Oh New Zealand, you’ll always have a piece of our heart. You’re the place where time stood still for us during this crazy time. We were so fortunate to be able to travel and the timing couldn’t have been better! The travel bubble with New Zealand opened up again the week we were flying out and we were filled with a rollercoaster of emotions. Beyond excited to be able to go but also so hesitant to get our hopes up, as I am sure many people know and have experienced, things change daily at the moment. The days of planning and having a complete itinerary are out the window.

We hardly slept the night before our flight, as our minds were racing but oh my gosh, we were actually going overseas! Off we went to the airport at 4:30am for a 6:15am flight and we kept looking at each other saying, this is actually happening, we are going! First stop was Christchurch. We flew in around midday New Zealand time, went straight to the Airbnb to drop our bags and explored the city centre. Christchurch is beautiful, everyone is so lovely and they have some great pubs!

The next day we went to the camper van company and picked up our van. We went with a small self contained van, it had everything we needed. A little kitchenette, lounge/dining that turned into a bed, a plug in heater (essential in winter) and plenty of blankets and doonas. It also had a porta potty, which I believe is required to be considered ‘self contained’. We didn’t need it as there are plenty of public toilets along the drive and we chose to stay in powered camp sites which had all of the amenities.

Now our week long adventure begins! Our destination for the night was Lake Tekapo. On the way we had to stop at Fairlie Bakehouse and grab a pie for lunch, as recommended by our beautiful friends, Chris and Hannah. Fairlie Bakehouse, I still dream about you and your pork belly and apple sauce pie…please open up in Australia. The drive was beautiful, so green and lush, at first in the distance you could see the snow capped mountains and next minute you were driving up and over them. I think our mouths were wide open the whole time.

We arrived in Lake Tekapo, checked in and went for a walk into the town. The light was beautiful, the sun was setting and oh golly it was cold! We were trying to prepare ourselves for -6 that night. We walked to the Church of the Good Shepherd, took a million photos along the way and headed back to Tekapo Springs, located conveniently next to the caravan park. There were so many locals taking advantage of the hot springs (the line to get in was out the door) but Dylan and I decided to go snow tubing. It was so fun and we couldn't stop laughing.

After Lake Tekapo, we headed to Wānaka. The drive was beautiful, as expected. We drove past Lake Pukaki on the way and the water was so incredibly blue, the water everywhere in New Zealand was this colour. Once we got to Wānaka, we had some fish and chips and headed to #thatwanakatree in Lake Wānaka.

From Wānaka our next destination was Queenstown. Some of the roads on the way to Queenstown were terrifying to drive on because of the snow and ice. To say it was a tense drive is an understatement. We stayed at Heartland Hotel Queenstown for a bit of break away from van life. I would definitely recommend it, it is located in central Queenstown, a short walk from town and we had beautiful views of Lake Wakatipu and the mountains. Queenstown itself was amazing, we absolutely loved it. Obviously you have to go to Fergburger but I would also recommend trying all of their establishments, Ferg Baker, Mrs Ferg and Ferg Bar.

In Queenstown we decided to do a day of snowboarding, as it is something we have wanted to learn since we learnt to ski in Germany. So we booked in for a day on the slopes. To our surprise (well tbh we knew Dylan would be able to pick this up easily), we actually both stood up most of the time. I was expecting to be on my toosh sliding down all day haha. It was the best day and I am so glad we were able to do this together.

After a few Ferg’s, we decided to head out to Milford Sound. The drive was a lot longer than we had expected and actually quite terrifying. There were so many black ice signs on the road, but luckily there weren’t too many people on the roads, so we were able to go slow. We stopped at Mirror Lakes on the way and they were spectacular. The one way tunnel on the way to Milford Sound was quite an adventure (scary actually)! Milford Sound itself was alright, we didn’t do a tour, so I feel as though that might have made our experience better.

We went back to Queenstown the next day, checked into one of their caravan parks and headed off to Arrowtown for the afternoon. Arrowtown was so cute and had a little replica of a Chinese settlement that was once there. On our way back to Queenstown we stopped on the side of the road so I could take some snaps of the sheep! They were so funny and I had a stare off with some of them.

After another night in Queenstown, we headed to Mt Cook as we wanted to walk the Hooker Valley Trail. Unfortunately, it was pouring rain on our drive into Mt Cook. We got to the trail entrance, made some lunch and was hoping the rain would pass. It did not. The moody weather made for some great shots, so I was happy about that. So, we didn’t want to sit around all afternoon, we headed to Lake Tekapo for a night as it is the halfway point back to Christchurch.

I would definitely recommend that people explore New Zealand and do a camper van trip! It was beautiful and everywhere we went looked like a postcard. We had the best time and still couldn’t believe we were able to go.

Church of the Good Shepherd, Lake Tekapo

Fiordland National Park lies Milford Sound

New Zealand

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