Vital Statistics

Brrr, it’s chilly back home.  We left Picton in sunshine on Friday and now home we have the heating on, we’re dressed in warm trousers and woolly jumpers, and our feet are clad in warm socks and slippers. Did we mention we had to switch the electric blanket on to warm the bed last night?  

While we were down south we had 96 nights away, and stayed at 50 different overnight locations.  These ranged from motor camps, NZMCA properties, domains, pubs, park over properties, several A & P grounds and race courses, two farm properties, a chestnut orchard, a car sales yard, and a truck stop.  All these overnight stays had a fee attached, which varied from $4 a night to about $35 a night.  (We stayed away from the really expensive camps).  Many charged extra for showers.  And we very bravely tried “freedom camping” just twice.  Once on the banks of the Tekapo Canal in the middle of nowhere, where it was a beautiful  peaceful but rather chilly night with the stars shining bright in the sky.  Our second freedom camping adventure and was as the quaintly named Monkey Island on the beach front.  Here the winds were fierce but the setting was delightful, and we could just imagine how popular this spot would be in the middle of summer.

Washing blowing in the sea breezes at Monkey Island

Our Toyota Land Cruiser towed the caravan 3973km around the South Island, and then we drove a staggering 3413km without the caravan on the back,  tiki touring around.  A grand total of 7386kms for the trip, and we used 1417 litres of diesel.  And all this travelling cost us $2292.17 and our fuel consumption averaged out at approx 18 litres per 100 kilometres.

Travelling over Benmore Dam

An unexpected cost was replacing the two caravan house batteries, and we were told that our reasonably new batteries which were bought less than twelve months ago were not the correct type for our usage.  These batteries have been carried all around the South Island and brought home (instead of being discarded) (120kg) and Robin plans to take them back to the supplier and get a refund.  While  new batteries were being fitted, Robin took the opportunity to replace the tail lights with LEDs.  This extra expense added $1178 to our travel costs.  Dot and Derek also had battery problems and while we waited a couple of extra days for the delivery truck, we had the most glorious views over Lake Hawea which also included impromptu aerial displays for Wings over Wanaka show.

Sunset at Lake Hawea

Exploring towns and visiting attractions was made easy with my well used collection of books.  My book “Explore New Zealand” was invaluable, is full of  facts and figures en route and lists all sorts of interesting points of interest to stop and investigate.

My most useful and informative book

These other three books were handy to flick through when we planned to stop at different areas, to see what there was worth visiting.  They were all well thumbed through over the duration of our trip.  They were all used religiously, and worth their weight in gold. By far the most useful book was the NZMCA Travel Directory which listed every conceivable place to stay, from DOC sites to motor camps and everything in between.

Three handy books

So as far as travel goes, is it the journey, or the destination?  Both, of course.  Getting there is half the fun, but once on site, there is always interesting local views, attractions, a museum perhaps.  We’ll tell you about some of our favourites next time.