I left Rotorua and drove to Auckland via Tauranga where I met an old work buddy (Antony). We had a walk along the boardwalk to check out the beach, then walked round Mount Wanganui. That gave us enough time to do the nostalgia bit before we headed back to his place so I could meet his wife and chat about the differences between England and NZ. 🙂 Tauranga is a really nice looking place.
The next day I drove back to Auckland and planned on kicking back for a week before starting my trip down the south island. I checked my flight times and realized I only had 3 weeks left, not 4 weeks, so I got in the car pretty sharpish and headed down to Wellington.
I stopped off at Palmerston North on the way to meet another old work buddy (Jeremy). I’ve not seen him for maybe 10 years. Crazy how time flies.
I didn’t have time to check out Wellington (I’m doing that on the way back), I just got on the ferry and headed down to the south island.
Day 1 started with the ferry trip to Picton, followed by the drive to Christchurch then Timaru.
Everything is so massive and cool. I can’t get over how thick the vegetation is. I did the trip from Christchurch to Timaru in the dark because I wanted to make up a little time, hence the lack of photos after Christchurch and the surrounding areas.
Day 2 started with the trip to Queenstown.
I can’t describe how cool the journey to Queenstown is. If you weren’t seeing it for yourself you would assume some of the scenes were face.
I’m hoping to get a flight to Milford Sound tomorrow. If that happens I will stay another day in Queenstown. If not, I will have to drive there, which will take another day.
Cheers
Tim…