Week 30 - New Zealand Alps

The new week started just like the old one had ended.

Beautiful weather in Fiordland National Park.

We set off for Milford Sound, one of the most famous places in New Zealand. Even though we hadn’t planned a boat tour in the fjord like the thousands of other tourists, the drive itself was worth the journey. Along the way, we had spectacular views of the surrounding mountains and valleys. There is also a tunnel through the mountain that is only one lane. While waiting at the red light, three Keas flew down and inspected the cars closely. These birds are known for their intelligence and are notorious for causing mischief with cars.

In Milford Sound itself, there isn’t much to do. There’s a small loop trail and a viewpoint that we visited, and then we headed back. Probably for the best since parking here costs €5 per hour.

On the way back, we aimed for our actual hike. The tour to Lake Marian. The hike was quite steep and strenuous. Upon reaching the top, a beautiful mountain lake awaited us. After a long break, we set off again on our return journey.

Tuesday was our travel day, we left the Milford Sound area behind and drove all the way to Queenstown. After a quick shopping stop at Pak n Save, we continued to our parking spot.

This spot is right by Moke Lake. We enjoyed the beautiful location right by the lake and then set off to hike around the lake. The short hike was just right to stretch our legs after the long journey.

The next day, we had a proper mountain tour planned. Our goal was to climb high above Queenstown to Ben Lomond.

We opted for the Swabian option: instead of paying for parking and taking a gondola (30€ per person), Franzi found a free parking space with access to the trail. However, this also meant that 1450 meters of elevation gain over 7 km awaited us. After more than three hours of climbing, we reached the summit, and it was definitely worth all the effort. Already on the way, we had fantastic views of Lake Wakatipu and Queenstown, but the view from the peak topped everything. With a 360-degree panorama on an ideal weather day, no wish was left unfulfilled.

On the descent, we took a small detour to the gondola station on the mountain. While we had only encountered a few people on the ascent and at the summit, the crowd increased significantly on the descent. At the gondola, the masses of tourists were omnipresent. We treated ourselves to a cold drink before we fully completed the descent. Exhausted but satisfied, we returned to the parking spot from the previous night at Moke Lake.

On Thursday, we visited downtown Queenstown. We got lucky and found a spot in one of the few free parking places. After walking around a bit in the city and having a coffee, we decided to throw our actual plans for the next few days overboard. Since the weather was supposed to become more unstable, we wanted to take advantage of the beautiful days for hiking. So, we impulsively drove on to Wanaka.

The next morning, we headed up to Roys Peak. Probably one of the most famous hikes in all of New Zealand. Many do the hike at sunrise to experience this at the summit. However, we decided to start in the morning when the early risers were already back at their vehicles. This turned out to be the right decision for us. When we arrived at the parking lot, it was already quite full. Luckily, we managed to find a spot.

The hike itself was incredibly beautiful. We had perfect hiking weather, and the view of Lake Wanaka and the surrounding mountains all the way to Mount Aspiring National Park is amazing. The path goes steeply uphill and is quite strenuous, but not overly demanding since it is always gravelled. We had the hike under the best weather conditions and cloudless visibility. Simply stunning.

For the night, we found a spot away from the tourist crowds at Hawea Lake Freedom Camp. Here, we actually spent the night with just 4 other campers.

After driving back to Wanaka the next morning, we visited a market there where many local stalls offered their goods. Besides furniture and clothing, there was also a lot of art, jewelry, and trinkets. In the end, we only found something to eat. Franzi got nachos with guacamole, and Julian had a burger with pork belly and fries.

We also walked around the beautiful downtown area of Wanaka by the lake and treated ourselves to another coffee. Afterwards, we continued on toward Cromwell.

We spent Sunday quite leisurely in the van with a short walk. Such a quiet day is also nice after we had already done a lot of walking and experienced so much this week. To round it off, we treated ourselves to pizza.

Little side note at the end: With summer here, there are also more annoying sandflies. These little flies bite quite hard and painfully. Currently, we both have quite a few bites. They itch at least as much as mosquito bites, sometimes even more. We hope it doesn’t get much worse in the coming weeks and that we won’t have to spray ourselves even more. With airing and leaving doors open, it also becomes more difficult. Let’s see how this develops.