Travel: New Zealand
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parent_in_west:
Glad to be of some helpDnls_mum,
Thanks for the detailed sharing! Will definitely be useful for me as I hope to go to NZ with my kids at year-end!
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Thanks Dnls mum for your info too. I am looking forward to your next instalment on your trip info. Sounds interesting for our next visit to NZ, maybe in a few years time.
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Trip Review (Part 4 -Final)
Day 12:
We went back to Baldwin Street on the way out of Dunedin to get the “I climbed the world’s steepest street “ certificates for our boys. Then off we went to see the Moeraki Boulders at Oamaru These were round boulders along the beach. No one knows how these spherical boulders ended up on the beach.
We had lunch at Riverstone Kitchen at Oamaru. It was an excellent restaurant ran by award winning chef. They serve the veg that they grow. There was a wonderful playground outside the restaurant with a castle feature and flying fox. The kids had a whale of a time at the playground while we waited for our food. The gift shop is not one shop, but a row of shops with the exterior made to look like an old cowboy town, there’s a jail, a court house, even a graveyard outside. A thoroughly delightful place; great food at reasonable price, a place to play and to browse, too.
Next stop is Duntroon to see the Elephant Rocks, the place where they filmed Aslan’s camp in the movie, Nania, the Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. We were the only people there and the whole place gives this eerie feeling…cool! :nailbite:
We finally arrived at Mt Cook after many stops along the way for photos. We were lucky that we could catch a great view of Mt Cook at Lake Pukaki on the way up Mt Cook. Mt Cook is covered by clouds more than 30% of the time. We had booked a premium room at the Hermitage Hotel and had a great view of Mt Cook from the panoramic window in our room! It was beautiful.
Dinner that night was at the award winning Panorama restaurant of the Hermitage Hotel. Service was appalling and food was not great. What a disappointment!
Day 13:
We went on the Glacier Explorer Tour this morning. The tour took us on a boat trip on the Tasman lake to see the icebergs that have separated from the Tasman Glacier. We also had a closeup look of the Glacier from the lake. It was an interesting trip for the kids, especially our older boys. To be able to touch the icebergs and see the various layers of ice formations, even picking of a piece of ice from the iceberg and eating it!
Back from the tour, we decided to have lunch at the only restaurant that is not part of the Hermitage, the Old Mountaineer’s Café. Food was quite good, and price slightly lower than at the Hermitage. The café is decorated with old mountaineering gear, quite interesting. It also has a good view of MT Cook.
After lunch, we went to the Sir Edmund Hillary Alpine Museum and watched the planetarium shows and the Mt Cook 3D movie. The 3D movie should not be missed. It gives the view of the mountain from a mountaineer’s perspective.
Dinner was at the Alpine Restaurant, the buffet restaurant at the Hermitage. Again a disappointment … the rice of the sushi was half cooked, and salmon sashimi was more like smoked salmon! All that at the cost of NZD62 per adult!
The view at the Hermitage Hotel is excellent and we paid almost NZD500 per room per night! It is wonderful to wake up with the mountain right in front of you. Even my 5yo enjoyed just sitting by the window and looking out. As Mt Cook is constantly covered by clouds, staying 2 nights gave us a good chance to catch the mountain in a clear sky. Frankly, go there only for the view, service and food leaves much to be desired. Only the service at Sir Edmund Hillary Alpine Centre was good.
Day 14:
We head back to Christchurch today. We headed to Mt John Observatory this morning for a birds eye view of Lake Pukaki. The drive was longer than expected. The GPS only showed half the distance, as he rest was private road! It was worth the one hour drive up and down. Beautiful view again. The café there was nice too and we stopped for morning coffee.
Next stop was Church of the Good Shepherd, a tiny stone church by Lake Tekapo. The window from the alter of the church afford a magnificent view of the lake. Of all the beautiful places we visited on the trip, this place must take top spot! :love:
I had read about a good Japanese restaurant, Kohan at Lake Tekapo. After 2 disappointing encounter in NZ so far, I was not prepared to write off Jap restaurants, and decided to give Kohan a try. We did not regret it. The sashimi is fresh and food tasted great. On top of that, most efficient Japanese service! The restaurant is also situated by Lake Tekapo, and affords a good view of the lake from the window. This is a must go restaurant if you are at Lake Tekapo. Price is reasonable too. :rahrah:
After lunch, it was non-stop 3 hour drive to Christchurch. We had booked a 4.30pm Kiwi tour, Ko Tane show and dinner at Willowbank Reserve. We arrived at Willowbank at 4pm, spent a little time on our own walking around before starting our guided tour of the natural NZ section. We were introduced to native NZ animals and of course, the Kiwi! After the guided tour, we gathered for the Ko Tane (Maori show). It was most interesting and was very interactive. We were all able to participate. Great fun for the whole family. All this rounded off with a traditional Hangi meal. What better way to end our trip to NZ before we fly back home the next day!
The End
Hope my trip report will help anyone planning a visit to South Island New Zealand.
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JR:
Thanks Dnls mum for your info too. I am looking forward to your next instalment on your trip info. Sounds interesting for our next visit to NZ, maybe in a few years time.
Most welcome JR!
Just curious, did you find things in NZ expensive? :moneyflies: I find the admission prices quite ex for the things they offer. Fortunately for us we could save by getting family packages whenever these were available. -
Dnls_mum:
Yes, admission prices are quite expensive. But what to do, since we are there, have to spend :roll: For us, most of the stuff are already prebooked by our NZ tour planner, and paid upfront, so we don't really feel the pinch. Just show the voucher and we are admitted...Same for the motels and car rental. But the petrol and diesel prices are more expensive than Singapore...JR:
Thanks Dnls mum for your info too. I am looking forward to your next instalment on your trip info. Sounds interesting for our next visit to NZ, maybe in a few years time.
Most welcome JR!
Just curious, did you find things in NZ expensive? :moneyflies: I find the admission prices quite ex for the things they offer. Fortunately for us we could save by getting family packages whenever these were available.
Your info will serve as a guide when we next think of visiting South Island. Thanks for the details. Are there any place/activity which you had plan to do but didn't get to do? -
JR:
Yes, admission prices are quite expensive. But what to do, since we are there, have to spend :roll: For us, most of the stuff are already prebooked by our NZ tour planner, and paid upfront, so we don't really feel the pinch. Just show the voucher and we are admitted...Same for the motels and car rental. But the petrol and diesel prices are more expensive than Singapore...Dnls_mum:
[quote=\"JR\"]Thanks Dnls mum for your info too. I am looking forward to your next instalment on your trip info. Sounds interesting for our next visit to NZ, maybe in a few years time.
Most welcome JR!
Just curious, did you find things in NZ expensive? :moneyflies: I find the admission prices quite ex for the things they offer. Fortunately for us we could save by getting family packages whenever these were available.
Your info will serve as a guide when we next think of visiting South Island. Thanks for the details. Are there any place/activity which you had plan to do but didn't get to do?[/quote]We did everything that we planned except watching a movie at cinema paradiso at Wanaka, and that is because we didn't like the movie that they were screening rather than timing issue. The cinema is suppose to be fun with couches and you take your time for dinner during intermission.
Driving time in SI is pretty long due to narrow windy roads and single lane bridges. But we had done our research and were prepared so the trip was leisurely and not rushed. But there are things I may do differently on hindsight. One of the main one is perhaps to stay one night in Mt Cook instead of 2, and drive to Lake Tekapo on day 13 after our Glacier Explorer tour. This will mean a shorter drive on day 14, and we could perhaps arrive at Willowbank earlier for the kids to spend more time feeding animals. Accomodation at Tekapo is also only a fraction of the cost of staying in Hermitage at Mti Cook and there are better and cheaper dining options at Tekapo. In addition, you can take the Earth and Sky tour at night at Tekapo for star gazing. But there will be a risk of not seeing Mt Cook which may be covered un clouds. Staying 2 nights at Mt Cook ensured that we have a better chance of catching Mt Cook in a clear sky. -
Now that you mentioned single-lane bridges. I don’t understand why they can’t just build a wider bridge in the first place since the road before and after the road is already 2 lanes? Can’t figure that out… But anyway, there are many such bridges in NI too. Most of the time, it is clear to cross, just have to be careful of traffic on the other side of the bridge.
Dnls mum,
Just curious, did you use the Kruze system while you are in NZ? If you did, any comments on it? If not, why kind of GPS did you use? Both you and your husband drove? What car did you drive when you were in NZ?
Noticed that your itinerary did not include Te Anau which I heard has nice scenary too. I suppose it is due to lack of time? -
JR:
Hi JRNow that you mentioned single-lane bridges. I don't understand why they can't just build a wider bridge in the first place since the road before and after the road is already 2 lanes? Can't figure that out... But anyway, there are many such bridges in NI too. Most of the time, it is clear to cross, just have to be careful of traffic on the other side of the bridge.
Dnls mum,
Just curious, did you use the Kruze system while you are in NZ? If you did, any comments on it? If not, why kind of GPS did you use? Both you and your husband drove? What car did you drive when you were in NZ?
Noticed that your itinerary did not include Te Anau which I heard has nice scenary too. I suppose it is due to lack of time?
I think the reason for single lane bridges is that they are easier and less technically demanding. Building dual lane bridges will require the bridges o be able to sustain more weight...just my guess.
As for the GPS, we used the one provided by Apex Car Rental. Not sure what brand that is. Only my husband did the driving. That's why we tried to stay 2 days at a place so that he does not need to drive long distances or rush everyday. We rented the Toyota Previa which was great. We used only the first 2 rows of seats and the third row is put down for more luggage space.
We did go to Te Anau. But instead of driving, we took the BBQ bus from Queenstown to Milford driving via Te Anau, and flew back to Queenstown. It is a small town used as stopover for people going to Milford. Nothing much there. Te Anau is 2 hours from Queenstown and the gateway to Milford Sound. People only visit Te Anau because they are going to Milford. From Te Anau, the drive to Milford via the Milford Road is very scenic and takes another 2 hours. This is also the road with one of the most accidents in SI. I wanted DH to be able to enjoy the trip without stress and also to fly back from Milford to Queenstown, so we took the day tour. But it is definitely much much more expensive then if we were to drive our selves. The flight back to Queenstown was beautiful with views of alpine lakes and snow peaks. If we were to drive back, we'd have missed these. If we drive to Milford, ourselves, we'd would be on the road every other day. With this day trip on a coach, we had 4/5 days of relaxing and enjoyable stay in Queenstown. Another point about driving to Milford is that it'll be advisable to stay one night in Te Anau as it is not possible to do it in one day as we won't be familiar with the roads and the drive in and out is too long. Coach drivers are diff as they are familiar with the roads and they rest while we are on the cruise.
I did the entire trip planning on my own and did lots of research and reading up. So if you have any other questions now or when you start your planning, just ask. I'll help if I can
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Hi Dnls mum,
Thanks for the reply.
If yours is the Kruze system, it has commentary and stories about the place you are at when you are tuned to the radio frequency. I would say that some of the stories told about the place is interesting provided you are interested in the culture and history of NZ.
Sorry, missed out reading your earlier email on Te Anau. Thanks for the details. Like I said earlier, I won't be going back to NZ in at least 2 years. So this thread will be in KIV until then... The world is such a big place. So much to explore.
It must have been tough on your dh doing all the driving. :salute:
Same here, if you are interested in visiting NZ, feel free to ask and hopefully I can help. -
JR:
The Apex guy never mentioned anything about commentary so ours must be a diff system. Didn't know there was such a system with commentary. Looks like my research not SP thorough after allHi Dnls mum,
Thanks for the reply.
If yours is the Kruze system, it has commentary and stories about the place you are at when you are tuned to the radio frequency. I would say that some of the stories told about the place is interesting provided you are interested in the culture and history of NZ.
Sorry, missed out reading your earlier email on Te Anau. Thanks for the details. Like I said earlier, I won't be going back to NZ in at least 2 years. So this thread will be in KIV until then... The world is such a big place. So much to explore.
It must have been tough on your dh doing all the driving. :salute:
Same here, if you are interested in visiting NZ, feel free to ask and hopefully I can help.
:slapshead:
Where did you get that system? Included in the package or did you have to specifically ask for it? Which rental co did you use?
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