This is actually my last New Zealand post (I know, you're crying on the inside). It spans the week and a half before we made it home, but there are far fewer pictures, so I just combined them all together. You know the drill by now, let's check out our itinerary on the map:
Zoomed out:
We actually did numbers 1-5 in one day and then the next day backtracked from 5 back down to 4 in order to get to 6, the last stop on our road trip. Confused yet? It doesn't really matter, let's just do it!
So, we woke up from our "campsite" in Oamaru (it was basically a parking lot on the beach) and drove to Dunedin, which is known as the "Little Scotland" of New Zealand. Completely random, but we were passing by, so we had to check it out.
We only drove through (we had a long day of driving ahead) and it was rainy, so my pictures are very rushed and kinda gloomy. Even though we only got to pass through and snap pictures from the car, we could tell it was a magical place and wished we could have stayed longer (maybe not a full day, just a few hours to walk around).
The buildings are exquisite! I feel like I'm in Edinburgh all over again (I went once in high school and it was completely gorgeous), even the weather was a perfect fit.
Off to the next stop! We drove south to The Catlins, which is almost at the very bottom of the island (check out the handy dandy map up top for reference). There is a Catlins National Park, but we were just planning a drive-by, simply to check out the scenery, especially since it was raining pretty hard. Once you get that far south on the South Island, there isn't much in the way of civilization, which is both incredibly refreshing and incredibly scary. There are a lot of unpaved roads in this area and not many signs, so GPS really came through for us once again because getting lost out here would be a bit of a nightmare. We were all about the natural landscapes on this drive, unfortunately the weather really hindered my ability to take decent pictures. If you notice, there are no buildings or even houses as far as the eye can see in any of these pictures because hardly anyone lives down here. We saw some tourists, but not even many of those venture this far south.
Like I said, the weather wasn't cooperating, so we didn't really get pictures of The Catlins, we actually didn't even really know what part of the drive The Catlins WAS, but I took a couple shots while we were driving, so maybe this is it:
Check out all these sheep:
We made it to Curio Bay when we finally stopped. I forgot to put Curio Bay on my map, so I took a quick pic of my Lonely Planet map and circled our stops:
So, at the very bottom you can see Curio bay right below The Catlins. After that we took the route through Invercargill and up to Te Anau and finally to The Milford Sound area to camp for the night. But that's getting way too far ahead, so let's backtrack and enjoy Curio Bay for a moment:
So pretty, even with the rain! So, this is the very bottom of the South Island. At this point, we've been to the tip top of the North Island and the very bottom of the South Island. Pretty bad ass.
On our way up the other side, we ran into a petrified forest, which was unlike any petrified forest I've ever seen:
We saw the rare yellow-eyed penguin the other day in Oamaru, remember?
Enough stupid signage, lady! Get to the good stuff already!
Where's Aaron?
Okay, that one was terrible. My bad.
It was less a petrified forest and more a petrified beach. Way cool though, either way.
Mooooooving on!
Hehehe, get it? Yea I know, I'm the worst. Apologies.
Another failed attempt at a cow selfie:
Maybe they're mad at the fact that my purse is Italian leather? Kind of rude of me to have cows and my purse in the same shot, huh? This is my "I'm so sorry" face.
We made it to Te Anau. The only notable thing about the tiny town of Te Anau is the Miles Better Pie Shop (at least that's all I noticed), where they make unique hand pies. I don't know if "hand pies" is the correct terminology, but they're small personal-sized pies. There, is that better? Check out the menu:
Hand pies (it'll catch on) are big in NZ. They're in every bakery, grocery store and gas station. They're the perfect food for someone wanting something cheap and hot and convenient. They're mostly considered a fast food, but this places makes them all fancy and crap.
We got a lamb and mint, a thai chicken and an apple/blueberry, which we will enjoy for dinner after we find a campsite.
Now that we've stocked up on supplies and gas, we were headed off to The Milford Sound area. We weren't planning to drive up to the sound in the evening, just planning to camp nearby and head up in the morning. The Milford Sound is a vast body of water surrounded by giant landforms (yup, I just gave you the textbook definition of a 'sound.' Don't say I never taught you nothin'!).
Can I just say: wow, just wow. Once we were in the Milford area, it was just gorgeous!! Even the weather couldn't take away from the sheer, intense beauty enveloping us as we drove deeper and deeper into sound-vicinity.
Since we were driving and it was kinda gloomy weather, it was impossible to capture anything worthwhile, so here are some pictures once we found our campsite (for free! Whoop! Whoop!! Thank you Campermate!).
At this point, it's been about 3 days since we'd had more than a hooker shower (excuse my French), so even though it was absolutely freezing AND raining, we parked next to this lake, put on our bathing suits, got out the soap and ran towards the water. We definitely didn't get in, but we filled up a bunch of empty water bottles and washed our bodies and hair/beard.
We probably looked like complete idiots to the other campers (even though no one was nearby), but it felt SO good to be somewhat clean. It was probably one of the crazier things we'd done on this trip (it was DAMN cold, like I could see snow in the distance), but we were just giddy with laughter and stupidity, dancing in the rain as we washed soap off our bodies. Thinking about it makes me feel both cold and warm inside. Aaron took a video the next morning.
We snuggled up inside Pooey afterwards and ate our pies. Here's lamb and mint:
Here's Thai chicken (I had to use flash, as it was dark at this point):
The pictures look gross, but the flavors were delicious! They definitely would have been better hot, but they hit the spot for sure. They look small, but they're super filling, so we saved the apple/blueberry for breakfast.
Nighty night!
The next morning, we woke up early and set out for the sound. We ate the apple/blueberry pie:
Again delicious, but would have been better fresh and warm.
Pics on the way to the sound:
See the rainbow?
How bout now?
These are all driving pics and it was still raining steadily and I was balancing a pie in my hand, so this was the best I could do, but it was absolutely beautiful.
We got to the parking lot of the Milford Sound, but it turns out it's pretty far to get to the actual sound or lookout by foot. You can book a boat tour through the sound (which "sound"ed amazing (LOL, I'm on fire!)), but we didn't have time, so we just turned around the backtracked all the way to Te Anau. Sounds lame and it was, but we were glad we got to drive up there and stay the night in one of the most amazing places we'd ever seen.
Here are pics of the Milford Sound I got online:
Obviously, these look way retouched, but you get the idea. It's stunning.
We made it back to Te Anau and stopped for gas, then drove all the way to our last stop, Queenstown. Queenstown is in my eyes, the most breathtaking big city in New Zealand. It's nestled in the middle of a breathtaking 360 degree view of mountains and lakes. Just wow.
I'll admit pictures were the last thing on our minds because it was at this point I started to feel really short of breath. I had been feeling it off and on for days, but that day was the worst by far and we got scared and rushed to the medical clinic in town. We waited for a few hours and the doctor said it was probably a recurrence of the virus I had in Buenos Aires, but he was unable to say for sure without tests (tests=lots of money), so I just opted to take the medicine he recommended without the tests. We decided to take it WAY easy the rest of the day (the meds kicked in pretty quick and I started to feel a little better, but I would still have waves of shortness of breath), but I still wanted to see everything, so we walked around, slowly.
This was in the middle of town:
Aaron wanted us to stop walking and just go find a campsite, so I could rest, but I knew there was one other thing we had to do first. Fergburger. It had been recommended by a couple friends we made at our hostel in Cairns, Australia. They said we HAD to go to Fergburger. So, we HAD to go to Fergburger. Apparently, everyone HAD to go to Fergburger:
See me in my purple jacket at the back of the line? Yup, it's raining and we're all standing in line like idiots for burgers. Aaron took a video of us walking to Fergburger.
Menu:
Aaron got the Chief Wiggum, which was a pork belly burger with hash browns and all the fixings. I got the Tropical Swine, which was a NZ beef burger with bacon, pineapple and all the fixings.
We waited about half an hour, including ordering and waiting for our order (they're very proficient in burger-making):
It's super cramped inside and practically impossible to find a seat, so we took our burgers to go. Aaron took another video (man we are way too excited about burgers).
We signed the guestbook:
Dope.
We found a campsite right outside of Queenstown that cost about $20 for both of us (all the overnight parking lots in the city were crazy expensive).
The sheep here aren't even behind a fence, they're in the open:
Hey cutie!
We parked and ate our burgers:
Aaron's Chief Wiggum:
My Tropical Swine:
Totally worth the wait, they were delectable! And huge!
The night was young, but I needed rest, so we just laid back and watched movies on Aaron's phone until I passed out.
The next morning the sun was shining:
We drove back into Queenstown for a tiny bit more exploring before we had to depart:
Much more inviting in the sunshine, isn't it?
It was at this point I started to feel terrible again, so we went back to the same doctor, who prescribed me some stronger medication and strongly recommended that we postpone our flights. It wasn't recommended that I fly while my breathing was so unstable, not to mention the toll flying and travelling takes on the body. We talked about it awhile and decided it was for the best that we postpone our flights for a week, just to be safe. It wasn't an easy or cheap decision, but looking back I'm glad we did it because I was already very anxious (not being able to breathe does that to ya) and to feel that way for 2 days of non-stop flying would have been really dangerous.
Instead, we kept Pooey and drove back up to the top of the South Island, where we hopped the ferry and once on the North Island, rented another car and drove straight to Auckland, where we got a nice motel room near the airport and shacked up for about 5 days, until our new flights. None of it was easy and I felt a huge amount of guilt for not arriving home when everyone was expecting/planning and also for spending an exorbitant amount of money to just sit in a motel room. It was complete lunacy, but in the end, I'm still glad I did it.
I didn't really take any pictures during that week, just mostly stayed in bed and rested. We did find some new favorite sports:
A couple days before we were to get home, Sophia emailed me this gem (WARNING: this is not for the squeamish):
Capone tried to crawl under a fence and got his face stuck and a chunk ripped off. Just typical.
It was finally time to fly home! I was feeling a ton better (and just a quick update: I've gone to the doctor since I've been home and had a bunch of tests done and other than a precautionary antiviral I take for a few months and a stronger inhaler to get my lungs back in shape, I'm totally fine. Okay, that sounds a lot worse than it is, I swear I'm really fine). My foot was still an issue though:
Now, that sucker's just as bad as it looked. I was so nervous to wear my tennis shoes because my foot was still kinda swollen, but it turned out fine.
We flew from Auckland to Sydney, Australia (no idea why we went backwards, it was cheaper), which was about 3 hours. Then we flew from there to Los Angeles, CA (again, cheaper), which was our longest flight yet, at almost 14 hours. It was rough, but American Airlines knows Americans pretty darn well. We were so well fed, I was stuffed most of the flight (for some reason, it never occurred to me to just say no to a free meal). We got breakfast, lunch, dinner and multiple snacks (and by snacks I mean sliders, hot dogs and gourmet ice cream). It's like how Hobbits must eat (there was definitely an elevensies). On top of stuffing our fat faces, we got to watch all the new movies!
I watched Star Wars (super good), The Danish Girl (amazing), Carole (trash disaster), Room (fantastic), The Big Short (very informative, but kinda confusing. I don't wanna think that much on a plane, while enjoying my elevensies) and part of the one where it's Christmas and Seth Rogan takes a bunch of drugs (pretty hilarious, but I did fall asleep).
Almost there (haha not!):
When we finally arrived in Los Angeles, we had a 5 hour layover and my aunt and uncle (who live in Hollywood) picked us up and took us to breakfast in Hermosa Beach. It was great to see familiar faces, but we were completely gross and unfit to be seen in public. Outside of an airport or maybe a coal mine, a thick layer of blackish dirt/grease on your face is just unacceptable. We took pictures anyway:
To top it all off, once we got back to the airport to board our final flight, it was delayed a couple hours! Aaron slept on the disgusting airport floor as a big F-you to the establishment:
You tell 'em babe!
Then it was our final flight from LA to San Francisco. When we landed and heard the stewardess say "Welcome to San Francisco," Aaron and I looked at each other and smiled. At that moment, we knew we had done it. We had traveled the world...together.
Our dear friend, Hogan, picked us up (at our request because he was the one who had dropped us off at the airport a year ago!). We tried to recreate the picture we took a year ago, but it was raining and we were so tired, so we just snapped a quickie:
A bit worse for the wear, but not too different from a year ago:
Okay, wait a minute! We look totally different! Crazy what a year can do to you!
The rest of these I've posted before, but since I'm leading into us coming home, I'll just repost a few.
We arrived home and saw my dad, brother and his girlfriend, but my mom was on a pre-planned trip to Seattle (she was planning for us to be home a week ago, remember?). We went to our storage to get some of our clothes (we couldn't stand to be in the same clothes for one more second) and Aaron got his year-long wish: Taco Bell:
I swear I saw a tear in his eye. Pathetic.
The next morning, we went to get the dogs.
Sophia took a video. It's on Facebook, so I'm not sure if everyone can watch it freely, but these pictures were screenshots from the video, so it's basically the same thing.
Ryan and Sophia, no words can express what you've done for all 4 of us. You are total saints and we are forever grateful!!!
We got them home and it took awhile for all of us to readjust, but they were definitely happy we were back:
Aaron's sister, Melissa, threw us a welcome home party and his whole family came:
I finally unpacked and organized all our travel stuff a couple weeks later. Don't judge me, it was a lot of stuff:
Here are all the postcards we collected for little Jaycie:
and all the shot glasses (from each country there's one for us and one for my brother):
A few broke in the mail, but we still made out pretty good.
So, that's the end of our adventure! Thank you to everyone who read this blog and kept up with our year! I hope you all enjoyed the ride!! I sure enjoyed sharing it with you!
If there are any takeaways from this blog, I hope they go something like this:
1. I hope that you discover the uselessness of fear and the power of dreams. I think we're all preconditioned to follow certain predictable paths in life (which is fine, if that makes you happy), but IF in the deep down depths of your imagination, you DREAM of something different, don't be afraid to embrace it. We never imagined we could do something like this until we asked ourselves the simple question: "Why not?" We were ordinary people with normal lives, the only difference is we followed that tiny, nagging voice inside telling us to go for it...and we'll never regret it. We didn't let the fear win, which is something that doesn't come naturally to me. It's something I have to work at all the time. In my experience, you regret the things you DON'T do, not the things you take a chance on, even if you fail.
2. I hope you see how easy and affordable it can be to travel. Sure, airports and trains suck sometimes, but the fact we can be across the world in a day is amazing! If you plan ahead, you can find totally affordable, and equally beautiful places to visit around the globe. We were not expert travelers when we left home (Aaron had only ever been to Mexico a couple times before this trip), and sometimes it was definitely frustrating figuring things out on the fly, but it was by no means impossible and it was beyond worth it (sometimes it was even part of the fun). If anyone ever needs travel advice, email me! I might as well be a travel agent at this point.
3. I hope you realize that we're all more alike than we are different. We met incredible people on our travels and made friends around the world. We might have different homes, cultures and beliefs, but at the end of the day we all essentially want the same things: to live without fear, to be happy, to provide for our families and watch them grow. You'd be surprised how much in common you have with someone with whom you can't even speak the same language. One of my dearest friends for over 15 years is Japanese and neither of us really speaks the other's language (she speaks VERY broken English). Somehow it just works because I can see her smile and know what she means. From everything I've seen in my life, I think it makes much more sense to include, rather than exclude people simply because they're not the same as you. It just feels better on every possible level of humanity.
Okie dokie, folks! That about does it for our travels! I'm not sure how long I'll keep posting, I guess as long as I have stuff to post and people are reading, I'll keep doing it as much as I can, so stay tuned!!
Remember folks: Adventure Is Out There! I found mine, now it's your turn!!
