Gold Coast Travel: New Zealand - to the ends of the earth

FROM a fossilised forest patrolled by penguins to dark sky reserves and rivers rent by icebergs, the ultimate road trip awaits at the end of a short flight.

Exploring Mt Cook National Park. Photos: Chantay Logan

YOU’D usually have to cross continents to experience the kind of scenery change New Zealand’s South Island serves up in a single tank of petrol.

While you’ll be filling up a couple of times if you stick to this itinerary, it delivers maximum bang for your road-trip buck … and unlimited free fuel for your Instagram.

With easily accessibly Queenstown as your base, loop around the aptly named Southern Scenic Route to take in the idyllic isolation of The Catlins, before making your way along the coast to Dunedin, Moeraki and Oamaru, veering inland to include the traditional tourist favourites of Lake Tekapo and Mt Cook.

My partner and I spread the drive over 10 days – and could have lingered for twice that long - but at a pinch you can catch these highlights in less than a week.

Canola fields in New Zealand's South Island.

QUEENSTOWN – THE CATILINS

The map will tell you it’s around three hours’ drive to NZ’s deep south. With stops at quaint roadside cafes to gulp a coffee and one of the region’s ubiquitous cheese rolls, photo ops and detours down dirt roads, sticking to a schedule is harder than it sounds.

The snowy peaks that make for an almighty airport arrival gradually give way to the bucolic - paddocks stuffed with fat lambs and rolling yellow fields of canola.

We pass pockets of rainforest before arriving at Curio Bay, a sheltered slice of coastline where absolute beachfront accommodation won’t blow the budget.

Sleep in and savour deliciously decadent sunrises from the giant four-poster bed at Curio Bay Accommodation’s boutique studios – if you don’t get an early wake-up call from the penguins pottering under the deck.

It’s all very civilised, but the wild isn’t far from the surface in beaches unmarked by footprints or the giant kraken conjured in sinuous strands of inky kelp that curl in the waves.

A short walk takes us to the tiny town’s big tourism ticket: a 180 million-year-old petrified forest. The viewing platform surveys an expanse of surf-swept rock, but peer closer and, like a Magic Eye puzzle, stony stumps morph into the knots and gnarls of ancient conifers.

Originally buried by Jurassic floods of ash and volcanic debris, silica impregnated the wood turning timber to stone and freezing the delicate detail of fern fronds in time.

The lunar-like landscape is patrolled by yellow-eyed penguins, or hoiho, one of the world’s rarest penguin species. Curiouser and curiouser.

Stay: Curio Bay Accommodation curiobay.co.n z

Snap: NZ’s rural heart, fossilised forest, yellow-eyed penguins, lonely lighthouses, ocean sunrises

Nugget Point in The Catlins in the south of New Zealand's South Island.

THE CATLINS – DUNEDIN

Waking up to a world whitewashed by frost, we continue into the Catlins towards the main town of Owaka. Choose your own adventure with myriad well-signed tracks inviting discovery along the way.

Waterfall chasers will be in their element - the small but perfectly formed Pūrākaunui Falls holds the honour of most photographed. Rainbows dance in a 20 metre cascade over three fairytale tiers and it’s an easy diversion from the main highway.

At the whim of season and tide, the wave-carved Cathedrals Caves are more elusive. With echoing ceilings that soar to 30m, they’re worth the wait … and wade.

Nugget Point in The Catlins in the south of New Zealand's South Island.

Nugget Point delivers on dramatic coastal views, with a short, spectacular trail from the carpark skirting the steep headland.

We duck through twisted tunnels of gorse – secret worlds that offer a reprieve from the howling wind - that open to endless, exposed ocean, where a lighthouse surveys a scattering of rocky islets (The Nuggets).

It feels like the end of the earth, but from here it’s just over an hour’s drive to Dunedin.

Stay: Nugget Lodge (nuggetlodge.co.nz)

Snap: Waterfalls, sea caves, coastal panoramas

A church in Dunedin.

DUNEDIIN – MOERALI - OAMARU

Having made it through at least 23 games of Eye Spy without passing another car in The Catlins, we abruptly find ourselves in the middle of a metropolis with a Scottish soul.

Sprawled on the banks of a pretty harbour, Dunedin is one of the best-preserved Victorian and Edwardian cities in the Southern Hemisphere.

The museum and art galleries punch above their weight and there’s a cosy cafe culture.

Architecture buffs can gorge on gothic churches, their grounds splashed with Icelandic poppies, tulips and daffodils, or take in the grand Dunedin Railway Station.

Revive at the Scotia Restaurant & Whisky Bar or snag fireside seats to sample the “pride of the south” at Speight’s Alehouse alongside a satisfying pub meal.

It’ll whet your appetite for a brewery tour. Speight’s Brewery has stood on the same site in Rattray Street since 1876 and continues to produce kegs of the good stuff to this day.

It’s sacred ground for the ale’s faithfuls – although my people worship a few blocks away at the Cadbury factory.

The picture-book fishing town of Moeraki - 40 minutes or so north of Dunedin – is another revelation.

Yellow-eyed penguins at a reserve near Moeraki. They are among the rarest species of penguin in the world.

When British TV chef Rick Stein was told he could choose to go anywhere in the world to write a travel yarn for an English newspaper, he chose Fleurs Place.

Attracting foodies like seagulls on a hot chip, Fleurs showcases seafood fresh off the boat, enjoyed in the most appropriate setting imaginable. It may well serve you the best meal of your life. Try the blue cod.

Baby fur seals near Moeraki.

The surprises continue at Oamaru – a downright Dickensian township smack in the middle of roughly nowhere. We enter a Victorian time warp, where inexplicably grand old limestone buildings house eccentric bookshops, steam punk peculiarities and antiques aplenty, and one dapper old gent plays the piano to an audience of dancing dust motes.

Stay: Wains Hotel (cpghotels.com/our-hotels/wains-hotel-dunedin/)

Snap: Architecture, food porn, fishing boats bobbing in the harbour, a Victorian time warp

Lake Tekapo from the Mt John Observatory cafe.

OAMARU – LAKE TEKAPO - MT COOK

As well as being a really convenient excuse for a pie pit stop at the Fairlie Bakehouse, Lake Tekapo is a picturesque place to pause and get to know some of the locals.

Our cottage at The Cairns is as cute as the baby bunnies handing out free cuddles from the on-site farm. We also meet Whisky, the rotund resident pig, whose fearsome fanged exterior hides a heart of gold. Perhaps understanding tender tourist fingers are unwilling to venture to close to that bristly tusked maw, he spends his days hopefully trotting along the fence line, head titled skyward, mouth agape, ready to receive any tasty morsels tossed his way (#lifegoals).

For the best views of the milky turquoise lake, head up to Tekapo’s Mount John Observatory where a coffee shop is perched on top of the world.

Part of the world’s largest International Dark Sky Reserve, the site serves up a stargazing smorgasbord after dark. Plan a starlight stroll or join one of Earth & Sky’s tours to peer through professional telescopes.

Tasman Glacier.

Iceberg, right ahead! Tekapo is the ideal base for exploring the otherworldly landscapes of Mt Cook National Park.

Hooker Valley Walk – a gentle four hours’ return – is a favourite with photographers. In the shadow of mountains, we sway across swingbridges to Tasman Glacier’s iceberg-studded terminal lake.

A clear day frames Aoraki/Mount Cook in all its glory, but cloudy weather can be even more atmospheric.

Defrost your frozen fingers around hot choccies at the Hermitage Hotel.

Stay: The Cairns cottages, cairns.co.nz

Snap: Farm critters, selfies on top of the world, blue lakes, a million stars

View from the balcony at Peppers Beacon Queenstown.

MT COOK – WANAKA - QUEENSTOWN

The end of the journey is in sight – but the adventure is only just getting started if you stop off at Wanaka on your way to Queenstown.

Wander around the shore to find the star of Lake Wanaka Tourism’s popular photo trail – That Wanaka Tree. Moored in the lake, the willow with wet feet is a poignant picture of solitude and survival against the odds, a symbol of determination … and it has its own hashtag.

If you’re game after a week of feasting on fish and chips and cheese plates, the challenging walk to the summit of Roys Peak will win you another of the region’s most prized photographic trophies.

That Wanaka Tree!

Complete your road trip by taking the Crown Range Road to Queenstown

It just happens to pass the front door of the most photographed pub in New Zealand, Cardrona Hotel. Its walls don’t need to talk – they’re lined with very tangible reminders of the region’s pioneering past. The historic building’s rustic charm won over Prince Harry, who tucked in to bangers and mash on his most recent visit.

Spiralling through tussock-clad alps to 1076m above sea level, continue along New Zealand’s highest sealed road (although if you use the term as loosely as the Kiwis, there are plenty of precarious pretenders).

Your backside won’t have to budge from the seat warmers to take in the sights at the summit, but if the season’s right, roadside snowball fights are mandatory.

Queenstown is less than an hour away. Stay in one of Peppers Beacon’s lakefront suites: the view from your lounge will be the piece de resistance

Stay: Peppers.co.nz/beacon/rooms/

Snap: That Wanaka Tree, living history, lakes and snow-capped mountains

The Southern Alps from a Jetstar flight approaching Queenstown.