New Zealand: Soaking Up The South

Travelling to New Zealand

*this part has absolutely nothing to do with New Zealand, I’d suggest skipping it if you don’t want anecdotes regarding our flight antics*

Finally the day had come! We were off, for four months, 1/3 of a year, 120 days (basically just a really long time). Grace, Lauren and I all said an emotional goodbye to our parents (I felt like a sociopath for not crying but I was too busy buzzing with excitement *mum and dad I promise I do love you*).

We checked in and got through security so you’d think it would be fairly straightforward now. Watch some films, have a second dinner, try and sleep a little and then land. But no. I started off with an incident before the plane had even taken off! Here’s how it played out; I started eyeing up the buttons on the TV screen. There was a little man icon which kept lighting up red when I touched it. Full of curiosity, I relentlessly clicked this intriguing button in hope something interesting would happen when BAM, Lauren slapped my arm away in utter disbelief.

“Carys, that’s to call a flight attendant”. Oops. All three of us broke into hilarity as the plane pulled to a halt.

“Look, they’ve stopped the flight because of you”! Lauren shrieked. (Thankfully they hadn’t, the plane was just waiting for a space on the runway).

We hadn’t even left the country and I was being told that having me was somewhat similar to looking after an 8 year old (in fact I was probably even more maintenance). Although we joked, I was secretly concerned I’d have an angry air hostess come over and give me a telling off. Thankfully no one appeared (this did make me wonder what the point of that button was as it clearly wasn’t very effective)!

Next up was dinner. As we’d gone for the veggie option we were served first (RESULT). So out came our mysterious meal. We pulled the silver foil off our grub in great anticipation to find slop that resembled something I’d be embarrassed to give my dog. Grace and I picked at the dried pasta coated in a wet sauce (yes, it was quite literally wet), however, Lauren’s was a pool. With a carrot drowning in the murky slime that filled her plate, to say Lauren was less than impressed would be an understatement.

The rest of the journey was fairly straight forward and we landed in Guangzhou (China) 40 minutes early. We grabbed a subway being the cultured travellers we are and amused ourselves at how all the water points only gave boiling water to heat up noodles as opposed to a nice ice cold water fountain. To be fair, Lauren did push the boat out and try some vegan noodles, so so far we’d travelled 6,000 miles for a tuna melt and a pot noodle.

After a 7 hour wait in China (and an attempt at sleeping on the airport floor) we got on the plane to New Zealand and landed safely in Christchurch. After munching down some tacos we chilled in the main area of JUCY Snooze (our hostel for the night) and then drifted off to sleep in some very futuristic pods. I managed to sleep through with only one half an hour period between 4:30AM and 5AM where I woke. Jet lag 0 - Carys 1.

Christchurch - Lake Tekapo - Lake Pukaki

Ok, down to the good stuff now. New Zealand. We picked up our camper van who we named Carol and quickly became attached to her. She had cracks in the windscreen and dents in the bonnet so she was a bit broken (but aren’t we all)! I loved her and she did a fab job of getting us round effectively a whole country.

We drove three hours to Lake Tekapo where we saw the Church of the Good Shepard and admired the turquoise lake that glistened in the sun. There were hot springs but after investigating them we found they were more like mini swimming pools with crowds of young children as opposed to ‘hot springs’. Definitely hold out and go to the free thermal pools in Taupo if you like that kind of stuff (I talk about these in a later blog)!

We then drove on to Lake Pukaki and found a gorgeous free campsite to stay the night. It was right on the lake so we watched the sun set with blankets wrapped round us (romantic ey). That night we all woke up at 3AM (this was our first day after all, so we were still adjusting to the time difference). When we went outside we saw the sky was filled with stars and it was honestly unlike anything I’ve ever seen before. You could barely see the darkness of the night for all the twinkling gems above our heads. In Lake Tekapo they offer star gazing tours at night (for extortionate prices may I add) but to save a few quid I’d suggest setting your alarm for the middle of the night and just gazing at them for free (you’re welcome).

Mt Cook National Park - Omarama

Our second day and off we were driving to Mt Cook National Park which was honestly the most incredible drive I’ve ever been on. Glistening turquoise lakes to our right, lavender fields to our left and snowy peaks bobbing into the sky in the horizon. When we arrived we took a 2 hour hike along the Kea Point route which took us to a viewing point of Mt Cooks peak (there were much longer walks and so much to explore but as it was our second day 2 hours was enough for us).

It was back into Carol (who was expertly parked by me if I don’t say so myself) and then onto Omarama as it was en route to Queenstown (our next stop). We found another free campsite which was actually lovely with a fab view of the mountains. Pasta was cooked, cards were played and then we all snuggled up in our sleeping bags (there’s a bed you can assemble at the top but we’re all too lazy so the three of us always just crashed out on the ‘two man bed’ in the back.

Queenstown

We drove down to Queenstown, all excited as we’d heard such great things about this city, and it definitely did not disappoint. As it’s such a popular spot, we’d booked a campsite in advance; the Lakeside Holiday Park which was a perfect location and had showers (hallelujah)!!

Grace rustled up some rice and beans (literally I’m A Celebrity food but beggars can’t be choosers and to be fair it was actually very tasty ... that girl could make plain pasta taste delicious and I’m not joking)!

We decided to go up the gondola to the skyline and the view of Queenstown was breathtaking. The price of going up is a bit steep but so worth it and we got three luge rides included. If you’re like me and had never heard of a luge you may be wondering what I’m on about. Basically, imagine a real life Mario Cart and that is effectively what we had. We were put into go cart type sledges and steered our way down bendy tracks which was beyond fun.

After all that excitement we refuelled at Winnie’s which did some luscious pizza (with vegan options available) and then sunk a couple at Surreal Rooftop bar. The best food we had in Queenstown was definitely Lord Of The Fries though, entirely vegan junk food which tasted more like meat than McDonalds chicken nugs (or so I was told, I went for a burger and chips). We also found better places for drinks, one of which was Attiqa Sundeck which had a DJ and fire pits dotted along the rooftop. Oh, and World Bar was fab too as it served cocktails up in teapots (yep, literal teapots full of alcohol. That’s taking after noon tea to a whole new level right)! We also had breakfast at Bespoke Kitchen which was another 10/10 meal that I’d massively recommend trying!

The next day we drove to Arthur’s Point and walked down to the beach where Grace and I paddled and climbed over the rocks. The weather was stunning, the hottest we’d experienced so far so it was a gorgeous spot to be in.

After a while we went on to Kawarau to spectate the bungee jumpers in the most famous place for bungee jumps. As we arrived I started to consider doing it myself (madness I know) but when we got inside and I saw all the people that had done it (David Beckham, Katy Perry and Billy Connelly who jumped naked!) I got a spurt of confidence. I was doing it. After all Mr. “you only live once” had done it so surely I could hack it (that’s Justin Bieber if you were wondering).

My heart was racing and I’m still not sure how I made myself jump when they gave me the go ahead. It was such a thrill though as I plummeted to the water. The other girls decided to do it too when I announced I was going ahead so it was great we’d all experienced the same adrenaline rush.

*Sidenote*

We really wanted to do Milford Sound but our only options were an expensive 12 hour trip on a bus or an eight hour drive in one day to make it slightly cheaper. In the end we decided not to go, it was just going to be too long and tiring and so far out our way but it is a MUST DO so if you ever find yourself in New Zealand plan your time so you have long enough to do Milford!

Wanaka

We had a paid campsite in Wanaka as it was another place we’d heard gets booked up. First up was parking half way round the lake before walking the other half to Outlet. It was such a pretty spot and a lovely relaxing walk.

We then went into Wanaka town which was lovely and there were so many restaurants and bars along the lake. The next day we climbed Mt Iron in some seriously blustery weather. The top gave a panoramic view of all of Wanaka so it was a real achievement and so worth getting to the top.

We had wanted to go to Mt Aspiring National Park as we thought it as fairly close. It wasn’t. Despite people saying to go to the National Park when in Wanaka, it was over an hours drive away and the majority of that was on a gravel road which you couldn’t go faster than 20mph on. We abandoned ship and looked at walking Roy’s Peak instead. Alas, the options were either a 6 hour hike or an 11 hour hike. Not today thanks. Although it is meant to be brilliant so if we’d had longer I‘m sure we’d have attempted that! Instead we drove on to the West Coast and wow, it was to be one hell of an experience...