Brenna Abroad

We checked into our camp, the Creeksyde Holiday Park, as soon as we arrived in Queenstown. We took advantage of the amenities, recycling or tossing the trash we had collected, showering and getting ready, all those luxuries we take advantage of ;).

Once thoroughly refreshed, we walked into town, getting a feel for busy Queenstown and stopping by the lake for a delicious Indian dinner that left me completely stuffed.

Next on the itinerary was an early Valentine’s Day surprise for Anthony. I had booked Onsen months ago (which is necessary to get a reservation) for a very bougie evening, which is quite unlike us. But, when you’re living in a minivan, sometimes you need a night of luxury.

So, our complimentary shuttle came and picked us up in town to drive us out to our appointment. There, we were led to our private hot tub with a beautiful view out over the Shotover River canyon.

Wine and dark chocolate were set up next to the tub for us. I was still stuffed from dinner, but gluttony kicked in and I managed my share of the chocolate and wine.

After an hour of relaxation, we put our robes and slippers on and were led up to the massage room for an hour-long therapeutic couples’ massage.

Barely functioning after all this, they sent us back on our way in the shuttle, with some vegan cheesecakes, a CHIA juice, a peppermint tea, and some sparkling mineral water.

It was a bit jarring returning to our campervan in the cramped campground, but I slept very well that night.

The following morning, we were supposed to head to Mt Cook, but weather changed our plans, and instead, we booked a late morning paragliding trip. I opted for the highest launch point, hoping for aerobatics.

My guide and I were the last to run off the cliff, and the thermals kicked in giving us some extra height. We soared around the cliffs, and once safely away, he had me steer for awhile, and then took back over to do some flips while I shrieked with joy.

We sailed on down to the ground, meeting back up with the rest of the group, and then we were shuttled back to town. The whole thing happened very quickly, much less of an ordeal as when we did it in Colombia (but also not quite as pretty).

Anthony and I grabbed some lunch in town and then went on a scenic drive to the town of Glenorchy, following along the gorgeous lake almost the entire way.

A quick stop for coffee, and we experienced tiny Glenorchy for all of 10 minutes. And then we turned around and drove back, enjoying the views once more.

Our campground was a beautiful 20-minute detour off the main road. We passed a pond with black swans and ducks, golden hills in the background, and then we arrived at lovely Moke Lake.

It was a hot day, and while the water was chilly, it wasn’t too bad, so I changed and hopped in.

Swimming and sunbathing brought me back to life, so we decided to walk around the lake after that, a journey that ended up taking around an hour and a half.

We cooked dinner, and enjoyed the lovely evening by the lake before turning in.

We slept in on our last day in Wanaka, packed up, and hit the road for a long driving day. We drove up a mountain. And we winded our way back down a mountain toward Queenstown and then westward.

Eventually, we hit Te Anau, the gateway to Fiordland. We got a delicious bao lunch, bought groceries, and then made our way to the Real Journeys visitor center for a glowworm tour.

They loaded us onto a boat to ferry us across the lake to the caves.

They don’t allow photography in the caves, so unfortunately I don’t have pictures (you can go to their website if interested).

But, we were led into a dark cave, which was pretty awesome in its own right, powerful rivers rushing through beneath us, waterfalls gushing into them around each corner.

After a while of navigating, we reached the little boat that would paddle us through the water with glowworms surrounding us. It was pitch black other than their little blue lights above and around us (though people see different colors apparently). It almost felt like we were star-gazing.

After making it all the way down and back, we climbed out, found our way back down the cave, and then had an instructional Q&A and presentation.

Once we were ferried back, Anthony and I headed out of town into Fiordland. We stopped at the first campsite on the road, Henry Creek.

We found a beautiful lakeview spot tucked in the trees, with easy access down to the water.

It was a very windy day which kept the sandflies away. The downside of this was that cooking was a nightmare. I’ve never worked so hard on making spaghetti in my life, the wind blowing our flame around, preventing the water from boiling.

At long last, we succeeded, ate, cleaned up, and went back down to the water for a few minutes before bedtime.

Before the sun rose the next morning, we were driving through Fiordland.

We only had time for one stop, at the Chasm, an area within the forest that the water jets through a thin slot in the rock.

After that, we drove down to the water for our scuba diving trip of Milford Sound.  Most people just cruise the Sound, but we needed a little more adventure.

Since the water is very cold, we were suited up in thick neoprene socks, two thick neoprene vests, a heavy-duty 8mm neoprene wetsuit with hood, and then booties and gloves. I was barely able to pull the suit up and get it zipped, and then once I had, my arms were stiff and breathing was difficult. To add to this fun, the sandflies at Milford Sound are insane. Like hundreds-swarming-you-constantly insane. The only exposed skin I had was my face, and if I wasn’t continuously batting them away, they were up my nose or in my eyes.

But finally, we got on the boat, and only a few of them followed us out onto the water. We sped all the way down the sound to our first dive site where we got our gear, masks, and fins on. Since our buoyancy was so much higher with our thick suits on, the gear had to make up for some of it, so it was heavy. It’s a good thing I do squats or I wouldn’t have been able to stand up. Seriously.

I took a big step off the boat, pleasantly surprised by how not cold I felt when I hit the water. But, I definitely struggled with my buoyancy. Everything would happen so fast. One second I was sinking all the way down, and the next second I was floating all the way back to the surface.

This happened frequently through my first dive, but we still saw some cool stuff, namely black corals, a huge eel, and a HUGE stingray, bigger than I ever imagined a sting ray could be. Its eyeball was the size of my hand, staring at us, sizing us up.

We came back up to the boat, ate some chocolate, had some hot drinks, ate a wrap. The guides kept gushing about how warm the water was. Apparently, this was the warmest it had been in a very long time, 16 C (around 60 F).

We swam over to land, to trek over to a waterfall and hang out and then swam back out.

Back on the boat, we moved on to our next dive site, Crayfish Crack. This site was full of giant lobsters, or crayfish as the Kiwis call them. I had mostly mastered my buoyancy by this point, so the dive was much more enjoyable.

We checked out a couple rocks where seals were having a nice, chill day.

One the way back down the Sound, they took us underneath a waterfall, for a nice glacial shower.

And then we cruised our way back to land.

We drove our way back up the pass, stopping at the top to eat some sandwiches and watch some Keas.

We were completely exhausted, so we only made a few stops to get some viewpoints, and then navigated to our campsite, Cascade Creek.

The campsite was beautiful. We cracked our windows and took a nap.

When we woke up, we decided to do the Lake Gunn Nature Walk from camp, strolling through birch trees, listening to south island robins, finding a clearing to the lake.

Back at camp, it was time to make dinner. And of course, our calm day turned windy as soon as we turned our camp stove on. Trying everything we could to block our stove from the wind, we mostly succeeded, and then the rain started. So, we climbed inside and ate dinner in bed.

The sky cleared, and we enjoyed a beautiful evening at camp.

The next morning, a heavy fog and off and on again rain had arrived, which Fiordland— a rainforest—is known for. We had planned to hike Key Summit but knew we wouldn’t have any visibility for the views. Instead, we did the more difficult Lake Marian hike.

The beginning of Lake Marian is a worthy stop on its own, beautiful rivers and waterfalls.

The rest of the trek up to the alpine lake was very difficult. We were practically hiking up empty creek beds, which also meant the path could be hard to follow. There were orange arrows on trees every now and then to help with this.

We reached a few clearings, wondering what views we would have if the fog wasn’t so heavy around us.

Then we hit some boggy areas. I was not wearing waterproof shoes, so these sections were tricky and required some creativity. I would definitely not recommend wearing shoes you don’t want getting dirty.

We made one last climb, and I heard Anthony ahead of me say “Wow, that’s a pretty waterfall.” I caught up with him and saw… nothing. The dense fog had settled down lower, and all I saw was gray. We came out of the trees, and there was a thin layer of visibility right above the lake water, and a minute later, that was gone as well.

Could not see even a hint of the mountains around the lake. We could hear the waterfall, but not see it. But somehow, it was still a little magical, this feeling of peace and solitude with nothing but birdsong to keep us company.

For comparison, this is what we were supposed to see:

While waiting (unsuccessfully) for the fog to clear, Anthony hopped over to a rock, because why not, and then couldn’t figure out how to safely hop back. I suggested he take off his shoes and socks, roll up his pant legs, and just walk across, but he decided otherwise and leapt over, causing his foot to slip on the rock, and one whole foot and leg to land in the ice-cold water.

Meanwhile, I was pretty covered in water myself just from the mist and dew, so we had a pretty soggy climb back down.

Made more so when I planted my foot right into a muddy bog. We also were watching our footing so much that we lost track of the orange arrows and got lost.  We had only seen a couple people on this hike, and they had passed us going the opposite direction about a half hour beforehand, so looking and listening for people wasn’t going to work. I eventually found my way back to the trail after spotting an orange arrow in the distance, and we were sure to watch both our feet and the trees for arrows from then on.

By the end of the hike, I was wet, dirty, had hurt my wrist, had wobbled my ankle slightly, had stubbed my toe, and had not seen a beautiful alpine lake, but the exercise was wonderful, and we were in high spirits anyway.

And that was the end of our Fiordland adventures. We stopped again in Te Anau for baos and groceries and gas, and then it was onward to Queenstown.

 

Our drive to Wanaka was stunning. Big, lush, green mountains all around us. Beautiful rivers. Waterfalls streaking the sides of the mountains.

We were a little behind schedule, so we skipped most of the main tourist stops along the way. Our first real stop was a hidden gem. You have to really be paying attention to find the pull-off to the small car park hidden behind trees. From there, there’s a tiny path through verdant, jungle-y looking woods. You walk out to a beautiful waterfall. We had it all to ourselves.

Anthony climbed around, finding his way to the top of the waterfall. I, meanwhile, sat there and listened to the waterfall and the birds.

After that, our next stop was the Blue Pools track. This one is very much on the tourist trail, and it was not easy finding a place to park. We got caught behind some slow walkers, bugs biting at us the whole way.

But alas, we made it to the beautiful, crystal clear turquoise water.

Some people jumped from the bridge to the cold water (a very long fall), and others watched and laughed.

We hung out there for awhile before walking back up hill to our car.

At this point, I was finally taking my turn at the wheel and hating it. Driving on the opposite side of the road, I cannot figure out if I’m too far to the right or too far to the left, and it’s rather terrifying when you’re speeding down a highway around bends.

We stopped off at a picnic area, one of our first sights of Lake Wanaka.

We enjoyed an easy lunch of PB&J and fruit while walking down the beach area, the wind practically blowing me backwards and sideways.

The rest of the drive was gorgeous blue lakes and orange mountains everywhere we looked. It was breathtaking.

In Wanaka at last, we immediately went to check in to our campground. Our spot was a bit more secluded at the end of the grounds, with a slight view of the lake and an easy path down to the beach.

We went on down, the sunshine keeping me warm despite the chilly winds.

Anthony decided to take a brisk (/freezing) swim in the water, promptly going numb after hopping in.

From the beach, a walking trail called the Outlet Track started. The path went along the Clutha River, and we day-dreamed about floating down that river instead of walking next to it.  Plans were made to move here and start a float trip business.

We headed off to Rippon Winery for a free wine tasting overlooking the lake.

The grounds were gorgeous, the wine tasty. We bought a bottle to enjoy back at our campsite that evening, and then headed back into town.

We also grabbed some burritos to go and brought them back to camp with us to go with our new bottle of wine.

We were up early as usual the following morning, heading out at sunrise to go see That Wanaka Tree.

There’s really nothing to this spot other than a photo opp. A few other people were there with their cameras, all photographing this tree in the soft morning light.

We were supposed to go paragliding that morning, but it was cancelled due to the wind that had blown into town. So, next on the itinerary was a hike.

Most people who come to Wanaka hike Roy’s Peak. The iconic shot at the top is all over Instagram. This is also the location of the infamous shot of the long line people wait in at the top to get that insta-worthy picture. Considering that, and the fact that it is a 6 hour, completely unshaded hike, we opted for a lesser known trail. And when we drove by the car park for Roy’s Peak, already filled with cars at 7am, it reconfirmed our decision.

Instead, we arrived at Rocky Mountain, the second car in the parking lot. It’s a much shorter hike, but it was definitely not easy. It was a very steep climb almost the entire way to the top, with a couple stops for some viewpoints.

Before the summit, there’s a fork in the trail, one path leading out to the lake viewpoint, so we ventured out to it. And wow. The sun was unfortunately right in front of us, but even still, I couldn’t get over how pretty it was.

We sat there awhile, catching our breath, cooling off, taking it all in.

And then back up the mountain we climbed. You could tell not many people continue hiking from that point, as the trail significantly narrowed, thorns and limbs hitting our legs with each step. The terrain got rocky and uneven, the ground eroded on the side of the cliff at parts.

I was hating life for awhile, but we finally reached our new viewpoint, and my suffering was over.

The lakes sparkled, the sheep baa’ed, and I was in heaven.

Five minutes after complaining about how I didn’t want to hike anymore, I was running off down another path to see if it was worth exploring too. It ended up taking us away from the views, so we turned back.

The walk back down was more of a run given how steep it was. Our knees were achy, but it was over fast.

We drove a little bit further down the road, and then came back to town for lunch.

Since our tour was cancelled, we had time to kill, so we went to the lakeside to read and nap. We followed this up with a beer at a bar nearby, and then headed out to our destination for the night.

I had figured we might want a break from camping for one night, to charge up some stuff, do some laundry, and sleep in a real bed, so I booked an AirBnb. A tiny, cozy cabin in a picturesque setting, with a hot tub ideal for star-gazing.

It was perfection.

I took an outdoor shower, we cooked some dinner, and we hung out in the hot tub, staring up at the stars as the clouds moved on.