New Zealand South Island II

Well, after the south pit of New Zealand I went up on the eastern side of the south island to Dunedin (comes from Gaelic Dùn Èidann which is the name for Edinburgh and means “Fort on the hillside”). Lovely student city, but for me just a city like others.
After that I decided to see the Southern Alps from the other side and head up to the middle of the island. It was absolutely stunning to see turquoise lakes in front of the big mountains.
On Lake Pukaki which is in front of the biggest peak of New Zealand (Mt. Cook or Aoraki with 3724m) I stayed for 2 nights on a free camp directly by the lake. The Lake is turquoise-blue because the water is fed by two glaciers and there are still particles in the water from the ground of the glaciers. A swim in the afternoon was very refreshing after a lot of walking and tramping around Mt. Cook (yes, tramping means hiking in NZ). I met there also a lot of nice people from Spain, Italy, Sweden and we had a good time. I got there a tip that I need to see the place where “Edoras” from the Lord of the Rings movie was filmed. This place is called Mt. Sunday and is really in the middle of nowhere. You need to drive for about 1 ½ h on a gravel road. The next bigger settlement is over 80km away from this stunning place. It is a big valley with flat ground and in the middle of this valley you will see a hill. I have never seen such beautiful scenery like this, and there were no people around. It was impossible to capture all the beauty in a picture!

After that my plan was to drive to Christchurch. But then I found on the map a place called Akaroa which is on the peninsula in front of Christchurch. It was really a surprise for me because I thought it will be flat there. But this natural port is surrounded by volcanic hills and it was a really scenic drive to go down there.
Two days later I went to Christchurch. But the city is more like a big construction site because of the damages caused by the several Earthquakes that were happen in the last years (especially in 2011). After Christchurch I took the Arthur’s Pass to the west side and the Lewis pass back to the east side to Hanmer Springs. After a nice bath in the thermal waters of Hanmer Springs I went to Kaikoura to see some sperm whales and dolphins (sperm whale = “Pottwal” for German speaking people out there 😉 ). Then it was time to drive to Picton to catch the Ferry to the North Island.

My highlights on this part were Lake Pukaki, Mt. Cook, Mt. Sunday, Akaroa and the whales in Kaikoura.

Overview of the route:

  • Dunedin
  • Oamaru
  • Lake Pukaki
  • Cook
  • Sunday (“Edoras” in Lord of the Ring Movie)
  • Somers
  • Akaroa
  • Christchurch
  • Arthur’s Pass
  • Greymouth
  • Ahaura
  • Hanmer Springs
  • Kaikoura
  • Koromiko
  • Picton

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