Goodbye New Zealand

Somehow we woke up this morning and found it was time to begin the long journey home. 

On the first leg of our journey, we needed to get back to Queenstown. We were starting at Franz Josef (~5 hours from Queenstown). We got an earlier start so we could take our time. It was a good decision since the drive was absolutely stunning. It took us past glaciers, over rivers, through forests, by lakes, and in the shadow of tall peaks. 

Along the way, we had time to stop at some scenic viewpoints. Our first stop was at Knight’s Point which overlooked the Tasman Sea. We saw this on our way to Franz Josef as we drove by the coast. We love the coast so it was on our list to check out on the way back. Something is mesmerizing about watching the waves crash. 

We continued our journey through Mount Aspiring National Park. This area is quite scenic. We made one stop at Thunder Creek Falls. It is a huge waterfall not far from the road. When we got down to the viewpoint I decided to walk across the stream to get an even closer view of the falls. This went well for me going out, but less well coming back in. My foot slipped into the stream soaking my shoe and sock. Fortunately, I had spare dry socks fairly handy and it didn’t take too long for my shoe to drive. 

Along the way, we had to stop to fill up our car with gas. We have driven a lot around the South Island, but we haven’t needed all that much gas since we are driving a hybrid Toyota CHR. It is a great vehicle for our purposes. While I was paying gas I saw some chicken chips for sale. One of Alison’s co-workers who is from New Zealand told us we needed to try chicken chips so I bought a bag. 

Our next stop was a roadside rest stop. The trip was catching up to Alison and she needed a pick-me-up chai latte. While Alison was getting her latte their ice cream cart caught my eye and I had to try a scoop of the Hokey Pokey ice cream. Hokey Pokey is a classic New Zealand flavor that is kind of a combination of honey and toffee. It was delish. 

As we were driving we talked about where New Zealand would rank among the countries we have visited. We both agreed New Zealand ranked in our top 5 favorites. We would come back here in a heartbeat. 

We continued in our drive. We planned to make a stop in Wānaka for lunch. We did stop at a couple of viewpoints along the route overlooking Lake Wānaka and Lake Hāwea. 

We were happy we had a little more time in Wānaka. If there is one thing we wished during this trip it was that we had more time to explore this charming little town. We wouldn’t have wanted to give up anything else, but we really enjoyed the little bit of time we had here. We got a quick lunch at a restaurant overlooking Lake Wānaka and then found a little shop selling Hokey Pokey gelato. It was delish. 

One of the challenges Alison faced when she planned this trip was deciding what to do in New Zealand. She did an excellent job of picking many fun and diverse activities. There are so many unique and interesting places in New Zealand you could easily fill many weeks with all of the activities. 

Our time on the South Island was quickly coming to an end. We continued our drive from Wānaka to Queenstown. We stopped at a few more scenic viewpoints along our way - we will miss the stunning scenery of the South Island. 

At the airport, I stopped by a bookstore to pick up a children’s book about Pee Wee the Kiwi. It was super cute and came with a Pee Wee the Kiwi plush. Alison and I have collected children’s books from our travels all over the world, but this is the first time we bought one knowing we would be having a child. It hits a little differently knowing in a few years I will be reading this book to our baby girl. 

We flew from Queenstown to Auckland. When we arrived in Auckland it was raining. We felt really fortunate to have such perfect weather throughout our trip. We ended up back at the Hilton on Princes Wharf. We were originally scheduled to stay at a DoubleTree but we enjoyed this Hilton so much that we switched our booking. It was the right choice. Between the rain and the late arrival, we didn’t leave the hotel tonight. We ordered room service and stayed in, but it gave us more flexibility on our last morning. 

On our last morning in Auckland, we made sure to eat a good breakfast. Then we went for a walk around downtown Auckland. We really wanted to stretch our legs before the long flight home. We ended up walking to Albert Park, which is a large park in Central Auckland. It was a nice park. We also stopped by a few souvenir shops. We found a couple small gifts for Skylee and Anna, as well as a cute onesie for our baby girl and the most adorable infant wool slippers. Alison loved them. We also bought some Whitaker’s chocolate to bring home (another NZ staple). 

Then we headed to the airport for our flight home. It was mostly uneventful and quite bumpy. We had a short layover in LA (Alison was able to get us on an earlier flight to get us home ~3 hours earlier) and then we were back in SLC. It was good to be home.