Chapter 10: Escape to the South (part 1)
Lake Tekapo, Oamaru, Dunedin, Papatowai and Gore, Aotearoa December 1-6
Recharged in Christchurch, equipped with an Escape camper van, we began our journey to the rest of the South Island.
Friday, December 1, 2023
In the morning we finished our “intermission activities,” including picking up our van. In the afternoon, we packed up our vehicles with groceries and all our possessions and headed to Lake Tekapo.
We arrived around 7:30 pm. By this time, we'd gotten decently south, so it was still quite light out. Since I had the last (long) shift driving, I drank a glass of gin overlooking the lake. Cam prepared dinner, and we ate while taking in the natural beauty. Walking around, one thing that stood out was how many lupin there were! The place was adorned with purples, pinks and blues. It was sparsely populated at this hour and a bit windy. As the day grew darker, we headed to our freedom campsite just twenty minutes away and packed up for the night.
Freedom camping is the Aotearoa equivalent of BLM (Bureau of Land Management) in the US. It’s a minimalist type of campsite that requires no money or reservations. Usually, this means that they are less maintained and require you to be self-contained (i.e. water management and BYO bathroom). Our freedom campsite came with a toilet area, which is rare. Otherwise, it was more or less a spot off the road with several vans and RVs.
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Saturday, December 2, 2023
We made breakfast at our campsite before heading into the town of Lake Tekapo around 10:15 am. After we parked in town by the lake, we used some very high tech bathrooms.
New Zealand has public facilities from the future: you press a green flashing button to lock the door, changing the light to red. Locking the door “engages” the toilet, where a disembodied voice alerts you that you have 10 minutes of use before playing soothing nature sounds (featuring whales). Their automatic handwashing stations are the envy of Dyson. Unlocking the facility automatically flushes the toilet to promote cleanliness. All this high technology is usually juxtaposed against minimally disturbed natural beauty. These facilities are everywhere around this country.
In the surrounding lawn by the lake, we found an art exhibition. We liked the bronze face sculptures and wood carvings. Just above this area, we shared a cup of Earl Grey tea and planned the next few destinations of our trip, making use of Camille’s freshly bought, pink Moleskine notebook. After drawing plans, we booked our campsites for the next few nights.
Having taken in our fill of the lake and artwork, we left Tekapo for Lake Pukaki. It was also quite a stunning view.
Since we had access to a full kitchen from the back of our van, Cam prepared a proper British tea time for us to enjoy at a table overlooking the lake. While we were eating, a British guy jokingly asked what we were charging for lunch. I was especially charmed by his jealous exasperation when we told him our PB&J sandwiches were accompanied by black tea.
Our lake time over for now, we drove through green New Zealand mountain ranges, past Maori rock drawings, until we reached the ocean. We took a short detour to the town of Oamaru, a place full of Victorian whitestone architecture, to find that most things were closed. We did find one open shop: A Belgian brewery. Walking into the shop felt like being transported to the 1870s. We enjoyed the local beer and cheese amid the neo-Victorian art and decor. We were enamored with this mostly closed town and decided to make more time for it the following day.
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We drove 30 minutes to our DOC site in Glencoe and concluded our day. We had curry for dinner, drank red wine, and read.
Sunday, December 3, 2023
We backtracked our route and arrived at Oamaru around 10:15 am, right at the peak of their morning farmer’s market. It was super, super windy when we arrived, yet sunny and full of sea breeze. At the market, I had my first cheese roll – a South Island delicacy. A cheese roll is just cheese wrapped in white bread cooked in butter. This one, however, featured cheese from the local factory. When getting introduced to something, best to try the nice version.
Past the farmers’ market, we returned to the whitestone stretch of town that was closed the previous day. To our delight, everything was open – except for the bar that we went to the day prior! We got a few espresso drinks and a treat at a cozy cafe to take in the place. Walking around, we noticed that the area was full of steampunk style shops and museums. For example, there was a bakery we visited with a neo-Victorian style (we picked up some beautiful black rye sourdough).
We discovered there was a whole steampunk museum there. We spend a decent part of the morning checking steampunk art and exhibits there. I had mixed feelings about it. The overall aesthetic was cool, however my main critique is that it was steampunk in style only. The interactivity of the art didn’t involve mechanical sophistication, but digital enhancement. For example, there were a lot of buttons that you pressed that played audio recordings and altered images from a projector – entirely digital wonders. The magic of steampunk, to me, was not found at the steampunk museum. The highlight of the museum – a “portal” – seemed more like a 1990s enchantment rather than the 1890s. Most disappointing of all, most of the exhibits were broken. Cam noticed the most magical element of the museum of all: A bird's nest and baby chick in the corner of the outside exhibit area.
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All throughout our visits to shops and museums, it continued to be very, very windy. This helped us decide that we’ve spent enough time in Oamaru. We picked up some more groceries on our way out of town and headed for Dunedin.
Along the way, we stopped to visit the Moeraki Boulders. We almost didn’t stop, but we’re glad that we did. These strange round stones protruding from the beach seemed to be on their way to the teal blue ocean. Were they taking their time to the sea, like turtles moving at a geological pace? Only the successor human species will be able to tell.
We arrived in the holiday park & camp in Dunedin, a 30 minute walk into town. I felt the occasion to take Camille on a nice date, so I showered and dressed up. We sauntered into Dunedin’s downtown to dine in a nice sit-down Turkish restaurant. We split a two person sampler, a Coke and a raki. What a cute gal I’ve got!
Monday, December 4, 2023
We started our day in Dunedin by trying to find a parking spot in town. We lucked into one in the city center after driving up and down steep, hectic streets. Believe me, reader: it was a nail biter.
We walked around in search of breakfast until we happened upon a hip café. We were really excited to drink a batch brew (American style drip coffee). While we ate, we noticed the baristas struggling to make it. The person literally worked through three failed pots of coffee before I walked down and switched our order to espresso drinks. What’s the point of all-you-can drink coffee if you only have time for one cup?
Amid our morning meal, Cam and I happened to get into contact with a friend we’d made when Camille studied at University of Waikato ten years ago – Ralph Lam. We figured that we’d start to make plans to visit old friends as we made our way up to the North Island later on our visit. Little did we know that Ralph was currently living in Dunedin! We made plans to get dinner together in the evening once he got off work. We were waffling about how much time to spend in the city, and this decided the matter for us.
Around the corner was Speight’s Brewery – their original factory and production site for all of the South Island. Speight’s is the “default beer” of New Zealand’s South Island. A project of Scottish immigrants in the 1800s, it is famous for quenching, drinkable ales. You can think of it as the Sam Adams of Aotearoa. Freshly full of breakfast and needing to kill time, we figured it was beer o’clock.
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When we walked in, we found out we were 15 minutes late for the noon brewery tour – the next one was in two hours! We ended up joining late and got the spark notes version of the history of the brewery, which we were fine with. The rest of the hour tour was the fun part where we got to see industrial beer brewing equipment. At the end, we schmoozed with our tour guide and fellow tourists over a free beer tasting. On the way out, we picked up one of the last boxes of Speight’s ciders that they’ve made. Apparently, they had just discontinued them a year ago. These ciders were nostalgic for Camille. Ten years ago, they were pretty much all that she would drink while studying abroad. (Even I remember drinking them a lot when I visited her in New Zealand.) We were both sad to see their end of life but grateful to drink a goodbye case.
We did a few errands in town and ate some Asian noodles for lunch. One major errand we needed to figure out was how to get camper stove fuel. We were told that we could pick it up at any grocery store, but we came up empty every time we looked for it. It became more critical since we were getting low on gas. We spent a great deal at Countdown looking for stove gas, having veteran employees undo the bad advice of green employees (they were behind the customer service counter this whole time! – not in the outdoor equipment aisle). Having taken care of this important feat, we walked into the art museum 30 minutes before closing time. Camille tried to act nonchalant about carrying four canisters of gas into the gallery. The museum docent called her over. We froze up as if we were about to get reprimanded – or suffer serious consequences – for bringing in explosive material to an esteemed institution. Instead, she checked in the gas like it was another coat at the coat rack.
At close, we checked out our gas and headed to the car to meet Ralph at the Esplanade where we would have Italian for dinner. The restaurant was his recommendation, and it was quite a good one. We got there a bit early, and got the last table before it got busy. Catching up with Ralph was a trip. It’s quite a strange wonder to catch up with someone you got close with ten years ago. We all kind-of told the story of our 20s to each other, ending in the specificity or ambiguity of our futures. After dinner was done, we walked along the shore to a trail overlooking all of Dunedin, enjoying each other's precious company.
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We said our goodbyes, not knowing when or if we’ll see each other again. I feel a mixture of gratitude and melancholy reflecting on this now. After the goodbyes, we started the long, tough drive to Papatowai.
Tuesday, December 5, 2023
Since we got in late to a dark campsite the night before, we slept in. At around 11am, Camille finally brought me to a place she’s wanted to take me for ten years: the Lost Gypsy Gallery.
The artist behind this place may be the kiwi reincarnation of Walt Disney – a man who spends his time creating “rustic automata.” Imagine turning a crank and having a whale sculpture come alive. Or pressing a button and seeing an electric pun put into motion. If anything, this was the real steampunk – sculpture and art full of mechanical wizardry. It was a place full of magic with a touch of kiwi cheekiness.
We spent a good two hours here and took in everything that we could. At the end, I had the pleasure of talking to the artist – the unassuming bloke who took our payment at the beginning, who was focused at his workstation. He was charming and answered my questions, full of teacher’s pet energy. All in all, ten years of anticipation did not leave me disappointed!
We drove to a nearby park to eat a pasta lunch. We went on a big walk around the beach adjacent to the campsite and talked about life. While it doesn’t sound like much, this took some time – we left at 4pm.
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We drove some hours away to a DOC campsite in Gore. The campsite wasn’t what we expected: it had several parks for children (despite there not seeming to be much of a town nearby). It also had hot showers and power! We settled there and enjoyed a quiet evening. We spent much of it talking about a book we both were reading – How To Do Nothing by Jenny Odell. This book was making an incredible effect on how I interact with the internet, if not the world at large. Over much of the time we spent venturing around the South Island, we discussed this book. If you’ve called me anytime over the last month, I’ve probably brought this book up in conversation (my apologies).
Wednesday, December 6, 2023
We lazily left the park around 11 am and made our way to Queenstown. Along the way, we exchanged our gray water for freshwater and fueled ourselves up on coffee. We arrived in the Creeksyde Holiday Park and got situated. After, we decided to take a walk through town to get to know it. We found a brewery to hang out in. I was keen to spend some time to plan my life, to plot what I should give my attention to in place of social media and other internet haunts. Cam suggested I follow the title of the book – to do nothing, to attend to the world around me and be present, instead of finding some other “productive” outlet. Over two pink sour beers, the gravity of this core message really sank in. We spent a large amount of time just taking in the scene around us.
It rained all evening. We decided to make dinner in the shared kitchen area instead of the back of our van. We befriended a few fellow travelers. After dinner, we invited a French gentleman to join us for tea. Then, we called it an early night, since tomorrow we had a big day with an early wake-up planned.