Fri 19 Nov - Wellington to Christchurch
It all started, as it often seems to, with the blaring of an alarm far too early. Our uber was coming early, to take us to an early flight. We were off tramping in the far south - but there were things to do first. So our first stop was Christchurch.
It was still early when we blearily got off the plane, and another Uber took us to Steph and Sam's house. We were welcomed by Tessa, Toby and Sam - but no Steph. Her father David had fallen off his mountain bike so she had high-tailed it to Wellington to tend to him and to work from there. Oh no!
First stop was Little Poms for brunch of course. But alas we weren't staying at the Pomeroy B&B as it is no longer, the Pomeroy family have exciting new plans for it which is great - except our Christchurch bolthole is no longer available. We were staying at our second-favourite place and with many special memories - the Ashford Motor Lodge on Papanui St.
The rest of the day seemed to consist of driving. A lot of driving. From Huntsbury to Pomeroys to Riccarton to Ilam to Papanui St to Huntsbury to Riccarton to... we bought some last minute supplies from Macpac Riccarton, perused the Riccarton Mall, dropped Tessa home, moved the first boxes of stuff from Toby's hall, dropped his stuff at Tessa's, collected Tessa again, and excitingly, got to see Toby and Tessa's 2022 flat. It's nice and close to Uni and it'll suit them nicely.
After all this it was coming up to dinner time. Of course, dinner was at the Pomeroy Inn. Delicious as always.
Sat 20 Nov - Christchurch to Queenstown
After an earlyish breakfast at (where else but) Little Poms cafe, we bid farewells to Toby, Tessa and Sam and hit the road for Queenstown. Maybe not the most direct route to Stewart Island, but close enough and set up this way to collect the van we now have staged in Christchurch, get Mike to his Queenstown Half Marathon and then collect Andrew who was flying in to meet up with us. Well - Covid had put paid to the Half Marathon but leaving all the bookings as-is anyway made sense.
The drive down was largely uneventful, and spectacular. I don't think we'd gone this way since the 1990s when we'd do southern lakes ski trips out of Christchurch because it was cheaper. We called in at Kimbell and the old crib is in fine heart. The high country past Tekapo is incredible. The Lindis is rugged, tussocky, brown and rocky. (Angela is helping me with adjectives now). We made really good time and pulled in to Queenstown in the drizzly mist.
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| Big Country |
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| Kimbell house looking well tended |
We found a pay-per-day Wilsons car park, because Queenstown, and sought out Andrew and our backpackers. The backpackers - Absoloot - was really well set up and right in the middle of town. I'd definitely stay there again. Our room was set up to be a dorm if it needed to be, with curtains across the bunks. Angela decided it was like being in a submarine. Maybe I need to build curtains and a low ceiling on our bed at home...?
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| Neat and functional? Absolootely! |
Even though it was dinner time, none of us were particularly hungry, so we wandered and foraged. Icecream and craft beer and poutine at various places did the job. We explored the waterfront and watched the mother duck teaching her cute ducklings how to manage the waves lapping along the lakefront... until cuteness was replaced by harsh Darwinism when a seagull swooped in and took away a duckling that had drifted too far from the group. Some children watching were fascinated rather than horrified. Good on them, an early lesson in how nature works.
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| Album cover for our difficult second album |
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| Wakatipu foreshore. Count the ducklings... |
Sun 21 Nov - Queenstown to Oban
Was it noisy, right in the middle of Queenstown? If it was, none of us heard it. We all slept really well.
On our way out of the backpackers we bumped into Jeanette, who we'd been to Nepal with back in the Before Times. Was great to see her! We swapped stories.
Quick breakfast at the Boatshed Cafe on the way out of town, and then the three of us pointed the van south. What a nostalgic drive - when I was a wee'un, me and my Dad did this drive many weekends to hit the slopes at Remarkables and Coronet. I knew it well but it had been a very, very long time ago. Certain parts of the road brought back sharp memories of specific events, other times just the general feel of remembering driving at night tired and happy after a weekend on the slopes.
We made good time until Winton, a few km out of Invercargill, when we met the Groundswell protest. It wasn't very big and it wasn't too slow. It seemed to have a bit of support, but it was pretty unclear to me what it was protesting. "Don't do this, don't do that". No actual alternatives. It's easy to say "don't", harder to say, "this is my alternative plan you could do instead".
OK politics over. We jogged along til we hit the 4-lanes of Dee St and were able to get past. Tried to avoid the protest entirely but were fooled by a glitch in the Invercargill grid system. Eventually we emerged onto Tay St. Google's recommendations directed us to Meccaspresso cafe and we ate well. Yum.
We had a quick wander through Invercargill's CBD. It was sad and dreary through the rain and cloud. The shops are all run down with peeling paint. There is a massive hole in one block where they are building a new shopping mall. Esk Street is a maze of construction fences and negotiating the footpaths to any of the shops that were still open was hard. I guess the construction industry is busy. But there is an impact on the local shops, that is for sure.
We couldn't get on the road soon enough, and so off to Bluff we went, through the rain. After a bit of navigation around closed roads we found the ferry terminal - and Callan and Stacey! A great sign that our plans were actually coming together and we'd actually managed to book onto the same ferry on the same day.
The ferry was a fast cat, passengers only, a bit bigger than Devonport or Eastbourne ferries but the same idea basically. It was fast, and not too rough at all. We were pulling into Halfmoon Bay after just an hour, all feeling surprisingly chipper and not sick.
Oban is a much more developed and 'normal' town than I expected. It's basically the same as any rural village you might find, There's a 4 square, a pub, a cafe, a DOC centre, a 'kai cart' and, of course, a backpackers. And plenty of roads and plenty of cars.
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| First sight of Oban |
Our first stop was the Stewart Island Backpackers. After minimal fuss checking in we three were ensconced in our little 3 room dorm, fairly identical to Callan and Stacey's 2 room bedroom, but with one more bed and 2 less towels. You don't get complimentary towels if you are in a dorm.
I'd heard a lot about the pub's Sunday quiz night - alas we were 15 min late, the pub was packed, and the quiz was kicking off into full steam ahead. So to the Kai Cart for fish and chips we went. Our two vegetarians decided that the fish was clearly sustainably caught and prepared so that's what we all had. It was yummy and good.
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| Waiting for kai |
It was still a bit drizzly and cold, so it was relatively early to bed. We were all looking forward to a day of exploring tomorrow. With no real knowledge of what we'd find, I was buzzing with anticipation.
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