Rain, Rock, and Ice

New Zealand – Wanaka Lake

Our main goal this week was to hit the west coast of the South Island. We made our way from Waitomo on the North Island to Queenstown on the South Island (skipping Wellington for now, but plan to hit it on our way back north in a week or two). For the first time in New Zealand, we encounter serious rain… like pouring all day. It pretty much started raining a few hours after we arrived on the South Island and kept on raining the whole week. We did have a few lucky breaks with blue sky – the best of which was perfectly timed for our Heli-Hike on Franz Josef Glacier.

Yes, New Zealand Really is THAT Beautiful!

New Zealand – The Bay of Islands

Wow, New Zealand is gorgeous. Every curve in the road brings another beautiful view. We have spent the majority of this week driving around the north end of the North Island of New Zealand. It is shockingly beautiful with it’s jagged coastline, green hills, white sheep, kauri forests, more green hills, and glowing worms. We have completely worn ourselves out trying to see and do everything this tiny section of this tiny country has to offer.

Ahh, it’s such a relief to once again be speaking English and driving on the left… wait, not that second one. Our first week in New Zealand brought about a whole new set of travel challenges that we had yet to face. The first challenge is probably the most obvious – driving on the left. After some nervous few days and constant reminders from the passenger to stay left, we’ve gotten pretty comfortable. The second challenge was trying to pronounce the names of towns. Some are easy, but giggle-inducing, like Whatawhata. While others left us tongue tied, like Paihia, Ngaruawahia, and Whangarei (pronounced Fang-a-ray?!). The third challenge is moving nearly every night. Through South America we got used to staying in one place for at least three nights and getting to know the area a bit. But since we have a camper van, it makes sense to move most nights.

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