Adventure South Island 🏔

I haven't written in a long time and a lot has happened. During my time working in Blenheim, I met amazing people who became like family to me, so saying goodbye was really difficult.

But I still had the South Island to explore - so on Wednesday, March 15th, my big journey began. In Nelson, I met two Germans, Fabian and Yasmine, and we traveled together from there. On Friday and Saturday, we did a one-day kayak tour through Abel Tasman National Park, which had some initial difficulties but we ended up seeing seals. We spent the night at a campsite and the next day we hiked through the national park for several hours, enjoying beautiful weather and the park's natural beauty.

On Saturday evening, we continued further north to a small sweet town called Takaka. On Sunday, we spent the day at the beach, but this time in long pants and a sweater ⛄️ Two more German girls, Leonie and Jule, joined us in the evening. On Monday morning, Leonie and Yasmine went for a horse trek on the beach while the rest of us enjoyed some ice cream. At the beach, there was also a small natural pool where baby seals were playing. When Leonie and Yasmine finished, we drove up to Farewell Spit and spent a beautiful afternoon there.

On Tuesday, we drove down to Nelson Lakes and the next day we visited the Pancake Rocks, which are rock formations that resemble pancakes. After that, we stopped at Hokitika Gorge, a turquoise part of the Hokitika River.

On Thursday, we visited Franz Josef Glacier, which was both impressive and a bit sad because due to global warming, the glacier will supposedly disappear in 4-5 years, which is hard to imagine considering its size. At the glacier, we met a group of 4 German guys and we all drove to a campsite right on the beach together and had a very fun and beautiful evening. The place was stunning and during the sunset, we sat with a great mountain panorama in the background and watched two dolphins playing in the water. The next day, we visited the Blue Pools, a part of a river with ice-cold water that flows directly from the mountain.

On Saturday, we hiked up Roys Peak in Wanaka and let me tell you - it was very exhausting, but definitely worth it for the view. When we reached the top, we treated ourselves to a beer during sunset and then walked back down in the dark.

On Monday, we arrived at Milford Sound and did a small hike to pass the time until the boat tour the next day. During the boat tour, we saw dolphins and froze a bit ❄️ (as you can tell, it's getting colder here)

On Wednesday, we drove to the cute little town of Queenstown and had the famous Fergburger - a good decision. We went out dancing in the evening because the next day we unfortunately had to say goodbye to Jule and the group of guys. They say you should always leave when it's the most beautiful.

The four of us remaining spent the weekend partying, enjoying the sun, and buying souvenirs. On Monday, we did a little hike to get to the Gondola Skyline and see Queenstown from above again. On Tuesday, we had to take Leonie to the airport and then headed to Catlins Forest Park. On Wednesday, we explored everything there, including several waterfalls, a bay where you can swim with dolphins (if there were any), and a lighthouse. After that, we drove up to Dunedin and yesterday we explored the city, which is home to the steepest street in the world.

This morning, we said goodbye to Fabian as he has found a job. So now we are traveling with just the two of us, but we have already seen most of the South Island. Autumn is slowly making its presence known here, so I'm really looking forward to Australia in 3 weeks ☀️