It's been nearly a month since we started our life in a motorhome. It's small, a bit smelly but has served us extremely well!The motorhome lifestyle has allowed us to experience some amazing places in this country with absolute freedom and despite the discomfort we wouldn't change a thing. That being said we're both super excited about next week when we'll have warmer weather and a lot more space. Since our last blog we've covered a lot of ground. We headed up to Otago peninsula and Dunedin. We had very little interest in the city of Dunedin and headed straight into the peninsula and up the aptly named High Cliff Road which offered some spectacular views. We headed to Sandfly Bay (also aptly named) which was said to beautiful with lots of wild life including the rare Yellow Eyed Penguin. When we arrived we found ourselves with quite a few other tourists, several surfers and dozens of fur seals and sea lions. We were really hoping for the chance to see some penguins which nest in the dunes beyond the beach but with so many people there was little chance of any coming ashore. Instead we chilled with the sea lions in the sun until the sun went down. That night we stayed just outside of Dunedin in the town of Brighton. The next morning we were greeted by a $200 parking ticket for not having a self contained certified sticker. Luckily we do in-fact have this sticker (2 infact) so we quickly got the ticket waived. Side-note to future travelers it's worth upgrading to a self contained motorhome so you have the option to freedom camp. Most freedom sights require that you are self contained and have hefty fines if you're not. With our patience for the city being tested due to traffic and poor sleep we decided to get out of Dunedin and head south. We went all the way south to New Zealand's southern most city Invercargill. The city was made known from an Anthony Hopkin's movie 'The World's Fastest Indian" which retells of a Kiwi man who traveled to the USA and broke a speed record with his Indian Motorcycle, decent movie! It's a neat little town with lots of art deco architecture and many small streets with shops and restaurants to explore. We enjoyed a day in Invercargill refueling and relaxing before heading further inland to the Catlins and Curio Beach. Curio Bay was one of the coolest places we've seen in NZ. On one side is beautiful Curio Beach filled with surfers and a resident Hectors Dolphin Pod. We caught a glimpse of their black dorsal fins here and there but difficult to spot in the waves. One other side of a high cliffs is Curio Bay which is come to Yellow Eyed Penguins, the odd fur seal and a 180 million year old petrified forest. It really neat to walk around the trees laying about hard a stone with massive waves crashing up on the rocks and cliffs surrounding the bay. We were very determined to see a penguin so along with few other people we positioned ourselves behind large rocks along the bay and waited 2 hours until finally a penguin came up. It had a serious journey to make from the crashing waves pounding the bay across rocky terrain until it reached the bushes. It took over 30 minutes for the little guy to make the journey. When it finally reached the bushes it seemed a bit lost and started calling out in search of the correct nest. It finally seemed content and headed into the bushes for the night leaving us cold, tired but thoroughly happy. After a couple days in Curio Bay relaxing we headed towards Queenstown with a night stop along Lake Wakatipu. This was by far the worst night with incredibly strong winds pushing us around. It was so bad we though might tip right over. After a dramatic night we finally reached Queenstown! The last leg of our journey is complete. Now we have a week to enjoy the city and the scenery of the area. Queenstown has a very Whistler/ Squamish vibe with ski and adventure shops on every corner. We spent the day wondering the town taking in the sights. After a beer we ventured into the Queenstown Haunted House, Fear Factory, where the actors can actually touch you! Gave us both a good scare and some laughs. Halloween isn't really popular here but apparently it's starting to pick up. We spent the night at a much small and much quieter lake just outside of Queenstown that sadly has a 2 night max. We would have happily spent the whole week here. Yesterday we paid for a Milford Sound day trip which included a harsh 5am wake up call followed by a 5 hour bus ride one way. We were less than thrilled about this prospect but it was better than us having to do the drive ourselves. The drive to Milford is beautiful and having a guide along telling us interesting NZ facts was a nice change of pace. I could go on about NZ agricultural business but to sum it up farmers don't receive any government subsidies which differs from most other countries. Instead they relay solely on the quality and efficiency of their business. Subsidies came out during the great depression and NZ was the first and one of the few to end to the subsidies once the economy recouped. At first farmers were of course against this but apparently you talk to them now and no farmer would want them reinstated. There is much more to it but coming from a farm family I found this interesting. Wool is a major business here (hence more sheep than people!), grass fed beef is another major export as is venison with a lot of deer farms found throughout NZ especially in the south. After our long bus ride we finally reached the famous Milford Sound. A great way to see Milford is by taking the Milford Track which is a 3 ish day hike. The track wasn't open yet, opens up in November, but if we had wanted to do it we would have had to book up to a year ago because it's so popular! We drove through valley's, lush rain forest and mountain ranges before we reached the port where we took a 2 hour boat ride through Milford Sound. It was absolutely pouring buckets during our time here so the fog was thick. Despite this set back it was still absolutely stunning with dozens of waterfalls, dramatic cliffs and mountains to gaze at. The boat took us under a few water falls giving those brave enough to stand outside a good soaking. It was a long a wet day but in the end we were really glad to have done it!
Today we've decided to explore the region outside Queenstown. This morning we took a quick stop at at location used in the filming of Lord of the Rings which is also home to a popular bungee. We thought about doing a Bungee or some other adventure sport while here but decided in the end there were better things to spend money on down the line of this trip. Our plan is to relax most of this week and enjoy the lake views before we set off for Sydney Australia on Wednesday!
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