I woke up excited about starting the Routeburn great walk. It was the activity I had been most anticipating for my trip. So, it was to my dismay when I stepped out into the pouring rain. We had not had time the previous day to pick up permits, so we had to do it that morning. After we got them, we drove through the downpour to the trailhead.

As we got our gear packed up, the rain had let up a bit. By the time we were walking, it had stopped altogether. We walked through the tree cover for about 3 or 4 hours before getting to the Routeburn falls hut where we stopped for lunch. It was a beautiful hut sitting on a cliff with expansive views of the Mount Aspiring National Park.

After lunch, we continued our trek over the saddle. This is where the trek became even more impressive! The views were expansive and breathtaking. I basically dragged my jaw up the mountain. When we got to the top, we made a quick attempt to get to the top of Conical Hill. We felt a little rushed for time, so we didn’t make it all the way up.

We continued on the ridge line and then down to Lake Mackenzie where our hut was. We were possibly the last people to stroll into camp. Despite arriving so late, we snagged some pretty good bunks. We made dinner and then listened to the Rangers story about some of the mountains in fiordland. Overall, it had been a pretty special day. After the ranger finished his story, it was not long until we were out cold.

We woke up a little bit late; the Airbnb was so comfortable it was hard to drag ourselves out of bed. We had a date to meet my parents in Wanaka for lunch, which was approximately 2 hours by driving, but there were a couple of things we wanted to stop and see on the road way.

Our first stop of the morning was Jackson’s Bay. It was a bit out of our way, but Warrick, the Airbnb host had said it was not to be missed to we went. The whole shoreline for the last couple of kilometers was Reserved for Penguins, but we didn’t see any. We stopped to have a look, it was a very moody and gorgeous little spot. Then we hit the road.

The next stop on the way was the blue pools. This was another super blue section of river with a swing bridge over it. It was very lovely, but by this point in the trip, we had had some blue overload and we were not super impressed.

We continued on to Wanaka. After a little bit of miscommunication, we managed to meet up with my parents and all stroll along the lake together towards the Wanaka tree. It was a pleasant day, so the walk was nice. After getting our photos, we sat down for lunch at a restaurant across the lake. It was a nice little lunch, and it was nice to see my parents.

After lunch, we drove onto Queenstown. We drove over the Cadrona road, which was lovely and offered sweeping vistas. Then we arrived in Queenstown in time for Chinese New Year. To celebrate, we took a walk around the town and then ate dumplings for dinner. We were surprisingly pooped, so we fell asleep quite early.

We woke up leisurely. We had no definitive appointments, do we took our time. After enjoying the beach and packing up, we head out for the pancake rocks. The views along the coast were magnificent! I would have loved to spend the whole day enjoying this section of the country!

The pancake rocks were even neater than I expected. They created a striking feature along the ocean, and they left me interested to know how they came to be formed like that, but I guess that is still a mystery. After walking the loop, we got back in the car to continue on.

Our next stop was the Hokitika gorge. I had heard about this place on a list of best swing bridges in New Zealand. This one did not disappoint. It was suspended over a bright blue canyon. Quite striking! While we were sitting under the bridge, some guy jumped off the bridge into the water. Some people had been trying to talk him out of it, but after he did it he said it was refreshing. I think the water would be too cold for me!

We head into the town of Hokitika. We wanted to get our bearings, and that was the town where the audio book we were listening to was taking place. After a coffee break, we head to Franz Joseph. It was raining when we got there. We didn’t let that stop us from walking through the valley. While we were walking the sky cleared up and gave us a superb view of the glacier and valley.

After our hike, we still had a bit of a drive to get to our Airbnb in Haast. We made a brief stop at a mount Cook viewing area and then continued to Haast. We stopped for dinner at Hard Antler and then found our Airbnb. It was a lovely little house on the ocean. It did not take us long to hit the hay.

We woke up at 6 to catch the sunrise, and boy, what a sunrise it was! The whole sky lit up like fire and the red clouds were so bright they reflected off the water. It was absolutely stunning. After taking some photos, we packed up our kayak and head out for an early start. We had a pretty far distance to cover.

Our first stop was at a beach called the Anchorage. It was quite crowded with a lot of boats parked out front. But it was nice. We refilled our water and then continued. Next we kayaked past Adele Island. We saw quite a few seals hanging out here. We wanted to stop on the beach at Adele Island, but seemingly it was not present at high tide.

We continued to Appletree beach, which was nice, but crowded. This is where I took a small nap. After that we paddled back to Marahau. It was low tide, so the tractors were pulling boats all the way to a buoy in the water. We returned our gear and then began our 4 hour drive to Punakaiki.

The drive was lovely. The most beautiful spots were next to the Buller River and then along the coast near Punakaiki. We stopped in Westport for groceries, gas and dinner. We ate at PortSide Restaurant, where we had some green mussels. We made the drive to our Airbnb with the last few minutes of daylight. The Airbnb was just a shack on the beach with no internet and no electricity and an outhouse, but it was in a beautiful location. The owner, Blaze came by to orient us, then he helped us start a bonfire. We watched the stars while letting the fire burn out, and then went to bed.