South Island of New Zealand

Kia Ora dear family and friends,

that's how the Maori greet each other in New Zealand. Exciting and adventurous weeks in New Zealand are now behind us. At the end of the last blog, we had just spent our last day on the North Island in Wellington and took the ferry to Picton on the South Island.

Once there, we continued driving towards the campsite and set up our tent there near the beach in stormy weather. After the first night, we had two realizations: 1. The tent is really storm-proof, even though the storm regularly pushes the tent into our faces, 2. The air mattress of Louis and me slowly turned into a mattress or sleeping pad, as the air kept going out. Slowly but surely!😂

On the second day, we drove further south along the West Coast and visited the city of Nelson. It is a small town with a beautiful shopping street. Here, we first bought a new air mattress and then booked the program for the next few days at the tourist information office. We headed to the Abel Tasman National Park. In this national park, there are no roads, only hiking trails. So, after another night in the tent, it was early morning: pack up the tent, drive to the starting point, pack the tent and sleeping bags into backpacks, as well as food (in 99% of the cases it was noodles with a ready-made sauce) and the camping stove... so everyone had a lot of weight in their backpacks when we got into a boat that was still on a trailer and was pulled into the sea by a tractor. In the meantime, we used the last bit of mobile network to stay up to date with the current status of the HSV soccer game. With a 2-0 lead, we entered the absolute network hole and the most beautiful nature.

On the way to our stop, Onetahuti, the highly motivated captain initially showed us the rock that is most popular after Ayers Rock. Quote from him: "I don't understand why people photograph trees, but rocks are the coolest things in the world. Take photos and tell everyone how great it is here, so that the rock surpasses Ayers Rock in the rankings!" Well, for us it was simply a rock that was split in the middle. Period.

Afterwards, we continued to a stop where we could see several seals with their offspring. It was nice to see and the guide told us that they can actually live here safely and find plenty of food. Right after that, however, he also mentioned that a killer whale was seen in the area a week ago, which in my opinion limits this safety a bit...

Then we were dropped off and the 16 km hike began. With warm temperatures, we went uphill and downhill. After four hours, during which we saw many beautiful bays, we arrived at Totaranui Bay and set up our tent there. The "campsite," which was more like a small hole in the forest, was located at a bay and only had a toilet populated by mosquitoes, without a shower or anything similar. It was completely incomprehensible that it was the most expensive campsite of the entire time in New Zealand! At 5 p.m., we fired up our gas grill and had noodles. You don't always think of everything, and so we quickly realized that we hadn't replaced the gas cartridge in a long time. But unexpectedly, the remaining gas was enough to cook the portion of noodles. However, the attempt to boil water afterwards failed miserably because we had no gas left.

To make it clear how exhausting the day was: at 6:30 p.m., I was lying in the tent on the new air mattress, and Louis and Jonas were already asleep next to me. I struggled to stay awake until 7 p.m., and while falling asleep, we were accompanied by incredibly loud crickets.

The next morning, we quickly packed up the tent and started hiking through the now dry bay due to low tide. After another 14 km, we finally reached the car. In summary, we had continuously beautiful landscapes around us on the 30 km hike, and we also had enough muscle soreness for the next few days. 💪

We continued inland and to the next campground, which was besieged by our new enemies: the sandflies! Sandflies are small nasty little creatures, similar to mosquitoes, that like to bite you. Unfortunately, you only notice the bite once they have injected all the venom. It has been three weeks since the bites, and they still itch. In total, I had 30 bites on my legs. Louis, who initially laughed at Jonas and me and said that we shouldn't make a big deal out of it, only realized five days later that his blood was just as popular among the sandflies. Simply annoying animals!

We continued to the West Coast, where several glaciers are located and you have great views of the sea. First, we made a stop at the Pancake Rocks. They are called that because they look like many stacked pancakes.

After the stop, we continued to Greymouth, the largest city on the West Coast with an impressive 10,000 inhabitants. We spent two nights in this village, even though there's nothing much to do here. To our delight, there was a bar nearby that was streaming the Super Bowl, so we watched the world's biggest sports event comfortably at 1 p.m. It's much more pleasant than watching it at 1 a.m.! After a few beers during the game, we went to the beach in the evening with the goal of catching fish for dinner, but this attempt also failed in bad, stormy conditions.

The next day, we continued to Hokitika Gorge, which should actually be a turquoise blue river that serves as a beautiful photo motif, and is made even more attractive by a suspension bridge. Unfortunately, it had already rained a lot in the past few days, so the actually beautiful river had turned into a brown, flooded river and was not as attractive anymore.

Disappointed, we returned to the car, looking forward to our next destination, the glaciers. After a 2.5 hour drive, we arrived at Franz Josef Glacier in pouring rain. After a short wait for it to dry up, we started hiking on the trail to the glacier. After 300 meters, the sky opened and it poured heavily. After unsuccessfully taking shelter under a bush for 5 minutes and getting completely soaked, we decided to retreat. We raced back the 300 meters, and I finished third among us. After careful consideration and taking the terrible weather forecast into account, we decided not to sleep at the glaciers, but to continue south to Haast. Once there, we set up the tent on wet grass during a brief moment of dryness, and in the kitchen, we once again cooked excellent noodles, while the rain started again. That night, the tent proved not only to be storm-proof but also to be excellent against rain! It was top-class, only the cold resistance gradually deteriorated, as the temperatures at night dropped below 10 degrees.

In the morning, we continued to the so-called Blue Pools, which, similar to Hokitika Gorge, should be a visual delight. But the rain also turned them into a brown soup... Normally, you can see every trout clearly here, but for us, it looked more like cocoa, but see for yourself the comparison between the desired and actual state:

After the disappointment, we continued to Lake Wanaka, which happens to be located near the town of Wanaka.😅 On the way there, we passed by beautiful landscapes. These views were truly unique!

In Wanaka, we stayed at a campground for one night and explored the small town. The next day, we separated for the first time: Jonas and Louis went on another hike, and I played my first and only round of golf in New Zealand at the Wanaka Golf Club. With great conditions and stunning views, the "average" result was of secondary importance.

Then we continued to Queenstown, the backpacker capital of New Zealand. Due to our clever planning, all hostels were fully booked, so we stayed the night at a campground just outside the city. The next day, we strolled through Queenstown and ate a huge burger at Fergburger, the most famous burger joint in New Zealand.

Afterwards, I showed the two of them who's the boss in mini golf before we continued to Mount Cook, or rather to the campground near Mount Cook. Mount Cook is the highest mountain in New Zealand at 3724 meters, and the next day we hiked a 8 km long trail to it. It was truly a great sight!

Then we returned to the campground, where the coldest night of our stay in New Zealand awaited us. Early in the morning, at around 5 a.m., Louis left the tent and sought warmth in the car, while Jonas and I were still shivering in the tent. However, half an hour later, we made the decision to quickly dismantle the tent and test the quality of the car heater. We have never dismantled the tent so quickly before, and fortunately, the car heater showed that it was powerful. It was such a cold night!!

Then we continued to Dunedin, the second-largest city on the South Island of New Zealand after Christchurch. Here, we finally spent a warm night in a hostel and explored the city center. The next day, we went to the place for which Dunedin is known and has been awarded: the Baldwin Street, the steepest street in the world! As I learned while writing this blog post on Wikipedia, the street has a maximum gradient of 35%. Wow! Okay, I can understand if you're not completely blown away by reading these lines, sadly, it is even mentioned on Wikipedia that it is now only the second steepest street in the world, which actually makes it a bit less spectacular. Nevertheless, we walked up the street once and, like many other tourists, took photos of it, here is the result:

After this life-changing experience, we continued to a campground halfway between Dunedin and Christchurch. Here, we once again tried to catch fish, and in the interest of the sustainability of the fish population, we didn't catch any of the surely existing fish on our hooks.

After two nights near the beach, we continued north and just before Christchurch, we stopped at a campground, and the next day we sold our tent including all the accessories. This campground was located right next to a small stream where we not only bathed but also saw many trout. Unfortunately, fishing is not allowed in these streams, so once again, we had noodles for dinner.

Arriving in Christchurch, we stayed at a hostel for two nights. Christchurch is the largest city on the South Island and unfortunately, it was almost completely destroyed by a strong earthquake in 2011. Many places still have dilapidated buildings, as there is not enough money to renovate everything. The city's church is still destroyed.

The next morning, at 4 a.m., Louis drove me to the airport, and it was time to say goodbye! A few hours later, Jonas and Louis flew to Melbourne, and from there, one day later, back to Hamburg. Guys, thank you very much for the last amazing months together! We celebrated Christmas together, experienced the best New Year's Eve fireworks ever, and explored New Zealand. What an awesome time! See you soon!My conclusion about New Zealand is clear: Simply a fantastic and beautiful country! While in many countries, you have to drive to see landscapes, in New Zealand, you can simply look around at any point and see nothing but impressive landscapes! Definitely worth a trip.After a calm flight to Brisbane, I spent three more days there without any special experiences.

Then I flew on to Cairns, where I have been for 5 days now. But more about that in the next blog!

Greetings to the homeland,Yours, Max