The Great Southern Tour : The Report

Well we are back from the our tour of the south of the South Island and our first experience with a caravan (and the lifestyle that goes with it) .  Overall, Leigh and I agreed that we had a great time and really enjoyed our trip but before I get to a few of the stories, first some facts:

• 4853 km travelled
• The farthest from home: 699 km (in a straight line)
• It was the coldest December in 60 years (yes very)
• Caravan year of manufacture: 1976
• Number of sunny days: 1 (one)  
• First Purchase on the road: heater
• Numberof  sun screen applications: 1 (one)
• Number of flat tyres on the caravan:1

So you can see that the WX dominated our holiday with very very cold and wet southerly winds.  Down in those parts, there is nothing between you and the wind coming off Antarctica.  You can feel it ….. However, this just made for a less beach oriented trip with more time tramping and touring.  Interestingly out of the 16 days (and all the wild wx) we only got rained on once or twice when we wanted to do something and we just wore lots of layers.  In fact we wore more clothes on the summer holiday than we generally wear in the winter here in Nelson.  Strange but true. 

We agree that there was no single highlight, we saw and did some very interesting things.  The rainforests of the Catlins were very impressive as was the drive from Te Anau to Milford.  As you can see from the number of kms travelled we drove up a lot of back roads and had a good look around at a part of the country that not many get to see.   On thing we really enjoyed was the towns south of CHCH that we stopped in. Invercargill is a lovely city, with huge wide streets, lots of art and a general feel of a community that is pulling together. There were lots of reserves and domains and native bush that we wandered through.  Very GREEN and lush. 

Pulling the caravan was really no hassel, as we seemed to be either going against the flow of trafffic or were on the road when traffic was light.  The old Nissan did a great job and never missed a beat.  Manouvering around some of the camp sites was a bit hairy but we got it done.  I was very aware of the potential to hold up traffic so we made sure that we pulled over or got out of the way regularly. 

Would we do it again?  Yes but with a couple of changes.  First the low point was sharing toilet and showers with the unwashed masses.  We decided that we do not actually like people.  Any caravan or motor home would need to be self contained in that respect.  Second the need to “plug in” at a powered site limited our options and meant we were in the densest part of the campsite.  Not having to be attached would make a huge difference.  We noticed that there are people who just like to be part of a herd.  We are not that sort of people. 

Pictures…. well I took a bunch with the new camera (panasonic 12x optical zoom 6mp blab blah ) and now that I’ve figured out how to reduce the size to something managable for dail up, I’ll load a few up into the gallary. 

Any questions?