This will actually be the last post about my journey. I will fly home tomorrow and still can't believe how fast it all went by!!
But before we come to the end, let me tell you about the last few weeks here in New Zealand.
On the 1st of march, we boarded the ferry from Wellington to Picton on the South Island.
The last part of the trip led us through the gorgeous fjords around Picton. It was beautiful!
Wellington
With Natalie and Max, our friends from Germany
When we arrived in Picton, we had to say goodbye to our German friends because Max was flying home soon and therefore, they had planned another route.
Anja, Taddi and I drove about 1,5 hours to get to a little bay called Robin Hood Bay. The bay was absolutely worth the exhausting drive on the curvy gravel road. It was beautiful and we even found some Paua shells. (These shells are special here in New Zealand and you can only find them in certain spots.)
Robin Hood bay
Paua shellsAfter spending one night there, we drove west towards the city of Nelson. The town was quite big for New Zealand and very cute. We spent the afternoon there and continued our way north to the abel Tasman national park on the next day.
We had booked a three-day tour with kayaks there (without guide) and were already pretty excited. We parked our car in Motueka where the kayak rental company was. First, a guide explained everything we needed to know about the kayaks, about our route, etc. Then, we finally started our tour. We paddled from Motueka towards the north. On the way, we stopped multiple times to visit beautiful bays and beaches. We also were so lucky to see a few seals on the rocks. Really cool!! :)
On that day, we paddled for 6 hours, so we were pretty relieved when we finally got to our campsite in Anchorage bay. We had rented a tent, sleeping bags, and mattresses from the kayak rental company. Unfortunately, our tent was only for two people and one of the sleeping bags was wet... That meant we had a very uncomfortable night. After surviving the night in the tent, we got up, had breakfast right on the beach and started paddling again. This time, we didn't go as far, so we had lots of time to relax on the beautiful beaches.
When we reached our final destination, another secluded beach, our kayaks were picked up by a water taxi and we spent another night in the tent.
On the next day, we walked back to our first campsite. The walkway was really nice! We walked through the jungle and had amazing views on the ocean. At one point we passed a cool swing bridge.
When we reached our destination, we had some time to relax at the beach and were picked up and brought back to the kayak rental by a water taxi in the afternoon.
The trip was so much fun and we had the best weather!!
The first day after the kayak trip was a very special one: I did a skydive!!
Anja, Natalie and Max had already done one in Taupo and had enjoyed it a lot, so I decided to do one as well. :)
I did mine in Motueka, south of the Abel Tasman National Park. It was an amazing experience and I would do it again (if it wasn't so expensive...). I jumped out of a plane with my tandem partner Scroffy in 13000 ft altitude. From up there, I could see Mt. taranaki on the north island, the fjords in the north of the South Island, and the entire national park. It was amazing!!
Shortly before we jumped, when my feet hung out of the plane, I thought: shit, what have you gotten yourself into?? But when we jumped, it was the best feeling ever! I love the feeling of free falling! I'm really glad I decided to do it. :D
After this exciting day, we drove further north to a little hippie town called Takaka. This was definitely one of my favorite towns in whole new Zealand! There were lots of cute cafes, restaurants, art galleries, and shops.
We continued our way up north to the so-called farewell spit, an extremely long sand dune that reaches into the ocean. Unfortunately, it rained on that day, so we didn't see that much.
After visiting Farwell Spit, we drove south to the west coast, stopping at a nice bay in Charleston (where we couldn't get out of the car because of the hordes of sand flies...) and making our way to the famous pancake rocks. There we met up again with Natalie (she had dropped off max at the airport in Christchurch). Her birthday was on that day, march 10th. We did a nice walk through a beautiful forest that ended at the Pancake rocks. The pancake rocks are rocks in front of a cliff that look like giant stacks of pancakes. It was very crowded, but still cool to see.
In the evening we cooked a birthday dinner for Natalie. Taddi is our cook and she really pulled off all her cooking skills. :)
On the next day, we drove further south towards Franz Josef and Fox Clacier. Unfortunately, the weather was really bad and it rained the whole time. Because of the clouds, we didn't even see any mountains... instead, we went to a spa with hot pools. It was time for a shower anyways. :D
We had driven a lot on that day and were glad when we finally reached our campground in Haast. But the relief didn't last long. As soon as we opened the door of our van, millions of sand flies came inside. Sand flies are the literal incarnation of the devil! They look so harmless, like little fruit flies, but they bite you until you're bleeding and their bites itch like crazy!! Even after weeks, you can still see them and they're a thousand times worse than normal mosquito bites. I have never hated an animal species as much as I hate sand flies!!!
That's why we decided to continue driving for another two hours to Wanaka in the middle of the night. It was already past midnight when we finally arrived, but at least no sand flies!
We slept in on the next morning and went to visit wanaka in the afternoon. It's a nice little town next to the beautiful lake wanaka. In the background you can see the gorgeous mountains and glaciers.
During the three days we spent in this area, we did two amazing hikes. One was the Roys Peak Track which was super exhausting! We were rewarded with incredible views though, so it was worth it. :)
Our second hike was the Rob Roy Valley Track. This walk took us through a little valley with an amazing view on Rob Roy Glacier at the end.
After hiking so much, we rewarded ourselves with a really delicious pancake breakfast on the next day.
After that, we made our way to Queenstown where we spent the day shopping and exploring the city centre. A stop at the famous Fergburger couldn't be missed. I had a falafel burger and it was honestly the best burger and the best falafel I have eaten in my entire life!!!!
After eating this most delicious delicacy, we drove a few minutes to our campground for that night. It was one of the most beautiful sites we've stayed on so far! It was a big grassy area right next to a nice little lake.
We didn't have much planned for the next day, so we relaxed by the lake and in the afternoon, we drove south to Lumsden. We stayed there for the night because it was the closest freedom campground to Milford Sound which we wanted to visit on the next day. We had already booked a little cruise online for 9am. That meant we had to get up at 5am and drive the rest of the way in the morning. After driving for 3 hours, we finally reached Milford Sound. The landscape was beautiful! High mountains, deep gorges and lots of forest. We parked our car and had breakfast until we realized that we were already late for check-in. We ran to the terminal and made it just in time for the cruise. That was close!!
The cruise was really worth it, though. It lasted about two hours and we drove through the gorgeous fjord, stopping multiple times to see pretty waterfalls and mountains. Our captain explained a lot about the area, the wildlife, etc. We were so lucky to see some seals lying around on a few rocks, so cool! :)
After the cruise was over, we made our way back to lumsden. By the end of the day, we were all really tired. What a cool day!
We slept in on the next morning and said goodbye to Natalie. She will be here longer than we are, so she has a lot more time to explore the South. We had a great time traveling together and already made plans to meet again back home. :)
Then, Anja, Taddi and I drove south towards the Catlins National Park. We visited the beautiful McLean waterfalls and the famous nugget point.
We had originally planned to visit the city of Dunedin one the next day, but that day turned out to be some kind of holiday. That meant that everything was closed and we decided to continue driving.
It would have been shorter to drive up the east coast to get to our final destination, Christchurch, but a local had recommended the island's inland route to us.
That's why we took the longer route through the mountains. It was a really cool drive indeed!
We had driven a long time and decided to spend the night on a freedom campground in Cromwell. It was already dark when we arrived. As soon as we stepped out of the car, we saw the thousands of stars up in the sky. We could even see the Milky Way! Amazing. :)
We sat inside the car and wrote our diaries when we noticed the hordes of sand flies that had come inside the van. There were so many that we decided to flee, again. During the drive to the next campground (1,5hours away), we left all the windows open and could luckily get rid of the majority of the beasts. It was already past midnight when we reached the campground. But once again: at least no sand flies!!
On the next day, we went to the so-called Clay Cliffs. Once again, New Zealand surprised us with yet another side of it diverse nature.
After visiting the clay cliffs, we continued our way north and soon reached lake Pukaki. That's a beautiful turquoise lake in the middle of the mountains. In the background you can see Mt. Cook, a famous glacier and the tallest mountain in New Zealand. We parked at a view point and had dinner with an amazing view on the lake and the mountains.
We wanted to drive up to Mt Cook national park and do a hike there, however it was really cloudy and we didn't see any mountains. We decided to spend the day relaxing and reading in our campervan. :)
On the next day, we drove to Lake Tekapo, another beautiful lake in the mountains. We walked along the shore of the lake for a bit and in the afternoon, we went to hot pools. The pools were amazing and we had stunning views of the lake. :D
That night, we drove for another 2 hours to the city of Timaru. We spent the night on a parking lot near the harbour. We had read that this was a good spot to see penguins. We walked along the beach two times, but unfortunately we didn't see any.... :(
After spending the night in Timaru, we drove all the way up to Christchurch on the next day. Our plan was to spend the afternoon visiting the city and driving to Akaroa in the evening.
Christchurch was hit by a severe earthquake in 2011 and the city is clearly still recovering from it. There were lots of road works and construction sites. We went to the Re:start mall. That is a little shopping centre made out of containers. All the shops and little food stalls are inside colorful containers. It was so cool!!
After strolling through the container mall, we went to the Botanical Gardens. The gardens were big and very nice. We walked around for like 30-45min and enjoyed the beautiful gardens.
After stopping at a supermarket, we drove to Akaroa on the Banks peninsula right in front of Christchurch. Akaroa is a cute little town in a beautiful bay at the end of the peninsula. It used to be a French colony, so the street names, the Cafés, etc. have French names. I think it's one of my favorite little towns in New Zealand. :)
We had booked a Nature harbour cruise for Saturday. On the cruise, we were supposed to see seals, penguins, and dolphins. Unfortunately, we only saw a few seals, but no dolphins or penguins... the cruise company was really kind though, and gave us free tickets for another cruise. (Which we are gonna sell because we didn't want to do the tour again in this rainy weather...)
The weather didn't change on the next day, so we spend another day reading inside of our van. In the afternoon we drove to a campground near christchurch where we spent the last night in our beloved Gunni.
We slept in, had breakfast, and packed our stuff. Then we went to an outlet mall which was on the way to the airport where we had to drop off Gunni in the afternoon.
The mall was awesome. :)
We had one last meal in our van and then went to the Jucy Rentals office to drop it off. We couldn't believe how fast the past 7 weeks in the campervan had gone by. Time really does fly!
After we dropped off the keys and got all of our luggage outside the van, we waited for Eru to pick us up. Eru is the owner of the AirBnB where we spent the last two nights here in New Zealand before flying home or for the other two: to French Polynesia.
Eru was an amazing host and we felt very welcome in his home with his family and his dogs.
On Tuesday, Taddi left to spend the last night in a hostel near the airport. Her flight is very early in the morning, so she left earlier.
It was weird to say goodbye to her after spending the last 5.5 months together... It felt very strange. At this point: thank you Taddi!! For traveling the world with me, for keeping me company, for talking about everything there is to talk about, and for laughing with me until we can't breathe anymore. <3
Now, anja and I are chilling at Eru's until tomorrow. Anja will spend one more night here in Christchurch before she will fly back to Auckland to spend some more time with our friend Julia, the she will join Taddi in French Polynesia.
My flight home will be tomorrow at 6:45pm.
The trip is almost over. That's it. I can't believe how fast the time has gone by! I have experienced so many amazing things while traveling that I will never forget. I met cool people from all over the world, made new friends, ate weird and delicious food, experienced new cultures and traditions, saw so many beautiful places, ...
This journey was one of the best decisions of my entire life and I wouldn't change anything about it!
I have learned a lot about myself and about other parts of the world.
I know that I'm incredibly lucky! Without the support of my family, especially my parents, and my friends I wouldn't have been able to fulfill my dream. Thank you so much! <3
Now, I'm beyond excited to go home after being away for so long. I can't wait to see my family and my friends, to eat all the delicious German food, to sleep in my own bed, etc.
And then of course I look forward to spending the entire May with my second family and friends in Florida!!
I say goodbye with one of Taddi's favorite quotes:
"traveling - it leaves you speechless, then turns you into a storyteller."
Lots of love,
Annette
