Blogs from South Island, New Zealand, Oceania

After having some fish and chips and paua (abalone) fritters, a coastal Kiwi favorite, we drove several hours up and over the beautiful mountains running through the backbone of the country. We stopped at the alpine hamlet of Hanmer Springs before dropping down onto the desolate west coast. We were quickly finding there is more solitude to be found on South Island, with long stretches of uninhabited and inaccessible coast. It wasn't until the 1960s roads were built and these areas were even easily reachable. We spent the night boondocking outside of Hokitaka before moving on to the southern Alps and glacier country. We stopped at Franz Josef glacier for a quick hike through the rainforest to a viewpoint of the glacier, but the clouds and rain from that morning had socked in most of the ... read more

We flew early to Christchurch in the South Island from Auckland after a terrible night sleep in a beautiful boondock spot along the bay just minutes from the city center. Unfortunately some partygoers decided to get raging drunk and were smashing beer bottles during the night. There's always one night of idiots while boondocking, let's hope that was it for the trip. We picked up our beautiful 17 ft. Toyota campervan that would be our home for the next 11 days. It was a huge upgrade for us, our first van being functional but this being cozy and luxurious by comparison. We drove a few hours north up the coast ending at the seaside town of Kaikoura. This town is one of the best places on earth to snorkel with dolphins in the wild and the ... read more

The day after my last post I went cannoying. While it was very fun I was a little disapointed that there were alomost no water slides we could go down, a lot less opportunities to jump down cliffs and a lot more abseiling than the website made it seem. The guide told us that this is, because the canyon changed during the covid years and the jumps and slides they used to go down are not save anymore, so there is abseiling instead. Which also meant longer waittimes, because abseiling ten people takes longer than all of them jumping down. It was still very fun and a great experience with amazing views. A week later I was supposed to go river surfing but because I mixed up the dates I had work that day. Luckily they ... read more

It's been three weeks and I had the beginning of a new psts sitting in my drafts for like half that time. Anyway here a rundown of the things that happend since the Milford Sound cruise: I lost my wallet in Milford Sound and only noticed after we had driven two hours out of the national park. 16 hours later I got it back thanks to really nice Australiens that brought it to the next Police station. Another day later we made our way to Queenstown. Ina spend thursday afternoon charging her portable charger in a cafe for her hike and I walked around Queenstown. In a bakery I found german multigrain bread that after two months of toast almost brought me to tears. Besides that I won a 50 dollar discount for indoor skydiving, which ... read more

Tour Day 43, Cruise Day 43 – Christchurch by Double-Decker Bus (3.5 hours) - Cross the port hills to the village of Sumner and head into the city center of Christchurch. Here you'll board an open-air kiwi double-decker bus (weather permitting) for a fun and informative 45-minute tour of Christchurch. You'll discover why Christchurch is known as 'the Garden City' and is considered one of the most English cities outside of England. Learn about Christchurch's fascinating history from pioneering days through modern times. View some of the areas affected by the 2010 and 2011 earthquakes and learn how Christchurch is now preserving some of its iconic heritage buildings. Your guide will share aspects of the exciting vision and plan to rebuild and restore the inner city, and will interweave the experience with stories and up-to-date information ... read more