The East Coast of the South Island

We left a very wet Milford Sound and drove east to the city of Dunedin. Arriving in this Scottish college town (Dunedin is the Gaelic name of Edinburgh) we were surprised to find a warm sunny day. It was as if we had arrived in a different country. Walked around the city all afternoon and came back to our campervan to find a parking ticket. The initial disappointment was replaced with laughter when we saw the amount, $15! Highlight of Dunedin had to be their Public Art Gallery, which was impressive and best of all, FREE.

Only spent a day in Dunedin, then we drove North to Christchurch. Honestly, we were not all that impressed with Christchurch. The most fascinating thing I found was the fluorescent lighting underneath the New Brighton pier, which I took a few photos of. The surrounding landscape wasn’t all that dramatic (flat) and for all intensive purposes it looked as if it could have been an uninteresting city located in the Mid West of America. Plus, we had another crappy coffee in a café (I shall not name) that Lonely Planet had deemed ‘doles out seriously good coffee to loyal locals’. Poppycock I say! Such a pathetic cup of coffee!! I vehemently swore to Veronica that we would never take another culinary recommendation from those Lonely Wankers, who are apparently devoid of taste buds. To add insult to injury, the day was miserable, complete with a freezing rain that made walking around not too desirable. We found refuge in the City Library, which was quite nice and warm, and which offered free wifi. So, despite the terrible, overpriced java and the crap weather, the day wasn’t a complete waste.

The last stop of our South Island odyssey was the small town of Kaikoura, about a two-hour drive North of Christchurch. I had such high hopes for Kaikoura, a beautiful little town on the sea that is shadowed by a gorgeous mountain range. The town, known for the plethora of whales and dolphins that routinely swim close to it’s shores, is also known for two epic point breaks that deliver world-class surf. Unfortunately, a lack of swell and a perpetual, unabating cold rain dashed all hope of doing anything fun. The entire time we were relegated to finding a dry, warm place to kill time. Not even our good old standby of the library was an option as Kaikoura had a broom closet for space, which was made worse since it was devoid of any interesting material (or Wifi). It wasn’t all boring as we did get to see some seals up close, and we did go see a movie at the old fashioned movie theater in town that had no heating (burr).

If it sounds like these last 3 places were a bit boring, well, you would be correct. If we had good weather in Kaikoura it would have been completely different, but it wasn’t. Highlights of the South Island for us were certainly Franz Joseph and Milford Sound. Traveling, as with life, is all about taking the good with the bad.