Summary of our first time in New Zealand
Summary of our first time in New Zealand for those who might find it interesting:
19-22 November:
Arrived in Auckland. Spend some time recovering from the long flights, and bought some supplies we needed for the upcoming hike, like toothpaste pills and some Scandinavian liquorice from Safka.
23 November:
Picked up a rental car and drove to Puhoi to meet up with Peter Bergström (@mywalkabout on Instagram) who is hiking The Araroa from North to South. Camped together with him and some other hikers in Puhoi.
24 November:
Went for a walk in Puhoi, geocaching and visited the market. Then we drove to Orewa, spent some time at a coffe shop before meeting the hikers again in the afternoon/evening. We also spent some time sorting out our two resupply boxes.
25 November:
Left some of our things with a trail angel in Auckland before driving south. Stayed the night in Tamarunui Holiday Park.
26 November:
Finally found a place in National Park that could take one of our resupply boxes with (mainly) shoes - YHA National Park. Then continued our drive south, to Wellington were we stayed at an AirBnB.
27 November:
Spent the day visiting the Museum of New Zealand (Te Papa Tongorewa) in Wellington, and also in the afternoon we did some geocaching, visited some Lord of the Rings filming locations and went up on Mount Victoria.
28 November:
Found New Zealand's oldest active geocache before taking the ferry to the South Island. Drove to an AirBnB in Takaka.
29-30 November:
In the morning the 29th we drove to Wharariki Beach, where we did a crazy geocaching-adventure and got to see seals up close. The next day we were very tired so we had a rest day, just explored the area nearby a little.
1-2 December:
Drove southeast, and left a resupply box in Boyle Village before continuing all the way to Christchurch where we stayed at another AirBnB. The day after we just spent the time geocaching there.
3 December:
Drove west across the mountains. Stopped some now and then to visit cool locations along the way. Stayed the night at an AirBnB in Hokitika - our most expensive AirBnB and the worst one yet.
4 December:
Drove 1.5 hours to Franz Josef, just doing some geocaching-stops along the way. Here we checked in at our hostel early, since it would rain a lot today (80 mm). Here we met our first Swede! Whom we spent the evening and next morning with.
5 December:
Took the car up to Franz Josef Glacier Car Park and walked out to the platform. From there we couldn't even see the glacier. Then we hiked the tough Robert's Point Track, a trail that is a lot harder than it seems! And from here we could see it.
Then drove to Haast where we stayed the night at a Holiday Park.
6 December:
Drove across the mountain range again, doing some stops along the way at interesting spots. Bought some food in Albert Town before heading to Ahuriri Bridge Campsite, where we pitched our tent. First night in our tent and first time trying a "free campsite". Also got our first taste of sandflies.
7 December:
Drove to Mount Cook National Park. Visited the Visitor's Center before taking the trail up to Mueller Hut at 1800 m.a.s.l.
It was a tough climb, about 1000 m in about 4 km and on the way down we counted the stairs - 1950! To make it harder for ourselves we also carried all our Te Araroa gear.
Then we drove to Oamaru where we had found an AirBnB to stay at.
8 December:
Spent the day in Oamaru, visiting the Steampunk HQ and taking a stroll in town. Very cozy place!
9 December:
Kim realised she had forgotten her very important alpha jacket back in Haast... So instead of driving about 1 hours south to Dunedin, we drove back to Haast and then to Dunedin. Going from the east to the west coast and then back again, in one day. Took roughly 10 hours of driving... But it was still cheaper and easier than buying a new one...
10 December:
Spent the day geocaching in Dunedin, and didn't do anything in particular.
11 December:
Drove to Invercargill along the coast. Visited places like Nugget Point, Jack's Blowhole, Curio Bay, and of course - Slope Point. The southernmost point on the South Island. Unfortunately Te Araroa doesn't start from here, and visiting the northernmost point (North Cape) isn't possible at all. So we can't do what we normally do - hike from the proper south to north, but at least we went here by car!
12-14 December:
Left the car in Invercargill, sent a box with everything we don't need for our hike to a trail angel in Auckland, prepared for the hike and then took a shuttle and ferry over to Stewart Island / Rakiura Island (more about that in next blog post).
