Profile
Blog
Photos
Videos
We arrived at Lake Tekapo at night, well after 6pm, and it was pitch black so we stayed in the free campsite next to the lake. I say free, they request for a donation, but there was nothing there for it to need money for upkeep, so jog on! The first night sleep in the van wasn't as bad as I imagined. Nothing quite like my nice double memory foam bed back at home but I managed to get warm. I wore 3 pairs of socks including a pair of thermals, thermal trousers and 3 t-shirts which also included a thermal top. Oh and a woolly hat and sleeping bag. And numb nuts Kyle slept in his boxers and socks on the first night, he won't do that again. Considering we wake up with frost on our windows and Kyle had to climb through to the cabin area to turn the engine on to get some heat. I was fine going sleep but at 6am when I started turning, I felt the cold, once you feel that theres no way I was getting back sleep. My huge nose stuck out like a sharks fin, I thought it was going to drop off.
I must admit, mornings are the worst when camping. Although the views by the campsites are just picturesque. As it is too cold to do anything, including getting changed or washing, or eating. I just have to wait till the sun comes up in the day to warm the van up. New Zealand really does s*** all over Wales when it comes to the scenic views though.
Detoured to Mount Cook and the glacier when heading towards Queenstown. Did a trek around them both but the glacier was disappointing as it still had rock sediment on it so it looked like brown sludge on the ice. The surrounding mountains and lakes were worthy of a panoramic photo. When we sat by our van having lunch and a friendly German girl gave us coffee sachets, mixed herbs and a huge bag of honeycomb chocolate! Continued again towards Queen but stopped off to climb the Clay Cliffs. Cool looking cliffs but I would of been happy taking my photo and leaving, but nooo, kyle decides he wants to climb it to the top. Stupidly I agreed but shortly I regretted it! We climbed too far that it felt impossible to climb back down. I managed to get to the bottom again with some perseverance.
Finally driving towards Queenstown next to a very large lake surrounded but snow top mountains, taking in the view as you do. Suddenly, there's a fricking cat eating some sort of road kill right in the middle of the road. It decides to run in front of my van, scathing my wheel. Very lucky cat.
Stayed at another free campsite where there's nothing there, basically a carpark for caravans. Which means my personal hygiene is getting bad after 2 days without a shower. Drove into Queenstown in the morning and got ourselves checked into a legitimate camp site so I could shower. I felt like a new man after a hot shower!
- comments