It had been about 11 years since our first amazing adventure to New Zealand where we threw caution to the wind, jumped into a camper and toured the better part of the south island. Needless to say, expectations and eagerness were high to do it all again but you know that thing about best laid plans and ol mate Darwin? Yes, well, they had other ideas.

Losing the first day to camper hire company woes then the whole second week of activities on the west coast to cyclonic winds were a definite set back, battling 100kph winds in a big ol mobile home was not something we wanted to experience, the 60kph ones heading towards Queenstown were bad enough! That aside, with 24/7 access to a kettle and a toilet, the open road was still our oyster.

The country itself certainly never disappoints so rambling text in these entries will be slim but there will, of course, be plenty of photos!

Geraldine
First night we stayed at The Farmyard holiday park in Geraldine. Unbeknownst to us on our previous trip, these working farm holiday parks are easy to come by and are great when travelling with little ones. (Oh, I forget to mention, the biggest difference from the last trip is this time we have two extra little humans in tow!). These farms of course have a bunch of tame animals you can hand feed. We grabbed a couple bags of feed from reception (couple bucks each) and quickly made friends with the locals. Llamas, donkeys and rabbits were a big hit, there were also some rather pushy little pigs and chickens all too eager to nab stray pellets.

Lake Tekapo
We chose to stay at the Lake Tekapo Motel and Holiday park purely for its location, which was pretty much right on the lake (and just down the road from Tekapo Springs ice skating rink). A mere ~100m to have water lapping at my feet was perfect for the pre-dawn struggle to get some sunrise photos.

Thankfully the early rise was worth the effort with the sky turning it on with some beautiful colours and cloud formations.

Lake Tekapo is also home to the NZ dark sky project making it an ideal spot for some astro photography…on clear nights. Added to the “next time” list.

Tekapo Springs is a water, ice and snow park depending on the season, being winter we were keen to check out the snow tubing and the large outdoor ice skating rink. The line for the tubing was long and slow, so ice skating it was! While also quite busy, the wait was minimal.

Travel tip: they do package deals for their attractions

Travel tip: on the way out of Tekapo Springs, stop at the little grocery store for one of the most scenic little flying foxes/ziplines next to the lake.