New Zealand 2007 Trip

My wife and I undertook this 36 day trip in November/December 2007. A microcamper was hired for a very reasonable rate. The camper was a small Nissan stationwagon set up with curtains, mattresses, kitchenware and a small gas stove. We also hired a small thermo cooler for the trip.

This set up was ideal as we mainly stayed in cabins at caravan parks. We did however spend the occasional night in B&Bs, motels and camping (we also brought a tent with us). The caravan parks generally had very good camp kitchens and we only had to use the stove a few times. However, the cooler (12 & 240V) came in very handy as the cabins generally did not have a fridge.

The trip was divided into three parts:

10 day road trip of the north island;

7 days on the three scenic trains; and

19 day road trip of the south island.

The car hire company allowed us a split hire which saved us the expense of ferrying the vehicle between islands. This also made the three scenic train package, which included the ferry crossing, a viable option.

We struck some bad weather initially but after we came away from the Bay of Islands we enjoyed good weather for the rest of the trip.

The visit to the north island though different from the south island is still a must for a full appreciation of New Zealand. The highlight of the trip in my opinion had to be cruising Milford Sound and flying in a helicopter over Mt Cook and the glaciers. Having said that we thoroughly enjoyed most places and we had a ball driving around 6,000 klms of winding road. We had to build in some extra time when calculating our daily trips due to the low speed which is required to safely navigate these good but winding and hilly roads.

I will post a few of the 1,000 photos that we took during the trip.