Sorry for the delay! No/barely any internet connection, coming back home and regular life turned out to take up quite some time! Yes, I am writing this from home...unfortunately! But I'll come back to that in what I think will be my final blog post.
So...New Zealand! What an amazing and unforgettable trip it was, thanks to both the country and my travelbuddies, Bas and Maartje, who made living in a car for 3.5 weeks not the hell it could've been :) Really guys, thanks for this awesome ride. I definitely want to travel through this country again, but the next time, I'll be slightly better prepared! :P
(P.S. Scroll down for pics if you're more interested in that! Furthermore, the story below is a "short" overview of what we did, there are probably numerous things, quotes and stories that I forgot while writing this, but that weren't less fun!)
After seeing each other for the first time in months in Sydney, we went to the check-in counter. The trip started well, Bas and I had visum problems. We planned to apply for an Australian visum once we were in New Zealand, but it turned out that on the day we would return to Australia, we were already supposed to have a valid Australian visum, which we didn't have. Hence, we had to re-schedule our return flights to December 23 and december 28, respectively, which was about 1.5 to 2 weeks before planned. Luckily, as Europeans, we can almost instantly apply for a visum, which we did once we were in New Zealand. Still, this caused quite some stress!
The next day, we had to pick up the car (our house-to-be, as we decided to sleep in the car for most of the time due to collective monetary issues) and after an hour of gathering every possible dollar they could, Maartje and Bas managed to get it and we were finally able to get on our way! First goal: to cross most of the Northern Island in 1.5 days in order to catch the ferry to the Southern Island, while leaving us enough time to watch The Hobbit: The desolation of Smaug in Wellington. Duration: about 7 hours. But first, we had to get supplies to be able to manage living in the car: pots, pans, plates, cutlery, blankets, pillows, a gas-cooker, gas, groceries etcetera. After this we were finally able to go! We basically drove all afternoon, already being amazed by the lovely grass hills in the Waikato region. Around 6, we luckily stumbled upon a free overnight campspot next to the enormous and stunning Lake taupo! (Note that freedom camping is allowed everywhere in NZ, unless there's a sign saying you can't, which is extremely convenient). Here we spend our first night and after some help from a nice man, we got our gas-cooker running as well. We first tried to sleep in the trunk with the back seats flipped forward, Bas and me facing one way and Maartje facing the other way. After two nights of trying to sleep like this, we just had to face that Bas and I are simply too muscled and the car too slim to sleep like this, as we would wake up all the time. After that, Bas and I slept in the front seats while Maartje would sleep on the back seats. At the end of the trip, we were completely optimized in doing so: Remove the head support, seat down, window slightly open, towel in front of it, piece of paper in front of the annoying blinking light, keys in the right spot, insect repellent on, pillow, blanket, warm socks, BAM.
On day 2 (I'm going to number the days for the sake of my own convenience and a sort of chronological way of writing that hopefully isn't that boring), we basically drove the whole day (we drove a LOT during this trip, which I don't mind at all since the roads were amazing and exciting to drive, and there almost never is a moment in NZ where you DON'T have amazing scenery. Furthermore, we had our own music in the car and plenty of stuff to talk and joke about and if that didn't work, there was always time for a nap :)). we actually made it to The Hobbit in time, so in a way, it felt quite special to watch it in the same country in which it has been filmed. After the movie, we drove down a small peninsula to spend the night with ocean view, hoping we wouldn't get caught as at this place, freedom camping didn't seem to be allowed. Luckily, the ferry would leave really early the next day, so we would leave very early as well.
On day 3, we took the ferry which leads you through some spectacular fiords onto the South Island. From there, we drove to Lake Nelson, where we did a 4-hour walk onto Mt. Buller, which gave us some amazing views over the lakes and the surrounding landscape.
On day 4, we visited Kaikoura, a place that is famous for whale-spotting. Unfortunately, we didn't see any. We did a walk around the coastline and we DID spot lots of seals, even next to the highway on our way there! After watching the sunset, we searched for a place to stay during the night.
On day 5, we decided to have a more relaxed day as we really needed it after all the walking and driving. We drove to Christchurch to have a look around and discovered that it is still recovering a lot from the earthquake a couple of years ago! The city centre basically still consists of temporary container buildings and there are construction sites everywhere. After walking around for a bit, we found out that there was an (apparently) interesting peninsula nearby, so we decided to drive up there and spend the night somewhere on the Banks Peninsula. It was a beautiful drive with a stunning sunset over the water and hills, definitely one of the better sunsets we've seen.
On day 6, we drove to Aoraki/Mt. Cook national park after a laid-back morning. It would take around 5 to 6 hours, so we basically drove all day while stopping here and there to enjoy some beautiful views. In the evening, we stopped at an overnight camp spot with the most stunning view on the deep-blue lake Tekapo where we made dinner and enjoyed the surroundings.
On day 7, we intended to do a long walk around Mt. Cook national park, but the weather was absolutely SHIT. It was really cold and rainy and we first waited the whole morning for the weather to get better. When that didn't work out, we decided to just go for it, but when we were already soaked after 20 minutes, I returned to the car where Bas and Maartje decided to continue for a while. Of course, the rain stopped on my way back, so the range of view became a lot better and I decided to do another short walk that gave me some nice views of the glaciers. Noteworthy: in the evenig we had our first warm shower since the very first night in NZ. To be honest, sleeping in the car wasn't perfect, but what really bugged me the most was the fact that we only had a shower every 4 days or so if we were lucky. Ah well, at least all 3 of us stinked at the same time :)
On day 8, we drove to Dunedin to visit the Otago Peninsula, which is praised for its variety of wildlife. However, when we got there, it turned out that most of the wildlife is endangered and that you have to pay to see it, as only guided tours are still allowed to go there. Hence, we drove around for a bit and did a kind of redundant walk to kill the time before heading to Te Anau on our way to Milford Sound. At night, we had some stunning star views as well :)
On day 9, we drove the Milford Route from Te Anau to Milford Sound. On this route, there are plenty of short and long walks to do and lots of things to see like The Chasm, The Mirror Lakes, and so forth. It's really worth it to take a whole day to do this actually, as most of the guided tours to Milford Sound don't do this. In the evening, we had dinner in the middle of sandflies (flies that like to sting you for seemingly no reason. The South Island is infested by them and their bites keep stinging as long as you scratch them, which you automatically do. A few of my bites lasted 3 weeks!).
On day 10, we finally visited Milford Sound, something I had been really looking forward to! It has been named the most beautiful place in the world on a sunny day. Unfortunately, this day it poured. However, because of this ridiculous amount of rain, there were waterfalls flowing down the mountains all around the Sound, whereas the day before, there were none! This transformation was really one of the most stunning things I have seen on this trip and still, the boat cruise through the Sound was really nice.
Day 11, Christmas! Which meant that we treated ourselves on a night in a hostel, so we really looked forward to our first night in a bed in 1.5 weeks! In the morning, we did the first couple of kilometres of the Keppler track, a famous 3 to 4 day walk near Te Anau. After that, we went to the hostel as early as possible to be able to finally get a good, long, warm shower and some well-deserved rest. We bought a lot of meat to have a BBQ on Christmas, a plan that we found quite appealing. We basically chilled around the hostel for the rest of the day while eating a bit and trying to reach home. I must say, it did not feel like Christmas at all and I'm looking forward to celebrating it in the cold again!
On day 12, we drove to Queenstown, the adrenaline capital of the world. We did a walk there which led us up a hill with really nice views over Queenstown and the lake nearby. Unfortunately, as we were all broke, no adrenalin-pumping activities for us, so I'll have to do that some other time :) Queenstown seemed really nice so I'd love to visited it for a few days some other time. In the evening, Bas and I ate a quad stack burger, something we had been talking about since the day we discovered its existence: 4 burgers stacked on top of each other, with cheese and onion rings. It did not disappoint us, but only gave us almost an instant heart-attack...
On day 13, we visited Glenorchy, another town next to a (beautiful) lake where we did two walks that led to some more amazing views. The drive from Glenorchy to Queenstown was really amazing as well and reminded me of the Great Ocean Road near Melbourne :)
On day 14, we spent the day in Wanaka, where we hired some mountainbikes and cycled around a part of Lake Wanaka before heading towards Fox to visit the glaciers. The weather was beautiful and it was really nice to ride a bike again (inner Dutchy speaking here). The ride to Fox was amazing as well, leading us past cliffs, over mountains and through rainforest.
On day 15, Bas and Maartje wanted to do an 8-hour walk near the Franz Josef glacier. However, my ankles were hurting from previous walks so I figured that 8 hours of walking wouldn't be such a good idea. I decided to drive around for a bit and do some shorter walks near the Fox and Franz Josef glaciers. I drove Maartje and Bas to the start of their walk and decided to drive to Fox. This drive goes through the mountains between Fox and Franz Josef and it is safe to say that I absolutely floored the throttle :D It was really amazing to drive so fast here, something that I secretly had been looking forward to for a while. Too bad I got stuck behind other cars around half-way... Once at Fox, I drove to near the glacier where I did a short walk that got me as close as I could get. It's crazy how much of the glacier has disappeared over the years due to a rise in temperature! After this walk, I drove back to Franz Josef (same story, got stuck half-way again) where I did a short walk to get close to this glacier as well before picking up Bas and Maartje.
On day 16, we drove from Franz Josef to Picton, where we would take the ferry the day after. We basically drove the whole day and the weather was dreadful, so not much to tell here.
On day 17, we took the ferry back to the Northern Island, where we booked an hotel for NYE! We booked a 2-person room however, so we had to improvise by splitting the bed in two (by far the cheapest thing we did on this whole trip...). We got some nice beers and went into the city, where we ended up in an Irish Pub where a nice live band played. Besides the countdown, it didn't feel like NYE though! No fireworks, nothing...and that in the capital!
On day 18, we stayed as long in the hotel as possible and we drove to Tongariro National Park, where we would do the famous Tongariro Alpine Crossing the next day. It took us most of the afternoon and I picked up the hiking boots that I really wanted to have for the walk.
On day 19, we did the 19.4 km Tongariro Alpine Crossing. This walk leads you through volcanic landscape that is home to three (still active) volcanoes and some sulphur lakes. Furthermore, it is the place where Mordor and Mt. Doom in The Lord of the Rings were filmed, so Bas and I were psyched to go there. It is described as being the most beautiful walk in NZ and I definitely agree! It is not that tough in general, even though it is quite long and there are some steep parts. The land is so dead and feels so different and alien from everything I've ever seen before, really impressive. And of course, we had to climb Mt. Nguaruhoe, a.k.a. Mt. Doom! This almost-2300m badboy consists of scree, which means that there is no outlined path and that you really have to dig in your feet at every step. It was tough, long and I cursed myself several times, but we made it! No loose, falling big rocks could stop us from that. Being able to look into the crater of a still active volcano was really cool and the view was amazing, even though it was mostly cloudy. Luckily, the way down was a lot easier and basically implied skiing down on your feet. After the volcano sidetrack, we had to hurry to finish the rest of the walk through the stunning South Crater, past the Red Crater and past the Emerald Lakes to the final part of the walk, where Bas and Maartje had to leave me behind to be able to catch the bus back to our car as my shoes were too new and started hurting me a lot. So after almost exactly 10 hours, I arrived at the car park where they were waiting for me. This walk was exhausting, but really rewarding!
On day 20, we went to Taupo where we had an easy day to recover from the big walk the day before. We basically walked around town and did a BBQ o the beach in the evening. Unfortunately, I had to visit a doctor because there was something in my eye that didn't want to get out and my eye got really irritated.
On day 21, we went to Rotorua, where there is a lot of thermal activity. Hence, there are thermal pools, mudpools, geysers and everywhere in Rotorua, it basically smells like rotten eggs (jummieeee). We went to Whakarewarewa village, a traditional Maori village where we learned about their history, their ways of living, and so forth. Furthermore, we saw the Haka, a really famous war dance, which was really cool!
On day 22, we went to the Hobbiton movie set, the place where The Shire was filmed in The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit. Bas and I, being the biggest LOTR fans (Maartje not so much, but she had little choice), really looked forward to this sort of pilgrimage for weeks! It didn't disappoint us, it's so cool to see how they basically created this whole Hobbit village for the movies and to hear all these facts about the movies and the filming process. I think the pictures will tell the fans how awesome it was :)
On day 23, we went to Waitomo to visit the glowworm caves. Unfortunately, no pictures allowed, but this was stunning! It was pitch-black and the only light in the caves came from the glowworm, absolutely magical. Afterwards, we did a beautiful drive through almost deserted rainforest, where we visited a waterfall, a natural bridge and an isolated black sand beach before hurrying back to Auckland to pick up René, a friend of Maartje who would join us on our last two days.
These last two days basically consisted of walking and driving through Auckland, eating burgers (second quad-stack time!) and relaxing in the hostel before we went back to Australia to say our goodbyes!
I absolutely loved New Zealand and I'd love to come back here to travel some more, while being slightly better prepared and able to do more adrenaline stuff like skydiving and such. It's uncomparable to Australia because they're so different, but this trip was so unique just BECAUSE of us being so unprepared and clueless that it led to endlessly many nice and weird situations that I'll never forget!
Time for the promised pictures!
I guess Maartje had to do something to stand our guy humour...:)
Nice lookout when we were on our way from Taupo to Wellington: one of the few actually signposted scenic lookouts we saw, probably as this country is one huge scenic lookout...
Mt. Ruapehu, Tongariro National Park, we would visit this later
Lake Taupo
Again
Mt. Nguaruhoe, a.k.a. Mt. Doom from The Lord of The Rings...later on we climbed this badboy!
How to actually pronounce the name? No clue
Mt. Ruapehu
Seals next to the highway on our way to Kaikoura
Plenty of''em!
Just chillin'
Black sand beach at Kaikoura
More Kaikoura coastline sweetness
Not that dangerous though...
More chillin' seals
Applying for the new Windows wallpaper (I was too lazy to correct all the sideways pictures and while writing this it seems impossible, so if you have neck issues, give me a shout and we'll work it out :))
Lookout view at Kaikoura
Beautiful evening drive around Banks Peninsula, near Christchurch (next few pics as well)
Our view during dinner! It seems unreal while looking back at it, but this kind of views we have had almost every breakfast, lunch, dinner and just inbetween...and at the time, you don't appreciate it to the fullest as it numbs your sensitivity to these kind of aesthetic views, it becomes almost "normal"...very impressive.
Mt. Cook/Aoraki National Park
Random benches everywhere!
Somewhere in the clouds is the top of Mt. Cook, the highest mountain in the southern hemisphere!
Sheep, New Zealand's most prevalent pet. Hilarious when running, there are more than 10 times as many sheep as people in New Zealand! Ah well, I guess I don't need to explain more about sheep :P
Otago Peninsula, we were lost and stumbled upon this, which turned out to be the most impressive view of the whole afternoon.
We ran into Maartje on the road to Milford Sound, so we decided to make a picture
And then she stole our car, luckily she couldn't continue here!
Nice river on the road to Milford Sound, a very impressive and amazing drive with plenty to see and do along the way to what is said to be the most beautiful place in the world!
Maartje defying gravity
So much water!
Very tall waterfall on the Milford road
A Kea, a parrot-species that loves eating cars (as it did with ours!)
Tunnel through the mountain
The chasm. My pictures don't show how impressive this place was, I liked this most on the route. Google may show you more!
Mitre Peak at Milford Sound, unfortunately no sun for us
This waterfall would explode the day after
Milford Sound
Nice river 50m from our overnight camping spot
See? It exploded, bless the rain
Maartje overthinking life
Waterfalls, waterfalls everywhere!
I was there too
Waterfalls
And more...
You're getting the idea
Seals over here as well
At times, it wasn't all happiness :P
Our casa, our car, our bed...nighttime struggles :P
We didn't spot any kiwi unfortunately
Morning workout on Christmas Day
River next to the 3-4 day Kepler track
Swamp
I'm loving it
View of Queenstown, adrenaline capital of the world!
Those are some serious distances
Swaggerpeople
Queenstown
Regular stuff at Queenstown
Evening drive view between Queenstown and Glenorchy
Stunning...
Again...I'm short of descriptive words really, even in Dutch
Where we stayed the night and had breakfast
Glenorchy/Paradise (that last thing is not made up by me)
Walk close to Glenorchy
Sheep hunting in da RAVVVV
The Invincible Mine Track near Glenorchy
Chasing the ones that were left
Glenorchy>>Queenstown
My taxi
Dinnertime view on our way to Wanaka
Wanaka view
Along our cycling route
From Wanaka to Haas and the Fox and Franz Josef glaciers
Dat aestheticness
Stunning
Westland, Westland everywhere (inside joke)
Near Fox Glacier
Fox Glacier
Rubbish that has fallen down
H2O, streaming fast
Fox Glacier...it used to be so much bigger, it's insane (and a shame really)
Nice colours near Fox Glacier
Franz Josef Glacier
The walk there
Waterfall near Franz Josef
Franz Josef Glacier
Multiple uses, sure!
The Tongariro Alpine Crossing, supposedly (and for me, truly) the most beautiful walk in New Zealand!
Badass
It's a popular one though
Mt. Nguaruhoe
Hell yes I am prepared!
Stunning
Let's do this, Frodo ain't got nothing on me!
There we go
Always time for a selfie, even half-way up a volcano
It wasn't cold, nooo..
The crater! Too cold at the moment to melt our one ring...
The proof
Outside the crater
Plenty of colour still, despite the gloomy, dead landscape
Some weirdo's on the mountain, mentally influenced by the task of climbing it
Trying to look cool, failing miserably...steep pile of scree, this mountain!
The South Crater
Left side
What can I say? It's just ridiculously beautiful
After mastering the mountain
South Crater
Mt. Doom revisited (I kinda liked the look of it as you might've noticed)
Maartje defying gravity again
Ok, I was mentally influenced too...
South crater, gigantic
The Red Crater
Me and the Red Crater
Potentitally dangerous place!
The Emerald Lakes, sulphur lakes so a lovely scent of rotten eggs all over the place
The best view on the walk
Lake of cold magma it seems
Did it!
The Blue Lake
Lake Taupo
Sulphur crater
The way down
Rotorua, Whakarewarewa Maori village, hot springs and mud pools all around the place
Explanations from our guide
The Maori kitchen (they throw their food in a bag on a rope in there to boil it!)
Baths, yes, in public
And the Pohutu geyser
Lovely mud pool
Traditional Maori dances
The world-famous Haka!
The Matamata visitor's centre, guess what's around here?
Yes it is! Here we (as in, mainly Bas and I) could let our inner child and LOTR fan run freely:D
And our inner retard as well
The tour in the one and only Shire, Hobbiton movieset!
Bas was so excited he could only pull off this face
Gandalf's cutting, from the scene where he first enters Hobbiton in LOTR
So much sweetness, 100+ pics of Hobbit homes ahhyeahhhhh
The fake tree! In LOTR, this tree is real. It died and for the Hobbit, they replaced it by this one, thereby taking into account that it had to look 50 years younger!
That so happens to be exactly our business
Bilbo's casa
The Green Dragon
Inside the Green Dragon Inn
The exit of the Waitomo glowworm cave, the only place where we were allowed to take a picture
The natural bridge at Mangapohue
Bas doing his Jesus pose
Really impressive waterfall on the route following Waitomo, forgot the name though
Beautiful, isolated black sand beach with a tremendously strong current
At Auckland, with René, our new buddy for the last 2 days in NZ
Auckland skyline
Volcano crater in the middle of the city
What a car^^
Nelson lakes
Grand Prix du New Zealand
Some more scenic and less scenic pics of the Nelson lakes
Swaggerboys
Improvised beer cooling
Dinner, totally weaponed against the lovely sandflies
Dishwashing
Kaikoura
Trying to fit in
Dinner at Banks Peninsula
Morning gymnastics
Breakfast view at Banks Peninsula
On our way to Aoraki/Mt Cook, the most beautiful overnight camp spot
Where the weather was lovely
And we were happy
Mt. Cook national park
Selfie time
In the land of Hobbits...
Evening ritual...
On the ferry from north to south
Banks Peninsula
Mt. Cook national park, after the weather got better
Interesting talk for sure
Me trying a cape...
No explanation needed
Milford Sound route
The mirror lakes
Still on the Milford Sound route
Noodle time
Gangstas
Waterfalls galore
Queenstown
From Queenstown to Glenorchy/Paradise
That Paradise was certainly true...
Regular breakfast view
Glenorchy walk
Overthinking life...or what we will have for dinner
Invincible Mine Track
So blue...
Breakfast time at Wanaka
Letting out our inner Dutch
Wanaka
On our way to Haas
Franz Josef Glacier
New Year's Eve
Alcoholic
NYE later in the evening, Bas got very emotional
On our way to Mt. Doom!
Emerald Lakes
Tongariro National Park
BBQ at Lake Taupo
Whakarewarewa Maori Village
With lovely smells
But also public thermal pools
The Matamata visitor's centre
Look who I've found!
Maartje sharing in our joy as well
Pretty much self-explanatory
On our way to the black sand beach
Emotional goodbye from our house, our car, our one and only RAV4
"What was the most fun thing you did?" - Well...
And here, for making you extremely jealous, some very aesthetic and beautiful panorama pictures :D
And here, for making you extremely jealous, some very aesthetic and beautiful panorama pictures :D
My next (and I think single-to-last) entry will be about my last week in Australia and the Australian Open, I'll upload it soon.
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