New Zealand Honeymoon Week 2

Almost a year since the last post 😂 - but it's nice to look back on this trip.

Day 8

On our second day in Queenstown we went on a jet boat ride with KJet. It was a lot of fun speeding down the river and doing some 360 spins in more open water. After that we went to the Kiwi Birdlife Park which was a nice little park with some native birds and reptiles, including Kiwis and a really intersting creature called a Tuatara. We then went to a local pizza place for dinner and had a nice bottle of wine in the evening.

Day 9

On day 9 we needed to drive to our next stop Lake Tekapo, but we stopped off at a few places on the way. First we went to Arrowtown which is a small town with a lot of history from the gold rush. We had a little ding on the car when someone backed into us in a car park, but it wasn't too bad.

We had another couple of stops on the way including Wanaka, where we had a small walk and went to see #ThatWanakaTree. We arrived at Lake Tekapo in the early evening and went for a walk near the lake by a small church with some great views of the mountains at sunset.

Day 10

We started the day with a big breakfast across the road from our lovely apartment and then backtracked a little on the day before to drive to Mount Cook. We had a helicopter ride booked but unfortunately the weather was too cloudy so we had to cancel. We still had a nice day though, we went to the Mount Cook Visitor Centre and did some hiking to see the glaciers and walked the Hooker Valley Track.

Day 11

We tried our luck again for a scenic flight over the mountains at a place we saw nearby, but we arrived a few minutes too late to get on a morning flight. We saw it take-off just as we parked up! 🤦

We had a long drive to Kaikoura though so we couldn't stick around. We stopped off at the International Antarctic Centre near Christchurch on the way which was really interesting. We saw some little blue penguins and Huskies before getting back on the road to drive up the coast to Kaikoura.

Day 12

We had a boat trip booked to see some dolphins but the sea was too rough so this had to be cancelled. We went on a whale watching flight instead though which was really cool - we got to see a Sperm whale and some dolphins from the air. We then went for a walk around the Kaikoura Peninsula Walkway and saw a seal colony.

We had some great BBQ chicken wings from a local pub and then drove to Picton where we were getting the ferry to Wellington the next day.

Day 13

This day was mostly spent on the ferry to Wellingotn. We were quite worried about it being cancelled or moved as it was happening a lot at the time - but luckily all was fine and we had a nice crossing to the North Island. We settled into our hotel and went for a walk around and to get some food :)

Day 14

We had breakfast at the hotel and then headed to the Weta Workshop for a tour. It was really interesting to see a bunch of costumes and props from films like Lord of the Rings.

We then went to the Te Papa Museum and went to a couple of exhibits like the Gallipoli War exhibit, which featured some huge sculptures of soldiers created by Weta Workshop and the earth/animal exhibit where I saw the Giant Squid again (I'd seen it on my previous trip to NZ in 2009).

We had a walk around the harbour and then into the city centre before heading back to the hotel and ordering some food in.