Road Remarks – Lake Tekapo to Queenstown

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257 kilometres sounds like a relatively short drive, but this leg is full of interesting stopping points and amazing scenery. If the leg from Christchurch were to lull us into a sense of complacency about the roads, this leg is the wake-up call.

The first stage to Twizel is straightforward – and I recommend a stop in Twizel if you need a break. We stopped in at Shawty’s Café there and had a great coffee, something that is rare in any Australian town of around 1000 people.

If you have kids you’ll be pleased to find the mall where Shawty’s is located – and by mall I mean a wide open space with foot traffic only and a great playground where the Junior Grendels got to burn off some excess energy.

Back on the road you continue south towards Omarama and you start to feel as if you really are leaving the farming country. Crossing into the mountain range south of Mount Melina you pass the turnoff to Wanaka and drive along Lake Dunstan to Cromwell – where we stopped for lunch. Another small town along the route, it was Cromwell where we first noticed the Thai thing.

New Zealand seems to love Thai food and every town we passed through seemed to have at the very least a Thai restaurant, and so it was in Cromwell where we sat in another mall eating Thai in another small town – and it was good.

The pace we took this leg was leisurely – as you might guess from the stops I have mentioned already. After Cromwell you enter the Kawarau Gorge where the more challenging driving begins – the traffic speed advisory signs are worth paying attention to!

For the whole trip in New Zealand I decided that it was better to pull over and allow others to pass rather than try and drive faster in order to accommodate the signed maximum speed limit. This was a whole lot easier – and on the South Island there was not much traffic in any case.

The Kawarau Gorge Rd becomes the Gibbston Highway and the road opens out a little to lush dairy and wine country – naturally we had to stop at a Winery/Cheesery in the Gibbston valley and sample the local produce. It was well worth the effort but I was surprised at times in New Zealand just how hard it was to find some types of cheese - sharp cheddars in particular.

From Gibbston it is a relatively smooth drive through to Queenstown where we spent four very enjoyable days alternating between snow and lake activities.

Road Remarks (Part Three) will cover Queenstown to Fox Glacier

Road Remarks (Part One) - Christchurch to Lake Tekapo

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I would highly recommend this drive as a great way to get accustomed to New Zealand driving conditions. At around 230 km it will take at least three and a half hours with rest breaks and I'd actually recommend that you plan for a little more time for scenic stops as well.

Christchurch is a gem of a city located at the Eastern edge of the Canterbury plain. Leaving Christchuch you get your first glimpse of the magnificent Southern Alps and these will be your constant companion on the trip South.

The first large braided river that you cross, the Rakaia River, amazed the Junior Grendels and warned us that bridges in New Zealand are narrow, and often long. Most highway roads were single carriageways, well surfaced and with good warning signs. A little hint for the tourist - pay attention to the speed advisories. I found them to be an accurate guide for anyone unfamiliar with the road, although you do need to adjust for conditions.

The road from Christchurch to Tekapo is a good place to learn this as the road is mostly straight with gentle curves but a few sharp slow turns to educate you.

The views are stunning as you shift from open plains to rolling green hills, 'aussie mountains' (foothills) and finally the grand peaks of the Southern Alps. There are some good places to stop for breaks including Ashburton where I can recommend 'Lunch' on 160 Burnett Street. It was here that we first discovered the joyful fact that many New Zealand cafes have toilets, which was something we are not used to in Australia and very handy when you have children.

From Ashburton the road continues to the South West until you reach Geraldine where you turn West to thread the valleys through to Fairlie. By this point you are well within the foothills of the Southern Alps and every turn brings a new amazing vista. The best view of all however comes once you have passed through Fairlie and around the Southern end of the Richmond Range. Here, at an altitude of 700 metres above sea level is Lake Tekapo.

Tekapo marked the end of our first day's drive and really is also a transition point in the style of country you can expect. From this point there is very little open plains driving - once you have travelled beyond Omarama you head deeper and deeper into the mountains, and while it is a beautiful drive, caution is required.


Road Remarks (Part Two) will cover Tekapo to Queenstown

Too convenient

Our arrival in Christchurch is late at night and rather than attempt a bleary-eyed signing of car rental papers we are taking a taxi to our hotel and then heading out in the morning to pick up the car. I had also had thoughts of popping in to at least one of the coffee roasteries that I wanted to visit on the way to or from the car pickup.

By some stroke of happy fate one of those - C4 is just a few metres from the car rental HQ!

I am sure both the coffee roastery and the car rental agency will excel themselves in service and quality, however the rather devious thought has crossed my mind to call the car company to ask about the coffee and call the coffee company to ask about the car rental mob.

I think that Mrs Grendel and the two Junior Grendels will be recovering in the hotel when I head out for the car, so at least if I get lost they won't share the frustrations - still one way or the other I should be able to get a car and a coffee with less than 100 metres to stroll!

And if that wasn't enough it is only 200 metres from the OTHER cafe/roastery on my list to visit - the amazing Coffee Supreme! I understand they have been renovating a place on Madras street and with any luck it will be open and operating when I whizz through downtown Christchurch.

Doing the 'Right Thing'

One of the things I remember from my last trip to New Zealand was the utter panic that took hold when my passenger suddenly informed me that in order to make the right hand turn I wanted to make I should be over on the left-hand side of the road.

What the!?!!!

Yup, it confused me to say the least - turning right from the left hand lane did not seem like the sane option to a teenager taught to drive on Brisbane's roads.

Now I understand the rationale - you go right but give way to EVERYONE else to do so - even the traffic behind you, and this is quite logical when you have cities with narrow roads and few right-turn lanes as you need to keep the traffic flowing.



From what I can see this is now the basic rule - it it will block the road to turn right then you wait on the left till traffic clears, but in most other circumstances you can turn right FROM the right lane.

Still trying to figure out why people turning left have to give way to people turning right though. . .