A chronicle of our travels around the world
Queenstown is a short drive away from Wanaka, situated right in the centre of New Zealand’s mountain playground. Playground is the the operative word here, as the town feels like was it designed solely for entertaining tourists. Think of any extreme sport, and Queenstown has it in spades: bungie jumping, speedboat tours, paragliding, you name …
Wanaka, the first city on what I’ll call the “Beautiful Mountainous Region of New Zealand” chapter of our journey. We had already seen and drove through the mountains, however this town really felt like a gateway to the area. We didn’t take many photos of the town itself, but that doesn’t mean it wasn’t picturesque. …
While riding down the west coast, the weather didn’t get any better. Sure, we had a few patches of sun here and there, but we shared a level of anxiety as we approached the mountains, worried that we may never actually see them due to the low-lying clouds. The west coast has two main glaciers: …
We tried driving away from the rainy weather, and were somewhat successful.
Famous for its Windows Lock Screen, this place is also known as being the Eyes of the Kiwi (find it on a map and you’ll see).
Goodbye North Island, hello South Island!
Wellington was our last city on the North Island, and it was also our favourite. It wasn’t particularly beautiful, modern or classy, it just felt comfy and accommodating and we loved to walk its streets. What we didn’t know about the city was that it was hilly, in a San Francisco / Laurel Canyon kind …
As you will see from the series of photos below, most of the day was spent viewing Mount Taranaki from every possible angle. We covered a lot of miles and it was dark when we arrived in Whanganui, so unfortunately we didn’t spend much time there. Next up is Kaitoke Regional Park, home of Rivendell! …
Heading south, we decided to check out the area around Mount Taranaki, a very symmetrical volcano. We camped in Oakura, a small town by the west coast, at a campsite right by the beach. Although the area was windy, we had a very peaceful evening that brought us some wonderful light and a very colourful …
New Zealand has what they call nine “Great Walks”, and one of the most spectacular is the Tongariro Alpine Crossing, which is also one of the few that you can cover in a day (well, not all of it, but a pretty good portion). What made this 20 km walk so incredible were the sheer …