Thesheepiggy x NZ Roadtrip’18
So right after our graduation, we flew to New Zealand for a month long road trip. Yes, a road trip. Well, we planned this trip since last year so damn straight we were excited.
Fun fact: New Zealand has two islands, the North Island and the South Island. The plan was to first explore the North Island in a week and then the South for about two weeks and that’s what we did.
We rented a car in the North Island at Wellington and went towards the Hobbiton Movie set and came back via New Plymouth. We pretty much had to plan our accommodations every step of the way because the destinations are impromptu and we didn’t know how long we were going to be there. This is the part where I say thank god there’s Airbnb because it made finding accommodations so much easier and cheaper too. Fun fact: I never used Airbnb before; Yes I registered for it like 6 years ago but I never once used it because well, the idea of living in a stranger’s house didn’t sit too well with me then. But for this trip, we decided to give it a try. Theoretically, we lived in 10 strangers’ houses for the stay in the North island and I’d say it was pretty damn fun. We got to live in different types of houses and meet different home owners which was definitely a new and exciting experience.
The North Island is much warmer than the South during winter so we weren’t too worried about the weather during the start of the trip. It was still pretty cold though; about 10 degrees? Yup, we pretty much requested that the Airbnb houses we lived in to have a heater cause we might really literally freeze in our sleep. I guess I wasn’t used to such cold weather so yeah><
Anyway, the main highlights in the North Island includes Tongariro Alpine Crossing, Huka Falls, Wai-O-Pu Thermal Wonderland, The Hobbiton Movie Set, Bridal Veils Falls, Hamilton Gardens, Waitomo caves, New Plymouth, White Cliffs, The Three Sisters, Lake Mangamahoe, Te Rewa Rewa Bridge, Dawson Falls and Putangirua Pinnacles. (Arranged in chronological order)
We… well, I drove up a snow mountain for the first time in my life (without snow chains haha) and yes it wasn’t as scary as I thought it would be. We wanted to check out the Tongariro Alpine crossing but we ended up driving up a random snow mountain. It’s alright though, the view on top of the mountain was stunning and there was snow EVERYWHERE. It was freezing though so we had to quickly hide back inside the car HAHA
We made a quick stop at Huka Falls before checking out the Thermal Wonderland and that was the first time I saw a waterfall with such blue waters. Personally, I never saw waters that was this blue and honestly, pretty damn amazing.
I’d say that the tickets to the Hobbiton Movie set was a little pricey but it was well worth the views and free exclusive beer that they provided. If you actually watch Lord of the Rings or and Hobbit sequel, you’d know that this place is where Frodo and Bilbo Baggins “hobbits” lived. It was raining when we reached the set but they still proceeded to take us through the set despite the weather (they provided us with umbrellas). Thankfully, just when we were about to finish the tour, the sun came out and all’s well. We got to try their exclusive English beer and tbh it’s a little too bitter for my taste.
I was pretty excited to go to the Waitomo caves cause #glowworms but honestly it was a tad disappointing and overrated. There wasn’t much glowworms in the caves and photography wasn’t allowed as well. Let’s just say the glowworms wasn’t as glowy as I expected. Oh wells.
During our drive to New Plymouth, we went by White cliffs (a beach with a beautiful coastline) and the Three Sisters. We didn’t know what the Three Sisters was but we went to check it out anyway. Upon reaching, a French lady borrowed an Iphone wire from us and told us that the tide is relatively low then and it was the best time to view the Three Sisters. We followed her and walked through the beach filled with black volcanic sand before finally arriving at the Three Sisters. It’s kind of like the 12 apostles in Australia but the New Zealand version(:
During our last few days in the North island, someone insisted we MUST go to the Putangirua Pinnacles because it was known as the Dimholt Road in Lord of the Rings and he wanted to see it in person sooo badly. When we finally reached, the hike to the Pinnacles was a 1hr 30mins return trip. Imagine my dread LOL. After much difficulty finding the route…(we literally had to cross over HUGE fallen trees and thorny shrubs)…we finally saw it. The Pinnacles. I was exhausted as fuck but wow, the view definitely paid off.
Below was the route we took for the North Island:
After about 10 days in the North Island, we took a domestic flight to Christchurch in the South Island. This is where the real adventure begins my friends. Someone once told me that the “South Island is the best island”. And damn… was he right.
Here, we rented a campervan with Apollo and heck the staff (ahem Cathy* in particular) are really rude but well, we got the vehicle and it’s cool. This was the first time we drove a campervan and boy, there were so many things we didn’t know. Fun fact, the campervan has a queen sized bed, a fridge, a stove and a small cubicle (could barely fit a wc in there). The fridge runs on the campervan battery so we could on it all the time but we needed to charge it every 3 days at places called “Holiday parks”. These Holiday parks provide powered sites for campervans to charge and there you can sleep soundly in your van using all the electricity you need. Oh, did I mention you can’t waste the water in your van because once the waste water tank is full, the water will collect in your sinks and cubicle unless you go to a dump station to drain your waste water tank. Funnily enough, the capacity of the fresh water tank is larger than the waste water tank -.- Hence, the frequent trips to the dump station. Don’t worry, most holiday parks have a dump station in their site and freshwater taps too. Enough of the mechanics, let’s go on to the itinerary of the South Island:
The highlights of the South Island includes Bridle Path, Kaikoura, Nelson, Abel Tasman National Park, Hokitika Gorge, Franz Josef Glacier, Mount Aspiring National Park, Blue Pools, Wanaka, Lindis Pass, Mount Cook Alpine Salmon(hehe), Hooker Valley Track at Mount Cook National Park, Lake Pukaki, Lake Tekapo, Queenstown (Skydiving and Nevis Swing), Milford Sound, Invercargill, Bluff and Purakanui Falls, Jack’s bay, The Nugget Point, Dunedin, Tunnel Beach and Mount John Observatory.
Bridle path is in Christchurch and it takes about 45mins to reach the top. There, we were gifted with views overlooking the town of Lynetton. Oh if you are lazy, you can always take a gondola up to the top, which we didn’t cause we like to torture ourselves like that. Let’s just say I died when I reached the top, no one needs to know that HAHA
Kaikoura is known for their crayfish and I love crayfish so we made a quick stop at Seafood BBQ for a $70 crayfish which we shared cause its so damn big. Trust me, it was so good, we made another trip back and bought the $140 crayfish (cause the cheaper ones are sold out-.-) Yup, that’s where our cash went. Along the coastline of Kaikoura, there are a ton of rocks and if you look closely these rocks MOVE. There are colonies of seals that reside at the rocks along the coastline and boy they are SO.CUTE.
We stopped at Nelson for a dozen oysters cause bae wanted to try some Bluff oysters and we ordered some sashimi too but that’s about all there is in Nelson. There’s supposed to be Nelson salmon somewhere but we didn’t get to check it out during our time there. Either way, Mount Cook is equally famous for its salmon so it’s okay.
Abel Tasman National Park looks pretty amazing in photos but in real life everything looks kind of dead and brown…maybe it was just the winter thing but it was still beautiful nonetheless. As for Hokitika Gorge, well…it was Gorge-ous. Like wow, the waters is in a shade of baby blue which makes you seriously question whether if it’s real or not. Cause it was so unreal and BEAUTIFUL.
Franz Josef Glacier…don’t go there. It has receded so badly due to global warming and well…I’d say the hike is not worth the view. It was so underwhelming I didn’t want to see the Fox Glacier either HAHA
Mount Aspiring National Parks has a ton of walks but we went to see a couple of waterfalls and the Blue pools cause the trekking time was quite short. Then, we made our way to Wanaka to see #thatwanakatree. When I actually went to see the tree in real life…well…the tree is simply a lonely tree that is situated a tad further from the coast of the park. I’d walk by it and not even realise it was there. All I can say is…photos are deceiving my friends. HAHAHA.
The feast begins. We arrived at Mount Cook Alpine Salmon and bought like 5 boxes of salmon sashimi from the store. Yes, I’m serious. Yes, the cashier did look at us crazy. No, we are not grizzly bears. It costs $35NZD for 500g of salmon sashimi and what can I say, we live for salmon sashimi so yup.
The next day we hiked at the Hooker Valley track in Mount Cook National Park. Don’t ask me why the name of the track sounds so shady cause I wouldn’t know😉 The hike is 3 hrs and we started hiking at 8am and boy it just finished snowing the night before so the mountains were freshly coated with a nice creamy shade of white. EVERYWHERE. The views were spectacular I swear. The 3 hr hike wasn’t enough to fully appreciate the beauty of that place. But as the afternoon approached, the snow started to melt and the ground was full of black ice. Do watch out for black ice cause I literally fell down not once but TWICE while making my way out of the place. Ouch.
We spent a night at Lake Pukaki😉 HAHA and well it was darn cold at night. The temperature was probably minus 5 degrees? But the stars in the sky at night though…there were stars covering every inch of the sky and you’d wanna sing Twinkle Twinkle little stars cause heck the stars were fucking twinkling staright at your face. Oh, did I mention you could see the milky way with your naked eyes? Yes. You can. I rest my case. I took a couple of shots of the night sky using our DSLR and they turned out not too shabby. Fire and Ice wink wink*
We wanted to see the southern lights at Lake Tekapo but we didn’t manage to catch any southern lights during the trip): Well, I guess that’s another reason to come back to NZ:p
Queenstown. The place where the fearless resides. We pre-booked our skydiving and Nevis Swing slots a couple of days before arriving at Queenstown cause we were told it could get sold out if we book them last minute. We skydived with Nzone and I totally didn’t scream like a baby. It’s all cool. Bucket list: Skydiving (Checked). As for the Nevis swing, it is known as the world’s largest swing and I really wanted to take it after seeing it on Runningman LOL. YOLO. The drop was fcking intense but after the first drop, it’s all good again. Honestly, it’s scarier to watch than to take the swing (:
Milford sound is actually in the middle of nowhere (quoted from our cashier at Milford Sound lodge). It is literally a hidden paradise. Upon entering the tunnel that leads there, you are surrounded by mountains with waterfalls streaming down their every nook and cranny. EVERWHERE. It was damn fucking amazing. We took a cruise at Milford Sound and saw a couple of dolphins, seals and plenty of waterfalls along the way. The cruise was about 2 hours and I’d say it was worth it cause of the dolphins. They were so cute, they swam along with the cruise boat cause they friendly like that 😀
Oh, Invercargill is known for viewing the southern lights…and bad luck. I got a speeding ticket in Invercargill for going at 117km/hr when the limit is 100. Was casually slapped with a 120NZD fine which I didn’t want to pay but they actually mailed a letter to my house in Singapore mind you. So yes, pay your fines.
As for Bluff, it’s a ghost town known for its Bluff oysters and that’s the only reason why we were there. Oysters for the Otter boyfriend 😛
We almost got lost in the Catlins cause there was no signal in that area but we managed to find a couple of stunning waterfalls before going to Jack’s Blowhole & Bay. At Jack’s Bay, we found a couple of sea lions sleeping amongst the bushes (actually just one) and some chasing seagulls. We could not get too close to them because the signs warned us not to and they look pretty huge even though they move rather slowly. They remind me of little dinosaurs when the try to move with their four flippers :p
We went to the Nugget Point and saw the lighthouse (which no one can get in) and it was sitting along the cliffs surrounded by the sea. It was one of a kind definitely(:
As we passed Dunedin, we went to Tunnel beach which…as the name suggests consists of a tunnel. There was a small tunnel at the cliff that led to the beach right next to the waves. It was kind of like the shipwreck beach in movies but without the ship :X
Below is the route we took for the South Island:
All in all, let’s just say the South Island has landscapes that are to die for. Enough said. Thank you for your kind hospitality New Zealand, we will definitely be back someday. Until next time(:
If you managed to read of this long post, congratulations! Here’s the itinerary & budget for our roadtrip – You’re welcome
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