We so enjoyed our campervan trip to North Island in 2011, that we decided to do another campervan trip of the South Island in 2012.

I specifically remember talking to a Kiwi at the dump station near Taupo. He was driving a huge RV and spoke of his yearly travels around the country. He said North Island is beautiful, but South Island is stunning! Naturally, we had to see for ourselves.

Scott Cook had just published New Zealand Frenzy South Island, we had upgrades on United Airlines, so we were set. Our flights routed us through Sydney so we stayed overnight there on our return.

The planning for South Island became a bit overwhelming. There is so much to see. We opted to just do a “top of the South” trip. I routed us counter clockwise to take advantage of tides and to also put any winery areas at the beginning of the trip.

Our flight arrived just after midnight in Christchurch and it was raining and very cold upon arrival. The temperature had me wondering if I had packed appropriately, since I brought mainly summer clothing. Fortunately, we didn’t have to wait long for the shuttlebus to the hotel. We had a good night’s rest that night.

Breakfast the next morning was at the restaurant downstairs. They had a nice buffet, or you could get your meal cooked to order. I had requested a 9:30am pickup for our campervan. We waited about 15 minutes past the appointed time and asked the front desk to call United Campervans to see about the delay. They told the front desk they don’t do hotel pickups. ??? However, the Copthorne had it’s airport shuttle and they were happy to take us to the campervan depot.

The depot is shared with several other campervan companies and was much more commercial than Kenrick’s home operation in North Island. We got a quick run-through of the camper and took off looking for a grocery store.

Our first stop was in the winery region of Waipara. We stopped at the Waipara Springs Winery, which was lovely. There was a bus in the carpark and the restaurant was full of diners. They had closed off their wine tasting room and we tasted inside the restaurant itself. The lady who served us was very knowledgeable about the wines. We were the only ones there for tasting and it felt very personal, even though the restaurant was full. We enjoyed the wines and bought a few bottles.

We headed to Hanmer Springs which is a pretty little alpine town with a ski field nearby. A short way out of town is the trailhead to Dog Stream Waterfall. It was about a two hour hike with nice views along the way. The waterfall was rather tall and wispy.

We stayed at Top 10 Campground and it was probably the fullest of any we went to, but very nice and would recommend highly. We had a couple of problems with the campervan. First, our toilet would not flush. We put a call in to United and they made an appointment for us to see the local mechanic first thing in the morning.

The other problem came later that night. Our bedding for the double mattress was for a single bed – it was too small. We had to cuddle rather close to keep the covers on us.

The Adventure Continues>>>