Week 26: New Zealand

Kia ora!

We have now landed in beautiful New Zealand! I am quickly realizing how challenging it will be to put into words how stunning the landscape is here, and the photos certainly do not do it justice, but I will do my best!

We have known many people who have travelled here and absolutely loved it, including both of our best friends. We’ve been itching to get here ever since travelling to Australia 10 years ago, so we are thrilled to finally be here. As soon as we started looking at photos and places to see, we knew there would be too much to see in this one trip. So, we’re just making choices as we go along, based on weather and top priorities for the day, knowing we will likely return for more.

After landing in Auckland and checking into our hostel downtown, we went to a pub close by to meet up with Josie and Jord, a couple we met back in Cameron Highlands, Malaysia. We caught them just before their flight out of the country, and had a great time hearing about their six weeks travelling through NZ.

Our next day was spent exploring Queen Street and downtown Auckland, and searching for a campervan. Since we are here in high season, we had a tough time finding a suitable vehicle because a number of companies had theirs all booked out. We had originally wanted a self-contained van, but decided on a converted minivan in the end, and have been really happy with that choice. Archimedes, or Archie, has been great to drive in, cook from, and sleep in. Archie is decked right out- there’s lots of room for our gear and food, and then there’s a board that can be moved around to transform the back into a bed that is really comfortable. There’s an awning that can be put over the side door for cooking, and another that can be put over the back of the van to extend the bed out that way. There’s even a fridge, which has made meal planning pretty easy. We’ve loved being able to cook again! Picnic lunches have also never been easier, with the ability to pull over and make lunch wherever we want. The rental company also threw in a table and chairs for sitting outside, which have got lots of use each evening!

I would be lying if I didn’t say we experienced a few bumps at the beginning of the week. Even before the difficulty of finding a campervan, we had a few other unexpected surprises. It started at the airport in Cambodia, where we were told we had to have an exit flight booked before getting on the plane to NZ. This left us hurriedly booking a flight while people were boarding the plane. After many hours of flying, a twelve hour layover in Kuala Lumpur, and a short layover in Gold Coast, Will still hadn’t slept when we arrived in Auckland. He pushed through, and managed to get rested up fairly quickly. What a trooper! We then experienced difficulty getting money out of our bank that is associated with a bank in NZ, so we spent over an hour on hold without ever speaking with anyone to try to resolve the issue. Later on in the week, we found out that the ferry between the North and South Islands needs to be booked in advance and because we hadn’t done so, we had to go across later than we had wanted to, and pay more for a ticket across. I think these little issues seemed bigger because, after travelling through Africa and SE Asia, we expected NZ to be a total piece of cake. However, there hasn’t been any major issues, so we are very thankful for that!

We have spent a lot of time on the road this week, and we have had some gorgeous drives. Sometimes we drive through rolling green hills and sometimes we drive right along the coastline. We have compared the landscape to Ireland, California, and some parts of BC (Creston, Okanagan valley, and Vancouver Island). It seems that they have taken the best of these places and crammed it all into one little country! After nearly six months without driving, aside from the occasional scooter rental, we’ve loved getting back to a good ol’ road trip. Will has adjusted very well to driving on the other side of the road here, aside from the attempted directional signals that actualize as full power windshield wipers. While preparing to jump in our campervan, Will took a NZ drivers test online. Amongst the questions about many signs we had never seen before, there was this gem:

When a flock of sheep is coming towards you on a country road, what should you do?

a) keep driving steadily and sound your horn, the sheep will part

b) slow down and prepare to stop and wait for the farmer to tell you what to do

c) turn your hazard lights on and continue slowly

In case you were unsure, or were guessing a) or c) like we did, b) is the correct answer. Oh, New Zealand.

On our first day in the van, we headed north from Auckland, stopping in Parua Bay and then heading up through Paihia to 90 Mile Beach. It was raining off and on all day, but we managed to enjoy a picnic lunch at 90 Mile Beach. We walked along the sand and watched people drive in vehicles along the sandy shore and people surf in the waves. Since the weather wasn’t looking great up there, we decided against driving further up to Cape Reinga and headed back down instead.

This is where we have really experienced the beauty of not having a set plan before hand. While the North Island was having a storm, we decided to just leave and come back at the end of the trip. We took a couple days to drive down to Wellington and head over to the South Island on the ferry. The ferry ride was totally epic. I had thought that the 3.5 hour ride might give me some time to write this post, but it was impossible to tear myself away from the views from the ferry. Within the first hour, I saw a whale right in front of the boat! As we neared Picton, we sailed right through tall hills on either side and could see mountains in the distance.

Our first stop on the South Island was just outside of Nelson. We spent a good chunk of the day in Nelson, where we hiked up to the Center of New Zealand and then enjoyed drinks at The Free House, which is an old church that has been converted into a trendy brewhouse.

We’ve been using an amazing free app called CamperMate to find our campsites, and have even benefitted from a few of their free campsites already! We have really lucked out with lovely, clean campsites in beautiful locations- we’ve been parked overlooking the water numerous times already. We have also met a lot of really friendly locals and interesting travellers to talk to, which has been a bonus for sure.

Our Top 10 list of things NZ has a LOT of:

• Sheep
• Hills (some are covered in green grass, some have large patches of trees, and many are very dry right now)
• Roundabouts
• Towns starting with “w” and ending with “i”
• Cute little towns
• Windy roads (we’re still getting used to how much time the windy roads add to the day’s drive, and I’m limited on how many times I can look down while we drive)
• Single lane bridges
• Purple flowers along the highway (I’ve been informed that these are actually noxious weeds, but they are still quite beautiful)
• Campervans (we pass SO many everyday)
• Stars (the sky is just filled with twinkling lights!)

They also have a lot of really cool bugs and birds, including a bird with a call that sounds just like a robot! We have had some mosquitos and sandflies but are very glad they don’t make this Top 10 list… yet. We’ve been given ample warning and have seen the evidence on other people, so we know they are coming.

The most amazing thing Canada really needs to adopt from NZ: lollybowls

Oh, and for those who are interested, we did not end up saying goodbye to Ed Sheeran’s Shape of You. No, no. It played within hours of landing in New Zealand. Things are smelling a lot more fresh though, and we can understand almost everything that is said to us. Since I love this accent so much, I really don’t mind asking people to repeat what they’ve said. Plus, we seem to have replaced the morning roosters with the sound of waves, which is just about the best thing I can think of to wake up to. 

Act of Kindness: When we met up with Josie and Jord in Auckland, they were kind enough to give us their NZ guidebooks. They also left us a “late Christmas present” at our hostel, which was a big box of food and supplies for us to start our trip with. Thanks guys!