South Island, NZ

From Wellington we caught a ferry to Picton, South Island and began driving on some of the windiest and scariest cliff sides I have ever been on. I’m definitely a baby in the passengers side and kept trying to hit the imaginary brake, while actually just stomping the floor. Thankfully, all these twists and turns led to an amazing campsite that we almost had completely to ourselves. Turns out, these also weren’t the windiest of roads to come either. At the campsite (cost about $8 per person) we met a German and a Washingtonian from Bellingham (small world!). When we arrived the sun was setting so quickly we made camp and began cooking. Somewhere between them having a few glasses of wine and us the same, we all joined picnic tables and ate together and drank until the wine was gone. They were definitely a fun and lively bunch. We had a great night. We made promises of skinny dipping in the morning around 8 am. Turns out only they were:  A) up early enough and B) not intimated by the coldness of the water and the chilly morning air. They headed out soon after while we began cooking breakfast. The day was so nice we decided to linger, and contemplated staying another night. As the sun warmed up, so did we! We hung out read in the shade and then finally decided to do our own skinny dipping since we had what felt like the whole bay to ourselves. Spoiler, the water was still cold and we didn’t last long! Still felt refreshing and free as skinny dipping does, however we thankfully had a nice sunny rock to warm on by this point. Once we warmed up and had some lunch we finally decided to head out to our next destination. After all, we only had 2 weeks left and a lot more driving to do. So we said so long, Motapu Bay!

Our next destination was Abel Tasman. We almost didn’t even go because of a tropical storm that had hit just weeks earlier washing out the only main road in. Thankfully work crews were working hard and the road now had one lane open. The other had washed down the mountain side in several locations. This was now the windiest road I had ever been on. Although, once you drive around in New Zealand for a while you get kind of used to driving on windy cliff sides at 100km per hour. If you get nervous in cars on bridges or other narrow roads, I’d recommend taking the tour busses if you ever come. They zip around like its nothing. That or trust your friend and close your eyes. I fortunately for my nerves did the driving this day, so instead, Robin held his breath and closed his eyes. Haha, just kidding! It wasn’t that terrible… maybe. Anyways, because of this massive mudslide the road was only opened twice a day for 2 hours and you had to be led in a caravan.

Let me just say, we both are so glad we decided to go! The beaches here are amazing and the weather was fantastic. We could easily have spent two weeks in this one spot. They also have plenty of trekking in the area with lush forests and a water taxi that can take to to many of the other secluded beaches. Because of our last minute decision, we didn’t arrange for this, but we still had an amazing time. The great thing about this park is that is is so large and not easily accessible that it still felt pretty remote where we were. That may also have been the timing (end of peak season), but either way, we’ll take it! We stayed at Totaranui Campground for a couple of nights basking in the sun in the day, swimming, shell searching and being squawked at by Wekas. Funny story about that, we arrived the first night a little late and did not yet know what a Weka was. While setting up tent in the dark, we turned back to the car and saw this bird and we thought “Kiwi!” The “ooo’s and ahh’s” began. We soon later learned it is not a Kiwi, although often mistaken as one by visitors, and it also loves fruit and is not afraid to beg for it… Cute little guys, but please if you’re on vacation don’t feed the birds.

 

From Abel Tasman we made a quick stop over in Nelson Lakes National Park. We really didn’t get to see a whole lot here, but it was still very beautiful, keeping in theme with the rest of the country. The evening we arrived we took a night walk looking for Kiwi, which we did not find, but instead while taking a detour out to the dock on the lake we found several massive eels. These things can be up to two meters long! Look up Long Fin Eels New Zealand, they are pretty amazing creatures. We also began to discover that in New Zealand they confuse glamping with camping. Many campgrounds include full kitchens, bathrooms and showers (insert shocked emoji here). Just kidding. I’m hating, but we actually did enjoy the amenities. In the morning we took a short walk and found a field full of different mosses and lichens, we also visited another side of the lake and had our first sighting of a pair of black swans. Full disclosure, I didn’t know that was actually a real thing… lol.

Our next stop was Hokitika. Robin found us this awesome super cheap campsite at a community rugby pitch. I think it was $5 a person and was close to town and within walking distance to this old pub. Hokitika was a cute old town and was known as “Jade Country.” As one does in Jade Country, we decided to go looking for jade. Let me preface this with the fact that we know nothing about gemstones and New Zealand has many “greenstones” that are not in fact jade, though similar looking (depending on the type). As I was saying, we went searching for jade and found a bag full of it. We could not believe how easy it was to find! We had the idea maybe we would take it to town to be carved. Also, I should say when I say we in this scenario, I mean me. So “we” took our “jade” to the shop, and quickly found out it is not jade at all. Wah Wah Wahhhh. Turns out it isn’t actually that easy to find, you win this time, Robin! Instead we found a lot of Serpentine and other green stones and decided not to have them carved… To celebrate our new found riches or lack there of, we decided to go out for drinks at the pub a few blocks away. We totally forgot it was St. Patricks Day and the place was hoppin’. We enjoyed pizza, a proper Sunday Roast and some old timing American Rock and Roll / Blues complete with an old man and his set of harmonicas! Great night!

From Hokitika we went south to Franz Josef Glacier. It was another beautiful drive in the lush green forest and on a windy mountain road. Not far before we reached the town we stopped for great views of the mountains at this river that was sky blue from glacial flour. I’ve seen lakes this color before, but it was pretty cool to see a moving river this color.

In the afternoon we reached Franz Josef Glacier the town and decided to do a short stroll through the woods then go back to our hostel for some R&R. Up to this point we hadn’t stayed in a real bed in a bit and had been on the go. The sun was shining but we wanted to hang out. However, we should have checked the weather before we decided this. In the morning it was pouring. We decided to push on and hike up to the actual glacier despite the rain. Once we reached the glacier, it was anticlimactic at best. The short hour hike up was cool and eerie from fog and rain, but once we reached the glacier we could barely see it. The moss covering the rocks here was great though. You can’t tell in the photo that I took, but there was also plenty of areas with a rusty red moss. Anyways, soaked, we headed back to the hostel to warm up and do some more hanging out. Because Robin and I have both seen and been on glaciers before, we really weren’t too disappointed about the rain and valued the time to sit around and do nothing for a night. Oh and I forgot to mention this was my first time staying in a dorm in a hostel. It actually wasn’t bad!

In the morning we checked out and went on Queenstown. VIEWS, VIEWS, VIEWS. Queenstown and the drive to it has all the views. We took our time and stopped often to take it all in. We also stopped at one view point to take a break and have a picnic. We couldn’t get enough of the mountains, the bright and beautiful lakes and green hills that rolled right up to the waterside.

We only had a night in Queenstown, so quickly we dropped our bags and went to the waterfront. Queenstown has an amazing waterfront view, but it was surprisingly very expensive. We were kind of turned off by the whole scene to be frank. Besides the view, we didn’t feel like we were getting a whole lot from the small city. It was fancy restaurants for $50NZD and Louis Vuitton and other high end shops. I don’t mean to sound snobbish, but this isn’t at all the reason we came to New Zealand. We ended up finding an overpriced mediocre pub to eat at and then went for a stroll. We did manage to find some good ice cream that was surprisingly less expensive than expected. Over all, I’m glad we only stayed in Queenstown a night, but maybe we didn’t give it a fair shot. If you’re outdoorsy and want adventure travel, supposedly this is the spot.

Does this feel like a long post to you? It does to me too. I forgot how much we’ve done already. Meanwhile I’m sitting here finishing this from Sydney now. Excuse me if I miss anything, although I’m trying not to leave out too much, this is after all a journal for me too!

From here we moved on to a town called Monowai that was an easy kicking off point to the two tours we booked in the Fiordland National Park on the very southern part of the South Island. We stayed at this cute little airbnb that used to be an old day camp. The host was cool and we met some nice locals staying in the area for work. They had an adorable dog that made me miss Chloe too…

The two tours we decided to do were the of the Milford Sound and the Doubtful Sound. We heard great things about both and couldn’t decide on just one. Milford sound was supposed to have more striking views of the fjords and their water falls, but Doubtful Sound it supposed to have more wildlife and is a lot larger. Lucky for us, being wildlife lovers, we saw lots at both! We saw bottlenose dolphins while at the Milford sound which was a treat because they don’t actually have an resident dolphins, so this only happens every so often. And once we got to the Doubtful Sound we saw lots of different bird species and the Fur Seal. The tour we took in Milford sound was just a short 2 hour boat ride and took about 3 hours to get there! While the Doubtful Sound tour was an overnight trip on a large sail boat. This tour took us about 30 minutes driving from the AirBnB, then a ferry taxi across a large lake for 45min, then a 45min bus ride to get to! Finally once we boarded we stayed in a dorm room with another French couple. We did kayaking, hung out on the deck, had a guide pointing out wildlife and telling Maori stories of the fjords, had a buffet (yum) and drank wine and beer. It was a great time too many photos taken!

Our next destination was just outside Dunedin in Warrington Domain. From this point further we were pretty much on a penguin hunt! Not to kill, obviously, but to instead look at these adorable waddling creatures. This was actually my first experience seeing a penguin not living in captivity. We were both hoping for the chance to see both the Little Blue Penguin and the Yellow Eyed Penguin without having to pay for expensive theatre seating at one of their sanctuaries. I’m glad they have these programs, but we are traveling for a year and on a budget. Plus it always kind of changes the experience when you have lots of talkative people around you. So we found out two places to find these guys. We started with Shag point that was just north of our campsite in Warrington. The campsite was on this beautiful beach by the way. Anyway, just before Shag point reserve we stopped to have some lunch and then realized we had fur seals right next to us! We almost didn’t even see them! They had crawled up a pretty good cliff and were sleeping on the grass in the shade. Didn’t mind us right next to them at all. We decided to head on and find the Yellow Eyed Penguin which supposedly lives at Shag Point. They come at sun down was all we really knew, but we had all day. So we hung out for quite a few ours just taking in the view and speculating where they might come in to shore at. After a while we decided maybe we were just unlucky and wouldn’t see them. We headed back to town for a little supplies for dinner and then decided to stop at the library for some free Wifi and see where we might try tomorrow. It turns out not that much further there was a lighthouse (Katiki Point Lighthouse) they were also known to be at. We thought, what the heck, we waited all day so its worth a shot. Sure enough, there were penguins! I should also note we arrived as the park was closing so we hauled ass down the hill to the point. We only got a few quick photos and a few minutes to hang out before we had to run out, but we saw them!

We stayed in Warrington for a couple nights enjoying our beach, the views in the area, penguins and other sea life. From here we moved on closer to our final destination of Christchurch. We stayed in a free campsite just outside of Timaru for one night. We took our time driving up there and hit a nature reserve full of birdlife on the way.

The main attraction in Timaru for us was the Little Blue Penguin I mentioned earlier. This is the world’s smallest penguin. There was a pier nearby where a small colony had taken up residence. We hung around town, and had a picnic at the beach until the sun went down. These penguins apparently only come out after the sun has gone completely down, so we waited patiently with a handful of other people along the rocky area of the pier. Again, we waited and waited, until we decided to give up. Just before we left I decided to take a stroll further down to where there were less lights, signs and people, and I got lucky! I only saw one, but there he was hoping out of the water and shaking off! I stayed for a moment, then quickly walked back to where Robin and the others were. By this time a large group of loud germans showed up along with a few families with loud kids. I didn’t want them all running over and scaring away the one penguin before Robin saw it, so I tried to walk casually and slow and whispered to him quickly, “I found one, but don’t let everyone else know yet.” We then again casually and slowly walked back over. I almost missed him this time but Robin caught him moving. We kept a respectable distance and tried to get some photos, none of which turned out. After a while some others began to do the same and we point him out. Of course a lady walks right up to him and scares him into the rocks (roll my eyes). But he came back out after a bit. It was interesting finding this place, because when you ask the locals they don’t really want tourists to come out to these places. Instead they want everyone to go to the reserves where you pay and they have you sit in stadium seating. I get why when I see the other people that came out. Some, like us, respect wildlife and give it its space and observe quietly. Others, run right up and take photos with their flashes on…

Finally, we were moving on to Christchurch. Our journey in New Zealand was coming to and end! We didn’t do much in Christchurch except eat some local salmon and sushi and hang out at the hostel with some other folks from all over. The next morning we had some time to kill before the airport so we dumped our camping gear in a free pile (except the tent which we were able to sell) and were off to Akaroa. This town is CUTE. It looks super uneventful winding up the mountain road, but then you get to its crest and on the other side there is the most wonderful peninsula view. Down below we go and just find more winding roads to local wineries and farms. A little further and you reach the small charming town of Akaroa. We didn’t actually read anything about this town so it was an awesome little surprise on our last day. We walked the waterfront and had beer and ice cream. We also peaked around the little shops where everyone was so pleasant and helpful. This one man recommended a different drive on the way back out and explained what to look for and how on clear days you can see the North Island and the other direction you could see forever down that side of the South Island. This town was interesting too because it had a French flare unlike the rest of New Zealand, which obviously has its own culture but also a strong British culture presence.

So, thats it. The end of our month journey though New Zealand. My final thoughts are that it is beautiful in so many different ways and we only scratched the surface! I’m glad we camped, and did the small car thing too. Our little Yaris was very affordable and the gas here is expensive. This saved us a ton of money. Also, because we arrived just off peak season, we almost never ran into problems finding accommodation. Sure, we also ran into rain that sometimes altered our plans a bit, but that’s part of the process. For the most part we had amazing weather, and when we didn’t that was a cool experience of its own type. Other final thoughts are, I know this country is expensive but the tag prices of things have a bit of shock value. When we go to get breakfast or a burger joint in the US, I expect to pay $10-15 USD, but here you can expect the price to look more like $18-25. I know the exchange rate helps here, but you are essentially paying the same amount for food. For this reason, we often chose to eat in. If it was a more foodie place, I think that might have changed our perspective a bit. Oh, and also the sandflies are worth mentioning. OUCH! There is no escaping them, all this beauty comes with a price! Anyways, we loved New Zealand and so many of these places we could have easily have spent a month in alone, but for now, we have more to see. Next stop, Melbourne, Australia.