One of our first major vacations since we’ve been in Australia was actually to New Zealand. Of course, we consider the two countries to be kind of the same thing, but residents of either country would very much disagree. In any case, we spent 9 days in New Zealand and could have spent many, many more. It was amazing. Absolutely amazing.
We started in Christchurch, which is the second largest city in NZ and the largest of the south island, but it actually feels quite small and laid back. It is a beautiful city with a nearly endless supply of perfectly maintained buildings and houses from the 1850’s (when the city was first settled).
The art gallery:
One of the best features of the city is the meandering Avon river, which flows through the city-center and nearby botanical gardens. The river is shallow and relatively slow-moving, but it is a nearly constant flow given that it is fed by a spring. We took a “punt” boat ride through the city, which was very relaxing indeed.
Rounding out our first couple of days in Christchurch, we took a historic tram journey through the city and then took a gondola ride up 1500 feet to the top of a hill on the outside of town, which provided views of Christchurch city and the nearby Pegasus Bay and Pacific Ocean.
The gondola ride:
Views from the top:
We next took a train journey across to the west coast of NZ over the Southern Alps. As with every part of our journey, the scenery was amazing. I’m going to be using the word “beautiful” frequently, but NZ was the most consistently beautiful place we have ever been. Here’s some views from the train ride.
On the west coast, we rented a car and travelled down the coastline to the village of Franz Josef. The town basically exists exclusively for the tourism of the country’s two most famous glaciers: Fox and Franz Josef (there are many glaciers though – over 3,100!). These two popular glaciers are rare in that they are some of the most accessible in the world – that makes them good candidates for guided day-hikes.
We went on a half-day hike on the Fox glacier, which is the larger of the two. The guide company listed the hike as “moderate” difficulty. Hmmm… I’m not sure how you define moderate, but it was moderately more than we were prepared for! Parts of the trip were pretty intense, but we did actually get to hike up the face of a glacier (using crampons, ice picks and the whole lot!). Although difficult, it was one of the most amazing experiences of our lives.
The danger quotient was kind of high too. We passed several signs that warned of falling rocks and ice (we even had to climb through a rope barrier designed to keep people out!). And to emphasize that the warnings are legitimate - two Australian tourists were killed by falling ice on Fox glacier in January about 100 yards from where we were walking (they told us as we passed).
We also had to walk quickly through several areas where rock-falls are nearly constant (including one called “shotgun alley” where the guide stopped and watched for rock falls and told us to run if/when he started yelling). The most fascinating part: We didn’t have to sign a release waiver. We were told there is no such thing as a personal injury lawsuit in New Zealand (Quote: “We just assume people will take responsibility for their actions”). It explains why there are so many adventure activities in the country – and why bungy jumping was invented there!
After the glacier, we made our way to Queenstown. The drive – like all of our drives – was beautiful. We passed dozens of pristine rivers, lakes and waterfalls. Many rivers = many bridges, but because there are so few people on the south island, they don’t bother to build two lanes on the bridges. We probably crossed 40+ one-lane bridges!
Queenstown was our favorite city. The scenery around the city was outrageous of course – like out of a movie… probably because it is! They film hundreds of movies in NZ because it is so stunning and largely untouched. Some films include Lord of the Rings, Narnia, Last Samurai, King Kong, and many others (including a lot of car commercials, if you wondered were all those perfect winding roads were located – we didn’t see a pothole on the whole trip).
Queenstown sits on a lake and we spent quite a bit of time by the water. We rented a wave-runner for part of one day and went on walks by the lake.
We also drove up a small mountain nearby that is used as an animal preserve. There were some great views (it also was apparently used for 13 scenes of Lord of the Rings as well as other films).
This is an old movie set from an 80’s Disney movie called “The Rescue”.
One of the highlights of Queenstown was a tour we took of Skippers canyon, which included a drive through a ridiculously narrow gravel road with very steep drop-off over the edge. We eventually made it down to the river and took a jet boat ride through the often quite narrow cliff walls. It was pretty intense and overall quite amazing.
Our jet boat ride:
The jet boat went (quite fast) through the narrow passage way to the left of the rock pictured here. Again… no release waiver!
Standing on an old bungy jump bridge across Skippers Canyon:
A little town about 45 minutes outside of Queenstown:
We next made it to Dunedin back on the east coast. There we spent some time at the beach, drove up and down the world’s steepest street, and toured the Otago peninsula, which includes New Zealand’s only castle as well as some more great scenery. We also got to see some cool wildlife including Royal Albatross, little penguins and fur seals.
We ended our trip back in Christchurch for one last day. We didn’t want to leave. Some friends of ours said it’s good that we saw Australia before New Zealand because once you have seen New Zealand, nothing else seems quite as impressive. I would say we agree.
We took so many pictures, but it’s hard to fit them all in a blog, so we added a link to our photo album that has more pictures if you’d like to see them.
