Adventure South Island

On the first day, we drove from Christchurch to Fox Glacier via Arthurs Pass. Along the way, we made a stop at Punakaiki, at the Pancake Rocks, and then drove to Fox Glacier via Hokitika and Franz Josef. We arrived in Fox Glacier at 8:30 pm in the evening. The weather was very poor, it rained almost the entire trip, except for a few hours.

At Abyee and Paul's place, we had a welcome beer :D and then we had really good food with a view of the two highest mountains in New Zealand. The guys were very impressed. As always, Abyee showed us the rooms and said she would wash all our clothes :D To entertain Johannes and Lukas, Paul performed magic tricks :D Then Abyee realized that it was my birthday and everyone sang and I received a beautiful bracelet as a gift J We decided to stay for 2 days so that we could leisurely explore the glaciers, the ocean, and the farm. Abyee and Paul thought it was great and Abyee even cooked my favorite food, Chilli Beef Nachos. Johannes and Lukas were very amazed by the farm and the glaciers. Unfortunately, we couldn't see everything so well... about 4 days ago, there was a major storm that caused a lot of damage... and that's why many hiking trails (including the one to Franz Josef Glacier) were closed.

Our goal for the next day was to stay at Mt. Cook.

So, our journey took us from Fox Glacier to a salmon farm, many viewpoints, and then to Wanaka. We stopped there for lunch and enjoyed the wonderful weather by the beautiful lake. However, we couldn't stay there for too long because we had a tight schedule. So, we went shopping and continued towards Mt. Cook. The landscape there is so gorgeous. We had a breathtaking sunset, a clear night sky filled with glowing stars, and a beautiful sunrise in the morning.

Since the guys liked Wanaka so much, we decided to drive to Wanaka again and take this route to Cromwell. There, we had lunch by the lake again and even went for a short swim because the weather was so wonderful. When we arrived in Cromwell, we had a really New Zealand meal. Namely, lamb with mashed fried potatoes. Very delicious J I think it was the best lamb in the world. After a tour of the estate and a quick visit to the pool, we had a beer at the end. Unfortunately, Ross had to go to work early the next day... so Daniel and I got up extra early in the morning to say goodbye... It was very difficult for us... They had become very dear to us because they treated us like part of their family. When everyone was awake, we had breakfast together with Belinda. She couldn't stop crying... when we left, it already touched me... But thank God for the internet... We write to each other very often and send pictures back and forth J

Our next stop was jet boating on the Shotover River. It was incredibly cool, we drove through a canyon in a speedboat. We did 360-degree turns. Unfortunately, I was a bit under the weather with a sore throat, but it didn't matter... It was a unique experience with a breathtaking backdrop. After that, our journey continued on the South Island towards Te Anau, where the guys took a boat tour of Milford Sound, while Daniel and I stayed in the car because we had already done the boat tour and could save some money. We went through Cliften Caves, Oreti Beach, Dunedin, and Oamaru to Kaikoura. From here on, everything was new for us because we had never been here before. We drove from Nelson to Motueka to see the golden beaches and then back to Picton. In Picton, we took the ferry (on February 15th at 2 pm) to Wellington. So, we explored the South Island in 11 days. We still had 9 days left for the North Island! ;)