New Zealand

April 2026

Flying to New Zealand

April 22. Two Uber no-shows, our Honolulu hotel got us a cab. Lesson learned. Gnarly traffic the usual 15 minute drive to the airport took 45…luckily flight delayed 45 minutes. Air New Zealand; one of the stewardesses has a traditional Maori chin tattoo, I’ve never seen it before and do some research. A sacred tattoo symbolising their identity, ancestry (whakapapa) and status. It’s a powerful expression of their culture. Fun friendly staff, lovely plane…economy but extra leg room and a pull out bed, we don’t use it; a little too cramped for 2 adults. An empty seat next to us.

April 23. Landed in Auckland; we flew same day from Hawaii but the time difference puts us a day ahead. We meet a New Zealand couple returning home and follow them through immigration, bag pick up and customs to transfer to an internal 90 minute flight to Christchurch on the South Island of New Zealand. Long day…fast asleep by 10.30pm in an airport motel.

Christchurch to Hokitika

April 24. Breakfast at nearby Pioneer cafe with Caitlin serving us, she’s great. Back to our Nissan 4wd rental, headed on the tree lined Old West Coast Road cutting through the middle of the South Island. We’re spending 2 weeks exploring only this island for most of the scenic big hitters. Grazing horses, our first flock of New Zealand sheep, yellow gorse. A tall living wall of windburned poplars planted as a windbreak towers by the road. Crops, silos glint silver…sun’s out, blue sky. We’re driving towards the Southern Alps, aiming for Hokitika to stay tonight. We pass through Sheffield and buy pies from the popular Sheffield Pie Shop. And yup they’re worth the hype, delicious. On to scenic route 72, Waimakariri Gorge Road.

Castle Hill Rocks; 30 million years ago these were under the sea formed by shells compressed over the ages before tectonic plate collisions pushed them up as mountains…years later eroded by weather and scattered as limestone boulders across the hills. Stunning snow capped mountains winding our way through Arthur’s Pass, stopping at the scenic lookout…through Arthur’s Village seeing a roadside monument to Arthur Dudley Dobson.

Otira where trees cling a scrubby existence on mountainsides. We eat our pies watching lorries thunder across the viaduct. A rock shelter and cantilevered half bridge with water being sluiced above the road in to the Otira river, spectacular views from the Otira Gorge viaduct lookout.

Following a railway line we head for the town of Hokitika. Passing through the small town Kumara…simple single story homes cheap and fast to build; framed out and covered in siding. Checked in to our log cabin ‘Shining Star’ in Hokitika. There’s a white woolly lama grazing and two large horned goats…wild rabbits bolt through the grass. We walk to the beach a few minutes from our cabin.

Watching the sunset, waves foam to the shore. Ending our day across the main road at Glow Worm Dell. Forest with a path and viewing area…waiting for dark, pinpricks of white light dot the ferns…hundreds of glow worms appear.

Hokitika to Franz Josef/Waiau

April 25. Anzac Day. Leaving the log cabin, a 30 minute drive out of the small town to Hokitika Gorge, a dazzling blue river created by mineral run off from the glaciers turning it a milky brilliant blue. Suspension bridges span the gorge and we walk a one hour loop through fern trees and forest to lookout points.

Taking the Kaniere Kowhitirangi Road onto Woodstock-Rimu Road, leading us back to Hokitika to start the drive to the Franz Josef glacier where we’ll stay the night. Roadtrips mean moving every day or two but it’s an easy pay off when seeing scenery like this.

Passing Lake Ianthe, through Hari Hari another small town of small homes and a bottle store. Green pasture, farmland…cattle, sheep, pigs backdropped by trees, the occasional burst of Autumn colour. Following the Haast Pass, winding up, trees clambering the mountains…we curl around dropping back down to stop at the Whataroa River to eat sandwiches made that morning. Driving through Whataroa a South Island heritage site. By Tai Poutini National Park and a lookout across Lake Mapourika; at over 8 square kilometres the third largest lake of the west coast, tea coloured from the tannins of forest rain run off and formed by a large block of ice left by the retreating Franz Josef glacier. Arriving at the glacier park entrance taking two 20 minute hikes, one up a steep gravelled path for views of a retreating glacier.

Following the Haast Pass to Wanaka

April 26. Checking out of our motel where the allocated parking space is so close to the sliding door we had to squeeze in; staying in a glacier town where our entire view from the room is the side of a Nissan. On State Highway 6 snaking through the mountain pass crossing 1 car wide bridges over blue glacial melt over grey rocks…so much grey gravel stone, looks like a car park in a lake. The road levels, mountains wrapped in cloud. Over the Karangua River. David on horseback herds cattle across the road, apologises for taking us by surprise but we saw him waving to stop. Working solo with his horse Jess; difficult to herd the cows with cars barrelling down the highway at 100km an hour. By lakes and rivers over creeks Kia, Hanau, Grave…another single lane bridge with a sign saying ‘The Windbag’. 15 motorcyclists in black riding like snails, stuck behind a camper van.

Kahikatea Swamp Forest Walk…a magical place. The Kahikatea trees (a conifer) are New Zealand’s tallest, growing up to 65 metres believed to live up to 600 years. Decaying vegetation, rotting trees, a life source to a myriad of plant and insect life; miniature ferns, moss…a bird flits close, small with a booming call. Black swamp, a tannin river, dead trees loom under the water. We forgo the nearby beach with warnings of sand flies…I was bitten years ago in Peru and itched for 3 long weeks.

To Haast Pass, everywhere green, barely any traffic. Over Imp Grotto Bridge by Roaring Billy Falls following the river…mountains and bluffs shouldering the road. Cloud rolls in, we play Dave’s release radar on Spotify, ‘Ride Lonesome’ by Beck. ‘KELS – ‘Daddy’s Not the One’.

We stop at Thunder Creek Falls. Beautiful, 28 metres high dropping down in to the Haast River. A young man darts about nervous energy taking photos, I nickname him Mr Twitchy and we keep passing him on the road, seeing him at the same stops. An 8 minute drive south to Fantail Falls, much smaller but pretty…shaped as its name suggests, the river crystal clear. We skip the 1 hour return walk for the Haast Pass Lookout…pass a sign for Queenstown Lakes District.

We don’t stop at Blue Pools…the car park is packed and we’ve already walked suspension bridges over the blue water of Hokitika Gorge. Just because it’s on the trail doesn’t mean you need to do everything. We pass Mr Twitchy manhandling a table on a grass verge. Driving on for Wanaka, stopping at Lake Hāwea…a 392 metre deep glacial lake and at 151 sqkm New Zealand’s 9th largest. Clouds drift changing the light. Arriving in Wanaka we check in and are pleasantly surprised, our room for the next two nights a spacious 2 bed apartment with a living room, kitchen, laundry, mountain views.

Wanaka

April 27. A blissful day of doing pretty much nothing. A long lie in, breakfast in bed (cheers Dave)…this apartment we’re in is fantastic…spacious and comfortable. Travelling around every day takes its toll and when the body needs a rest we listen. Catching up on onward travel plans; booking an inland flight for Australia, a place to stay in Sydney…looking at some options for China, booking a boat tour of Milford Sound for 2 days time.

A short wander around Wanaka and down to the shores of its namesake lake to see ‘That Wanaka Tree’ a local celebrity; a weedy lone willow rooted in the water. It looks sad, I don’t photograph it. Tall columns of Poplar turned gold…tourists pose for photographs. We buy an early dinner again from Big Fig in the centre of town, the young woman who serves us is from Leeds. Chicken tagine, soft shredded beef, sweet potatoes, salads…delicious, cakes for dessert.

We take it back to eat…relax on the patio…later watching the sun set over Lake Wanaka and the southern Alps, Mount Aspiring, the Buchanan Peaks.

Wanaka to Te Anau

April 28. With some reluctance we leave the comfortable apartment, could easily spend more time relaxing here. Bypassing Cardrona and Arrowtown (we’ll stay on our way back north) following Crown Range Road pulling in at Wright Lookout for extraordinary mountain views down in to a valley painted gold with turning leaves. Descending to the valley floor acres of farmed land in hues of brown and flaxen…sheep, agricultural buildings, wrapped bales of hay. We pull in at Crown Range Road Scenic Outlook, I take a photograph of a family from Taiwan as mum’s only getting in the tops of their heads bottom of the frame. They laugh and thank me, taking a photo of me to remember. Driving down in to Queenstown to Lake Wakatipu backdropped by mountains known as The Remarkables, this is the Otago region.

Queenstown a sprawl of low level grey and beige sided buildings hugging the lake and climbing in to the hills blessed with a beautiful lake view. The so called capital of the world in adventure tourism; bungee jumps, zip-lining, rock climbing, mountaineering and a wild boat ride Shot Over Canyon. We don’t hang around, we reckon we’ve aged out of the high adrenaline stuff.

Leaving Queenstown we’re driving the Southern Scenic Drive on to the twisting Devil’s Staircase. Through Kingston a huge flock of newly shorn sheep, the sun running gold across the mountains. Looking for a place to eat our sandwiches we pull over at Fairlight railway stop where a steam train passes through on Sundays. We ask the internet if New Zealand had dinosaurs, we’ve seen so few raptor birds; apparently yes but not avian. The only raptor birds active here are the New Zealand Falcon and Swamp Harrier. Driving through Garston; a tiny white chapel, a solitary tree high on a mountain. It’s warmed up, 18 degrees centigrade (spellcheck defaulted to centipede). Thurston Moore ‘Speak to the Wild’ comes on the playlist. Through Nokomai, Athol and Lowther. Passing a sign outside Mossburn which reads “It stops when you say no.” The land flattens, clumps of pampas grass ripple silver.

On highway 94 over the Whitestone River in to Te Anau another functional looking town of lakeside motels, not as pretty as Wanaka but ‘Miles Better Pies’ where we buy for our trip to Milford Sound tomorrow. Flaking out in our hotel room near Lake Te Anau, outdated and worn but the beds are comfy and we have cake and chocolate.

Milford Sound

April 29. On the road by 6.15am, a two hour drive to join a boat trip of Milford Sound. It’s dark when we leave, a deer runs across the road…we wonder if it’s escaped from a venison farm, haven’t seen them wild. It’s raining, we don’t see another vehicle for an hour. The sky breaking around 6.45 the mountains’ black. Everyone’s told us to hope for rain for the fjords…more waterfalls. By 7am I can make out cloud sloping down the mountain to meet us. At Bakehouse Creek cloud is so low that when it parts a snow capped mountain suddenly looms. It’s 8 degrees centigrade. Raining hard…waterfalls run off everywhere. Through the Homer tunnel and a shock when we exit in to towering slabs of grey mountain rock…so high, vast and dark…it’s intimidating….water sluicing down all over it. Dave says you can see why New Zealand was used for Lord of the Rings. Over the Gulliver River, the Donne River, passing camper vans leaving the Sound.

Lashing with rain as we walk to the Mitre boat tour, snug in our $5 rainproof macs. A smaller boat but still around 40 people on it. We sit with an Indian family from Hyderabad who are great fun, their 7yr old son, confident, tells us riddles. On the top deck, the fjord is grey; visibility isn’t too bad. Two hours, out towards the Tasman Sea and back. At $100 each (US) I’m not totally convinced of the hard sell of a rainy day, but it’s fun, definitely atmospheric. We head into a waterfall and anyone wanting to get soaking wet stands outside at the bow.

In the car park we finally see a Kea and it’s on top of our car pulling at the rubber insulation above the window. An Alpine parrot, tough beaks and claws they look sturdy…a flap of its wings shows a bright red flash of plumage. Still raining when we leave we skip the lookouts on the return drive and head to the hotel to dry.

Te Anau to Cardrona via Arrowtown

April 30. Wake up to frost, condensation pooling on the windowsill. Packed up, bags in the car wander down to Lake Te Anau, a low band of fog on the water…a seaplane circles for take off.

Doubling back on ourselves on the Crown Range Road…by Lake Wakatepo, over Devils Staircase, Half Way Bay the lakeside inlet, by Queenstown…rolling farmland and mountains for miles. Autumn in green yellow orange and gold. Fuelling up, unleaded petrol NZD $3.39 a litre…haven’t been tracking the current US/Iran crisis or fuel availability…ignorance since leaving has been blissful.

We pull in at Lake Hayes surrounded by autumn foliage and a mirror surface. It’s a beautiful scenic spot. Lots of Asian travellers have the same idea, we’re surrounded by people setting up instagram photoshoots; a young man with a drone, a girl in a wedding dress and trainers, 4 older ladies have whipped out red circle skirts, a friend photographs them twirling around. It’s a bit bonkers.

In to Arrowtown known for its autumn scenery…it’s incredible, we haven’t seen autumn colour like this anywhere. The air smells rich, earthy. We arrive at midday and the central area, Buckingham Street is busy. It looks like every rebuilt goldrush town I’ve seen in America…one narrow street flanked by wooden storefronts, and like those it’s too twee for us.

Several tour buses are parked, coffee shops, restaurants and the upmarket boutiques are packed with mainly south east asian visitors. Signage in many places in English first then Asian languages. It’s a hugely popular destination for day tours from Queenstown. There’s plenty of New Zealand tourists and the place is bustling…it’s a big influx of people but well catered to.

More interesting is the Chinese settlement just off the main street. Settled during the 1860’s Otago gold rush, huts were built in to the schist rock cliffs, a couple of stores and a town hall added…around 60 Chinese miners settled here. Similar villages set up in the region, almost all of them men. If they could afford to they returned to China but many remained and (with difficulty due to prejudice) integrated.

To Cardrona where we’re spending two nights at the Cardrona Hotel. A fabulous set up. We eat in the bar heading out later to drive up on to Crown Range Road lookout to stargaze.

Cardrona

May 1. An easy chill out day in our favourite part of New Zealand so far. We’re surrounded by an incredible blaze of Autumn colour. Cardrona Hotel is great, an old mining town building restored with several rooms built at the back around a garden courtyard. A great bar and restaurant it’s the perfect place to have a ‘no agenda’ day. Wanaka only a 15 minute drive so we head back there for a walk around the lake. Back in Cardrona there’s a wedding rehearsal in the garden, the outdoor fireplace is lit, Dani our hilarious server is on duty again. She’s about 5ft 11 sassy as hell, gorgeous, fantastic fun and I bet they’re gutted she’s leaving soon. A wedding photographer she’s been travelling for a while. Last night at dinner I told her life is always more fun if there’s a monkey in it. About 10 minutes later eating our lamb burgers she walked by and quipped “There’s no monkey in that.”

We wander over the road the sun slipping behind the mountain…everything gold, everything glows.

Cardrona to Fairlie

May 2. Leaving Cardrona Hotel we tell the barman we’re heading to Fairle, he responds: “You’ll be stopping for pies then”…the national fuel of New Zealand. We pass a Half Marathon running the side of the road. Turning on to Riverbank Road a sign for “Pony Poo NZD $4”. A fence at ‘Wastebusters’ made of discarded skis. Over the fast flowing Clutha River (Mata-Au)…more fir trees here than autumn colour. Through Tarras, the Lindis Valley…joining the Lindis Pass for mountains folded in burnt umber.

Through the town of Omarama a sign for ‘Wrinkly Rams Sheep Shearing’. Salmon farms and fishing near Ohau Canal. In Twizel where everything’s aimed at getting you airborne; helicopters, paragliding, bi-planes… or being chucked out of one.. we stop at Musters Hut for coffee and a wander around a heritage site of machinery used in road building. I persuade Dave to entertain our old game of Dave Standing Under Giant Things…he’s bored with it…hah!

Back in the car Eddie Parker ‘Coffins have no Pockets’ comes on (“spend it while you’re here.”). Passing Lake Pukaki on to Lake Tekapo which is crystal clear, backdropped by the peaks of the Two Thumbs Range of the Southern Alps. Using a fancy toilet nearby which locks you in, plays music and threatens to open the door to the car park if you’re not done in 10 minutes.

At Burkes Pass in the Canterbury region we wander around Three Creeks, a roadside attraction and store featuring 1950s memorabilia, mainly American…old Chevrolet cars rusting out front, a Texaco gas station, tin wall plates, T-shirts; it’s a fun stop but we’ve seen this on American road trips. On to Fairlie where we visit the infamous Fairlie bakery and pie shop (it’s packed out, the power of Instagram) but we’re not hungry enough. Checking in to our Mackenzie Motel room which is refreshingly modern and stylish…we sit out back on our patio.

To Christchurch

May 3. Another sunny morning, drive through Geraldine on the inland scenic route highway 79. Playing a New Zealand playlist curated by my friend Pete Keeley. Tall Dwarfs “Nothing’s Gonna Happen” (1987) reminds me of Jeff Mangum/Neutral Milk Hotel. On the Rangitata Highway, stop at Rangitata River…my Dad had an English friend nicknamed Tom Rangitata. Through Ealing (where we once lived in London). Thousands of miles away on an island in the Pacific Ocean I’m reminded of the island where I’m from. Through Ashburton skirting the edge of the sprawl; car showrooms, a McDonalds, tractor sales, ‘effluent drop off’. Ejected into open green fields the first really flat area we’ve driven. At Dunsandel there’s an old wooden church selling crafts and gifts. Stuck in traffic outside Christchurch we pass Sydenham Bowls Club. It’s the English suburbs minus the Victorian and Edwardian architecture.

To the seaside at New Brighton…it’s tatty like most seaside towns…shops with curly font signage, empty buildings. A long pier, a man with two kids throwing a basket net over the side, catching small crabs. We have a bag of chips. We hand back the hire car at the airport. We’ve driven 2,003km (1,245 miles).

Christchurch street murals above. Antarctic landscape mural by Dcypher/XL Street Murals. Tui bird and Bee mural by Dcypher/XL. I can’t figure out the tag for the blue/yellow piece in a car parking area. ‘Rise from the Rubble’ bird mural by Brandon Warrell.

Christchurch

May 4. Small city with some exciting new public architecture which caters really well to the people. The fantastic new library Turanga with its impressive design, the Te Puna o Waiwhetu main art gallery and the Court Theatre. It’s a grey cold day which doesn’t sit favourably with the acres of grey and white residential buildings which look dull and uninspiring…rows of little boxes. There’s a lot of it going up all over the city, small estates, some gated with access codes. There’s a sightseeing tram which runs a circuit around town but it’s easy to walk. There’s so many street murals around the city, the extraordinary skills of street artists bring life and colour to otherwise dull functional spaces. A huge mural by Jacob Yikes created for the Otautahi Street Art Festival last year stands over 50 metres tall, taking up 12 storeys of the Distinction Christchurch Hotel on Cathedral Square. @jacobyikes (Instagram).

Two ducks on the bridge…their plumage looks painted. A cancelled Captain Cook sprayed with a red cross. The Cardboard Cathedral, its sides made from shipping containers and the inside roof structure constructed from giant cardboard tubes

A Captain Scott statue, Queen Victoria and an Antony Gormley in the river (prefer his bodycast series). We eat at the riverside food hall…another great design and busy. This is where people must be because the city is so quiet. Part of the twin towers, a rusting poignant reminder, stands riverside in the firefighters reserve memorial park…gifted from New York to New Zealand for sending firefighters to assist after the attacks of 9/11. Going in to the library and seeing an old boyfriend Brendan’s name in a New Zealand music display…he was a drummer for The Exponents (prev. Dance Exponents) when they transferred to England…we dated a while in 80s London. Fun memories of hanging out with Jordan Luck, Dave, Chris and Brian. God we were young…I loved 80s London.

We visit the art gallery and learn more about New Zealand history and culture…a sheepish shuffle through the room of British colonialism, dishonoured land treaties. A photography exhibition by Mark Adams, late 1800/early 1900 mountain landscape paintings…a gallery of hand painted bark cloth. A large painting by Buck Nin (1942-1996) ‘The road to Paihia from Kawakawa’.

Last days in a country when travelling are often awkward end days. Check out at 10am but can’t check in to the airport hotel until 2pm for our flight to Australia tomorrow. Can’t leave our bags at the hotel in the city as it’s an unstaffed building. We opt for spending time in the library, bags with us, we were impressed by the space yesterday. Turns out to be the perfect plan…sitting in their cafe with great staff, a great menu. We thought we’d spend an hour but are there for 3…eat lunch, I’m reading Mick Herron’s second of his Slow Horses novels, updating the blog. A cab to the same motel we came in to at the beginning of this two week road trip of New Zealand’s South Island. An early night, getting up at 3.30am for a 6am flight to Melbourne…excited to see old friends.

Stayed

Christchurch Airport: Airport Birches Motel. Expedia https://expe.onelink.me/hnLd/79ql4j6e (basic but good and clean).

Hokitika: Shining Star Beachfront. Expedia https://expe.onelink.me/hnLd/k2l30ihj (excellent, log cabin minutes from the beach).

Franz Josef: Apline Glacier Motel. Expedia https://expe.onelink.me/hnLd/0gmi971r (basic, just ok).

Wanaka: Alpine Resort Wanaka. Expedia https://expe.onelink.me/hnLd/p0h894ym (excellent, large 2 bedroom apartment with in room laundry).

Te Anau: Kingsgate Hotel. Expedia. https://expe.onelink.me/hnLd/d2qui47h (outdated/basic).

Cardrona: Cardrona Hotel. Expedia https://expe.onelink.me/hnLd/rws1bxv2 (excellent, a special place in great scenery with fantastic on-site restaurant).

Fairlie: Mackenzie Motels. Expedia https://expe.onelink.me/hnLd/pafac6w1 (excellent, a well designed comfortable stop over to break up the journey).

Christchurch: The Parque. Expedia https://expe.onelink.me/hnLd/0fhiimej (good, nice design 15/20 minute walk from centre, on-site laundry facilities).

Ate

Sheffield: Sheffield Pies sheffieldpies.co.nz

Cardrona: Cardrona Hotel Restaurant: https://www.cardronahotel.co.nz/restaurant

Wanaka: Big Fig https://www.bigfig.co.nz

Arrowtown: Provisions. https://www.provisionsofarrowtown.co.nz

Te Anau: Miles Better Pies (Instagram #milesbetterpies)