to stay a couple of nights, the park is now next to an open pit gold mine, with trucks and 3 large diggers working from dawn to dusk, rather noisy!

Hokitika

After a few grey days in Rolleston we decided to head over to the West Coast and sunshine. We had intended to stop somewhere along the way, but Graham was keen to get Arthur’s Pass over and done with. It was the first steep descent in a motor home since the 5th Wheel’s brakes failed on the Lewis Pass. Frieda handled it no problem.

It was good that we were able to follow a very slow truck down, as there was no pressure to go faster. There was snow around, and quite a few people had stopped to make snowmen or throw snow balls.

Hokitika was stunning. The temperature ranged from 6 to 14, with no wind.

We enjoyed the deck and lit the fire in the clubhouse a couple of nights.

One other couple joined us for a while, Doug and Jo from Rolleston! And one of the few other campers, June from Tauranga gave us a huge avocado. She said they picked them all before leaving home and were getting sick of them.

Lake Hawea

From Wanaka we drove out to Hawea. Another $20 CampSaver site right beside the lake.

 The grounds are huge, with all sorts of different accommodation options, including some glamping tents.

It was an easy walk to the hotel for a couple of drinks. The view from the hotel window was beautiful.

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Next morning we took our coffees and sat outside one of the cabins down by the lake.

After Hawea it was on to Alexandra for the night before returning to Gore. It was 18 degrees in Alex, more like summer! We completed our holiday with a lovely meal at the Stadium Tavern.

Cromwell and Wanaka

Parked up at Lowburn 

We spent 3 nights freedom camping beside Lake Dunstan at Lowburn. From there, it was roughly 5km north to Pisa Moorings, or the same distance south to Old Cromwell town on the new cycle way.

Near Pisa Moorings

So we headed up to Pisa Moorings one day, and into Cromwell the next.

Heading back to Lowburn from Cromwell 

The cycle track is great, easy to ride on with no tricky bits. It passes under the bridge, so no need to cross the busy road into Cromwell. As it was Queen’s Birthday there were plenty of people about, even in the rather chilly weather.

Lunch by the lake

On Monday we drove up to Wanaka for coffee, and then made ourselves lunch by the lake. By then most people had left town.


There was a steady stream coming towards us while we were travelling, but still enough remained to give the town a good vibe. It seems all of New Zealand made the most of the long weekend to travel after being locked down for Easter and the school holidays.