Into The Wilderness

Hello!

Let me tell you about our three week 'Into The Wilderness' camping trip with Jake and Lou. We did a road trip of the rest of the South Island in our Little Nissan March (Jo) and slept in a tent at some of the most beautiful places in the whole of New Zealand.  

Our car was full to the brim, you could not see out of the back window and it felt very heavy, we had everything we owned in there! Luckily our friends had a bigger car so they carried most of the food and cooking equipment (we had a little gas hob!!). I was a bit apprehensive about this whole 'Into The Wilderness' adventure, I like my home comforts and a warm bed! But it turned out to be one of the best experiences of my life. 

We were all quite hungover on our first day, but decided to get up early and leave. This was my first proper camping experience, and I jumped straight in the deep end! On the first night, we had to leave our car about 3K away from the actual camp site as there had been a burst river that the car could not drive through, so we walked through it... IT WAS FREEZING, and walked to the camp site. 

When we got there, I was less than impressed, It looked like something out of a Stephen King novel! Yes the views where amazing and the mountains looked pretty cool, but there was also a lot of animal skeletons and an old abandoned shed thing that still had dusty old tea cups in. This was the first time I had ever camped, and we were there alone! No one else seemed fazed by this so we set up our tents and started a fire. 

I didn't sleep a wink ALL night and neither did Jake or Lou due to how cold it was, so we all snuggled in our tent. When the morning finally came we left pretty early. And I did not have much hope for the rest of the trip. 

However, luckily for me, this was the only terrifying place we stayed and the rest of the trip was relaxed and fun! We were on the road most days, our little car finding it hard to get up all the steep hills, but she managed! 

We stayed in department of conservation (DOC) camp sites where you were obliged to put money in an honesty box, paying per site. It was very cheap, about $6NZD, and you were usually there alone. They had toilets and running water (when I say toilet I mean a hole and a seat.. just don't look down!!) and seemed reasonably maintained.

After the Stephen King camp site we made our way up the East Coast to the Moeraki Boulders which I was very excited about, I love anything geological and these mysterious round boulders were fascinating! Coming out or the rock cliff through erosion, in a perfect sphere. We had a great time doing lots of different poses on them before then heading down to Dunedin. 

When we got to Dunedin, we could only find an actual camp site with showers and a kitchen ETC. I loved it when we found these places, although they were a lot more expensive, but unfortunately we didn't have a choice as there were no DOC sites, so we paid the $15NZD each and set up camp. We tried to find some penguins on the peninsular but had no luck, was great fun trying to spot some though and we ate our dinner whilst on the beach which was lovely.

The next day we went into the Dunedin CBD to see the sights. We went to the worlds steepest street and had a walk through the Botanic Gardens where we saw the best parrots!

We continued down the East Coast to The Catlins where we stayed for about four nights. The weather in The Catlins is  insane, you could literally watch a storm coming in, and then it would rain and rain and in a second it could be back to sunny blue skies!

We had no idea what to do so just set up our tarpaulin over our tents so we would have a dry cooking area, and went for a walk along the river. The walk was quite long and a bit boring to be honest, all you could see were trees and a lake, we walked all day though so slept very well that night, and woke up to snow on the ground! I was SO cold! 

As we drove further down The Catlins we made a few stops, however due to lambing season and bad weather, quite a few of the places we wanted to go to were closed! We did get chance to go to Nugget Point though where you can see the whole way down and up the East coast of New Zealand, which was pretty incredible. 

The last place we camped before leaving the Catlins was right on a beach in a beautiful little cove. We set up our tarpaulin again, although the weather was quite nice. It was quite a busy camp ground as it was a bank holiday but we found ourselves a great little spot and joined in with the holiday spirit. 

On the beach, there were three sea lions that just lived there, it was pretty cool, you could get quite close up to them and watch them play! 

After the Catlins we travelled further south, to Invercargill and The Bluff which is the most southern part of New Zealand, it was quite bad weather while we were there so we stayed in a proper camp site again, which was a relief, as we hadn't showered in FIVE DAYS! 

The weather really was getting bad and the owners felt sorry for us for having to sleep in a tent as it was very windy and heavily raining! We survived though, and the next day we decided to head up north via the east coast in the hope of running away from the weather.

However, the weather kind of chased us! We got to Te-Anau and our tents where soaking wet and it was still torrential rain. So we went on a mission to find a cheap hostel or hotel.

We were running around for about an hour looking for somewhere cheap to stay, we only wanted to pay $100, so $25 each, as we were all a bit low on cash. You might think this was a bit too optimistic and we almost gave up, until someone finally took pity on us, giving us an apartment for a night for just 100 bucks!! We were all so relieved. We had a lovely meal that night, and the best nights sleep of the whole trip!  

The next day, the rain had cleared and we packed the car back up ready to drive to Milford Sound. The car journey there was amazing, we drove through the most incredible landscapes, and we stopped all the time to take photos. 

We drove past the Mirror Lakes on our way to our camp site, and we were lucky enough to have been there on a still day, the reflection of the sky and mountains was incredibly, and a bit confusing when looking back on the photos! The photo's below are of the actual lake.

The camp site we stayed in near Milford was my favourite one. We stayed right by the lake on a pebble beach and we were the only people there. The landscape was incredible.

Nick had a go in his rubber dingy, sorry, 'Explorer 100 Boat' trying to catch a fish, but he had no luck, so we had pasta and tomatoes for dinner, which was pretty much our stable meal, that and peanut butter and jam sandwiches! 

We also loved this camp site as you where allowed to have a fire, most sites have a fire ban as some parts of NZ are very dry. We needed one on this night though as it was absolutely freezing! 

The next day, me and Nick where up early and on our way to Milford Sound. Jake and Lou had already been, and we had found a cheap ticket for the 'Jucy Cruize' on Bookme.

I am SO glad we went, we had an amazing time, Milford sound is definitely a must do for NZ. We were super lucky to get there as the road had been closed just a day before due to a rock fall. The drive took us a lot longer than we had anticipated and we were the last people on the boat, this wasn't too much of an issue though as we were pretty much the only people on the boat!

Milford sound is a majestic place, its like nothing I have ever seen before. You feel like it should have some sort of orchestral theme tune to go with the scenery. 

We were lucky enough to go on a perfect day, there were more waterfalls than usual, and we saw a lot of wildlife, Including three very cute Fiordland Penguins. 

After our fantastic morning in Milford we drove back to camp and packed up our tent before heading up the rest of the East Coast. Next stop was the Glaciers. The drive from Milford to the Glaciers is a long one, we had to go all the way back through Queenstown as they do not have a road that goes straight up, as there is a big mountain in the way! Anyway, we did the trip in a day which was great and stayed at a lovely camp site near the Glaciers where we saw the best sun sets and the most amazing views of the Mount Cook mountain range! 

The weather had perked up quite a lot and we stayed in this camp site for a few nights, although it was quite a busy one, we found a corner to ourselves where we set up a picnic table and out chairs. 

The camp site was at sea level, but we still came across quiet a few Keas, which are a large green bird that usually hang around up in the mountains. For some reason Keas love to eat rubber and one morning I woke up to a very strange noise outside, and opened the tent to find a Kea eating my Ugg boots, and when I looked into the bushes I had noticed it had also eaten my trainers!! Luckily the weather was warm enough to not need them any more! 

We went to see both the Fox's Glacier and Franz Josef. To be honest none of us were that impressed, it's a big dirty ice wall. I think you have to go on the actual tour to really appreciate what it is, but we didn't have enough money to do it. 

After the Glaciers our trip was coming to and end. On our final night we stayed in Hokitika which is a cute little sea side town. We treated ourselves as it was the last night and stayed in a lovely camp site which had a spa pool! We had a great day, and in the evening the boys shaved off their beard and me and Lou even put make up on, and we went our for some Chinese food.

It was a great way to end the trip, but we were sad to part ways as me and Nick headed down Arthurs Pass to Christchurch, Jake and Lou carried on up the West Coast to find work on a vineyard. 

I would definitely go camping again, it was a fantastic way to explore the South Island of NZ, although in some parts it was VERY cold. 

Sarah 

xxx