Sometimes I don't write about travel and food, but about completely ordinary thoughts about life and everyday life and everything that happens around us. But of course there can be some travel talk here as well.
Today we suddenly had a whole day without plans! Instead of going straight to our booked accommodation in Timaru, we took a long detour towards Mount Cook via beautiful lakes and a sheep farm.
Today's journey through New Zealand's South Island takes us to the second natural highlight of the trip – Oamaru and the little blue penguins.
Today came the day we had longed for ever since we booked this trip! The day we would (hopefully) see whales!
Christmas morning! Now it's Christmas for real here in New Zealand! Nothing special planned today for once, quite nice actually! The only thing we had booked was the hotel in the town of Blenheim in Marlborough, which is no more than 2 hours drive from Nelson.
Day 8 of our road trip on New Zealand's South Island. Christmas Eve in Abel Tasman National Park! Abel Tasman is New Zealand's smallest national park, but here you will find vast coastal areas with golden beaches, cliffs, forested mountains and wetlands.
Early rise, as today we had a long day's drive ahead of us, more precisely 45 miles after New Zealand's west coast. The weather, which did not show its best side in Franz Josef, today offered brilliant sunshine and we finally caught a glimpse of the beautiful, white mountain massif that had been lurking behind the fog all along. We heard the helicopters in the distance, it almost sounded like they were laughing at us... But but, time to go.
Woke up at Scenic hotel in Franz Josef and had continental breakfast at the hotel. Unusually affordable breakfast, so we couldn't bear to go out into the village and look for another place. As we were up quite early, it was almost just us and a busload of British pensioners who were to be bussed around the North and South Island for a month. The bus tourists were quite quick to clear the buffet, so we had to eat a little faster than usual. Maybe lucky, we are very slow on our breakfasts usually…
Day 5 of the driving holiday offered a glacier hike and a light show of glow worms.
Time to leave the warmth of Lake Wanaka and drive up the west coast to Fox Glacier. The day started in a minor camera disaster, but with an incredible amount of luck and a crazy idea, the disaster was avoided. However, we got away a little later from Wanaka than planned and a little poorer.
Not as early riser as the day before, getting up at 7 a.m. felt almost like sleeping in the morning. After a long day yesterday, we all slept very soundly last night. Headed towards the center of Te Anau, where we had found a breakfast place that was well rated by many guests. Wasn't exactly easy to find, but after three laps around the minimal center of the village, we finally saw the sign - Sandfly Cafe.
With a little time adjustment in the body, it was not entirely easy to get up, even though the big adventure starts today!
I've always loved looking out the airplane window. Through the airplane window, you visit places you may never go and see views you can never see from the ground. The approach to Queenstown on New Zealand's South Island will most certainly end up at the top of my very personal top-10 approach list.
