Matt & Sarah's Big Trip: South Island sojourn part 2

We left off the last blog about to return to one of our favourite NZ hikes - the Routeburn Track. We did the full walk nearly two years ago with Matt's mum and dad Clare and Pete and absolutely loved it. This time around getting booked into huts over the Christmas hols would have required serious advance organisation so we decided to get up to the highest point and back to the start in one day, making for a long day walk but a varied and beautiful one.

It was stunning!

Height order again

Matt rocking out on top of the world

Romance

Bromance

Cooling our hot toots!

The classic Routeburn shot

Happy reflection shadows!

We of course celebrated our day with a bottle of bubbles on arrival at our beaut of a campsite a short drive from the trailhead.

Successful catching

Chilling in the evening sun

A relaxing day at the campsite followed with an evening of cheese, dessert wine and cards.

Van party

The next morning we were greeted by torrential rain - perfect for a day spent in the vans travelling. A quick hop back to Queenstown, then onto Cromwell (a bit of cheeky wine tasting), Clyde and down to Roxburgh for berries and real fruit ice cream!

Deeeeluscious!!!

All of a sudden New Year's Eve night was approaching and we hadn't made a plan. No bother - with the torrential rain and gale force winds returning we decided tonight was the night to freedom camp. We parked up by the beach south of Dunedin, erected a shelter between the two vans and got cooking a gourmet meal of steak and chips. Ridiculously tasty!

Chefs trying not to get rained on

Happy New Year!

Thankfully, by morning the storm had passed through and we zoomed into Dunedin, picked up some pretty radical mountain bikes and headed off for a day on the Otago Peninsula. Matt and I had done a similar ride last year with our road bikes. This time we could take a 'short cut' off road involving extreme climbing but incredible views!

You beauty!

Kiwi awesomeness

We had planned a special stop en route to the 'Penguin Place' - a very special reserve which cares for yellow eyed penguins in the wild. Seals hang out there too...

Lazy days

But we were super excited to get this close to baby penguins!

Soon to become yellow-eyed

Tour complete we were soon zooming back along the coast to Dunedin, via mine and Katie's spiritual home.

Broad squared

A lovely evening out in Dunedin followed with an early start the next morning. This was Matt's third time in Dunedin and he finally got to visit the world's steepest residential street - Baldwin Street in the north of the city. Actually pretty impressive!

Really steep!

The only time in my life being as tall as my sister

On the wonk

A return to the Moeraki boulders followed.

A very big ball

Happy pose

That evening, after a bit of an epic drive we pulled into the lakeside campsite at Tekapo and were greeted by a fantastic sunset.

Lovely!

Our van formation again

A chilled time ensued (with the exception of a very sweaty run and some stargazing advice at the top of Mt St John, one of the best stargazing spots in the world!)

Time was ticking by now and we were soon doing the last big convoy drive up to Kaikoura.

Evening sunshine in Kaikoura

We visited Kaikoura our first Christmas here and had enjoyed a beautiful walk around the peninsula made all the more beautiful by beers and food stops en route.

Not a bad pitstop

A bit more seal spotting and a couple of dolphins playing out at sea made the walk just as memorable as the first time we did it.

Are we really leaving this place??

Happy hikers

That evening we were treated to a very special meal courtesy of Jamie's mum Anne. Unfortunately we don't have any photos to capture the excitement - all we can say is THANK YOU so much for treating us to our first taste of crayfish - caught fresh that morning and served whole (at least the boys had a whole one each!) It was really delicious and a lovely way to round out our time on the South Island together.

We left Katie and Jamie behind in Kaikoura the next morning where they were booked in for a morning of swimming with dolphins! We zipped up to the ferry at Picton and parked Carrie up for the crossing amongst the train carriages!

Last ferry crossing

We had a couple of days to wend our way back up to Auckland which we filled with wine tasting (at Martinborough and Hawkes Bay), beer sampling (at the Tui brewery), a visit to the bucket list destination of Castlepoint (awesome recommendation Kate and Nick) and strolling through the historic towns of Greytown, Carterton and Masterton.