New Zealand! It's a dream country for nature enthusiasts, adventure seekers, a romantic holiday, backpackers and more. Its a country that has something to offer to everyone. In short, its a total package!
Someone has rightly said, New Zealand has more number of sheep than people! And coming from world's one of the most populous countries, i surely found New Zealand beautifully empty! During our stay of 10 days and at our relaxed pace, we covered 4 places in NZ. I'll provide a brief about all the places one by one.
Auckland
Though, Wellington is the capital city, Auckland is the most populous one. To describe Auckland in 3 words: busy, bustling and beautiful. Its the most commercialised city of the country. You can see people dressed in their blacks, grabbing breakfast on the way and rushing to offices.
Our first stop in the country, we reached Auckland after a tiringly long flight. As we had a short one night stay, we planned our arrival in morning so that we have an entire day to ourselves. We stayed at Auckland City Oaks Hotel at Hobson street. This is a good area to stay as you are near the cruise liners, Queens Street, Sky tower, various night clubs and many good eating places.
After spending first half of the day freshening up and feeding ourselves, we hit the Queens street. Its the busiest street of the city where you'll see people from all walks of life and of all ethinicities. You can simply spend your time walking, immersing yourself in the local flavours. You can also do some good shopping at local outlets.
In the evening, there is a beautiful dinner cruise service at the Harbour front which you need to pre-book, as it gets filled up fast. We instead went clubbing as we did not make cruise reservations. And trust me, we didn't regret. Queens Street has so many good night clubs to choose from. You can do club hopping and then settle-in in the one you like. I am intentionally not listing the ones we went to as i want you to have fun exploring. So that was about our stay in Auckland. The following morning we flew to Queenstown.
Queenstown
Day 1: The moment we stepped out of the plane, we were surrounded by breathtakingly beautiful snow capped peaks, colorful scenic flight copters flying and buzzing like butterflies and cool, breezy air. We were awestruck! And we giggled with happiness like kids!
We had rented a car from Go Rentals, and they delivered the keys at the airport. From here on, our trip became a self drive trip and we loved every bit of it. So we loaded our baggage and left for our hotel. We stayed at Central Ridge Boutique Hotel (www.centralridge.co.nz). As we went from airport to our hotel, we drove along Lake Wakatipu for sometime (around which QT is located) and absorbed the picturesque landscape of this small town. It was mid day by the time we went out sight seeing and exploring this place. As you move towards the centre of the town, you will find numerous tourist help kiosks that provide all the touristy information about things to do in and around Queenstown. After exploring our options, we decided to take up the gondola ride,
bungy jumping and para sailing. For all the adventure seekers out there, Bungy Jumping in QT is a must as its the best and the safest in the world! For a split second, you may feel that you gonna die, but you will survive! We ended our day with a nice dinner by the fireplace, at a local restaurant.
Auckland
Though, Wellington is the capital city, Auckland is the most populous one. To describe Auckland in 3 words: busy, bustling and beautiful. Its the most commercialised city of the country. You can see people dressed in their blacks, grabbing breakfast on the way and rushing to offices.
Our first stop in the country, we reached Auckland after a tiringly long flight. As we had a short one night stay, we planned our arrival in morning so that we have an entire day to ourselves. We stayed at Auckland City Oaks Hotel at Hobson street. This is a good area to stay as you are near the cruise liners, Queens Street, Sky tower, various night clubs and many good eating places.
After spending first half of the day freshening up and feeding ourselves, we hit the Queens street. Its the busiest street of the city where you'll see people from all walks of life and of all ethinicities. You can simply spend your time walking, immersing yourself in the local flavours. You can also do some good shopping at local outlets.
In the evening, there is a beautiful dinner cruise service at the Harbour front which you need to pre-book, as it gets filled up fast. We instead went clubbing as we did not make cruise reservations. And trust me, we didn't regret. Queens Street has so many good night clubs to choose from. You can do club hopping and then settle-in in the one you like. I am intentionally not listing the ones we went to as i want you to have fun exploring. So that was about our stay in Auckland. The following morning we flew to Queenstown.
Queenstown
Day 1: The moment we stepped out of the plane, we were surrounded by breathtakingly beautiful snow capped peaks, colorful scenic flight copters flying and buzzing like butterflies and cool, breezy air. We were awestruck! And we giggled with happiness like kids!
We had rented a car from Go Rentals, and they delivered the keys at the airport. From here on, our trip became a self drive trip and we loved every bit of it. So we loaded our baggage and left for our hotel. We stayed at Central Ridge Boutique Hotel (www.centralridge.co.nz). As we went from airport to our hotel, we drove along Lake Wakatipu for sometime (around which QT is located) and absorbed the picturesque landscape of this small town. It was mid day by the time we went out sight seeing and exploring this place. As you move towards the centre of the town, you will find numerous tourist help kiosks that provide all the touristy information about things to do in and around Queenstown. After exploring our options, we decided to take up the gondola ride,
bungy jumping and para sailing. For all the adventure seekers out there, Bungy Jumping in QT is a must as its the best and the safest in the world! For a split second, you may feel that you gonna die, but you will survive! We ended our day with a nice dinner by the fireplace, at a local restaurant.
That's how i jumped 😀
Day 2: From the information we gathered at tourist help kiosk, we decided to take up the Shotover Jet ride. The camp site is located a few kilometres away from Queenstown, so you have to take the Gorge Road and drive till Arthurs Point. The ride is done at Shotover river and you'll be provided with the cover alls. You can gather more information at www.shotoverjet.com. You will love the 360 degree spins and will get washed away with all the swirling. After the ride, we went for a drive up in the mountains and went uptill the Coronet peak, which is the skiing area. One is amazed to see the beauty if this magical land. You are crossing grasslands with sheep grazing in the fenced farms at one moment and snowy mountains with hairpin bends at the other. There.is certain tranquility that flows around this place that will reach out to your heart. On our way back, we took a little diversion to visit a small village called Arrowtown. Though it was only 7 in the evening, the village had already gone to sleep, with only few eat houses and pubs glowing in the dark. We took a stroll on the empty streets and thought about the calmness that a slow and subtle life brings to life. With all the quietness, small gardens and shops and cute street lamp posts, it felt like a fairy tale village. We dined at a small irish bar and restaurant and drove back to Queenstown.
Coronet Peak: showing the base camp for skiing.
Day 3: Post breakfast, we left for Milford Sound. They say that the journey is always more enjoyable than the destination. But Milford Sound is an exception. The 295 km road drive from Queenstown to Milford sound goes through Fiordland National Park; which offers spellbounding and never seen before views of snow capped mountains, waterfalls, beautiful fauna and passage through Homer Tunnel after which you descend down to Milford Sound. Its the only fiord in New Zealand that's accessible by road. Rudyard Kipling described it as the 8th wonder of the world. Here, we took a 2 hour cruise that took us from the head of the fiord to the mouth of Tasman Sea. As it was winters, the air here was strong and chilly. The water in the fiord was absolutely still, guarded by steep mountains on both sides. Being one of the wettest areas of the world, there are numerous waterfalls that grace the beauty if this fiord. No amount of adjectives can describe how magical this experience was. We spotted a bunch of bottlenose dolphins diving playfully with the cruise liner and a couple of seals lazying around on a big rock. As we travelled through the narrow water body, suddenly it opened into the vast expanse of Tasman Sea. It was breathtaking. We just looked quietly in amazement and absorbed this experience. We drove back to Queenstown and the return drive was memorable in its own right. There was very little traffic movement and the car's headlights were the only lights. We surely had a day of a our life.
Milford Sound: showing the narrow fiord guarded by steep mountains on both sides.
Franz Josef Glacier
Day 5: Our stay in Queenstown comes to an end and we leave for Franz Josef Glacier. It was a 6 hrs long beautiful drive with a small stoppage at Wanaka Town. We stopped by Lake Wanaka and enjoyed basking in the sun for some time. At our relaxed pace, we reached Franz Josef Glacier town by evening and stayed at an eco-resort called The Rainforest Retreat. After a long drive, we decided to stay indoors and dined at the inhouse club.
Lake Wanaka: enroute Franz Josef Glacier
Day 6: We bought tickets for a guided ice walk on the Franz Josef glacier. And since there was a lot of time to begin the walk, to fill in the time we decided to explore the town. During this we found out that a quad biking excurtion through the rainforest is also available . So we went ahead to do that. It came as a surprise package to us as we had not planned for it. But it was totally worth it. Driving a quad bike was a different experience all together. Though it is a four wheeler but has an engine and steering of a bike. We discovered that these are super powerful vehicles and can make way through any kind of terrain, hence known as All Terrain Vehicles. We drove through marshy rainforest and a rugged river bed and got a chance to see the ferns from a close up.
After this, We boarded the bus for glacier walk that took us to the walking point. It was a 20 minute walk before we reached the terminal end of the glacier. We were a group of some 20 people lead by a British guide. This was my first glacier walk ever and man...was it exhausting! We went up till the top and the breathtaking view of frozen rivers and lush rainforests made up for all the hardwork.
The rest of the day we spent roaming around in the town and buying souvenirs.
Franz Josef Glacier: A little foggy though, it shows the terminal mouth of glacier. This is where
we began ice walking.
Hanmer Springs
Day 7: We left for Hanmer springs, which was again a long drive from Franz Josef Glacier. With our 2-3 stoppages on the middle of road picnic spots, we took nearly 7 hrs to reach this small village, famous for its naturally occuring geothermal springs. We got pretty late when we reached our place of stay; Settlers Hotel, and were wondering if they had cancelled our booking. But it was really nice welcome us at a late hour and showing us around.
Day 8: Hanmer springs is a very small and beautiful village with a population size of not more than 500. We walked around the entire village and had a nice scrumptious breakfast at Mumbles cafe. The only regret we had was we had to miss our geothermal spa as we were were running behing schedule and had a flight to catch in Christchurch. So we left for Christchurch, handed over the car at Go rentels and boarded an evening flight for Auckland. We reached Auckland late in the night and checked into the same hotel as before.
Auckland
Day 9: This day was reserved for shopping so we spent the entire day at Queens street buying interesting things to take back home. At night we went to one of the clubs at Queens and to our delight it played some Indian superhits! It almost felt like a farewell.
Day 10: We boarded the flight to home. And we were happy and sad at the same time. Happy; ofcourse because we had such a great trip and we loved New Zealand to the bits and sad; because it was over.
New Zealand is a place where i can go time and again and be at peace with my heart and soul. It was by far the best vacation i ever had!
