Kaikoura

After we said goodbye to a few people from our New Zealand tour the day before, who only travelled the North Island of New Zealand, we met a few new people in the morning who would accompany us for the rest of the tour.

As usual we started early in the morning again. But this morning we had to hurry and we couldn’t be too late, because we couldn’t miss the ferry that was supposed to take us to the South Island of New Zealand.

To be honest, you could not call it a ferry but rather a ship. After we had checked in our luggage like at the airport we went directly on the ferry. At first I sat on the viewing deck with a few others from my tour to enjoy the view of the mountains and nature. But after half an hour I went inside the ship because it was getting too cold outside. The journey from one island to the next took three and a half hours.

Arriving there, we first had to pick up our luggage. Everything was exactly the same as at the airport, only it was much less organized. Far too many people were standing around the treadmill and it was a big crowd as everyone wanted to have their suitcase.

Luckily we all found our suitcases quickly and were able to get to our tour bus and store our luggage there.

Arrived on the South Island of New Zealand we went directly to a wine tasting. Since I don’t like wine at all and I’m not interested in wine, it was a bit boring for me. But the tour over the wine plantation was very short and during the wine tasting there was also cheese and bread which I could taste instead.

After our wine tasting we went along the coast towards Kaikoura. In between we stopped once to watch the seals at the water.

In the late afternoon we arrived in Kaikoura. The tour was over for this day and because there is not much to see or to do in Kaikoura we went shopping in the supermarket and spent the evening in the hostel.

Christchurch

This morning I could have slept in, as there was an optional early morning whale watching tour, but I didn’t take part as I had done whale watching before. But my roommates took part in this tour and were unfortunately not very quiet when they set off in the morning.

After I luckily fell asleep again, I got up at 8am, got ready and packed my things, because shortly after that we met with half of the group in front of the hostel, while the others were still whale watching. We then had the opportunity to do a coastal walk along the coast. There we had a really beautiful view of the sea and nature.

We walked along the coast for over an hour in quite warm temperatures until we met the rest of the group again. There at the beach we could watch two seals from very close.

Then we went on to a Lookout Point, the Kaikoura Lookout. From the Kaikoura Lookout we had another view over the water and nature. From there we went on towards Christchurch.

We still drove along the coast for quite a while and in the meantime we could even see dolphins outside on the ocean, jumping out of the water again and again.

In the afternoon we arrived in Christchurch. We then had to hurry to check into our rooms as we still had a street art tour through the city.

The night in this hostel was for me the absolute highlight of my trip. After everyone was assigned to their rooms, me and another woman got the key card to our room. Secretly, our tour guide showed us the list where Twin Room was behind our name. Then he said we should keep it to ourselves.

Pretty excited we made our way to our room. And the room we had was not a hostel anymore. It was more a hotel room. We had two single beds that were super comfortable, a fridge in the room, a very clean bathroom and the best thing was of course that there were only two of us so that we had the whole night our rest.

After we had put our things in our room, we went directly to the city where our tour started. We looked at various works of art on the street and always got something explained.

In the end we stopped at big graphite spray cans, which should be a work of art, on which we were allowed to spray.

After two hours, in which it rained quite a lot, the tour was over. The tour then ended in a burger restaurant where most of us had dinner.

Lake Tekapo

Getting out of the super comfortable bed the next morning was hard. It’s too bad we only had one night there. I would have loved to sleep in a decent room again.

After breakfast we set off towards Tekapo. The drive was quite long and we only stopped for short breaks. Around one o’clock in the afternoon we arrived in Tekapo. First we stopped at the lake, at the famous Church of the good Shepherd for some photos. It was very cold, according to my weather app only 10 degrees. After months in which I was only on the beach and in the sun, this is quite unusual. After a long time I had to put on thick sweaters again. From there we went on to our accommodation and after my night before it was absolutely not great. The rooms were much too small and four of us had to squeeze into the small room.

We only had a short time to put our luggage down before we went on. On foot we set out for a Dark Sky Project. There we were able to learn something about the universe in dark rooms, where the starry sky and the universe were recreated. After the one hour tour we went back to the hostel. In the afternoon I did not dare to go out because it was much too cold. Unfortunately, it was also very cold in the hostel because of the fact that the houses here have no heaters.

Wanaka

When we left the hostel in the morning, we all almost froze to death. It was much too cold in. So I checked the temperature on my weather app and noticed that it was only 4 degrees Celsius in New Zealand. That was one degree warmer than at home in Germany. Freezing we sat in the bus and set off.

First we stopped at a lookout point where we could look over Lake Pukaki. Shortly after that we were in a hurry, as some of us had booked a helicopter flight over Tasman Glacier. Arriving there some checked in for their flight while everyone else could already take pictures of Mount Cook from there.

After we dropped off a few people we went we went on to Mount Cook, where we did the Hooker Valley Walk. It was only a short way up some steps to Tasman Glacier. The view we already had during the drive over the landscape was simply unbelievable from up there. We were in the middle of nowhere, where it was just quiet. The temperatures slowly became pleasant too. Up there we took a lot of pictures and enjoyed the view and the silence. Then we walked down again and picked up the others from their helicopter flight.

Afterwards we set off towards Wanaka. We went a lot by bus that day and had a beautiful view of the mountains and the lakes all the time. In the meantime we also stopped for some photos. After our lunch break in a small village, we went directly to Wanaka where we arrived after a two hour drive in the afternoon. There we checked in again directly into our rooms.

Queenstown

In the morning we had the possibility between three activities. Together with a few others I decided to walk up Mount Iron in Wanaka, as it was the only free possibility.

So this was the third mountain in seven days that I voluntarily walked up. Since it was quite cold in the morning I wore thick clothes, two jackets and a scarf. Since the hike up the mountain was quite exhausting, I got very warm relatively quickly and was had to carry all my jackets on my arm.

Once again we had a really nice view over the village of Wanaka and the lake, after we finally reached the top after a little more than half an hour.

Since we wanted to leave at 11 o’clock already towards Queenstown, we didn’t have much time up there and had to go down Mount Iron again, which was again not without danger, since it was very slippery. When we were all back down at the bus we went to Queenstown.

In the meantime we stopped for a lunch break. The road to Queenstown led through the mountains and we had an incredible view of nature during the drive.

Around 2 o’clock in the afternoon we arrived in Queenstown. We had the afternoon off and only in the evening we had the program again. As we had the next day off in Queenstown, I rested in the hostel, as I was the only one who had not booked any activities for the next day and had a whole day time to see Queenstown.

In the evening we all went up a mountain in a gondola and met there for dinner.

During the meal we had a breathtaking view over Queenstown and Lake Wakatipu. It was an “all you can eat” buffet and we had 90 minutes in which we could eat as much as we wanted. The buffet was huge and we had so much choice that we all ate as much as we could. After we all nearly burst it has still a huge dessert bar, at which we have helped ourselves also once again. In the end we almost all rolled down the mountain, that’s how full we were.

I don’t think I’ve ever eaten so much in my life haha. After dinner we went up to the viewing platform and took some pictures. Then we went down to the valley with the gondola again. The sun just set and we could see the sunset over Lake Wakatipu. Arrived at the hostel I first had to lay down, as I had eaten way too much. I then went to bed very early as I was quite tired.

We spent the weekend completely in Queenstown. We had Saturday off and could book different activities. However, there was nothing I really wanted to do, so I had the day completely to myself. But since we were always on the road all day in the days before and always did something, my motivation to go out was not so big. I walked a little along the water of Wakatipu Lake but that was all for this day.

The next day we all met at half past twelve in front of the hostel, as we all went together to Glenorchy, a small town one hour from Queenstown at Lake Wakatipu. We stayed there a little over an hour. We could have stayed longer, but since the sun was not shining and it was relatively cold, none of us were in the mood for it. Then we went to the lake, took pictures and walked a little bit through the forest before we took the bus back to Queenstown.

Franz Josef

After two days of not setting an alarm clock, we had to get up early in the morning again, as we had a long drive to Franz Josef ahead of us.

After breakfast in a café in Queenstown, we started directly, through the enchanting landscape of New Zealand towards Franz Josef. In the meantime we stopped again for small breaks but most of the time we drove through the whole time.

Around noon we made a stop at Thunder Creek Fall, a waterfall that is extremely long, which we could only see from a distance when we drove along the road.

From there we went to Franz Josef. It was already late in the afternoon when we arrived there and we moved into our rooms, so I did nothing more that day.

Christchurch via Arthurs Pass

The last day of our New Zealand tour had already begun. As usual early in the morning after breakfast everybody was back on the bus. We had a long drive ahead of us towards Christchurch, where we would all say goodbye.

Around 10 o’clock we made our first stop. On a small farm we could choose small stones, which we were allowed to grind ourselves and then make our own necklace out of them. First of all we cut the stone on the grinding machine into the shape we wanted to have it in.

Afterwards we had to sand the stone. Finally we drilled a hole in the stone and pulled a thread through it. With this we had made our own necklace within an hour and so a souvenir of our New Zealand tour.

Our next stop was a café where we had lunch. Afterwards we went back into the bus, because now we crossed the Arthurs Pass. In the meantime we stopped for a short break and a little walk at Castle Hill. During the drive over the Arthurs Pass we could enjoy the view over the mountains and nature one last time.

In the late afternoon we arrived in Christchurch quite tired after the long bus ride. One after the other we all said goodbye to each other when we were dropped off at our hostels.

I had to pack my suitcase after I checked into my hostel for one night, because I had to leave cold New Zealand the next day and head back to the sun to Fiji Island.

If you would like to know what I experienced during my time on Fiji Island. Please read my next blogpost Island Hopping on Fiji Island – Fiji Travel Diary.