After our first trip to New Zealand last year, John and I immediately started planning our next visit to that beautiful place. Luckily, Jetstar had some flight deals we couldn't pass up and we headed over for a 7 day vacay.
DAY 1- QUEENSTOWN/ARROWTOWN
The epic views started from the airport parking lot!
We stayed with a lovely Airbnb-er, Bridget, in Lake Hayes Estate-- just outside the city centre. We arrived to Bridget mowing her lawn in a short, flowy dress and hiking boots and she invited us to join the yoga class she was hosting in her living room later that night. She was a real natural gal.
We borrowed Bridget's bikes for the afternoon and took a ride around Lake Hayes.
And headed to the quaint village of Arrowtown for a nice dinner-it reminded me a little of Jackson Hole, Wyoming!
New Zealand has the best food- Fresh and local and creative!
DAY 2- QUEENSTOWN
Queenstown is the "adventure capital of the world" so we reckoned we needed to throw in some extreme activities on our trip. First up- bungy jumping! (I am not a risk taker. I like to be in control of my body at all times and I'd prefer to stay with my feet flat on the ground. I don't do roller coasters or high dives. I HATE the feeling of my stomach dropping. How or why I decided to do this is beyond me). I couldn't fall asleep the night before because I kept watching YouTube videos of people bungy jumping and getting myself worked up. But when in Rome...
We jumped off the Kawarau Bridge-- where the first ever commercial bungy jump took place. It was really amazing. John, such a little daredevil, went first with the go-pro and I followed soon after. It was such a rush and seeing the river from that angle was so crazy. It was such a high! Really cool feeling.
Check out our jumps:
John
Annie
After jumping, we headed into town and did the Queenstown Hill Hike. A beautiful (and challenging!) walk up to the top of the city. The views were definitely worth it!
That afternoon, we geared up to go canyoning! A mix of hiking, zip lining, rappelling, cliff jumping and swimming. It was great fun and we had really good guides.
(still figuring out the go-pro..)
We finished up the day with a pint and a pie at The Pig and Whistle. We were absolutely wiped and were in bed at 8pm!
DAY 3- QUEENSTOWN AND TE ANAU
We said goodbye to Bridget (who I had accidentally been calling Belinda the whole time...whoopsies).
We had planned to do another walk this day but it was rainy and cold..so we opted for a hamburger instead! Fergburger is a famous Queenstown establishment known for its burgers and fries. We waited in line for about half an hour...
And then finally got our hands on this bad boy! Totes worth it.
We also sat by a nice American couple from Michigan who were exploring NZ for a few weeks to celebrate their 15th wedding anniversary. Cute.
We then decided to do the Skyline Gondola-- even though it was cloudy and rainy, the view was pretty great!
We enjoyed a beer from the top and then did a luge ride around the mountain- another Queenstown must-do!
Tired and cold, we said a temporary goodbye to Queenstown and headed to Te Anau for the night. It was about a two hour drive from Queenstown and was situated right outside Fiordland National Park.
We arrived at Avon House- a lovely bed & breakfast owned by John and Aloma von Tunzelmann- The CUTEST OLD COUPLE YOU HAVE EVER SEEN!!!
They were very knowledgable about NZ and were happy to offer suggestions on walks, drives, restaurants, etc. They started the B&B after they retired and John also works part-time on a small cruise ship that operates in Milford Sound (more on Milford later). I asked John what he did on the cruise ship and he replied, "oh just talk". THE CUTEST!!! Before he retired, John worked for the Department of Conservation. So when the "Lord of the Rings" series was being written and later filmed in the area, he was tasked with making sure the crew left the area as they found it. He worked closely with Peter Jackson (the director) and Jackson even gave John a little retirement gift once the filming had wrapped.
How cool is that! John Wells finds this cool because he loves the "Lord of the Rings" series. I find this cool because I like to know people who know famous people. Six degrees of separation, you know?
We had a lovely walk into town that night for dinner at Redcliff.
Check out the sign that was hanging in the bar. This life is a crazy one.
DAY 3- TE ANAU AND MILFORD SOUND
The next morning, we had breakfast with sweet John and Aloma and headed to do a hike at the Kepler Track.
The hike was unlike any we had ever done-- the landscape was really unique. It really felt like I was in Lord of the Rings! We walked for about 5 miles, enjoyed the stunning scenery at this quiet beach (seriously, so quiet. Like sleep machine makers probably come here to record the "waves crashing on the beach" option) and turned around and walked back out. A great start to the day!
=
We grabbed lunch in the town centre and started the drive to Milford Sound. A truly beautiful drive. Pictures just don't do NZ justice!!
We made a pitstop at Mirror Lake...
And checked out a cool rock/waterfall area...
We had to drive through a 1.3km tunnel and it was craycray!! In April, the town hosts a nude fun-run through the tunnel. Hate we're going to miss that!
We stopped off to have a look at The Chasm...
And finally made it to our home for the night- Milford Sound Inn!
Milford Sound is a fiord inside Fiordland National Park and was formed by glaciers. It's not really a town-- more like a destination. The only people who live in Milford Sound are the tour guides/hostel employees. There are no schools, grocery stores or businesses... just boat/kayak tours and one restaurant. Most people actually stay in Te Anau and drive the two hours in to Milford for the day. We walked into town for dinner...
DAY 4- MILFORD SOUND & FOX GLACIER
We started the next morning bright and early for our kayak trip. This was one of the coolest things we have ever done. The water was so peaceful, the landscape was stunning, and we saw some seals! Our guide and group were fun as well!
Awesome experience! We had a big day of travel ahead of us-- so we hit the road and made the 6 hour drive to Fox Glacier.
John and I spent a big portion of this drive trying to memorize the lyrics to "What's Your Fantasy" by Ludacris. Such a hard one to learn! So many words.
Our sweet friends John and Aloma made sure to tell us to get gas in Queenstown because it was very rural out towards Fox Glacier after a certain point. They were right- we probably drove 200km toward the end without seeing a gas station. As we were coming into town, about 10km out from the town centre and our hostel, we saw a couple frantically waving us down on the side of the road. They had run out of gas and were stranded. I was hesitant to help them out- even though they looked like a sweet, safe, clean couple. That's how "20/20" episodes get started, yall! Anyway, being the Good Samaritan John is, we gave them a lift into town. I kept an eye on them in the rearview mirror...ready to fight back at any given moment. It was a rather awkward drive (that's a main reason hitchhiking scares me...what do you talk about!!? Oh the awkward silences!)...with such a language barrier (they were Chinese), there wasn't much to talk about. The lady asked us if we had ever been to China. We said no but we'd like to go. She said "which part?" And I said "I'm not sure...which part should we visit?" And she said "ah, which part should we visit. That's nice.."
Speaking of being good samaritans... hitchhiking is alive and real in New Zealand. It's still a very popular (and safe!) way of getting around the country. We probably saw at least two dozen hitchhikers during our time there.
Anyway... we made it into town and dropped the couple off at a gas station. We had some wine and called it a night.
DAY 5- FOX GLACIER
We had a glacier heli-hike scheduled for in the morning. Basically you fly up to the top of Fox Glacier in a helicopter and then hike around up there. Unfortunately the rain cancelled our trip and we had to reschedule for the next day. However, we were able to walk to the bottom of the glacier and see if from that angle- pretty cool!
(sad faces for our heli-hike being cancelled)
We had a nice dinner and went for a few drinks at the pub attached to our hostel.
DAY 6- FOX GLACIER/WANAKA/QUEENSTOWN
We got up the next morning excited for our heli-hike.. but WOMP WOMP it got cancelled again. We decided not to wait around any longer and head back towards Queenstown to find something to do that afternoon.
We drove about three hours and stopped in the town of Wanaka for lunch.
It was such a cute town-- we would have spent more time there if we had known all it had to offer. We took a walk around the water...
And had a beer to calm our nerves before SKY DIVING. I know I know.... who ARE WE??!!
Wanaka is supposed to be one of the best places in the world to sky dive. So we said OK FINE LETS DO IT.
While we were waiting, we met a cute older couple from Oregon. They were great-- and kind of helped keep our nerves at bay! Funny enough, they stayed with John & Aloma von Tunzelmann the day after we did in Te Anau!
We suited up and took the 10 minute (felt like two hours) flight up to 12,000 feet. TWELVE THOUSAND.
We jumped tandem so I got to get up-close-and-personal with a handsome instructor named Mauricio from South Africa. He had very smooth skin and nice breath. He made the experience really easy and less nerve-wracking. Once you're up there, there's not much time to change your mind. You are literally strapped on to this person so when they are ready to jump, you're ready to jump too. We jumped and dowwwwwn we went.. We fell for 7,000 feet. SEVEN THOUSAND. And then sweet Mauricio pulled the parachute. The falling part was weird and very cold and my mouth was really dry and my eyes were watering and I was confused and just trying to stay conscious. It just felt so unnatural. Like, I shouldn't be allowed to be out in the open up here! I need some kind of barrier between me and the elements! Apparently while I was trying to survive, John was doing flips and spins with his instructor. NOPE no thanks, get me down as quickly as possible.. no dilly-dallying. After the parachute was pulled, there was complete silence.. and that's when I got to really enjoy what was happening. The views were insane. It really looked like a painting. The mountains, the lakes, the colors of the sky... stunning! It was the best way to end our holiday (and I do not ever want to do it again).
High on life, we drove the hour back to Queenstown for the last night of our journey. We had a late dinner of pizza and wine and flew back to Sydney early the next morning.
What a trip! We did some crazy activities with a stunning backdrop and we're already feeling withdraws from the lack of adrenaline.
