Me and my cousin have dreamt about going to New Zealand, and as soon as I told her I can have the time off, it was finally becoming a reality. She lives over in Brisbane along with my Aunty and Uncle so it’d be rude not to spend some time over there to yanno…
This was my first long haul flight on my own and so after being dropped off at Manchester, I was solo from then until Brisbane. Of-course security took forever but I still managed to get a pint in before finding the gate (has to be done!). Settled in on the airplane, had a stop at Dubai, this was the part I was worrying about ever since my mum had gone to Australia with a stop over in Dubai and she didn’t realise it was a silent airport and nearly missed her flight. I got the second plane okay though and next stop was Brisbane.
After a few days of chilling out and seeing family it was finally time to head off to New Zealand. The flight from Brisbane to Queenstown was honestly unreal, we literally couldn’t believe our eyes, the views were stunning. When we touched down we went headed to the bus stop and headed for Queenstown. We rocked up to the hostle got changed and headed out to the town to take in the incredible views. One thing you 100% have to get when you are in Queentown is a burger from Ferguson (just trust me)!! After food we went for some drinks at the roof top bar, met some crazy locals and after a few drinks me and Abigail got up and the DJ finally had some people dancing to his set.
One thing to note is that we had 10 days in New Zealand and only actually booked the one hostle and the hire car, the rest we were winging and hoping for the best. So on day 2, with surprisingly no hangover we planned out our next destination and looked for hostles. This way of travelling isn’t for everyone but we loved it, we had a hit list of different places we knew we wanted to go and see, but it also allowed us to get tips from local people on where to go as we weren’t tied down to specific places, also New Zealand has that many travellers that there is always some where to book last minuet – or atleast we had no trouble doing so.
With that in mind the next stop was Te Anau, the drive there was insane, the mountains and Lakes really gave you perspective of just how small we are. It took us a couple hours to get there, mainly because we kept stopping and taking photos. When we did get to the area we stopped at a few different locations, we hit up a beach front of the lake, looking out to the water you’d see these rock formations that big they may as well be island (looked like King Kong’s play ground!). It started getting dark so we went into the town and found that there was only two restaurants, one which was actually open passed 8pm, a super market and one massive state of the art rugby field (which explains a lot!). The next morning we headed out to the other side of Lake Te Anau, to a place called Dock Bay, we walked through the forest until we came to a water front, we were the only people there and again you just had to take in the scenes, unreal!!! Before leaving the next day we had booked a trip to Milford Sounds – we would 100% recommend doing this, the coach will have the proper equipment needed for the roads there, if there is a storm and you need to get recused and are found to not have the correct chains etc. you will get massively fined. We made it to Milford Sounds in one piece and although it was damp we sat outside on the boat and took it all in, waterfalls absolutely hammering down, snow capped mountains and even saw dolphins and seals… Milford Sounds can’t be justified in only a few sentences, it is one thing you will have to see for yourself to really understand.
We made it back from the trip and it was time to head to Glenorchy. Only one thing, it had started snowing, which when it started was really cute and we pulled over to get some pics, with Abigail having lived in Australia for years this was the first time in ages she even seen snow. However not even 10 minutes after getting into the car, we were literally driving in a snow storm and could barely see 10 meters in front of us. For a few miles we had the car tracks to follow but with heavy snow dump they soon disappeared, then there was a couple cars to follow but even they turned off eventually. At one point I remember looking out my window, me and Abigail in silence, and at the edge of the road there being a massive drop down to one of the biggest lakes in South island. Luckily we still had signal so I was on maps telling Abigail when turns were coming up. Once we hit Queenstown the snow disappeared and we could finally unclench.
When we arrived at the hostel in Glenorcy, we were so happy to of made it we sank a few beers and headed to bed. The next morning we went for a few walks getting breakfast at the only cafe in the town. Later on we went back to our hostel which was also the only pub, restaurant and bottlo… after a couple pints, writing post cards to home and dinner, we played pool with a couple of locals and drank even more with them.
Back to Queenstown for the last couple days, and we took full advantage, we took the gondolas up to the top of the local mountain where people were hang gliding – we wanted to get involved but the day we booked it there was crazy winds and it got cancelled. However, this was Queenstown and so there was plenty to do. We even headed over to Arrowtown which isn’t far at all, that town is like a step back in time, they also have a walk through self guided tour to show you some of the history and what some of the Chinese workers went through.
Honestly New Zealand was next level and there was so much more to see but its safe to say that we covered a lot in the 10 days we had. Luckily for me getting on the plane to leave Queenstown didn’t mean back to reality just yet, I still had a week in Australia before that was the case, and I am extremely aware how long this post has been so Pt.3 will inbound soon.
