We started our New Zealand adventure in Auckland, where we spent three days attempting to find an apartment to lease. I will start my six-month ortho trauma fellowship at Auckland City Hospital at the end of January, so we decided to lock down a place before heading to the South Island for more adventures. Apartment hunting proved more difficult than we were expecting. The market in Auckland is very competitive, and we went to showings where there were 10-15 other applicants. We agreed on an apartment, just to have the property manager retract the offer as we were leaving for the South Island. We decided to keep looking online and making applications while on vacation, with a hope and a prayer we would find a place the week before work started.
From Auckland, we flew to Queenstown and rented a car. The first day, we did a jet boat tour in the Shotover Canyon, which was a blast. The next day, we were supposed to fly to Milford Sound, but the flight was cancelled due to weather. We couldn't reorganize our trip to make it work, so we plan to return to Queenstown in the next few months, because Milford Sound is on my NZ bucket list! Instead, we hiked Queenstown Hill, which gave us great views of the town and the lake.
Later that day, we hiked around Bob's Cove, an area around the lake, which was beautiful. You'll notice a theme of amazing lakes in New Zealand.
The next day, we drove to Wanaka, about an hour away. Wanaka is famous for a tree in the lake, appropriately named, 'that Wanaka tree'. I obediently snapped a picture of it. We planned to do a big hike that day, but the weather was uncooperative, so we put it off until the next day.
The next day, the weather was much better, and we hiked Roy's Peak, which was a brutal 15km (9.3 mile) hike with 1500m (5000ft) of elevation. It felt like outdoor Stairmaster, but worse. However, the views were absolutely breathtaking.
Next, we drove to Aoraki/Mt Cook National Park, which was another incredibly stunning place. Our plan was to have a rest day, then do another big hike, but there was rain on the forecast, so we decided to do our hiking while we had good weather.
First, we did the Hooker Valley Track, a 10km (6.3 mile) relatively flat hike along the valley towards Mt Cook, the South Island's tallest mountain. Sir Edmund Hillary trained on Mt Cook while preparing to hike Mt Everest. The views were amazing.
Next, we decided to hike to Sealy Tarns, which climbs 600m (2000ft) above the valley floor for spectacular views. It was shorter at 5km (3.3 miles), but there were 2200 steps, and the hike is nicknamed 'stairs to heaven'. After doing Roy's Peak the day before, and Hooker Valler in the morning, our legs were roasted.
In 24 hours, we did 30km (18.6miles) with 2100m (7000ft) of elevation. We were sore for days! Normally, I wouldn't plan to do that much in such a short period, but I blame it on the weather. It didn't help my reputation with William, he says I have 'no chill'. He is right.
After Mt Cook, we headed north to Lake Tekapo, which was brilliantly blue.
There was a hike that I had originally planned to do here, but that was out of the question as our muscles felt like they were liquefying. So, we spent the afternoon at the hot springs, which was incredible. Afterwards, we had dinner and walked to the Church of the Good Shepherd, a picturesque chapel on the lake shore.
After that, we drove to Christchurch, where we had more dismal weather, with plenty of rain and wind. We ventured out for dinner, but really didn't feel like doing much else. There was a terrible earthquake in Christchurch in 2011 that destroyed much of the city and claimed 185 lives. We were pleasantly surprised at how they've rebuilt- it's a mix of modern new construction with restored historical buildings. I'd love to go back when we have more time, energy, and good weather!
In all, we spent 7 days in the South Island before flying back to Auckland. It was just a drop in the bucket of all the South Island has to offer, and we can't wait to go back!
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