Travel Blog » New Zealand

The South Island – Postcard perfect landscape

Lucian — Sun, 17 Mar 2013 08:09:09 +0000

The ferry ride between the North and the South Islands of New Zealand is considered to be one of the most beautiful ferry rides in the world. And this was not even between the best things we saw in our three weeks journey through the South Island. If you’re looking for postcard perfect landscape and a little bit of everything what nature has to offer, the South Island is a top choice. Here are some of the main attractions that we visited.

Milford Sound – We could not miss the Fiordland of New Zealand so we went for a half day trip through the Milford Sound. Here you can see the mountains rising all the way from the sea as well as sea-lions, penguins and lots of other animals. Another memorable experience was when the captain went with the nose of the ship under a waterfall and the crew filled up glasses with glacier water for all the passengers. Take a look at the video.

Mount Cook and Lake Pukaki – We weren’t sure if we will ever find a lake that matches the beauty of Canada’s Moraine Lake but Lake Pukaki is definitely playing in the same league. The drive to the base of Mount Cook goes along Lake Pukaki and we stopped tens of times to take pictures because the view was so amazing. Again, too bad that the pictures don’t completely show its real beauty.

Franz Josef and Fox Glacier – are New Zealand’s two main glaciers. We took a guided tour on the Fox Glacier because this was reachable more easily than the Franz Josef Glacier where you had to take a helicopter to drop you off on top of the glacier. The two glaciers are not as spectacular as the Perito Moreno in Argentina but the hike was still worth it.

Dunedin and the Otago Peninsula – We liked Dunedin a lot as it has really nice old architecture and looks like a city where nothing happens very fast. They also claim to have the steepest residential road in the world so we couldn’t miss driving this road up and down . The Otago Peninsula is right near Dunedin and it has lots to offer. Here you can also find a colony of yellow eyed penguins which are native to New Zealand. On the peninsula you can also see the only castle in New Zealand.

Christchurch – We also visited the city of Christchurch, the third largest city of New Zealand. It was hardly damaged by the earthquake in 2011. Even if the construction work continues, a big part of downtown Christchurch is a red zone with restricted access. That area looks literally like a ghost town and it looks like the shop owners are not willing to invest in this area for a long time.

Next stop

Auckland

The North Island – Hiking, rafting and sightseeing, what else???

Lucian — Fri, 01 Mar 2013 09:00:18 +0000

In our second part of the journey through the North Island we visited the nice little town of Rotorua. Rotorua is also world famous for white water rafting so I could not miss the opportunity on this one. Rafting rapids are classified from grade 1 – 6 where grade 6 means it is unraftable because it is too dangerous. The Kaituna River has rapids of grade 5 so you can imagine that we got the shot of adrenaline which we paid for. And to make things even more amazing, the Kaituna also has the highest commercial raftable waterfall in the world, a spectacular drop of 7 meters. This was definitely one of the craziest rides of the trip so far.

Another memorable experience was the hike which we made after leaving the region of Rotorua. The hiking trail is called “The Tongariro Alpine Crossing” and is rated to be in the Top 10 day hikes in the world. After looking at the pictures, I’ll let you judge if the rating is exaggerated or not. The trail runs near an active volcano and lakes with incredible emerald water. In fact they are even called the “Emerald Lakes”. Because the last time the volcano erupted was in November 2012 parts of the trail are still closed and you cannot get closer than 3 km to the volcano because of the danger of volcanic flying rocks.

As a final stop on the North Island we arrived in Wellington, New Zealand’s capital which was described by Lonely Planet as being “The Coolest Little Capital in the World.” Because it is situated near the Cook Strait which divides the North Island from the South Island it gets a lot of rain, on average it rains 159 days per year. But we got the lucky shot and the weather was just perfect for one day of sightseeing and relaxing on the docks.

New Zealand – Traveller, your dreams are waiting

Lucian — Sun, 24 Feb 2013 11:19:41 +0000

“Traveler, your dreams are waiting” is the message with which you are welcomed at the airport in Auckland but the start of the trip to New Zealand has not been the best one ever. When we arrived at the check-in counter at the airport in Sydney we were asked for a return flight out of New Zealand because without one we were not allowed to check in. Because we wanted to stay flexible we have not bought a return ticket before but at this point we were advised to buy a fully refundable ticket and pay only the cancelation fees. We did this and hoped this would be the only impediment in travelling to New Zealand. But boy were we wrong. Once we arrived in Auckland we had to declare if we have any camping and hiking equipment and because we had, we were requested to go to a separate line where our luggage would be inspected. But once we got to this counter a short interview began with questions about what we plan to do in New Zealand and why we have a separate return ticket that we bought only on the day of departure… which I have to admit was kind of strange… After we told the officer about our trip and even offered to show him the papers that we are really returning to our jobs in June he believed our alibi and sent us to the next queue where our camping and hiking equipment was inspected. Because the hiking shoes and the tent were clean we were allowed to keep them, so… happy end of the airport story.

Fortunately from this moment on everything went more than perfect. We went to pick up our rental car and received a free upgrade to a huge brand new Toyota Highlander. By brand new I mean the odometer was showing only 7 (seven) kilometer.

First we decided to visit a region in the northern part of the North Island called Bay Of Islands. Here we decided to take a full day boat tour through the islands and the blue-greenish waters of the bay. The luck struck once again and we won a HOT-SEAT on the boat so one of us travelled for free. For me New Zealand did not have the image of perfect beaches and blue-greenish waters. But take a look at the pictures and see how wrong I was thinking that.

In the northern part we also visited Waitangi where the Treaty of Waitangi was signed between the Maori and the British. This Treaty is considered the founding document of New Zealand as a nation. At the Treaty Grounds we also watched a performance of Maori and even witnessed a Haka, the traditional Maori war dance which may be familiar to you as it is always performed by the National Rugby Team of New Zealand before their games.

After leaving the northern part of the island we headed for the Coromandel Peninsula which is famous for the Hot Water Beach. This beach is called like that because during the timeframe of 2 hours before and 2 hours after low tide you can go to the beach and dig your own pool which than is filled by hot water from the geothermal springs. The water is so hot that you have to be careful to build it in a place where it can mix with the sea water, otherwise the danger of burns is really high. Being able to sit in a self-made small pool with thermal water right on the beach… how cool(warm) is that???

Next stop

Continue our journey on the North Island