When you think of fun and adventure in New Zealand, your mind should think Queenstown and rightly so. It’s amazing. We absolutely loved it here. It’s our new favourite place. The whole town is surrounded by breathtaking scenery, there is so much to do in and around the town and the whole place is just so friendly. It was great!!

We drove into Queenstown from Te Anau so that we were ready to look around and enjoy from lunch time on our first day. The weather was brilliant so we decided to grab a dominos pizza deal, eat our pizza overlooking Lake Wakatipu and then have a game of frisbee golf. Yes, you read that correctly, frisbee golf. I’ve seen a frisbee golf course before at Mount Edgcumbe, but we’d both never had a go before. We hired our frisbees from a local sporting goods shop and headed to Queenstown Gardens to see what it was like.

The whole course was 18 holes, but the first couple of holes were placed next to a steep hill down to the lake. A couple of times our frisbees went rolling down towards the hill lake and we thought we’d lost them, but luckily not. I decided relatively soon that I wasn’t very good at frisbee golf. I had the odd hole where it went ok and I hit par, but in general I couldn’t get the distance and the course was full of trees. It was great fun and Simon was crowned victorious at the end. Well done 🙂

After our game of frisbee golf we were headed to a small town just outside of Queenstown called Arrowtown. We were going to stay there for the night, not just because of our visit to the town, but also because it was cheaper to stay in Arrowtown that Queenstown. Arrowtown is a typical gold mining town, which is made up of lots of old heritage buildings. It has a really lovely Western feel to it and during our time here we walked along the Arrow river, around the Chinese settlement (there were a lot of Chinese people that came over to work in the gold mines) and through the actual town. We enjoyed a drink at one of the cafes and just relaxed which was lovely.

The next day we were heading to Arthurs Point so that we could ride the Shotover Jet. We have heard that there are 3 things you have to do whilst in Queenstown: Ride the Shotover Jet, Eat a Fergburger and Do a bungy jump (more on these later). In 2014 Prince William and Kate had a ride on the Shotover, so if it’s good enough for them, it’s good enough for us too. The ride was going to be about 25 minutes and the jet boat was going to take us along the Shotover river, taking us very close to the canyon walls, spinning us 360 degrees and zooming us through a couple of inches of water. The whole experience was brilliant and really exciting. We came off pretty wet, but was so glad we’d done it.

After this we headed back over to Queenstown. Our holiday park was really kind in letting us park the car there for the day free of charge so that we could get on with exploring before checking in. We were going to go on the free walking tour at 10am to get some insider info on the town. Our tour guide was called Jordan and he was full of knowledge about the history of the town and the different stages it has gone through. It was really interesting to learn that the town was initially colonised by a Maori tribe, then 2 men European men, then the city boomed for the gold rush and now is going through a tourist trade boom. There are 20,000 people who are permanent residents of Queenstown and 10,000 people working there on working visas from around the world. We definitely saw the appeal of Queenstown and could hear British accents everywhere we turned.

Our walking tour took us around the town and allowed us to have a cookie sample at Cookie Time and a Beer sample at a locals pub. We got to see the famous Earnslaw steamer boat leaving for its tour and learnt about the Maori origin story of Lake Wakatipu.

“At the heart of the legend is Manata, the beautiful daughter of a local Maori chief, who was forbidden to marry Matakauri, the man she loved.One night, Manata was kidnapped by a fierce giant from the mountains named Matau. The chief was so distraught about his daughter that he promised Manata’s hand in marriage to the man from the tribe who could rescue her. Matakauri snuck into Matau’s lair under cover of darkness and rescued Manata, and the two were happily married at last.But Matakauri wanted to be sure that Matau would never threaten his wife or tribe again, so he once again stole away into the mountains. He found Matau asleep, curled up on his giant side. Matakauri set fire to him, burning him where he lay. The fire burned a deep gouge into the earth and caused the ice and snow on the surrounding mountains to melt — forming Lake Wakatipu. The name translates to “Hollow of the Giant.”” Taken from http://www.dangerous-business.com/2011/03/the-maori-legend-of-lake-wakatipu/

Having lived in a house called Wakatipu for the first 18 years of my life it was really interesting to hear this story about this beautiful lake. In fact, Lake Wakatipu was formed from a glacier around 15,000 years previously. I prefer the Maori story.

After the walking tour Simon was booked in to have a go on an activity called Hydro Attack. Unfortunately, this was cancelled due to high winds. Don’t worry though, we’ll come back to this. Instead we decided to do the Queenstown Hill walk up to the Basket of Dreams and a wonderful view of the town. Before this though, I needed to try a deep fried Kiwi that our walking tour guide told me about. It was very tasty, but super hot inside. Back tot the walk though. I’m not going to lie… this walk was hard. I don’t think I would normally struggle this much on this walk, but for some reason I was having a hard time and developed a pretty bad headache about half way up. We took it slow and made it to the top. This was my favourite viewpoint of the whole trip so far. The whole area is just breathtaking and the town had already stolen our hearts. Reluctantly we headed back down and back to the our holiday park to get checked in.

Tonight was the night that we were going to hit the second must do on the Queenstown bucket list. Fergburger. I am not a massive burger eater, but Simon absolutely loves them. I ordered a Tropical Swine and Simon a Big Stuff. The queue at Ferburger can get massive at all times of the day (the store is open from 8.30am to 5am the next day – crazy) and we’d learnt a trick to phone your order in and then collect from the hut. It worked a treat and we had our burgers in 15 minutes compared to the usual hour plus wait. We walked down to the waterfront and tucked in. We both agreed that these were the best burgers we’d ever had in our lives. They were just amazing! Jucy, tasty and huge!! I think we’d move to Queenstown just for the Fergburgers.

 

As we had well and truly stuffed ourselves we headed back to Queenstown Gardens and went for a walk to digest. From here we had some great views over to Deer Park Heights which is where they filmed some scenes from Wolverine and also the large Orc fight when the Rohan people were leaving Helms Deep in the LoTR. There was live music playing in some of the bars and the atmosphere in town was great. Such a lovely day.

The next day I turned 28 years old and I was so happy to be spending it in this town. I’m sure you’re all getting fed up of me saying how much we like places, but honestly I truly mean it about this place. There are only 3 other places I would have liked to have been as much and that was Magnetic Island, Fraser Island or Noosa in Australia. Queenstown is still my favourite though. We woke up and our first activity of the day was a fry up. I’ve been going on about how we probably wont get fry ups easily in S.E. Asia so we found ourselves a fry up before heading up Bobs Peak on the gondala for some luging.

Andy, Jonny and Simon will tell you that my previous experience of luging was somewhat disastrous. I ended up zooming off a mountain into a pile of snow about 1 foot away from a tree whilst in France skiing a few years back. Luckily, this didn’t happen again. This time there was no snow, just some go kart like carts and 2 pretty awesome tracks. We had another bookme deal which included our gondala ride and also 7 runs down the luge. The gondala ride was brilliant and gave us good views back over the lake. I was pretty eager when we got to the top though and wanted to get straight on with luging.

We had to prove that we could luge to start with and had a practice with one of the instructors. We passed with flying colours and went down the blue track first (easier). Over the course of our next 7 runs we did a mix of the blue and red runs (mainly red which was a bit faster and bendier). They were both brilliant and we had a lot of fun laughing and enjoying ourselves. After luging we enjoyed the views at the top of Bobs Peak and watched a few people jump of the ledge bungy.

We headed back down Bobs Peak and back into town. We had a few hours before our next activity so we went back to the locals pub we had the beer tasting the day before and enjoyed a cocktail in a teapot. Yummy! The sun was shining and the day was just perfect. After this we were heading to the Absolute Zero Ice Bar. We had managed to get a deal on entry and a cocktail each, but I have to admit I didn’t have high expectations for the whole experience. Neither of us had ever been in an ice bar so were pleasantly surprised by the whole experience. We were bundled up in a warm coat and gloves and headed in to a room filled with beautiful ice sculptors, an ice sleigh, a hockey table made of ice and an ice fireplace. The whole bar was made of ice, our glasses were made of ice and there was a photobooth. It was sooooo cool!

Our next stop was dinner on the lake at the Bath house. The views were just perfect, the food even better (beef for me and venison for Simon). This day just kept getting better and better. But, then it just went above and beyond. Finally it was time for my birthday present from Simon. We were going to spend an hour in a private hot pool at Onsen hot pools over looking the Shotover River. We had sparkling wine, ice cream and an incense burner. Bliss!! Especially as we got to watch the sunset over the mountains. We both came away so relaxed and had a lovely nights sleep that night.

We had one more day in Queenstown and this was the day that I’d been worrying about for days. It was time for Simon to do the Nevis Bungy. He would be throwing himself off a suspended platform and falling for 134m. Lucky me, I got the fun of watching from the platform. He was super chilled out about it all the whole time and loved it. He did it twice!!!! Now, lets just touch upon why I didn’t do it. I’ve never really had a desire to do a bungy jump. It’s the actually having to throw yourself off a platform with the ground very close thing that’s the issue. Having been up on the platform with all the people jumping I do now feel as though if I ever got the desire to I probably could do it. The guys at the top were so good at getting one guy to jump who was nervous and everyone absolutely loved their experience. Who knows. Maybe I’ll have a go in the future if I ever get the urge. Simon is now addicted and will probably be bungy jumping all over the place so lots more for me to worry about haha.

He was buzzing for the whole day and still had his Hydro Attack experience to go. Hydro Attack is really hard to explain, but it’s effectively a robotic submersible shark that you sit in that dives under and jumps out of the water. I couldn’t get good photos of Simon doing much as they go quite far out into the lake, but he had a great time and definitely would do it again.

Our fridge battery was pretty flat so it was back to the car to charge it up. We decided to drive along the Northern tip of Lake Wakatipu to Glenorchy. It was our favourite charge our battery drive to date and gave us some amazing fews of the Southern Alps and other snow capped mountains. There isn’t much in Glenorchy itself, but we had a walk along the pier and had a look at the submerged trees (a bit like Wanaka).

On the way back we realised that it was our last night in Queenstown and we had to have another Fergburger. We both ordered exactly the same and enjoyed it just as much. They really are AMAZING.

Queenstown was like a little holiday within a holiday for us. We didn’t worry so much about money here as we already knew we would spend a lot during our visit. We wished we could have spent more time here, but knew that our bank would not have allowed it. There are so many activities, walks, bike rides and places to visit that we didn’t even touch upon and we seriously discussed the prospect of spending more time here in the future. It’s so understandable why people choose to base themselves here during a working visa to New Zealand. There is a massive appeal to being able to save money and do all of these amazing activities on your days off! Queenstown is a skiing and snowboarding centre in the Winter months and we would love to see what its like during that period too. Who knows when that will be. It could be next year or in 30 years time but, I can definitely say that we’re not closing the book on Queenstown yet.

After our lunch in Wanaka we started our long drive down to Te Anau. We passed through Queenstown on our way and along the Eastern coast of Lake Wakatipu past the Remarkables. It was amazing to have a taster of what was to come during our time in Queenstown. The weather was a little bit unpredictable so we didn’t stop too many times to take photos, but enjoyed seeing the new snow on the tops of the mountain peaks on the way.

We made it to Te Anau with just enough time to cook for the evening, but that was ok as we were really only there for one reason, Milford Sound. Our tour was picking us up in the morning and taking us through beautiful Fiordland, making many stops on the way, before we would eventually reach Milford Sound.

Our tour guide Reece, from the company Southern Discoveries, was amazing from the start. Apparently, he had been asking every couple who got on board if they were the couple on Honeymoon. He was really happy when he finally found us. I had been putting on most of our bookings that we were on honeymoon, but this was the first time that it was acknowledged. He gave us a congratulatory postcard from the company and a box of chocolates which we thought was super kind of them.

Throughout the whole trip, Reece told us really interesting facts about the area and its history. We learnt that Lake Te Anau is the second largest lake in New Zealand after Lake Taupo on the North island. He told us about the local farming that takes place, as well as all about the Fiordland National Park, how the road was built, what happens during snow storms and about the Manuka tree etc. Our first few stops were to look at the beautiful scenery and we were blessed with an amazing rainbow over looking the mountains. You can tell why this area was used a lot for the scenic shots of Lord of the Rings. It’s just stunning.

We carried along the road and eventually made it to Mirror Lake. This is another spot that claims to produce perfect mirror images of the mountains into the water on a calm day. We had a little bit of disturbance, but as the sign reflection shows. It wasn’t bad at all.

Soon after Mirror Lake we reached the 45 degree mark which meant we were exactly half way between the equator and the South pole. After this we hit the great divide which is where the rivers start flowing towards the Tasman Sea instead of the Southern Ocean and the Pacific. At this point, the weather gets considerably worse very quickly. Milford Sound is the wettest place in New Zealand, with Franz Josef being the second. Throughout the rest of the trip we experienced exactly what being the wettest place in New Zealand means.

We made a few more stops on our way to see the beautiful scenery and eventually we made it to the summit of the road. At the summit there was snow very nearly down to the ground and we learnt that the day previously there had been a snow warning, meaning all drivers on the road had to carry snow chains and prove they could put them on their cars if they needed to. Luckily, this warning had been lifted and we were able to just admire the snow. There were a lot of greedy Kea birds around. As soon as we stepped off the bus they would be walking around your feet begging for food. We eventually passed through a tunnel, which was really cool in itself and emerged the other side to mountains with endless waterfalls flowing down them. This is the good thing about Milford Sound, no matter what the weather, the views will be breathtaking. A few hours after the rain stops these waterfalls dry up and disappear without a trace. Luckily, i think, for us the rain was still coming pretty strong at this point.

Our last stop before Milford Sound was the Chasm. The Chasm was a short walk from the carpark through lush forest. You could hear the Chasm before you could see it. Effectively, the Chasm is exactly what its name suggests, a large hole with a huge amount of water flowing through it very quickly. The photos we took do not do the Chasm justice, but it allowed us to fully appreciate the power of water.

Back on the bus we made our final journey towards Milford Sound. Here we would have about 10 minutes before we would be boarding our boat for our 3 hour journey through the fiord. Milford Sound was incorrectly called a Sound, but the name has stuck. In fact, it’s a fiord because the valley was carved out by a glacier.

We enjoyed a picnic lunch on board and even though we were getting absolutely soaked, we decided to stay outside for the journey so we could fully appreciate the scale of the place. Most of our initial photos look black and white because the weather was so bad, but as you can see, this didn’t stop the views from being impressive. At one point the skipper took the boat underneath a thundering waterfall. We got absolutely soaked and were giggling uncontrollably until we realised just how cold and wet we were. Having spoken to my Mum that night we realised that it had actually been colder in Milford Sound that day than in the UK.

We made it all the way through the fiord and out to the Tasman Sea where the ride got A LOT choppier. Luckily, we didn’t stay out here too long and we headed back in along the other side of the fiord. We saw so many beautiful waterfalls, enormous cliffs and interesting rock formations. It truly is a magical place and if you come, you have to go. We were in two minds about wether to go to Doubtful Sound instead just because it is far less commercialised, but we’re really glad we went with Milford. Doubtful will be on our list next time.

On the way back the boat stopped at the underwater observatory. Here, you go about 10m under the water and you can see the marine life that is just beneath. Milford Sound experiences a phenomenon called Deep Water Emergence. Many deep water species from the Puysegur Trench in the Tasman Sea come into Milford Sound where there is limited light, therefore making conditions similar to that in the deep. One species that thrives here is black coral. The black coral is the white coral in the photos. Odd I know, but it’s named after the colour of its skeleton. This coral species is normally found at depths of 200 – 1000 m, but thrives in 10 m water in Milford Sound. Very cool to see.

After the underwater observatory it was time to head back in. Luckily the weather had cleared a bit at this point and we were able to get some photos that didn’t just look black and white. Milford Sound is the kind of place that you have to visit more than once. I came away feeling in awe of the place, but also because it was so impressive, I felt like I needed to see it again to fully absorb it. It would be great to see it on a sunny day as well. Unfortunately we didn’t get great views of Mitre Peak so we will have to come back. Oh the shame!

On the way back we didn’t stop too may times as we were all a little cold and wet. We made it back in to Te Anau and knew that we had made the right choice with the company we went went. The whole day was great. Reece had told us about a free bird sanctuary that we could visit near our holiday park so we headed there after warming up. Here we got to see the Tekahe, which was believed to have been extinct for many years. Luckily, it was found in the Fiordland Region and now there is a program to incubate the eggs and protect the chicks from predators, just like the program we saw in Franz Josef for the Rowi Kiwi chicks. We also got to see the cousin of the Kea, the Kaka and some other native birds. It was great and completely free.

The whole day was exhausting so we called it a night. We would need our energy as the next stop was Queenstown.

After the excitement of our heli hike we drove along the West Coast down to Haast and the Haast pass. We had originally planned to stay a night in Haast to break up the journey, but lost that day for the rearrangement of the heli hike. On our way to Haast we made a stop at Knights Point Lookout, which showed us views over the Tasman Sea.

After the lookout we carried on driving through Haast Pass, stopping often to taken pictures of the breathtaking scenery. The views we were seeing now were the typical views you expect of New Zealand and we were not disappointed. We made 2 other stops on the way. The first was at Thunder Creek Falls, which was such an impressive waterfall and the second was at the Blue Pools. I definitely recommend both of these if you are passing through that way.

Eventually, we saw Lake Wanaka, but Wanaka town is actually located on the Southern side of the lake, so we still had a way to go. We followed along Lake Wanaka for a while and then the road took us alongside Lake Huwea. Both beautiful. We made it to Wanaka quite late and we decided to just settle in and have some dinner before bed.

The next morning we headed into town to do some food shopping. This supermarket is the most expensive New World in New Zealand because of the distances the food has to travel to make it to this store. Great! We actually didn’t notice that much of a difference when buying our shop though. Phew. The afternoon was dedicated to exploring. We walked a short distance up the road to Rippon Winery, had a wine tasting, enjoyed the scenery and then drank half a bottle of wine (Osteiner – one of 2 places in the World that grow this grape) and ate a cheese board in the sun. Perfect!!

We then walked along Lake Wanaka back into town past the famous ‘Wanaka Tree’. This lone tree was made famous by a National Geographic Photography Competition a few years back and is now the most instragrammed and hash tagged tree in the world (apparently). I couldn’t help but feel sorry for the tree, but it was interesting to see.

The rest of the afternoon we walked around the town, enjoyed the views of the lake and just got a feel for Wanaka. A lot of people have told us that they prefer Wanaka to Queenstown, saying Wanaka is more like Queenstown used to be. We were really enjoying our time there, but there still isn’t a huge amount in the town and I couldn’t imagine living there as the distances between places is so great.

The next day we had originally planned to walk up to the summit of Roy’s Peak. A lot of people told us it was one of their favourite views during their time in New Zealand, but because the weather was a bit iffy we decided to pass this time and save it till our next trip (there will definitely be a next trip). Instead we visited a Lavender Farm which Simon thought would be super lame, but actually agreed that he’d been wrong about. The views from the farm were amazing and we enjoyed a pot of tea and some lavender chocolates before deciding what to do with the rest of our day. They also had some lawn games which we enjoyed being competitive over. I won connect 4, Simon won boules.

The weather was no where near as bad that afternoon as the morning had been and we decided to hire some mountain bikes for 2 hours and ride around the Eastern side of the lake to the mouth of the river. The views were simply stunning so we took loads of photos, had a ride on the tree swing and just enjoyed the ride. A highly recommend renting a bike in Wanaka and now we are in Queenstown I would also recommend it for here, even though we don’t have the time.

That afternoon we had to drive the car to charge the fridge battery, which has become a bit of an annoyance for us when we have been parked up in one city or town for a while. Oh well.. we can’t complain about the views while we drive. They’re just to die for!

The next day we were going to be doing about 4.5 hours of driving down to Te Anau, but before we left we had a chance to have lunch with the Danish couple we met in Franz Josef. The restaurant was amazing, Simon said his burger was brilliant (he is a burger connoisseur) and I had a fry up (getting them in before we go to Asia). We had a lovely few hours chatting with them and was sad to say goodbye. Hopefully we’ll see them again in the future!

Most people stay in Franz Josef for around 1 or 2 days. We arrived in Franz Josef having booked in for 3 nights at our holiday park. We knew this was a little bit longer than we should be staying, but our helihike was booked for the day after our 3rd night and we figured we could find things to do. Our first feel of Franz Josef was that it had a typical alpine resort air about it. We knew we were going to enjoy it!

Our holiday park was set in rainforest and had a lot of accommodation, not just campsites, so it was very busy from our arrival. It had a restaurant and bar attached to it, which is very rare and the facilities were great. As I mentioned in my previous blog, the night of our arrival we met a Danish couple and their son, had some drinks and ate dinner with them on our communal picnic bench. We had a lovely evening and have spent a lot of time with them since which we’ve enjoyed.

The next day we walked up to the terminal of Franz Josef Glacier. It was about a 20 minute drive out of town to the glacier and then it was a 1 and a half hour return walk up to the terminal. Walking along the path was easy and along the way we saw beautiful waterfalls and many different view points of the glacier. It was so impressive seeing the glacier appear from within the valley as we walked closer. We were very lucky with the weather and got some amazing views of the glacier. Franz Josef Glacier has been retreating since 2008 and having shown my Mum some photos that we took of the glacier she said it was very obvious how much it has shrunk since their last visit. Another sign of global warming unfortunately.

We walked back to the car and drove into town. On bookme we had managed to find a deal to go to the Kiwi centre in Franz Josef to have a backstage tour of their facilities. The centre has a very successful program that is supporting the Rowi kiwi population. To call it a breeding program would be incorrect. The team at the kiwi centre, along with the support of the Department of Conservation, will collect the kiwi eggs from the burrows a few weeks after they have been laid. These eggs are then taken to the centre and incubated and the chicks looked after for around 3 months. These chicks are then taken to predator free habitats around New Zealand for the next year or so until they are large enough to defend themselves. So, what are they defending themselves against? Kiwi’s number one predator is the stoat, an animal introduced to New Zealand to originally control the rabbit population. Guess what? The stoat did not control the rabbit population and they also have been decimating the kiwi population by eating their chicks when they are too young to product themselves. The Rowi kiwi population got so low that they created this program to support them and it is working VERY well.

While we were at the centre we were told about the role of this program, the biology of the kiwi and about the different species that are found. It was very informative and we were glad we went. During our behind the scenes tour we saw 2 kiwi chicks, 25 and 27 days old. They were so unbelievably cute! They would be heading off to their predator free environments soon ready to begin the process of getting large enough to go back into the wild, at around 1 year old. After we had finished the tour we went around the centre which is pretty small, but very well presented. They have 3 Rowi kiwis in their nocturnal house and we spent a good 20 minutes watching them sniff out food in the leaf litter. We couldn’t take any photos of them, but were so happy we got to observe them. We have asked a lot of people we have met if they have seen any in the wild and we haven’t met anyone yet who has. Pretty elusive animals! The centre also has a lot of information about glaciers and the local environment which we enjoyed reading.

The weather started to change so for the rest of the afternoon we sat in a cafe, had an unbelievably tasty burger and watched movies.

The next day, the weather was awful!!! We were getting a bit worried about our heli hike, but the weather was meant to get better the next day. We had a very lazy morning and then decided to go check in with out heli hike company and see what was going on. They said that all of the tours for that day had been cancelled, but tomorrow was looking better. Fingers crossed. As part of our heli hike we were entitled to entrance to the Glacier Hot Pools, which is 3 hot pools maintained at 36, 38 and 40 degrees C. We spent a good 2 hours in here discussing everything and anything. A few business ideas came to us whilst in the pools, so who knows whether these may come to fruition one day.

Feeling lovely and relaxed we drove down to Fox Glacier to walk up to the terminal. Most people will visit Franz Josef and then Fox separately, but because we had such a long time in Franz Josef we were doing it all based from Franz. The weather had cleared a bit and we headed off on our walk. It’s meant to be a 1 hour return walk, but when we got there we saw a sign saying they were doing maintenance work on the path and we would only be able to get 1km away from the terminal. Not great! We felt bad for Fox Glacier. Hardly anyone was there, it looked in a far worse condition (it has been retreating at an even greater rate than Franz Josef and for far longer) and no one could even see it properly because of the maintenance work. The valley up to Fox Glacier was really impressive though and we were still glad we went and saw it.

The next day was the day of our heli hike. The weather had cleared and was looking pretty good. We didn’t have to check in until 11:25 so we headed back down towards Fox Glacier to take advantage of the good weather and complete the circuit walk of Lake Matheson. Lake Matheson is an ale coloured lake which on a calm day can produce perfect mirror images of Mount Tasman and Mount Cook. There was a little bit of wind, but we got some amazing shots and the views were just beautiful. The whole area was very surreal, it didn’t quite seem real to be seeing such beautiful scenery. While we were there we were able to have a skype conversation with some of the Dowells, Pickerings, Overetts and Roddis’ which was lovely. Thanks for ringing us guys!

Filled with optimism we headed back to Franz Josef to check in for our heli hike. As we approached Franz Josef though we could tell that the weather was very different here. The valley was full of cloud and we were getting worried. We got to the heli hike centre and they told us that they hadn’t made a decision yet as to whether we would be going. After about an hour wait, we were told it was cancelled. Filled with disappointment, we decided to ask if they could rebook us in for the next day. As there was limited availability when we booked about 10 days before, we weren’t hopeful. Surprisingly, they were able to fit us in for the next day at 9:45am. SOOOOO HAPPY!!! All that had to happen now was for the weather to get better.

Disappointed, we decided we needed to find something to do for that afternoon and rechecked back in for our 4th night in Franz Josef. The weather was rubbish, we didn’t want to walk around in the rain, but we found another amazing bookme deal. Quad biking. We had ruled Quad biking out previously as it was quite expensive and we could do it in the UK, but this deal was way too good to pass up on. The deal allowed us to share 1 quad bike, paying 1 adult driver price and 1 adult passenger price, but swap as often as we wanted during the ride, and all at a 30% discount to advertised. The best bit was,we only had to wait 2 hours before we could go.

We checked in and were given endless safety briefings. We were getting worried that the whole trip was going to be dull, following behind each other in lines making it unable to have fun. Lets just say… we were wrong. The whole experience was so amazing! We had the best 2 hours zooming around on our quad bike over rocks, through mud and rainforest, going down steep drops and splashing through rivers. It was GREAT. We did see the glacier in the distance, but the weather was still pretty bad. Most people, like us, will go quad biking in Franz Josef if the weather is bad. I hope that other people don’t just see this as a wet weather activity as it was so brilliant. We wrote a trip advisor review immediately, which tells you how much we loved it. At one point Simon and I were laughing so hard that we nearly fell off the bike. We had fun trying to get each other muddy zooming through the puddles and I had fun telling Simon off for going to fast over rocks. Just great. Please remind us to show you the gopro footage when we get home!

Feeling a little bit better than we did after the heli hike was cancelled, we settled in for the night at the campsite. Simon met a British guy from Wiltshire while we were cooking and we went and had a couple of drinks with him in the bar and kept all of our body parts crossed (as did everyone on fb for us) for the next day.

The next day, there was sun. YES!!! The next question was, will it last? It did!!! We checked in for our heli hike, finally making it further than we did the day before. We filled in all of the health and safety paperwork, got weighed ready for our helicopter transfer, and got issued all of our hiking gear. Our guide for the heli hike was a girl from Yorkshire, so Simon and her had fun talking about Yorkshire-isms whilst we got ready and also on the glacier itself.

We started walking towards the helipad and it was only then that it hit me that we were actually going to be able to go up. I think deep down I had resigned myself to it not happening, but as they called me forward to sit in the FRONT of the 6 seater helicopter and the pilot started to play electro-trance music for us to listen to, I got pretty giddy with excitement. The scenic flight in itself was just so amazing and memorable. We were getting closer and closer to this breathtaking natural formation and then… we were landing on it! The whole ride was over in about 5 minutes, but I don’t think either of us will ever forget it.

As soon as we were on the glacier we were rushed away from the helicopter and asked to put our crampons on our boots. Luckily, we were both star pupils and were able to remember how to do it from our briefing. I think for the next 5 minutes while we waited for the other half of our hiking group, our jaws just hit the floor as we looked around at this maze of white and blue ice. The sun was shining and all we could see around us was ice and mountains. Anyone who is reading this blog and thinking of going to New Zealand. You have to do this!!! We are still buzzing from this experience days later.

For the next 3 hours we walked around the glacier, moving through tight crevices, crawling through caves, tasting glacial water and pinching ourselves. We learnt so much about the glacier during our tour and both enjoyed hearing the Maori formation story. I have linked the story here for anyone who would like to read it. http://www.franzjosefglacier.com/social/blog/the-story-of-ka-roimata-o-hinehukatere/

The 3 hours flew by and it was time to get our helicopter back down to reality. Simon had a great view of the valley and the glacier on the way back. The pilot did a very steep decent at one point, which felt a lot like a rollercoaster. We were both laughing and enjoying ourselves though. I can honestly say we were flying high and smiling for the rest of the day, we still are. The scenic flights of the glacier, which last about 30 minutes, cost around the same as the hike and to me it is no question. If you are lucky enough to be able to walk, go for it! We WILL be doing it again in the future. Thank you so much for anyone who contributed to our honeymoon fund at our wedding. We paid for this trip with some of that money. You have honestly allowed us to have some truly magical memories and we will be forever grateful.

After the heli hike it was time to leave Franz Josef. We feel like experts of the area now having completed most of the activities on offer. As we had lost a day with the delay of the heli hike, we were going to be driving 4 hours down to Haast and through to Wanaka. We still made 2 stops on this journey and I will talk about those on the next blog.

The morning after our Abel Tasman kayak trip we decided we needed to have a day off. We spent the morning lying on Kaiteriteri beach enjoying the sunshine and then drove a massive 9km to our overnight accommodation. What a difference 9km made though. The weather turned and as there isn’t a huge amount to do in Moteuka we ended up using the amazing wifi and backing up all our photos and writing lots of blogs. We even had the luxury of renting a movie on iTunes (the wifi had never been that good before). As I needed my daily walk we did head out to charge the battery on the car (for the fridge and usb chargers) and to go and see a shipwreck on their beach.

The next day we headed off to Nelson Lakes where we would be staying for 1 night. It wasn’t originally on our itinerary, but the date we could book our Franz Josef Heli Hike for was quite a few days later than we were hoping so we had a few days to fill. We’d heard good things about Nelson Lakes and particularly Lake Rotoiti that we decided to stay at.

As we got closer the scenery started to get more dramatic and the roads more windy. So far we hadn’t seen the typical New Zealand scenery on the South Island so were glad to start seeing some snow capped mountains. We popped into the local information centre, paid for our campsite which was a Department of Conservation run campsite (very basic) and picked up some information on a walk we had decided to do.

We decided we were going to complete the 9.4km Mount Robert Loop Track. I have been pretty disappointed that we were unable to walk the Tongariro Crossing on the North Island and felt like we needed to complete a good walk. 9.4km is nowhere near the 19.4km that the Tongariro Crossing is, but it’s a good start.

We drove along the lake, up a gravel path and parked our car ready to start our walk. The estimated time of the Mount Robert loop is 5 hours, but I thought we would be able to do it quicker. I predicted we’d be back at 4.40pm, which would make it 4 hours and Simon predicted 5:30pm… pretty pessimistic. The walk started well, providing us with stunning scenery, until about 20 minutes in. Most of the paths were gravel and very narrow. Somehow I managed to slip and fall over, grazing my leg pretty badly. I was very brave about it, we cleaned up my leg as best we could (not that well as everyone we passed stopped to check I was ok) and carried on.

The walk got pretty steep pretty quickly. I knew that the path would be steep in places, but I didn’t fully expect the incline we encountered. The loop takes you around Mount Robert, but not to the summit, however it does take you very very close. We clocked in over 1300m at our highest point on the walk. The views were breathtaking though and definitely worth the very long uphill battle. As Simon kept saying ‘The views just keep getting better and better’.

On the way down we had plenty more opportunities for photos and views over the lake and the surrounding mountains. We were very grateful we chose to walk around the way we did as the other direction (anticlockwise for anyone who may do it) was very zigzaggy and we felt that the upwards battle would have been harder on that side. Fortunately, we got to go down that way. So… what time did we make it back to the car?! 3:25pm. We managed to complete the walk in 2 hours 45 minutes. WOOOOO!!! Legends! I still can’t quite believe how quickly we walked it, especially as my leg was bleeding and stinging quite badly at times. Let’s just say, we were impressed with ourselves.

After our walk we headed down to the lake and fed the long finned eels that live there. Some of these eels are over 100 years old and I read in a brochure the other day that the females don’t reach maturity until they are 70 years old!!! Crazy! The lake was so pretty and we enjoyed the views for a few hours.

Now… I must tell you about an evil animal that we encountered during our time in Nelson Lakes. We had been warned about the nasty sandflies, but until you experience them, you won’t believe how persistent they are. Unfortunately, they like to live around water, so there were loads of them at Lake Rotoiti and they came in swarms. Cooking was interesting in the campsite’s doorless kitchen and when we opened Maverick’s doors, they flew in on mass. We were pretty happy we were only staying for one night.

The next morning, with a few sandfly bites, we headed towards Westport on the West Coast of the South Island. We were going to take the next couple of days heading from Nelson Lakes down towards Franz Josef in Glacier Country. The road to Westport passes alongside the Buller River for most of the time and goes through Buller Gorge, which provided some pretty amazing views. We looked at stopping at the Buller Gorge Swingbridge and Zipline, but it was pretty expensive and we’d had our fair share of free Swingbridges already.

We made it to Westport as the weather was turning. Luckily, we had washing to do, so we figured we’d let the weather pass before heading out to see the Southern Fur Seal colony that lives nearby. It was a short drive, maybe 15 minutes or so, to the carpark for the Tauranga Bay Fur Seal colony and then about a 20 minute walk along the pass. We felt like we could be in Cornwall walking along the North cliffs at times on this walk, it was very surreal.

The viewing platform for the Fur Seals is around 12m above the colony, so you can watch, but not be too intrusive. There were lots of boards providing information and we had a brilliant time just watching the seals fight, swim, cuddle and feed their young, as well as sleeping (lots of sleeping). We decided to walk along the path a bit further to enjoy the views, but unfortunately the weather changed on us and we started to get pretty wet. We headed back to the car, after another brief stop at the seals and dried off.

We felt like we should visit Westport itself so drove around the town. Waste of time. There is nothing there!!! I wish we had have moved on from Westport that night, but we were committed to our holiday park by then. There seems to be quite a bit you can do north of Westport, so maybe that would have provided more options for us?

The next morning we were driving from Westport to Hokitika. Our first stop of the day was Punika?? (Pancake Rocks). The weather was AWFUL!!!! The west coast is known for its high rainfall, but wow! I don’t think I’ve ever seen consistent downpours that last for 8 hours before. The loop walk at the Pancake rocks is 20 minutes so we attempted to coverup and head out for the walk. The rocks were amazing. It’s still not completely understood how they formed such perfect layers, which I found pretty interesting, but the weather put a little bit of a dampener on the whole experience.

We drove next to Greymouth. I’ve been told by a few people that Greymouth is only good for petrol. That is soooooo true! It’s a dump. Now, that may be being a little mean, but I didn’t enjoy the feel of it at all. We stopped in KFC (Simon’s request). The menu was weird and the food was awful. This sums up Greymouth for me. We had looked into visiting Shantytown to learn more about the gold mining that took place here, but reviews of this didn’t make it look like our kind of thing and also it’s mainly outdoors (we’re still in the middle of downpours).

Further south, our last stop was Hokitika. We checked into a campsite and decided that we were going to go into the ‘coolest’ town on the west coast (that’s what the leaflet says). They have a glassblowing studio, a greenstone carver, a gold shop and lots of other pretty cool little shops. We spent about an hour here watching the craftsmen and wandering around… still getting very wet. Westport to Hokitika is not a short drive, but because of the weather we had covered this ground pretty quickly. We went back to the campsite, watched a movie and then I got antsy again. We picked a place on the map and headed out, prepared to get wet one more time.

As we drove there we couldn’t believe that we should be able to see Mount Cook and the other Southern Alps on the horizon. We could see absolutely NOTHING! We were heading to a waterfall called Dorothy Falls. It had been raining pretty badly, so logic would say that a waterfall would be extra special after downpours. We weren’t disappointed. Dorothy Falls was violent and every bit worth getting wet for.

We also walked down to Lake Kaniere and had a play around on a bench. As you’ll see in the pictures, the bench was a little underwater. Hopefully this shows you how much rain there had been that day as the Lake was MASSIVE.

On the way back to the holiday park , we saw a swing set and had a play on the swings in the rain. Why not?!

On our last day travelling down the West Coast, we were pleasantly surprised to see the sun out. The day before we had driven past the turning for Arthurs Pass, which we had originally planned to visit. As the weather was good today, we headed back up the coast and drove to Arthurs Pass. Arthurs Pass is a little town in the Southern Alps and the road through that town provides a pass from the West Coast to Christchurch. It is also the route of the Transalpine train that runs from Christchurch to Greymouth and, in fact, we drove alongside the train line for most of the journey.

The views were great and we were so glad that we chose to drive to Arthurs Pass. Simon was so happy to see all the snowcapped mountains and when we got there we finally got to see the native alpine parrot, the Kea. These birds are so naughty and were picking at the rubber seals on all of the cars and campervans. They definitely have a personality.

We also walked up to the Devils Punchbowl Waterfalls, which was mind-blowing. The water falls 130m and i can honestly say I’ve never seen a waterfall quite like it. Beautiful.

After an hour and half more of breathtaking scenery we were back on the West Coast and were heading to our last stop before Franz Josef, Hokitika Gorge. We had heard that the water in this gorge is a very peculiar colour because of the glacial run off and the rock flour (powdered clay and granite) from the gorge itself. This spot is just so special. The water was a grey duck egg colour and so milky. There was a suspension bridge that we could walk over which we enjoyed, but most of all we just liked sitting by the river for a bit and taking in the scenery. Definitely worth a visit.

2 hours later we had made it to Franz Josef township. The weather had cleared up and we were getting some very impressive Southern Alps views now. We spent the evening drinking and eating with a Danish couple in the camper van next to us. They are travelling for 6 month with their 4 year old son, so massive respect to them. We had a lovely evening talking about everything and anything.

I will leave it there. I know its been a bit of a long one, but I wanted to put all of that journey into one blog for anyone thinking of driving it. I have to admit there were times whilst travelling down the West Coast where we have both been a little bored and fed up. The weather definitely didn’t help, but what I don’t expect was how barren the drive is, how little there is to do and how much you have to pay if you do want to do any experiences. We looked into Quad Biking, but it was extortionate and we have a lot of fun activities planned during our time in Glacier Country, Queenstown, Te Anu, Wanaka and Tekapo.

As we left Blenheim we decided to drive the scenic route to Nelson. It would take a little longer and would be a little windier (as in, more turns in the road), but the views were meant to be beautiful over Queen Charlotte Sound. They were! We stopped often and took some photos and enjoyed the view. The whole drive was beautiful and we arrived in Nelson a little before lunch time after driving past the beautiful coastline. I had never seen the sea this amazing pale blue colour before. Trust me, the photos don’t do it justice.

Poor Simon! I had seen a sign on the way in to Nelson for a walk to the Centre of New Zealand. Now, I honestly didn’t think that the Centre of New Zealand would be right at the top of a hill, but it was. I mean, what were the chances of that? Turns out it’s not ‘officially’ the Centre of New Zealand, but is the centre of the middle region, Nelson. Good enough for us! We got to the top a little out of breath, but as always. The view was completely worth it.

We walked back down into the centre of the city and enjoyed a stone baked pizza from a street vendor. It was so unbelievably tasty and it got me back in the good books with the husband. We had to buy a new day backpack as mine had ripped, been repaired and ripped again. I don’t want to risk losing anything from the bag so we decided it was time to bite the bullet and buy a new one from Kathmandu. Other than that, we just strolled around Nelson and really enjoyed it. It reminded us of Wellington with it’s proximity to the sea and the structure of the city. Great place!

We carried on to Kaiteriteri, which is up near the Abel Tasman National Park. We had bumped into a few people who have told us that we HAVE to go stay in Kaiteriteri and as soon as we arrived we could tell why. The beach was beautiful, there were rolling forested hills in the background and you could see the coastline that we drove along earlier that day in the distance. The water was clear and blue and the sand was golden. It was definitely the most beautiful beach we had seen so far in New Zealand. Our holiday park was right on the beach and we settled in with a walk along the beach.

For the next day we had booked to go kayaking, cruising and seal watching. Our good old trusty website friend bookme.co.nz gave us an excellent discount for this all day activity so we were happy. The only way to access the coastline of Abel Tasman National Park is by boat or by walking the Abel Tasman 71km great walk. We only had a day and didn’t really feel like a massive walk so were glad that our package included our boat trip up to Anchorage.

We got up nice and early and saw that the sun was shining! We are very aware that we have been SO fortunate with the weather recently and are very grateful. Everything in New Zealand would still be as beautiful and breathtaking even if it was raining, but I’m not sure Simon would agree that I would be the best company if I was cold and wet. Always grateful to see the sun. We headed down to the beach to get ready for our first activity of the day – sea kayaking. Simon and I have kayaked quite a lot in the past and have sea kayaked in Devon. This was our first time kayaking with a ‘skirt’ though. We were taught how to release ourselves if we ended up capsized in the water and I reminded Simon that the only reason we would, would be if he made us! Simon was going to be in the back and he was introduced to a new way of steering, a rudder controlled by foot pedals. That was going to make my life far easier.

We headed off from Kaiteriteri beach and had a lovely kayak around to one of the marine reserve islands. We saw lots of gulls nesting and a huge amount of cormorants flying around. We carried on kayaking towards Split Apple Rock. Split Apple Rock is a rock formation that looks more like an avocado, in my opinion. It is believed that it originally had a core of quartz and over time weathering caused the rock to split straight down the middle leaving the formation that we see today. It was pretty impressive.

It was time for tea and biscuits on the beach and of course this meant it was a good time to do some jumping shots. The one of me has caused me to have a bit of a back ache for the last day or so… that is how committed I was to the shot. Mum, I promise I will be more careful. The tea was great and we got chatting to our kayak guide, John, who has the same camera as us. He taught us a few tips which is great.

Back in the kayak and it was time to back up into a cave that we could paddle through. Simon was loving life at this point and having a great time. We kayaked back the way we came and couldn’t believe that 2 and a half hours had passed already. We had a really great time! We do love kayaking and were thinking about getting one when we get home and settled into work again.

We had a little bit of time for lunch before our sea shuttle took us to Anchorage. I was pretty excited at this point as we would be going past Adele Island which has a colony of Southern Fur Seals. We were very lucky as we got to see about 5 on the way to Anchorage and about 5 again on the way back. YAY! They were mainly males as they were waiting around for the females to return from hunting. The females had recently had cubs and that means it’s time to get pregnant again.

We arrived in Anchorage and it was just paradise. It was very easy to forget that we were in New Zealand. We decided to do the 1.5hour Pitt Head Loop Walk with a girl called Laura that we met on board. She was living in Wellington, but from Glasgow originally. The walk took us to lots of beautiful lookouts and down onto a bay that was just stunning (I think i need to look in a thesaurus for some more words to describe how amazing these places are).

We made it back to the beach with about 30 minutes to spare before our boat took us back to Kaiteriteri beach, so we sat on the beach and relaxed. It was such a brilliant day and when we spoke to Laura about how she had booked it, we realised again how great bookme.co.nz is at getting you a discount.

That evening we enjoyed an icecream and settled in to watch some of ‘The Two Towers – Extended Edition’. We’ve been working our way through the Lord of the Rings movies again.

 

We were onboard our Interislander ferry by around 8:30am with a sail time of 9:30am. We had checked in a lot earlier and had to sit in the car waiting in lanes for a while before that. Simon wasn’t too disappointed by that as he saw a huge group of McLaren cars while we waited. One of them costing 1 million dollars. Jeez! He took a lot of photos and had to be ushered back into the car when we needed to board. The group was doing a tour of the country, stopping at race tracks often to properly enjoy their cars. Once on board we had a conversation with the tours videographer, who turned out to be a videographer for top gear! Pretty cool.

The first thing we did was book ourselves in to watch ‘The accountant’ in the little cinema on board and then get a bacon egg muffin. Yummy! I had taken my seasickness tablets and was starting to feel a little doppy. To cut a long story short, I fell asleep in the cinema and later realised I had accidentally taken 2 tablets when I should have taken 1. Whoops! I won’t be doing that again!! I felt horrible. Apparently the film was pretty good. I only remember the very beginning haha!

The film finished just as we were coming into all of the beautiful Sounds of the South Island. The whole area was just so beautiful and we were so glad that we were going to have the time to explore the North of the South Island when so many people rush straight off to the West or East Coast. Once we got off the ferry we were heading to Blenheim. We were going to have an explore of Picton that afternoon, but I was still feeling pretty doppy so we headed to Blenheim and I slept for 2 hours and didn’t do a lot else with the day except food shopping and cooking. Simon was happy for a rest I think. That’s one thing we’ve been pretty bad at whilst travelling, just taking the odd day to do not a lot.

The weather had turned the next day, but we headed out early anyway to the Omaka Aviation Centre. Simon had seen an advert for this the day previously and really wanted to go to see the World War 2 display of aircraft. Simon found it all very informative, surprisingly modern and unexpected. They had on display a Hurricane, Stuka, Spitfire, P40 and a Yak aircraft. All of the displays were built around very real scenes which made it far more interesting for someone like me and there was a huge amount of boards of information to read. There was a movie about Stalingrad, which made us reflect, especially about the numbers of casualties during the war particularly in the Soviet Union. It was a really interesting morning.

We drove to Picton, put on many layers and our waterproofs and headed out for a walk. I’m like a dog, I need to be exercised at least once a day. We decided to walk along the front and also along the Bobs Cove walk which took us about 1.5 hours return in total. It gave us a chance to look at some of the beautiful scenery we had seen coming into the harbour the day before, but at a much slower pace.

Afterwards we spent some time in the Picton National Whale Centre where we learnt more about the whaling industry in New Zealand and also about the species that can be found here. The centre is really informative and completely free. Definitely worth some time if you are coming through the area.

On our way out of Picton we decided to go for one more walk at Karaka Point Lookout and Maori Pa Site. It wasn’t a long walk, but it took us through some old Maori ruins and then down to Karaka Beach, which was breathtaking. We watched gulls munching on mussel shells and did a spot of rock pooling. Lovely. The next day we were going on a Marlborough Sounds Winery bike ride so wanted to get some good rest to be on top form for wine tasting.

We were picked up in the morning by Wine Tours by Bike and then taken to their office where we would be collecting our bikes, helmets and maps of the area. The whole tour was going to be self guided, which is what we wanted. We were given so much information by the owner at the start about the region, the local vineyards and how to get around on our bikes. There were around 15 vineyards within a reasonable radius that we could visit during our time, but it was best to aim to visit 5. We tagged along with 2 couples from the States for the day and had the best time tasting wine and riding our bikes.We visited: Forrest, Bladen, Nautilus, No 1, Whitehaven, Wairau River and then went back to Forrest to buy some wine. Most of the vineyards did free tasting or it was a really small fee to taste up to 6 or 7 wines. We stopped for a cheese board at Nautilus which was so delicious and just had the BEST day. The sun was shining, the wine was flowing.

There are so many people back in the UK that this day made me think of. I know so many of you would have LOVED this experience and really hope that you get to experience this in the future. Wine Tours by Bike took us back to our accommodation and I couldn’t more highly recommend them. They were so professional and helpful. We met some Kiwi’s and one Brit on the transfer bus back and we arranged to go to the local beer garden for some drinks that evening, which was also brilliant fun.

Our time in Blenheim and the Marlborough Sounds region had come to an end and we were heading up to the Nelson and Abel Tasman region the next day. We had a great time gaining more wine knowledge and we can’t wait to show it off when we get back 🙂

We left Napier with a 4 hour drive ahead of us. We hadn’t planned to stop at all as we wanted to get to Wellington and have the whole day there to explore. This is not how it worked out. There were 2 very interesting signs on the way which we had to investigate. Our first sign came around 90km away from Wellington. We had been driving through some pretty strong winds and heavy rain, but it had been getting lighter so we decided to take a 11km detour to check out the contents of this sign. So, what did we go to see?

There is one of these in England, it is pretty famous and most people visiting the UK will go and visit this tourist attraction. In England, you can’t touch it and it’s not as impressive as another one that is similar to it. My parents live pretty close to it. Stonehenge!! The sign that we saw said Stonehenge Aeoteroa (Stonehenge New Zealand). Being born and bred in Wiltshire, we had to go check it out. When we got there we watched a video explaining the design of the stone circle and the other stones around the edge of the circle. It was very clever, because they had designed it that 3 of the stones matched the horizon in the distance so that the sun rose perfectly over the stones at different times of the year. There was also another 3 stones at the front in which the sun would rise over during the 2 solstices and the middle stone twice a year over the equinox. There was also a monument that highlighted the position of the Seven Sisters in the night sky and a hole in the middle pillar which if you looked through would show you the rotational point of the stars.

We walked around the site for a while and had a lot of fun a) touching the stones and b) taking cool photos. Enjoy!

We got back on the road planning to head straight to Wellington and then came the second sign. The sign was equally intriguing and we had to stop. This sign said ‘Rivendell’. For most of my audience, I will not need to say anymore, but I will clarify for the rest of you that Rivendell is a location in the Lord of the Rings. Rivendell in the movies is absolutely stunning so we decided to go and have a look. The area is very pretty, but once we got there the information boards told us some interesting facts about the area. 1) All of the set has been taken away from the area to restore the National Park back to its original state 2) Most of the dramatic scenery was filmed in Fiordland on the South Island and then super imposed on top of the Rivendell filming. It was a lovely little walk and there was a pretty river and swing bridge so we spent some time here looking around.

Having vowed to not stop again until we made it to Wellington we carried on. I can’t tell you why it happened, but as we were driving through the suburb area of Upper and Lower Hutt we both felt really positive about Wellington. The whole place felt great, the sun was shining (which probably helped), we’d just driven through beautiful National Parks and we had the rest of the afternoon ahead of us to explore. Just to jump ahead of myself a bit, to this day we are still in LOVE with Wellington. We had the best time here. It is a capital city without being huge, it’s coastal without losing its city appeal, it’s just great!! We checked into our holiday park and got straight on the bus to head into town.

We wanted to go and spend a bit of time in Te Papa Museum before it closed. Te Papa is the National Museum of New Zealand and we were not disappointed. The exhibitions told you all you needed to know about the history of New Zealand. Right from the structure of the Earth to Earthquakes, Volcanoes, Maori settlement, European settlement, current day refugee support etc. It was such a brilliant museum and really well thought through. We even got to stand in an Earthquake simulator and experience what it would be like to feel a 6. something whilst inside a wooden house. How realistic this is I do not know. I imagine every earthquake is a little different. We didn’t quite get around all of the museum that afternoon so said we would go back if we could the next day to look at the Mother land exhibition (Britain) and the Maori culture exhibition. I would completely recommend this if you are in Wellington.

After this we headed to Lambton Quay to take the cable car up to get some stunning views back over the city. Seeing as it was around 6.30pm we thought most tourists would be going up there to see the sunset and it would be really busy. Nope. It was just us and a few commuters. The ride was great! They have disco lights in the tunnels which was brilliant, but it was all over too soon.

We completed the cable car circuit walk when we got up there, taking us through the botanical gardens and around by the observatories and of course providing us with panoramic views throughout most of the walk. We loved it. You should have seen the grins on our faces. Well you might get to in some of the pictures. We walked back through town and decided we needed some food. It was nearly 8.30pm by this point. We were having so much fun we had forgotten to eat… rare for Simon.

We decided to try a restaurant we had seen around called Burger Fuel. It’s a mix between a takeaway and a restaurant. The burgers were really good. Oh and the kumara fries (sweet potato). They even had this cool cardboard burger holder device to hold you burger while you ate it. Unfortunately, I failed to get a photo of it. Guess we’ll have to go again. We got the last bus back to our holiday park and got ready for another full day in Wellington the next day.

We got up early as we were heading over to the suburb region of Miramar to take a workshop tour of Weta Cave. Weta Cave is where they build all the props for so many famous films including Avatar, LoTR, The Hobbit trilogy and so many more. The company is cofounded by Peter Jackson and has grown bigger and bigger with time. There is a sister company called Weta Digital that does all the CGI and computer generated animation for the movies, but we weren’t able to have a look around that. The tour was around an hour and we couldn’t take any pictures whilst in the studio because all of the props are owned by the film companies, but were allowed to take some in the shop. We learnt so many cool on screen tips and tricks for making things look authentic and got to see some of the stages for the production of different props. They were working on a sword of some sort whilst we were there.. who knows what movie that will appear in, they didn’t tell us anything about the future unfortunately. I was hoping to hear some secret news about Avatar.

After our tour we drove along some of the beautiful bays of Wellington, dropped Maverick back at the holiday park and took the bus into Wellington again.

The first thing we were going to do, much to Simon’s dismay was a walk to the top of Mount Victoria to the lookout. It was pretty steep in places, but we managed. We even found a slide on the way up which we spent some time playing on to catch our breath. No one else was playing on it… I found that odd. Eventually we made it to the top and WOW! Check it out.

We learnt that Wellington has around 170 days where the wind is over 30 knots and yes we didn’t doubt it as it was very windy at the top of Mount Victoria. The city also has a green band around it which the original mayor intended for 2 reasons 1) The British settlers were used to dirty air and this would make them more settled here and 2) It would increase the cost of land within the green belt.

We climbed back down and went back to Te Papa Museum. Had a lovely coffee and finished off the exhibits we hadn’t had a chance to before. We walked around the city and just really enjoyed ourselves. Here’s some of our shots out and around Wellington.

We were getting up at 6am the next day to get ourselves checked in for our ferry crossing to the South island so reluctantly we headed back to our holiday park and cooked dinner. We had heard different things about Wellington before we left and came in with minimal expectations of what it would be like. It blew us away. Realistically we know that it wouldn’t be like that if we lived there and even if we were just there for a longer period. We had ticked off most of the within Wellington tourist activities, but there are huge National Parks just on the doorstep as well as loads of beautiful beaches to explore. We will 100% be back in Wellington in the future!