Video of skydive over Lake Taupo, NZ

Finally...here's the video from my skydive:

Coincidence?

The day I flew into Christchurch on 5 Jan there was an earthquake which struck a few hours before I landed. It was a small one but everyone felt it. The day I left New Zealand on 22 Feb a massive earthquake struck Christchurch hours after I took off from Auckland. Strange coincidence?

Waiheke Island, New Zealand

Waiheke Island is a popular getaway for Aucklanders. It's a 35 minute ferry ride from Quay Street right along the harbor. The island's north shore boats several beautiful deserted beaches in addition to loads of wineries. Wine tasting tours are very popular. A return ferry + unlimited bus pass costs about 42 NZD. I went here for the day and spent most of my time over at Onetangi Beach, about 11km from the ferry terminal. The beach is picture perfect!

After some unsuccessful attempts at body surfing ( the wave breaks weren't really strong enough to do it right) we stopped at the beach cafe for a couple of cold beers and green-lipped mussels. These were the biggest mussels I've ever seen and surprisingly enough I was pretty full on just a dozen of them.

On the way back to the ferry we stopped off at the Saratoga Winery and had an express wine tasting for 5 NZD. It was express cause by the time we sat down we only had about 10 minutes till the next bus came along. If we missed that one we would have had to have waited about 1 hour for the next one. The tasting was good although because we did it so fast we couldn't savor the wines as much as we would've liked. Luckily for us we ran down the driveway and caught the bus we wanted and got to the ferry terminal in time for the sunset and the 8pm ferry back to the Harbour. The sunset was quite nice despite a low lying cloud coming in at the last moment. All in all a good day!

A Quick Glimpse of Queenstown, New Zealand

The Remarkables (mountain range)

The beach

Paragliders

Rotorua, New Zealand

Rotorua lies in a very active thermal area. Within the town itself are several natural hot pools, many of them located in Kuirau Park on the west side of town. A large portion (over 30%) of the population here is Maori and that fact is evidenced by the plethora of Maori cultural show offerings. It's possible to see a cultural show at just about any time of the day and evening. The evening shows also include a traditional hangi meal but they generally cost about 100NZD. Hangi meals are cooked using the steam from the natural hot pools. I opted to go for the more "authentic" show at Whakawerarewa Village located about 2km from the town centre. It's a living village which offers up tours and a cultural show for about 30NZD. Their commercial neighbor Te Puia costs about 60NZD and has a more polished look but in the end the geysers are the same. You literally see the same set of geysers from both Te Puia and Whakawerarewa so in my opinion I made the right choice by going with Whakawerarewa. Rotorua also has loads of mud pool spas and mineral water spas but being on a budget I decided to save my money since they can get quite pricey.

Kuirau Park

Tongariro Alpine Crossing, New Zealand

The Tongariro Alpine Crossing is easily one of the best day walks in the world. You've probably seen its best known highlight Mount Ngauruhoe starring in the Lord of the Rings Trilogy as Mount Doom. But there's more to this walk than tracing Frodo's steps. Starting just above 1000m you're already in an alpine climate zone devoid of any large plants. As you steadily hike up even higher vegetation all but completely disappears and all you see is a beautiful alpine landscape. Looming in the distance is Mount Doom and Mount Tongariro.

About 1.5 hours into the walk the turnoff for the Mount Doom summit track starts. The hike up to the summit takes about 2 hours and there is no well formed track. You can follow in other's footsteps or do your own route finding. I found out later that it's best to stay to your left going up and coming down. At the summit you're treated to a large volcanic crater and stunning views if the sky is clear. The clouds flew through the valley really quickly so it's worth spending some time at the summit if have it. It's also worth it to walk around the summit at least halfway so that you can get a nice view of the Emerald Lakes. The path down requires you to almost slide down a steep side of the volcano. It's much easier than it looks so long as you let the loose volcanic ash take you down.

The next bit of the track is flat then starts going uphill to the Red Crater. From near here you can either summit Mount Tongariro or carry on to the Emerald Lakes. I didn't have enough time to do the Mount Tongariro sidetrip so I carried onto the lakes. The view from above the lakes is really stunning and the path down is really steep. It's another slide down loose volcanic ash which I was used to by now.

After the lakes you come across the Mount Ruapehu Crater Lake. It's worth it to stop here for a look back at the Red Crater and Mount Doom. If the sky is clear you can get an incredible view of them lined up. It's truly breathtaking. From here the track climbs a bit up to a rest hut then steadily decends down below the tree line to the end point. This bit accounts for nearly half the track and I didn't find it nearly as interesting as the first half so I practically ran through it. The buses generally give you 8 hours to do the walk, which, if you walk quickly, is just enough time to summit Mount Doom and finish the track in time for your pickup.

Abel Tasman National Park, New Zealand

Abel Tasman National Park is the most popular national park in all of New Zealand based on the number of visitors annually. The main draw are the excellent secluded beaches and range of outdoor activities available. The most popular of which are kayaking, tramping, and camping. The park is located about 1.5 hours from Nelson and there are numerous tourist buses waiting to take you there and back. Since I'm not much of a kayak person I opted to do the Coast Track. I arranged a water taxi to take me from the nearest town of Marahau to the beach Tonga. Since I had a car I had all day to do the walk from Tonga to the carpark at Marahau, a total distance of about 26km.

The track itself is mostly flat with a few hills and hugs the coast. I stopped off at just every beach and took a quick dip into the cool water which was really great after getting sweaty from tramping. The water this time of year is approximately 20C, which is really refreshing. The water taxi dropped me at Tonga at 10:30AM and got back to the carpark in Marahau at around 7:00PM. I could've gotten back sooner but I took my time at each beach soaking up some sun, enjoying the cool seawater and taking in the incredible views. All in all it was a great day and I would highly recommend a visit to anyone who's going to New Zealand's South Island.

Kaikoura, New Zealand

Kaikoura is a beautiful little town on the east coast of the South Island of New Zealand. The road into and out of the town hug the rugged eastern coast and has some very sharp turns. The town is famous for its abundant wildlife. There are several seal colonies within a few km of the town centre, all easily accessible by road. The main activities are whale watching via sea and air, swimming with dolphins, and swimming with seals. Since the former 2 are really expensive, I went for the seal swim (70NZD). It started with a quick drive to the seal colony then we walked along the coast to another colony and went into the water armed with snorkels, fins, and very thick wetsuits. The seals were very playful and warmed up to us immediately. They were zipping around us and were just as curious with us as we were with them.

The one thing in Kaikoura that is a must-do is the Peninsula Track. It's a 2-4 hour return walk from the town centre. It's a very easy walk and the views you get are simply stunning. If it's a clear day it'd be a shame to not do it.

Nugget Point, Catlins, New Zealand

I got really lucky when I arrived at Nugget Point with the weather. The sky was clear and beautiful and there was plenty of wildlife out and about as well. Nugget Point is located a few kilometres south of Kaka Point in the southeastern part of the Catlins region. Pictures are worth a thousand words so here they are:

Sea Lions

Loads of birds

Curio Bay, Catlins, New Zealand

Curio Bay is a small town in the Catlins region of the South Island in New Zealand. It's very remote and very beautiful. The scenic southern route passes right through this area. There are no stores nor any mobile reception in Curio Bay. The people who live here have to drive about 1 hour to the closes large settlement to buy groceries so it's important to stock up in Invercargill or in Balclutha before heading into the Catlins.

The main attraction here is the Fossilised Forest and the yellow-eyed penguins who live there. The penguins make their nests in the bushes bordering the forest and come out about 2 hours before sundown. You can see them emerging from the bushes and also coming in from the sea. The adults are quite tall at about 50cm and appear to be quite playful and social. They were practically posing for us!

Milford Sound, Fiordland, New Zealand

Driving from Christchurch to Queenstown, New Zealand

I was going to rent a car for the drive but after doing the math it became obvious that buying a car was the cheaper option so I set about looking for a vehicle to purchase. There are loads of backpackers who make the trip from Auckland (AKL) to Christchurch (CHC) and then sell their cars in CHC so I had plenty of options to choose from but not a lot of time. I looked at a few vehicles and finally settled on a campervan. I was hesitant but excited so I made the jump and bought it. I'm now the proud owner of a not-so-new 1986 Nissan Largo!

The Dutch girl I bought it from gave me a quick lesson on how to drive manual before I purchased the van. As I soon found out, the hardest part about driving manual is in the low speed range. 1st gear and reverse are where I stall the most. Once I'm in 2nd gear it's no problem. I set off at about 07:30 yesterday morning and thanks to Google maps was on the right path in no time at all. Barely 30 minutes into the drive I was out into the gorgeous countryside. From here on in it was a matter of trying to take in the beautiful scenery and maintain focus on the road. No joke, the scenery is incredible!!

Lake Tekapo

Since I'm a complete stick shift rookie I stalled out many times. The most embarrassing ones happened when I was pulling into and out of petrol stations. Oh and petrol is really expensive here! 2NZD per liter! (~6 USD per gallon). I also made a wrong turn when getting onto Hwy 8 and drove about 55km in the wrong direction which really sucked cause I wasted an hour and about 20NZD worth of petrol. Once I got going in the right direction I laid my eyes upon Aoraki (Mount Cook) and the beautiful Lake Tekapo. It's breathtaking!

Lake Pukaki

A little further on I came across Lake Pukaki which provided an even better view in my opinion. It's directly south of Aoraki and luckily the sky was clear so I got a perfect view. From here on there are signs for Queenstown so the rest of the journey was pretty easy. I stopped a few more times to rest and take photos. I would highly recommend to anyone to drive this route rather than take a bus. Yes, you can see things from the bus but you don't have the freedom to stop anywhere you like. The tourist buses will stop but they are quite expensive compared to driving and splitting the cost with a couple of people.

South Island, NZ

My travel plans for the South Island of New Zealand:

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