And we're back! Our blog isn't over after all. We decided on continuing to write this blog because we felt that going to New Zealand was very much a part of our Australian adventure. As we were already in this part of the world and we were able to save enough money we felt obliged to check out New Zealand.
Queenstown and Fiordland
We arrived in sunny Queenstown on the 30th of October where we spent the following three nights. The town had a lovely Central European alpine village vibe to it. It sits on the beautiful Wakatipu lake and is surrounded by breathtaking mountains. We had expected the weather to be noticeably colder than in Australia but were greeted with +25 degrees and sun, so no complaints!
Lake Wakatipu
Queenstown beach
The Remarkables
First beer in NZ
Queenstown is well-known for all the activities one can do there and around ranging from Bungy jump to helicopter rides. We wanted to take it easy in Queenstown and hadn't booked any activities in advance for our time there. We both felt a bit overwhelmed by moving straight onto another adventure after the year in Australia, so we tried to chill out. Luckily our accommodation in Queenstown was superb, a really comfortable hostel The Haka Lodge.
One morning we spent cruising on the lake on Million Dollar Cruise's boat, which was great, and we also checked out the Queenstown Gardens. Then we hiked up the Tiki trail to the Gondola summit to marvel at the view over the lake and the town. While up there we drove the Lunges, which was so much fun! The rest of our time we spent booking accommodation for the days ahead and also booking the cruises to Milford and Doubtful Sounds.
They say the Queenstown gardens look better upside down
Views from the Gondola Summit
Racing down the hill
Scream if you're having fun
On our way down
Cruising on the Million Dollar Cruise
Underwater world of Lake Wakatipu
Diving ducks
Queenstown sunset
After the three lovely days in Queenstown we picked up our rental car and headed off to the Fiordland. Our next stop was Te Anau, which is a popular town for visiting Milford Sound. We spent two nights there in a holiday park and also celebrated Oliver's 31st birthday there! For Ollie's birthday we had booked a day cruise in Milford Sound. The drive there took around 2 hours so we had to wake up super early, which is never easy for Rosanna. The drive there was quite amazing though, and would have well been enough on its own without the cruise to Milford Sound. The weather was rainy and a bit cold, so not the best in our opinion but then on the other hand there were waterfalls everywhere as the rain water was finding its way down from the mountains. We had a smaller vessel and a lovely crew, and were lucky enough to spot penguins and New Zealand fur seals while cruising in the fjord.
Our ride for the South Island
Our digs in Te Anu
Fattening up the lambs
Breath taking scenery on our way to Milford Sound
Weka
Milford Sound
Waterfalls
Stopping by a river to take in the views
Next we moved on to Manapouri, where we stayed in a cabin for a couple of nights and visited Doubtful Sound from. The Doubtful Sound trip was a whole day excursion and again the weather was cold and rainy. We were both freezing our asses off but managed to enjoy the beautiful fjord in spite the weather! Doubtful Sound was huge compared to Milford Sound and the vessel we were on board was a lot bigger as well. That's probably why this cruise felt more touristy than the Milford Sound one.
Lake Manapouri
Views from our cabin
Doubtful Sound
The waterfalls were showing their best after a bit of rain
Some of the views when it wasn't raining
It was freezing
Dunedin farm stay
From Manapouri we headed to the east coast, where we had a farm stay booked on a Kiwi farm for a week. The farm was located in a village called xxx close to Dunedin, which is the furthest city from Helsinki btw! We were staying and eating at the farm in exchange for working everyday for around 4 hours. We had found the farm through HelpX, which is an online portal where hosts and helpers can meet and agree upon a stay. Our farm was run by a Kiwi lady, who worked as a vet for her day job therefore most of the time she was very busy.Our responsibilities evolved mainly around feeding the farm animals. The farm had pigs, cows, sheep and horses in addition to three dogs and four cats. Since it was spring there were also lamb, piglets and calves and one of the horses was expecting as well! The calves were still hand fed, which we did two times a day. Rosanna also got to ride one of the horses for a bit.
En route to Dunedin
Little pigs
Big pigs
Big cows
Small cows
Horses
Cats...
...and dogs
Our work van
On our free afternoons we explored Dunedin and its surroundings. We visited the Albatross Observatory and spotted albatross, lots of other small birds and fur seals.
It was cold, according to Rosanna
Street art
Tuatara
Royal Albatross Centre
It's an Albatross
Watch out for penguins
Making our way up to the Maungatua summit
Happy to have finally made it
Views from the summit
Farmland as far as the eye can see
We did enjoy our responsibilities and loved being around all the animals. Our host had also cooked delicious food for us, and we ended up eating beef after a long break. We felt like it was okay to eat her meat, since we knew that the animals had been raised in good conditions. The things that bothered us were the cleanliness of the house or the lack thereof and staying in a sleep out and not inside the main house.
Last evening walk with the dogs
The Catlins
After seven days of farm stay we thought it was time to move on and chose to visit the Catlins next. The Catlins is a national park located further south on the east coast. It's very popular due to its amazing nature. We only stayed there for one night but managed to see a lot in the short time we had! The waterfalls we saw were magnificent as was the native bush we walked through. The Cathedral Caves were pretty awesome too!
Cows have taken over the road
The aggressive Sea Lion
Purakanui Falls
Cathedral caves
Thiiiiis big
Shadows
Star jump
The exit
Huge ferns
Amazing trees
McLean Falls
Lake Wilkie
Tautuku Estuary
Teapot house
Mt Cook
From the Catlins we drove back up and towards inland to Lake Tekapo. On our way there we saw some amazing scenery. The view over the Lake Pukaki was especially cool.
Some beautiful spots along the way
Views over lake Pukaki with Mt Cook in the distance
Rosanna can't get enough of her trickery
We stayed in Lake Tekapo for only one night and the next day walked the Hooker Valley trail to see the impressive Mount Cook, which is New Zealand's highest mountain. The trail was breathtaking and definitely is on the list of the best things we've done during our adventures! After the three hour trail we stopped to see the Tasman Glacier as well and oh boy how great was that! Right when we thought we had seen something truly amazing on the trail we were even more amazed by the blueness of the glacier lake. We had never seen anything like it and it ended up topping the trail, at least in Rosanna's opinion. After a very active day we drove a bit further north and stayed the night in a holiday park in Geraldine. As you've probably now noticed we were not hanging around too much in one place :D
Lake Tekapo at sunset
Hooker Valley track
There it is Mt Cook
Hooker glacial lake and Mt Cook
Bridge trickery
Amazing colour of the Tasman glacial lake
First of the Blue lakes that are actually green
Last views of Mt Cook, couldn't get enoug
Akaroa & Christchurch
Next on our itinerary was Akaroa which is a town located in the centre of an ancient volcano. We spent the day exploring the village and driving around looking at the spectacular scenery.
Scenery from the way to Akaroa
Akaroa jetty
Views over the crater
Poor man's Stonehenge?
Everywhere you go in New Zealand there's a waterfall
We spent the following two nights in Christchurch and wondered around the town shocked by the amount of construction work going on. All due to a earth quake they had back in 2011. We also caught up with Rosa's Erasmus friend Andreas and his girlfriend who were also traveling in New Zealand on their holidays.
The Christchurch Cathedral and the Cardboard Cathedral built to temporarily replace the original cathedral
A photo exhibition in the heart of the city
Long time no see
At the container mall
Street art Christchurch style
Kaikoura
Up next was Kaikoura which is a small village North of Christchurch solely relying on tourist coming on whale watching tours which was the reason we went there. It has suffered a lot after the 2016 earthquake that cut off the main road to Picton and making it harder for tourists to get there. The road from Christchurch was also closed and we had to drive a longer way. Oliver didn't fill up before leaving and the fuel light came on half way to Kaikoura with no petrol stations before our destination. Luckily the car was very conservative with the petrol light and we still had plenty left when we got to Kaikoura. Our whale watching tour was a great success after we saw a Sperm whale and a Humpback whale calf surrounded by Dusky dolphins. The same night we went on a kayak tour to see some of the New Zealand fur seals which were lazying about on the Kaikoura peninsula.
Keeping an eye out for those whales
There's a Sperm whale!
Diving
Back on the surface
The Humpback calf
Rosanna couldn't believe our luck
Some of the Dusky Dolphins playing with the calf
Kayaking with an idiot
Lazy fur seals, did no tricks at all
On our way to Abel Tasman we stopped to relax at the Maruia hot springs before heading to Motueka the hop capital of New Zealand.
Oliver shaking and relaxing
Motueka coast
I saw a seashell on the seashore
Hops, oh so lovely hops
Abel Tasman
We spent the next day sailing and walking in the Abel Tasman national park. The park is very beautiful with lovely bays and beaches, rainforest and rock pools. The 4 hour walk was fairly hard but well worth it.
Split Apple Rock
Walk in the woods
Sandfly Bay
Torrent Bay
Cleopatra's Pool
Waiting for our boat in a sheltered spot on the Anchorage beach
Wine tour in Marlborough
We spent the last day on South Island touring the Marlborough wine region by bike. The region is famous for it's Sauvignon Blanc but other varieties like Gewürztraminer are starting to coming through. We visited four wineries and really enjoyed the wines as we ended up buying a couple bottles.
Bicycling next to the vines
Where the sun at?
Between the vines
Our favourite winery
Our excellent host and their equally excellent range of wines
Framingham Wine
Last tasting accompanied by some lovely cheese at the Forrest Estate Wines
The next day we said goodbye to South island when we hopped on a ferry from Picton to Wellington, North island. Read from our next post what we got up to during our last three weeks in New Zealand :)
