Queenstown: We took our time the next morning before hitting the road to drive 2.5 hours south to to our next Airbnb in Lake Hayes, just outside of Queenstown. We stopped for one more taste of the delicious salmon (breakfast edition) on our way out of Twizel and at various viewpoints along the drive in Cromwell and at Roaring Meg Waterfall. The climate was much drier here which reminded us of eastern Oregon. We dropped our things off at the Airbnb before heading into Queenstown proper so that Wade could pick up the bike he'd rented in advance. The traffic getting into Queenstown was brutal due to construction, small roads, and the amount of people, but we finally made it. We all grabbed a quick coffee and toasties (not the 7/11 kind, but still delicious), and then Wade grabbed his bike and set out on his route that would take him all the way back to our Airbnb. Once we battled the traffic out of town, Wade wasn't even that far behind us and we all relaxed and changed for dinner before heading back to downtown Queenstown. Wade and Marshall treated us to a nice dinner at SODA where we shared delicious tapas and nice cocktails to celebrate our trip together and our engagement. We grabbed gelato next door for dessert and walked around the waterfront of Lake Wakatipu admiring the stunning sunset over the mountains before heading back.
The following morning there was on and off heavy rain so we stayed inside chilling and waited for a clear weather window to do something. By late morning the rain had finally stopped so Wade left on his bike ride to Arrowtown and we met him there with the car. Arrowtown was a small cute former gold mining town that was swamped with tourists. We thought from talking with our Airbnb host that there would be more to do but it was mostly just one small street with shops where all the crowds were. It was still pretty and we walked around the river for a bit, but then headed to Queenstown to meet Wade at the bike shop so he could drop off his bike. We stopped in at some thrift stores for a bit and we found some layers we could use on our upcoming hikes in Patagonia, and then we headed back to the Airbnb, changed, and drove to a wood fire pizza restaurant in Arthurs Point. After eating, we went to Onsen Hot Pools and Day Spa, where Wade and Marsh had reserved an outdoor hot tub for the four of us which included wine, Whitakers chocolate, and amazing views at sunset over the river and mountains. It was extremely relaxing and beautiful and we wished we could do that every night. We left feeling totally rejuvenated and thankful for getting to experience such a beautiful place with friends.
Te Anau/Milford Sound: the next day, we hopped in the car for another 2.5 hours drive south to Te Anau. We drove by The Remarkables mountain range which totally lived up to its name. We arrived late morning before we could check into our Airbnb so we stopped at the Te Anau Bird Sanctuary where we were able to see one of the most rare birds in New Zealand, the Takahe, which looks like a mix between a chicken and a purple gallinule. We grabbed sushi bowls for lunch downtown before checking into our Airbnb nearby. We did some final planning and booked our boat tour for Milford Sound on our last day in the area based on the weather forecast. That evening we walked part of the Kepler Track, one of NZ's Great Walks. This section of the Track was a quiet and beautiful trail, mostly through the forest (with the occasional view of Lake Te Anau), and we saw some crazy mushrooms and many fantails flying around us. We cooked dinner and went to bed so we could wake up early to hike part of the Routeburn Track (another Great Walk!).
We woke up early, had breakfast, and started our 1 hour drive to the trailhead at the divide. The sunrise along the drive was beautiful and the mist was steaming off the mountains in the valley of Eglinton Flats. We made it to the parking lot of the Routeburn Track and the lot was already filling up so we were glad we left early. We started our hike up to Key Summit. The first part of the trail was through a beautiful old growth forest with more fun mushrooms! As we hiked up and broke above the tree line, we were surrounded by clouds and hoped that they would burn off as the sun came up. At the summit. we were gifted with about five minutes without clouds and views of the mountains and glaciers before the mountains were engulfed again. It was still a beautiful forest hike and we were glad we got to see the views, even if just for a brief window! We hiked back down and ate our packed lunch at serene Lake Howden before heading back to the car. We headed back to Te Anau, rested, and grabbed a drink at a local bar (and tried the beer named "Mischievous Kea" in the hopes we would finally get to see one of these native alpine parrots since they're known to hang out in the fjord lands). We called it an early night since we would be getting up early again for our visit to Milford Sound, and we all crossed our fingers the weather would be clear.
We started our two hour drive to Milford Sound early in the morning and the clouds were pretty low again in the valley. Luckily, once we passed the Routeburn parking area at the divide and continued west in the heart of Fjordlands National Park, the clouds lessened and the mountains were visible all around us. We had given ourselves ample time knowing the drive would be stunning, so we took our time and stopped at a couple pull offs for photos. At the Monkey Creek viewpoint we finally got our wish to see a kea...not only did we SEE one, but one basically attacked our car (they're sort of known for being little troublemakers). There was a pair of them and it was fun to watch them and and hear all of their chatter and squawking as they jumped from cars to trees. We continued our drive before the kea's caused damage to our rental and eventually made it to the Homer tunnel. We emerged from the tunnel and we all audibly gasped. The view of Milford Valley as you exit the tunnel are simple unbelievable and we had no idea what was coming. We enjoyed the views on our way down the pass and then finally made it to Milford Sound. We found free parking just south of the small airport and walked about 20 minutes along a trail to the port to check in for our boat ride. Along the walk, we stopped to take many pictures because the view of Milford Sound was perfectly still and clear of clouds, and it had a perfect reflection in the calm morning light. We were getting super pumped for our boat ride since the weather was perfect, and we checked in at the port. While we waited to board we noticed that we had been assigned a different boat than the one our booking had specified. We asked about it and the company was very flexible but recommended we stay on the new boat since in their opinion this boat was better so we went with it. When we boarded, Carson got on first and beelined to the deck to grab a spot out back at a table. We grabbed some coffees at the boat's cafe and departed the port.
The boat slowly passed by the southern portion of Milford Sound, giving us incredible views of different rocks and waterfalls that were rainbow colored when we passed by due to the light refraction. At one point, we joined the boat captain in a search for Fiordland Crested Penguins (which are super rare) but were sadly not able to see any. We continued our journey and went out where the Sound meets the Tasman Sea which can be one of roughest sea's in the world. Luckily on our day, it was a nice cruise with little wind. When we reached the Tasman Sea, we looked out at the open ocean. From this point, the ocean doesn't meet land again until you make it all the way to Patagonia in Argentina (our next stop!); pretty insane to think about. The boat turned and headed back toward port following the northern side of the sound. We saw seals hanging out on a rock and swimming. The captain backed the boat into Sterling Falls where we got up close to one of the largest waterfalls in the sound and had water droplets hit us which is supposed to make you look 10 years younger the next day (we're not sure it worked...). The tour finished with a beautiful view of Mount Pembroke and the massive glacier on the mountain. We were so glad we did the boat tour and that we got good weather for it. Milford Sound is a bit like the Grand Canyon in that everyone tells you how incredible it is, to the point where you start to wonder if it can really live up to the hype- turns out it does!
After our tour, we found a picnic table with a view near where we had taken pictures that morning and ate our packed lunches (well, tried to, while bees kept dive bombing us). We walked around the shore a little while longer and then headed back to the car. On the way back, one of the very small tourist planes was coming in for landing and passed right over our heads. It was SO close to us it was actually kind of scary- we could see the pilot clearly and see just how much the plane was swaying the wind (we were glad we drove). On our way back to Te Anau, we stopped at more pull offs at the Tutoko River bridge and the Chasm. We made a gnocchi salad for dinner and cracked open our remaining bottle of Cloudy Bay wine to celebrate our great day and our last night with Wade and Marshall.
Dunedin: We took our time waking the next morning and then drove back to Queenstown since Wade and Marshall's first flight home was out of there. We grabbed some delicious meat pies for lunch at the famous spot, Fergbaker, and we strolled through a farmers/craft market that was set up along the waterfront. Finally we had to head to the airport to drop off Wade and Marshall. We had such a great time traveling the whole south island with them and we didn't want it to end! We said our sad goodbyes, all promised we're return and start a commune here, and continued our long ~4 hour drive to Dunedin on the east coast. We arrived that evening to our hotel, and the person working the desk was really friendly and helpful, giving us lots of ideas of what to do and tours in the area. We booked our tours for the next couple days, grabbed groceries to cook a stir fry, and called it a night.
The next morning, we drove about 45 minutes up the stunning coast of the nearby Otago Peninsula to Taiaroa Head which is where the Royal Albatross Centre is located. We had reserved a time slot in advance, but had arrived early enough that they let us move our entry time up. We walked around the Waiwhakaheke Seabird Lookout for 20 minutes and then met up for our tour. The tour started with an overview of the Māori history on the land and how it was changed when settlers came and built a fortress on the peninsula. With the cleared out timber, the land became more suitable for Northern Royal Albatross's nesting and eventually they started to breed and live here. This is the only place in world with a mainland breeding colony of the Royal Albatross! The Royal Albatross is one of the largest birds in the world with a wingspan of up to 10 ft and it can fly up to 118,000 miles a year looking for food. We watched a video on the birds and then headed to a viewing area. From behind glass, we looked out on their nesting area and saw six adult Albatross and two babies at the nests! We learned that pairs of Albatross mate for life and return to the same nesting area for breeding. After seeing the babies, our guide passed around stuffed animals to show the size and weight of the babies at different stages which was crazy how big and fluffy (and heavy!) they got. There were times when one of the birds flew right past the viewing area with a high velocity. It was incredible watching them fly since they fly in a Z pattern and don't flap their wings but instead angle their large wings to catch wind gusts and sail; this is how they are able to travel such far distances and reserve their energy. After 30 minutes, our time was up at the viewing area but we felt lucky to have been able to see two babies and see two birds fly right past the windows since the guide said not every tour even gets to spot the birds if they're out foraging.
We grabbed the lunch we had packed from the car and walked down to nearby Pilots Beach. Pilots Beach is known for having Little Blue Penguins running up the beach at night to their nests, but we figured we would eat there with the nice beach view and see if we could get lucky and spot one on land during the day molting. Little Blue Penguins are indeed blue and are the smallest penguins in the world (about the size of a football). After a while of looking around, Melissa spotted one hiding in the grass! It was pretty tucked away so we didn't have a great view, but we could see its tiny body and light pink feet! We felt so lucky seeing it that we just kept the little guy to ourselves and had lunch and then on our way out told others at the beach that there was a penguin hiding in the tall grass. On a high from birding, we drove to Sandfly Bay and hiked the sand dunes down to the beach looking for the elusive yellow-eyed penguins, one of the world's rarest. We were greeted by massive sea lions on the beach laying in the sand. We kept our distance, but it didn't look like they had any plans to move anytime soon. We looked around the hill sides for the penguins but luck wasn't on our side this time, so we climbed back up the sand dunes to our car and headed back to the hotel to rest for a while. That evening, Mel stayed in and relaxed, and Carson joined another tour to do some more birding - this time focused on seeing the yellow-eyed penguin. Carson walked downtown and got in a van for a wildlife tour that was on some private land near Sandfly Bay. As we arrived on the land, we were welcomed by a large herd of sheep. Our van dove to some look outs where we saw New Zealand Fur Seals. The weather started to change and it got cloudy and windy which made it hard to see so we headed to the next location. Here we walked down to the beach looking carefully around for any penguin. One the beach we were greeted and chased at one moment by large New Zealand Sea Lions. We then reached another observation post and here we got to see the extremely rare Yellow-eyed Penguin. It was probably 200 ft away but in the tall grass just off the beach. It was incredible to see. We then hike up the hilling looking for more yellow-eyed penguins when Carson spotted a pair that was nestled in thicker grass. As the sun was setting we walked back to the car and then went to a beautiful coastal view point before heading back to downtown. It was incredible seeing such a rare elusive bird in the wild.
Queenstown Part 2: we took it easy the next morning and checked out of our hotel and spent a couple of hours exploring the city by foot. Dunedin has a Scottish heritage and a lot Victorian/Edwardian architecture, which made it very pretty to walk around. It's also the home of a large University, so it has a young crowd and a lot of things to do. We walked around admiring the buildings and street art, and stopped in a coffee shop to write some post cards. On our way out of town, we made a quick stop to walk up Baldwin St. (the world's steepest residential street with a 35% slope!) and then stopped at the Orokonui Ecosanctuary which has a lot of native birds and many trails. The weather was pretty rainy so we didn't stay too long, but we did get to see a pair of Kākā, another parrot species, from only 10ft away eating and preening. We hopped back into the car and drove through the rainy day all the way back to Queenstown and checked into our hotel near the airport. We grabbed dinner at a Thai restaurant that was connected to the hotel and called it a day.
The following day, Carson had an initial job interview for a role back at the refinery, and we spent most of the morning and afternoon catching up on trip admin and doing some planning for South America. We had hoped to do a hike, but the day got away from us and we decided to have a chill day instead. We went to downtown Queenstown in the evening and went shopping. We bought souvenirs and new rain coats for our hiking in Patagonia. For dinner we went to a nice tapas restaurant to celebrate an end to our time in New Zealand. We got lamb, green mussels, and more, and it was all delicious. Back at the hotel, we packed up our things and prepped for our flight to Auckland the next day.
Auckland Part 2: We got up early and dropped off our rental car at the Queenstown airport and then figured out the confusing check-in process for JetStar. We flew back to Auckland and got some awesome views out of the window leaving Queenstown and coming into Auckland. We took an Uber to our Airbnb in a new neighborhood we hadn't explored yet called Parnell where we did laundry and walked around the city looking for some food to bring to Chile for our Patagonia hike that we thought might be harder to find in Patagonia, and walked through some local parks. We had dinner at a delicious Indian restaurant and called it a day.
On our final day in New Zealand, we packed up our things, checked our, and went to a café for brunch. Our flight was at night, so we killed time by writing our last postcards from New Zealand and mailed them off on the way to the train station. We took the train to the airport and then waited in the international terminal for almost 2 hours until we were allowed to check in for our flight. Once we checked in and dropped our bags off, we relaxed in the airport lounge before our 11 hour flight to Santiago, Chile, and our fourth and final continent!
New Zealand topped both of our lists of places we wanted to visit when we first started planning this trip, and it's safe to say it didn't disappoint. We loved everything about it from the incredible nature to the welcoming people. Even though it wasn't as budget-friendly as some of our other destinations, we were glad we spent at much time here as we did and had the freedom to travel at our own pace with a car. Exploring the South Island with friends and getting engaged were just the cherries on top to this incredible country, and we're already dreaming of coming back. Our visit here also felt a little like a "reset" and even a vacation from our travels. Getting around was easier, we spoke the language, and we didn't have to worry about what we ate/drank. It refreshed us, and go us ready to jump back into more rugged travel coming up in South America.
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