The furthest Eddie has been from home - New Zealand

Our goal was to see as much of Oceania while we were in this corner of the world, and its safe to say we could've done more... however I'm ready to leave.

We spent 2 weeks in New Zealand's South Island which was more than enough to see the island and enjoy all its landmarks.

We aimed to travel NZ on a budget and maxed out at about $200 per day, but I'll get into all the important stuff a bit later!

Itinerary

I'd like to start by saying, you DO NOT need 2 weeks to see everything on this island. Our favourite saying was "so much to see but nothing to do". This country boasts the most picturesque scenery with mammoth mountains, frolickingly good fields and the sweetest sheep but we couldn't help but wonder where everyone was?

New Zealand has a population of about 5 million and of that 5 million, only 1 quarter live on the South Island making towns quite sparse and city's quite sleepy.

Don't get me wrong, the terrain here is unlike anywhere else in the world! Just don't expect many good places for young people, or cheap places to eat (especially on a budget)!

Day 1 - 20 Hour Travel Day (ugh)

This day was probably the least fun I've ever had travelling. We had left Vanuatu around 2pm and arrived in Christchurch at 8am the next day. Due to our budget we had to sacrifice direct flights and opt for a stop over in Auckland, or as i know it, the most uncomfortable airport to sleep in.

Its 2am, you've squished your body into the unforgiving wooden bench, someone is playing music out loud, someone's kid is screaming, Maccas is charging $20 for a 6 pack of nuggets and the world seems like it will never be bearable again.

Then we boarded our 6am flight with Air New Zealand and arrived at 7am, picked up our rental car and fell asleep in the nearest Woolworths carpark.

We were shattered, desperate and begging our accommodation to let us check in early. Thankfully we secured a bed and crashed immediately, waking up at 3pm to the completely lifeless city, Christchurch.

We spent the afternoon walking the city's streets where every cafe and restaurant was shut and cars were few and far between.

It was here that we discovered our favourite place in New Zealand: PAK n' SAVE!

The discount grocery store that was kind of cheaper than Australia!

We made best friends with the hot food counter and visited almost every branch in the South Island - a great use of our time.

We were honestly quite shocked at how quiet Christchurch was being New Zealand's 3rd largest city. We turned in for an early night and browsed Kiwi TV (its no different to Australia just fewer ads).

Day 2 - Our First Mountain

We drove from Christchurch to Lake Tekapo via the scenic route which took 3 hrs 30 mins, stopping by Rakaia Gorge to see the start of New Zealand's bluest waterways.

We attempted to skip stones and watch the Jetboats, there was 2 hour hike around the gorge which we telepathically agreed to pass on.

The drives themselves are New Zealand's attraction. This drive went through the Mackenzie mountain range, we had to stop off a few times just to appreciate the views, analyse the potential ski runs, and of course when we were trapped in amongst a heard of lively lady cows.

We ended the drive in Lake Tekapo, not to be confused with Tekapo (there's nothing there), and staying in our first hostel, Haka House. We had high expectations for the lake considering everyone had boasted its blueness and clarity but unfortunately it was an overcast day and the lake was a light shade of disappointment. Still gorgeous, just grey however we did drive past it on our way back and did get to see it blue eventually!

We explored Lake Tekapo a bit, though there wasn't much to explore considering the town only spans 2 blocks. I also made Eddie very upset (I didn't let him buy tickets to a broken down hot spring).

We instead cooked a lovely budget meal of chicken and rice (Eddie almost gave me salmonella poisoning) (I think it was retaliation for the spring debacle) we made some fast friends at the hostel and finally launched our blog!

Our hostel Haka House was modern, clean and an amazing stay, they are New Zealand's unique chain of hostels and are a very safe bet however you do tend to get more families than young people staying there.

Day 3 - 'I smell snow'

Growing up in Australia snow is very uncommon and even though I have skied Aussie fields, I have never seen snowfall. We drove an hour from Lake Tekapo to Mt Cook Village and along the way my dreams had come true!

A massive snow storm had blown in just as we arrived in Mt Cook Village! Snow chains probably would've come in handy... hindsight ay?

We arrived quite early in Mt Cook as we thought there would be more to do along the way but there really REALLY isn't anything to do in New Zealand. Luckily they let us check in early again, thankyou Haka House.

We put 3 more layers of clothes on and left to spend hours playing in the snow like the children we are. There was 8-10cm of snowfall so the village turned into a literal winter wonderland. We trenched through the powder to a bar and started some pretty aggressive snowball warfare with some 6 year old's.

We cooked a budget pasta meal (literally pasta and sauce) that lasted us lunch and dinner and made some more hostel friends that taught me about their language, Tamil and gave us some good recommendations for when we go to India...

The unfortunate irony of being in Mt Cook's snowfall was that we never actually saw Mt Cook. We still thought the trip there is extremely worthwhile with the surrounding mountains that encompass the tiny village, you do literally live amongst giants and you never quite get over that view.

Day 4 - We Love Wanaka!

We didn't exactly want to leave our snow lodge in Mt Cook so we definitely took our time packing up and exploring more. The best part of hostels are always the people, our lovely friends had suggested the Hooker Valley Track and ensured we were well fed (with donuts and cupcakes) before leaving.

The track was stunning and we were lucky enough to see part of the valley before the clouds set in. Unfortunately half of the track is closed however you still see the great lakes and mountains of Hooker Valley.

The 2 and a half hour drive to Wanaka was still picturesque as you're never far from a mountain in New Zealand. We were surprised at the sheer amount of people in Wanaka (at least 1000) as the town seems to come out of nowhere, situated in amongst mountains and seemingly in the middle of nowhere. But there were eateries, bars and good vibes, the first of its kind in NZ.

We spent some time exploring the town and made our way to our accommodation, which i must say was shockingly bad!

We stayed in a 'cabin' in Lake Hawea Holiday Park. Our 'cabin' had no running water, no heating, no bathroom and no soundproofing. It was essentially a cement room in the woods in sub zero weather. I would not recommend anyone stay here without a camper or your own amenities!

Day 5 - Everest (Our Favourite Day)

After reading other travel blogs on NZ i noticed the must do item was hiking Roy's Peak, and of course, we had to follow suit.

We went into Wanaka for some breakfast and secured a sausage roll and egg & bacon pie (this is all we ate before the hike...whoops) and drove 6 minutes to Roy's carpark.

Let me set the record straight. We are not hikers and we honestly aren't physically fit. We

also do not own any kind of hiking equipment like those weird boots or rescue kits.

We arrived at this hike in our adidas sneakers and macpac jackets. I also for some reason, thought the hike was only 3km up and 3 down.

And yet... we still made it.

When we pulled up in our sneakers and jackets we received some very unwelcoming glares from some prepared hikers... we mocked their stretching in return.

Sidenote - My pet peeve is when people act serious about superfluous things, like hiking a

hill.

We began the hike believing we were in for a 6km return and lost the glaring carpark hikers within 10 minutes (we were quite pleased).

Roy's Peak trail begins horribly. It is an continuous uphill climb that is no doubt, very difficult. However with multiple breaks and determination to beat the carpark hikers, we continued upward and onward.

The hike ventures through a locals farmland so we had many friends along the way, some more encouraging than others, all of them upsetting (the sheep were faster than us).

The higher we climbed, the icier the trail became and the more careful us, in sneakers, had to be. I guess hiking boots or those shoe chains would've come in handy but they aren't necessary (we saw a guy come down in slides). After about 2 and a half hours, we made it to the lookout where the most scenic toilet stood 1500 metres above sea level.

We then made our way to the summit which had the iciest path and most dangerous drop off... I was nervous, Eddie was not. We only slipped once, I think, and made it to the top where we sat above the clouds and indulged in a banana and cereal bar admiring our efforts.

The view from the summit was absolutely breathtaking, iced capped mountain ranges and clouds as far as the eye can see, the camera truly doesn't do it justice.

I really wasn't looking forward to the descent, but what goes up must go down. The summit path was the slipperiest and I did end up bum-sliding down the really scary parts. However once we made it back to the lookout we only had the now extremely wet and slippery mud to worry about.

We squelched our way back down the mountain, encountering more friends along the way and found out when we reached the bottom, the hike was actually 16km!

We were pleased to find no carpark glarer's and felt we had proven ourselves in the hiking community. Next stop Kilimanjaro!

That night we stayed at Adventure Hostel Wanaka which turned out to be my favourite hostel, sorry Haka House. The place was full of young travelers that we had a good laugh with. We experienced Wanaka's nightlife with our new friends visiting Rhyme X Reason's band night and Woody's sports bar for some darts.

We fell in love with Wanaka as it offered big city experiences in a smalltown with some amazing people!

Day 6 - We got Scammed

We did the 3 hour drive to Te Anau from Wanaka through Arrowtown (which doesn't need more than 20 minutes) intending to see Milford Sound the next day. We had booked 2 nights at Manapouri Lakeside Hotel. When we arrived the place was empty with a temporarily closed sign up and no staff or guests anywhere. We drove to the local bar to ask what they knew about it and they said they get a lot of travelers coming through that were also scammed. The place goes by 3 different names and falsely advertises on multiple websites. We are still trying to get our money back.

We had to book last minute accommodation at Te Anau Holiday Park to which we were grateful and enjoyed our stay.

Day 6 was quite uneventful due to our misplaced optimism in Te Anau's activities (there really isn't anything to do in NZ) so we cooked up a storm (frozen pizza) and did some work on our remote jobs.

Day 7 - Milford Sound

We left our holiday park early to embark on our Milford Sound cruise, we scored half price tickets on bookme.com. The drive to Milford Sound is gorgeous and unlike any other road in NZ, however it is extremely icy, more so than Mt Cook and especially in the morning before the sun is out. However the drive is a rewarding one and you won't regret doing it yourself (the bus tours aren't worth it).

Our cruise lasted 2 hours and operated on the same route as every other one. Milford Sound was remarkable however we did think it was a little overhyped. The cruise itself was extremely informative, teaching us the history of the fjord and the sea lions that call it home. Eddie is quite adamant on how interesting the history is so feel free to email him and ask about it woodybutcher@gmail.com!

The cruise did also provide free hot chocolate which was a major benefit considering it was -2 degrees outside and the commentary was very entertaining.

We ended the day by booking some more last minute accommodation on cafe WIFI due to our previous scam and spent another night in Te Anau at Tasman Holiday Park. We booked this one instead as it advertised a free hot tub for guests (Eddie really likes hot tubs and seeing as i already denied him the hot springs i thought we'd indulge). We were disappointed to learn that all hot tubs in NZ cost over $70 which is ridiculous in my opinion and we would love to know why if there are any Kiwi's out there!

Day 8 - Pizza Hut

The day we discovered Pizza Hut. We had another long drive, from Te Anau to Dunedin (3 hrs 30 mins) I would love to say we stopped off in multiple towns but there truly wasn't anything except bathrooms that were worthwhile.

We spent most of the day driving and resting and we did come across Gore, awful name for a town however it was home to our bank accounts saving grace, pizza hut. Thankyou for $6 pizzas!!

We didn't stop again until we reached Dunedin which arguably, had some more going on, we just caught it in the off season. This notorious uni-town fell silent as the students are on break, we still explored the city centre and the infamous castle street, staying in Up-Town Backpackers which was a little claustrophobic but still a comfortable stay.

Dunedin reminds me of San Francisco, not that I've been, but I have indulged in The Princess Diaries on numerous occasions. The streets are all steep and its even home to the steepest street in the world! Its not that exciting unless you're my dad, but still an interesting fact and we did drive both up and down it, giving our rental car a run for its money.

We spent our night cooking (2 minute noodles) and getting some more much needed work done.

Day 9 - Penguins!

We spent the morning driving Dunedin's Peninsula, which we wouldn't recommend purely because its quite boring. Then made our way to Omaru, home of the smallest penguin in the world!

Eddie was unfathomably excited. I was pleased.

The drive to Omaru (an hour and a half) was a lot more coastal compared to the inland roads we had been taking. We stopped in at Moreaki Beach, home to the apparently famous boulders I'd never heard of (Eddie found this attraction). The boulders resembled the rocks on any Australian beach except they were round...wow. However the attraction did have a farm attached and I got to pet a pig which definitely fulfilled a dream of mine.

Omaru is a lovely seaside town with lots of eateries, museums and of course, the Penguin Colony. We checked into our first lodge stay which I must say was brilliant. We slept at Old Bones Lodge which was a little out of the way, located in amongst farmland, on the seaside but the peace and quiet of our own room was really really nice.

Karen, the owner, explained to us that the penguin colony charge $50 NZ to see the penguins return home, however if we didn't want to spend that kind of money, some penguins get lost in the harbor and have to walk the road back home.

So we took a chance. We drove out to the harbor at dusk and join the cheapskates penguin watching crew that had assembled on the beach and waited about an hour before the first penguin sighting.

They really were tiny! Blue Penguins only grow to 30cm so seeing them in the dark was not easy and half the time I wasn't sure if I was looking at a penguin or a gnome.

Day 10 - Queenstown

We did the 3 and a half hour drive from Omaru to Queenstown which was remarkably uneventful but the mountains as always made it an interesting drive for Eddie, the podcasts I had downloaded made it interesting for me! If you'd like to see more of New Zealand's drives check out our TikTok @bootsaroundtheworld

We arrived in Queenstown late afternoon and were really pleased to actually see things going on! Its so busy there we actually struggled to find a parking space (Park St- its free and there's always a space!). We cooked a hearty spag bol and enjoyed our hostel, Absoloot Hostel, right on Queenstown's waterfront.

The evening was spent walking Queenstown's streets, window shopping, and sampling free fudge. We looked at the Gondola and the Luge but had been previously warned against it from another traveler and thought twice about that not-so adventurous adventure. We opted for an early night and a bit of work instead and would enjoy Queenstown properly the next day.

Day 11- Pickles!

An enjoyable day. We had planned to visit Glenorchy and meet up with our friend from Fiji!

We set off for Glenorchy quite early but were met with disappointment as the clouds had settled and the town was smothered in fog. You could tell it was normally quite beautiful, we were just unlucky. We visit the general store for a cup of coffee and spent the morning eavesdropping on dissatisfied travelers.

Taking off back to Queenstown, we planned to do some more exploring before meeting our friends for ice skating (Eddies idea, I absolutely hate ice skating!!!).

The Ice Rink turned out to be a lot of fun, watching Eddie fall down and knock cones over gives me quite the belly laugh and reuniting with our friend Pickles was great!

We spent the rest of the arvo checking in, we stayed in Ramada Suites which to our delight, had a washer and dryer meaning we didn't have to pay to wash our clothes!! Trust me its a brilliant feeling!

That night we joined Queenstown's bar hopping nightlife and reminisced about our time in Fiji.

Day 12 - A Day in Pouj

This was the day we had brilliantly planned to drive 6 hours to Christchurch as we have to return the car by 9am the next day.

We had breakfast with our friends and fully prepared our suitcases for our flights and car trip. Then we hit the road. We hit the road for a while in our little car, Pouj.

As you can imagine today didn't involve a lot. We listened to quite a few podcasts (all comedy) and jammed to some interesting radio stations.

We stopped off in Lake Tekapo again and it was blue this time! We were quite pleased to see it blue and understand the hype. We got some hot food counter chicken and rice for lunch and hit the road again for the next 3 hours.

We were actually happy to be back in Christchurch and slept at Lylo which was a pod hostel, and quite a fun one!

Our task that evening was to clean out the car so it was ready to take back the next morning and then repack our bags to be plane ready.

We finished off the last of our rations and survived on Hostel free food the rest of our stay.

Day 13 - Christchurch... Again

In the morning we dropped off Pouj, did some planning and work then got hungry and decided to give Christchurch another chance.

We traveled the bus line in (you can pay cash or buy a metro card) and explored the Botanic Gardens (meh) and walk the Avon River (the ducks were nice).

Going off tiktok recommendations, we visited the riverside market, realised we couldn't afford their overpriced tourism 'market', and went to the nearest PAK n' SAVE! Our favourite!

With growling stomachs we ate in the carpark and ubered back to Lylo.

Back at the hostel we continued our work, Eddie wrote his part of the blog, and we settled in for a well deserved movie night as we packed our carry on and prepared for our next destination... Cairns, Australia!

Day 14 - Goodbye NZ

I'm writing this on our flight which left at 8am. We are officially on our way to Cairns for our next adventure: 20 hours in Cairns.

Ed's Spread - Ed on tour!

New Zealand, where do I begin, the most beautiful country yet most boring country I've visited (after 5pm). We spent many evenings doing… well nothing. Most towns and even some of the bigger cities such as Christchurch shut up shop and all the people seem to evaporate by about 5pm.

However, that said I can't recommend a trip to New Zealand enough, the truly magnificent scenery more than makes up for it’s disappointing nightlife. If you're an alcoholic and that's just not good enough for you, fortunately you can head to Wanaka or Queenstown both of which do have great bars and pubs and overall both are great places to get hammered (just don't try anywhere else).

If you are going to make the trip to NZ (which you should!) for the love of all things good please, please rent a car.

Driving is the best way to see the country, it's almost as if you are never further than a five minute drive from majestic mountains, luminous lakes and ‘weird’ wildlife. When I say weird, on our first day of driving we encountered around 50 cows in the middle of the road, some of which were ‘making ice cream’ together (as a family member commented when I sent him the video of our dairy infused roadblock).

My favourite part of the trip has to have been climbing Roy's Peak, which by the way, is higher than Ben Nevis, Mount Snowdon and the famous Snoop Dogg. Fueled on sausage rolls and nothing else we reached the peak in about three and a half hours. The views from the top were stunning and well worth the long ascent. 

Other favorable moments include staying in the hostels, which have been second to none compared to ones I've stayed in elsewhere in the world. Seeing the blue penguins, going on a boat trip in Milford Sound, seeing it in all its glory as well as visiting old friends we made in Fiji.

The only things I can pick out which let it down was obviously its lack of nightlife, and the journey back from Queenstown to Christchurch where a traffic cop managed to clock me going a dangerous 7kmph (4mph) over the speed limit which for reference is about half the speed of a chicken and resulted in a $120 fine. New Zealand gets an 8.5/10 the most beautiful country I’ve ever visited just let down by the lack of night-time activities.

Summary

All in all we did not need 2 weeks in New Zealand.

The country is absolutely beautiful but there really isn't enough to do as budget travelers.

If you are skiing or can afford a skydive, then this is the place for you but as young travelers that saw most of the Island, I'd rate New Zealand a solid 6.5. I loved the scenery, the hikes we did and the hostel friends we made but the country itself does not offer many 'young' activities.

I think its great for a week long holiday destination but if you're looking for a good time and budget travel, then this isn't the place for you.

The Important Stuff (Everything is in NZ Currency)

You absolutely need a car to get around NZ as there are no public transport networks along the South Islands main roads and coaches cost more than a car would!

We rented from Budgetrentals.com and selected the mystery car as we didn't mind what we got and the added mystery made it more exciting! We got a Hyundai i30 and our little Pouj worked perfectly for us!

Car rental + Insurance for 12 days = $790

We did accommodation on a budget and spent maximum $120 AUD per night, below is the list of places we stayed and the price FOR TWO people:

BreakFree on Cashel - $93

Haka House Lake Tekapo - $107

Haka House Mt Cook - $130

Lake Hawea Holiday Park - $80

Adventure Hostel - $93

Te Anau Holiday Park - $65

Tasman Holiday Park - $93

Uptown Backpackers - $72

Old Bones Lodge - $76

Absoloot Hostel $110

Ramada Suites on Wyndham - $156

Lylo, Christchurch - $131 (2 nights)

We budgeted for food and cooked most of our meals, otherwise we would buy meals from hot food counters in grocery stores or a $6 pizza from Pizza Hut.

Our Food total: 167

Of course cars do not run without petrol!

Our petrol total: $396

Overall we spent $2846 over 2 weeks or $203 NZ per day in New Zealand's beautiful South Island!