The Southern End of South Island

From Fiordland we drove to Invercargill, capital of the state of Southland, to purchase an international calling plan for our cellphone. We bought a 2degrees sim card when we arrived in New Zealand and the only 2degrees store on the south end of the South Island was in Invercargill. We found the store, bought an international plan with 300 minutes and headed to Oreti Beach Holiday Park 10 km (6 mi) west of the city. 

Oreti Beach Holiday Park

South Island, West Coast: Kohaihai to Monro Beach

From Little Wanganui, we headed north to the Department of Conservation (DOC) office in Karamea to get a map of Kahurangi, New Zealand’s second largest national park. We wanted to day-hike the lower end of the Heaphy Track along the Tasman Sea. The Heaphy is one of New Zealand’s Great Walks (4-5 days from Karamea to Golden Bay, north of Abel Tasman National Park). According to a sign at the trailhead, Charles Heaphy, a European explorer, was guided down the West Coast by Kehu, his Māori guide, in 1846. We stayed at Kohaihai, a DOC campground at the northern end of the Karamea- Kohaihai Road. It was small and undeveloped, but had toilets and potable water and cost $6 NZD per night. The campground was mostly empty and our spot had a view of the Tasman Sea out the back windows. The sandy beach behind us was steep, not very wide, and littered with weathered tree trunks.

Our caravan at Kohaihai campground

Little Wanganui and the Whitebait

The drive north from Westport along the Tasman Sea was spectacular. Forest-covered mountains spill down to a narrow coastal plain of pasturelands. The forested hills are filled with fern trees; everything is green and wet. Lots of mud; people wear rubber boots here. The road left the coast and climbed a small mountain; another narrow, twisty, wet road that I had to drive with both hands on the wheel. On some of the curves and bridges, we had less than 0.6 m (2 ft) on either side of the caravan. Amazingly, 20-wheel commercial trucks with double trailers navigate the one-lane bridges and one-lane blind curves (with stop lights no less!) carved out of the mountainside.

Karamea Highway along the Tasman Sea south of Little Wanganui

N Zed – The Beginning

Our plan was to spend five weeks circumnavigating the South Island of New Zealand in a campervan (known as a caravan in Australia and New Zealand). We’ve always gone camping, backpacking in our younger days and, more recently, out of the back of a four-wheel drive pickup on federal lands around the western U.S. New Zealand would be our first long trip in an RV as a test, not of our marriage, but of whether we’d like to own one ourselves. We arrived in Christchurch at midnight. Immigration was automated: scan your passport, answer a couple of questions, drop your incoming visitor card in a box welcome to New Zealand. Customs officers asked us questions about food and x-rayed our bags. A female officer asked if her beagle could sniff us and our luggage for fresh fruit; the dog tried to climb into Rande’s purse. She had an empty plastic bag that had carried apples and bananas, which we had eaten before we arrived. Outside the terminal, we caught the shuttle to the Sudima, a large, upscale hotel near the airport and fell into bed.

Mercedes caravan hooked up to electricity in a caravan park