South Island Trip in the Deli

[Dave]

My mate and I spent Christmas and New Years touring around the South Island in NZ, so figured I'd share a few pics of our travels. We covered about 5000km in just under 3 weeks and used a lot of fuel WVO conversion might be on the cards for future excursions

We spent Christmas day with friends near Christchurch and New Years in Queenstown (party & adrenalin central of NZ - it didn't disappoint ). The rest of the time was spent doing the touristy things

Now we're back, I've ripped out the interior in the van and have started redoing it all after coming up with new ideas and layouts for it.

Anyhow, on with the pics:

Some seals chilling out in the sunshine



Deli in a dried out river bed where we stopped for a snooze and some lunch



Akaroa harbour



Akaroa Light House







Blue penguin in its hide



Some shags chilling out on the rocks











Yellow-eyed penguin returning to its hide from the sea







Fiordland National PArk on the way to Milford Sounds



















This is Skippers Canyon. It's 4WD access only due to the poor road condition in parts and takes over an hour to travel the 20 or so kms to the old gold mining town at the end of the canyon. You can see the road on the right of the pic. The discovery of gold meant they needed to build the road which took Chinese navvies 20 years to complete apparently Until it was finished the only way in and out was via pack horse.





The weight limit for the bridge was only just above the weight of the Deli, just over 2tonnes and was pretty old with a heft drop! I don't like heightss, hehe!





The drop off the side of the road





Fox Glacier







Franz Joseph Glacier. The one we got to climb





Me contemplating life atop the glacier

[BCDelica]

Awesome pictures, thank you for the trip report. Wow a trip down to NZ is sooooo in order when we can make the time!

Best Regards,
Kevin

[almac]

i would go to NZ, however i refuse to go anywhere wihout my deli.

nice shots.

[ABdelica]

I have a question:

Did you ship your Delica over to NZ forthe trip or did you buy a NZ delica?

If you shipped your Delica to NZ - tell us more about the process/cost, etc.

I would like to make the trip myself & would like a few feedback(s).

[after oil]

beautiful shots! the mountains and fjords look so much like BC

[marsgal42]

Great pictures, great trip! Thanks!

I'm going to the Cook Islands in July for the eclipse, and will be flying via Auckland. I will be spending some time in New Zealand. It would be a crime to travel that far and not see the sights!

I also just got the latest season of Outrageous Fortune on DVD.

...laura

[Dave]

Cheers for the comments guys. The place is just stunning. If anyone comes out here to tavel and can only do one island, then I'd recommend the South Island. The North Island is awesome too, but the South is just stunning and quite unspoilt. You can drive for an hour in some areas of the South Island and not see another car or person

ABdelica, I actually live out here (in Auckland) and bought the Deli out here. I know of a few people who have shipped cars over here and I'm pretty sure you can drive a foreign vehicle on the roads over here. For 12months at least. My parents friends were going to ship their camper over from the UK to NZ for a holiday, but the camper was too big to fit in a container so would have to be on the deck of the ship. As such they decided not to do it, but it was going to cost them about NZ$5-6000 to do it.

marsgal42, where are you going in the Cook Islands. I was on Rarotonga last year for a wedding. Stunning place and such a cruisy way of life. Can't wait to go back. If you're coming into Auckland for any kength of time, be sure to check out the West Coast beaches (Piha & Karekare especially) they're black sand and stunning. Piha is the best surf beach in the Auckland region, but the rips are nasty, so be careful in the water. Oh, and the Coromandel Peninsula is well worth the trip if you've got time. 309 road is very cool. http://tour.thepeninsula.co.nz/309road.htm

Outrageous Fortune is compulsary viewing over here. Munter & Van are ace Incidently, I regularly see Siobhan Marshall (Pascalle) at our local supermarket and I'm pretty sure I saw her doing the walk of shame from my neighbours houses the other week

[marsgal42]

I'll be in the Cook Islands in July. I'll fly from Auckland to Rarotonga, hang out on Rarotonga for a few days, then take a charter flight to Mangaia, which is pretty well on the centre line of the eclipse. First contact is just after dawn on 11 July, with 3 minutes 18 seconds of totality just after 8 in the morning, local time (1821 UTC). The Cook Islands are the same time zone as Hawaii, BTW, UTC-10.

Rarotonga and Papeete will get deep partial eclipses, but no totality. I looked at flying via Tahiti, but the flights are already all full.

This will be my second eclipse; my first was in Turkey for the eclipse on 29 March 2006.

The New Zealand end of the trip is still up in the air, though it would be criminal to come all that way and not spend some time poking around...

...laura

[vovchikn]

Very beautiful photo and a wonderful report! I'd like to visit such beautiful places.