Our last chapter in our round the world travel adventures is New Zealand. At the end of our South East Asia travels, we did have some concerns about how much it was going to cost us, and whether we could afford 3-4 weeks in NZ, however in the end we decided to just do it. Booked our one-way flights to the 'end of the world', dug out the few items of our warm clothing, and off we went to conclude our adventures in the 'land of the white cloud' (or so New Zealand has historically been called by its Western discoverer). We flew into Auckland on the 7th March, and would leave from Christchurch on the 30th March (or so we thought). We found that the cheapest way for us to see as much of the country as possible, was to rent a little camper van, which would be our transport and sleeping quarters (and kitchen, changing room, sometimes bathroom and lounge). We were quite shocked at the prices of camper vans (over $3000 for 3 weeks for the smallest of campers), but managed to find a 'micro campervan', as it was called online, which is basically an estate car, with a mattress in the back. This one cost us around $1,800 for 20 days (including a zero-excess insurance, and a relocation fee - which allows you to pick up the car in one place and return it in another). After doing some reading into campervaning around NZ, another unpleasant surprise we found was that freedom camping has recently been banned in most places around the country, so you could only camp in designated campsites, largely managed by the DOC (Department of Conservation), most of which come with a parking fee. So the reality of our little adventure was working out more and more expensive the more we read about it. NORTH ISLAND
A few people told us that the South Island is more beautiful, and to not spend too much time in the north. However, be it the beginning of our car tramping, or just because, we actually found the north island very enjoyable and memorable. After spending a couple of nights in Auckland we embarked on our journey south. After spending a day climbing in Wharepapa, we visited Rotorua - the stinky town of thermal pools and volcanic hot springs, where we jogged around the hot spring park (quite an intense experience, when passing a geyser while breathing in heavily from the run). We even considered parking overnight in the park, but chickened out at the end, and ended up driving half an hour out of town, where we managed to sleep for free anyway). In Rotorua we went to a Maori Show, with a buffet dinner, or 'hangi' as the Maori's call it. The show gave us a nice intro into the Maori culture and traditions. We enjoyed stories about the Maori culture, the origin of the Maori facial tattoos, how the hangi is prepared, the welcoming ceremony and dance, among other interesting performances and stories. Back in Wharepapa, we had a really enjoyable climbing day on the north island, where we met a friendly Spanish and Chilean couple, who were eager to climb with us for a bit. Shame we were going separate ways, as they would have been a fun couple to hang out with for a bit. One day we chatted to our friend Johnny through Facebook, who happened to be traveling in NZ too with his friend, so we made arrangements to meet up somewhere where our paths crossed. It happened to be by Lake Taupo - our next destination after Rotorua, which was where the great 'Mordor' hike is located. So the following day we set out at 6am for the Tongariro Alpine Crossing, a 19km hike, often said to be one of the most beautiful day hikes in the world. And of course we knew it as the Mordor hike, as that's where the Lord of Rings' Mordor Valley was filmed.
Unfortunately the day of our hike started off as grey and wet, so we actually did most of it in light rain and heavy wind, especially when we got to the ridge at the top, where the winds were super strong and cold. Turns out we were not very prepared for these conditions, as we did not have our normal hiking gear, having travelled through the hot South East Asia.. As we made our way south towards Wellington to catch the ferry across, we stopped in various campsites on the way, some more expensive than others, mostly paid ones. Unfortunately there are not that many free camping spots for non-self contained vehicles. The cheap ones operate on the basis of dropping an $8p.p. payment with your car registration number into a donations box. In the morning a ranger would come to collect the payments and check which cars haven't paid. A couple of times, when we didn't have correct change, the ranger didn't bother knocking on our car window in the morning while we were still sleeping, so we managed to get away without paying. But mostly the cost of these overnight parking spots ranged between $8-$25 per person. The more expensive ones would come with toilets, showers and sometimes a sheltered kitchen. The $8 ones normally just have a drop toilet and some sort of a water source (sometimes from a lake, stream or a basic tap). Now the cost of food shopping is another story! Ever since we arrived to NZ we haven't stopped being astounded at the price of food in supermarkets. Especially the fruit and veg are the most shocking. We were told that we'd be better off buying fruit & veg from market stalls on the side of the road as we're driving, however we haven't seen many of those, especially when you most need them. So $4 (£2) lettuce, $6.99 per kilo oranges and $2.99 for a cucumber, was what we had to come to terms with when doing our grocery shopping. It would still be cheaper than eating out, and wanting to eat marginally healthy, we just had to get used to the prices. SOUTH ISLAND
We took the ferry across from North to South Island, the 3.5 hour journey in between the fjords and islands was beautiful and memorable. No wonder they say the Cook Strait ferry ride is one of the most beautiful ferry rides in the world. We started off on a bit of a bad foot, as the first destination we chose - a village called Takaka - with freedom camping and nice climbing crags, was unfortunately only accessible by one road, which runs along the north coast to the north-west of the island. That road was heavily damaged and blocked by the recent hurricanes and storms, where trees have fallen and half of the road slid down the mountain. So while they were trying to clear the road and make way for the traffic, we had to queue up in this massive queue of cars for a few hours. We didn't know how long we'd have to queue up for, so we decided to stay and see. Besides, we still wanted to get to our destination.
The freedom camping spot was very basic, with one drop toilet and lots of camper vans and cars all crowded together in in the opening of this forest. The drop toilet would be very smelly and full towards the end of the day, and there were no showers or running water, apart from a nearby stream. But it was free! So we stayed for 2 nights. I realised I couldn't climb because I ripped some skin off on my fingers so had to wait for it heal. We couldn't leave the village either, as it was blocked off by that damaged road, which would mean we'd have to sit in that queue of cars for hours. So we stayed and just hanged around the village, went to the gym once, where we could have a proper shower, visited the local market, library for some wifi and had a very expensive beer in a local bar. The atmosphere in Takaka was hippie, young and chilled. I think it was one of the travellers' hubs. I quite enjoyed the village, apart from being restricted, where we couldn't go anywhere, and the fact we couldn't try the climbing there.
We then drove in the direction of south, along the west coast, stopping at the Fox Glacier and Franz Joseph Glacier. We found a really cool car camping spot by the sea, about half an hour drive along a small dirt track. Once we have found a spot, I walked over to the beach and watched the sun go down. It was quite a memorable moment, and I wish I could have shared it with Nadia, but she was exhausted from the day, so decided to relax in the car instead. Next, we drove further south to Wanaka Lake, and spent a few nights in a cheap camping spot, on the grounds of a football club. The owner was super rude (we were prepared for him as we'd read a few reviews of this spot, and everyone said the owner was rude). He told us off for driving too fast along his road (it's funny how that was the first thing he told us when we approached him! Not even a "Hi", but you can only laugh at the predictability of it!) Parking up there only cost us $5 pppn, so we decided to stay three nights. Unfortunately this is when the weather turned against us and it rained for 2 days non-stop. When the rain started on the first evening, and we had to use our little car awning to cook the food at the back of the car, we didn't think much of it, thinking it would stop the next day and we would dry off. However, it just rained and rained and rained. By the second night we were getting very miserable, as we struggled to dry off, there was no wifi, no electric power to charge out devices, so we were stuck in our car, depressed, cold and miserable. That's when we decided to forget our tight budget and check into a hotel the following day to dry off and feel a bit more positive. However in the morning we instead drove into Wanaka town and treated ourselves to an amazing 24$ breakfast! That was well worth every cent as it lifted our moods. The sun also came out, and we decided we didn't need the hotel anymore. We did a nice 10km walk around Wanaka Lake to take in the beautiful scenery.
After Wanaka we started moving back north towards Mt Cook, as we didn't have enough time to go further south to Queenstown and Milford Sound. We drove past Twizel, towards Pukaki (a village on the other side of Lake Pukaki from Mt Cook). We found a freedom camp a few mins drive from the lake, which was essentially a big field running along this raised river, with one drop toilet in the middle of it. It was super basic, but had beautiful views of the surrounding mountains all around, and on a clear day you could see Mount Cook from there, and main thing, it was free!. So we decided to stay for 3 nights. Only there was an issue that the nearest shop was probably back in Twizel, which was a good 20-25 min drive away, and the road to get to the camp was super rocky and hard to navigate on. So we decided to stay put for a while and just relax in these beautiful surroundings. The day after we arrived to this spot, we decided to drive to Mount Cook Village, have breakfast there in one of the overpriced touristy cafes and do a one-day hike to one of the surrounding mountains. I found a nice route on my app, maps.me, and so we embarked on a 15km hike, and summited a 2,500m peak. It was all uphill on the way up and all downhill on the way back. It was quite a strenuous hike, but so breathtakingly beautiful, that all the thousands of steps we did were totally worth it!
When we got back to our free camp, there was of course no shower, so we decided to have a DIY shower, by boiling some water, then pouring it over each other in our bikinis. I think we were the only ones doing that there as it being a mountain village the temperature was, let's say, fresh. But the shower was very refreshing and actually now contributes to some of our many pleasant memories from our travels. The next two days and a half we stayed in the camp, as driving in and out of it was a pain, so we took it easy, chilling in our car, reading, I took a walk around the local area, and we successfully finished off our food supplies. It did get a bit lonely when food was running out and we had no wine or any tasty nibbles... but it was good to restrict yourself a bit so we got to appreciate proper food later.
Our final couple of days consisted in us driving towards Christchurch. We stayed our final night near Christchurch in a paid campsite recommended by the car rental company, which was near the car rental office, so we could return the car and be picked up by their shuttle service and dropped off at the airport. We did briefly pop into Christchurch, went to a museum-like building where we had some ice cream and got to use their wifi, walked around a bit, and that was it. There wasn't much to see there. So our last night, back at the campsite, we spent just chilling, reading, having some beers and reminiscing on our 3 weeks spent in the beautiful New Zealand.
