Shilpa and I are just back from our honeymoon in New Zealand. We had planned the entire trip ourselves, thanks to friends who gave the tips and list of do’s and don’t’s.
The last 15 days spent in New Zealand would probably be the most memorable days of our lives. This was the time when we lived our life to the fullest. Every moment, we will cherish forever. This is the reason that I felt like sharing some of these moments with you.
So, what was so special about this trip? How many times does it happen that you are completely awestruck by Mother Nature for 15 days in a row?
Key Places Visited: Auckland, Bay of Islands, Queenstown, Milford Sound, Fox Glacier, Greymouth, Christchurch
Things we saw: Lakes, rivers, seas, oceans, glaciers, mountains, valleys, canyons, rainforests, beaches, harbors, museums, wildlife park, vineyard, cheese factory, casino
Things we did: Skydiving, Para-sailing, Jet Skiing, Speed Boating, Gondola, Luge, Glacier trek, Kayaking, Wine tasting, cheese tasting, gambling
Modes of Transport we used: Flight, Ship, Train, Bus, Car
Day 1: Arrived in Auckland
We arrived late in Auckland, though, thankfully, our flight reached on time. We stayed at the Copthorne hotel which is right on the harbor and the view from our room was amazing. After a long flight (Delhi-KL-Auckland ~ 17 hrs), we relaxed and ensured a good night’s sleep as we knew it was a long journey ahead.
Day 2: Auckland Tour
Auckland is the largest city in New Zealand. I think the best way to explore a completely new and big city is to just take a full day hop on hop off bus. They have a fixed number of stops within the city; cover most of the tourist attractions and run with a decent frequency so that you can get down at any place, spend some time and get back on the next bus at that stop. Our first stop was an aquarium where the special attraction was penguins. Since penguins need very low temperatures, they had created a nice big enough habitat for them containing snow all around and ice cold water. We did see octopus, star fish, sea horse, sharks and lots of crabs as well and there was a crab feeding show too. Our next stop was the museum where we went through New Zealand history, arts and the culture of their native Maori people. The highlight of the museum was a Maori culture show which was a 30 minute stage show depicting some aspects of the life of Maori people. It was evening by then and we were back to the hotel room and after having a plate of hot magi and subway, we were ready for a round of gambling at the casino. We tried our hand at Roulette, Poker and Slot machines and as expected, we ended up losing some money but got our feet out of the door before losing more. That was the end of a long day 2.
Day 3: Bay of Islands
The plan was to hire a car from one of the rental car companies and drive from Auckland to Bay of Islands (about 4 hr drive). However, we hadn’t booked anything and getting one turned out to be not so easy. I checked out Avis and Hertz near the hotel and they didn’t have anything available at the moment. Hertz provided the option of picking the car from another of their offices which was about 10-12 km away but I was so desperate for the car that I took a bus to get there, in an unknown locality, managed to locate their office and got the car. It was a Toyota Camry (almost new) and I was a bit apprehensive whether I would be able to drive it in a new country and that too, a long drive. However, as I started it, the only thing I noticed was the difference between this and my Hyundai i10 and it felt awesome. Now, Shilpa was really worried in true Bollywood style when I was away for more than 2 hours. We quickly stuffed our luggage in the car and headed to Bay of Islands. Here’s when we started exploring the North Island. So, New Zealand is basically composed of 2 main islands – North Island and South Island and each of them has a distinctive flavor of natural beauty. The scenery on the way was extremely beautiful, calm and peaceful, very similar to the one in the city of Shire in the movie LOTR. LOTR is shot in New Zealand and it seems in the movie that they probably created sets for the shooting, but the true scenery is exactly the same. (The location of Shire was actually near a town called Matamata which was not too far from that place) The feeling we got is that we are lost in a fairy tale as the picturesque beauty looks so much like the pictures in kids’ story books. Not to mention, the roads are extremely good as well. Enjoying this view on the way, we reached Bay of Islands in the evening and headed straight to the beach. Bay of Islands looks stunningly beautiful when viewed from the top (when we saw the images on Internet) as there are many small islands in the sea. We decided to do parasailing as we did not want to miss that view. I was too scared as it was the first time I was doing it but Shilpa calmed my nerves. However, when we reached the top, it was the other way round and Shilpa was too scared with the height (it was really high, apparently New Zealand’s highest parasailing) and the possibility of falling off and this time, I was the one calming her down. We enjoyed every bit of it though. Then we spent some time walking around in the town, came back to our motel, had dinner, watched Amol Palekar’s Golmaal on the laptop and that was the end of day 3.
Day 4: North Island Tour
There wasn’t much left to do in Bay of Islands and as it started raining in the night, the sand on the beach was all wet. So, we decided to just drive around in the rain and explore North Island. We headed to the 90 mile beach, which is towards the extreme north of North Island. Yes, 90 mile beach sounds unending; the beach is actually 55 miles long and though it’s a misnomer, it’s still pretty long. From that beach, we got a magnificent view of the Pacific Ocean while it was still raining. On the way, we saw a huge golf course surrounded by forests and mountains. The drive to 90 mile beach was extremely scenic with most of the part being in a very dense rainforest. Even during daytime, the dense forest looked so daunting that had there been a breakdown in the car, we might have totally freaked out. We took a different and a little longer route to return to Auckland just to explore more. Now, this part is very interesting - on the way, there is a very wide river and there is no road to get to the other side of the river. Hence, they run hourly ferries where they load all the vehicles on the ferry on one end of the river and drop them on the other end. By the time we returned Auckland, it was late as we got stuck in a 20 km long traffic jam which ended up eating 2 hours. After clocking about 700 km in 2 days, we returned the car, were extremely tired but quite excited as well as the best was yet to come – Queenstown.
Day 5: Queenstown
Having seen the beauty of North Island (and people say, South Island is more beautiful), I kept wondering what’s in store. When we arrived in Queenstown (which is in South Island) through a morning flight from Auckland, I was completely taken aback by the beauty of Queenstown and South Island. The right analogy probably would be if North Island is India, South Island is Europe. April is the month of Autumn in New Zealand and there are ample maple trees in Queenstown, it was Yash Chopra’s Mohabbatein all around! Our hotel was among the best in Queenstown with the best possible view from the room one could get there. A tranquil lake (Wakatipu) with blue waters surrounded by mountains! We did nothing and simply relaxed in front of the lake the whole day.
Day 6: Sky Diving
Here came the D-day. While I am afraid of the roller coaster rides in amusement parks, here was the big challenge – Sky Diving! At the last moment, I decided to go for it. They took us to a remote place outside the town, provided all the necessary equipment and stuff and got us on to the aircraft. We also got our photos and DVD for the sky dive. While I was scared to death as the aircraft scaled heights, the DVD guy kept asking me to smile in front of the camera! This wasn’t enough, he also told me to look at the camera and smile during the free fall for a good video! Finally, the aircraft door opened, I looked down and that was the moment! That’s when I remembered all the Gods; cursed myself – what is the need to jump from 9000 ft. It’s as if – why do people climb Mt. Everest, why do people run marathons, why do I need to do sky diving? Few seconds and I was in a free fall (at don’t know what temperature -20 or -30 or -40 degrees Celsius). While falling off at 200 kph, I thought that even if the parachute ditched us, it would be a painless death from this height and hence, let’s enjoy the dive! The free fall lasted for 20 seconds (during which, I managed a little bit to pose for the video) and in another 1-2 minutes, we landed on the ground. Absolutely no words to describe the feeling of jumping from the sky!
Day 7: Jet ride through the canyons, Gondola and Luge
After sky diving, everything looked possible. We decided to do some more adventure activities which were quite popular there. Queenstown is the hub of adventure sports and it looked like the Adventure Capital of the World! The town is very small and one can walk the entire town on foot. All you see there is adventure sports’ shops, tourist information centers, few restaurants and shopping stores. Name an adventure sport and you get it in Queenstown. The jet ride through the canyons is quite unique though because it needs a natural surrounding – canyon. The canyon was quite narrow (less than 25-30 feet) with twists and turns and the jet boat was running at a speed of 80 kph in the river with some 360 degree spins (supposedly for more adrenaline rush). After sky diving, it wasn’t scary but a lot of fun. The jet boat driver hints few seconds before he makes the spin and the spins had such a velocity that if one did not hold on to the boat tight enough, he could have been thrown in the canyon. The scenery in the surrounding area with mountainous roads and bridges was pretty good as well. Then, we took the gondola which took us to the top of a mountain offering breath-taking views of Queenstown and lake Wakatipu. We did the luge at the hill top; a luge is similar to go-carting with the difference being that luge got acceleration through gravity as you drive it down the hill. So, it has only a brake and a handle and it is very mechanical with no electric motors and stuff. Good fun!
Day 8: Milford Sound
The Milford Sound cruise would probably be one of the most memorable things in my life. Milford Sound is considered to be the most famous tourist attraction of New Zealand. It’s nothing really – just a steep mountain rising from the sea! We booked a rental car (Toyota Corolla this time) in the morning and headed to Milford Sound which is about 300 km from Queenstown. On the way, we stopped at Te Anau where the Fiordland National Park starts. The drive from Te Anau to Milford Sound is entirely through Fiordland and is one of the most scenic drives of New Zealand. Portions of LOTR are shot in Fiordland as well. On the way, we came across tranquil lakes and mountains – the lakes were so clean and unperturbed that we could see the mirror image reflection of the surrounding mountains in the lakes. At Milford Sound, we went on a 2 hour cruise which takes through the wilderness of the mountains and waterfalls and eventually touches the Pacific Ocean before coming back. It’s nothing apart from mountains and sea but the wilderness over there is something one can only feel. Looking at Milford Sound simply kept me wondering about the magic of nature all the time. We also got lucky as 2 dolphins were swimming alongside our cruise for roughly half an hour before giving up. It was extremely cold on the cruise (close to 0 degrees) and the only thing for survival was a cup of hot noodles. We were so tired by evening that the 300 km drive back to Queenstown felt really long but it was a day spent well after all.
Day 9: South Island Tour
It was time to explore the rest of South Island and the plan for the day was to drive down to Fox Glacier while passing through and stopping over at Wanaka and Haast on the way. Queenstown to Fox Glacier is about 330 km and the road is hilly. There are 2 roads from Queenstown to Wanaka and we took the one which goes over the mountain as it is shorter and more scenic (the other one goes alongside the mountain). The mountains here were completely different from those we saw in North Island. They had very sparse vegetation with bushes (absolutely no trees) and looked as if coated with green sheets. We clicked some pictures of Wanaka Lake and went for a wine tasting experience at Rippon Valley in Wanaka. This is one of the most photographed wineries and they offered wine tasting for free! We purchased a bottle of Gewurztraminer. The rest of the drive till Fox Glacier was mostly through perfectly tranquil lakes, forests and some part along the west coast. The most noteworthy thing about South Island was its sparse population. Queenstown has a population of about 10,000; Wanaka has about 5,000; Haast has about 300 and Fox Glacier has about 400. There were times when we did not notice a moving object (human, car, bird, animal, etc.) for up to 30-40 km. Though the mountains and forests don’t seem daunting while you are in a car, it is different when it is sunset time and it feels you are the only one there! Fox Glacier was 120 km away from Haast with no restaurants, shops or petrol pumps on the way. Eventually, we reached Fox Glacier just when it was dark.
Day 10: Fox Glacier
This town is very close to the west coast; stretches for about 150-200 meters on the state highway with about 5-7 motels, 3-4 cafes, 2-3 visitor information sites, 1 grocery store and 1 petrol pump. That’s all! People come here just to take the glacier tour and so did we. There are thousands of glaciers in New Zealand but when it comes to exploring one, you need something that’s easily accessible and fox glacier was one of them. This glacier is moving about a meter every week, which means its location would be somewhat different if observed after several years! There are glacier walk tours and helicopter tours available. We went for a full-day glacier trek. It was a group of about 10 people with a guide. The guide was very nice, looked very much like a mountaineer and kept blabbering all the way about the glacier. One of his notable lines was – This is the most amazing place in the world as I can walk through the glacier which is somewhat different every day and within 20 minutes, I can surf in the sea. It was a 7-hr walk. He took us through the rainforests and we landed on the glacier in 2 hours. We started walking on the glacier and wherever the ice surface was uneven or not walkable, our guide used his axe to carve out fresh ice steps for us. The next 5 hours were spent walking on the glacier and exploring the ice caves formed in the glacier. Being a glacier, it was ice cold weather and walking for even 15 minutes with glacier-walk boots seemed tough. Again, I was wondering – Why do people climb Mount Everest? Somehow, we managed to complete the walk, returned to the motel, had some wine and jumped in the spa pool to come back to the senses.
Day 11: Greymouth and West Coast
The drive from Fox Glacier to Greymouth towards north was about 3 hours and the road was pretty easy. What was of interest to us is the drive from Greymouth to Westport further north which is voted one of the top 10 scenic drives in the world by Lonely Planet. We reached Greymouth in the afternoon, had lunch, stuffed our luggage in the hotel room and were ready for the drive. It is basically along the west coast with sea on one side and Southern Alps on the other side. We did not go all the way to Westport as it was 110 km and we had to return to Greymouth. We stopped over at Punakaiki which is about 45 km from Greymouth. Punakaiki is famous for its blowholes and pancake rocks. Pancake rocks are nothing less than a natural wonder as the sea erodes the limestone area through bursts created due to blowholes during high tides giving the rocks an appearance of pancakes kept over one another. The sound coming from the sea bursts in blowholes was truly majestic. We were short of fuel in our car and there was no petrol pump in Punakaiki and till Westport, hence we returned to Greymouth without going any further.
Day 12: Tranzalpine Train
After exploring the South Island, we returned the car in the morning as we had to take the Tranzalpine train to Christchurch. This train operates once daily from Christchurch to Greymouth and back. It is a four and a half hour journey one way and is regarded as one of the world’s great train journeys for the scenery through which it passes. However, after seeing so much of scenery over 10 days, it wasn’t as impressive as it would have otherwise been but it was great nevertheless. It passes through Arthur’s Pass which is a very famous national park, river valleys of the Waimakariri river and gives a nice view of the Southern Alps. We reached Christchurch at 7 pm. Our hotel room at Christchurch was the best so far as it had a private spa and patio and free internet.
Day 13: Christchurch
Christchurch is the largest city in South Island and after a long time did we see an urban area and a lot of people (only in relative terms as Christchurch has about 4 lakh, far behind Delhi’s 20 million). We went to a botanical garden for kayaking and autumn made the garden look very beautiful. All shades of color could be found in the leaves from bright yellow to red and there was hardly any need for flowers. A very small Avon river flows through the garden where one can go for punting or kayaking. We went for kayaking and took a 2-seater kayak. Unable to co-ordinate and control the direction, we ended up with too many bumps with the banks of the river and needless to say, I got a nice beating from Shilpa. But we didn’t give up and finally learnt some bit of kayaking. Christchurch is a big city and also in order to explore nearby places, we took up a rental car again for 2 days (Tercel, an old model of Toyota).
Day 14: Akaroa Harbor
Now that we had a car, we drove down to Akaroa which is about 80 km from Christchurch. It is a beautiful harbor and offered some nice views. While we descend from the mountain to the harbor in the last lap of the drive, it offers stunning views of the water. However, there wasn’t much to do there except “swim with the dolphins” tour which wasn’t that appealing. We had lunch at a Thai restaurant and started back. On the way, we stopped at a supposedly famous cheese factory and they walked us through the entire process of making cheese. We tasted some cheese made from that factory and decided not to buy any. On our way back, we passed through Lyttelton which is another harbor on the east coast near Christchurch.
Day 15: Wildlife Park
Then came the last day of our trip and we had an Auckland flight in the evening at 5.30. We checked out from our hotel in the morning and spent the day at Orana Wildlife Park. None of the animals here were kept in prison and they had created a natural environment for them. It could have probably been just another zoo if not for the Farmyard and the Lion Encounter. In the farmyard, we were with the goats, sheep, donkey, etc. while hand-feeding them. Though nothing very exciting, it was a unique experience for us. The lion encounter was a major highlight though. Usually, it is the lions inside the prison but here, it was the other way round. We were put in a small prison with one other wildlife park member who carried some meat for the lions. The lions were set free and they were all around the prison. There were 9 of them and knowing that there is meat inside, all of them were trying to get in the prison, roaring, engaging in a fight, climbing at the top and what not! For a moment, it does scare you when you think what if they break the prison or what if you mistakenly touch the prison with your hand and the hungry lions attack. There was some other interesting stuff too like hand-feeding the giraffes. We also got to see a kiwi, ostrich and kangaroo! We returned the car and headed to the airport.
That’s the end of a long trip and a long post!!!
I want to thank Shilpa who came up with the idea of going to New Zealand. I want to thank all the New Zealand people for being so hospitable and tolerant, answering the stupidest of our queries, helping us plan our journey better and making our trip so enjoyable. And above all, I want to thank God for being so kind and giving us the wonderful opportunity of enjoying such a vacation which I could not even dream of.
