STILL on the South Island!

   It has been soo long since I’ve last updated.. but I’ve been busy! I was on the move for 3 whole weeks, and then I spent my last few days in the country enjoying Wellington with Mum. We have had such a blast exploring! We've been driving tons, and I was driving for a few weeks before she got here. On the road, I've seen lots of the same things, and it's all pretty weird! Here are some of the things I've seen a lot of while driving:

  ~ bee boxes

  ~ SHEEP, cows, and deer

  ~ mountains (snowcapped as well as green and lush)

  ~ vineyards and farmland

  ~ one lane bridges

  ~ campervans

  ~ impatient drivers (not in campervans)

  ~ the cheesiest road signs (DRINK DrIvE)

These things are everywhere! Anyways...

   Last Saturday, Mum and I woke up early in Invercargill. We were in no rush for the day, and didn’t have much planned for the day except the drive to Dunedin and the Speight’s brewery tour. So, we took our time getting ready, ate breakfast, got petrol, and we were outta there! Invercargill was bigger than I imagined, and it seemed like a cool place. I wish I had gotten to spend more time there… next time!

   From Invercargill, Mum and I drove to Bluff, the southernmost city in New Zealand. It was a quick 20 minute drive, and it was beautiful (per usual). We stopped at Splinter Point to see this neat sign:

World famous in New Zealand!

And also stopped at the Bluff Hill lookout. I would have like to have stayed longer, but it was SO cold and windy up there! It was absolutely unbearable. So, we ran up the spiral ramp to the top, snapped some photos, enjoyed the view for a second, and ran back down to the warmth of the car.

From Bluff Hill. That boat was huge, but it doesn't look it!

Stewart Island in the distance, NZ's third biggest island.

   New Zealand’s South Island in winter is no joke (although it’s still no Maine)! We hopped in the car and drove the Southern Scenic Route to Dunedin. It was beautiful, but through the middle of nowhere! Typical for the South Island…

   At this point, we still didn’t have Mum’s luggage. It didn’t arrive in Queenstown with her, so Air New Zealand was supposed to send it to Dunedin, so we could pick it up when we got there. As soon as we got to Dunedin, we headed over to the airport to pick it up. But… no luggage! We spent a while at the airport trying to sort it out, and apparently her bag was sent to Christchurch, but didn’t make it all the way through to Dunedin. How frustrating! However, the luggage problem was finally sorted out – Air NZ would send the bag to Dunedin that night and have it delivered to our backpackers. We’d been traveling for 6 days without her luggage, so we really hoped it would arrive that night!

   Once we finished in the airport, we went to check into our backpackers in Dunedin. It was a really nice place, but it was right on the side of the hill! Scary driving! We hung out in the hostel a bit, cooked dinner, and then walked down the hill to the Speight’s brewery. The tour was really cool! Our guide was a bit of a crazy old man, but he knew so much about Speight’s. Our favorite part of the tour was the end, when we had an all you can pour tasting session in the tap room. Mum and I tried all of the different beers and they were so good! The tour group kept chatting with our tour guide so we could stay longer… sneaky! Mum and I and a few others from the tour group went to the Speight’s pub next door for a while. We tried chocolate beer, and it definitely tasted as weird as it sounds. What a day!

Tour guide "Lez" and James Speight.

Good lookin' bartenders!

   We had another tour in store for Sunday in Dunedin, but this time, we toured the Cadbury chocolate factory. We had a big group with us, and since it was a Sunday, the manufacturing plant was closed. We didn’t get to see much. They were also doing construction, so part of the plant was closed off to us anyways.. kind of a bummer. But we did get to see a one-ton liquid chocolate waterfall, drink liquid chocolate, and get lots of free chocolates!

Cadbury world! We're standing in front of the Crunchie mountain.

   After the tour, we explored Dunedin for a while. We went to Baldwin Street, the steepest street in the world! It was not as steep as we imagined, although these pictures really don't do it justice.

We drove up that!

Driving down was even scarier.

   We planned to fly to Auckland at 6 that night, so we didn’t really have time to do anything else big that day. It was nice to see the city though – Dunedin looks really cool. We got to the airport a bit early, checked in, and waited for our flight. It took a little less than two hours to get to Auckland from Dunedin, and it was a great flight. We took the bus to our hostel, which unbeknownst to us, had lots of stairs to navigate with all our heavy luggage. Luckily we got help! It was pretty late by the time we got settled in, so we just made some popcorn, drank some cab franc from the winery (I’ve missed it!), and watched tv for a bit before bed. Traveling is getting the best of me at this point – I’m exhausted!

   Mum and I had a big day planned for Monday. We took the ferry over to Waiheke Island, my favorite place! We met up with Thomas, my camper van accomplice, and the three of us drove around the island all day and stopped at wineries. The weather in Auckland and on Waiheke was so much different than that of the South Island. It wasn’t freezing! I was actually too hot.. a very weird feeling after being so cold at the bottom of the country!

   The ferry ride over the Waiheke was beautiful, but windy! When we made it on the island, we rented a car, but didn’t get far afterwards. The car wouldn’t lock! We had to take it back and get another! That snafu didn’t keep us from our wine though! We went to 4 or 5 wineries, but with lots of driving in between. Waiheke is only 19 km long, but it takes quite a while to drive around the whole thing. It was the perfect day for it though, and we had a blast. When we weren’t lost that is! The map we had of the island must not be right, because we drove in so many circles! It was good fun trying to find our way back to the ferry terminal.

Oh how I miss my vines...

We like wine.

So typical.

   The three of us went to dinner on the island before taking the ferry back to Auckland in the evening. It was after 8 by the time we got back to the hostel, so the three of us did what Mum and I did the night before – yummy wine and popcorn! It was such a good day, and so good to be back on Waiheke!

<3