Off Season Adventures: New Zealand Pt 2

Part 2 of the “See New Zealand on a College Bus” tour picks up on Day 2 in Franz Josef, which is by far by favorite stop so far. Unfortunately, I’m there in early winter and the weather is quick rainy. The #1 thing on my bucket list for New Zealand was a heli-hike, which I had slated for this day but woke up and outside my window it was gray and gloomy.

Karl the Fog seriously stalked me here from SF

I walked to Glacier Guides, only to find out no helicopters were able to take off that day due to inclement weather. I refused to waste a day sitting inside though in this beautiful town, so a couple of us went on a hike in the forest area behind the hostel. The walk there felt like we were in a jungle, only made more green and lush from the rain.

Still chasing waterfalls

We walked up the lower part of a mountain, alongside a flowing river with mini-waterfalls that you couldn’t always see but could definitely hear. We got to these old mining tunnels, which were crazy to walk through.

Ominous or from the set of The Hobbit?

They were so long, there was no light, just a long stone pathway carved out in the mountain. We had to wade through ankle deep, freezing water the whole time but it was worth it because I did get to check something off my NZ bucket list… glowworms!  They were tinier than I thought (i.e. you can’t tell they’re worms), but they coated the ceiling of the tunnel and looked like tiny stars and glowing blue glitter. It’s impossible to get a photo unfortunately, but they were definitely worth the wet trek.

Soaked but worth it!

For lunch, I went into town with a bunch of girls from the UK, where apparently meat pies are a pretty big deal. They had found a place that had them, so I tried a steak pie and understood why they are so popular. The savory meat and gravy with a flaky crust was quite delicious. After lunch we got a shuttle bus out to the start of a hike up to near the edge of the glacier (bypassing everything I’d spent running the day before).

You walk down a trail in this giant valley and every direction you look there’s amazing waterfalls cascading down. The terrain is rocky and mossy, creating a really cool contrast.

Moss "rocks"! Sorry for the Dad joke...

The glacier is in the distance and you can tell it’s there because the ice is actually blue. The whole experience was so beautiful, it felt surreal.

Blue ice (ice baby)

That night I watched the sunset over a nearby airport/field and grabbed Chinese food at King Tiger.

Had to use a panorama to capture this sunset!

I wasn’t sure how the cuisine would be in NZ, but it was actually really tasty since Asia is one of the neighboring continents.

The next day we left Franz Josef super early and took off for the neighboring Fox Glacier. It was a crystal clear morning and as we pulled into town, the driver asked if anyone wanted to go sky diving. I thought, why not, they always say anticipation is the worst part so I might as well just go for it. Three of us walked into Skydive Fox Glacier, a super small operation but clearly professionals. They had photos all of the walls of famous extremists from the likes of Nitro Circus. Everyone who worked there was super nice and calming and before I knew it I was decked out in a purple suit (my lucky color), climbing into a small metal plane with my Argentinian tandem partner Mauro.

This is my excited yet petrified face

Up we went and I was having a nervous hysterical laughing attack. All the sudden the plane door swung open at 13,000 feet. I wrapped my legs around the edge of the plane, leaned up against Mauro.

 

Oh shit, this is about to happen! No going back now.

 The next thing I knew I was falling toward the mountains (apparently most people’s brains black out for the first 10-15 seconds). It’s so hard to describe the experience but it doesn’t feel like you’re falling, it almost feels like you’re snorkeling in the sky. The dead drop only lasts about 60 seconds at this height and goes by super-fast. 

Turns out I fucking love this!

Then the rip cord gets pulled, the parachute expands, you get a little jerked upward, but it’s all good because you know you’re not going to die.  Once you’re floating it doesn’t even feel high anymore compared to what you just went through. Mauro let me grab the handles and steer and we twirled around in circles above the beautiful terrain. 

This is nothing, I got this!

We could see everything from Mt. Cook to the ocean. Apparently Fox Glacier is officially the “2^nd most beautiful skydive in the world.” I did some research and it appears this way on most lists, I think Interlochen must be #1. A huge thanks and so much love to Mauro, who dealt with my insane laughing and was a wonderfully calming presence. This is definitely the kind of person you want to be strapped to when falling out of a plane, plus it doesn’t hurt that he was cute! In a post-adrenaline haze I got back on the bus. The ride was a blur of winding mountain roads, but we stopped at a couple scenic places for photos. One was an epic waterfall at Mount Aspiring National Park.

I would say this is "aspiring"

Then once you get to "The Neck," there's a lot of great lake views.

It's hard to capture NZ beauty on a camera phone

Our end destination that day was the city of Wanaka. It had the same vibes as a ski town in Colorado, with lots of ski bums filling up the shops, bars, and cafes. The town was nestled in the mountains on a beautiful, clear lake. I went for a nice stroll along the lake and saw the most Instagrammed tree in the world, The Lone Tree. It’s pretty funny, because it just looks like a dead tree growing in the water but against the mountain backdrop it felt unique.

#lonetree

That night I got some quality Indian food an stayed at the Wanaka YHA, which was by far the nicest YHA I have ever seen.

In the morning we departed from Wanaka (I could have spent more time there) and went to the weirdest and hilarious Puzzling World, right outside of the city. It’s impossible to describe the “wonderful world of weirdness” so check out the link I included. The outside of the building is home to the world’s largest 3D maze. Depending on the challenge, you could spend anywhere from 30 minutes to well over an hour wandering around it, trying to find the colored towers in each corner.

Intense, but somehow less scary than a corn maze

After that, you can go inside and check out their 5 illusion rooms, which are pretty trippy. My favorite was where the whole room was on a tilt and you felt drunk just standing there. There’s another cool one that has an Alice in Wonderland like quality where you go from feeling very large to very small as you walk across it.

They also have trippy statues. Where does the water come from??

After spending a couple hours there we made our way to Queenstown, first stopping at the home of bungee jumping. You can watch a video on the history of bungee and watch people bungee off the bridge that’s right there. They also have shuttles that will take the more adventures out to the Nevis bungee.

By unanimous consensus, bungee is more scary than skydiving (this is not me)

Our lunch stop was in Arrowtown, which has an adorable downtown area that feels like you’re in a gold rush town from the Wild West. Our driver said the bakery there is a must stop and well-known by all the drivers. I tried a lamb and mint one that was fantastic. All the people from the UK in the group said they were some of the best meat pies they’ve ever had. After that it was under an hour to Queenstown. We were staying in Nomad, which is this massive hostel so check-in was kind of a clusterfuck. I dropped my bags off and a group of us headed up to the gondolas at the base of the mountain to go luging.

Chairlifts wihen there's not snow is confusing

Luging is basically like sledding meets go karts on a mountain side. There were different courses and were super windy, so if you took a corner too fast or hit a hill you could actually get some air (you’re not supposed to do this).

Super scenic luge track

We did the course 4 times and then went to the chalet to grab drinks and watch the sunset. At night the whole bus met up at Red Rock for dinner and a Kiwi Experience bar crawl. Again, I was way too old to be on this but it was entertaining. I stayed out late enough to make it to the Minus 5 Ice Bar, where you get to wear a big furry coat, go down into a bar that’s cooled to be under freezing so all the furniture and bar is made of only ice, and the drinks come in cups made out of ice.

Can I keep the coat?!

It’s a little pricey and the drinks are pretty sweet but it’s a cool experience to try once.

But only the bartenders get awesome hats

After a late night pub crawl, the early morning wake up for Milford Sound was pretty aggressive, but it’s a couple hours outside of the city due to the mountain terrain. Milford Sound isn’t actually a sound, it’s a fjord. So it would only make sense that it is actually located in Fiordland National Park, which is an UNESCO World Heritage site. The park makes up the whole southwest corner of the south island. Upon entry, there’s expansive fields you can stop at for photo opportunities before making it to the heart of the valley, surrounded by epic mountain peaks carved out by glaciers. 

No pano can capture the expansive nature

There’s quick little walks you can do off the main road as well. At one point you get to drive through a long tunnel that goes through the heart of a mountain and that means you are almost at Milford Sound. We boarded a Jucy Cruise that’s a 1.5 hour boat cruise. 

Not a bad place to catch a boat

There’s a lot of waterfalls along the way and the boat will even dip it’s nose under the biggest one, which means everyone on the outside of the boat is getting drenched. 

Waterfalls on waterfalls. I can't even.

There’s also lots of seals hanging out on the rocks along the way. Then it was back on the bus for a 4 hour drive back to Queenstown. Overall, Milford Sound is one of the most beautiful national parks I’ve seen, but be prepared for a lot of driving, only to go sit on a boat. 

Although from the boat you get to see things like this

If there’s options to stay closer to the park, I might recommend it to avoid an aggressive day of driving. Once we were back in the city, we waited in line to get dinner at Fergburger, a food institution in Queenstown. The burgers are delicious and decadent, I got a cheeseburger with brie to stay classic but go a little outside of the American burger offering. All of the ingredients were fresh and flavorful. It was well worth the line!

My last day in Queenstown was more chill, I just wanted to explore more of this beautiful city. There’s a lot of great walking paths along Lake Wakatipu in any direction.

I got in so many steps this trip!

The botanical gardens are on one peninsula that’s particularly scenic and has great 360 views of all the surrounding mountains, aptly named The Remarkables.

Plenty of time to sit on a bench and reflect on the Remarkables

There’s also a big Frisbee golf course in the gardens and they don’t care if you drink beers while you play. There are also some neat art installations around the outside perimeter of the park.

This was my favorite park art!

After that, I went to Nadi Wellness Centre for a yoga class, so I could slowly start to prepare my body for the long journey home. The people who work there were super warm and welcoming. The space is cozy and has a view of the lake.

One room, a fireplace, and a view of the mountains = zen

After that, I walked to the lakefront for lunch at Pier 19, an upscale restaurant featuring local ingredients that had been recommended to me. I had a venison salad that had a well-balanced flavor profile, with nuts, cauliflower, and micro greens.

All salads should be this meaty

Since this is clearly a healthy lunch option, I decided to balance it out with a visit to Cookie Bar, which is right by the Nomad hostel. They have a constant rotation of fresh baked cookies, multiple flavor options, cookie sandwiches, shakes, and a cookie happy hour deal This is a Queenstown institution that should not be missed!

I mean, it even looks fun and delicious. Now imagine the smell of a fresh baked cookie...

The next day was my last day in New Zealand, which was a sad realization (my 6am flight was less than 24 hours away). I separated from the Kiwi Bus crew, as I had mis-planned my loop and been one day short. I booked a $40 express ticked on the Naked Bus (I don't know who comes up with these names), which would take me straight from Queenstown to Christchurch. Thankfully the long midday rest stop was in Lake Tekapo, which was the last Kiwi stop I was missing.

My last taste of epic NZ scenery

I can't comment on what it's like to stay there or what there is to do there, but a long stop by the lake for lunch and photos sufficed for me. There's some historic buildings on the lake that you can go inside and check out.

Since it's so tiny in the last photo...

Pro tips for the Naked Bus 1) download everything you want to watch in offline mode, the wifi is poor and limited 2) it says there's no eating/drinking on the bus but just sit toward the back and no one cares. Otherwise there's not nearly enough stops for snacking. I stayed at the Sudima Hotel attached the airport. It was cheap but nice, with a gym and decent dining menu. If you have an early morning flight, this place is perfect. And then I was off to San Francisco. New Zealand, thank you for the epic wilderness adventure and opportunity to do extreme things I never knew I had in me.

Off Season Adventures: New Zealand Pt. I

After Sydney I flew to New Zealand to spend 15 days on the South Island, so I’m breaking up this leg of travel into a two-partner. Since I was roaming New Zealand solo, I didn’t want to rent a camper and drive by myself so I did some research and found that most lone travelers opt for a bus tour option. I don’t like to over-plan when I travel, as it removes the excitement and spontaneous-ness that the flexibility of solo travel is so great for, so I was nervous about being trapped on a bus where every moment was scheduled. However, I found a bunch of bus companies that were backpacker mentality friendly, where you buy a loop path and then you can jump on and off the bus in any of the cities along the way and stay in those cities for as long as you want, then just hop back on. While you’re on the bus, they help you identify and book activities and hostels at the next city stop. This seemingly great concept was just what I was looking for, so I booked myself on the Southern Pass of the Kiwi Experience. We’ll circle back to this, but just wanted to set the stage for a later discovery.

I mean, is this not the greenest bus you've seen?!

I flew directly into Christchurch and grabbed a cab to Jailhouse Accommodation, an actual prison from 1874-1999 that has since been converted into a hostel. It was definitely a unique experience but not without its flaws. I recommend it for a night and preferably in the summer months. The rooms are old prison cells, so the heating is minimal in the winter and the wifi signal does not travel through the thick concrete walls. However, the people there were super nice and helpful.

My own personal cold, cold cell/room

After getting settled I started walking toward downtown through South Hagley Park, which is pretty well sized with lots of bike paths and sports fields. Once you make it through the southern portion, it leads into the Christchurch Botanical Gardens, which were my favorite gardens of the trip.

My mom would be so proud of all these flower photos

They know what kind of plants will flourish in the climate and in the autumn a lot of the sub-gardens featured plants that pop with beautiful fall colors.

So this is what autumn looks like outside of SF....

Next gardens is the Canterbury Museum, which is free so I took a quick walk around those exhibits. There’s also the Peacock Fountain, which is fun for taking pictures.

Free activities are good activities

After that, I went to the urban downtown area which was possibly one of the most eerie metropolis areas I’ve ever been in. An earthquake that was 6.3 on the Richter scale decimated the city, killing 185 people. While they’re working on rebuilding, the after-effects are still everywhere, as a lot of the crumbled buildings have not been removed. They’ve come up with clever ideas, like if the front façade of a building is still mostly intact they’ll build up shipping containers that the doors and windows open up to.

There's also a shit ton of awesome street graffiti

There’s also a whole mall area on Cashel Street made completely out of shipping containers that they’ve made into cute boutique shops and cafes.

I'd take this over Mall of America any day!

I was also there on the Queen’s birthday so everyone had the day off and the area was empty. I walked to the 185 chairs memorial, which was beautiful and sad. For each person that died in the earthquake, their loved ones picked out a white chair to represent the individual.

One of the most thoughtful memorials I've ever seen

It’s near the church with cardboard rafters, which was closed so I didn’t get a good look. I walked back to the hostel area for dinner and went to Pedal Pusher, which had good food, TVs, trivia, and wifi.

The next morning I boarded the gigantic lime green Kiwi Experience bus at 7am.

Where's my bus?? Oh wait, it's the giant green one.

There was a quick breakfast stop, saw some seals, and then we made our way to the main city stop, Kaikoura. Kaikoura is a quaint coastal town that is big for marine wildlife due to sea trenches deep under the water, which mix regional currents that cause food sources to rise for seals, whales, and other animals that stay more toward the top.

Town view from above - at least it's sunny today!

We went and saw some seals and I signed up for a dolphin swim which was supposed to be with hundreds of dolphins.

Fat but dangerous

Unfortunately there was a stormy wind so dolphins got cancelled so I went on a whale watching tour instead, which was a pretty awesome backup. They put a sonar sensor in the water off the edge of the boat and listen for whale sounds. As soon as they sense one the boat takes off and tracks them down, as whales only stay on top of the water breathing anywhere from two to ten minutes typically.

Just hanging out

The tour usually sees about 2-3 whales but it was the height of the season so we saw four! You watch the whales (all sperm whales in the region) breath water out their blowholes. The whale guides could tell when the whale was preparing to go back under so they’d yell to get your cameras ready so you could get the perfect tail shot before they disappeared back under.

Whale tail. Ha.

That evening we stayed in the Lazy Shag Backpacker, a cute and affordable hostel run by this really great woman.

Cute and cozy redefined!

I walked the stretch of road the hostel was on and found this cool black rock beach to catch the sunset on.

Gratuitous sunset photo

Seafood is obviously the popular protein choice in this area, so I found a simple yet legit place to get fish and chips. It came wrapped in paper like street food in England and even though the fish was fried you could tell it was super fresh. To-date it’s the best I’ve had, but I had to eat it while burrowed in bed wearing multiple layers of fleece. New Zealand winters are no joke.

The next morning we departed from Kaikoura fairly early and made a quick stop at the Oahu stream walk to see the baby seal colony.

The cuteness is palpable

There are adorable seal pups all over the place that are super playful and splashing around. At the top of the stream there’s a pool under a waterfall that was completely filled with the little guys. 

Everything that looks like a rock is actually a frolicking seal pup!

After that we headed to the ferry stop at the tip of the South Island to pick up bus travelers coming from the North Island. 

Big ass ferry in the bay

This is where I learned that the Kiwi Experience is known as the “college fuck bus” and 18 year olds make up about 80% of the passenger load. The other 20% are mostly in their younger to mid-twenties, so ignore that part of the Kiwi Experience site that says most of their riders are between 20 to 35 and be prepared to hear a lot of screaming, drama, Jason Derulo, and hungover pukers. In talking to other travelers a couple of the hostel stops, anyone in their 30s should look to book Stray. So after accepting that this would be my fate for the next week and a half, we made our way to a river bridge that is in one of the scenes from "The Hobbit" movie. I haven't seen it, but it was a nice river.

Does this look familiar to any LOTR fans?

We got to the town of Kateriteri after dark and stayed at the Kateriteri Lodge, which was nice but felt much more like a hostel than the last place. They did put on a trivia night at the pub next door which was pretty fun.

Kateriteri might be a fun stop in the summer since it’s right on the water, but in the winter there’s not much to do so we left right away in the morning. We drove to Nelson Lake to have a picnic lunch. This is where there’s a scenic pier that lots of people take pictures jumping off of. Unfortunately we were there on a super foggy and cold day, so there wasn’t too much to see. A couple of riders braved the water for the jump photo but they said it was freezing and there were eels.

Just like San Francisco, feels like home!

After a windy, long, but scenic drive we rolled into the town of Westport. Even though it’s a town with a rough population of four thousand, it still felt like more of a city than the last few stops we made.

Real buildings!

We stayed at Bazil’s Surf Hostel, which they said was the top rated Kiwi Experience hostel of the trip. It was funky and had a cool outdoor area that is probably awesome during the summer. Unfortunately in the winter it just smells of mildew and the guy working was super standoffish.

Can't you see this being way better with some sun?!

I went running down the main strip of town and found some good Indian food for dinner. The other upside to the hostel was it does allow lodgers to hang out and drink in the public areas until 9:30ish, so at least it was a little more social than some of the other places.

The next morning we stopped at a nearby seal colony that’s usually pretty populous but it was cold and rainy so most of us stayed in the bus. We started out drive down “The Coast Road,” which is New Zealand’s version of the Great Ocean Road.

By no means ugly! I'm just saying compared to Great Ocean Road...

While it includes some cool limestone cliffs, I would say it didn’t compare much. The best stop was the Pancake Rocks and Blowholes, which are named that way because the stacks look like pancake layers of limestone stacked up.

This doesn't make me crave IHOP though

There’s a quick 15-20 minute walking loop you can do that has a couple good vantage points. 

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The Coast Road ends in Greymouth, which is the largest city on the West Coast (Queenstown is more inland) but even our driver acknowledged that it was one of the uglier cities. Apparently there was going to be a costume party and contest at the hostel that night, so we went to a local store to get supplies. Since it was still rainy, our activity for the day was going on a tour of Monteith’s Brewery. I am not a beer drinker so I passed on the tour, but I sat by the fireplace and drank their cider which was incredibly clear and delicious. It was so good I’m looking into where I can find it in the US. After that, we went to the Lake Mahinapua Hostel, which is pretty remote and only had cabin options, so I braved my first bunk bed experience in many years.

Looks odd but the cute cabins are behind it.

The owners and staff there were super friendly and excited to have us. They run a fully operational bar on-site since the location is so remote.

Plenty of fun activities to be had

They served us a giant family style dinner and then we hung out in the bar area all night for the costume party. The local police showed up but it didn’t seem to faze anyone, as apparently that’s a pretty normal occurrence since it tends to get a bit rowdy. Again, this is a great hostel experience for someone a bit younger.

The next morning they also served us family style breakfast and then we went into town to watch the rugby match of the two little boys who lived at the hostel and had been helping us out. 

Not the town, just a photo out of the bus window that finally worked!

After that it was a quick drive to our next major stop, Franz Joseph. I was planning to go skydiving but after mustering up the courage it got cancelled due to weather. While a little relieved, I was also a little disappointed as it’s rated one of the most scenic skydives in the world. We check into our hostel, The Rainforest, which was my favorite so far due to ambiance and amenities. The single room felt just like a hotel room but much more affordable.

If you look closely you can spot reception!

Even though it was raining I went for a trail run to see if I could get close to the glacier. After you get through town, there are a trails through a Jurassic Park feeling forest that are a couple kilometers long.

I'm fully expecting a T-Rex to jump out at any point.

It actually was farther than expected to even get to the car park where then the glacier specific trails start, so I just did a short one that was steps up a hill that lead to an outlook where you could see multiple waterfalls.

Cue the TLC

I took trails back on the other side of the road and happened across a cool suspension bridge.

Dangerous and slippery when wet

It started to pour so I started sprinting back, feeling like a bad ass in a Nike commercial, until I got a side ache. That night there was a big rugby match (New Zealand vs. Wales), so I went to watch it and have dinner at The Landing, which had great food, sizable portions, and a solid list of local beers and wines.