This blog post is the second last post on our journey. We’ve decided to short the last three weeks into two posts. The internet on the campsite works mostly very slow because they are very crowded at the moment.

The last ten days were very excited. We experimented many different and engaging activities. New Zealand is a variety and has a climate which allowed us to do more things outdoors than in Australia. We hiked through an incredible coast path as well as we tasted some delicious white wine at Queenstown (the Mekka for all kinds of adventure activities).

Route

Day 67: Wellington – Momorangi (Beautiful Campground at the Beach)

Day 68: Momorangi – Motueka

Day 69: Stay in Motueka (great hiking trip in most beautiful national park of New Zealand)

Day 70: Motueka – Punakaiki (free camping park space)

Day 71: Punakaiki – Franz Joseph

Day 72: Franz Joseph – Fox Glacier

Day 73: Fox Glacier – Campsite Albert Town (Wanaka)

Day 74: Campsite Albert Town – Queenstown

Day 75: Stay in Queenstown (Interlaken of New Zealand)

Day 76: Queenstown – Te Anau

special recommendations

Hiking in the Alban Tasman National Park

Hiking in New Zealand is much more comfortable as in Australia. The moderate climate and the safety environment (no snakes or spiders) are the most crucial factors in my point of view. Days before, we’ve met a friend who gave us some sportive tips for the southern island. She was travelling for the last weeks in this region with her bike.

During the check-in, the lady behind the desk asked for special wishes or activities for the next day. I liked this friendly service, and I already heard of a sea taxi which transports consumers to some good starting points for the great hiking trips. Of those reasons I asked for more information and promised her to come back later in the evening. I discussed the hiking trip with Maggi and then we booked the arrangement “Sand & Seals” which included two water taxi trips along the fabulous coastline and an approximately four-hour hiking trip.

We were picked up by a special shuttle bus from the campground at eight o’clock. The journey with the water taxi started at the “basecamp” by entering the watertaxi which was loaded on a tractor trailer. This big vehicle reached the shallow water slowly until the vessel began to drive in the water autonomically. The boat was quite speedy (maximum speed 40 kilometres). We came across with a special rock (split apple rock) and of course with some cute seals (almost like our cat murri).

The explanations of our guide were very amusing. An example:

“The split apple rock is called split apple rock because it looks like a split apple  – and it is a rock.”

The hiking (or more walking path) was an easygoing, mostly flat, stodgy (a lot of swiss and german tourists) but a very fantastic track. We took a lot of pleasure of it.

Lake Matheson at Dawn

The Lake Matheson is a very small lake, perhaps it’s more like a pond. Nevertheless, this lake is one of the most photographed subjects and is used by New Zealand’s tourist industry since 1940. The most beauty for us photographers is the good proportion of foreground (forest and some lake grasses) middle ground (lake with the mirror of the Southern Alps) and the background (with the high mountains including the Fox glacier and the highest peak Mount Cock).

We got up at five o’clock in the morning and reached the aiming spot at 6.15 together with a small group of Asian people with also quite expensive equipment. Unfortunately, some clouds have built up in the mountains. The sun came up, but it was hidden behind the clouds. The spent almost an hour on this spot and took some very nice pictures (also the mirrors of the bright clouds or the upgoing moon were spectacular), but I was a bit impatient at the end. Maggi could proof that. 🙂

After the “work” we rounded the lake and ate some delicious breakfast at the lake restaurant just around our parking space.

Speed Boat Experience

I think it was five or six weeks ago, I saw a translated documentary of my favorite media outlet (SRF) about New Zealand. Translated means it was originally swiss german and was turned into German because the TV station ARD bought this production.

Anyhow, in this docu, they told about speed boating and the adventure tourism in general, and I got in touch with this activity. I knew, this is something I want to try it.

We booked a ticket with an instant reply which means that we were allowed to do the speed trip twice. This trip was high-priced, and the reply was very reasonable compared with the first trip. We were driven to the starting station by a very comfortable bus. After a short briefing (no standing in the boat, no handshakes with the cliffs) the boat started to speed up the river up and down (up to 85 kilometers per hour). Sometimes our guide did some 360 turns. It was a fantastic experience, and we were both lucky to have the chance to have this adventure a second time.

Schwiizerdütschi Zämefassig