New Zealand: South Island Road Trip

October 17: Wellington to Nelson

Woke up really early to catch the ferry from the North Island to the South Island. On a map, it does not look far, but it actually takes 3.5 hours. It was totally gorgeous and included a great breakfast, but it turns out that we both get seasick. Good to know!

These rental vans are found everywhere, and they all say funny things. 

Interislander Ferry 

Pretty! 

Upon leaving the ferry, we drove down to Nelson, which is a very quaint and cute town. We stayed at Prince Albert Hostel, which I highly recommend as it was excellent. The only slight issue was that not all top bunks had guard rails, which can be quite scary. I got lucky with the guard rail, while Amy did not.

We went for a little wander around town, which honestly did not take very long, and appreciated the beautiful sunshine.

Excellent almond milk caramel latte in a compostable cup!

Nelson is quaint. 

Pimm's Cup! YUSSSSSS

We had a nice dinner at the pub attached to our hostel and decided to pull out our colouring books before bed. Upon entering our room, we met our really nice roommates from the US and had a good chuckle with them. It was so nice. 

October 18: Nelson 

Prince Albert Hostel offers a free waffle breakfast from 8-9, which we definitely enjoyed, though there was "maple flavoured syrup" not actual maple syrup... which, I suppose, is fair because they don't have maple trees here ha. One of our roommates forgot a phone charger so we ran to the bus station to find her, but she wasn't there. 

It seems that New Zealand is a country that shuts down at 5pm. Everything except restaurants and bars seems to close at 5. So as we were wandering around town to find some souvenirs and get me a new suitcase, we stopped at the Provincial Museum to check out the Bug Exhibit and the History of Nelson Exhibit. Turns out, the girl whose phone charger we had went back to the hostel looking for it. Whoops! She met us at the museum and then left Nelson. 

Fun facts at the museum

After the Museum, we went to the Nelson Cathedral for a walk about. I love checking out churches, and there was some interesting British history included. I forgot to take a picture of what the cathedral was supposed to look like .... the tower was never completed due to lack of funds. So, eventually they added a metal bell tower instead.

Nelson Cathedral 

Nelson Cathedral Tower; it never got finished

Never seen a two part organ: pipes on the left, keys on the right

Flag on the founding boat 

I like stained glass windows

Carnation bush! 

Arriving back at the hostel, I transferred everything from my broken suitcase to the new one and tossed the old one. It was Gramma's, so it was kind of sad ... but, it's just a suitcase. When I entered the hostel lounge, Amy was asleep on the couch so I used the Wifi and then watched Big Mouth on Netflix. We had a nice dinner of flavoured tuna on cucumber, then grabbed a pint of cider at the bar while playing cards before bed.


October 19: Nelson to Christchurch

It was very important to Amy that we go to the Pic's Peanut Butter factory before leaving Nelson. They had a tour at 11am, which we were a couple of minutes late for, but it was really neat. Pic's is REALLY popular in NZ, and they only use natural ingredients.

Factory!

This is the room where it happens. 

Creation and bottling!

The drive down was about 6 hours, and it was really nice. Check it out:

Mountains

Everywhere you look, there are mountains

Perfect stretch break

The other side of the river from the photo above

The colour of this water blows my mind

Funky rocks

As were arriving in Christchurch, Amy got really excited. I didn't really understand until we actually arrived at the hostel. We were seriously staying in an old jail. It's called Jailhouse Accommodation and I HIGHLY RECOMMEND. It was the coolest thing! It's all been painted white so that it's not quite so scary, but we were sleeping in a jail cell. Wifi was only available when the door was open, or if you hung out in one of the many common areas. We grabbed pho for dinner and went to bed.

Pretty darn cool 

There were even costumes to wear!

October 20: Christchurch

Amy and I slept in i.e. did not set an alarm, so grabbed coffee when we woke up at a sweet place beside our hostel. Coffee in NZ does not mean drip or filter coffee, it means an espresso-based drink. So, if you want a coffee, you get a latte or a flat white. Luckily, there are enough independent/hipster shops around that I can find almond milk!

We wandered through a really nice park, with real actual bike paths, and went to downtown Christchurch to meet up with a friend I met in Bali in 2011. As we were eating lunch from within a mall of shipping containers, a high school band started playing beside a cafe. It was a perfect addition to a really great lunch of fish 'n chips!

Memorial Bridge

Memorial Bridge

Christchurch was positively devastated by a MASSIVE earthquake in 2011 and has been slowly rebuilding. It is a really nice hipster city with lots of cool graffiti and artwork.

Christchurch Cathedral 

Sweet car park wall 

Excellent Hokey Pokey ice cream from the super hipster and excellent Rollickin Gelato

Hipster gelato stand

They even have an ape

Super European shopping street 

Excellent walls 

Earthquake Memorial 

185 Empty Chairs

Sunshine, indeed

October 21: Christchurch to Oamaru

We woke up really early so that I could go SKYDIVING! LIKE, WHOA.

So, I was nervous but super excited as I was getting the instructions and even getting into the plane. It's a tiny, little plane and I was in it with another tandem pair, but they were jumping out at 9000 feet and I went for 12 000 feet. It wasn't until the door was open for them that I started to actually freak out. Up until that point, I had been enjoying the beautiful scenery of ocean, fields, and then mountains in the distance as we made our way up. Then it got real. I was given the goggles, which kind of dug in, and we did a bum shuffle toward the door. Suddenly, the door opened and my legs were outside the plane while my bum was sitting on the edge.

I was told to lean back, far back, and cross my arms over my chest. Lassi, my jumper, said "Here we go!", gave me a high five, and suddenly we were flipping out of the plane. I didn't realize that we would be doing a backflip, but it was so rad. I have no way to describe free falling. It was intense and fast and I wanted to look around but we were falling so quickly and pointing downwards that that's where I could look.

Then suddenly the parachute was pulled, which was quite jerky and an abrupt slow as we were pulled upward by the wind rather than being forced down. It was beautiful, and somewhat easier to breathe, and I could actually move my head around to look all about. It was surreal, and I REALLY want to do it again. The only thing I didn't like was when the harness dug into my right leg/groin. I couldn't feel it until the parachute came out. Oh well, worth it!

At one point, Lassi asked 'Do you like roller coasters?' I gave an emphatic, 'HECK YES!' and suddenly we were careening in a circle to the right really hard and fast. Then suddenly, we switched to the left. SO COOL. I highly recommend skydiving! Just incredible.

Landing is kind of weird. I was told to lift my legs up, just like I was sitting, and then suddenly, our bums were on the ground. It wasn't hard or painful, just kind of sudden. I could tell we were getting really close, but it took me a while to figure out where exactly we were landing (it was much closer to sheep than I thought ha!). As we were landing, I saw the plane we took also land. So, it takes a plane as much time to get back to earth as it takes to jump out of said plane. Odd!

Lassi asked for some final words for the video, and then told me to walk back to the hangar. As I was walking, on such an adrenaline high, Amy yelled my name and gestured for me to look down. I was standing beside ducklings! And their mummy was the instructor who had jumped out of the plane before us. They were following him around and let me pick them up and it made me so happy! They were black and white, so soft, and adorable adopted babies.

We left the Ashburton Airport and I honestly cannot say enough good things about Skydiving Kiwis. So rad. I was gushing about how great it was and how I couldn't believe that I had just gone skydiving. We grabbed some snacks and gas, and carried on our way. I was midsentence explaining my jump when we noticed a bunch of signs for "Event" and then saw a lot of horses. So we pulled in!

We went to our first rodeo, the Winchester Rodeo. Put on some extra layers, grabbed a yoga mat, and grabbed a seat in front. Amy was SO excited and I thought 'Well, I've just jumped out of a plane, so why not?' It was really neat, and we learned a lot. We saw bucking horse riding, lassoing of calves of different sizes/ages, the junior steed rides (kids wearing ice hockey helmets), and bull riding. The bull riding was intense; they only have to hang on for 6 seconds but those are some seriously terrifying moments.

The scariest moment was when one of the riders got trampled by his horse. We think his hand was caught, at first, and then when he got that free, he couldn't get his legs loose. The photo below shows the three other horse & riders trying to help the bucking rider; typically, as soon as the 6 seconds are up or the whistle is blown, the rider gets onto the back of one of the other horses so they can slow down the bucking horse. This guy was half on one of the other horses but then couldn't get his leg out, so got pulled under his horse.

He was taken away on a stretcher by St John's Ambulance paramedics, but he was alive and could talk and move his arms. So intense. And the rodeo simply carried on as soon as he was off the course/track/arena ... clearly, I'm not an expert because I don't even know what the darn thing is called. We stayed for about an hour and carried on our way to Oamaru.

Oamaru, pronounced ‘Oo-ma-roo’, is the cutest little steampunk town. I didn’t know what steampunk was until we arrived, but it was NEAT. As we were driving through town, which took all of 3 minutes, we noticed some really neat statues and old buildings. Amy said ‘it’s steampunk’ and I pretended that I understood but actually had no clue.

We arrived at Oamaru Backpackers around 430pm, the cutest and sweetest hostel I’ve seen. It is clearly someone’s home that they’ve converted into a hostel/B & B. The bunks were big, comfy, and the ladders were easy to climb up! This hostel had huge windows overlooking a bit of the town and the ocean, and it was glorious.

We took a wander through the historic part of town and made our way to the water to see some wildlife. I was amazed by the steampunk playground and the colour of the water.

There are small blue penguins who live in Oamaru and we were hoping to see some out by the water. We saw a furry sea lion and a LOT of seagulls and cormorants instead. Then we decided that it was worth it to pay to see the colony come home from the sea and learn more about the penguins, but they don’t return until sundown. We grabbed a really nice dinner on the water, then went to silently squeal as the penguins returned.

They are the tiniest lil things, and waddle SO adorably. Plus, they make a cute lil clucking sound that is hard to explain. This particular colony has about 185 penguins, though there are also penguins who live further inland and are not part of the colony. We saw them climbing the rocks to get out of the water and dry off as we were heading back to the hostel. As a safety precaution, as the penguins are returning to land they congregate in groups of about 30-50 out in the sea, known as a raft. This colony has a fulltime biologist keeping tabs on them, which doesn’t often happen. It was a totally new experience that filled my heart and made me so grateful that these beautiful creatures still exist and are protected.

October 22: Oamaru to Queenstown

We enjoyed the Oamaru Sunday market to grab lunch for our road trip, then wandered to some open shops and a really great coffee shop/art gallery. I wanted to buy all kinds of gorgeous shoes and hats and skirts with bustles, in Steampunk style. It is SO funky! Unfortunately, I already have ENOUGH things to take to Australia with me so I exercised great restraint and did not buy anything.

We made a quick pit stop to the Moeraki Boulders. These are legit huge rocks that are rounded, and have started to erode apart. IT WAS SO COOL, even though I had a migraine and thought I would puke. Still, so neat.

It was a beautiful 5-hour drive, and the funniest moment by far occurred in the middle of my sentence how gorgeous a lake was, Amy yelled ‘OH, DAMN!’ and swerved off the road. She actually was yelling about a dam and then bust a gut laughing. I had no idea what was going on and at first was terrified but then figured out what was going on and joined in her laughter.

New Zealand is, hands down, the most beautiful country I have ever had the pleasure of visiting. I am certain that part of it is because it is springtime and everything is fresh and lush and green, but everyday I am floored by what I see. Driving into Queenstown, I could totally see why so many people love it down there and why it is a tourist destination.

We stayed at the Adventure Q2 hostel, which I absolutely loved. The beds were super comfy, there was a lot of security, the bathrooms were excellent and each one included a sweet Where’s Waldo (I fully completed two of them, cause there are big lists of things to find), and there were huge lockers under the beds for luggage.

Amy and I made ourselves a salad for dinner but I was still hungry so we went out for a quick wander and some yummy tapas at Toro. I had a delectable Hot Buttered Rum; it was seriously impressive. On our walk back to the hostel, we stopped in at the only open shop along the walking street: a souvenir place. We discovered a number of hilarious shirts and several hand creams. We were in a hilarious mood, and the shopkeeper was from Chicago so we struck up a conversation. Amy bought a placenta cream, and we had MANY questions about the sheep placenta. Alexander said we made his shift, and laughed a lot with us. There were far too many jokes made about placenta, and sheep, and placenta sheep creams and masks. It was excellent.

October 22: Queenstown

Woke up early to get on a helicopter to Milford Sound! We were super pumped. Unfortunately, bad weather prevented us from going and we were told to call back the next morning. Ugh! We went back to bed and watched Netflix until mid-afternoon when we were hungry. Then, we went for a lil walk around town, although it was cold and rainy so we didn’t stay out very long. It was really nice to have a day when we weren’t driving or doing much of anything.

Upon returning to the hostel, we used the common lounge to laze on the couch and watch Brooklyn Nine-Nine. Just before we made dinner, we had a video chat with Amy’s parents. They are really lovely and I like them a lot. Turns out, the kitchen at the hostel was super busy so it was a good thing we weren’t doing anything super involved. Every hostel so far has had either a good or great kitchen and decent beds. It’s great!

October 23: Queenstown

Woke up early for the helicopter tour, set to leave at 9am. It got pushed to 10 so we got brunch. Then 11 so we wandered around Queenstown some more. Then 1, when we finally got picked up for our flight. WHOA.

We were not entirely certain what we had signed up for. There were 6 passengers and a pilot in the helicopter in the photo below.

We flew around Queenstown, over the beginning of some mountains, and could see the huge lake behind us. Then, suddenly, we’re landing on a snow covered mountain 6500 feet up. SIMPLY 

INCREDIBLE.

We got back in the helicopter and continued on our journey toward Milford Sound. There was a slight delay as we were waiting for some clouds to part, but otherwise it was relatively smooth and stunning. It was 100% worth it. After about an hour of flying, we made it from Queenstown to Milford Sound and got out of the helicopter to walk around and see the town of Milford Sound. It gets 7-9m of rain/year and rains 300 days/year. I think being a pilot or working at the airport would be a tough gig.

It was an hour flight back to Queenstown. Leaving the airport, we got on a natural elevator aka beside a mountain as the winds come screaming through the sound, which allowed us to see the beautiful Milford Sound. It is 200m wide, and 9km long. Just gorgeous.

We kept going over the Southern Alps and at one point it was like we were on a roller coaster. We were rising, going over a white-capped crest and suddenly the helicopter did what felt like a free fall. You know when you’re at the top of a roller coaster and then you start to fall? It was that feeling. I LOVED it. Amy flipped out and became airsick. She didn’t vomit, which was impressive, but she was ready for the flight to be over while I was still enjoying the final 20 minutes.

As soon as we landed, Amy rushed to the washroom to be still and quiet for a couple of minutes. We got the photo from the mountain and were taken back to our pickup point in a hot and cramped van. As soon as we got out of the van, Amy lay on a bench for several minutes to regain herself, saying “I need to be horizontal for a while.” We went back to the hostel so she could lie down for a bit.

I was super jazzed and ready to continue. We were planning to go up a gondola/cable car and go for a luge on top of Queenstown, but Amy wasn’t ready to move. She made a good point: “We’ve just flown over it. You’ve already seen everything. I can’t handle a lot of movement so I’m staying here.” 

I suppose I could’ve done it alone, but I was also very happy to lay down for a bit. We went to Cookie Time for ice cream, and I accidentally got cookie dough; not entirely certain as to how that happened, but it was yummy anyway!

We decided to make an early dinner to avoid the chaos of the night before. We played the board game “Guess Who?” with animals rather than people. Amy is very good at the game somehow, and also made an excellent pasta with sausage and spinach dinner. We were just finishing up our drinks as Trivia Night started, so some people joined our table and we had a team. It was fun! And we didn’t do too terribly. 

October 24: Queenstown to Christchurch

We packed up, grabbed a quick Starbucks breakfast, and headed on the road. It was a long day of driving, about 8 hours. We stopped twice for food/stretch breaks and had some incredible views at each stop.

We met up with my friend Donna in Christchurch. She took us on a lovely walk along the estuary and it was really nice to catch up. We grabbed fish & chips and some stuff for breakfast, and then went to bed.

October 25: Christchurch to Picton

Amy and I woke up and were out of the house by 9am to be on the road for another 9 hours. Yowza. My bum was so sore and neither of us wanted to get into the car, but we knew we had to.

For a while, we were behind a truck of bees. The photo above is at least 50 bee hive boxes, with bees flying all around. As soon as we realized what was happening, I heard "PUT YOUR WINDOW UP!!!!" because having bees in the car would've been unfortunate and dangerous for everyone involved.

We arrived in Picton around 6pm, had a nap, got dinner and went to bed.

South Island: INCREDIBLE. Wow.