Boating and Waitomo

Two days after we came home from the south my friend Rachel had two friends visit her from Canada. They were here for a week and so Rachel wanted them to go on a trip with her while they were here. So we planned something for the first weekend we were back. It was a…

Mt. Cook and The End

We left Dunedin early the next morning. We got a coffee down the road from the house and then hit the road. It was a long drive to Mt Cook National Park but we started out early. We made a stop at the moeraki boulders. These strange naturally round boulders along a beach just outside…

The Catlins

After a few crazy days of “where the heck are we” moments, we were back to beautiful outdoor road tripping. We drove into the catlins, an area of the southeastern corner of the island which was filled with forests and other beautiful sights. Our first two stops weren’t far from our campsite. The first was…

Where are we?

We arrived in Invercargill. A place we had been making fun of because we knew someone from there and it didn’t sound that thrilling. It is a pretty big city in New Zealand terms, but there’s not a lot going on. It’s mostly an industrial city so there’s lots of housing and businesses and factories….

Milford Sound

On the day we left Queenstown, we made a quick stop at a little town called Glenorchy. The drive is about an hour scenic route along the lake with a view of The Remarkables on the other side. The town is really small, but is situated in the most beautiful spot. We stopped for a…

Queenstown

I didn’t want to like Queenstown. A friend of mine lived here for a year and when I told him I was going to be living in Auckland he gave me a disgusted face and said “south island’s better”. I was bitter, out to prove the north island was just as good. And now that…

Glaciers

This is what I was most excited about for our trip (well, this and penguins, but you can’t win them all). I’d never seen one before, and I just think they’re so cool (no pun intended). They’re huge, they move, and sadly, they’re disappearing. We saw two glaciers that day, the first stop was Franz…

West Coast

The next two days were a lot of driving, we had a lot of ground to cover and lots to see in between. The first morning we woke up earlier than usual to fit everything into the day. Our first stop was one of Abel Tasman’s landmarks, Split Apple Rock. It’s a perfectly round rock that…

The North of the South

After our night in Nelson, we continued to drive north toward the very top of the island. This day and the next were some of my favourite drives, we had to drive right over a mountain range to get to the valley on the other side. We saw beautiful views of the ocean and the…

Marlborough

We last left off our adventurous group heading off to the region of Marlborough, right into the town of Blenheim. After figuring out how to put our tent back onto our van (the lifting is much more difficult then the pulling), we ventured north along the coast to Blenheim, the beginning of the wine region….

The beginning of the South

  So this is the beginning of a very long process, but a very good story. I’d never been on a trip for so long. It’s weird but quickly starts to become normal. It feels like it was so quick, but it feels like forever ago all at the same time. But most of all,…

Hobbiton

Obviously when I told people I was going to New Zealand the number one thing I heard about was The Lord of the Rings. I had seen the movies in grade 7, we watched them in my class, which in retrospect was a huge waste of class time, but like I cared. I was not…