Campervan

We handed back the hire car and arrived at the campervan site raring to go but it was not quite as easy as that! Firstly we needed to view the DVD describing all of the features and then the customer advisor ran through most of them again. Actually it was time very well spent since there are a bewildering array of features including TV, DVD player, microwave and gas barbecue! Amazing!
So off we set with some trepidation since it turned out to be quite large at 7.2 metres long but very soon we were happily travelling at a reasonably speed along very good and mainly flat roads. We headed south from Christchurch through Geraldine and Fairlie and on to Lake Tekapo where we checked in to a good campsite on the edge of the lake.
By now it was time to crack open the Cloudy Bay and get going with the prawns on the gas barbeque, to be added to the salad, new potatoes and avo number 5.
We woke up to an amazing rainbow which was very odd because we couldn’t see any clouds or rain at that stage! The lovely lady wife became a gourmet campervan chef by serving up the most excellent scrambled eggs for breakfast. Lovely walk around the lake in the morning before we left with stunning scenery all round, made even more impressive by the clouds coming and going on the mountains..
Tekapo is a glacial lake and is the most beautiful blue/grey colour which is apparently caused by tiny granite particles suspended in the water
Headed off to Lake Pukaki which is even larger than Tekapo and a similar colour. The views from the Mount Cook viewpoint were spectacular but Mount Cook was mainly shrouded in cloud.
Coffee in Twizel before heading over the Lindis pass towards Tarras and Cromwell. Stopped for lunch by Lake Dunstan near Bendigo where we enjoyed watching the wildfowl and just soaking up the scenery. We are now very much in Lord of the Rings territory and our newly acquired detailed map of the southern alps features most of the filming locations.
Very high winds today and we noticed this driving since the section between Tekapo and Pukaki in particular was a large, flat and open plateau and the campervan is hardly aerodynamic.
At the southern end of Lake Dunstan is a small town called Cromwell and we have checked into the campsite here for the night. The lovely lady wife is already an accomplished HGV driver and has just reversed our 7.2M vehicle perfectly into our space at the camping site!! I have been demoted to navigator second class.
A long walk around the town including the old gold mining area, a quick shower and now it’s time to get the gas barbeque going again. Steak tonight!