April and May have been busy here with lots of travel. In April, I travelled down to Adelaide for a week for a conference. A few days after returning, it was time to head off to another conference in Christchurch, New Zealand, or Aoatearoa as many New Zealanders would say. Aotearoa (pronounced au·tay·uh·row·uh) is the Maori name for New Zealand and means ‘land of the long white cloud’, a phrase that certainly suits the landscape.
Rob and I have been to New Zealand a few times before but only ever to the North Island so we were excited to have a chance to explore the South Island this time around. The South Island is a whole different experience to the North – both are beautiful but the South brings a wow factor at every turn. It was quite a challenge trying to choose just a select set of pictures for this blog!
We landed in Christchurch in the middle of the night so spent our first night at a hotel right at the airport (just a one minute walk from the airport). The next morning, we started out on a massive road trip. Our first stop, Arthur’s Pass, was just a few hours outside of Christchurch. I couldn’t stop taking pictures of the bright green grass and hills against the snowcapped mountains while driving.
Like past trips, Rob did all the organising for this one so I didn’t know anything about where we were going or staying. The place he chose for Arthur’s Pass was perfect. We had amazing views of the mountains and stream.
After an afternoon of taking in the view and a beautiful dinner, we set off again the next morning but not before heading out for a short hike next to our accommodations to see Devil’s Punchbowl Falls. The guide said it was a short, easy hike but it turned out to be up hill for nearly 20 straight minutes. Thankfully it was cool out so we didn’t get too sweaty making the trek up.
Our destination from Arthur’s Pass was Franz Josef which is located on the west coast of the South Island, but we stopped in a pretty little town called Hokitika (which means ‘to return directly’ in Maori) for lunch and a walk along the way. Hokitika is known for all of the driftwood on its beaches. There is even a Hokitika sign made out of driftwood on the beach.
After stretching our legs, it was time to get back in the car and carry on with our road trip. The weather was glorious and the sunshine was creating this fabulous mirror images in the different lakes we passed. We finally stopped for a quick picture, but of course, it doesn’t really show just how impressive the reflection was.
Franz Josef is a glacier that is famous in New Zealand because it cascades down directly into a rainforest. We were taken by the colour of the water flowing through the riverbeds at the bottom of the glacier. A local contractor told us the waters move so quickly through that area that they regularly go in with equipment to keep moving the rock and silt to ensure the waters don’t overflow into the town.
We set out early the next day to start making our way south to Queenstown – what a drive! I think that drive is actually one of my favourite parts of the trip. We were up and down mountains on narrow windy roads and everywhere you looked were stunning views. I tried to capture a few pics while driving but of course they didn’t turn out very well. It was a decent drive (about 5 hours) so it wasn’t practical to keep pulling over for pictures, and given the roads, was actually not possible most of the time. The views didn’t end though once we arrived. I was so excited when we walked into our room and we could see the lake and the town right from our window.
Not wanting to waste the sunshine, we quickly dropped our bags and set out to wander the town. It was super pretty and had a lovely, quaint feel. After a Guinness at the local Irish pub (there is an Irish pub in every town in New Zealand I think!), we had a lovely dinner right next to the water. Our friend Kevin told us we needed to be sure to try some green lipped mussels while we were there and we certainly weren’t disappointed – very yum!
After dinner, we found this awesome wine bar on the walk back to our flat. It was similar to the wine bars we’ve seen in the United States where you can pay to taste different wines (or liquors) by the ounce and then purchase a bottle to bring home or to enjoy in the shop. There were tasting centres throughout the shop and right in the middle, they had a converted VW van as the main one. So cool!
The next morning, we jumped back in the car and drove to Arrowtown, a little town about 20 minutes outside of Queenstown. The autumn colours were spectacular! The bright yellows and reds are something I really miss about Canada so I was super happy this trip coincided with autumn.
After enjoying a lovely brunch in Arrowtown, we headed back to Queenstown to head up the gondola. When we arrived, we were impressed watching them load some of the gondolas with bikes. There was a track that ran all the way down the mountain and we watched people hit the bottom and get right back on the gondola to do it again.
In addition to incredible views, the top of the gondola also a luge track. It was super fun! Rob beat me down every time of course.
The next day we headed south for Invercargill and Bluff. I’m not sure how many of you have seen the movie ‘The World’s Fastest Indian’ with Anthony Hopkins, but it is a favourite of ours. It tells the true story of Burt Munroe who travelled from Invercargill to the the Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah to try to break the land speed record on a modified 1920s Indian motorcycle. It’s quite a story and if you haven’t yet seen the movie, I highly recommend it! Rob had planned to stay in Bluff because it is the most southern point of the South Island, but a friend told us that a hardware store in Invercargill has Burt Monroe’s motorcycle on display so we decided to make Invercargill our lunch stop. The hardware store was absolutely massive and had all kinds of old cars and motorcycles throughout. I think we were there at least an hour. Rob was loving it! Burt Munroe donated a few of his original motorcycles and gear to the store but there was also a replica of the modified bike from the movie that you could climb in so of course we had to get a pic.
After some lunch, we drove a little further south to Bluff, a town of less than 2000 people. As you can imagine, there wasn’t much to do in Bluff but we passed a little maritime museum and decided to go in. It was a bit haphazard, but there were some cool artifacts throughout, including some old whale bones back from when whaling was common in the area. The museum also had a full-scale oystering boat outside and shared some information about oyster harvesting that was quite interesting.
We then headed out to see the view at the southernmost point. This was also where we had dinner. It was pretty much the only restaurant in town, though the owner of our little inn said we could also get fish and chips at the little store next to our hotel. Dinner with a view seemed a much better idea and we were treated to a gorgeous night sky!
After travelling west and then south for more than 1250km, it was time to start making our way back north to Christchurch. Stay tuned!
Great to read and brought back memories of our road trip. It’s sure windy and picturesque. That plant you like is Prince of Wales Feathers as similar to the royal Prince of wales crest.