#she's got some awesome volcanic rocks under that pile too

[kirk-goes-to-gallifrey]

thought u guys would appreciate my mum's rock collection

[willswalkabout]

New Zealand. I've put off writing this blog for an obscenely long period of time. And it really isn't that I didn't have the opportunity. I think I just know it takes time so it does become daunting, and this only increases as the amount to get in also becomes greater. Technically it's now been a day under 3 weeks since I last posted (at the time of writing). I'm sitting in a hut on the Kepler track so won't be able to post till tomorrow night at the earliest. The plan is to split it into 3 but we'll see how it goes. When I last wrote I was about to land in Auckland and join up with Ellen so I'll pick up from there. I got into Auckland very late and then exiting the airport took ages as my tent had to go through customs. It had been tightly wrapped for storage but was returned to me in one massive pile of material, as they'd had to somehow inspect every inch. Eventually I got an uber to the air BnB Ellen was staying in. She'd had the last two nights on the island of Waiheke, with some contacts called Nick and Beth, who I hope to visit later in the trip. The next day we started a 9 day road trip to Queenstown, during which we would cover a total of 1418 miles. The descriptions of these days may seem pretty lightweight, but there was often a lot of driving. We learnt to embrace this and just enjoy the stunning scenery, but this acceptance was not immediate. Day 1 we picked up the car and trying to do a decent amount of shopping that would hopefully cover us for the majority of the trip. We drove to our campsite on the South side of lake Taupo, via a visit to the Huka falls. The campsite was really nice and though we'd actually had a booking for the day before we successfully convinced the campsite this wasn't the case and managed to keep the night. My all in one stove was used for the first time since early September, to great success as we dined on mushroom risotto. Day 2 we drove to Wellington, one of NZ's 3 biggest cities. We would have been doing the volcanic Tongariro crossing however sadly the weather meant it was closed. Wellington is supposed to be quite young and hip however sadly we didn't get to indulge in this culture due to the long drive. We did however visit New Zealand's national museum which had some very impressive exhibitions on their immigration history, as well as involvement at Gallipoli. We stayed the night at our weirdest air BnB experience. The house belonged to an elderly man who had appeared to have resorted to living and sleeping in his living room so that all his bedrooms could be rented out. However this meant that the wardrobes were full of his clothes, and stuffed toys filled the property. It was a little creepy, and after a long days driving we took advantage that evening of NZ having cheap dominos. Having spoken to people later in the trip it seems Wellington was not done justice and I would like to return. Day 3 involved getting the 9am ferry across the Cook Straight, to Picton on the South Island. It's quite an expensive crossing when you're taking a car, however the 4 hours are beautiful, especially as you meander into Picton harbour, a route which is hard to describe in words so I'd advise looking up Picton on a map. The ferry had a couple of nice restaurants and we got chips, before disembarking to drive along the stunning Queen Charlotte's drive. It is viewpoint after viewpoint as you begin to round the island's north coast, making it sometimes difficult to keep your eyes on the road. We drove to a beautiful Department of Conservation (DOC) campsite which was practically deserted. We also made a trip to the beautiful Cable Bay beach, with white sand deceptively cold water. After stocking up on supplies in Nelson we went back and made some pretty decent pasta that night. Day 4 was a very long drive to Abel Tasman, probably the only real disappointment of the trip. Though it was fun to pick up a German hitchhiker for part of the day, the drive was long and windy, and what met us at the end was a tad underwhelming. This campsite was also empty but felt like it would be packed during the summer. I had read about opportunities to rent kayaks and do other watersport activities, however on consulting the workers of the campsite this is a summer season thing, and nobody comes with the kit when they are not going to be in demand. We did do one beach walk before making some noodles and going to bed before we were eaten alive by the resident sand flies. Day 5 and we had to get to Punakaiki on the north west coast. The five hour drive was daunting at first but turned out to be very manageable, assisted by good ice cream about half way through. We both loved Punakaiki and its famous 'pancake rocks', which look like a stack of American variety. There was a beautiful prehistoric looking beach where it was overlooked by a dense rainforest. We managed to use the shadows created by the sunset to take some awesome photos, and had a very lazy pot noodle for dinner. There was a massive Aussie cub camp group at the campsite, whose antics and irritation of the leaders provided amusement. Day 6 we drove down the Franz Josef Glacier. We stopped on the way to do a short walk in the town of Ross, known for its gold mining past. We also bought some chocolate hot cross buns, something I've found many of in Australia and New Zealand, for the trip. After 3 consecutive nights camping and with 2 more to come we decided to take a night off and stay in a hostel. We chose a good one too, as we ended up getting a 4 bed dorm all to ourselves, and were able to wash our clothes and use their fully kitted out kitchen. The 1 hour walk to the glacier was a whole experience in itself, and added yet another landform to our incredibly varied list from NZ so far. We spent the evening chatting to some Germans, who I'm convinced have now overtaken Kiwis in terms of most populous nationality in the country. Day 7 was one of the best drives of the trip, down to Wanaka, past lakes Wanaka and Hawea. We had actually planned to stay at a campsite between the two lakes which didn't need booking. Though on arrival there were no other campers, it was off the highway, and generally had nothing going for it with zero cooking facilities. We chose to drive on to our site in Wanaka and stay for 2 nights. This was the campsite with the best view by a long way, looking out straight onto the lake. Wanaka is a gorgeous lakeside settlement with mostly high end restaurants along the front, with a couple more affordable. We got fish and chips, and a falafel burger. Day 8 was nice as we didn't have to clear out in the morning, having the pitch for 2 nights. We had three plans for the day and in the end only managed about one and a bit. We first planned to paddle board, as Ellen had so enjoyed doing in Waiheke. However the sun was deceiving and instead we settled for a pie, from some shop that had won way to many awards not to be investigated. We did however go to Puzzle World, probably the oddest attraction I have ever seen. It is one pretty odd dude's dream, and is a mixture of illusion rooms and a massive maze. It's hard to describe exactly what the rooms were but they made you feel like you were on a steep slope when in fact you weren't. Whereas another had over 200 concave faces that all followed you around the room as you moved. The maze was also not messing around and was exhausting. We did the 'easy challenge' which was supposed to take a maximum of 90 minutes. We laughed at this estimation, believing ourselves to be decently intelligent. It took us 107. In the afternoon we attempted to do the Roy's peak track. We had massively underestimated its difficulty and duration, as well as Ellen's hamstring situation which is still feeling the effects of a tear suffered last year. That evening we had a massive bowl of pasta and went to bed pretty early. Day 9 marked the end of the trip, and we drove the hour and 15 to Queenstown. We'd booked a hotel for this night, our last before around the 25th July in nearly 4 months time. After a swim in the hotel's pool, we had a short look around the town and went to a great Thai place for dinner. After the past 9 nights accommodation we did also order room service chips solely for the experience. The next morning we had the hotel's buffet breakfast and I dropped Ellen off at the airport for her 11am flight. She was to go to Auckland, followed by a 12 hour layover in Beijing and then home. A total journey time of well over 40 hours. It will be tough not seeing her for so long but I'm also incredibly grateful she made New Zealand work around university holidays, and we had an amazing 10 or so days. In the next post I'll meet up with Eleanor, a school friend, the same day Ellen was dropped off, and spend a few days in Queenstown before the Milford Track.