Wednesday, March 4

After breakfast and school Wednesday morning, we said good-bye to Hokitika and drove to nearby Lake Kaniere. Kaniere is the second largest lake on the South Island’s West Coast with views of Mount Graham. Andi and I were told by several locals that this recreation area has lots of walking trails and fishing spots, and that many kiwis have holiday homes there. Sounded like a great place to spend the day and possibly camp that night.

Unfortunately, we discovered that part of the roadway around Lake Kaniere was closed due to a wash-out from yesterday’s rain. We weren’t able to see Dorothy Falls, so we drove through the campground to scope it out and then went for a walk on the Canoe Cove Track. I’ve been really impressed with New Zealand’s walking trails so far. They are well maintained and many feature signage about the trees and plants surrounding. The Canoe Cove Track was a really pretty walk through a rimu forest, ending at a small shoreline where you could drop your canoe into the lake. We had the whole trail to ourselves. After learning about jade yesterday, Tory was determined to find some along the shoreline and swore she did with a few tiny pieces of rock.

After our walk through the forest, Andi pulled over lake-side to fly his drone. The sand flies were out of hand! He was covered in those pesky biting gnats within seconds. After that experience, we reconsidered camping by the lake for the night. We made lunch inside the RV & while we ate, Andi looked to see if there was availability at a farm stay he’d seen on the Campable travel app. The app gave him an error signal when he tried to reserve the campsite, and the same thing happened to me when I tried to book from my phone. We decided to drive to the farm and see if it was available for the night. In our experience so far on the South Island, the best campsites book up by 1pm or 2pm if there’s only a few sites to begin with. Better to arrive early and make sure it was ours for the night.

We pulled into the Shaya Moya Ecosite around 2:00pm and were greeted by the property owner named Stu. He said the site was ours to stay for the night — he wasn’t sure why the Campable app gave us trouble. We parked alongside a small hut next to the sheep paddock. For an extra $15 NZ Dollars, the campsite offered an outdoor tub heated by a wood fire. Super cool & unique!

After we got settled, Stu offered to walk us around his farm to see the animals. He corralled the baby lambs so the kids could have a chance to pet them while he told us about his breeding practices on the farm. Aden has no fear, so he jumped into the pen with Stu as soon as he was given the green light. Tory, on the other hand, wasn’t so sure. She stayed on the outside of the fence and reached her hand through the bars a few times to sneak a quick feel.

Next, Stu walked us over to a paddock with chickens. It was neat to see how he’s recycled items from the farm to build his chicken coop. Stu believes in sustainable farming practices and passionately explained how he moves the coop around the pasture every 2-3 days to both spread the manure and give the chickens fresh grass to eat. “We’re going on an egg hunt,” he told Tory and Aden & collected 11 eggs from the chickens. Stu gave us four of the eggs for breakfast tomorrow.

We had such a fun afternoon learning about the farm! We felt honored to have a up-close-and-personal tour to see the animals and enjoyed hearing about Stu’s experience building this property into the farm it is today.

Around dinnertime, Stu build us a fire under the outdoor tub to heat the bath water. Stu’s wife, Rachelle, brought us two zucchini from her garden which we chopped up and used in our chicken stir-fry for dinner. Andi, Tory, Aden and I ate dinner in our RV, then went for a sunset soak in the tub. First, the kids & then Andi and I. What a unique experience! The evening couldn’t have been more perfect. We were surrounded by sheep and cows in the open valley, with a gorgeous sunset and mountain views in the distance.

Thursday, March 5

The next morning, Andi and I set our alarms to wake up early & enjoy the peaceful sunrise outdoors. Andi lit a fire in the hut beside the RV while I pushed play on my workout in the grassy lawn nearby. Tory and Aden contently slept inside our rig. For breakfast, Andi made veggie omelets with the chicken eggs from the farm and leftover veggies from last night’s stir fry. The meal was delicious.

We didn’t want to leave the farm! We considered staying another night because we enjoyed our time so much, but also knew that it was time to move onto the next location. There’s still so much more to see of New Zealand’s South Island. Today, Andi booked us a once-in-a-lifetime experience flying over six glaciers and the Southern Alps in a helicopter. The flight pad was just 15 minutes away from Shaya Moya Eco Site, so around 10:30am, we said good-bye to Stu and Rachelle and headed over there. Andi and I felt like we were rushing off — we’d wanted to see some of Rachelle’s artwork for sale — so we committed to coming back to the farm after our heli tour.

Andi learned about this particular helicopter pilot from the Links-View campground host (the place we stayed the previous night in Hokitika). We arrived in a bit of a rush and jumped into his helicopter after the safety briefing. I think we were all a little nervous what to expect but once we took off into the air, the sights were incredible! Any worries quickly faded away. Matt, our pilot from Fly 6 Glaciers, was fantastic. He was great with Tory and Aden, answering every one of their questions.

Matt gave us lots of history and background information about New Zealand’s Southern Alps, the climate, and the glaciers. My favorite part was actually seeing the landscape change from west to east. The West Coast of New Zealand’s South Island is wet and lush; the East Coast is dry and hot. That’s because warm air travels inland from the Tasman Sea and hits the west side of the Southern Alps, dropping rain on that side of the mountains. We could visibly see the difference between the two sides of the range — mountains of the west was full of green forests; the east was black and dry.

After the helicopter tour, we drove back to Shaya Moya Ecosite to say a final good-bye to Stu and Rachelle. Andi and I bought a painting of Rachelle’s to take back with us to the cabin. Tory picked out a framed print for her room as well.

From there, we headed south toward Glacier Country. Stu and Rachelle recommended stopping for the night in the small settlement of Okarito. Okarito is the largest wetland in New Zealand and home to more than 70 bird species. We arrived into town late and snagged one of the last spots at the Okarito city campground. It was nothing special — basically a parking lot with bathrooms — but it was fine enough for the night.

Tory, Aden and I sat outside in the sunshine and then we called it an early night.