When we went back to Queenstown (to drop one of our crew at the airport) we stayed at 12 Mile Delta again in part because as a Tolkein and Peter Jackson fan, I had looked up a number of Lord of the Rings related filming locations. The Bob Cove Track included one such location, where …
The drive from Lake Tekapo to Mt. Aspiring National Park had views on par with the destination itself, and some of the windiest, windiest (squiggly roads and high winds) roads we experienced until the drive to Milford Sound. The park itself was one of the few places we were actually able to freedom camp in …
Lake Tekapo was the first real town we went to after Mt. Aoraki, and I just want to take a second to recommend the Blue Lake Eatery and Bar. We got a fancy dinner there to celebrate getting engaged up at Sealy Tarns, and they have a platter where they give you a small portion …
Aoraki/Mt Cook has a similar naming situation to Denali/the mountain formerly known as McKinley. Unlike the full switch that was made to Denali in 2015, New Zealand amended the name Mt Cook, along with a number of other names in the South Island in 1998 to include both the Maori and European name. Hence the …
One of the reasons that renting a campervan was definitely worth it is the amazing drives between locations. The South Island definitely has no flyover states. For some of the windy drives with minimal guard rails, driving on the left side of the road, you definitely need a confident driver, and driving at night is …
Flying into Queenstown is a cool experience in itself, the approach is between mountains and when you land you get to take stairs down to the tarmac and walk into the airport which is one of my favorite airplane experiences. It makes me feel very fancy. We spent our first night in a hostel with …
If you've done any research on long hikes in New Zealand, you've probably come across the hut system. One of these huts was our destination on our pinnacles hike, and compared to the "huts" that I've used on the AT and the Vermont Long Trail, it's palatial. It's really more like a hostel with an …
I'm starting to go a little bit stir crazy, as most people are I'm sure. I always get that in the winter but usually the spring is when I can start going camping, especially here in Texas. Now though, I have nowhere to camp but my backyard. So I'm getting into what I usually do …
Our time in the Amazon was an amazing, humid, sweaty sweaty uncomfortable, once in a lifetime experience. I felt like Teddy Roosevelt in The River of Doubt but without the life threatening infection. Fortunately I had that vaccine taken care of so I was not concerned about yellow fever. Also the extra strength, probably skin …
There could not have been more of a difference between our trip in the Galapagos and our trip in the Amazon... In between we made a stop in Lima to visit Alonso (our roommate/landlord before he moved to Peru for a year) and had WAY more adventure than expected. Our full day there we encountered …
onehappycamper 