Not satisfied after our 3 weeks living out of a van, we decided to spend the next 3 weeks living out of the next best thing – a tent! We found a really good deal on a minivan if we agreed to drive it up to the North Island. It came with cooking equipment, a table, and chairs, so we figured it wouldn’t be that different from having our campervan other than setting up a tent each night. Boy were we wrong! That self-contained sticker on our campervan made way more difference than we realized. We couldn’t stay at free campsites anymore, and the ones we now had to pay for typically had way less/worse facilities. It made no sense! We ended up doing about half camping half hostel/hotel rooms. Still had a wonderful time, but we’re now even more convinced that campervans are the way to go in NZ.

The West Coast

After picking up our new van in Christchurch, we headed straight across the island to the west coast. We stopped a couple nights on the way to view Hanmer Springs (resort town with thermal pools) and hiked a bit around Lewis Pass. We finally reached the coast in the town of Greymouth, where we happened upon a motorcycle race going on in the middle of the city. We watched for a few minutes outside of blocked off area (it was $25 per person to get inside – this must have been a big event for this town) and then promptly carried on. Our next stop was in Punakaiki, home to the famous Pancake Rocks. They are a natural phenomenon that geologists still don’t understand, which is partially why they are such an attraction. They also are surrounded by large blowholes if you time it right with the tides. More than anything it made us crave pancakes, which the little tourist cafe was very prepared for and offered to satisfy that craving for a very steep price. Very tempting but we resisted.

We spent a couple nights camping at a holiday park in Carters Beach, just outside of Westport. We experienced some of the most intense rain of our trip while we were there, which we hear is pretty typical of the area. Luckily we were about the only guests staying at the park and therefore had the TV room, kitchen, and bathrooms to ourselves and actually spent very little time in our tent.

Once the weather forecast showed a bit of a break in the rain, we made our way north to the main event of our west coast adventure, the Heaphy Track. This is one of NZ’s “Great Walks” and we were so excited to finally have the chance to complete one. Unfortunately, the very large Heaphy bridge was washed out to sea during a particularly bad storm over the winter, so the track itself was closed past that point (unless you were willing to pay for a helicopter transfer at $350pp, not quite in the budget). So instead we did the first 10 miles up to the Heaphy Hut, which we hear is the best part of the entire track anyway. And it truly was spectacular – a jungley coastline the whole time, not too much elevation but just enough, and it ended at the mouth of the Heaphy River. It was definitely a highlight of our trip! By the time we hiked back the next day we had done 20 miles in 24 hours and were ready for a good nights sleep, but still way less mileage than if we had been able to do the entire track! Someday.

• Camping Highlight – On our way to the west coast we stayed at a campsite in the little town of Ahaura, which said it had a full kitchen which we assumed meant an oven. We had a long day so bought a frozen pizza to make, only to discover they only had a wood-fired stove. It ended up not being the quick and easy meal we were planning on, but very funny and definitely the fanciest way a frozen pizza has ever been prepared.
• Food Highlight – A delicacy on the west coast is whitebait. They are tiny little fish and are typically prepared in a sort of pancake/omelette. We weren’t overly impressed, but it was unique!
• Animal Highlight – A weka looks like a NZ version of a chicken, but very very annoying. They steal pretty much anything they can find from campsites, and even jumped in our car when we weren’t looking. We also learned their bird call is super loud when we were woken up during the night. We actually thought they were kiwi birds (which we still have yet to see) so we got up during the night to search for them. Once we realized they were wekas, it was no longer exciting and just annoying 🙂

Nelson

For Halloween we could think of no better place to be than the hop capital of NZ, Nelson. Well-known for all of its breweries, and where almost all the hops are grown in NZ, we thought it would be an easy place to find what we were after – pumpkin beer. Jokes on us however, because not only does NZ barely celebrate Halloween, they also don’t subscribe to the pumpkin-flavored mayhem that we do back in the states. Preposterous! We have eaten so much fresh pumpkin in our time here, yet when wandering the aisles of grocery stores I could not find a single pumpkin flavored item. Thanks to some intense googling, we finally found a brewery that sold an “American as Pumpkin Pie Ale”. AKA it wasn’t even a seasonal beer, just an American themed beer. We weren’t going to turn it down though! We bought two and thoroughly enjoyed them while watching a spooky movie on Halloween night, while most everyone else in the country ignored the holiday.

Nelson itself is a very nice town. We stayed in a lovely Airbnb with a view of the water and very kind hosts. The main attraction in the area is Nelson Lakes National Park, where we did a lakeside hike to a waterfall on one of our few sunny days in the area. Notably, there was a 5.3 magnitude earthquake with the epicenter almost exactly where we were standing right when we got there. That’s a pretty big quake even by NZ standards, and we had absolutely no idea it happened until we got back to our place and our hosts asked us about it. Based on the timestamps on our pictures, we would have been standing on the dock at the lake while it was happening. What an almost exciting story!

• Food Highlight – I’ve been making coffee at home rather than buying it, but I gave in one day and had the best dirty chai tea latte I’ve ever had at Blink Coffee Bar. I still think about it.

Wellington

Since we had to return our rental car on the north island, we caught the ferry in Picton on the top of the south island and took it to Wellington, the bottom of the north island. The ferry ride was about 5 hours, and known for being pretty rough on bad weather days. Luckily we had a beautiful day, and the views were gorgeous (the views we saw at least, we both fell into a bit of a Dramamine coma because we weren’t taking any chances).

That first night we camped at a campground a bit outside of the city where we learned what Wellington is known for – wind! We woke up several times during the night because of how hard our tent was shaking from the wind, it was honestly impressive. The next day we looked it up and yes indeed, Wellington holds the title for windiest city in the world. After spending a few days there we definitely wouldn’t dispute that fact.

Wellington is known for being the location most Lord of the Rings scenes were filmed (other than Hobbiton), and we did see a few references while exploring Mount Victoria park. We then spent a while walking around the famous Cuba Street, named after an early settler ship not the country, which has delicious food, thrift stores, and bars. The Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa was also a highlight, with free entry to a huge variety of exhibits where we learned a lot about NZ agriculture, Maori culture, wildlife, and war history. And we also rode the very popular cable car, which you catch downtown and ride to the top of a hill in the botanical gardens, and then you walk your way back down through the city. We had a very enjoyable and wind-swept time!

• Camping Highlight – We got to our first campsite in Wellington at 8:01pm only to learn that they close the gates at 8pm. We begrudgingly came to terms with having to park outside the gate and walk the 2 miles to the campsite in the dark, when these wonderful humans happened to be leaving the park and we were able to sneak in the gate after them. Good reminder to actually read about a campsite before booking it 🙂
• Food Highlight – While walking on Cuba street we found a tiny unassuming stand that sold falafel wraps, and it is probably the best thing we’ve eaten in NZ so far. John wasn’t planning on getting one but after a bite decided he needed his own. They’re not even listed on Google Maps, but I found their Instagram and they’re called Cafe Laz Kebab Kiosk, and we’ve told like 6 people we’ve met on their way to Wellington about it since. We’re sending them all the business we can!
• Animal Highlight – On our drive north of Wellington we stayed at someone’s home that had a giant dog named Bob, who we unsurprisingly loved. Also notable is that our host’s name was also John Davis, but he is Maori so he goes by Hone. But we all enjoyed pretending they were twins.

Coromandel Peninsula

For our final stop before giving our van back, we headed up to the Coromandel Peninsula on the northeast point of the island. Our main destination was a hike up to the Pinnacles, a rocky peak with beautiful sunrise and sunset views. The day we planned to hike was pretty rainy so we fashioned some rain covers for our backpacks out of trash bags and made our way up in the rain. The trail itself was really pretty, but by far my least favorite that we’ve done. It was originally a horse trail, so the steps were way too steep for a normal human and it was very painful on the knees (geez we’re feeling old). We finally made it to the Pinnacles hut – the biggest hut in all of NZ with 80 beds, showers, bathrooms, and a kitchen – but we just set up our tent near it in the campground. It was too stormy for a good sunset, so we resolved to getting up very early the next morning and hoping for a good sunrise. We got up at 4:30am to start the hike to the Pinnacles lookout which is about an hour past the hut, with our little camp stove and coffee in tow so we could make some at the top. This part of the trail was actually really cool, it had human-sized stairs, but most of it was actually metal rungs up rocks so you were essentially rock climbing. We were the first ones at the top, but by the time sunrise came around there were probably 10 other campers up there with us. It was a pretty cloudy morning so not the most amazing sunrise we’ve ever seen, but worth it for the experience!

The next day we drove around the peninsula, in search of beautiful views and hopefully beautiful weather. We found one of the two, but who needs sunshine! Since there wasn’t much we could do outside, we ended up at this tiny winery in hopes of doing some wine tasting. To our surprise, the little winery we found seemed not to serve wine at all but instead specialized in liqueurs and cider. The man running the place was the founder and insisted we try every single one, so we ended up staying there for nearly two hours and discussing everything from NZ politics to Smithsonian conspiracy theories (it took a turn). We enjoyed the tastings as much as he seemed to enjoy the company, and we bought a couple bottles to take to our future holiday gatherings!

• Food Highlight – We tried a Feijoa fruit at the winery. Apparently they grow all over the country in peoples backyards but most people don’t like them.

These extra three weeks really gave us a chance to see more of New Zealand and explore parts of the north island more than we planned. We aren’t quite done with the country yet though.. there’s always more to see!

Christine