Around-the-World with Drew & Erin: New Zealand

Join The Blogging Post as we head around-the-world with our friends Drew & Erin. They’ll be sending us regular dispatches and updates from around, across, and all over the globe. This is their fourth and final post from New Zealand…

A Whirlwind Tour

After several weeks of leisurely exploring the outdoor playground that is New Zealand, the final phase of our journey there was of a different style. We met up with a friend from home and the three of us made a whirlwind tour of the South Island.

Having to cover so much ground in such little time is not the ideal way to travel, but this was the best way to satisfy all of our travel wishes within our fixed time schedule and allowed us the opportunity to see nearly all corners of the South Island. We met up with our friend Aly on the southeast coast in the city of Dunedin and gradually made our way along almost the entire coast of the island in a clockwise direction until returning to Christchurch. It was a long and scenic – if at times draining – driving tour.

After meeting in the bustling city of Dunedin, we quickly set off for the Otago Peninsula to the east of town. This peninsula is a haven for wildlife in the air, on the coast, and in the sea. Aside from catching up with our good friend over beers and home-cooked meals, our main ambition was for Aly, an avid birder, to learn about and catch sightings of the Royal Albatross, a massive seabird that has a wingspan of up to three meters or about ten feet.

With this goal in mind, we visited the Royal Albatross Center, where we were fortunate enough to spot some of these birds gracefully flying over the head of the peninsula. We wandered through the nearby area and were blessed with sightings of seals, gulls, cormorants, a kingfisher, and lot of other seabirds. We even managed to spy a few penguins. On a rainy, cold, windy evening, we staked ourselves out on a beach where tiny blue penguins – the smallest in the world at about 10 inches in height – come ashore to their seasonal nests. We were rewarded for our patience and endurance by sightings of several of these miniature beasts waddling their way up the beach and past us to their nests on the slopes above. It was an intimate and unique wildlife encounter that capped of our stay on Otago.

After driving the remote and little populated south coast, we headed for Milford Sound. Although Erin and I had both been here twice before, we insisted that we return so that Aly could see this amazing place. The Fiordland area stands out as one of the signature natural landscapes of the country. After a peaceful night camped out in the shadows of the steep valley walls on our way to the sound, however our plans were briefly derailed. We aimed to get an early start so Aly could catch a morning cruise on the sound and avoid the large groups of tourist buses that arrive later in the day. But when we got in our new car, the battery was dead, and we were going nowhere fast. We all handled the situation really well, though, and with the aid of two young guys from California, an older Austrian couple, and the Kiwi park ranger, we managed to find some jumper cables and our car was back on the move. As it was Easter Sunday, we were especially thankful for the generous assistance of some friendly travelers and locals to help us in our time of need. We proceeded to have a stellar day after our inauspicious start.

There were many other highlights of our whirlwind two-week tour – walks to the Franz Josef and Fox Glaciers, a trek on the Abel Tasman Coast Track, and amazing views on the Kaikoura Peninsula to name a few – but two of my favorite memories were from less heralded areas. Amid all of the spectacular and well-known places we’ve visited on our travels, I’m finding that I really enjoy the mellow out-of-the-way places just as much as the star attractions.

One such place is the sleepy town of Okarito on the west coast, just up the road from the Franz Josef Glacier. Okarito is a tiny village of 40 or so residents situated in a fortuitous spot with a beach and the Tasman Sea to the west, the massive Southern Alps rising up to the east, and the Okarito Lagoon – a haven for birds and fish – bordering it on the north. It’s a gem of a place that we only discovered through word-of-mouth but yet stands out as one of my favorite places in all of the country. The town campground there even had hot showers – a welcome development for some pungent campers. Sandwiched between several long driving days,
Aly, Erin, and I had a relaxing few days chilling in Okarito and enjoying its beaches, forest, and stunning sunsets.

Another quiet, yet endearing, spot we discovered was the town of Renwick in the Marlborough region in the northeastern part of the island. This region is famed for its white wines that are produced in the mild and benevolent climate that the area enjoys. We found the perfect place from which to launch our wine-tasting endeavors – Watson’s Way Backpackers, which in my opinion, is one of the best-run hostels in all of NZ. With some quality hard tail mountain bikes rented from Watson’s Way, we made a 10-mile biking circuit of the surrounding vineyards and wineries. It was a perfectly pleasant way to tour the area and taste some local wines. We visited four, small, family-run wineries and found that the sauvignon blancs and pinot noirs were our favorites. But as much as we liked the wines, we enjoyed meeting the gracious owners and employees who were pouring and describing the wines for us even more. They were informative, down-to-earth, and unpretentious. Much like our experience in Okarito, Renwick – with its hospitable citizens, tasty wines, and laid-back vibe – charmed us in a way that rivaled any of our best memories of New Zealand.

The only sad part of our trip to NZ was that it had to end. With a flight out of the country on the horizon, we made our way back to Christchurch. After a few final days in the city selling back our car, sorting our digital photos, and reflecting on some memorable travels with a good friend, we bid Aly farewell and set our sights on the continent of South America. Our journey continues.

PHOTOS

Photo #1 – Aly and the Albatross
Photo #2 – Wasting Away in Okarito-ville
Photo #3 – Wine tour on wheels