Migrating North
Christchurch
We arrived in Christchurch Friday evening and Alex had organised a little party with our Christchurch friends. To the delight of Alex we also got to meet their kitten, Princess Leia.
Dunedin
The next day we left for Dunedin. We stayed at a campsite about 30 minutes North which was the home to a female sea lion. We took a walk along the beach to see whether we could catch a glimpse, but she was nowhere to be seen. Around dusk Alex is spotted testing out her new camera.
Bachie's second use: camera mount
We met Fletch, a good friend from Wollongong who moved to Dunedin a few days prior, for breakfast. After breakfast we took an expedition to Taiaroa Head, the home of the Royal Albatross Centre. We didn't see any Albatross, we came too early in the day, but we saw plenty of Fur Seals playing at the base of the cliffs.
You can see a seal at the bottom middle of this pictur
Milford Sound
Time to drive to Milford Sound. We'd been told that there was nothing good below Dunedin, but nothing prepared us for the trip between Dunedin and Te Anau. Maybe the worst drive I've ever done along boring landscape with ferocious winds. I spent the whole trip battling to keep the car pointed straight down the road, while the wind pushed and pulled the car around. The initial plan was to stay near Te Anau, but we ended up going in a little further and staying mid-way between Te Anau and Milford Sound for a nice night by a river.
The beginning of the Milford Sound National Park
In the morning we got up nice and early for a 4 hour kayak. This was Alex's birthday present for me! Pretty stunning way to experience the fjords.
Us in the kayak
The Lookout
After the kayak, the rain was relentless and we spent most of the afternoon staying dry at the camper park in Milford. The next morning we went for a walk to the lookout and Alex took the great snap above. We made a few stops on the way out of Milford Sound, including at The Chasm. We've seen some chasms in our time, and I can confirm: this one is a chasm.
The Chasm
We stopped in Te Anau and watch the film Ata Whenua. It's a 45 minute documentary of footage of Fiordland National Park backed by some powerful music.
Queenstown
Queenstown is a cool place, but it's a nightmare for cars. We arrived into the most traffic we'd seen in a while and quickly left to ride on the Shotover Jetboats. We then found a nice little farm with a place to camp on the lake. The next morning we played a round at the local disc golf course, of course...
The edge of the disc golf course
Alex post throw 'from on top of the giant rock (boulder)'
Fox Glacier... Actually Franz Joseph
After Queenstown we headed for Fox Glacier on the West Coast. We stopped at Blue Pools on the way. There was a major storm hitting the South Island. We were going to stay near Fox Glacier, but the road to the Glacier was closed from flooding. We had a quick look at Lake Matheson and then headed to stay the night in Franz Joseph.
Blue Pools
Our mascot's looking a bit concerned about the flooding
Floods strike. The trip up the West Coast was very wet. We had to take many detours and drive through a lot of water. We stopped at two roadblocks while we waited for excavators to clear the road from landslides and fallen trees, but luckily we made it to Abel Tasman.
Waiting for the trees to be removed from the road
Abel Tasman National Park
Finally some sun. We took a water taxi from the beginning of the Abel Tasman track to a point on the track from where we walked back. The walk was about 6-7 hours ## The beaches were beautiful and the path was very nice.
Split Apple Rock
Nice view
We stayed the night at a really nice free campsite run by the company that built the app that we use to look for free campsites. The price of admission was that we had to fill out a form ranking and recommending places to go (they upload the reviews onto their app).
Swollen post-flood river provides a nice view for dinner
Nelson
We stayed in a freedom camp in the middle of Nelson. It was very loud, to the point that we moved the car during the night. The next morning we had a throw of the frisbee on the beach, had a shower, visited the markets and headed for Picton to catch the Interislander ferry.
Wellington
We couldn't find a good place to stay in Wellington after a delicious dinner at Wagamama, so we were forced to stay at the YHA. It was refreshing to be out of the rain for a bit. We didn't do much the next day as it was windy and rainy in Wellington. We drove to Ohakune, stopping on the way to walk the Bruce Park Walk.
Tongariro
We arrived in Tongariro two nights before the weather was going to look good, so we had a full day to spare. We had a drive up Ruepahu Rd and saw Mangawhero and Waitonga waterfall. We also saw a deer on the track. Apart from that, we just waited out the rain.
That's a man, not a deer
With a new day came perfect weather. This was the day we would do the Tongariro Alpine Crossing. The 8 hour tramp (plus 1.5 to Tongariro's summit) was once in a lifetime; although this was the second time Alex had done it. It was something unique.
Mount Ngauruhoe (Mt Doom)
Order front to back: Alex, Mt Ngauruhoe, Mt Ruhapehu
Entrance to Hell?
We were tired after that day, so we stopped at Blue Pools (another one, they're all called Blue Pools) for a bath on the way to Taupo.
Taupo
In Taupo we visited the Spa Park for a warm dip the next morning before finishing our journey to Auckland that afternoon.
Auckland
Arriving in Auckland, we stayed with Freddy and Frauke, a german frisbee couple, for about a week while we looked for a new place to live. After seeing some truely terrible places, we ended up finding an old place to live: the same apartment we were in last time. The tenants had moved out a day before we contacted the landlord to be on our reference list...
Although there was so much wet during the trip, looking back it doesn't feel like we missed out on much because of it. It tested our comfort levels at times, but the adventure we went on was something neither of us will forget.