Portrait of a family roadtrip
Braden fastier takes his family around the South island in a vw camper, in homage to a similar trip he made with his parents when he was a boy. Fresh eyes show him there’ s still much more to see.
Iwas 7 when my parents took our family on a three-month road trip around North America in a Volkswagen Westfalia campervan. And when I finished high school I bought my first car, a 1966 VW kombi T1.
A few more Volkswagens later, I found myself planning a holiday in a new Volkswagen Grand California with my own family, including daughters Louisa, 5, and Zofia, 7 – the same age I was on that epic journey.
Our aim was to visit places we had missed or overlooked on previous South Island trips, since our return to New Zealand in 2016, concentrating on areas around the West Coast, Milford Sound, The Catlins, Banks Peninsula, and avoiding the major centres to concentrate on the finer points of our backyard.
So we packed up the family and a few too many belongings and hit the road in a really capable, tidy campervan from VW.
The finish of the interior is similar to amodern aircraft cabin, but you don’t have to share the space with a lot of other people.
It was a bit tight, and we did have to rearrange things to create the dining space, and for the girls to retire at bedtime, but to those well versed in the art of travelling in a camper, there’s an art to making it work well.
We live in Nelson, so the first part of the journey was to get out of our own patch and straight into some new adventures.
The top of the West Coast was the first call with the truly magnificent pa¯rara Basin Arches. The scale of the natural arches is amazing, and the surrounding bush, rivers and walkways are beautiful.
We had to hire a small vehicle to go up the narrow, winding road, as campervans are not permitted, and we spent the night at the sandflyfriendly Ko¯haihai Shelter.
We took three days to travel the more than 1000km to Milford Sound, with stops at the Pororari River Track, and a beach near Hokitika for some greenstone spotting.
Zofia is obsessed with rocks, stones and gems, so the latter was a must.
There was another sleep stop at Wa¯naka, then we were on our way to Te nau to use as our base for two nights from which to launch our Milford offensive.
Milford is one of New Zealand’s great destinations. Its staggering vertical mountains rise from sea level to upwards of 1256metres (The Lions) from as little as 500m.
We pretty much had the place to ourselves as international visitors are scarce, and not many Kiwis can find time for a mid week jaunt to Milford. As for being one of the world’s wettest places, it was the first of many days of sunshine for us.
Then it was on to The Catlins, one of the country’s best-kept secrets, through the southern coastal regions of Southland.
¯A After a stunning night at Fortrose, The Catlins lived up to its reputation, with lighthouses, seals, seabirds, and magical Hector’s dolphins. We weren’t sure if we would see them, but there, surfing in the waves in front of us, was a pod of the playful marine mammals.
Dunedin ismy hometown and I had been longing to spend time getting to know the city again with the family.
We took a ride on the Taieri Gorge railway, we drank good coffee, the girls had a play on the scooters at the skatepark, and we explored the street art.
Heading north, Warrington Beach seemed like a good place to ease back from the asphalt and concrete of the past two nights, then it was on to Moeraki Boulders, which we never tire of. Louise and Zofia enjoyed playing around the rocks at low tide on the relatively calm and sunny day.
Oamaru, with its famed historic precinct, was the perfect backdrop to get a few photos with the
camper, and explore the giant waterfront playground, followed by amidday refuel of the southern delicacy, cheese rolls. Mmm...
Another great place that’s off the beaten track is the Waihora Park reserve, at the base of Banks Peninsula, complete with a small playground, and the Motukarara Raceway so the girls could watch horses training in the morning.
We explored Orton Bradley Park, which I found on social media, with a really cool red door in the middle of the forest. It was a bit hard to find but the girls enjoyed the reward of an adventure playground to hang out in.
Then we whisked through Christchurch to the seaside haven of Kaikōura, where the Louisa and Zofia explored the rock pools and saw the seals.
Thanks to the local ranger waking us up early, we saw the sunrise over the Pacific Ocean for our last day of the trip.
I realised that the list of places to revisit is longer than the list of places we did visit. So we can’t wait for next year, for another episode of the annual, magnificent, South Island Road Trip.
The Fastier family travelled in the vw grand California 600 courtesy of Volkswagen New Zealand. Everything else, including fuel, food, and bookings were paid for by the writer.