Fiji

Bula! We were in Fiji for two weeks. In the rain season. We had booked accommodation in Nadi (Wailoaloa beach) and thought that was going to be our base. At Tropic of Capricorn. Originally we booked at Bamboo backpackers, but were sent to their sister hostel. The first day we didn`t do much. But the next day we walked to what we THOUGHT was Nadi, but we later understood it was not even close. Completely in the wrong direction. We went to the travel desk in the reception and looked at things to do. And we decided to go island hopping. Five different islands in 9 nights. We got our money back for the nights we payed for, but were not staying.

As little research as we had done we thought we were going to have Tropic of Capricorn as our base. Its at the Wailoaloa beach, not that far away from Nadi. But we understood that it was a BAD idea. So we quickly abandoned that plan and booked island hopping instead. The lady at the travel desk laughed when we told her we had booked FOURTEEN nights. Hehe, #cluelessgirls.

After coming back from island hopping we spent three nights at Tropic of Capricorn. Visiting the Hindi Temple, The Sleeping Giant and Mud Pools. As well as a full day at Robinson Crusoe Island. So we saw in total 6 island + mainland Viti Levu (Fijis biggest island) 🙂

Wellington and couchsurfing

In Wellington we stayed two nights, we decided to stay one extra night so we could see a little more of the city as we had not seen anything the last time we were there. We had the best stay with a couchsurfing host. He picked us up and and drove us to a look-out that’s really popular. Then we walked around the city, saw the harbour and Cuba street. Ate a good burger.

Mount Victoria lookout – the famous look-out!

The next day we went to a museum, Te Paka, it was so nice of him to show us around even though he had been there many times before. We were also with another person using couchsurfing that hung out with us that day. Our couchsurfing host was so passionate about his city, it was really inspiring, and we had a fantastic stay with him. People like him make couchsurfing such a great experience. Really hit the jackpot on hosts with him!

He also drove us around on the outskirts of town and showed us beautiful places! We finished the day with fish and chips by the beach. It was perfect! The next day he made us breakfast (yasss lucky girls) before he drove us to the bus, which left at 8 a.m. And he had the day off, so nice! We had such a great time in Wellington, with an amazing host.

Wine tasting and ferry from Picton to Wellington

After leaving Nelson we were going to Picton to take the ferry back to Wellington. On they way we stop in a small town known for green-lipped mussels (they call it the green lipped mussel capital of the world) where they had THE BEST pie! Mussels pie. It was so good, want to go back just to buy the pie. Havelock is the name of the coastal town which is in the Marlborough region.

We also stopped by a winery (the place is called Whitehaven), and the bus driver asked us if we were up for some wine tasting for 5 NZD. I think everyone was game. Never too early for wine 😉

On the ferry to Wellington.

Last time we were on this ferry it was a storm brewing, so it was raining the entire time, so we sat inside and couldn’t see a thing out the windows because of the weather. But this time it was sunny (doesn’t look like it in the picture, but it was actually boiling hot when it was taken) and we sat on deck the entire trip. The scenery was beautiful and we are really happy we got to experience it. We were told it was one of the most beautiful ferry-rides in the world. After a while it started getting windy, but we just got our jackets on and it was fine.

Nelson

We stayed one night in Nelson after Christchurch. Really nice city! Much bigger than I thought. A lot of shops and cozy streets. If we had more time we could stay longer here. Perfect to sit outside in one of the restaurants/cafes and just enjoy life!

We bought some fish and chips and walked to the beach to eat. Best chips ever! They were soaked in oil, so not very healthy. But YOLO, haha! When we walked back from the beach, which was a much longer walk than we thought, we were stopped by someone controlling traffic. He told us we could not walk there (even though we walked there on our way to the beach) and we had to walk around up a hill etc. Which sounded like a big detour. And he didn’t say it in a nice way either, he was really grumpy and sour. But we couldn’t do anything, so we tried to hitchhike back to The Customhouse (where we were staying). Our first time trying hitchhiking in NZ. Walking a detour were not very appealing to us. We were really thirsty and had no water. It didn’t take long until a car stopped and gave us a ride. Lucky that there is so many nice people! 🙂

Christchurch

When we were in Christchurch we found a place on couchsurfing to stay. A guy who grew his own vegetables and fruit. His garden was amazing. Really inspiring. His walls were decorated with pictures and words which his surfers had made from him, it was really cool. When we were there, we also stayed with three other surfers from CS.

We walked a little around in Christchurch, but it was not that much to see. A lot of people moved from the city after the earthquake and the city is still in a rebuilding process. But they have botanical garden that looked really nice.

Almost all the food comes from his garden, amazing? (Not avocado and corn). We all had dinner together which was really nice. Tasted so good!

 

Lake Tekapo

After leaving Queenstown we stayed one night by Lake Tekapo. Stopped by this little church where a lot of Japanese people come to get married. So many that a lot of times, the locals can’t come here. We were exhausted from going out and getting little sleep (we left Queenstown at 8 in the morning) so we slept most of the bus ride, and also slept when we came to the hostel. Then showered after waking up in the evening and even managed to fall asleep after that. That’s how much sleep we needed.

The lake has a really turquoise color. 

Look at the birds!

Lake Tekapo is known for stargazing as part of UNESCO Dark Sky Reserve. So if you like stargazing this is a good place to do it!

Queenstown

We spent three nights in Queenstown. One day we were in Milford Sound, the other whole day we had there we were just walking around. Our plan was to walk up Ben Lomond, but we decided we rather wanted to go out and party, haha. Priorities. It will have to be next time!

Trying on All Blacks caps in an All Blacks store! We both bought one, as the big fans we are. Haha, but we thought the caps were really cool!

Queenstown is the typical tourist town! But we loved it. It’s surrounded by mountains, and it has a lake. It’s very cozy, so many restaurants and cafes. You can sit outside in a park and have a beer. I know, not like many other places where you can’t drink in public. After ten o’clock at night, your not allowed to drink in parks though.

They call it the adventure capital of the world. You can do Bungy, swing, skydiving etc. Lots to do here! It’s bustling with tourists so your never alone, and can party everyday of the week!

Milford Sound

The day after arriving in Queenstown we went to Milford Sound! We had several stops along the way, so we could take photos 🙂 We were driving through Fiordland National Park which is beautiful. Surrounded by mountains. The bus drive from Queenstown is pretty long, but when your surrounded by beautiful landscape it doesn’t matter.

Just filled our waterbottles with water from the river! Tap water in NZ tastes like a pool, but this water was good. When I sent my parents pictures from Milford and Fiordland National Park they were like: “It looks like Norway”. Haha, it does look a little like Norway.

Generally we’re not that good at taking pictures. But we are improving, we want some memories from our trips.

When we finally

Milford Sound – happy girls!

When on the boat in Milford Sound it was really windy. So windy that our ear hurt. But we refused to step inside and stood on deck the entire time. Felt like this was once in a lifetime experience, so better make the most of it 🙂

Why you should visit Arrowtown

After leaving Wanaka we made a short visit in Arrowtown. Since we were two buses checking in in Queenstown, our bus were going to be later so as to make less traffic. So our bus stopped in Arrowtown. It is a small, cozy and beautiful town between Wanaka and Queenstown. Actually, we got talking to one lady that owned a shop in Queenstown and she recommended us to visit Arrowtown if we had the opportunity. So happy that we got to visit the place. We love small, cozy places like this. We even talked about coming back one day and staying for a few nights. The town is a historic gold mining town. It has kept many of its historic buildings and its very charming here.

Cute?

We often feel like big, new, modern cities are very.. modern. Impersonal. They all look alike. That’s why we like this town, it has its charm! Unfortunately we only had 30 minutes here, so we just had time for a stroll down the street and to buy a pie. But they have several cozy cafes, cute shops. We visited on a bright and sunny day, perfect for eating outside. They also have a museum here. So if your ever in Queenstown or Wanaka (which if your visiting NZ is very likely) stop by Arrowtown!

Wanaka: Roy’s peak

Wanaka is so amazing! It’s like walking into a painting. THAT beautiful! One of the most beautiful places! It makes me want to go see the Alps (in Europe). The town and lake is surrounded by mountains. Kiwi Experience originally just stop one night here, but we extended our stay so we stayed two nights. BEST decision! The first day we walked Mount Iron, that is just a short walk up a “mountain”. Can’t really call it a mountain, but yeah, since the town is already above sealevel, apparently Mount Iron is high enough the be called a mountain. But, we recommend walking up there if you only have one day. It’s beautiful, you get a view of the city.

But we decided to walk up Roy’s Peak. Originally we wanted to walk up Isthmus Peak, but since we never heard back from the shuttle company going there, we had to choose another place. We found Roy’s Peak, and thought okay, this sounds okay for us. So we called yellow cabs and walked up there. It took us approximately 3 hours to walk up. It was hard! But so worth the view!

On top of Mount Roy!

It’s even more beautiful in real life! The weather was amazing when we walked up. Really, really recommend staying here longer than one night! Walking up here was amazing, this place is so beautiful your in awe. On our way down, we thought we had a lot of time. But we stood in this queue from one hour. At the top we took pictures and ate lunch. So after the queue here, which was NOT at the top, but further down the path. We had one hour to get down before the taxi arrived. But it took longer time to walk down than we thought. Suddenly we only had 20 minutes left and we were still far far up. So we started running a little when it was not so slippery. And at precise four o’clock (maybe even a minute before) I see the yellow cab coming. So I run the rest of the way down. Scared that the taxi will drive away. The taxi didn’t drive away, we made it 🙂