Gassmans Gone Under: Queenstown to Christchurch

The last few weeks have gone by sooo fast. We spent a few great days around Queenstown camping a the Twelve Mile DOC site and the Moke Lake DOC site. The weather was windy but the rain held off reasonably well. A drive to Glenorchy at the end of Lake Wakatipu showed us some amazing views of the lake itself and the mountian behind. A few hikes in the area and bit of a walk around the city itself and we were off, heading north, to the Fox and Franz Joseph Glaciers on the wet west coast. Yes, the rain caught-up to us as we took the Authurs Pass back to the east coast and Christchurch. We have crossed the South Island on all three passes, the Lewis Pass, the Haast Pass and Authurs Pass.

Landing back in Christchurch we were knocking on Charlie and Shauns' door again, this time we stayed with them for over a week as our plans to fly out of Christchurch to Australia didn't work out. They were busy renovating a house they own downtown Christchurch, getting it ready to put it up for sale, so luckily we were able to help with landscaping and some painting and handyman work while we stayed at their place. It was fun. Thank you so much and good luck with the house!

But as I said, we wanted to change our Air New Zealand tickets to fly out of Christchurch instead of having to drive all the way back to Auckland to fly out on Feb 11th but they said 'NO GO' not without forfeiting our whole plan ticket(including return to Kelowna). We had put Deep Purple on Trade Me(NZ for Craig's List) and wouldn't you know it...we sold the car in literally 10 minutes for the same price we payed for it(minus the oil change and car wax). And if that wasn't good enough, we sold it to a nice guy from Calgary who had just moved to NZ to work. Crazy, but we felt better knowing Deep Purple was going to a good Canadian home. However, then we had a week to go, no car and no way of getting back to Auckland. We had heard about people doing relocations for the rentalcar/van companies and decided to give it a try. We ended up driving a Lucky Rental Van from Christchurch to Auckland for free including three days, a free tank of gas, insurance and a ferry ticket for Ken and the van with unlimited mileage(three days gives you just enough time to drive the 1200 km without too much of a deviation). All we had to pay was my passage on the ferry and a tank of gas. This just might be a new way to travel for us?!? One good thing with this relocation was it gave us a heads up and we realized we need more than just a small van for our travels in Australia. I guess that is what we will be up to now...looking for a van in Melbourne.

The old steam boat pulls into dock in Queenstown.

Looking up Lake Wakatipu just outside Queenstown on the road to Glenorchy.

From our camp at Moke Lake we did a bit of hike that gave us a great view over Lake Wakatipu and the Eyre Mountians on the opposite side.

Just another hike around Queenstown, the Moonlight Track at Ben Lomond Station.

Shotover canyon between Moke Lake and Authurs Point.

Ken feeds some friends. Happy Hour.

View down Lake Wanaka.

Back on the west coast just south of Haast Beach.

Lilies on the west coast of the South Island.

The Fox Glazier off in the distance.

This bridge was allocated duel vehicle-train...you had to be very careful if you rode it on a bike.

Amazing blue mushrooms in the underbrush along side a track around Lake Kaniere. A 11 km track, one way. We walked from one end while two girls from Great Britain drove our car and walked from the other end meeting in the middle we switched car keys and drove back to camp. It worked out slick, otherwise it was another 15 km or so walk back to camp or return the way we came.