After working at Electric Avenue for one month as well as having saved money from my vineyard and data entry jobs, I took off for the South Island. (Originally, this was supposed to be the last leg of my trip, but by the time I left I had already decided to go back to Wellington- I’ll cover all that later. Rule #1: Don't plan too far ahead. Definitely shouldn't have booked those flights home!)
My Kiwi Experience pass had started in Auckland and was meant to end in Christchurch, but I had needed to stop halfway in Welly to save up some money again. It had been four months since I’d been on the road at this point, so I was excited. To be fair, I'm excited even when it's only been a week since I was on the road, but this was a build-up of excitement. Everyone always said the South Island was more beautiful than the North, and my only experience so far had been my brief weeks in the Blenheim vineyards.
Looking down at the Kiwi Ex bus in Westport.
I caught the Bluebridge ferry back down to Picton where my Kiwi bus would pick up again. I had one night to spend there in the meantime. I walked from the ferry terminal to my hostel, The Villa, which was only about five minutes away. Luckily, I had been able to leave a bunch of my luggage in Wellington with Lewis, so I was traveling lighter than my usual six suitcases (that’s an exaggeration, but only a slight one).
It was evening by the time I arrived, so I didn’t really get to see anything in Picton. It’s too bad since the hostel offered free bike rentals and Picton is home to the Queen Charlotte Track.
I enjoyed my hostel stay though. The Villa had an outdoor area out back with a hot tub and sort of tree house loft, an indoor pool table, and they provided free apple crumble and ice cream in the evening. We were also allowed to bring in our own beers, so a small group of us, including my friend Chris who just arrived back from Oz to do the South Island with me, chilled out in the hot tub for some drinks that night.
We hopped on the Kiwi Experience bus at 11:45 the next morning from the ferry terminal. It wasn’t quite the same traveling with this new group as it was with our group in the North Island. These people had mostly already been traveling together for the past few weeks, and we were outsiders. Also, our new driver, a guy nicknamed Nancy, was a prick. He was so unhelpful and miserable, especially compared to our old driver, Mangee, who had been awesome. Luckily we later stayed an extra two nights in Franz Josef and switched out our bus as a result, so we were only stuck with this guy for a few days.
Our first overnight stop was Kaiteriteri, but we made a couple stops along the way at a rainforest walk, the always exotic Pak N Save, and the Pelorus River which was used during Lord of the Rings filming.
We checked into the Kaiteriteri Lodge in the evening, and it was a decent spot for accommodation (also possibly the only hostel in Kaiteriteri). It was a big wooden lodge with nearby mini-golf and an onsite bar. We went down for a couple drinks and the $5 Thai green curry then spent the night drinking Tanqueray for Chris’s birthday and meeting some others on the bus.
A lot of Tanq is what we drank. A lot. And I had signed up for a sea kayaking trip through Abel Tasman National Park the next morning which I had to wake up for at 7 AM. You think sea kayaking after a heavy night of gin is a good idea? It’s not. I felt so bad for the poor girl who was paired with me in the kayak, because I was miserably hungover.
I was in the back in charge of steering with the pedals except that I kept zoning out and wholly forgetting to do that one job. The sea was choppy and rocking the kayak back and forth, and it took all of my energy not to be sick. I remember just staring at different points on the horizon and trying to take my mind to a happy place thinking about sunshine and clouds and anything that wasn’t alcohol.
The scenery, meanwhile, was gorgeous. There were big boulders and tree-covered rocky islands dotting the water. We even kayaked through a narrow cave.
The main attraction was Split Apple Rock, a natural formation.
We finally went back to shore after. I don’t remember how long we were out on the water. Too long. I ran to the trees thinking I was going to be sick, but luckily now that I was out of the water, my stomach settled down.
So happy to be out of that kayak.
I slept on the bus ride to the next stop, Westport. I beyond loved our hostel there, Bazil’s. It was probably my favorite hostel in the South Island. It was just so ridiculously cozy, almost like a house. The beds were comfy, there were hammocks outside, there was a spice rack in the homey kitchen, and best of all, we had an actual living room with couches, a fireplace, and a bunch of VHS tapes. We watched movies in there all night before bed.
We were back on the bus at 8:30 AM and went to the start of an hour-long hike in Westport. The scenery looked just like Ireland!
There were green hills and cliffs over the sea, but it was also chilly and intensely windy. I had to stop and stand still at intervals to avoid being knocked off the path, and my hat kept trying to fly away if I didn’t hold onto it. Near the end, we came to a platform overlooking a seal colony.
Our next stop of the day was at the Punakaiki Pancake Rocks. This was a group of cool geological limestone formations all throughout the water with water rushing between them and spraying upwards through blowholes.
From there we headed on to Franz Josef, our first two night stop of the South Island, which I’ll write plenty about next time since it includes one of my top 3 NZ highlights- hiking a glacier. So far, the South Island had a slower-paced feel to it than the North, maybe because it was less adventure activities and more scenery. I was spending less money, at any rate! In case you were worried about my pockets being too heavy though from my whole two months of paychecks, don’t- I’d make up for that soon enough.