The journey continued from Queenstown to Kaikoura. We saw New Zealand’s highest mountain and had our first earthquake experience.
Probably the most touristy town in New Zealand is Queenstown. It mixes mediterran and alpine vibes with an enormous playground for young and old, it is the adrenalin capital of the world. I am no adrenalin junkie, so I neither did bungy jumping or zip lining, for me it was interesting enough to watch the others. Maeve and I ate our best ice cream of the hole trip in an icecreamery in Queenstown, called Patagonia. Our favourite places were the park and Sunshine Bay, which you can access after a short walk through the bush.
A lot of walking was also the program for Mount Cook. We walked the Hooker Valley Walk, saw the nice Hooker Glacier and Mount Cook itself. Mount Cook village is a small collection of houses in a valley with access to many different hiking paths.
Christchurch surprised us with much more construction work than expected. The earthquake from 2011 is still visible everywhere in the city. On the other hand Christchurch had still an English flair and an awesome Art Gallery, next to a nice botanical garden. Another highlight was the friday night food market and the museum. I made my first earthquake experience at one of our nights. Maeve did not noticed it at all, but I was wide awake. It was just a medium sized quake, but for me it was terrifying.
Kaikoura, our next destination, is famous for it’s wildlife. You can encounter seals, dolphins, whales and many different birds. Even on our way into town we saw dolphins and seals. We had some nice fish and chips for lunch (which is a typical Kiwi food), but our day here was very foggy and cloudy.
Today we start our way back to Auckland. Our time in New Zealand is nearly over, but this is definitely not the end of our journey!
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