New Zealand / Aotearoa

After our most exhausting flight so far, we arrived in Auckland and our first impression was wet.... It rained at least once a day on the North Island, often continuously.

After our mobile home in Canada, we took it a bit more cozy here.

Little did we know at that time, when it rains, the camper feels even smaller. 😅

We surprisingly quickly got used to driving on the left side of the road, we just often cleaned the windows instead of using the blinkers. Our first stop took us to the impressive Tane Mahuta, the 'King of the Forest', the world's oldest living Kauri tree. It is estimated to be 2000 years old.

When we reached Hobbiton, the clouds cleared and we suddenly had great weather! Even though a lot of tourists visit Hobbiton every day, the tour is absolutely worth it. The guides manage to ensure that everyone gets beautiful photos without other people and there is enough time to enjoy this amazing film set. The drink at the Green Dragon completes the experience. 🍺

To make the most of the short rain-free time, we took a walk and Bekki promptly made new friends.

In Rotorua, armed with rain jackets, we visited the colorful thermal pools and geysers, quite impressive but you never really get used to the smell of rotten eggs...

To warm up, hot pools are just the right thing, most campsites in this region even offer private pools (heated by the local thermal springs)!

And if it keeps raining, you can watch a farm show and feed little lambs.

Another highlight of the North Island are the Glowworm Caves in Waitomo. Although they are not actually flying glow worms as we know them, but rather the larvae of the fungus gnat. The luminescence attracts prey, which then gets caught in the sticky threads of the larvae.

To explore the caves off the beaten tourist path, we took a tour with Kiwi Cave Rafting. In a group of only 6 people, we had to abseil 25m into the cave, experienced the cave in the dark with black water rafting, and on the way back we could admire many species of animals that only exist in these cave systems. To top it off, we had to climb up the 25m again, so the hot shower was well deserved!

To explore the New Zealand rainforest, the region around Mount Taranaki is perfect. After several small hikes, we wanted to tackle something bigger.

The left peak (Fathoms Peak, almost 2000m high) can be reached by a day tour, unfortunately we had to turn around at 1800m after 4km of stairs and 1km of scree because the visibility got worse. We still had sore muscles though. 😁

After 10 days full of adventures and lots of rain, we said goodbye to the North Island to get to know the sunny South Island. The North Island taught us: if you want to drive New Zealand's roads, be prepared to have a lot of time on your hands... 😉

Hardly were we on the ferry to the South Island...

...bright sunshine! (At this point, it should be mentioned that we had nothing but sunshine for the next 3 weeks ☀️) Thanks to Bekki, who always gets seasick, we 'had' to spend the entire journey on deck (the campervans were the last to board the ferry, all the window seats below deck were taken and even though the ferry was as big as a cruise ship... Bekki got sick), but from there we already spotted dolphins on the way.

By lucky chance, we found a salmon farm where you could catch your own salmon. The catch was then professionally filleted and smoked according to taste. In the meantime, you could admire the accompanying animals.

The chicest chicken in the world!

In the beautiful Golden Bay and Abel Tasman National Park, we could have easily spent 3 weeks, but time was running out so we had a tight schedule. We managed the 30km Abel Tasman National Park circuit with over 1000 meters of altitude in 8 hours, with enough breaks to observe the (very smelly) seals!

You can smell them long before you see them! 😅

Afterwards, our road trip along the West Coast took us south.

A short stop at the Pancake Rocks...

...eventually led us to Franz Josef Glacier (always these German explorers...). After a sweaty climb and 4 long suspension bridges, we were rewarded with a breathtaking view of the glacier.

Unfortunately, it can be seen here again how much these glaciers are suffering from the consequences of climate change...

There are many photos of New Zealand showing a flowering tree in the water, so we wanted to find out what '#thatwanakatree' is all about, so we continued to Wanaka. When we arrived there, we found:

But even more! The area and the lake are beautiful and invite you to linger.

Our route to the famous Milford Sound took us through Queenstown. Queenstown is one of the most popular tourist destinations and therefore overcrowded. Nevertheless, we couldn't resist tasting New Zealand wines at 'The Winery', accompanied by a delicious cheese plate.

The great thing about New Zealand is that just 5 minutes outside the urban areas you can enjoy nature undisturbed again.

One thing we have learned to love about New Zealand are the beautiful, often remote freedom camping sites.

From there you can start great hikes to glaciers!

No wonder the glaciers are melting with these temperatures. 😅

A visit to fluffy alpacas, lambs, and donkeys is a must on any trip!

Throughout the South Island, you often find huge fields of beautifully blooming flowers in all colors, especially thousands of lupines!

One particularly impressive picture appeared early in the morning on the way to Milford Sound.

On the way back, we spotted one of the rare kea parrots. Keas are very intelligent, but they also like to dismantle entire cars. This fellow was quite interested in us!

Along the coast, you often find signs indicating penguins. Every time we stopped and asked locals when and where is the best time and place to watch penguins, they either said they had never seen any or had only seen them very rarely.

In the end, we didn't give up our search and took a tour to a little blue penguin colony in Dunedin. This smallest penguin in the world is also the cutest, the adults are only about 20cm tall and still look almost like babies. ❤️ An unforgettable experience to see about 300 penguins swimming into the bay and running (more like waddling) to their nests!

Since Micha can never get enough of mountaineering, but was sick and out of commission, we could only do the 'Hooker Valley Track' in Aoraki/Mount Cook National Park. But the glacier lake at the end of the trail was definitely worth it!

The glacier here is covered with several meters of scree.

Observing wildlife has become one of our favorite activities on the world trip. After seeing the penguins up close, we thought it couldn't get any better... far from it! Kaikoura is the secret capital for observing marine mammals.

To fulfill Bekki's little lifelong dream, we booked a tour to observe dolphins and swim with them. Bekki in particular was super excited and could hardly sleep, because even though dolphins are curious and sociable, you never know... after all, they are wild animals.

No matter how you imagine what it is like to swim with dolphins, it is even better. Our expectations were exceeded in every respect! On this day, about 300 dusky dolphins were off the coast and they were in the mood to play! It is an incredible experience when these wild animals swim up to you centimeters away, make eye contact, and want to encourage you to swim in circles with them! Of course, in the end, they always show you that they are the better swimmers, but if you entertain them well, they stay with you for minutes!

Unfortunately, this blog only allows pictures, for videos check out Instagram (seid_ihr_schon_neidisch) and Facebook (Michael Lo).

After swimming, we spent our last days in the camper on a campground right on the beach. The main activities consisted of sunbathing and eating and processing the impressions of the past weeks.

Yes, that was the view from our camper. 😁 The sea is just as blue as in the Maldives! Just colder. 😳

We are currently in Christchurch, the city was largely destroyed by a devastating earthquake in 2011 and much of it is still under reconstruction, so just one photo of the monument to the earthquake victims.

Tomorrow we will continue to Sydney. We are curious if we will feel the Christmas spirit. So far, the Christmas decorations seem completely out of place in the summer.

Best regards, Bekki & Micha