Aussie making driving plans for Mega

[Guwapo]

Thanks for all the info guys, We are still looking and making plans.

With avoiding the State Highway where do you think we might be looking for Caravan park accommodation between 1/2way and 2/3 way to Dunedin?
Would Lake Teakapo be in the right direction???

Taking the inland route the options would be:

Lake Tekapo,
Twizel (Lake Ruataniwha) or
Omarama.

[FelixII]

Okay so given all your feedback we are now planning on heading out North/West on our arrival but picking up our friend at Airport at 2.15pm at Christchurch Wednesday then heading towards either Geraldine or Fairlie and hoping to get a 2 bedroom Cabin/Apartment at eitherof them before heading inland/southwards (ending in Dunedin on Friday lunchtime)

Would you think their is much difference in Geraldine or Fairlie. The plan then would be for Thursday to be in Omarama or Cromwell on Thursday night so that we are in Dunedin for registration on Friday????

Have booked a hire car with go rentals for our 4 week triip.

[bitsprayer]

if you want to cache in the evening, there are more Park and Grab cache's in Geraldine, and a heap with in a short drive, and of course don't forget the 80 caches one Thompson's Track ( GC3P9HT ) on the way there, they are all park and grabs.

Bitsprayer

[Moneydork]

if you want to cache in the evening, there are more Park and Grab cache's in Geraldine, and a heap with in a short drive, and of course don't forget the 80 caches one Thompson's Track ( GC3P9HT ) on the way there, they are all park and grabs.

Bitsprayer

What he said.

[FelixII]

Thanks all,

Now have booked accommodation in Geraldine for Wednesday 17th October.

Now tossing up for Thursday 18th between Cromwell and Alexandra.

What time should we be looking at getting to Dunedin/ or the Event on the Friday?

Would it be best to be there for lunchtime? Thus I guess the closer to Dunedin would make things
easier for us?

Thanks again for all your very helpful replies so far too! Looking forward to getting there. Its not
that far away now!

[rediguana]

Would it be best to be there for lunchtime? Thus I guess the closer to Dunedin would make things easier for us?

From memory, I don't the the organisers have access to the site till midday, and I think we were planning on opening to attendees around 2-3pm once we have things like registration site set up. One of the local organisers may be able to correct me on this timing though.

But yes, no problems with getting to Dunedin around lunchtime and then caching for a few hours before turning up. The main activities will be Saturday/Sunday, so Friday, whilst we will have some social activities and the like, will be relatively quieter than the main days.

[Richary]

I came across this site that gives a quick map based guide to the various camping spots in NZ, from free ones to basic facilities, to fully fledged van parks. Could be useful for some planning.

http://www.rankers.co.nz/respect/canterbury

We fly in arriving ChCh lunchtime Sunday before the mega, and back to Sydney the Friday after. Will probably stay in/near ChCh the first night so Anna can have a bit of a look at some of the damage there (I did a work trip recently), and I have a guidebook to read on some work travel later this week to try and plan a bit of an itinerary to/from Dunedin.

[FelixII]

Wow, wow the time arrived and so have we.

Wanted to let you know we have attempted to follow all your advice as best we can.

Arrived yesterday and stopped overnight in Papanui, with rain and more rain and having been awake for 33hours
by the time we checked in to our hotel and had some dinner nearby.

We managed to fit in some essential shopping (alcohol and basic food stuffs) but no caching.

Today though we managed to find 15 caches and enjoy the fabulous scenery from Papanui through to Reefton via Hanmer Springs. The weather much better today although still very cold for us. Very pleased when it got to 14degrees around 3pm

Thanks so much for all the help and hope to be travelling via Westport to Greymouth tomorrow then returning Tuesday or Wednesday via Arthurs Pass.

Thanks again and hope to see you all at the Mega.

Dea & David