All posts and itineraries have been shifted to http://totravelanywhere.com :)
New Zealand's South Island in 4 weeks :)
Finally found some pockets of time to do up the second half of my NZ trip. I was in South island from Mid May - Mid June, which was the start of winter. The weather in South island was SO MUCH colder than the North, partly because it was getting into full force winter so it was around 0 degrees - 9 degrees throughout June. Basically I travelled from Picton -> Nelson -> Franz Josef -> Wanaka -> Queenstown -> Te Anau (+Milford Sound) -> Dunedin -> Christchurch -> Kaikoura - > Tekapo.
Read about my North island trip here: North Island in 2 weeks
Read about my initial preparation of a 6 week solo NZ trip here: Preparation for NZ
Read about the Thrift Stores/ Second hand Stores / Opportunity Stores I visited: Op Shops
The south island is generally a lot more mountainous and scenic than the north :) So if anyone is heading to NZ and has a lack of time, I'd say just cover the south will do. :)
I took the Interisland Ferry from Wellington to cross over to the South and arrived at Picton. I had to purchase the shuttle bus ticket which brought me from Wellington's railway station platform 9 to the ferry terminal. My ferry ticket could be counted as one of my intercity trips for the flexipass, so.. the 15trips flexi pass ticket was really worth it I'd say. :)
I stayed in Fat Cod Backpackers for a night at Picton, again I'd say it's not the best hostel around.. It was so quiet inside, with not many people and the room had a weird smell. But it was pretty decent to stay there for just 1 night, besides the location was perfect, just opposite the bus stop / 100+m away from the ferry terminal.
I didn't do much in Picton, all I remembered was I had a really good vegetarian quiche from a nearby bakery (it was the only bakery in Picton). My initial plan was to hike the Queen Charlotte Track, but I decided that I don't have enough cash and time to spare, so I skipped it! Heard the Marlborough Sounds were really good, so I guess I'll be back to hike it someday. :) The only thing I did for the entire day at Picton, was to walk into this second hand shop called "Second time around", walkable from my hostel. (Everywhere is pretty walkable, Picton is an extremely small and lifeless town) I bought many vintage plates / cups / saucers, the shop owner was really nice and gave me discount :)
Picton during dusk
Railway tracks (not sure if it's still in use)
After Picton, I took the intercity bus to Nelson. I stayed in YHA hostel, apparently there're many branches of YHA hostels throughout NZ and you can even purchase a membership for 50% off ($20) for that month, so wifi would be free with the membership (without the membership, wifi costs $5 for a day). I didn't purchase the card (thankfully) because I later heard that the wifi is extremely slow. The hostel was in a pretty good location, generally clean, toilets were individual rooms as well, not in a shared toilet so that was a plus point. They even have a huge lounge with a piano inside, and TV room. In fact I realised all YHA hostels are pretty well equipped with facilities.
I did not take any pictures in Nelson because it rained throughout the 3 days 2 nights that I was there. I went on a vintage shopping spree because they have so many second hand shops there! (SPCA op shop, Red Cross shop, St Vincent de Paul, Hospice Shop, Salvation Army, Vintage Antiques... Addresses will be in a separate post) Vintage Antiques was my favourite vintage store, every vintage item was in excellent condition but also that means they were the most expensive. I remembered a tea cup + saucer + plate combo was $25, which is actually pretty reasonable for Sg standards (You'll have to pay at least $60 in Singapore)... but if you're lucky to find such in second hand stores in NZ, they may only cost $5 for a set. I didn't buy anything from this vintage store because I believed I could find similar ones in second hand op stores. Also, in Nelson, I should've done the Abel Tasman Hike... But at that point I really just wanted a break from hiking after all that I've done in Taupo. (I will definitely go back someday though). I also went for the Nelson Farmers market on Saturday morning. After all that hype I see online, I expected a lot more... So it kinda disappointed me plus it was raining so heavily that morning. But nevertheless, still worth visiting for an experience! Apparently the Sunday one was better, it's the Arts and Craft market called the Monty market but I didn't manage to go because I needed to catch the bus to Franz Josef that day.
The bus ride from Nelson to Franz Josef was an extremely scary one. That was the week where the winds were so crazily strong, I almost thought I wouldn't make it to Franz Josef... Think it was a 8h bus ride and I could feel the bus swaying to one side while driving through the mountains, thankfully the bus captain was really experienced. During the day, a tree fell at some mountainous road, so the roads were blocked for a brief moment... But fortunately they managed to clear it by the time my bus arrived there so we could get through. I can't imagine having to spend the night at another town (Hokitika) instead. It was freezing cold that day and the bus heater was spoilt. So anyway, during the subsequent 2 days, many roads were blocked and the weather was pretty bad but thankfully it didn't cause any major changes to my schedule because by the time I was supposed to leave Franz Josef, the roads were opened again.
Glaciers at Frnaz Josef. I booked the package from Franz Josef Glaciers for about NZD$360+, which comprises of a helicopter flight up and down, plus about 2-3h walking time on the glaciers. To be honest, I didn't feel that this was worth it at all. It was cool seeing a glacier for the first time... But that was it. I don't think I would be willing to pay three hundred bucks just to get up to the glacier. I felt really horrible in Franz Josef the entire time, I hated the unpredictable weather so much and the town was so boring. There was practically nothing to do or eat so I really wouldn't suggest stopping by Franz Josef unless you want to see a glacier so badly? But then again, other glaciers around the world will probably be more spectacular than this?
This is basically how Franz Josef looks like. It is SO SMALL, just a tiny town with less than 100 residents I think? HAHAHA.
Then, I headed to Wanaka from Franz Josef. I am so glad I decided to stop at Wanaka, it was such a beautiful place and I would live in Wanaka if I had to choose a place to live in the South. I stayed in YHA Wanaka as well and the intercity bus actually stops right in front of the hostel, so plus points for that. :) Also, at YHA, I met 2 other Singaporean guys who just completed their army and was waiting to go to SMU! Quite glad I met familiar people after so long and they advised me on what I can do at Queenstown (my next destination) as well because they came from there. I did thrift/vintage shopping (again) at Wanaka's Salvation Army, and watched my first movie in NZ! The movie theatre in Wanaka is actually a tourist destination, you'll see why later in the pictures. :)
This was my view the moment I got out of the bus, so breathtaking I can't even...
My movie ticket :) It costs $14 for the ticket if I remembered correctly... I know, it's really expensive. Anyway, I caught bad neighbours just for the laughter.
This is how the movie theatre looks like, extremely rustic with real sofas inside so it was really cosy and homely. They also had an intermission during the movie, where we could go out to buy fresh from the oven cookies (omg the cookies were so good, every review of this place will say the same thing.. The WARM cookies were to die for during winter). I'm craving for it now that I think back.
Random sheeps I saw along the way when I was walking to the Wastebusters (an op shop which was... a waste of my time). I took 1h to walk there from the town centre and 1h back. Even though I felt it was a waste of time... I actually kinda like walking aimlessly.
I didn't do much in Wanaka (again), because I was saving money to do adrenaline stuff in Queenstown. All I did was walk around, ate bad chicken and chips, watch movies on my iPad, met funny travellers (like this UK guy who kept saying he wants to marry a kiwi girl so he can get citizenship LOL), oh and shopped at Salvation Army for vintage stuff again.
So after Wanaka, I headed down to Queenstown where the adrenaline heaven is. I did 2 bungy jumps at different places (I bought the combo), bought the luge sky ride go-cart thing (75% off from the deals on http://bookme.co.nz), tried the legendary Ferg burger (TWICE, it was soooo good that I actually miss it) and tried the famous chocolate patagonia ice cream shop as well.
From the top of where my go-cart ride was! The scenery, needless to say, was so gorgeous.
View of Queenstown from the top :)
The best burgerrrrrr. Some of the locals said there's another shop called Devil's burger which was better, so I tried it as well but I still thought that Fergburger was better!!
Think I'm the only person who can look so happy bungy jumping. But anyway this bungy jump was such a disappointment?! It's good for first timers, but unsatisfactory for someone like me who has jumped off a ledge before. The free fall felt like it was 1 second or less, I don't know why but I felt like I reached the bottom so quickly before I was pulled back up. Also, as the weather was quite bad, they didn't strap the ropes to my ankles but to my thighs instead! And the water touch option wasn't available that day :'( At least the pictures were nice...
This was the second bungy jump I did in NZ, 3 times higher that the bridge bungy, highest in Australasia. We jumped off a cable car instead of a ledge ;) The free fall was about 7 seconds, which I initially thought was very long, but turns out it wasn't as long as I expected! Maybe because time seems to pass so much faster after I jump off! I now have a new ambition of bungy jumping in almost every country I visit (as long as it's safe, meaning 100% safety records)
Pictures weren't as nice because there wasn't a photographer but rather an automated camera situated at certain points.
So after all that adrenaline nonsense I did, I was SO BROKE. I spent a bomb on bungy jumping, the 2 jumps combo was NZD $375, and I bought both sets of pictures at $80+ each. :'( Kind regretted buying the pictures because I know this wasn't gonna be the last time that I jump. I just wanted a picture for the memory that's all, damn. Could've saved the money!
Queenstown was also one of the few places I could shop (other than Auckland, Wellington and Nelson).
Next, I headed to Te Anau. Another super boring small town, I was so bored to tears really (but at least everywhere in the South Island looks so nice!)..... I only went there because I bought a special deal bus ticket from Te Anau to Milford Sound to do the Milford Sound cruise. Thankfully there was a nice place to take pictures at Lake Te Anau. The first day when I reached, the entire place was covered in fog / clouds, I couldn't even see anything in the sky. Was glad it cleared up the very next day so I could snap some nice pictures at least. I remembered I was so broke by the time I reached Te Anau that I had to survive on maggi noodles everyday. There came a point that I didn't have any maggi noodles left, I had to starve for the night and I almost cried due to hunger. So to cure my hunger and at the same time not needing to spend much money, I bought a bag of chips to fill my stomach. Ikr, I'm usually very conscious of what I eat.... But I actually bought a bag of chips. That was how desperate and pathetic I was. No one has any idea how terrible it feels like to go to sleep with an empty stomach.
I took this with a tripod and self timers. I think I snapped like 100+ pictures here because there wasn't anyone around (as always).
I headed to Milford sound for a day trip, I bought the deal on http://bookme.co.nz again!!! Haha I'm always checking the website for good deals, I got it at like 50% off, so I only paid close to $50 when the original is about $100+??? Plus there was free (good) food (by pita pita) on cruise, the idea of having free food was awesome because I WAS DEAD BROKE. Actually I had money, I was just afraid of overspending because I still had almost 1.5weeks more to go and I needed to save the money for a rainy day. The milford sound cruise itself wasn't that spectacular, but the ride there was awesome. We stopped at so many scenic places, I wished I drove there on my own instead.
See that dash of cloud in the middle, nature's too gorgeous.
Mirror Lake
Extremely clear turquoise water.
Milford Sound cruise. I swear every minute of the cruise looks the same, just like this.
An endangered bird species, that I suddenly forgot the name of it. You can see that they tag the birds at their feet.
Friend from China that I made, at Lake Gunn. The reflection from the water is amazing.
Look at this tunnel. On our way to Milford Sound and back, we had to drive through this ONE way tunnel. Meaning, since it's one way, the drivers had to trust their gut feelings on when to enter the tunnel. Because the tunnel is so long (about 3-4 mins drive through?), once you enter, there is no way you're gonna be able to reverse out if you were to meet an incoming vehicle in front of you!! How scary is it to be driving through seriously?! And it's completely pitch black.
Next, I headed to Dunedin from Te Anau. Another of the better places that I liked. I stayed at YHA On Top Backpackers and I made 3 new friends there. :) A girl from Denmark, a girl from Thailand and another Singaporean! I spent one day with the Thai girl as she needed company, so we went to Otago Settler's museum which I thought was pretty nice. Afterall it was the first and only museum I went to in NZ. I was in Dunedin for 4 days, so I had ample of time to do things. On one of the days, I walked to Tunnel Beach (omg it took me about 5-6h round trip from my hostel I think), I completely relied on Google maps to walk there. There was a public bus that I could take but again, I needed to save every cent. The view at Tunnel Beach was awesome (it's not really a beach per se, but just an area where you see awesome "rock formations" and face the sea), I had to climb up to the top of this hill through housing estates before getting to Tunnel Beach.
Also on other days, I spent most of my time vintage thrifting (again, hahaha). Dunedin has the most op shops around and I particularly like this shop called "Finders Keepers Boutique" which I didn't find online but chanced upon it while walking from Cadbury building to the Otago Settler's Museum. It's a quaint second hand shop set up by a really young girl (at the most early 20s I think) and her shop has the best playlist ever. Other op shops in Dunedin include The Op Shop, Paperbag Princess, Hospice Shop, Savemart, Toffs, Salvation Army.
And on Saturday and Sunday, I went to the Farmer's market and Arts and Crafts Market respectively. The Farmer's market was brilliant, I loved the selection of food and it was the only time I allowed myself to indulge. I read online that it's a must to try the bacon butties which I did and it did not disappoint. I also tried their crepes, it's very different from the cripsy crepes we see in Bangkok/Sg/Malaysia... It's the kind of soft crepes that're pretty much like pancakes. I kinda liked it though. Or maybe I was just really deprived of good food by then. The sunday market at the stadium was so disappointing, I think it's alright to give it a miss because there was nothing much to see.
My Thai friend at the museum with me :)
The legendary Bacon Butties. Basically it's just fried crispy bacon with egg and cheese and mustard with fresh white bread.
Lemon crepe.
This was the endless flight of stairs I had to climb while walking to Tunnel Beach. I had to stop like 3 times on this incredibly long flight of stairs, not to mention prior to reaching these steps, I have been walking for 2h already?
The view after climbing to the top of the flight of stairs. So breathtaking, worth every energy getting up. Dunedin is also a place I would consider living in if I were to migrate to NZ, imagine living just by the ocean.
This was tunnel beach, like I said it's not really a beach because there's no sand/shore where you can get to! You just see these lovely formations on the rocks, again it's a very nice place to date or have a picnic.
Tacos I bought at the Sunday market, nothing too fantastic but I had a good chat with the friendly vendors. :)
After Dunedin, I headed to Christchurch. Was really thankful I met a Singaporean at my backpackers on the day before I left Dunedin, because we shared a taxi to the bus stop. One thing about Dunedin was that the bus stop for coach buses was about 20minutes away from the city centre. When I arrived, I spent like 40 minutes just walking from the bus stop to my backpackers because I was carrying my 40kg baggage around and I almost died from exhaustion. So... I was glad I could find someone to share the cab fare with when I left!
I stayed in Around the World Backpackers in Christchurch, it was the smallest hostel I've ever lived in. The beds were cramped and all... BUT I can really understand why. Christchurch hasn't really "recovered" from the 2011 Earthquake so the entire city was still in the midst of rebuilding stuff. I didn't do much in CC except visiting the museum (oh wait, just realised I did visit a museum twice in NZ). The only section I thought was cool in the museum was this part where they showed pictures of the Earthquake, you can almost feel how real it was happening just looking through the gallery. Other than that, CC was pretty boring though it was interesting to see how they started having pop up shops with shipping containers but that's about it.
Then, I headed to Kaikoura for 2 days 1 night. It was never on my plan to go Kaikoura but I'm glad that I went. I decided to go because I was on the bookme.co.nz website and I suddenly saw this 50% deal of kayaking with the seals (by Kaikourakayaks) and I thought it was pretty cool. I remembered this Dutch girl telling me in Queenstown that she got to kayak with the seals at Abel Tasman and said it was really nice... so when I saw this deal, I knew I had to buy it straight away. The weather was extremely bad when I was in Kaikoura, it's supposed to be a really beautiful place but all I saw were dark clouds. Anyway, I was still lucky that during the particular time I was supposed to kayak, it stopped raining for that 3hours (am I blessed or what?). So we managed to kayak out in the open sea, it was my first time out in the sea and to be honest, even though I am an adrenaline junkie... my greatest fear is water. Ever since I watched Titanic as a kid, I've always feared cruises or anything to do with the open sea.. But our kayaking instructor was really experienced and I was on a double kayak with another guy so it wasn't too bad. Besides kayaking with the seals that were just 1m away from me, we did lots of fun stuff as well like riding on the waves. Was so afraid that I would capsize any moment, but thankful that all went well. I thought this activity was worth every penny, but then again maybe it's because it was my first time on a kayak and seeing so many seals up close.
Another thing to do in Kaikoura is to whale watch as well. Apparently it's almost guaranteed you'll see at least 1 whale, if not you get 70% of your money back if I'm not wrong. I would've done it if I still have enough cash to spare... Because the previous time I tried whale watching in Vancouver, I didn't manage to see any!
The seal colony just in front of the kayak ^^ There were so many seals swimming around our kayaks as well!
After the day trip, I went back to Christchurch the next day and the following day, I headed to Tekapo. There wasn't any direct bus service from Kaikoura to Tekapo, which was why I had to waste another day in CC.
Tekapo was my favourite place in the whole of New Zealand. I can spend the whole day just staring in the open sea with mountainous backgrounds. (I probably won't live there though because there isn't anything to do, BUT the view was amazing). Every part of this town was so beautiful I could cry. I'm definitely going back to Tekapo in the future. The only sad part was I didn't get to see the milky way because it was really cloudy and with FULL MOON on the days that I was there. I was told that I could see the milky way with my naked eyes on a usual night, but too bad I missed the opportunity. So I would suggest anyone planing to go there to check up on the moon schedule first before choosing the dates to go. It is best to go when the moon is at its dimmest/smallest.
I know, this looks so unreal. I can't even believe nature is so beautiful. My photos have no filters or edits at all. I really just took it with my DSLR with my amateur skills but the photo turned out great because it was really that gorgeous.
Attempt to take stars photography for the first time but failed. It is never wise to capture stars on a full moon night.
Church of Good Shepard.
Turquoise water!!! I now know why in pictures, we always paint water blue. Because it really appears blue when unpolluted, unlike water in Singapore's sea. :O
Stayed at this place to watch the sunset on both days that I was there. I really really really love Tekapo. This was the place that made me decide to travel to NZ. I once saw a picture of Tekapo online last year and I figured that I have to see it for myself one day. And so, I travelled to NZ with the idea in mind of visiting this place. So glad it didn't disappoint at all. :')
So after 2 days in Tekapo, I took the intercity coach ride to Christchurch airport directly and slept over at the airport since my flight was 6am in the morning. They have a designated place for people to stay overnight at the airport, or alternatively you can pay $5 to get into a lounge where there're beanbags and heaters. Obviously, I decided to save on that $5 and froze to death outside instead hahaha. One thing I found really inconvenient was my transit in Auckland... For unknown reasons, their domestic and international terminals are not connected so we've to walk about 10-15minutes outdoor to get to the other terminal. (I think they need better architects LOL)
I'm glad to finally be done with my NZ post. :)
Now I'm planning for my next solo travel to Sydney / Melbourne / Perth this coming December. :)
