Challenge: I am on Stewart Island till Friday and have to return the car and be on a plane in Auckland on Tuesday evening.
How long does it take to drive from Bluff to Auckland?
Google maps tells you it will take 25 hours to drive the 1648km. That is literally 1 day and 1 hour. Cool!
In reality... there is a ferry to take and it is generally not advised to drive 25 hours straight - and no, the wait for the ferry and the few hours crossing don’t count as sufficient rest.
Here’s my thinking:
The best way there is to take highway 1 that goes from Bluff, through Invercargill, via Dunedin, Christchurch and Kaikoura, to Picton whereupon can bord the ferry to Wellington.
From Wellington, highway 1 continues, passing by mount Tongariro and its beautiful landscapes, Taupō and then Auckland.
Beside the sheer distance of this itinerary, there are the following challenges:
- NZ don’t do straight roads! At least not for long. Mountains, big-ass rocks and rivers tend to get in the way, so you’re doing bends.
I must say that NZ roads are probably the best i’ve ever driven, both just in terms of the quality of the tarmac and in the design of the road bends. If they say 100/hr, it will do 100/hr with all the bends. And if suddenly it said 25, you trust it actually means GET THE F*** BACK TO 25/HR!! Road indications are clear and can be trusted (I say this to Belgians who are used to road signs being put up weeks in advance and left from last years road works)
- there is water to cross. Passing the Cook Straight means waiting potentially a few hours for the next ferry crossing and then waiting a good 3hrs in the ferry as it is actually making the crossing. In terms of planning, it only leaves a few hours before or after to do some driving. Practically, leaving from Christchurch in the morning is risky as the drive is at least 5hrs and unpredictable. Kaikoura is safer to start from. When you land in Wellington, you might even make it halfway to Taupō before the night.
- that brings us to nights. I’ve come to master booking.com pretty well but, on a trip like this, I don’t think I will be able to,predict with any measure of precision how far I can get by end-of-day. Still. I need 7-8 hrs of sleep -especially if I’m going to be doing this kind of driving - plus meals and showers and shopping for food.
- and breaks! Add in 3-4 15min-breaks per day and there’s much less left over from your original 25hrs/day
So, concluding, here’s the planning I have in mind:
- Friday: take the 12am ferry from Stewart Island to Bluff and drive to Dunedin to meet my brother’s college friends.
- Saturday: drive on towards Picton and eventually stop for the night in Kaikoura.
- Sunday: if from Picton, ferry over to Wellington and sleep in Taupō
If from Kaikoura, drive to Picton, ferrynover to Wellington and maybe sleep in Palmerston North
- Monday: finish the ride and spend the night in or around Auckland
This plan leave me about a day’s margin. If all goes well, it is a day I could spend in Wellington.
OK, enough of that. As I said at the start of this post: I’m on Stewart Island !!!!
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Update from Wellington
I’m at Logan Brown’s, a fancy restaurant for what hope is my best meal in NZ
After the ferry ride off Stewart Island I was hungry and got lunch at the Zookeepers café in Invercargill. So it was 3pm before I drove on towards Dunedin where I had the nicest Thaï at the Spirit House with friends of my brother’s. She is an artist who created concrete street sheep for Dunedin. Look it up.
It was still early so I drove a bit further North, to Oemaru where I treated myself to a self-contained motel room. I arrived late but could drive off also before the “heavy” traffic.
No hitch-hikers in my direction so I drove alone.
A short stop for fuel and a sandwich before reaching Christchurch.
Traffic stayed easy, except for a few tourists and trucks I could easily pass. There was a delicious cup of Assam with Manuka leaves in Raikoura, a drive by the view point, and I went on.
Highway 1 around Raikoura suffered greatly from the earthquake. The road there runs between the cliffs and the ocean. Many of these cliffs slid down over the road and into the ocean. We often crept by at 30k/hr over still ongoing roadworks.
Despite it all, I was in Picton by 5pm.
Check-in at the hostel (got a private room!) and walked into Picton for some festival. Nice diner at a restaurant down the marina, a little digestive walk by the ferry bookings and I went back to prep for the next day.
The ferry was almost an hour late so I had to hurry into Wellington to stow away my car at the hostel and walk down to Cuba street and the quays before closing time. I found a lot of nice books to fill up my suitcase and checked at Te Papa about visiting in the morning. Quick shower back at the hostel, a web search for a good restaurant and here I am, 2 blocks away :-). This restaurant, Logan Brown, offers pure delight with its 5-course Chefs choice tasting menu. I could live on the Paua ravioli.
Back in the hostel I settle for a good night. Tomorrow is a long day and the next day I fly home.
Wiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii!!!!
It's 4 something AM and some idiot probably wanted to light one up. We find ourselves on the sidewalk opposite waiting for the fire brigade to give the all-clear...
Monday morning, I head straight for Te Papa museum, have breakfast there to be there at opening. I start on the top floor but have to force myself to move on to the next floor after a couple of hours. A quick lunch there and a visit to Wellington's best comic book store Graphic Comics where I find some 5 little NZ gems at have a passionate exchange with the owner about our favourites.
It's already 3pm and I head out towards Taupo. After an hour I realise I'm bored so I pick up the next hitchhiker. We have such a great conversation that we miss his drop ad have to drive back. He's Belgian but his English is excellent. Law student, travelling for a year as so many, off for a canoe trip of a few days in the Tongariro area. He steps out reminding me to go see the Huka falls in the morning.
As I drive out of Taupo slowly, stopping for different sights, I notice a man walking along the road. When I get to the crossing with SH1, I see him with his thumb up and stop to offer him a ride. This poor man is hitchhiking from Hastings to wellington to find his estranged brother who might just be dead. Not such a brilliant mind as yesterday's passenger but very kind and a representative of the darker side of NZ, stories of poverty, homelessness, alcoholism, domestic violence and mental illnesses.
Traffic is slow and it rains often. I make it to the car rental only 30min before the 5pm deadline but all is good and their van brings me to the airport entrance.
I couldn't sleep during the 12hrs till San Francisco. I manage some 3hrs of shut-eye underway to Frankfurt. When the taxi drops me home, it's been 40 hrs since I got up in Taupo. I just manage to get myself some lunch and shop for groceries. In my bath I fall asleep so I give up trying to stay awake till early evening and get in bed.
Wonderfully, all the dreams I remember having are from my travels. As if I'm still out there.
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