New Zealand: Arrowtown and Wanaka

Our next stop was the charming little town of Arrowtown! Known for being the perfect location to explore wineries and for gold digging if you are feeling lucky :)




Time for some wine tasting! Pinot Noir,





Next stop Wanaka! 




Yummy homemade food with a lovely lake view! priceless, 




As good geeks we had to purchase the Lord of the Rings location guide :)



Time to head back to Arrowtown and check out ground zero of bungee jumping!

































Did we jump?... not really! we thought it was too expensive for 7 seconds of screaming your lungs out! 

New Zealand: Mount Cook

After Lake Tekapo our next stop was the impressive Mount Cook! You might recall this landscape from Lord of the Rings :)


Next destination: Arrowtown and Wanaka! 

New Zealand: Lake Tekapo

From Auckland we took a flight to Christchurch in the South Island. We didn't spent much time in Christchurch, we went ahead to pick our ride! It had been a long time since we drove... and on the other side of the road! 

Let the road trip begin! First stop: Lake Tekapo

We got our rental with Jucy! our ride name was: "El Cheapo" the cheapest rental available! We strongly recommend this company! awesome support with NZ humor!

We stayed in the BBH Hostel - Tailor-Made-Tekapo Backpackers
During our stay in NZ we used the BBH Hostel for find our hostels, so far we had always used trip advisor... guess what... In New Zealand internet is extremely expensive!!!! so we went old style! a booklet and a phone card to call to reserve the hostels!

All these hostels had a kitchen you could share with other guests. This was the first time in our trip that we cooked almost all the time our own food... it was actually really nice!!! we definitely eat much more healthier food! 

So far in the trip, excluding Fiji, we always stayed in a double room with a private bathroom... but this time the private bathroom was really expensive! so we just took the private room but with shared barthroom. To be honest we never had big problems about it! it was always really clean and neat.

Time for breakfast and exploration mode on!

 Don't forget to wash you dishes before you leave!!!! the New Zealand Humor:


The best way to enjoy the Lake Tekapo is just going for a trek around it! 


Time to head back and have some dinner!

We decided to have dinner at the same time as everyone else... the result a busy kitchen! 


Couscous with garbanzo beans and carrot! and some eggs with ham for tomorrow lunch!  

Time to clean up! right Antonio :)


What we found really nice about this hostel is that there was a space for everyone to store their food! All the drawers clearly indicated where the utensils were located, it really helped to navigate the kitchen :)

Next Stop Mount Cook! 

Planning New Zealand

In Fiji we receive awesome tips of what we should do in New Zealand for other fellow travelers! 

We were super excited to visit this amazing country that everyone talks about... so we tried to squeeze as much as we could! We ended up changing 3 times our flight from New Zealand to our next destination Chile!

In total we spent 36 days in New Zealand... and we feel it was not enough!! YEHHH you might think we are crazy.. this country is AMAZING!!! This was the first time we traveled really fast! One to two days in each location and a lot of driving to take the most out of NZ! 

Our Itinerary: 

-Auckland

-Lake Tekapo

-Mount Cook

-Arrowtown 

-Wanaka

-TeAnau

-Doubtful Sound

-Milford Sound


-Catlins


-Queenstown

-Franz Josep Glaciar


-Punakaiki

-Abel Tasman

-Kenepuro Sounds


-Wellington


-Tongariro Crossing


-Rotorua 



-Matamata


-Auckland


We spent the majority of our time in the South Island... so we need to go back!! an explore more the North island :)

In Auckland we had the pleasure to stay with our  Vlerick colleague Sanjay and his lovely family! 

Let the road trip begin!!!!!!!! :)