Not just your average

South Island adventure

Wharariki
Whanganui Inlet Beach

Golden Bay
Collingwood
Pohara

A 10-day South Island Itinerary by Meghan Maloney

Takaka Abel Tasman
National Park
Kahurangi
National Park Motueka
Tasman Bay

NELSON Havelock
Karamea
Richmond

Blenh

Westport
Lake St Arnaud

Our 10-day Wilderness Motorhome adventure was

Rotoroa

Nelson Lakes
Reefton National Park

designed to take us to many places we’d not explored Punakaiki

before and since we designed it with an out-and-back Greymouth 2 Hanmer

Springs
Kaikoura

Lake

route rather than a loop it meant we could pick and Hokitika

Brunner
Lake
Arthur’s Pass Sumner

choose the order we visited locations to take advantage Lake

Kaniere
National Park

of the best weather conditions as the trip developed. Lake

Coleridge
Amberley

Oxford Rangiora
Franz Joseph Glacier

Some of these locations are featured in my posts: Kaiapoi Pegasus Bay

Lake Mapourika
3 CHRISTCHURCH
Fox Glacier
Mt Cook
4 10
10 Ways to Spend a Winter Adventure in South
  5 Aoraki/Mount Cook
National Park
Methven Lake Ellesmere
Akaroa

Island with Tweens Haast Mt Hooker

9
Lake
Tekapo
Ashburton 1
Jackson Bay

10 Breathtaking Spots to Park Up Your Motorhome

Lake
 
Geraldine
Pukaki Tekapo
Fairlie

6
for the View
Mount Aspiring
National Park Twizel
Big Bay Lake
Lake Benmore Timaru
Mt Aspiring Wanaka Lake
Hawea
Lake
Omarama Aviemore

As it turned out, there were a few locations on our Milford Sound

8 Waimate
Wanaka

original itinerary we didn’t go, plus others we added at Glenorchy

7
Lake
Dunstan
Arrowtown

the last minute that turned out to be the highlights of

QUEENSTOWN Oamaru
Cromwell
Ranfurly
Lake

our trip! I love that travelling by motorhome gives you

Wakatipu
Lake Alexandra Moeraki
Te Anau

the ultimate flexibility to make decisions on the fly which Te Anau Palmerston

Fiordland

is why it’s my favourite way to travel in the South Island.

National Park Lake
Manapouri Lumsden Port Chalmers
Mosgiel DUNEDIN

Here’s how our combo family/photography adventure Winton Gore

Milton

played out: Te Waewae

Catlins
Balclutha

Bay INVERCARGILL

Bluff

DAY 1 Christchurch to Akaroa 1.5 hours

The first day of an adventure is always a mix of extreme excitement to get on the road combined with the tedium of
buying the essentials to get organised for a few days on the road, and we opted to take the kids to the International
Antarctic Centre for a few hours since we didn’t have too far to drive to our destination.
The drive over the hill to Akaroa isn’t for the faint of heart, but worth it for the views over the whole harbour as you wind
your way down. The cute little jetty in this quaint mini French town was the perfect spot to park up to end our first day.

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11 Pavilion Drive, Airport Oaks, Auckland 2022 • 3 Export Ave, Harewood, Christchurch 8053
P +64 2555 300 • E explore@wilderness.co.nz • wilderness.co.nz
 DAY 2 Akaroa to Hanmer Springs 3 hours
A rainy first morning was a bit of a disappointment
but the views from our motorhome over the harbour
were still lovely. We debated spending the next night in
Christchurch but the low cloud hanging around didn’t
show any signs of clearing so we decided to drive all the
way to Hanmer Springs. The boys had all kinds of fun in
the Hanmer Springs Thermal Resort while I made a solo
hike up Conical Hill to see the panoramic view over the
town.

DAY 3 Hanmer Springs to Lake Heron via Rakaia Gorge 3 hours 30 mins
We were up and out early looking to capture the sunrise at Waiau Ferry Bridge viewpoint, a short distance out of
town. Originally the plan had been to head further inland to Lewis Pass but the forecast wasn’t promising, so we
opted to head straight for Ashburton Lakes via Rakaia Gorge instead.
The Gorge walkway is a great short hike – it’s only about 30 minutes to the first elevated viewpoint looking towards
the mountains, easily doable as a short stop during a day of driving. The highlight for us though was coming across
several native bellbirds in a grove of kowhai trees – I’ve never seen one up close before, what a treat!
It was quite late in the day by the time we reached Lake Heron and I couldn’t help but stop several times to capture
the light surrounding us on the drive in. We eventually made it to the campsite, and had the whole place to ourselves.
I whipped down to the lakefront to catch the dying light of the day – it was such an unusual light and I now know it’s
because there was snow on the way.

DAY 4 Lake Heron to Lake Camp via Mount Sunday 1 hour 30 mins
We woke to a light snow cover on the ground at 5am which turned into 5cm by 8am. We were both ecstatic (a first
for us all to wake up to such a scene) and anxious – would we be able to figure out how to put the snow chains on
and get out of there? As it turns out, Mark was a legend for a first-timer and had them on in a jiffy. We breathed
a little more easily at this point and stayed long enough to make snow angels, have a snowball fight and make a
rather cute snowman.
It’s not far from Lake Heron round to Lake Camp in the next valley and by the time we reached there, the sun was
out. Snow, sun and reflections makes a magical combo and I lingered a while at Lake Camp just enjoying this! From
here, we headed down into the Rangitata Valley to climb Mount Sunday.

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11 Pavilion Drive, Airport Oaks, Auckland 2022 • 3 Export Ave, Harewood, Christchurch 8053
P +64 2555 300 • E explore@wilderness.co.nz • wilderness.co.nz
I was absolutely gobsmacked by the views in this valley, I haven’t seen many shots from here, well certainly not with
the amazing light we experienced! The hike itself was easy and enjoyable and the 360 views from the summit were
pretty spectacular.

DAY 4 Lake Camp to Mount Cook (Glentanner) 3 hours 10

Sunset had been very windy the night before so I was
blown away by the beautiful moody reflections at
sunrise, so atmospheric! From here we headed back to
civilisation and onwards to Mount Cook, it had been 2
days without any cellphone reception (which was quite
a nice break actually!). Despite visiting Mount Cook
on several occasions, I’d never stayed at Glentanner
before and I really loved the different perspective you
get further back from the towering 3,000 metres peaks
of Aoraki Mount Cook National Park, this view of La
Perouse is one of my favourite shots of the whole trip.

DAY 5 Aoraki Mount Cook

The weather gods were with us this day, starting with
an awesome sunrise amongst the ice at Tasman Lake,
though what really captured my imagination was the
snow drift on the peak of Mount Cook. After enjoying a
fascinating movie on Search & Rescue at the Edmund
Hillary Centre we set off on one of NZ’s best day walks
to Hooker Lake. Walking on such a glorious day was just
incredible, we even saw an avalanche on the face of
Mount Cook as we walked, but the biggest surprise of all
was that Hooker Lake was frozen!
We stayed the night at White Horse Hill campsite which
is at the beginning of the track – so convenient when
you’re tired and needing dinner!

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11 Pavilion Drive, Airport Oaks, Auckland 2022 • 3 Export Ave, Harewood, Christchurch 8053
P +64 2555 300 • E explore@wilderness.co.nz • wilderness.co.nz
 DAY 6 Aoraki Mount Cook to Lake Benmore 1 hour 50 mins
I could tell as soon as I peeked out the door that sunrise had potential, so we drove along Lake Pukaki as far as
Peter’s Lookout and boy did it get colourful!
From here, Twizel was the next stop for coffee and to check out all the lovely lakes dotted around the area, it was still
enough for reflections in quite a few spots, and the clouds that day were just outstanding so I was on a reflection high!
After briefly checking out Lake Ohau, we headed for Lake Benmore. I wanted to do a sunset hike up the peninsula,
though the family weren’t too pleased when I got us a bit lost and we walked a bit further than we needed to!
The colour at sunset was again pretty spectacular and different in all directions so it was great to have such an
elevated view. Lake Benmore is a man-made hydro lake and has lots of nooks and crannies if you check it out on a
map, I thought the wee island in the lake looked a bit like the Loch Ness monster!

DAY 7 Lake Benmore to Queenstown 2 hours 30 mins

This day was forecast for rain until early afternoon, so
we left early heading through the Lindis Pass and onto
Cromwell for an awesome coffee at Seed and Grain
Cafe in the quaint historic precinct. We had to wait out
the rain for a while at the holiday park in Queenstown
(conveniently situated right under the gondola) but it
stopped on cue so we headed up the gondola for a late
luge and sunset.
The views from up here are sensational, particularly looking
towards The Remarkables – and I could even see our wee
motorhome far far below. Despite it being rather chilly,
the boys had a grand time on the luge while I was busy
photographing. We rounded off the day with a Queenstown
must-do, takeaway burgers from Fergburger.

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11 Pavilion Drive, Airport Oaks, Auckland 2022 • 3 Export Ave, Harewood, Christchurch 8053
P +64 2555 300 • E explore@wilderness.co.nz • wilderness.co.nz
 DAY 8 Queenstown to Twizel and a Milford Sound flight 2 hours 30 mins
The day dawned bright and clear and it was lovely to capture the hues over Lake Wakatipu from Bennetts Bluff – I love
that you can see both ways down the lake from here.
I’d booked a Milford Sound Scenic flyover for Mark and me with Glenorchy Air which was a belated joint birthday present as we
were in lockdown for ours back in April. It was a bluebird day to fly and an incredible experience seeing all the mountain peaks
covered in snow.

After the flight we headed back through the Lindis Pass, intending to spend the night in the Ahuriri Valley. We only
got so far before the road got a bit hairy (even for a mighty Wilderness motorhome used to the wilderness) so we
turned back, stopping to enjoy the dusky hues at the wetlands before carrying on to Twizel.

DAY 9 Twizel to Tekapo 50 mins

It was an ethereal morning to wake up to, very frosty and hints of mist about the place, enough to provide
atmosphere rather than ruining the shots. I spent ages at Loch Cameron even though it was freezing, before we
carried on to Tekapo. Originally we’d intended to drive up Mt John for the views but the road was closed so we
decided to hike up instead.
This was probably the steepest hike we completed, but worth it for the panoramic views. We’d booked a session
snow tubing at Tekapo Thermal Springs, so headed back down for that, followed by a nice soak to warm up again
(it wasn’t much above zero in the shade). I walked a few metres from our site at the holiday park to capture a really
subtle sunset and then went out aurora chasing based on the forecast. It didn’t turn into much but I did manage to
catch a wee hint on the horizon together with a zillion stars.

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11 Pavilion Drive, Airport Oaks, Auckland 2022 • 3 Export Ave, Harewood, Christchurch 8053
P +64 2555 300 • E explore@wilderness.co.nz • wilderness.co.nz
 DAY 10 Tekapo to Christchurch 2 hours 40 mins
Our last morning was also the coldest at -4 degrees,
brrr!. Mark brought me a hot coffee down to the lake
front but even that didn’t help my fingers which were
basically blocks of ice by then! The very last shot I took
was the gorgeous sight of the famous Church of the
Good Shepherd with the mountains lit up with the light
of the coming day.
Apart from our little overnight sojourn to Queenstown,
we spent our entire 10-day adventure in Canterbury –
it’s a huge region and full of an incredible variety in
scenery as we discovered. And though we packed a lot
into our 10-day Wilderness adventure we never travelled
more than about 3 hours a day which felt right in winter when the daylight hours for travel are much shorter but still
gave us plenty of time for stops. Winter is definitely my favourite time to explore in the South Island, the snow adds
a magical element to all the views you’ll see and yet the motorhomes are so warm that you’ll never feel cold even
when it’s below zero outside.

Meghan Maloney is a landscape and travel photographer from New Zealand, for more of her work visit
www.meghanmaloneyphotography.co.nz or follow her on Instagram www.instagram.com/meghanmaloneyphotography

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