The Ultimate New Zealand South Island Road Trip in Winter with Barb and Reg

This one's a bit different, because the guests are my in-laws. Barb and Reg flew over for a three-week road trip around the South Island in winter, and we sat down to record not long after we got back.

Reg was born in Yorkshire, in the Vale of York, and lives in Kathmandu. Barb was born in Alaska, grew up in St. Louis and has been on the move since she left at 22, through places like Papua New Guinea, India and Nepal. So they've travelled heaps, and seeing the South Island through their eyes was soooo good. They notice things I'd walk straight past (the sway bracing on a swing bridge, for one).

I planned the whole trip. No pressure. And it couldn't have gone better.

So this post is the route, stop by stop, from the first hot springs to a snow day in the mountains and the slow drive back. Plus the two campervans and their diesel heaters, what surprised them on the roads, and their advice for first-time visitors.

In this episode

• Why Barb and Reg came back for the South Island
• Kaikōura, Maruia Springs and the West Coast
• Doubtful Sound and Milford Sound in winter
• Queenstown to Aoraki Mount Cook in the snow
• Hooker Valley Track and the swing bridges
• Lake Pūkaki, Lake Tekapo and the drive back
• Campervanning in winter with two vans
• Tips for visiting New Zealand for the first time

Why Barb and Reg came back for the South Island

On their first visit, five and a half years before we recorded, Barb and Reg saw some of the North Island. They didn't get to the South Island then, so they'd always wanted to come back.

Reg admits he used to think of sheep when he thought of New Zealand, because that's all he knew. Then Lord of the Rings came along: oh, there are mountains and things. The other part of the reason he wanted to come:

"spending time with people away from their home is great. So you get to see a different side of them when they're not kind of dealing with being at home, wherever that is."

He loved seeing how excited my husband, Isaac, and I are about New Zealand.

Barb knew they'd be campervanning, and saw it as a great way to spend time together. Her advice:

"I would encourage everybody to do a road trip, whether it's hiking or in a van, whatever. You get to know people really well, just because there's time for a lot of really good conversations."

I love that so much. Somewhere neutral, nobody's in anyone else's house or worried about daily chores, and you all get to enjoy being on holiday.

Kaikōura, Maruia Springs and the West Coast

They had beautiful weather 99% of the time, starting with a perfectly clear flight from Auckland to Christchurch: the North Island coastline, then all the snowy ranges in the south. They picked up the campervans in Christchurch, and their first night was freedom camping, which was new to them.

Then it was on to Kaikōura, which was magical, with a seal colony that's firmly on the go-back list. Next they drove over a pass to Maruia Springs, walked through the beech forest and soaked in the mineral pools.

From Hokitika and the wild Tasman Sea coast, they visited Hokitika Gorge, brilliantly turquoise the day they went, then carried on down the West Coast to Fox Glacier. They spent a couple of days at a campsite there, with a different kind of bush to walk through and views of the glacier.

Doubtful Sound and Milford Sound in winter

Wānaka and Lumsden

Next came Wānaka and the drive along the lake, with a stop at That Wānaka Tree, then Lumsden, where they camped at a defunct railway station. It was their first time there, and an interesting campsite.

Doubtful Sound from Lake Manapōuri

To reach Doubtful Sound, you cruise across Lake Manapōuri, then take a coach over the top. Barb had never heard of it before, and she highly recommends it: in her words, Doubtful Sound was absolutely fabulous.

It had been on Isaac's and my bucket list for ages too. People always ask which is better, and the answer I always hear is do them both, because they're so different. Doubtful feels remote, and there are fewer people. Milford is quite commercialised now, and its landscape is a bit more dramatic.

It had rained the morning before, so there were lots of temporary waterfalls, then the cruise was sunny. From the boat, at a safe distance, they saw Fiordland crested penguins nesting in a cave in the rock, plus bottlenose dolphins. The cruise was with RealNZ, whose guides answered your questions before you asked, and it felt a bit more intimate.

Cascade Creek and Milford Sound

That night was at Cascade Creek, a beautiful DOC campground, where they woke to a heavy frost and a fairyland. Then came Milford Sound Lodge and its rainforest campground, and a nature walk with a guide who loved the area and shared folklore and plants. The next day they did the foreshore walk before the Milford Sound cruise (leave enough time for it), and the drizzle and rain came in.

On the drive in, the traffic light at the Homer Tunnel gives the kea enough time to come and be their cheeky selves.

It poured the next morning, and I was super excited, because we'd never done that drive out of Milford Sound in the rain. Thousands of waterfalls.

Queenstown to Aoraki Mount Cook in the snow

Kingston, Queenstown and the Routeburn

Kingston was next, camping on the shore of Lake Wakatipu, with beautifully clear water. Then Queenstown, for walking around and people watching.

That's where I left them for an overnight with some friends on part of the Routeburn Track, to Routeburn Falls Hut, after we'd squeezed in some wine tasting. Then I met them in Twizel.

A snow day at White Horse Hill

From Twizel they drove up to Aoraki Mount Cook in perfectly clear weather and found a spot at the White Horse Hill campground. Coming from a very congested, polluted, noisy Asian metropolis in Kathmandu, Barb and Reg loved the low season: so much green, so much quiet, and not a lot of people.

They stopped for sandwiches before the Hooker Valley Track. Good call: grey clouds came out of nowhere, sank close to the ground, and it started snowing big, white, wet flakes.

A neighbour had started a snowman, so I grabbed a carrot out of the fridge and ran to join in. It turned into a community snowman, with Christmas music playing. Very wholesome.

There was still time for a taste of the Hooker Valley Track, then a drive around to Tasman Glacier. The weather wasn't nice there and the stairs were turning to ice, but it's really worth a look, and different to the Hooker Valley.

Sunset at the Hermitage

That evening they treated themselves to a platter and drinks at the Hermitage, whose two-storey plate glass window looks right out on Mount Cook, and watched the sunset over Aoraki, then the super blue full moon. Nobody can guarantee the weather, but if you can, overlap with a full moon. It's unforgettable.

Hooker Valley Track and the swing bridges

The next morning, under clear skies, they walked the Hooker Valley Track, one of the trip's highlights.

Before we set off, I'd told them it's the best walk in New Zealand.

Reg rates it because in a very short space you see a lot, and the valley draws you into itself. In remote areas, the walking can be so difficult that the scenery goes to the back of the queue. His take on New Zealand tracks:

"The way they do it in New Zealand is they make a great footpath so you don't have to deal with a lot of technical stuff. You don't need a map, you just go and follow this very nice footpath and it gives you the freedom to look up."

Where he lives, he knows many people who've fallen off rice paddies and footpaths looking up at the view.

I've hugely enjoyed seeing New Zealand through their eyes on this trip, because most of my adult life has been here.

Reg gave the swing bridges a close look. They had sway bracing, so they didn't wobble, and all the boards were in place. He's been on many bridges where people stole the sway bracing and sold it.

The campsites impressed them too. In most places they've trekked, the first job at a campsite is picking up rubbish. Here they never once had to.

They also saw an avalanche on the Hooker Valley Track, from a great distance.

Isaac and I were accused of planning it.

Lake Pūkaki, Lake Tekapo and the drive back

The drive out towards Lake Pūkaki stopped for a huge flock of sheep being moved between pastures: an iconic New Zealand sheep jam.

Down the shore of Lake Pūkaki and up the other side, they spent a night at a secret wild camping spot, with nobody around, a campfire and a very different perspective on Mount Cook.

I'm definitely the slow kind of person, and on this trip I sat beside Lake Pūkaki for a full morning doing absolutely nothing. Then I realised it was two o'clock. Maybe we should do lunch.

Next was a short drive to Lake Tekapo and a serviced campground with hot pools, an ice skating rink and tobogganing. They soaked outside, watched the sunset and the full moonrise, and in the morning walked around the lakeside to the Church of the Good Shepherd.

I planned the trip to start and end with hot springs, so I was hoping they'd like that. They did.

Heading back towards Christchurch, they stopped at Burkes Pass, a funky little place with shacks full of Americana that snags your attention as you drive by.

We always stop there.

Lunch was pies in the sun at Fairlie. Get there early if you want the lamb and mint, and the salmon and bacon comes highly recommended.

Then came a quick walk through a grove of tōtara in Geraldine.

That one was random: our Doubtful Sound skipper told me we had to stop there if we were going back through Geraldine. It's a small patch of bush that hasn't been cut down, so the tōtara are super old and super tall, and bats roost in the area.

Campervanning in winter with two vans

There were two campervans, picked up in Christchurch: one made for four people and one for two. Barb and Reg took the two-person van.

Reg describes it like this. The bed stayed down all the time and only one person could stand at a time, so in the morning he'd make a coffee or tea and go and sit in the front. To Reg, it was full option: a small sink, two burners, a heater, USB ports by the headrests, a little toilet and a shower room, and everything worked. It sat high and needed a step, so they bought a temporary one.

In the bigger van, the bed went up into the ceiling electrically, so everyone could sit around together, and with the biggest sink and three burners, it's where most of the cooking happened.

The best thing was the diesel heaters, which Reg had never seen before. Turn a knob and within 10 minutes the van is extremely toasty, even at five degrees outside, with no need to run the engine. He'd like to take one back to Nepal.

Isaac and I slept with ours on low. Changing the setting meant climbing out of bed, down the ladder and across the hallway, and getting it wrong meant really hot or really cold. Still amazing to have.

Two vans worked really well. Four people in one small van would have meant much more admin with the table and beds, and been a lot harder when it rained. If you're renting a van in winter, go with as big a vehicle, or as many vehicles, as your budget allows.

Our first campervan was much, much smaller: a single bed, absolutely no heating, an ice scraper for the ice on the inside, and a little gas stove that took 40 minutes to boil water for instant noodles. So I'm glad we could give Barb and Reg a different experience.

Tips for visiting New Zealand for the first time

What surprised them on the road

Barb and Reg have travelled widely, at many different levels, and Barb says New Zealand has been unique because everything works. There's no hassle, the infrastructure is great, and the people they met were friendly and helpful. They call it unpretentious: it lets nature speak for itself.

Asked about challenges, they struggled. The bird list is missing a kingfisher, after 39 new species.

The petrol stations were a surprise. You go to one town, then the next, with nothing in between, which is okay once you work it out. The single-lane bridges were a surprise too. Otherwise the roads were great and well marked, with little white luminous lights on posts on each side. And having the internet everywhere, even if it was one bar, made the whole trip super easy.

Their highlights

Reg's highlight was Doubtful Sound, because it's a far away place, and once you're there you can see how people make a living, using the local resource: crayfish. Most of the trip was a lot of landscape and not many people, so he appreciated seeing people living and working there.

Barb's was how much they learnt about Māori culture, how New Zealand works and what comes off the land. In Cromwell's historic district, late one afternoon, the only thing open was a stone carver working in greenstone, so they popped in. They learnt how he studied, the permissions he needed to carve and to access the stone, and what the stones mean, including pounamu.

I love that both highlights are a bit unexpected. Queenstown and Mount Cook get a lot of hype, and sometimes it's the places you least expect that stick with you.

Advice for first-time visitors

Their advice: get a campervan, for the flexibility to stop wherever you want, with everything on board and no time wasted checking into hotels. Expect a significant gear shift down, too. Nature in other parts of the world can be really noisy, and as an outsider, Reg notices a peaceful quietness here, even in urban areas.

And come for as long as you can, and take it as slowly as you can. Once you're out of the city, New Zealand is a place to be indulgent with time. A Kindle came along on this trip and was never opened once.

Whenever people ask me how long to come for, I say as long as you can. Rush a week or two and you miss some of that peacefulness. We kept it to one activity a day, one walk or one little town, and the route we did is perfect for 20 days.

It was so special to do this trip together, and I hope some of you take the jump and go on holiday with family somewhere neutral.

Places from this episode

• Christchurch
• Kaikōura
• Maruia Springs
• Hokitika
• Hokitika Gorge
• West Coast
• Fox Glacier
• Wānaka
• That Wānaka Tree
• Lumsden
• Lake Manapōuri
• Doubtful Sound
• Cascade Creek
• Milford Sound
• Milford Sound Lodge
• Homer Tunnel
• Kingston
• Lake Wakatipu
• Queenstown
• Routeburn Track
• Routeburn Falls Hut
• Twizel
• Aoraki Mount Cook
• White Horse Hill campground
• Hooker Valley Track
• Tasman Glacier
• The Hermitage
• Lake Pūkaki
• Lake Tekapo
• Church of the Good Shepherd
• Burkes Pass
• Fairlie
• Geraldine
• Cromwell

More like this

• Exploring the South Island for the First Time as a Kiwi on a 7 Day Road Trip with Hamish McColl
• A Bucketlist Birthday Group Trip to New Zealand with Travel Podcaster Jackie Nourse
• The Ultimate New Zealand Road Trip with Dane and Stacey
• Three Months of Road Trips and Hut Bagging in the South Island with Sophie Wakelin

Until then, keep adventuring :)