Our Kiwi Adventure - South Island
The next morning, we called the supplier to be told that the trip was going ahead! Woo hoo!! Only downside was that my cold had gotten worse and Andy had also caught it so swimming in the open ocean of the Pacific at about 6c outside temperature was completely out of the question, so we went to watch instead. It was an AWESOME morning!! Really early start but it was TOTALLY worth it. Two hours on the water watching the Dusky Dolphins play and perform, watching Albatross scavenge from local fishermen and even a few New Zealand Fur Seals made an appearance! Then a 4-hour drive from Kaikoura to Timaru for an overnight stop before we headed to Dunedin the next day to go and meet the penguins and sea lions!
It was 22c when we landed at 9.30am in Christchurch 2 days earlier..... It was now 4c at 8am as we headed further South on our adventure! Even had to put the heating on in the car!! Thankfully we had done our homework and packed for EVERY season… it was a good job we had! Driving from Timaru to Dunedin was a really breathtaking journey. It really felt like we were driving through Scotland.
Today was another AMAZING day.... Arrived in Dunedin around 1.30pm then joined our trip to see the rare Sea Lions and yellow eyed penguins. We were stood 15ft from real Sea Lions in their own habitat with NOTHING between us and them. We were even treated to a beautiful rainbow with both ends on the beach (no pot of gold unfortunately!!). Another special day on this wonderful trip....
Great start to the next day, a trip to Taeiri Gorge on the Dunedin Railway. There is one point where, once you pass it, that there is no other way to get there than by train, which is crazy to think these days. We hopped off the train to walk across one of the amazing bridges that was built by engineers over 100 years ago and is still in use today.
Then we were back on the road to our next stop, which was just an overnight on our way to our next trip packed stay! We did take the scenic route from Dunedin to Invercargill (intentionally obviously!), this was one of the Southern most points of New Zealand.... Next stop across the ocean was the Antarctic!! No wonder it was so bloomin’ cold!
Started the next day with the alarm going off at 3.45am so that we could get up and watch the mighty All Blacks in the semi final of the Rugby World Cup. Went back to sleep very happy for a couple of hours then set off for Te Anau.... We were not in the slightest bit disappointed! The scenery coming into Te Anau is simply beautiful. Then we arrived in Te Anau and fell totally in love with the place. Stunning lake and mountains with a summer holiday feel to it. Helped by the very pleasant 19c temperatures. Made great use of our afternoon with a trip out to the Glow Worm caves (not allowed to take photos but can confirm it was a highlight of the trip) before an early night as we were off to Milford Sound the following day.
A long (but totally amazing!) day at Milford Sound. A tour with just 4 of us and a wonderful guide. Unbelievable scenery, nature walks and a scenic cruise around the Fjord aboard an old fashioned ship. Even spotted some fur seals! I have never seen water as clear as some of the rivers we saw today. I even walked over a suspension bridge (twice!!) to get to one waterfall. We also saw a really rare black fantail bird that our guide had never been lucky enough to spot before!
So our next destination was Queenstown.... I feel like all I said as we rounded every corner was 'wow', the scenery is just amazing. Love Queenstown, reminds me a bit of an Austrian ski resort. We had a corner room with a view of the lake and mountains which was fab! We had known where we were going for lunch that day since before we arrived in New Zealand, a takeaway burger place called Fergburger... And boy was it worth the 50 minute queuing time! I have never seen a burger that size in my life before, we had it at 2pm and didn’t eat for the rest of the day! Absolutely delicious though. That evening we went up on the Gondola to what felt like the top of the world. I don't think we'll ever experience views like that again. Queenstown really is an amazing place with something for everyone. Today's drive took us from Queenstown to Lake Tekapo, halfway to Christchurch, which will be our final destination. The drive was really easy going, beautiful scenery and even stopped off at the ORIGINAL Bungee Jump location, A J Thackett, where we watched the silly so-and-so's jumping off the bridge. Andy did the 130m Zipline though and loved it! The view from our room overlooked the lake and mountains and apparently it's a great place for stargazing!
After our final drive of the trip we dropped the car off and checked in to our final hotel..... Felt kinda sad saying our last hotel. We did pick a bit of luxury for our last couple of days though after living out of suitcases for weeks! Coming into Christchurch it's still so apparent what was lost in the earthquake several years ago. Our room overlooked what was once the centerpiece of the city, Christchurch Cathedral, and the damage is still very obvious. Large empty spaces in a city centre still rebuilding after such a devastating natural disaster. Puts everything into perspective.
Our last night in New Zealand we celebrated a wonderful, exciting, inspiring and truly memorable trip by enjoying dinner on the restaurant tram that circles Christchurch city centre whilst you dine. I booked it months in advance because it only seats 36 and does just one sitting per night and there were only 12 seats left when I booked! It was a particularly special way to end our trip. Dinner was amazing, setting was superb and the service was outstanding! We enjoyed New Zealand wines and the tour around the city was lovely, taking in sights like the Avon River as we went round. We were so sad to leave this beautiful, friendly, enchanting country.