NZ Road Trip: South Island Day 3 on Lake Wakatipu

A big day of driving we set off early towards the west coast and en route to Milford Sound. After a nice lunch in Twizel, we decided a stop at the Clay Cliffs, tall pinnacles of rock separated by narrow ravines.

The drive onwards was lovely, through Lindis Pass. Wish we had more time to explore here. The Cromwell area looked well worth more time too. This area is highly fertile, and many fruits and vegetable are grown here.

Skirting past Queenstown, we found the Kingston Camp on the shores of Lake Wakatipu. We pulled in early enough to get a great spot on the water. Taking a walk along the shoreline, it was here that Jessica found a fossilized woolly rhino tooth! That is our best guess based on a Google reverse image search of the object. Far out!

Here we learned about the not-so-great aspects of a busy freedom camping site. Vans were pulling in late into the evening after dark seeking out a place to stop for the night. When we woke on the morning the place was quite full.

I was woken again in the middle of the night to strange sounds. Fumbling in the darkness with my head lamp, I locked eyes with the source of the noise. There was a mouse in the house and therefore we had a problem.

In the morning I called Jucy, the company we had rented the van from. They were great and took excellent care of us. “Have you laid eyes on the rodent, sir?”, well yes, indeed I have. As we had plans to be in Milford Sound the following two nights, we arranged to swap the van in Queenstown a couple of days later.

This was the last time I heard the noise at night. So, either I slept now soundly, or our friend jumped ship somewhere between Kingston and Milford Sound. Good luck little one.