Post 17: The South Island - Part 3
One-week Roadtrip with Romi
We had a week until our new job started in Te Anau. We had already arranged job and accomodation in advance (thank you Romi✨) so we could travel without any stress.
Our first stop was Queenstown even though we went there for so many times. I think it's my favourite city in NZ. We took the Skyline up to a mountain and did a little hike :) The weather was great that day.
We also purchased a cheap tent at Kmart (like Tedi) for $19 (=9€), because we wanted to stay at campsites to save some money.
After having lunch at Ferg Burger - yes we queued for about 30min - we drove to Glenorchy, a small town at the lake. It's about an hour from Queenstown through curvy roads, but it's completely worth it. It won't be the first time visiting Glenorchy.
> One of my best pics in NZ
The campsite that we actually wanted to stay had no capacity so we decided to stay a DOC campsite for $5 a night. I stayed in the tent that day and Romi in the car. As it was my first time camping, I didn't know that you should never camp next to a hidden quite lake in NZ. There were SO MANY SANDFLIES 😱. Sandflies do look like small flies you see everywhere, but they actually bite you and it's unbelievably itchy. The worst was that the sandflies could come into the tent through the ventilation net even after closing the "door". AND it was RAINING that day, the tent was obviously not waterproof 🙄
For me it was horrible that night, but when I think of it now, I'm quite grateful experiencing this worst scenario. Any camping after felt like a blessing.
> We cooked at the next campsite just between Glenorchy and Queenstown.
On the next day (03.02), we did another hike called Wye creek track. I would say it's a hidden gem :) the track is not bad and the waterfall in the end is refreshing.
Then we drove all the way down to the Catlines. This area has a lot of waterfalls and the Southern Scenic Road is great for road tripping. We also went to a lighthouse for sunset. The spot is called "Nugget Point" cause the rocks in the sea supposed to look like Nuggets I believe 😂
The campsite was great. Great enough that we decided to stay one more night. There was almost noone, the weather was with us, and we could finally take a shower!!! That's something that I realised doing road trips. A hot shower and a clean toilet is not to be taken as granted 🥹
On the next day, we drove up the east coast to Dunedin, one of the biggest cities in the South. I'd already been there with Antonia and Anna, but Romi hadn't so we had a day trip in Dunedin. Since she has tried Dumplings in Queenstown, she was always hunting for a dumpling imbiss 😂 We gave it up that day as there was no convincing option. Romi ate a brownie instead (she LOVES brownies). We also visited a botanical garden as Romi likes flowers 🌺
The following day was outdoor. We drove down the coast, having a couple of stops for the waterfalls.
We stayed at a holiday park with shower and kitchen, sleeping in car and tent. Next to us, there were a couple of families having holiday with all the children. Our setup looked miserable compared to theirs ... I like ours more though.
We went to the Southernmost point of the south island in the next morning. Romi told me it was her highlight. It was actually better than expected!
Invercargill, another big city in the south, was our next stop. There was a public holiday on that day so we couldn't browse shops, but there was a market with live music. Romi could finally eat dumplings here. Unfortunately the pie shop I was looking forward was closed too, so I decided to do it another day. We actually went down to Invercargill again in March. I bought hiking trousers and got some pies from "The Fat Bastard Pie".
We also did a detour to Bluff, a small town in the south of Invercargill. It's famous for its mussels (my Chinese friends at the cherry packhouse travellednall the way down from Cromwell to Bluff just to get some free seafood 😂). We went up a hill by car and hiked down to the coast. The ocean was wild. We saw Stewart Island too (The island where my korean friend Seona considered working earlier).
The next day was raining, so we decided to drive the shortest way up to Te Anau. There was still one day left until we could move in so we stayed at another campsite in Lumsden, the only city with proper facilities between Invercargill and Te Anau I guess. We had already known this town as we had a little break here on the way down from Queenstown :)
I really think this trip made our relationship stronger. We discovered eachother's strengths and weaknesses. Mostly I'm the one who suggest things to do, sometimes too crazy (like a big hike after another). Then Romi is there to tell me to hit the break to bring me back to reality. I think we were a great team. I couldn't have a better travel buddy and room mate then you, Romi!
Arriving in Te Anau
We finally arrived in Te Anau! The house was amazing. Two bedrooms, two bathrooms, one living room with a lovely kitchen plus a garage, everything only for us two. And we paid surprisingly little, including bills around $200 a week pp. We cleaned my car Pikachu that had some dirt on his face.
We had a quick paperwork session with our new employer after taking a big break in our new home. I was so excited to wear the new uniform XD
> We have different uniforms for checkout and shelf stacking
Romi had applied as a Deli Assistant (kitchen work) and I had applied for any job so they choose Groceries Assistant for me (basically shelf stacking, helping customers), then switched me to the checkout after a couple of weeks. My next post will be more about our jobs, about new people we met and about what we did on a day off :)
Thank you for reading my blog! I'm writing this in the airplane back to Germany. Can't tell you all my adventures I haven't told you yet XD
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