|New Zealand – part 1|

Road trip starting from Christchurch (15. – 23.04.)

On our last flight from Sydney to Christchurch we’ve met an awesome New Zealand guy named Nicholas who gave us many tips where we have to go and he also invited us to his place in Hanmer Springs. We had a great talk during the 3 hours of flight. Hopefully we can meet him again when we’ll pass his hometown on the way back to the north.

So finally our road trip through New Zealand started in Christchurch on the south island. As we arrived on the 15^th of April we rented a full-equipped car for the whole month of our journey to be more flexible and always have a place to sleep. The car includes everything we need for living like cooking and bed stuff, fridge/freezer, DVD player and two batteries so that we always have enough power over night for the fridge, our phones and the DVD-player. All in all our Slimer (which is the name of our car) was quite small but after a while we figured out how to effectively use the space.

Our trip was first going down to the south towards Tekapo, Mount Cook, Wanaka, Dunedin and Otago as you can see on the following map.

Christchurch (15./16.04.)

In Christchurch we stayed for the first two nights and visited the botanic garden and the city center, where we had a meal at a nice market with many great street artists. Afterwards we went up the mountain with the gondola and hiked down after the sunset. Up there you have an amazing view over Christchurch and the surroundings.

Mount Sunday/Edoras (17.-18.04.)

Due to the fact that my travelmate Timo is a Lord of the Rings fan we have to visit some sites of the film. One of them was Mount Sunday, which is called Edoras in the movie. We drove a long stony road to the hill, where we had a short walk (about 45 minutes) to go up to the top of this hill. The hill was located in a enormous big valley – it was amazing – even if it was just a random hill in a big valley for myself 😀 but Timo enjoyed it to see the film location. When we were back at the parking spot dusk was already falling so we were heading to a camping place which is called grumpy’s retreat 😀 Due to the dark it was a bit scary as well because nobody else was using this camping side but when we checked in the guy was really friendly and not grumpy at all. In the morning the camping side seemed pretty nice, so we actually didn’t know why almost nobody was using it.

Peel Forest & Lake Tekapo (18.04.)

On the way to Tekapo we stopped by the Peel Forest where we had a short walk through the rain forest ending at a little waterfall. After this short walk we were going on to Tekapo.

Tekapo is known for the possibility to see stars very intense due to the reduced lights around the place and the location on the 45th parallel. Due to the season the landscape was very colorful and the water so turquoise – amazing place to stay for a while. During the evening we tried to take some pictures of the sky but unfortunately the moon was already so bright that it wasn’t so intense.

For the night we camped at another smaller lake called Alexandrina, which was a great place to stay. During the night the temperature were very low so that we were freezing one’s ass off in the car despite using a hot-water bag.

Mount Cook (19.04.)

The road trip from Tekapo to Mount Cook through the big valley and the lake was awesome – a never-ending paradise. As we arrived at the camping ground close to Mount Cook in the afternoon we decided to walk only the 3,5 hour hiking track including 2200 steps, which was recommended by a nice Canadian guy we’ve met before. After the exhausting way up we rested for a while with a great view down the valley and up to the glacier but unfortunately after the sunset the weather became uncomfortable so we went back down to the camping ground.

Wanaka (20./21.04.)

We arrived on the 20th of April in Wanaka in the afternoon and spent some time at the lake. Afterwards we planned a hiking trip for the next day. We started the hike to Roys Peak in the morning, which is relatively steep and due to the intense sun Timo was almost dying and I was sweating a lot as well 😀 But the view on the top of Roys Peak was definitively worth it! We rested for more than an hour at the top and enjoyed the amazing view over the lake and the mountains before we went down again. It was an amazing trip, which I would really recommend!

Dunedin (22.04.)

After the two days in Wanaka we were heading to the southwest passing Dunedin. In Dunedin we visited the Baldwin Street – the steepest street on the world. Our plan was to drive this street up and down again but as we arrived we thought that our car wouldn’t make it up there because it was really steep 😀 so we decided just to walk up. Afterwards we drove to the peninsular to look for seals and penguins but unfortunately we haven’t seen some. So we went on down the east coast towards the south and camped in a nice camping ground surrounded by some hills conducted by a funny guy from the UK.

Nugget Point/Otago (23.04.)

In the morning we visited a great landscape with an old lighthouse called the nugget point. After a short walk you have a great view to the lighthouse and the stormy and cloudy sea – it was mystical. From this point we saw several seals with their babies, which were roaring and chilling at the shore but only in the distance. When we drove back we saw one lonely seal chilling at the beach – it was the first time that I’ve seen such a big seal so close in the nature – just amazing!

After the Nugget Point we drove to the Purakaunui Falls, which were close to the road – about 10 minutes walk. During this season the waterfall was not enormous but still it’s a beautiful place and worth to see. After that we tried to go to another place where it is possible to see some penguins but the road was closed due to bridge constructions and the detour was unfortunately too long so we decided to go on to our final destination of the day – Te Anau at the west coast of NZ – which is known as the gate to the Fiordland.