Bucket list road trip

In 1995, I took my flatmate, Chris Ogg, on a road trip around the South Island of New Zealand. The trip was a bucket list experience for both of us. Chris was in Australia on a 12-month working holiday visa. I met him shortly after he arrived in 1994, working behind the bar at the local Beresford Hotel. At the time, I was living with a work colleague, Mark, and his partner Vincent. 

Mark had just accepted a transfer to establish and run my company’s new Hong Kong office. As a result, I was on the lookout for a new flatmate. I mentioned this to Chris one evening. He was looking for a permanent place to stay and asked if he could see my flat. He moved in shortly after. 

Chris and I quickly became the best of mates. We cooked our meals together, hung out at the pub with friends, attended dance parties and headed out of town on weekend excursions. Living with him was a year filled with plenty of happy memories.

We flew into Auckland on Monday 2 January. The date was deliberately chosen to give us enough time to recover from an all-night New Year’s Eve Party at the Horden Pavillion. At the time Mum and Dad were still living in Matamata but were holidaying in their second home at the Mount. I’m not entirely sure how we got to the Mount from Auckland. However, I suspect we flew down and were collected by my parents upon arrival.

While on the North Island, we took a day trip to Rotorua to experience its geothermal attractions. This included the famous Pōhutu and Waikite geysers. We also took time out to enjoy the Mount Hot Pools and complete an obligatory circuit around the Mount. However, there’s not much else I can recall from our time with my family.

On 5 January we caught a morning flight directly to Christchurch where we collected a rental car. We then spent six days making a circuit around the lower South Island. Our road trip began with a drive to Queenstown where we based ourselves for three nights. 

We stopped at Lake Tekapo to see the Church of the Good Shepherd. I was delighted to find the chapel open. We stepped inside to experience its famous panoramic window directly behind the altar. Another bucket list item was completed. Sadly, tourists are no longer welcome inside, or at least that was our experience in 2023. 

We then took a brief detour to visit the massive Benmore Dam. As an infrastructure geek, the dam had long been on my bucket list. It’s New Zealand’s largest dam and is home to the nation’s second-largest hydro station. Incredibly, the entire structure is built from clay and gravel. I’m not too proud to admit that I loved driving along the dam’s crest, and admiring it from a viewing point on the opposite side. It’s an impressive structure

We had one final sight I'd always wanted to see. As we drove south, we passed along the shores of Lake Dunstan and through Cromwell's relocated main street. Lake Dunstan is a manmade lake formed by the Clyde High Dam, which opened in 1993. 

As a child I recall my parents taking us up the Cromwell Gorge in the 1970s, and seeing apricot orchards spread along its frost-free valley floor. All of this disappeared, along with lower-lying districts in the township of Cromwell when the lake was filled. I'd never returned to see the final result until this road trip.

Follow this link for our day trip to Milford Sound, plus my first and only bungy jump.