by Lynda Goetz
On the Milford Track, South Island
The planning started almost a year ago. We were to visit my daughter who has been working in New Zealand for the last three and a half years. However, this was not to be a simple visit to their base in Auckland with day excursions to beaches or museums. By the time of our visit, she and her partner would not have a base. Their landlord was selling their house and from December 2024 they would be living in a van until their return to the UK in May this year. We were to spend a month doing a road trip with them from the top of North Island to the bottom of South Island.
Road trips in my childhood and youth tended to be rather relaxed affairs. You set off, drove, paused to admire scenery, visit a historical site or have a picnic and then stopped at the end of the day when you found a village, town or hotel you liked the look of. Sometimes, if you stopped too late or chose somewhere that was particularly popular, you might find that the hotel (or possibly campsite) of your choice was booked up, but generally the system worked well. No-one had mobile phones and pre-booking, by phone or even letter, was really only done for places where you wanted to stay for a week or more, or at least several days. Now, with our minicomputers in our pockets, you need generally to choose in advance and book online. This can require military-style planning. I like to think I have many strengths, but I do know that ‘admin’ is not really one of them. Fortunately my daughter proved that she has not inherited this weakness. She knew the things she wanted to see and do and also those she had already done and enjoyed, which she thought we would also like doing. On that basis she became our brilliant travel agent.
New Zealand, which consists of some 700 islands and covers 268,680 km2 has a population of just under five and a half million people. The UK, by contrast covers 244,376 km2 and has a population of nearly 70 million. Average population density in New Zealand is just 20 inhabitants per square kilometre, amongst the lowest in the world. True, the majority of them actually live in urban areas, with one third of the total population living in the Auckland region. Auckland traffic can apparently be horrendous. Elsewhere, driving is sheer joy, (although rather sadly for petrolheads or indeed simply those who enjoy driving, it is almost impossible to buy or hire a manual vehicle). In South Island, inhabited by only a quarter of the total population, you can almost see more dead possums on the road (of which more later), than cars.
One of our first decisions was whether we too would succumb to the lure of the ‘self-contained’ camper van. New Zealand does rather try to sell the idea that this is an ideal way to view the country. ‘Freedom campsites’, if you have a self-contained vehicle, do sound like a tempting option. Unfortunately, there are, relatively, so many people with vans trying to get into these, that it is almost worse than trying to find a berth for your hired yacht in a Greek island marina after 3pm (when all the catamarans taking up two spaces apiece all arrived at lunchtime – before the afternoon breezes allowing for some actual sailing had even started). The reality is that you will end up in a paying site with misleading pricing (paying additional costs for extra passengers or hook ups you don’t need). Vans are also very expensive to buy or hire. We concluded that a better option was to use either the many traditional motels or the Airbnbs; a decision we ended up being very happy with. As our hire car we chose the roomy Nissan X-trail.
My daughter’s itinerary had us heading north from Auckland airport up to the Bay of Islands to spend three days on a sailing boat, one used for both tourist trips and scientific research and captained by a charming naturalised German, Johann, known as John, and his Norwegian mate, Gustav. With the other guests we were thirteen on board. Pahia, from where we set out and to which we returned, was, when we turned up, an unexpected hive of activity. We had arrived in the run up to the anniversary of the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi on 6th February 1840. This rather controversial treaty set out the terms of agreement between the Maori tribes, who had arrived in New Zealand from Polynesia from the late 13th century onwards, and the British Crown. Several Maori war canoes, known as waka taua, or simply waka, which I had previously only seen in the Auckland museum, were anchored close to the beach. The area of Pahia in which we were staying was full of visiting Maori, in party mood. Many were participating in the activities across the river in the Waitangi Treaty grounds, parts of which were closed due to ceremonies for attending politicians and other notables. After a visit to the museum, we set sail for a few days of peaceful anchorages, swimming, kayaking snorkelling, blue skies, sandy beaches and stunning sunsets.
From Pahia, we headed down the east coast southwards, by-passing Auckland and Rotorua, famous for its geothermal activity and Maori cultural tourism. We had all been to this ‘must see’ of New Zealand in previous visits. As die-hard Lord of the Rings fans, we did have to include a trip to ‘Hobbiton’ as part of our journey. My daughter and her partner had already been twice, so did not join us, instead going to climb one of the volcanoes in the area. For fans of the Tolkien books and the films made of them by director Peter Jackson, this is a film set well-worth the visit. Pre-booking is advised. Nearby, the Waitomo glow-worm caves are another tourist stop which most people will make. Here you can choose between a number of offerings, from a sedate walk through some impressive, beautifully-lit caves with stalagmites and stalactites followed by a boat trip on an underground river in silence and darkness lit only by the twinkling of the glow worms on the cavern roof and reflected in the blackness below; to an “exhilarating underground adventure that involves climbing, black water tubing, floating, and leaping over cascading underground waterfalls”. Take your choice!
After a delightful two-night stop, with more impressive sunsets, and enchanting daytime garden visits, with some friends in Whanganui (pronounced as you would expect, whereas every other place in New Zealand starting with ‘Wh’ is apparently pronounced as ‘F’), we then made tracks for Wellington, where we did not stop, but headed straight for the ferry across to South Island. The geology and geography of New Zealand is fascinating, and the South Island has some very dramatic scenery. In general, I think it is the scenery of the country as a whole which creates the biggest impression. In the UK we have urban landscapes, which contain some historical and architectural gems, and we have rural landscapes and countryside. Countryside is small scale. New Zealand is not a huge country, but its landscapes tend not to be small scale. There are vistas, landscapes and scenery. The architecture, such as it is, is modern and in the urban areas boast a lot of glass and steel. The rural areas are low rise, with bungalows, generally on quite small ‘sections’ (or plots as we would call them), the predominant form of housing.
Once on South Island, we headed for Abel Tasman National Park. Named after the early Dutch explorer, this is a stunningly beautiful area where hiking and sea kayaking can be undertaken either individually or as combined activities. There is a well-established industry of guides and water taxis, which enable you to walk parts of the renowned Abel Tasman Coastal Track (one of New Zealand’s ‘Great Walks’), be picked up by water taxi or kayak another section. The system devised for launching the water taxis from tractors is of itself an experience. The part of the track which we walked is well maintained and the views through trees and ferns of the turquoise waters tantalising and tempting for those unable to resist attempts at artistic photography.
One of the striking things about New Zealand is the complete lack of indigenous land mammals. Yes, there are huge herds of splendid-looking cattle - black, brown, Jersey-coloured, Friesian. There are vast numbers of sheep. People keep horses and dogs. Dogs however, must mostly be kept on a lead and are banned from all the national parks because of the large numbers of ground-dwelling birds, from the endangered and nocturnal kiwis (which even most New Zealanders never see outside a bird sanctuary) to the ubiquitous weka, or Maori chicken which will boldly investigate your rucksack or picnic (see left). Even the New Zealand ‘robin’ spends a lot of time on the ground. All of the feral mammals which have intentionally or accidentally been introduced over the years are regarded as pests. Wherever you go in any of the national parks you will see the box traps intended to catch rats, rabbits and possums. Possums in Australia are protected. In New Zealand they are pests. Like much of New Zealand’s wildlife, they do seem to have something of a death wish. Dead weka and possums are a frequent sight on the roads. One day, driving down the West Coast Highway, we counted 76 dead on the road.
Franz Josef and Fox Glaciers are both evidence of the ice-sculpted landscape of the Southern Alps. The movements of ice over the last 250,000 years have also left depressions creating some of New Zealand’s most scenic lakes, such as Te Anau. After overnight stops and walks to admire the glaciers from a distance (we resisted the blandishments to take scenic helicopter rides as our skiing experiences meant that we felt this was not a necessary expense), we made our way to Lake Te Anau, where the last few days of our holiday was to be spent walking the Milford Track, another of the Great Walks. I must confess here that although I do a lot of dog-walking, I am not a seasoned hiker. Because of this and as a concession to my age, my daughter, who is a hiker, had arranged to do what a friend called the “wine and cheese” version of the walk. By this, she meant that instead of staying in huts and carrying our own bedding and dried food for the three-day hike, we would be staying in lodges with hot showers and three-course meals. Way to go! The purists, of course, disapprove, but honestly what a civilised way to do such a stunning walk. Beautiful, verdant, fern and moss-filled forests, waterfalls, rushing rivers, yet more waterfalls and swimming holes. Even walking with water-filled boots across newly-appeared rivers was not the trial I had imagined it might be. A brilliant finale to a wonderful active holiday, which had included so much, from sailing to cycling, caving to climbing (well, not in my case), swimming, snorkelling and could probably have encompassed snowshoeing. Of course, a month is not long enough to see everything this wonderful country has to offer. Much had to be missed out. Next time, inter alia, I would like to see the mammals which do live in this part of the world - the whales, dolphins and porpoises.
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