The Incredible South Island and a Quick Stop in Aussie

After leaving Nelson, the final three weeks of our year long adventure was upon us, three weeks of tiki touring through the most incredible (or so we’d heard) scenery that NZ had to offer.

The long drive to Franz Joseph and Fox Glaciers seemed a little longer than either of us expected, which could have been due in part to the celebration the night prior. In the end, we made it, pitched the tent on the hardest ground you could ever find in a holiday park and called it an early night. We awoke the next morning to beautiful weather…on the agenda, a handful of walks up to and around both glaciers. Franz Joseph being the more popular of the two was actually less impressive from our perspective than Fox. Both of course are extremely beautiful and had it not cost over $150 per person for a (mandatory guided) tour through the blue ice we may have seen more. We opted to take the budget friendly route and view it from afar…above is what we were able to capture.

I think glaciers are beautiful, I just wish they didn’t get so dirty! Sounds ridiculous I know, however, my ingenious idea of having them pressure washed every morning for the tourists gave John quite a laugh. I thought you all might appreciate it as well. We headed off, satisfied with our views of the glaciers and anxious for the next big stop.

The next stop happened to be quite a small one actually. There’s a tiny coastal town called Haast situated perfectly for tourists just before they get ready to head through the high mountain pass toward Wanaka and Queenstown. Blink and you’ll miss it, we almost did. The most exciting thing about staying here was the opportunity to see a colony of emperor penguins just south of where we stayed. Unfortunately the closest we came to seeing the alleged penguins was a crossing sign. At this point, we were still convinced that all of NZ had a conspiracy about promoting penguins to tourists when in fact…they do not inhabit any aspect of the islands.

We jumped back on the highway after the failed penguin encounter and headed through the mountains toward Wanaka. The Wanaka/Queenstown area is most well known by trampers and tourists alike as the place that sucks you in and cleans you out of any cash you may have been saving up. Fortunately, we were well prepared and had budgeted appropriately for this stop. Located only an hour away from each other, both towns are beautifully situated on picturesque lakes with a variety of adventure seeking activities at your fingertips. Needless to say, this felt a lot like MT and ID to us.

We arrived in Wanaka (after a quick stop off to see the blue lakes) with just enough time to enjoy a run along the waterfront. The next morning we awoke refreshed and headed out to explore the town.  Fall had just begun and all of the leaves were changing color which made this place look even more magical. Most notable Wanaka experiences:

1.        Wine tasting at Rippon overlooking the lake – the most amazing views and with a free tasting and huge pours, how could you go wrong?

2.       Catching a foreign flick at the local cinema – all seats are comfy couches and half way through the film they have huge freshly baked cookies literally right out of the oven.

We decided to spend one of the days in the area driving to Mt. Cook. What an amazing mountain. Mt. Cook is the tallest peak in NZ and Sir Edmund Hillary used it for training before he summitted Everest. We stopped at the head of Lake Pukaki for some quality sandwiches and looked forward to the rest of the journey to the mountain, it was also a view of the Misty Mountains from LOTR. Remember the lighting of the beacons Mary? Yep, that was it. The whole drive up was mesmerizing and majestic. After a few beers/wines at the café directly overlooking the summit we headed back to Wanaka.... thankfully we were responsible in our drinking and passed the sober checkpoint set up on the highway, after which we were rewarded with a saussie sizzle for our responsible ways.

Don't drink and drive and get a free saussie!

The next day, we were off on a short journey to Queenstown. It happened to be Easter weekend while we were there which meant not only was it packed with tourists, but there were plenty of Kiwi’s in town as well for the holiday weekend. We started out our thrill seeking weekend quite conservatively with a round of mini golf in which John won (I think I still owe him a beer for that, and yes she does, I guess she’s waiting till we get back to the States and they’re less expensive). After our thrilling game, we headed out on the lake for a boat cruise. It was incredible learning about the town from our skipper and how the insane tourism operation works there…365 days a year. We had an amazing view of the Remarkable Mountain Range (They are the only true North and South mountain range in the Southern Hemisphere and also home to Mordor for you LOTR fans) from the water, which we’d be seeing from a different angle a couple of days later. Later that night we met my council workmate Olivia for a very tasty dinner at Cow, which I must say has the most incredible garlic bread I think I’ve ever had (awesome suggestion Kat). The next day was spent relaxing and getting ready for a jam packed Easter Sunday. We met some more of my council workmates Angela and Don who happened to be in town and caught up with them over a couple of beers at the local brewery.

Easter Sunday Funday...

Easter Sunday, we decided what better way to celebrate than jump out of an airplane. I mean why not, you’re only in Queenstown once…so we went for it and at 12,000 ft jumped out of a plane over the incredible. Anyone who has skydived knows the feeling, and if you haven’t, we would highly recommend trying it out at least once. It’s an incredible feeling, and one that we (and our pocketbooks) will never forget. Once that was ticked off the list, it was time for a quick lunch break at Fergburger, I won’t go into details, but John and I shared one of these and it was more than enough…easily the best burger we’ve ever had in NZ. Afterward, just to test our stomach, we decided to go jetboating. Another incredible thrill seeking adventure in which you jet through a picturesque canyon in water that gets as shallow as 6 inches at speeds of up to 60mph and a jet engine with 2 V6 engines in them. Our caption said each boat was worth a quarter of a million. It’s crazy how close these drivers get the boat to the canyon walls…so much so that you find yourself ducking to keep yourself in one piece.

After all of that craziness, the following day we took a more low key approach and went wine tasting. Central Otago is well known for its delicious Pinot Noirs, and we took full advantage, even bringing a few bottles home to ‘cellar’. We’ll see how long they last!

 All in all, our time in Central Otago was phenomenal.

Milford Sound was next on the agenda, and more specifically the Routeburn Track. We set off for a three day tramp in Fiordland National Park which turned out to be our favorite hike during our entire trip. We hiked into Lake McKenzie the first day and set up camp as our home base for both nights. It was a decent 12K hike in for the first night passing a 175 meter waterfall and having clear skies while seeing the range across the valley. The next day we took a day pack up to the saddle and then up Conical Hill (more like Conical Mountain, it was basically straight up) and back to camp. This was a solid hike and left us exhausted. The views from the summit were great, we could see into the Milford Track area as well as Milford Sound. The next day we hiked back out with our packs a little lighter and a great sense of accomplishment.

After all of that walking, it was time to relax, once we got out we headed deeper into the park to the tiny town of Milford Sound. This place relies 100% on tourism and with over 500,000 people coming through from around the world each year, they do pretty well. We booked a boat cruise through the sound for the following day and we spent the next 24 hours taking in some of the most beautiful scenery we’ve ever encountered. It definitely wasn’t easy leaving this area as it was what we were both looking forward to most out of any of the various destinations on our itinerary. It didn’t disappoint, the photos of course don’t do justice, but it’s a small piece of the experience that we hope you all enjoy.

Onward and downward…Bluff and Stewart Island were next on the agenda. Well known for its famous oysters, Bluff is the connecting point from the South Island and Stewart Island.  

 









We had just enough time to grab some take away (oysters of course) before jumping on the passenger only ferry to Stewart Island. Unfortunately the oysters were served breaded and fried, and proved to be not as yummy as we were hoping. Sorry Lonely Planet, this fish and chips shop did not live up to your hype. It was all good though, we drugged John up (choppy open water and him don’t mix) and we were on our way. The short hour ferry ride was chocker full of dolphins, albatross and a simply stunning sunset.

Better than the best restaurant.

We arrived in Stewart Island on a Sunday night, which just happens to be the biggest night of the week for the locals. The weekly pub trivia was in full swing when we walked into the main bar in Oban (main town on the island). We were quickly assigned a table by the quiz master. I don’t think we would’ve had a chance to opt out of playing had we wanted to. The place was completely full and we were lucky to get a seat with three local women, older and wiser beyond our years. Fast forward 20 or so questions later…our table had the most correct answers and thus won the $40 bar tab. Sweet as, we’ll take it! We enjoyed our winnings with the team and headed back to the hostel for some R&R before our scheduled tramp the next day. We did a walk through Rakiura National park and found ourselves camping at Maori Beach that night. This quick overnight trip was very reminiscent of our first backpack into Abel Tasman in which we had an entire campsite and beach to ourselves. It felt as though we had come full circle and besides the obscene amount of sandflies, the journey was well worth it. We left Stewart Island satisfied with the experience (besides not seeing a kiwi) and glad we were able to make it down there.


After making our way back across the Foveaux Straight, we stayed the night in Invercargill. That’s all we need to say about that, Jeff you were right…there’s nothing at all worthwhile here.

There's a penguin there, can you find it?

We got out of there as early as possible the next morning, I mean, they don’t even sell beer or wine in the grocery stores…then we were on our way through the Catlins. The Catlins are an area of the south western coast ‘where the rainforest meets the ocean’. It was quite a beautiful drive with a wide variety of landscapes to take in. We hiked into a couple of waterfalls, visited the most southern point on the South Island, hiked into nugget point and visited the lighthouse and FINALLY, FINALLY we found some penguins. Not just any penguins, but the yellow eyed penguin, which is supposedly one of the rarest species in the world. The local community is very serious about keeping these little guys safe as we witnessed when the Penguin Nazi (as we dubbed her) continued to preach and yell at people to “Step away from the penguins” the entire time we were there…entertaining nonetheless.  

Once we had our fill of the Catlins, we were on our way to the university town of Dunedin. A great town of over 100,000 people, the city is decorated with brilliant cathedrals and a brand new rugby stadium for the recent world cup. We stayed at a hostel near the heart of the city and spent the weekend walking around town, enjoying some local microbrews, visiting the Saturday market, popping into Cadburry world and of course attending the rugby. It was a great match and our old flatmates Jeff and Kat’s favorite team Otago (which means it’s our favorite team as well) won by 3 points. It was a great city to chill in before we headed up to Christchurch to sell off all our yearly collected belongings. 

Before we knew it, we were back in Christchurch. We gave ourselves three days to sort out all of our loose ends; selling the car, selling our camping stuff, etc. Once all was taken care of, we treated ourselves to a great night out at Pomeroy’s, one of the best beer drinking bars in NZ. A bottle of wine, three (or was it 4?) beers, and lots of fabulous food later we slowly made our way walking back to the motel for our last sleep in NZ. It was a short one as our shuttle picked us up at 3AM…the plane taking off, knowing that we weren’t coming back to NZ for quite some time was a bittersweet feeling. We’ll be back at some point, there’s no doubt about it, it’s just a matter of time.

On our way back to LA, we took full advantage of the free layover VAustralia offers you on flights to NZ. We landed in Brisbane and spent a fabulous 3 days north of there on the Sunshine Coast. A vacation from our year long vacation, right? We visited Steve Irwin’s Australian Zoo which was great fun. Walked along the beach in Caldoundra, sipped shiraz at some of the local wineries and spent a fair amount of time at the Sunshine Coast Brewery tasting some of the local micros and a great fresh seafood platter. It was a killer layover, and we would highly recommend the sunshine coast to anyone thinking of visiting Aussie. We’ll definitely be back for a proper trip sometime in the future.

Back in the States

Well, that’s about all she wrote, literally. That’s the end to our year long adventure in amazing New Zealand and should wrap up There and Back Again, a New Zealand Holiday. Thanks to everyone that followed our adventures, we hope that you enjoyed the blog as much as we enjoyed writing and reliving all of our experiences to share with you. Sitting at LAX writing the blog we sure can feel the pace of life picking right back up. We’re both looking forward to seeing all of you very soon.

All of our love back home in THE STATES!

John and Shannon