Yes And: New Zealand

What a beauuuutiful place!!! John's family came to Australia for a few weeks and New Zealand was on their list of places to visit- so we decided to join them. We flew into Christchurch, hired a car, and explored the north part of the South Island-- Christchurch ➡️ Hanmer Springs ➡️ Nelson ➡️ Kaikoura.

The town of Christchurch was nearly destroyed by an earthquake in 2011 and the city centre is still rebuilding. We didn't spend too much time there- just used it as a starting point- but we did get to walk around a bit. Still such a sad sight!

We hit the road and drove 2 hours north to the quiet town of Hanmer Springs.

I feel like I took hundreds of pictures during our drives-- it was so pretty! Mountains and ocean and rivers and pastures and cows and sheep and vineyards!!... the pictures just don't do it justice.

Hanmer Springs is nestled in the mountains and home to the hot springs- super cool. We soaked in the mineral baths - nice and relaxing! Sulphate, anyone? Also had one of the best meals of my life at No. 30. All the food in NZ was amazing...not to mention the tasty wine and beer!!

We continued our journey further north to Abel Tasman National Park. Again, the drive!!! Stunning.

We made it to Nelson for the night--- a funky little town on the northern coast. Our apartment was bomb.com and had some pretty epic views.

We spent a day fly-fishing on the Motueka River..

Then headed off to our last stop-- Kaikoura--while making some pit stops along the way-

We ate and drank our way around Kaikoura- a sleepy beach town on the east coast.

We went whale watching...more like "throw up watching" as over half the boat was puking their brains out due to sea sickness. We didn't see one damn whale either!