New Zealand- The South Island

Hi all!

We will just try to hit the highlights of the South Island of New Zealand for you.  Once the ferry arrived in Picton from Wellington, we headed straight for the town of Blenheim in the Marlborough region.  We thought we had died and gone to heaven when we checked into our hotel there.  Since we had been staying at some decent hostels and mixing it in with occasional cheaper hotels, we had decided to treat ourselves to a nice hotel for our anniversary.  Now while we can both hang at the hostels and efficiency hotels with the rest of the worlds backpackers, we really think really nice hotels are where we belong, haha!!  I know, I know, you're probably not surprised.  The next day we rode on a self guided bicycle winery tour through a large section of the Marlborough wine region!  We visited six wineries during the day and enjoyed a delicious lunch with some British friends we met along the way.  It was the perfect way to spend our one year anniversary. 

We spent some time on a boat in Abel Tasman National Park exploring the area and hiking to stunning and very secluded crystal blue water beaches.  We saw fur seals and penguins and ate the most amazing burgers we have EVER had. Yes I know that's a bold statement being that we've had our fair share of burgers but these really were out of this world.  And as a cherry on top we ate deep fried pineapples rings covered in cinnamon sugar for dessert!!  We are shocked no one has thought of these yet for the boardwalk in Ocean City. 

Our footprints were about the only ones on this beach

The Fat Tui Burger truck...there may need to be a US franchise soon.

Take a fresh pineapple ring, deep fry it in dough, shake cinnamon sugar on top, and have the yummiest desert in NZ!

We shortly visited the small town of Motueka and really the only thing to write about there is the delicious cappuccino bowl, yes bowl, we had.  It was the best coffee we had in New Zealand and that's saying a lot because their coffee is fantastic.

From Motueka we took a stunning drive down the west coast to Fox Glacier, stopping in Punakaiki to see the Pancake Rocks and blowholes.  We participated in a day long guided glacier hike and it was pretty awesome to climb on a glacier and even crawl through a pure blue cave like tunnel in the ice. We had a wonderful time on the tour which included two other couples from the US also traveling for an extended period of time.  It was nice to talk to some other people about their travels! 

Pancake Stack Rocks

 

Wes is channeling Sir Edmund Hillary...

We'll coin a new expression - "Beautiful Claustrophobia"  It was a tight fit.

Onward and southward toward Queenstown! This was definitely our favorite city in New Zealand.  It was the perfect combination, large and modern enough to be exciting but still very quaint and village like, and it was so beautiful right on the lake with amazing mountain views in the background.  We took a gondola ride up to the top of a mountain to get an even better view and raced each other down hillside tracks on street luges.  This was quite fun! 

As with most driving in NZ, the route out of the mountains into Queenstown should be on a "Great Drives" list

The winding downhill luge track

View of Queenstown from Bob's Peak overlook at the top of Skyline Gondola

We spent a day and night in Te Anau which is the basically the closest civilization to Milford Sound. We visited Glow Worm caves at night and did a day tour to Milford Sound.  The glow worms were quite amazing.  You walk into a hidden entrance in the rainforest and through a cave and get to a tiny paddle boat where you can't talk or take pictures because it makes the glow worms turn off their lights, which are hanging from their bum.  Then you take the boat deeper into the caves to get a better glimpse of the worms.  They look like stars on the cave ceiling.  Milford Sound had some stunning waterfalls and supposedly interesting views of the mountain cliffs rising out of the water.  Unfortunately this was the one point of the entire trip so far where the weather really won out and because of low clouds and rain, the boat ride in Milford Sound wasn't quite what we had hoped or seen in pictures. Oh well!  The mist and clouds still made for a few memorable pictures.

Sun beams before sunset on lake Te Anu on the way to the cavern

Who says the sun doesn't shine down there?!

Mirror Lake in Milford Sound National Park

Definitely cool and mysterious!  We made the most of the cloudy weather.

Finally, we drove to Christchurch to see the destruction from the earthquakes they have suffered, and to meet our flight to Thailand.  There is quite a lot of damage yet to be repaired but the town remains very optimistic and they've been quite creative in making the city center function again.  One cool example is the Re-Start Mall which is a bunch of recycled shipping containers built into a village of cute shops and boutiques, coffee shops, and restaurants. 

We had a fabulous time in New Zealand and we really made the most of our time there.  We learned that the trick is to keep moving because half the fun is the journey and what we were able to find between the destinations.  And we also learned just how blue and pure water can be, almost everywhere in NZ.  We had the rare opportunity to drink glacial water, mountain stream water, and river water while rafting, unfiltered.  It really was spectacular to see and refreshing to drink!  Lastly, we learned always to get the extra insurance on your rental car because someone hit our car while it was parked and it cost us quite a chunk of money....ugh!  New Zealand...we hope to visit you again one day!

Then off to Thailand we flew! We are currently in the northern mountain town of Chiang Mai, but will shortly update you on our journeys in Bangkok!  Until then....


*** As a side note, if you were wondering, our pack job has been pretty great!  Favorites so far are our reusable water bottles and our REI wind resistant jackets!

**** Ok, another side note... If you prefer, you can subscribe to receive emails of this blog when we post new material.  Take a look in the top right section of the blog page and follow the instructions.