I can’t believe I’ve been in New Zealand for about 10 months now! It’s truly a one of a kind place filled with some beautiful people and places. I’d say it’s definitely somewhere I belong.  I love my job. The people are awesome and I get to go out of the office quite often. I’ll be doing a job in Glenorchy in a few weeks. The company just opened a new office in Queenstown, so it seems to be on a pretty positive growth for the future.

I do work a lot, but I’ve also found time to do some low-key dancing in Dunedin. However, I also get so much more holiday time compared to the USA since NZ functions under British ways. This allowed me to take two major holidays so far over the Christmas and Easter breaks.

First I’ll share about my Christmas holiday. I packed some blankets and pillows into the back and set out on a 3 week roadtrip around the South Island. I left Boxing Day morning and made a long drive to Milford Sound. So one of my favorite things about the NZ summer (yes, December is summer) are the fields of wild lupins. Technically, they are a noxious weed, but I think they are lovely. Out of the corner of my eye I saw a road leading off to a park with a huge lupin field next to it…so I went and… it was awesome! Then I hoped in the car and continued the journey.

On the way to Milford Sound you drive through a tunnel carved through the mountain which opens out to a series of switchbacks through an amazing valley. The weather was quite dismal, but beautiful at the same time. I stopped along the way and had a friendly Kea bird join me for a lookout. Keas are notoriously known for eating the rubber off of cars, but this one and I just sat in company. After a few hours I arrived and took the iconic photo of Milford Sound. (I’ll have to go back to do some diving to see the black coral and dolphins and to do the cruise…any takers?)

Then it was off to the start of the Routeburn Track late in the day. The Routeburn is one of nine “Great Walks” in NZ. Typically it is done over three days (I made it through in 1.5 days).

Along the way you book to stay at huts or campsites along the way.) The Routeburn is supposed to be one of the best tramps, and it really was. I chose to start the walk from the end opposite to most people and start on the Te Anau side. The tramp started off with a climb through beach forests and a series of switchbacks. Boy, at first I wasn’t sure if I would make it to my hut for the night. The track continued through some waterfalls where I saw another person (though heading in the opposite direction). Then the fog and rain set in as I finished my way to MacKenzie Hut.

I arrived at the hut after a heavy rainstorm, but with dry feet, hung my shoes and coat on the porch and went inside for a hot cuppa. It was a long day for everyone and the place was settled in for bed, ready for an early start to the next day. I got up earlier than most, ate a quick breakfast and headed out for a long day tramp back to my car. I started up through the beach forest before climbing switchbacks up the side of the mountain. I came around the last corner and was met with a beautiful view of the valley all the way to the ocean. This was my favorite part of the track, walking along the exposed mountain side.

The track then continued to climb up to the shelter at the peak. I dipped inside right before a rainstorm started up. Inside, I met a few German folks and had some scroggin (trailmix). The rain didn’t seem to be letting up and I had quite a long way back down.

Hoods up, head out. The track down consisted of scrambling over some rocks but also had some fantastic views (even with the rain). Once I reached the bottom, the rain started to let up as I walked through the beach forests and over the many bridges all the way out to the carpark.

I hopped in the car and drove into the city of Queenstown where I found some accommodation at a backpackers, had a quick shower, and went straight to bed after a long day’s walk. The Routeburn was really an awesome experience, especially to be able to do it alone. I got some time to think about what makes me tick and how hard I can push myself. Not to mention, very beautiful as well.

The next morning I got up quite early and headed over to Wanaka to stay with my boss’s family for a day. It turned out to be a beautiful day, so we decided to hike the Rob Roy Glacier trail. All I can say is WOW. For a little known track, there were some awesome geologic formations, waterfalls, and photos (been working on those photography skills!).

It was another early morning as I left Wanaka and heading all the way up to Arthurs Pass to meet up with two of my kiwi friends for New Years. It was a long day of driving so I made a few stops along the way. The first was visiting Aoraki/Mount Cook National Park. I got there early in the morning; the clouds hung low against the crystal lake waters. After about an hours drive into the park, the sky started to open up. I took a few walks around the park until halfway through the day. The sun finally came out and so did Mount Cook, NZ’s highest peak and Sir Edmund Hillary’s first practice in his ascent to Everest. Maybe I’ll be climbing it someday.

After Mount Cook, it was off to Lake Tekapo, home of a pretty fantastically colored lake and NZ’s first night sky reserve. Along the way, the highway has an awesome lookout point across Lake Pukaki with Mount Cook in the background (yes, the colors are that spectacular, even google maps shows the lake in a light blue color). After a few hours I made it to Take Tekapo and had a yummy lunch while relaxing in the sun (man, it was hot that day).

It was then time to continue up north. I decided to take a backroad into Arthurs Pass along Lake Coolridge. I must say, this could have been my favorite part of my trip. All I had was a map with some tiny lines for back roads (some not even pictured) and dirt road ahead of me. The scenery was amazing. It was like a small desert you’d find out west. Note that a few days later there was a massive earthquake around that area, which I felt pretty strongly all the way on the west coast!  I then crossed a ford and entered back onto the highway for my final ride into Arthur’s Pass.

However, it was then that my car started to freak out. I had just made it to Castle Rock and pulled over to see what was wrong with the car. It was hot. The coolant temperature was boiling and the check engine light was on. I let it sit for a while, but seeing as I was in the middle of NOWHERE with no cell reception and another hour to civilization (Arthur’s Pass) I had to keep going. I sat about half an hour with no better luck of cooling the car down, until I figured sunset was coming and moving on was the better option.

I finally made it to Arthurs Pass after a stressful car ride while saying plenty a prayer. We met up at my girl friend’s house and had a few drinks to catch up and calm the nerves. Due to all the change in plans I ended up staying at my other friend’s house on the other side of town (…like a minute drive down the road). We chatted for a bit, looked at some of my photos from the trip and had a good stress relieving night. Tomorrow was a new day.

We woke up the next morning and took a rock scramble up the mountain. Work at the café started, so that left me to making some calls about fixing my car. Lucky for me, I had arrived just before New Year’s and just before the weekend, which meant that NO ONE was open. Plus, Arthur’s Pass is so small, the closest grocery store or car mechanic would be in Greymouth (about an hour and a half drive west). So, my few days turned into a week. It was actually a good thing. Each day I walked for miles, got to spend some time with friends and develop close relationships, and did some much needed thinking and learning. Arthurs Pass now holds a special place in my heart.

Well, it was finally the day that the world opened up again, so I was off to Greymouth to get my car in the shop. Check engine light still on, I set off on my journey, careful to take stops along the way to prevent overheating. I made it to Greymouth and checked in my car. Now all that was left to do was wait. I walked around the town for a few hours; Greymouth is surprisingly pretty cool. I came back to the car shop and turns out some magic happened with my car, as nothing was wrong?! The check engine light went off, the leak from the coolant chamber was gone, who knows…but it gave me clearance to hit the road again.

This time my journey took me further north. The first stop was to see the pancake rocks (awesome weather that day!). I took a pass through Buller Gorge on my way up to the golden beaches of Abel Tasman.

It had been a long day of driving so I was relieved when I found myself on the beaches of Abel Tasman (I opted for the less touristy one). I may have spent a few hours sinking my toes into golden sand and went for a swim in the warm turquoise waters (no, I am not kidding, these are the actual colours). Man, that was a good stop!

I had made this a particularly long day of driving so I headed onto Nelson and Picton through Malborough Sound. Through my whole trip I avoided making plans for accommodation and made things work on the fly, or spend a night in my car. I’m not sure what was happening in Nelson and Picton, but there were no rooms available, anywhere. With that I took a nap by the harbour in Nelson and headed on out to find a place to sleep, preferably with a shower…

The next morning I woke up early and headed down to Kaikoura, making sure to stop roadside and take this secret trail to see the seal pups playing in the tidal pools. The weather was looking grim, but I kept my hopes up. Kaikoura is the place in the south island to see whales. They have a resident population of sperm whales which feed in the cool waters off the coast. As most of you know, my heart partly belongs to marine biology, so I bought a ticket. The weather continued to get worse, so they cancelled the trip for the day. I reckon we could have made it out to sea, we had gone out on rougher in South Africa, but better safe than spewing over portside.

I really don’t mind the rain, as long as it isn’t freezing cold. Even though it was a bit drizzly out, I decided to take a walk on the beach. The beaches here are full of stones, and actually quite beautiful. I got up close and personal with a lounging seal.

Early the next morning I headed to the hot pools at Hamner Springs (and some free pools just outside!). It was a good start to the morning. I then continued on through the Lewis Pass. If anyone wants some awesome look at wildflowers, this is where its at. Turns out it was another hot day, so I decided it was time for an impromptu swim in some cold glacial water.

It was another long day of driving so I dried off in the warm sun and made my way on the road down to Franz Joseph Glacier. I didn’t get to do the helicopter glacier walk this time (any takers?), but I did take a trail up to it. As you can see, there’s been quite a change in the recent years. Climate change has contributed to the retreat of the glacier from what it once was. Fit it in now before its too late!

It was down south to glacier #2, Fox Glacier. This is the lesser known of the two, and much more accessible. Also in the area are some pretty nice walks around Lake Matheson, from which you can often see Mount Cook. I got up early and did the walk, so the clouds blocked the view, but beautiful sunrise none the less.

It was then time to make my way through Haast Pass (quite famous). Somehow I got extremely lucky with ALL good weather days on the west coast (most people experience quite a bit of rain), so Haast was even more amazing. I took plenty of time to soak it all in and stop at the lookouts through the mountains and lush forests.

The end of Haast Pass begins into a road along the outside of Lake Hawea. Wow, that was a hot day. I think the scenery made it feel hotter as well with the reds and browns and deep blue lake. Its amazing how you can travel from a glacier to a forest to a desert like place in a few hours. It was a long drive around the lake, but every view was amazing.

Then it was the tail end of the trip through Central Otago back to Dunedin. I’d spent about 3 weeks on the road, but it was good to be back in Dunedin.