We’ve covered a lot of ground in the last two days. After an overnight stay in Taupo, we started our road trip toward south island. On 12/29, we drove from Taupo to Wellington, the capital city of NZ, 380km drive with few stops. We left early and got to Wellington by lunch time by the beach
taking advantage of being in a city, we tried a vegan restaurant. I absolutely enjoyed this vegan fajita bowl. We are a family that doesn’t care too much what we eat when traveling, never reserved any restaurants, nor look for places to eat before hand. So this meal came as a surprise to be extra special.
then we went to airport super early, 4pm to catch a 7:45pm flight to Christchurch. Then we checked in at novotel at the Christchurch airport for the night. It was so funny how luxurious a hotel felt like after few days at motels. We all slept super well with the comfortable mattress.
The next day we picked up our rental car and left Christchurch around 10am. It was raining for the first hour of drive but quickly as we left the city, the weather got better. The view of this drive was amazing, I truly enjoyed it. The pic doesn’t do its justice though.
Our first stop was Arthur’s pass village, where we stopped for lunch. As you can see, it’s quite cold and wet. I can’t imagine hiking in this condition but many others were dressed up for the hike.
we had fun following the alpine parrot, who knows how to stop to let the passing car before crossing the street. Super funny.
then we continued our way toward Hokitika, a beach town. We passed by many rivers and stopped to take a look when daddy got a bit tired
Hokitika is a super old fashion town, very cute. We got fruits, yogurt, and snacks from the supermarket and continued the drive
Then we spotted a turquoise river and stopped to take a look
we finally got to Fox Glacier (400km from Christchurch) at 6:15pm, a long day that didn’t feel long as we stopped many times. The Fox Glacier town is super small and old fashion, Our motel was nice, clean and had all what we needed. The sun didn’t go down until almost 10pm, which is our usual time to sleep so far in NZ. I realized that NZ is the first country to welcome 2025, so privilege to be here.
Lisa is right that south island feels different than north. I like both so far but obviously we have much more to explore. I was first worried about the long distance drive, but with stops it is very enjoyable, and the whole point of the road trip is to enjoy the view, especially when I don’t have to drive. 🙂
We will explore Fox Glacier area today, do a morning hike with the family, and another hike in the afternoon with a tour guide (only me and Sofia) to do a longer hike.
Happy new year to you all! I really enjoy reading everyone’s 2024 recap and 2025 goal setting posts. I will do those after this trip 😉
Our New Journey 
The South Island just gets more gorgeous as you get further into the country. Just wait until you see Mt Cook! We did a cool hike there to see glaciers. But now I wonder if there are still glaciers or if global warming has caused them to melt.
Your posts are making me feel so nostalgic! I was the only one in my group of 4 that was old enough to drive our rental car so I had your husband’s job. This was back in 2002 so there was no Google maps. Mapquest hadn’t even come to Australia or New Zealand then so we completely navigated with paper maps. I wonder how we figured it all out!
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I’ve never been to New Zealand, so I had to pull up a map to follow along—it’s such a stunning country! I love how it seems so spacious and uncrowded, perfect for exploring and enjoying nature.
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