New Zealand by Motorhome: Motorhome Away!

Christchurch to Mount Cook to Dunedin

We have been so busy. No time for blogging. Need a holiday.

Well, here's our home for the next month. Quite pleased with it really - it always takes a couple of days or so to settle in after throwing all our gear into the nearest cupboard at the handover.

Comes with an amazing free gift

The company brought the 'vans to the hotel collect - great guys - good process. The Merc auto is nice, remembering that it's lugging 3.5 tonnes with the aerodynamics of a brick with a sail on top. It has a clever TomTom sat nav tablet with internet connection which is useful, although it's so much easier to say "OK Google, take me to wherever" to the phone, so I use both tablet and phone (The twin sim Sony phones, bought off ebay, are proving to be really useful with local sim cards in the second slot).

Anyway, enough of that; what have we been up to?

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Christchurch > Mount Cook

From Christchurch, we drive to Mount Cook Campsite, taking in various sights on route. We often seem to be last in - but, as Sue points out, we're only here once, so we try and see the must see sights and more besides.... so we get in last. The group have some great people amongst them and we have some good conversations, too. Mount Cook is the tallest mountain here, by the way.

Here are just a few of the visits on route:

Over a thousand years old, this tree in Peel Forest.

The lakes in Mount Cook area are serene; here's Lake Tekapo; we buy local salmon from here.

We drive up to Mount Cook in wonderful sunshine.... but that photograph is on the camera, so here's one I took the following morning instead... OK, I know.... no time to transfer the pic you see.

Morning walk from the Mount Cook info centre. The person on this bridge is clearly unrecognisable, so I feel safe in posting her photo.

Ancient Cave Paintings

Amazing things these Moeraki Boulders.... See? Told you..

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Dunedin

So, we're safely in Dunedin now (arrived last) and feeling warm and cosy in the van after sorting tomorrow's agenda with friends. 700+ km so far.

On our second day in Dunedin, before our afternoon trip on the Taieri Gorge Railway, we head up the Otago Peninsula to see the Royal Albatross Centre at Taiaora Head, where we see these amazing birds soaring; a first for both of us. They spend most of their life in the air circumnavigating the Antarctic. Now how about this live webcam from the albatross centre.... Albatross Webcam

Dunedin is the NZ Edinburgh with a Robbie Burns Statue to boot. It has a really great museum covering the settlement on the islands.... and the historic train ride was uplifting, indeed.

Dunedin Cathedral