New Zealand part 1

New Zealand – a magical amazing country that I bet is on everybody’s bucket list. Am I right? I bet I am. How so? It’s not very popular because of the distance. You normally need around 24-30h to get there. For us door to door was around 33h. We flew from New York to Los Angeles, then to Auckland, and finally to Christchurch. In LA we had a 6h layover. We chose it intentionally. First of all, we didn’t want to miss our flight. Second, we wanted to relax and take a cab to Santa Monica. It was a great idea – at least we could relax after a 6h flight and get ready for the next one (13h).

​We flew Air New Zealand from LA to Christchurch. I really wanted to see what safety video they would show….and it was the newest one:

​Air New Zealand is famous for their safety videos and my favorite one is... Of course, it’s The Lord of the Rings video. The Lord of the Rings is filmed in NZ. The green lush hills, clear blue water, and amazing flora inspired the producers for the movie. I was hoping to see the same when I got there.

​So, we landed in Christchurch. It was mid-day Monday. We started our trip on Saturday, but because you cross the international date line you lose one day. No worries, you will get it back on the way back. So Christchurch was our first stop and destination. We rented a car and started exploring this amazing country.

​Remember, in New Zealand you drive on the left side of the road. I knew Darek already had good experience in this so I wasn’t worried at all. It was just funny when he turned on the windshield wipers instead of the turn signal, it’s wasn't just him. We saw a lot of people on the road trying to clean their windows in the beautiful sunny weather – they must be tourists as well.

DAY 1: CHRISTCHURCH

We landed in Christchurch around 1pm, got our car from the rental company, and went straight to the hotel. We were all right. At this point we weren't jet-lagged so we decided to see the city. It was a holiday for them, so the city looked pretty empty. Christchurch had two big earthquakes. One was in 2010, and the other in 2011. The second one 185 people died. There is a memorial for them, it's called “Empty Chairs”. There are 185 empty white chairs. There are baby chairs, adult chairs and wheelchairs. I would say one of the great death memorials. It makes you reflect for a while.

​Overall, the town suffers a lot from earthquakes. There are still a lot of destroyed buildings. Sometimes, we went to some allies and streets and they looked so abandoned. The other time we went to a perfectly nice neighborhood.

There is a cathedral on Cathedral Square (dated to 1983). The Cathedral looks beautiful, but unfortunately it's also destroyed, and currently it's closed for the tourists. I wonder what plans they have for it. I hope it will be rebuilt.

Don't get me wrong. Even though there is still a lot to be fixed you can have a really nice time in Christchurch. There is a street called New Reagent that is full of bars and restaurants. You can't miss the trolly that can almost hit your table. We hung out a little bit, did some bar hopping, and finally enjoyed the lamb. I would recommend Caffeine Laboratory for coffee and breakfast, and some bars like: Last Word, Bog, Carlton (good live music), and of course Pomeroy's Old Brewery. ​The city is definitely worth visiting and just wandering around you can see a lot of nice places, sometimes historical, sometimes innovative (like cardboard cathedral), and a lot of graffiti.

​DAY 2: AKAROA & BANKS PENINSULA

It's definitely, a must-do one day getaway from Christchurch. We were driving from Christchurch to Dunedin, on our second day, this was on the way. The best way to see Banks Peninsula is to go on a cruise. Most of the cruises are from the small town Akaroa. The town is small and very friendly, nice, with some restaurants. We were lucky to have great weather, just perfect for a cruise.

​We booked an Akaroa Dolphins Cruise. It's a relatively small boat but has everything you need. It's a family business, and the tickets were sold by a lady, her husband, is the captain, her nephew is a guide on the boat. They offered us cookies (of course made by the aunt) and wine (from the uncle's winery). As you can see, it's a cozy, family business, with extremely nice service.

​The cruise was a pure pleasure. We were sitting on the bench, looking at the lush green hills, wathing the sea lions playing in the water – live is beautiful! It was hard for me to believe that places like that still exist. I saw it, but I felt like I was in some kind of dream and I didn't want to wake up.

 ​I love those kind of cruises, but what really makes me happy are the animals. I love to take pictures of all the animals. They are so funny in their real environment, playing in the water, drying their fur in the sun, or just trying to get some food.
I was lucky to spot some dolphins, sea lions, penguins and some birds.

 The next two nights we were about to spend in Dunedin. There is a beach with Moeraki Boulders on the way from Christchurch to Dunedin. It's hard for me to explain, but very interesting, how those boulders were formed. It's erosion from wave of mudstone, in simple language. I would really recommend you learn more on Wikipedia. For me it was like an alien activity, but I found the beach and boulders really beautiful.  

​DAY 3: DUNEDIN & EAST COAST
​
I don't quite understand why people are saying “this is a second Paris, this is a second Vegas....”. They are saying that Dunedin is the second Edinburgh. I've never been to two cities that look the same, I would never call any city “this is a second....”. In my opinion every city is different and unique. Some of them are more modern, some more historical, and some have more students and bars, while others are more laid back. They are just different. Dunedin is one of those unique places. As I mentioned, a lot of people compare it to Edinburgh. I only know Edinburgh from pictures, so I might be wrong. Anyway, Dunedin is a small town, with more european architecture. There is a university, so of course there are a lot of students and bars. We didn't go to the bars, so instead we wandered a little bit around the city, in the morning. We had breakfast in the local coffee shop, and hit the road to see the East Coast.

​Tunnel Beach was our first stop. First you hike to the clifs. The view is amazing and then you can climb the clifs and see how ocean waves are hitting the rocks.

​After walking around I found a tunnel. It was a real tunnel in the rocks that takes you all the way down to the beach. You get out of the tunnel straight to the small, almost private beach. There weren't many people there so it was like private. Cool!

​The Nugget Point is a 1.5 hour drive from Tunnel Beach. Why it's worth going there? Overall, the East Coast of South Island is very rocky. On the West Coast there are fjords and mountains going straight to the ocean. On the East, there are no high mountains, but the shore is still very rocky. It's hard to get to the beach in New Zealand. Most of the time you won't be able to even get to the water. When you drive to Nugget Point, first you are on the ocean level, so there are few beaches, but then the road climbs high until you reach Nugget Point. At the end of the cliff is the light house. I bet it has to look really nice at night when you have a clear starry night. A lot of parts of NZ have a certificate of the Dark Sky, but you have to be really lucky to get a clear sky.

​We got to Slope Point after driving north 2 hours. This is the southern most point on South Island. You can “almost” see Antarctica from there. At this point, you are closer to the South Pole than to the Equator. This is the furthest south we've ever been to.

 ​The wind it's what surprised us the most. It was not so windy when we got there but looking at the trees we knew that normally it's super windy here. Amazing how trees can survive such a strong winds.  

​Last but not least we stopped at Cathedral Caves. Don't be confused by Cathedral Cove. Both of those rock formations are caves on the beach. Cathedral Cove is bigger, but it's on North Island. On the South Island there are Cathedral Caves. You can visit them only when it's low tide. There is always a 2 hour window where it's safe to walk there.

​The caves are pretty big and the water can fill them when it's high tide. It's recommended to have a headlamp because the further you go inside the darker it is. You also need a headlamp if you want to see who is currently sleeping there... we saw a penguin. He was so small and scary so we watched him from the distance. I was wondering if he got there with water and now cannot get out, or just got there to lay the eggs. Anyway, we let him stay there... nature can manage things and it's better when people don't disturb them.

​The road back was pretty long. Overall in NZ the distances are big and you can hardly speed up. Most of the roads are through the mountains with a lot of turns. You can go as fast as 100 km/h, but because of the windy road you can hardly maintain this speed all the time. However, the view, the green hills, and all the sheep you see around amaze you so much that you don't care. Since driving took us a lot of time we decided to grab a quick dinner in McDonalds. You know what? I took a first bite of the Big Mac and I said: “I can tast the meat!”. I really did!

​DAY 4 & 5: KEPLER TRACK
​
Time to get to the West Coast. New Zealand has amazing mountains. Especially, on the West Coast of the South Island. In the South-West there is the Fiordland National Park. Then, in the Central Part of the West coast you have New Zealand's Alps.  

Besides those there are a lot of other National Parks. New Zealand is also famous for the Great Walks and mountain huts. There are more than 900 mountain huts & shelters in New Zealand. Some of them are huge for 50-80 people, and some are just one person shelters. To make it easier for tourists to discover the most beautiful regions, they created 9 Great Tracks. Those are multi-day hikes (normally 3-4 days) through the most scenic parts of the mountains. The trails are very well maintained and you have huts all over where you can stay for a night or two.

That was our plan for Thursday & Friday. On Thursday, we drove to Te Anau from where we took Kepler track to the Luxmore Hut. The hike was pretty easy (steady up) with some zig-zags. After around 1.5 hours we crossed the timber line, and were walking in the open field. Unfortunately, it started to rain, so we couldn't fully admire the view.

It was still amazing to see the huge fjords, and be on top of them. We got to the hut where we made our dinner. After a long drive and hike we were tired and went to sleep. Sometimes you can see kiwi at night. You have to wait outside being quite and they will show up. We will do it next time. Sitting in the rain is not pleasurable. The hut where we stayed is pretty big (sleeps 60 people), with cold running water and flush toilets. There is a kitchen and you can cook your own food. There are no blankets so you have to bring your own sleeping bag, but at least you have a mattress.

It was still raining, the next day. We really wanted go to the top before heading down to the car, but then the ranger said “the snow from the south is coming”. For us, people from the North Hemisphere, that sounds really funny. South means beach, warm, hot weather to us. For them it's Antarctica with all the cold snowy weather. We waited 2 hours for the weather to change, but unfortunately, there was no sun that day. So we headed down to the Te Anau where we stayed for the next two days.

DAY 6: TE ANAU & MILFORD SOUND
​
Te Anau is a typical resort. The town is surrounded by beautiful mountains, has access to the lake, and is driving distance to Milford Sound. I could definitely spend a week there and just wander around, taking some hikes.

Milford Sound is a 2 hour drive from Te Anau. It's a must take cruise and see the fjords. You can also fly, hike, but a cruise is a must anyway. There are a lot of companies, and we decided to go with Cruise Milford. The boat was relatively small (around 50 people) and the captin was telling us a lot about the area, rocks, glaciers etc. Many years ago, there were glaciers in this area going straight into the water. Nowdays, there is only one glacier left.

We had an amazing time, admiring the view, trying to spot some animals, and getting wet from the waterfalls. It was raining the previous day, so there were a lot of waterfalls. Our captain really liked to get as close as possible so we all got wet. Regarding animals, we saw a dolphin and sea lions. However, there were more animals on the Akaroa cruise.

Milford Sound is a part of Fiordland National Park. So even when the driving distance is just two hours you can spend days there and take some hikes around. We took some hikes, but mainly from 5 minutes to 1 hour. So we walked through the tropical forest, had a beer at the waterfall, saw a mirror lake, and stopped from time to time to take some nice pictures of the mountains.

DAY 7: QUEENSTOWN

Queenstown - I think it's my favorite town in New Zealand. It's just perfect! The town is built around Lake Wakapitu and is sourrended by mountains. No wonder, the town is the capital of all extreme sports. The first comercial Bungee jumping site was opened near Queenstown. In Queenstown you can do any sport you wish. There's skiing, snowboarding, mountain biking, jet boating, whitewater rafting, paragliding, sky diving, and much more. They have everything there such as beautiful mountains where ski resorts in the summer become a biking paradise, and a lake where you can experience any kind of water sport. It sounds like paradise? Yes!

After an active day you can relax and enjoy a cold beer in one of the many bars. People are relatively young and it's obvious that they spend their days doing some sports. In the evening, most of them work as barteneders, hotel staff, etc.

Queenstown is a resort town so, small stores, hotels, restaurants are everywhere. There is not much history here, but a lot to enjoy being outside. We arrived to Queenstown around 2pm, and started to explore the city. Fergburger - has the most famous hamburgers in the city. We were told we must go there so that was an obvious choice for lunch. We got there and we saw a huge line - oops! Luckily, the line was going down pretty fast. The menu has pretty names for the burgers - "Little Lamby" or "Sweet Bambi" it sounds too sweet to eat. Anyway, no matter how you call it, it matters how it tastes. So, we tried Little Lamby and it was delicious.

The town is not big so after few minutes of walking we were boarding the Skyline gondola to take us to the top of the Queenstown hill. We just walked around admiring the view, but you can speed up on Luge (a Go Cart style car), take one of the mountain biking trails, or try bungee jumping. Anyway, the view is so great that most of the time we just spent admiring the view.

There are a few nice places to check being in Queenstown:
Botswana Butchery - a fancy, delicious restaurant - we went there to celebrate Darek's birthday
Fergburger - the best burgers in the town
Balls & Bangles - donuts with syringe and very good coffee
Perky's - beer on the boat
Atlas Bar - the best selection of craft beer
and many more, because the city is full of nice places.

Check the second part of the blog. New Zealand is such a beautiful country that the best way to describe it is through pictures. That's why I decided to write it day by day, chose the best pictures, and wrote something more about the places we visited. Check out the 2nd part soon!