Exploring New Zealand - South Island
To get the full New Zealand experience, we made our way from Auckland through the North Island to Wellington, then we took the ferry to the South Island. Our rented car was dropped off near the ferry dock and we boarded the boat for a 3.5 hr ride across the ocean. This was one of those “been there done that” kind of experiences, if I was returning to New Zealand I would look into flying to the South Island from Auckland, after exploring the North Island.
Once we reached the ferry dock on the South Island, we picked up our luggage and then got in line for the rental car office. It was a long line and slow moving, so run once the ferry docks if you want to get through the process quickly. Because we were going to meet up with someone, we took the less direct route for the start of the South Island tour. It was a beautiful ride through the vineyard region and into the remote undulating terrain. We stayed in a cute lodge with several small cottages situated back a long gravel road. We explored the area and did a short hike around a lake. It was a pretty area and would be worth staying longer for other sights, but the true reason for visiting the South Island lies further south.
Taking a circuitous route from the St Arnaud area we made our way to Christchurch and onto Twizel. It was a long day in the car, and only got really interesting from Christchurch to Twizel. Once we got to the east coast of the South Island , we stopped and walked along the beach. Lo and behold we found a seal laying on the stoney shore. Not waiting to disturb the seal, or find out that it was dead, we kept our distance.
Back on the road, we passed through Christchurch and then headed west towards Twizel. This route took us back into the mountains and the terrain got much more interesting. Our first stop was Lake Tekapo, it was one of the bluest lakes I’ve ever seen. This was a popular stop, so when I saw a tour bus pulling up, I went running over to grab pictures of the tiny stone chapel before it was swarmed with people.
From the lake we drove to our AirBnB in Twizel. It was nice to have a house to land for a few days. Since we had a kitchen and a grill, we opted for a home cooked meal and stopped at the grocery store.
Our plan was to hike the Mt Cook trail, but when we arrived at the parking lot, the cloud cover was low. We made our way to the visitors center and determined to try some different trails and return the following day with the hopes of better weather. That turned out to be the correct decision. The Mt Cook trail is not very long or challenging, but the highlight is a glacier lake surrounded by jagged peaks, so having a sunny day is necessary to get the full experience.
Twizel is glorious, but Queenstown was calling us, so back in the car to head further south. In Queenstown, the adventurers paradise, my uncle and I rented bikes to explore the trails around town. We ended up doing a 40 mile loop, which took us around the lake and to a cute town, Arrowtown. I could have spent more time in Queenstown, but alas we were being called to the road again. On the Tour du Mont Blanc hike I meet a lady from NZ, and she invited us to visit her in the town of Hokitika. So we made our way across the mountains to the west coast of the South Island. There were a few stops along the way to take in additional sights, before hitting Hokitika. We enjoyed an other home cooked meal followed by a fire on the beach. I also did some beach combing to find some whale vomit, or more commonly known as Ambergris, a valuable find if you can actually spot it. I was hoping to offset the trip cost with some Ambergris, but I was not so lucky.
After our beach combing, we left the next morning to make our way back over the mountains and to Christchurch. We were flying out the following day after a two week adventure, and the world starting to get concerned about a certain virus. I picked a campground with small bunkbed cabins for our last night, since it was close to the airport and super cheap. Our flight took us from Christchurch to Melbourne to Los Angeles to New York, then it was a train ride home. We arrived home on March 9, 2020 and a few days later the world began to close down, and with it my travels for the rest of the year. We were so thankful to have gotten this trip in before everything closed down, because in our initial planning we had talked about March.
