North Island

Auckland Nostalgia 

Our first stop was, of course, Auckland. If you ask people they will often tell you to leave the capital out of your plans because you want to spend as much time as possible in nature and this is just another big city. However, if you’ve spent a couple of months studying in that city and got to know it as an amazing place to live, you want to spent at least a few days there to have some time for nostalgia, so we did. I was able to show Caroline some of my favourite spots, including the Butter Chicken place at the University Food Court, which was, curiously, my favourite back then for lunch.

North of Auckland

As soon as I was done with all the Nostalgia, we took a car and drove north to visit the Bay of Islands and Cape Reinga.

Our first stop was Paihia and we made some stops on the way to visit Mangawhai Heads Beach, the Whangarei Falls, a Kiwi House and the Hundertwasser toilets. In Paihia, we took a Boat Cruise to the Hole in the Rock and to see some dolphins along the way. We decided to stay in Paihia and make a day trip to Cape Reinga, the most northwestern point of New Zealand where the Pacific Ocean and the Tasman Sea meet. This place has also a special meaning for the people in New Zealand which I won’t go into details here. Unfortunately, I I couldn’t visit the Cape in 2009 so I definitely wanted to go this time. We weren’t blessed with the best weather, but it was even more mystical like that and I really like the photos, too, they’re just different from what I’ve expected.

The next day we started our way back south towards Piha Beach with some visits to the Arai-Te-Uru Recreation Reserve ant the Waipoua Forest which is the home of three quarters of the Kauri tree population in NZ.

Coromandel Peninsula & Rotorua

Our next stop would be the Coromandel Peninsula. It’s a beautiful drive around the Peninsula that you can do in one day, you just shouldn’t spend too much time in the first half of it (if you’re going clockwise), because the second half includes spots like Cathedral Cove and the Hot Water Beach which were the reasons to go in the first place. Would have been fine for us, still, if we weren’t supposed to be in Rotorua in the evening. Luckily, the host of our accommodation would let us in in the middle of the night.

It wasn’t a long night, though, as we had booked the first tour at the Hobbiton Movie Set which was really great. The reason we booked the first tour is that there is no tour before that, so no one is potentially in your picture if you want to take some good photos.

From there we went to the Wai-O-Tapu Thermal Wonderland and afterwards directly to Taupo to visit the lake and the breathtaking Huka Falls.

Napier & Wellington

There was one more stop for us before going to Wellington: Napier.

I spent a weekend here in 2009 and I wanted to go back and visit Cape Kidnappers again. Unfortunately, we couldn’t go for the hiking option as that would have taken too much of our time, so we booked a tour that brought us to the big Gannet colony that is nesting there. It’s a bit expensive but I didn’t want to miss that. Next time, though, I’d plan for a two night stay and hike up there.

In Wellington, we strolled around the city, visited the Botanic Gardens, took the Cable Car and visited Mount Victoria to have a great view over the city. The next day, we would leave the North Island taking the ferry to Picton to visit the South Island.

South Island

Picton & Abel Tasman National Park 

We stayed the first two nights in Picton as we had tickets to the Marlborugh Wine and Food Festival. It was cheaper to stay in Picton and take a shuttle bus than to stay in Blenheim or somewhere close by. Of course, we had lots of wine and food and we even attended a master class about Chocolate and Marlborough Pinot Noir. The party wouldn't stop with taking the shuttle back to Picton. People were in a very good mood and singing and partly dancing to loud Abba music. It was a blast!

But back to Nature. Luckily, we didn’t plan much for the next day except driving to Nelson. I said luckily because it was pouring rain the whole day. So we drove to our accommodation in Nelson and went for dinner and movies later in the day. The next day the sun was back and had a full day to visit Abel Tasman National Park. I’d recommend to think about what to do there early so you could book it in advance as tours start kind of early in the morning. We wanted to hike along the famous multi day hike, so we decided to take a boat to a spot 12 kilometres away from the start of that walk and basically hiked back along the coastline. It was a beautiful hike, the weather was great so we could even go for a swim at one of the beaches. I can totally recommend that way of spending a day in the park (you could also take a kayak instead of a boat and hike back). At the end of the hike we enjoyed dinner with a sunset view at the start/end of the hiking trail.

Going to Franz Josef

Our next stop was Franz Josef, so we were looking ahead to a long, long drive. We only made two stops: The first one at Nelson Lakes, the second one at the Pancake Rocks where we not only looked at (kind of) pancakes, we also ate some at the restaurant together with friends that were spending their honeymoon in New Zealand and happened to be in the same area.

In Franz Josef, we were quite lucky with the weather again and I was able to join a helicopter hiking tour to Franz Josef Glacier. Back in 2009 I already visited the glacier, but it was possible to walk to the glacier and start hiking at the foot of it. That’s not possible anymore, so the only way to take a step onto the glacier is the helicopter hiking or ice climbing tour. Of course it’s not cheap, but it’s an amazing experience. Alternatively, there is a free and a guided walk to the glacier to see it from a bit further away, though the guided one gets you a little closer.

Wanaka

On our way to Wanaka we wanted to stop at the famously mirroring Lake Matheson, but the hike was to long and we wouldn’t have been able to meet our dinner date.

Wanaka is actually one of my favourite places in New Zealand. It’s a nice little town with a beautiful lake to it which has a tree that has it’s own instagram hashtag (#ThatWanakaTree) because it’s so beautiful. There is a great cinema with couches to sit on or a car to sit in while watching a movie. You can be a child again by visiting the Puzzling World nearby.

And, of course, there is a lot of great hiking opportunities. We opted for one of the probably most famous ones: Roys Peak. It’s an 8km hike going up and up and up, until you reach the top at about 1581 meters (starting at 200 something). The views are simply stunning and you quickly realise that the hike was totally worth it. Unfortunately, you have to go back down the same 8km.

Queenstown & Fjordland

From Wanaka we drove to Queenstown, where we took the Skyline Gondola to enjoy spectacular views of Queenstown and its surroundings. To avoid the long lines at the Gondola we visited the Kiwi Birdlife Park which was really nice, too.

Our last stop on the western part of the South Island was Te Anau where we stayed at a nice backpackers that I remembered from 2009 (Bob and Maxine’s). We saw Te Anau as a good option to stay and take a day trip to Milford Sound where we booked a two hour boat tour through the fjord and to the Tasman Sea and back. I probably don’t have to tell you, but this place is stunningly beautiful and it was my first time to see it, too (I visited the Doubtful Sound back in 2009).

South-East Coast

Haftime, I guess. At least from a geographical point of view, as we were going from the western to the eastern part of the South Island and after that back north again.

Our next stop was Kaka Point to visit the beautiful Nugget Point Lighthouse and instead of going the fastest way, we took a little detour through the Catlins and would recommend that to everyone who’s got the time. The national park starts at Waipapa Point Lighthouse and ends at Nugget Point. There are many waterfalls (we visited the McLean Falls), beaches and bays (we visited Curio Bay, Porpoise Bay) and the most southern point of the South Island: Slope Point. Not far from the McLean Falls there is a restaurant called the Whistling Frog which is highly recommended. If only we’d eaten a little faster, because we almost missed a crazy colourful sunset at the Nugget Point Lighthouse! We had to go to Kaka Point first to check in at our accommodation, of course get some wine to drink at sunset, visit the penguin lookout near the Lighthouse and then walk to the Lighthouse to see the sunset from there. But we made it!

From Kaka Point we went to Oamaru and it was one of these days again where you only drive a little, have nothing much planned and it’s pouring and pouring rain. We made a short stop in Dunedin to see the train station and get some chocolate from the Cadbury Chocolate Factory! I remember taking a tour there in 2009 and it was great. This time, though, we only bought some chocolate and got back on the road.

The only other stop we would make was at the Moeraki Boulders, but it wasn’t much fun to stay because of the rain, so we didn’t spend too much time. Still enough for some long exposure photography, though. In the evening we visited the Blue Penguin Colony. Unfortunately, there was a tourist group with us that was not only late but also very disrespectful to the penguins and all the other people around. They were loud, taking photos with flash and didn’t really care about everything else than themselves, which kinda ruined the experience for us.

Lake Tekapo & Mount Cook National Park

One of the highlights of our trip was Lake Tekapo.

The drive there was a little crazy as you still saw the aftermath of the big storm the day before. We booked a „tour“ at the Tekapo Springs in the first night where you would stargaze the first hour (due to the weather we got a powerpoint kinda presentation instead) and enjoy the stars in the second half in the springs. Of course, it’s not the same when you don’t see any stars, but the Springs were still nice (especially considering the outside temperature of zero degrees Celsius) and at the end of it the clouds cleared a little. I got all in the next day as I wanted to take photos at Lake Tekapo at sunrise. Still a little too cloudy, but worth it. After breakfast we went for a day trip to Mount Cook National Park which was really packed with people, especially the Hooker Valley Walk that we decided to hike. It’s only 5km each way, not very challenging and the views of Mount Cook and Hooker Lake are amazing, so it’s easy to understand why so many people decide for this hike, so be aware of that. Starting early is always an option to beat the crowds. Also, Lake Pukaki and the drive towards Mount Cook and the other big mountains in the park (19 of the 23 mountains higher than 3km are located here) along the lake are beautiful experiences before you’ve even gotten to the park.

For the night, I booked another stargazing tour at the Mount John Observatory and it was probably one of the best experiences I’ve ever booked. The sky was so clear, I’ve never seen so many stars before. One of the reasons for that, by the way, is that Lake Tekapo is located in a Dark Sky Reserve, so there is restrictions on light pollution in place for example, and the sky is darker and clearer than somewhere else. At the tour we were able to look through different telescopes to see closer looks of Jupiter, Mars or the Magellanic Clouds (two dwarf galaxies) which are orbiting the Milky Way, which we could see clearly, too, of course. I was also able to give some of the employees my camera to take some pictures of the Milky Way and the Magellanic Clouds, too. Mount John is also a good place to have coffee and cake in the afternoon and enjoy the views of Lake Tekapo. The stargazing tour ended at 2am in the night and I decided to drive to the Church of the Good Shepherd to take a picture of it with the Milky Way. I was successful, but I was also surprised that there were 20-30 other people doing the same thing.

Christchurch & Kaikoura

From here on our South Island trip was about to end. We drove to Christchurch, strolled through the city, took a day trip to the Banks Peninsula nearby and then drove to Picton again, to take the ferry back to the North Island.

However, we made a not as quick as planned stop in Kaikoura to go on a whale watching trip. Highway 1 from Christchurch to Kaikoura was closed again due to the storm, so we had to take a detour of about 4-5 hours in total, hoping that it wouldn’t be for nothing as the weather wasn’t as good as we hoped. When we arrived, the weather cleared, we went on the tour, saw some whales and dolphins and were happy it was all good at the end.

The last few days on the North Island

We’re now at four full weeks of travelling in New Zealand and we were still not done.

There was one more big goal of mine to do: the Tongariro Alpine Crossing. This was one of my best experiences in 2009 and it was about to get the worst in the trip of 2018. The day we arrived at our accommodation in Turangi the weather already was really bad, but the forecast said it could clear the next day. We could have chosen to go the day after too, which looked better from a forecast perspective, but we would have to drive directly to the airport the next day. Considering getting really wet and not being able to dry things before the flight to Honolulu, and also that the forecast from the next day also looked better the day before, we decided to go the next day and it was really, really bad. It was pouring rain almost the whole time. It was cold, slippy and the only hope I had - a clearing in the sky after getting to Red Crater like in 2009 - got kicked in the butt when we arrived at the crater. We didn’t even see the Emerald and Blue Lakes until we got to them, nor anything else. In terms of transportation, we decided to drive to the end of the track, park the car there and get a shuttle to the beginning of the track. This way, you can hike in your own pace and don’t have to wait for a shuttle to get you back to town.

Our last full day in New Zealand was about drying cloths from the day before, driving to Hamilton, visiting the beautiful Hamilton Gardens and packing our bags to leave New Zealand the next day. There was just one more thing for us to do before leaving my favourite country again: visiting a Glowworm cave in Waitomo including a little boat tour in the dark. One more highlight to remember after our day in the rain at Tongariro.

This was hopefully a „see you soon“ instead of a „goodbye“, but it was a wonderful experience to visit New Zealand for the second time.