Phew!
It’s been over a week since we returned to Christchurch.
Mid-March we took a month off work to travel the South Island of New Zealand.
Most of our research has said that it’s cheaper to travel in the shoulder season so that’s why we decided to do.

I know for most people who will read this it’s probably coming into Spring where you are but here Autumn is turning this already beautiful country into a very colourful place!

This is where I post the warning that the next several blog posts I will write, will mainly be about New Zealand. Or at least what we did in further detail.  So if you have no interest in NZ…jog on!

This post is just a quick overview of what we did in our month.  We are EXTREMELY slow travellers.  Spending days rather than hours in little places no-one has ever heard of, so this isn’t by any means a roadmap to follow.
Unless you love to chill in one spot reading or painting (or are obsessed with walking every.single.trail) you may get bored doing the same trail/timeframe as us.

Week 1

We started out with our housemates Jose & Felipe.
During this week on our little road trip we visited;

• Lake Tekapo
• Lake Pukaki
• Mount Cook Village
• Did the Mueller Hut Trek
• Oamuru
• SteamPunk HQ
• Moreaki Boulders
• Dunedin
• The Catlins National Park

The more knowledgeable NZ folks will be like “But how the hell did you stretch that out for a week!!??”
Well, ahem, we had a bit of an incident on the Mueller Hut Trek that forced us to go back to Christchurch for 2 days & rethink our lives… I’ll spill the beans on that one later.

Week 2

This week was by far the coldest & wettest I’ve been in at least 3 years…
This area is spectacular but would I do it again? Maybe not.

• Slope Point
• Invercargill
• Clifden Caves
• Manapouri & Te Anua
• Kepler Track
• Dead Marshes
• Milford Sound!!!
• Key Summit
  

  

  

Week 3

• Kingston (the best little Airbnb)
• The Remarkables
• Queenstown, and yes of course Fergburger
• Glenorchy
• Arrowtown
• Wanaka
• Roy’s Peak Trek
• Franz Josef

You might have figured out from the map we actually MISSED out Fox Glacier & Hokitika! Blasphemy!
This was not out of choice.
Our luck ran out when we head a few road bumps (and nearly a few possums).  I got sick in Wanaka & then towards the end of the week a storm started to head our way!
We decided to pick up the pace.

Week 4

Storm hit!
Unfortunately, we knew that if it got really bad, some of the roads could have been closed & we wouldn’t have been able to make it back home in time!
You can’t ever really predict what’s going to happen with New Zealand weather so we bailed.
But we did take the time and opportunity to explore;

• Christchurch
• Kaikoura
• Hanmer Springs
  

  

  

  

When we said we were slow travelers we meant it!

Despite a few snags, we’ve decided we can always go back to the places we missed or want to see again.
It’s not like Australia where you can be driving for days and still not get to where you want to be!
We’re so fortunate to have seen the places we have and feel very grateful! All the warm fuzzies!

P.s
And it gave me time to paint!
I can’t wait to apply this to some products in my store!

Keep an eye out for Society6.com/erinreki