We both had been waiting for this moment for a very long time. My dad actually reminded me recently that New Zealand had been an obsession of mine since I was around 10 years old, when I watched a documentary about it in a theater in France.

It’s probably the furthest place to reach from any part of the planet, getting there isn’t specially cheap, public transportation is almost non existent and bad weather conditions can make it an extremely rough place. But it is still 150% worth going. No doubts about it.

After some debate, we decided to focus solely on the South Island, where most places we were interested in are located. If we had more time though we would’ve made it to north for sure.

Christchurch, one of the biggest cities in the country, is a very special place. Still recovering from a massive earthquake suffered a few years back, the city is clearly divided by pockets but fairly easy to navigate. We really enjoyed strolling around some of the parks and free museums. Also had a lot of fun experiencing its heavily-asian-influenced food scene and checking out several coffee shops—coffee lovers will definitely go nuts in this town. One of the top moments though was the Sunday Farmer’s Market in Riccarton. It definitely felt we were back to California: Patagonia vests, tapered shirts, bennies and cutes dogs all around, the place is full of little stands with delicious organic foods and treats—here we discovered Posh Porridge, a locally acclaimed home-made porridge that it is still the best we’ve ever tried. And oh man, the coffee was so good too…

 

After picking up our camper van and exploring some of the beaches and towns nearby we kicked off our road trip slowly making our way to the west. Arthur’s Pass would be the first mountain pass we encountered along with some nasty rain before reaching the coastal town of Hokitika. No wonder why the West Coast of the South Island is nicknamed “The Wet Coast” due to the insane amount of rainfall this region receives per year. This certainly limited our hiking aspirations in the area but we still could enjoy some of its amazingly green, lush trails and powerful waterfalls.

 

Before leaving the western side of the island we went to Franz Joseph Glacier and had the chance to witness one of those rare natural wonders of our planet: a glacier living next to a rainforest. Snow and lush jungle very rarely cohabit side by side. This really blew our minds.

 

Both scenery and weather conditions dramatically changed once we crossed into to the central region of Otago. The sun came back out and it actually wouldn’t leave us for the rest of the trip. We arrived to Wanaka, a small but well located mountain town, home to skiers, hikers and downhill bikers alike. The town sits right on the shore of Lake Wanaka which delighted us with some stunning views. We spent a few great days there; did some great hikes, sipped local beer and coffee, and even made it to the movies to watch the documentary “Mountain”.

 

One the highlights of those days in Wanaka was definitely hiking Rob Royce Glacier.

 

Stopping by Hotel Cardrona on the way to Queenstown was spot on—recommendations from good friends are always the best travel tips!

 

One of the wonders we had been looking forward to seeing in this trip was the astonishing fjords in Milford Sound. Getting to Fiordland involved a very long drive from Queenstown. Spending endless hours on the road is something we’ve mastered in on this trip, I believe. This time though we didn’t mind the driving time at all because it was truly stunning. Milford Sound is one of those bucket list places that totally exceeds one’s expectations. Enjoying sunrise or sunset in there is like immersing yourself into a fairly tale—that fantastic and remote world you’ve dream of at some point in your life. As usual, pictures do not make any justice to our experience.

 

After spending a couple of days in Milford Sound we went back to Otago region, spent a few more days in Wanaka (we did really love this town!) and slowly headed northbound through Twizel where we couldn’t resist the tempation of stopping by a local salmon farm an indulge some fresh sashimi.

 

Our next stop would be Mount Cook village. Mount Cook -or Aoraki, which means ‘cloud piercer’ to the Maori- is the highest mountain in New Zealand, the icon of the country and a true emblem in the alpine world. We camped a few miles from the base, which provided some spectacular views of its peak and the surrounding mountain range—the views from the other side of Lake Pukaki were also killer!

 

We did a couple of hikes around the area that rewarded us with some speechless moments, like when we got to the viewpoint of Tasman Glacier. We’d never seen such vivid turquoise colored waters on a lake. Tasman used to be a full form glacier hundreds of years ago, a huge piece of ice coming down from the mountains, which ended up melting and turning into a lake due to the raise of earth’s temperature.

 

One of the things we had to do before leaving this spectacular country was taking a dip to one of its freezing water lakes. So on our way back, just outside Mount Cook area, we took a quick dip in Lake Tekapo. It was a very sunny and warm day but the water was still freezing cold.