New Zealand - Part 1

New Zealand was incredible! The sights, the people, the sights, the food, the sights! The natural beauty of this country was so underrated, I felt overwhelmed at every turn. Australia was pretty, very beachy and fun, but NZ had this small town feel with mountains, greenery and beaches galore.

After spending near an entire month exploring mostly South Island, Matt and I still have a long to-do list of things for our next trip back.

We arrived in Christchurch on April 2nd and immediately picked up our new home on wheels: Jucy Chaser Camper aka Vinny the Van.

It was from there with our new friend Vinny that we proceeded to a small town called Methven to meet up with Matt’s friend Bobby. Bobby moved to NZ from the States a little over a year ago and hasn’t looked back since. Now that our journey is complete, Matt is extremely envious of him.

We stayed with Bobby for a few nights and set up the camper. He is a geologist, Dr. Dirt, so he was happy to take us on a nice hike towards Mt. Sunday. This was the mountain where some of the Lord of the Rings trilogy was made. Aside from its nerdy interactions, this area was our first peek of NZ’s natural beauty.

We packed up our stuff, said “Cheers” to Bobby and began our second road trip of this world adventure.

Our first loop was to cross over towards the west coast using Arthurs’s Pass, up the coast exploring Hokitika - Westport, then back to the East Coast through Murcheson, then down to explore the Hanmer Hot Springs and head back towards Christchurch. This entire loop took about a week.

Arthur’s Pass is a skinny road that winds you through the mountains, all around the forest and drops you at the sandy coastline. In the beginning of the Pass you can stop at a look out and find a Kea hanging about. Bobby described these birds as “flying monkeys”, and we were warned multiple times not to wear shiny things around them.

We camped out a few nights and made it to the tiny fun town called Hokitika. This area was right on the sand and had much natural beauty, but little nightlife. Thanks to Matt’s handy dandy tour book, we discovered that this city had a privately owned movie theater with couches for seats. We entered into this one room building and enjoyed a nice comfy showing of a movie called Get Low with Bill Murray. The owner was very friendly, and the experience was a perfect ending to a long day of driving.

We woke up the next morning ready to go, looked at the map and saw the next stop was the Pancake Rocks. Hearing this I became extremely hungry and couldn’t wait to stop there… They didn’t taste as good as I’d hoped but were incredible to see up close.

Up next, we headed north and found (Matt’s words) THE BEST CAMPING SPOT EVER!! It was free, which was great, and right off the beach. And according to a sign, we might see a penguin (we didn’t, unfortunatey).

We parked in and decided to take a nice stroll on the beach before making some dinner, when all of a sudden…I locked the keys in the van. Now in the last van, Matt let the battery die so everyone makes mistakes. We calmly and rationally (and loudly) expressed our plan of finding a house – the next one was 2km away – and asked to use a phone. Well the one house that was semi-near was vacant. So we walked to the street and Matt eagerly flagged down a sweet woman in a tiny car and asked for her cell phone. Tina introduced herself and offered to take us to her house around the corner. She graciously allowed Matt to look up the AA number (just two As in NZ, not AAA) while she made us a nice cup of coffee. The pop-a-lock guy came and all was well. Matt made us Van-rittos for dinner that were YUM!

The next day we were heading straight to Hamner Springs where I could enjoy some warm hot springs before dark. On our way we found this:

You can’t just not go on there… So we explored this long bridge and the fun areas around it. It was at this time I saw that you didn’t have to just walk back on the bridge, you could fly! Matt was chicken happy to walk back and take my picture.

We finished up on the bridge and headed straight for the pools. Now I didn’t take any pictures of these pools, mostly bc I was submerged into sulfur water, but also because I wanted to relax. This was like an adult water park filled with five different pools, all at different temperatures. And did I mention there were three different water slides? It was a great birthday eve for me ☺

I woke up the next morning in our RV park, headed for the outhouse showers and noticed my birthday gift from the RV Park owners.

I knew it was going to be a good day. We headed to Christchurch to meet up with our friend Kelly who we met in Sydney. He and his son joined us for lunch, and told us about the best places to see in the South Island. Now I don’t know many 13 year old boys--if I did that would be weird--but Kelly’s son Connor was the coolest kid ever. He knew all the band members to Led Zeppelin, quoted Family Guy and South Park, loved chocolate – Matt said that this just reaffirmed he married a little kid, lol. We said our goodbyes and back on the road

This still being my bday, Matt asked me what I wanted to do? I said, in these exact words, “I want to drink with a bunch of really old guys so I feel young.” Matt waved his wand and poof we were in a tiny pub in a tiny town called Amberly, in a pub filled with old men who just got off work. We made great friends, and the owner offered us a spot in the back to park over night.



By the end of the night, the back was rocking out to the juke box, everyone sang me “Happy Birthday” and I got a Kiwi Trucker hat and a drink on the house. Definitely one for the books.

The next morning we pulled out of the bar lot, and headed for a nearby beach parking lot to make breakfast. We finished our eggs and headed to Wine Land. No this isn’t an amusement park… although that’s a good idea… it was the land of different wineries. We picked the biggest one and strolled inside. Matt informed the wine expert that this was our first tasting. This gave this man a chance to roll out the big guns. We smelled, swirled, tasted and swished over 12 glasses of wine! Thank goodness we could chill in the camper afterwards. It was a blast, and the wine guide was drinking right along with us. We sobered up, had some lunch and started back toward Methven for laundry and relaxation.

On the way we stopped at Castle Hill Station so Matt could use the climbing shoes and chalk he borrowed from Bobby to scramble around on some big boulders. He got high enough that he had to turn back (or climb up over the top) since he didn’t have a rope.

Safely back on the ground, Matt found a shortcut in the form of a skinny, 10-mile dirt road that cut almost an hour off our drive back to Methven.

Road Trip!!

We landed in Melbourne mid-afternoon, and checked into our “being renovated” hostel. The room looked like a nice hotel – which was a great upgrade from the two bunk beds in a shoebox before. We walked a few blocks and found Little Italy, and enjoyed free wine with a 3 course pasta meal. When I tried to order water the waitress looked at me strangely and said, “Wine?” so I tried to then describe water (very hard) and then settled on the wine.

Day 1 of Road Trip

Matt and I took a train and two buses to the Wicked Camper lot to pick up our new home on wheel for the next few nights. The “fun” aspect of this brand of campers, is they spray paint interesting pictures (or ugly and inappropriate) on the side of their vans, to make them distinct. Ours wasn’t too horrible.


The inside had a table that converted into a bed, and that was about it. Matt said this will be great practice for the “luxury camper” we will get in New Zealand… This was an understatement.

There is a sticker on the dash of the van that says, “Every great journey begins with a flat tire.” Our great journey began with a dead battery in the Kmart parking lot. After picking up our new auto, and trying to drive on the left side of the road, we found a mall and stocked up on pillows, blankets and food for the week. Matt left the headlights on (ha!) so we came back to a no-go vehicle. Luckily Aussies (and Kiwis) are more hospitable than Southerners – and I would know – so a man with a family near by offered to give us a jump.

A quick laugh and some directions to the freeway later, we were on our way to the Great Ocean Road!

Our first stop was Torque, where it was a beach park, complete with sunshine and crashing waves. It was here that Matt realized our two front tires were almost flat. We made a quick stop to the gas station to fill them up, then back on the road.

Now van troubles aside, this drive had the most fitting name. The road curved along the cliffs and made one with the mountains surrounding it. Only for moments were we too far to smell the salty air and hear the roars of the water. It was truly a Great experience.
I will post the pictures on Facebook, because I cant pick the top pics. The drive straight through can take a day or two, but we stopped probably every couple hours because it was so breath taking, it became distracting to drive.

The first night in Ole Besty (if you name a car, they will last longer) we stayed in a small town called Lorne by the river. This campsite was filled with other campers, and interestingly enough full sized Cockatoos swarming around the trees, happy for any scraps. The next morning we packed up our stuff and hit the road again.

Day 2 of Road Trip

Today was the day we left the Great Ocean Road and headed into the jungle area. There was a cool park Matt read about called the Ottway Tree Top Walk, where they had a steal walkway that took you through the different levels of the trees. Sounds nerdy, but it was awesome! We we nearly a football field in the air on a steal tower “swaying like the trees do”, it was a little scary, but very fun.

We completed out cool walk through the jungle and decided we needed to find a place to park the camper. We didn’t want to pay again for a cold shower and noisy neighbors, so we found a free spot with just a Port-o-potty around. It was there that we met the true Aussies!

Benjamin is a grocery owner, and his girlfriend Sue is the Deli Counter Manager (super cute!). Ben was like an Aussie Ken doll that came complete with a giant Machete knife, rough leather hat, and a black thick jacket. Oh and an awesome “Croc Hunter” accent and swagger.



Matt and I are not seasoned campers, as most of you know, so when we were shopping for food for this adventure; Matt thought it would be fun to let me take charge. So as I am like Lucille Ball in the kitchen, I got the “Can’t Fail” meals: soup in a can, beans in a can, bell pepper, cheese and of course hotdogs. So when we joined the Aussie Pro camp, where we were offered a nicely cooked roast with carrots and potatoes; I was able to throw soup in a pan and offer that as a dessert. It was hilarious, but they appreciated it. Oh and we brought wine, so maybe that’s why they liked us ☺ We played cards and relaxed, swapped stories of the States. All in all it was a good night.

Day 3 of Road Trip

We woke up on this day and said farewell to our new friends, and headed back to the Great road that was calling our names. On this day, we saw a lot of named sites – more touristy stops – The 12 Apostles (which there are only 8, there was 9 but one fell – talk about good marketing), the Gibson Steps (awesome beach that ends at a cliff. Matt said it was like Inception), The Bay of Islands (we liked it better than the Apostles) and finally the Grato (awesome hidden pool down below the cliff top).

We were stopping and starting so much, you would have thought were a city bus; but it was worth it because every stop was better than the last! We completed our day of visits and headed for a spot recommended by Ben called Blanket Bay. On our way to this secret free camping spot, we pulled over because we spotted about seven Koalas just hanging out in the trees! I couldn’t reach them to play, but I did snap a pic or two of them sleeping.



We got back in the car and continued down the unpaved road to our campsite, when all of a sudden I stopped the car completely. Matt asked why, I was slapping him and yelling get the camera, and then he looked up. There was a 6ft Kangaroo in the middle of the road staring my van down. Now sidenote: These are NOT the cute kangaroos that I hand fed and played with at the zoo. We were warned that these animals will run into your car and smash you up with kicks and punches if they feel threatened.

So Matt grabbed the camera and I flashed my lights (it was during the day, but I thought he would get the hint). The Kangaroo then turns to our left and waits, then 3 other Kangaroos follow him (2 babies so flippin cute) hopping about 4 feet in the air into the brush away from the van. Now that’s what I call an Aussie experience.

We finally made it to Blanket Bay, and set up camp right on the beach. Our neighbors were two Aussie chefs who were happy to share a brew and their thoughts on “good food.” With the fire still burning and the ocean calming down, Matt and I called it a night.

Im sorry to make you all go to two places, but because internet is either not available or $5 for 5 minutes, I will post all pics on Facebook, for your enjoyment instead of on here. I apologize for any inconvenience :)