South Island Adventure: A great Great Walk

We pick up our tale back in Wellington, where I (Roger) passed my non-Dora time by working, sleeping and cooking.  Once she got back, we spent several nights eagerly planning upcoming trips before jumping on a Thursday night plane to Christchurch – our South Island adventure had begun!

We started our journey with some logistics. An enjoyable visit to Dora’s cousin Mark and fiancée Katie yielded two sleeping bags, which would be essential to keep out something called the ‘Southerlies’. We then met Simon at the airport, fresh from a 40-something hour flight from the UK. He reacted well to the news that the shower in the night’s AirBnB had broken, probably because he couldn’t smell himself.

A comfortable night and a McDonalds combo breakfast later, we were whooshing through the Canterbury Plains in a ‘Lucky Rentals’ campervan. Designed for two adults and a child, we had been driven to rent it by optimism and budget constraints.

Our first proper stop was Benmore Hydro Station, where Dora’s colleagues kindly showed us one of New Zealand’s little-cited wonders – it’s hydroelectric power infrastructure, which provides about 60% of the country’s electricity. 

We then popped to Twizel for Dora to do some work whilst I stocked up on supplies. We couldn’t miss the nearby Lake Pukaki panorama that includes Mt Cook, where Simon and I decided to jump in for some freezing refreshment before we took the Lindis Pass to Queenstown, the on to Te Anau.

Lindis Pass

The gateway to much of Fiordland, Te Anau has much going for it, with a stunning lake, some nice showers in its camper van park, and a friendly Department of Conservation staff member, who opened up early to sell us hut tickets so we didn’t miss our water taxi. This taxi took us to the beginning of the Kepler Track (one of New Zealand's Great Walks) ascent, missing out some time-consuming forest that we could ill afford given we were squeezing a four-day walk into 32 hours.

We climbed through South Island Beech, beneath granite cliffs and up onto windy shrub-land.

A (self-made) tea stop at Luxmore Hut was our only break before we reached the expansive view-scape above. 

Top of windy Mt Luxmore 

We drank in snow-clad mountains as we conquered Mt Luxmore without being blown off the mountain, then continued along Instagram-worthy ridgelines for the remainder of the day.

Loo with a view

Descending to Iris Burn hut, our blasé attitude towards a nearby waterfall showed the depths of our ‘epic view fatigue’.

We were lucky enough to find beds together in the over-capacity bunkrooms, although unlucky enough to have three operatic snorers as roommates. Luckily I’d replaced our back-up water bottle with one filled with Pinot Noir, which, combined with a full day of walking, left unconsciousness well within our grasp.

 A leisurely breakfast preceded a less-viewy, more sand fly-y walk down Iris Burn river (the hut’s namesake). Niggles had developed into Aches and Pains, so whereas the previous day we felt like we’d been walking on air, we were now very much trudging on ground.

Post-walk snack outside the camper van

At Rainbow Reach we were picked up and shuttled back to our campervan. On that Sunday evening we treated ourselves to beds with sheets, and popped into a wifi-equipped bar for some non-rationed food to plan our next steps.

These steps took us to the Milford Sound, which was experiencing some of the best weather in several days so was only lightly drizzling. I could go on about the breath-taking cliffs rising out of the depths of the ocean, the waterfalls spilling from on high and the dolphins, seals and birds that joined us on our cruise, but instead I’ll just let you look at the photos.

We re-berthed, and headed to Key Summit to see the end of the Routeburn Track, which we left for another adventure.

The Beatles serenaded our drive to Queenstown, where we intended to carry out some participatory research on the backpacker nightlife we’d heard about from many disapproving kiwis.

A Kea in flight