Beautiful New Zealand attracted my fifth visit to hike the spectacular Rees-Dart, Gillespie Pass, Hollyford, and Milford Tracks plus more in southern South Island’s unique Gondwanan wilderness. Relishing an escape to Southern Hemisphere summer, I organized a 5-person family trip tramping in lush temperate rainforests for five weeks (2018 Dec 27–2019 Jan 31). Colorful fields of nonnative Russell lupins mesmerized us on the way to Mount Cook/Aoraki, where we repeated favorite Sealy Tarns and Hooker Valley hikes. Sadly flooded out of the Milford Track after one night, we regrouped to enjoy lucky weather elsewhere, such as gorgeous Pororari River Track.
Favorite New Zealand photos from 2019
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See our detailed 2019 trip itinerary at bottom of this article. But for more comprehensive NZ travel planning tips on both North and South Islands, see “NEW ZEALAND trip guide and itinerary“.
WHAT’S NEW in 2019 since our last visit to New Zealand 12 years ago?
At Te Anau Lakefront Backpackers, a man impressed me saying that he was tramping the length of the country! In 2011, New Zealand established the Te Araroa Trail, which goes 3000 kilometers (1900 miles) from Cape Reinga to Bluff (40 percent on conservation land), requiring 3 to 6 months of walking.
As of January 2019, tourism has exploded. Reservations months in advance are recommended at Mt Cook, Te Anau, Milford, and Queenstown. Rates for Great Walk huts on the Milford, Routeburn, and Kepler Tracks doubled for foreigners this year versus last. Mount Cook area sights and services were super busy all the way out to Twizel, whose grocery was packed. Upscaling for higher-spending tourists, Queenstown now caps the total number of pricey legal tent sites and disallows Freedom Camping, so one must book paid sites early. Wanaka’s New World grocery burst with tourists at all hours; and the city has spawned suburban growth out to Albert Town, where we stayed 5 nights at a great AirBnb. On the plus side, you can now get good coffee, such as a “flat white”. Tourist crowds and prices at Greymouth Seaside TOP 10 Holiday Park noticeably decreased when the kids went back to school in the last week of January.
Very practical Jucy Campervans and car rentals with tailgate kitchens are seen everywhere (but we rented a cheaper Toyota Corolla as tramping in huts took us away from roads for 14 days out of 34). “Three-day Certified Self-Contained” RVs using “Freedom Camping Zones” have proliferated on South Island. Some Holiday Park public kitchens now charge $5 for use of pots/pans/utensils/cups/plates (formerly free), which seem to encourage tidier countertops.
Tourists from Hong Kong, China, and India are suddenly in abundance, reflecting rising wealth of the global middle class. Seasonal employees are often low-paid immigrants from China, Indonesia, Malaysia, Cambodia, Vietnam, Singapore, and the British Commonwealth.
Sheep outnumbered people in New Zealand by more than twenty-to-one in the 1980s, but by just seven-to-one now. Near Mt. Cook, we stayed 3 nights at Glentanner Park Centre; their Glentanner Station still runs 9000 Merino sheep which supply American Smartwool brand clothing. The fur of Australian possum, an invasive nonnative pest, is now smartly mixed with wool in NZ gloves & hats. Sheep numbers are declining but beef and dairy increasing. I was surprised to see herds of huge elk on fenced farms, supplementing red deer farms, to raise venison.
Globalization continues to disrupt New Zealand’s ecosystems. Since 2004, the unstoppable spread of didymo algae (“rock snot”, native to New York) has begun to choke native stream life. At Glade Wharf, we stepped off the Te Anau Express ferry into a chlorine pan to control possible didymo on our boots before entering the Milford Track. Since we last visited 12 years ago, the Department of Conservation (DOC) has spent millions of dollars on public land to control the spread of wilding conifers, which are invasive nonnative pine trees in the high country of New Zealand. In Ben Lomond Scenic Reserve reached via Skyline Queenstown gondola, I noticed vast gray wilding forests sprayed dead by DOC, to be replaced by native tussock. Wildings threaten biodiversity, farm productivity, and the landscape values of tussock grasslands.
I was glad to see extensive trap lines for stoats and rats along the Milford Track, Hollyford Track, Routeburn Track, Dart track, and Siberia Valley. These nonnative predators have devastated New Zealand’s unique bird life. Norway rats were on the ships of the first explorers, who arrived in New Zealand in the late 1700s. Stoats, weasels, and ferrets were introduced to New Zealand as early as 1879 to control nonnative rabbits that were destroying sheep pasture. Almost without exception, introduced species have been detrimental to the native flora and fauna. That being said, trekking once again into remote Fiordland and Aspiring National Parks still makes a wonderful escape into uniquely beautiful Gondwanan wilderness.
Mount Cook National Park: Sealy Tarns & Hooker Valley Tracks
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Both Sealy Tarns (4.3 mi round trip/1600 ft gain) and Hooker Valley Tracks (7 mi RT/500 ft gain) were well worth repeating this year. Native Spaniard (speargrass) plants and white mountain daisies peppered the scenic landscape. Also worth seeing is Tasman Glacier, which offers boat tours. Just a few meltwater ponds existed in the early 1970s at the current viewpoint on the glacier’s terminal moraine, but by 1990 they had merged into Tasman Lake. In further melting from 1990-2011, Tasman Glacier retreated a shocking 2 kilometers, and continued to disappear at an accelerating rate through 2019. See my Global warming, climate change gallery.
Near Geraldine (22 km north off SH72), Peel Forest Park Scenic Reserve was worth seeing again, strolling on Big Tree Walk through a magnificent podocarp (conifer) forest. Huge native totara trees, one almost three meters across, are thought to be about 1000 years old. A DOC campground with cabins is available.
Views from Mount John Observatory are well worth visiting by car or on foot from Lake Tekapo village. A riot of nonnative Russell lupin flowers bloomed in patches on Mt John and areas around the shimmering turquoise lake. The widespread diaspora of Russell lupins began with David Douglas bringing the herbaceous lupine (Lupinus polyphyllus) from North America to Britain in the 1820s. In the early 1900s, George Russell, a horticulturist from York, UK, spent two decades breeding the Russell hybrids (Lupinus X russellii hort). First naturalized to New Zealand by local farmers wanting to beautify their landscape in the 1950s, Russell lupins have invaded large areas of roadsides, pastures, and riverbeds. This alien plant most threatens indigenous species in the braided river beds of Canterbury region. Russell lupin is classed as an invasive species in New Zealand, Sweden, Norway, Switzerland, Argentina, the Czech Republic, Finland, Lithuania, and Ukraine.
Fiordland National Park: Milford Track
During our first night at Clinton Hut just 5 km in, heavy rains flooded the Milford Track and blocked the trampers in all three huts! (DOC nearly provided helicopter lifts for everyone over the floods to the next hut, but no dice.) The incoming hiker cohort was cancelled, and everyone was offered a second night in their respective huts, turning the four-day trip into five. Sadly, in order not to miss catching our Hollyford flight, we chose to exit via ferry back to Te Anau in late afternoon. After exiting the ferry and retrieving our car (left there for a planned family shuttle), we used nearby Fiordland National Park Lodge’s wi-fi to seek last-minute accommodation beyond fully-booked Te Anau. Upon driving 70 minutes, we found that the hotel in Lumsden had fumbled our Booking.com reservation, requiring staff to find us lodging 20 minutes further out. By 10pm, Carol and I went to sleep in the empty, staffless Riversdale Hotel, far from tourist crowds. Luckily, a room was available the next night in Distinction Te Anau Hotel & Villas, albeit pricey. We could then freely day hike Earland Falls, to surprise three of our family group who were exiting from four days spent on the Routeburn Track. Their story was of not only heavy rain but also of their son being sick for two days. Luckily the remaining time in NZ improved markedly, fulfilling our goals.
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Fiordland National Park: Routeburn Track: day hikes to Key Summit and Earland Falls
We relished two wonderful day hikes from The Divide in Fiordland National Park:
- Key Summit: 4.7 mi round trip, 1389 ft gain
- Earland Falls: 8.7 miles round trip with 2270 feet gain.
- Catch good a weather forecast.
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Fiordland National Park: Hollyford Track in 3 days
We staged the Hollyford Track from Milford Sound Lodge, which has a nicely remodeled public kitchen & dining area, but our dorm building (NZ$40 per person) was unappealingly dark, crowded, and located 70 meters from the renovated bathrooms. Overnight options are very limited at Milford Sound: tenting was forbidden, we had no RV, and we couldn’t stomach NZ$345-849 for a private chalet. In retrospect, the dorm situation beat backcountry NZ huts. Milford Sound Airport was within walking distance of our car left at the waterfront public parking.
We enjoyed an easy version of the Hollyford Track (brochure and map) with a 3-day independent walker itinerary via a spectacular 15-minute flight from Milford Sound to Martins Bay, two nights sleeping in DOC huts, and personal car shuttle round trip from Te Anau. Highlights of the Hollyford include: seeing playful pups in the New Zealand fur seal colony near Martins Bay Hut; circumventing the muddy 10- to 12-hour Demon Trail (which has few views) via a fun jetboat ride along Lake McKerrow to Pyke River confluence; and strolling under beautiful tree fern forest under glacier-clad peaks soaring 8000 feet above.
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Queenstown
Bustling, upscaling Queenstown has much to offer if you’re ready for crowds. From the top of the scenic Skyline Gondola, I reveled in the 5-mile scenic loop over the steep ridge trail in Ben Lomond Scenic Reserve.
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Mount Aspiring National Park: Rees-Dart Track and Cascade Saddle
Yearning for the Rees-Dart Track inspired this revisit down under. Starting with a good weather window forecast for Cascade Saddle, the epic 5-day Rees-Dart Track proved much better than we had imagined. We set up our own car shuttle. While we were luckily unslowed by the many stream crossings, both vehicles and trampers would have been seriously hindered in a typical rainstorm. The remote wilderness huts surprised us with flush toilets and public sinks! 7 to 9 hours per day of sweat equity spent scrambling over the steep, sometimes mucky and rooty, sometimes excellent trails rewarded us with classic scenic wonders over the course of 52 miles in five days. Streams crashed from sparkling glaciers above lush green rainforest. The spare alpine vegetation reminded me of Peruvian Highlands. Dropping our packs for the 12.5-mile side trip to spectacular Cascade Saddle was a delight.
If using a Rees-Dart Shuttle Service, ask if a four-wheel-drive shuttle will take you a few kilometers further past Muddy Creek to get a jump on the long first day hiking in scenic Rees Valley to Shelter Rock Hut. At the end of the track, consider efficiently connecting with Glenorchy Wharf via a fun prearranged jetboat, which skips the last 1.5 hours of scenic walking to Chinaman’s Bluff parking lot.
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Mount Aspiring National Park: Rob Roy Track
Rob Roy Valley Track (easy 8 miles, 900 feet gain) is one of our favorite day hikes in the world. Start early in the morning to avoid inevitable crowds. From Wanaka, drive up Matukituki Valley on a gravel (“metal”) road with water crossings to the trailhead. Great hanging glaciers, crashing streams & waterfalls, swing suspension bridge, and kea alpine parrots.
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Mount Aspiring National Park: Gillespie Pass Circuit: Young & Wilkin Tracks to Siberia Hut and Crucible Lake
- In 2019, we enjoyed tramping 4 days on the rewarding Gillespie Pass (Wilkin-Young) Circuit, to Siberia Hut and marvelous Crucible Lake. Problematic Makarora River crossings at the start and end are best done via jetboat as we did from Makarora via Wilkin River Jets. Drenching rain on the first day at Young Hut yielded to mostly sunny weather for the most important remaining three days.
- In 2007, we did an easier, also spectacular option to reach Siberia Hut and Crucible Lake: Fly to Siberia Valley from Makarora and jetboat out. Day hike the spectacular but extremely steep and rooty track to Crucible Lake, and overnight at Siberia Hut. [Or the easiest option to sample the area is the one-day “The Siberia Experience“: fly in, hike 2.5 hours, then jetboat back.]
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South Island’s West Coast
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Along the wild coast of Paparoa National Park, we revisited the photogenic Punakaiki Pancake Rocks and Blowholes Walk, on Dolomite Point. I also loved the strikingly beautiful forest subtly transitioning between subtropical and temperate ecozones on gorgeous Pororari River Track (which is part of a new “Great Walk” to open after October 2019).
Our detailed NEW ZEALAND itinerary for 35 days (2018 Dec 27 to 2019 Jan 31)
Several months in advance, our family group of five booked lodging for our first two weeks in New Zealand, including Mt Cook area, Te Anau, and two nights in Queenstown. The first step was booking the popular Milford Track, which sold out all January slots within seconds after bookings opened 6 months in advance! We could only get slots for two out of five of our group, so those three instead booked the Routeburn Track (reservable the next day), which also filled up very quickly. After fulfilling our prudent bookings up to mid-January, a 3- to 5-day weather forecast then determined when to do the Rees-Dart Track (which requires no reservations, though pads should be carried in case bunks are full). Later, Makarora Travel Centre lodging was easily booked on short notice to stage our Gillespie Pass Circuit. West Coast lodging was tight but bookable several days in advance, with a reprieve as kids went back to school in the last week of January. [Below, RT = round trip; T&C = Tom and Carol; DRK = Dave, Rebecca, and Kylan.]
27. Thurs Dec 27: T&C: Fly from SFO to Christchurch, 19 hrs 15 min total duration = 12 hr10min flight + 3:20 layover + 4hr5min flight. [Fly SFO on FJ 871 departing Thursday, Dec. 27 at 9:00pm, duration 11:10 hours + 4:05 hours, arriving in Christchurch on FJ 451 at 1:35 pm on Saturday Dec 29. FijiAirways.com US$1266 per person; 1 FREE CHECKED BAG up to 50lb/23kg, 62 li/158 lcm, 1 FREE CARRY-ON BAG 7kg/15lb up to 45 li/115 lcm.]
28. [Lost day via International Dateline.]
29. Saturday Dec 29: Arrive in Christchurch IAP 1:35pm. T&C: Apex Rental Car: Toyota Corolla midsize sedan NZ$1489.29 for 33 days, 3 free extra drivers, pay at desk. DRK: rent a Toyota RAV4 NZ$56.67/day for 65 days. Stay at an AirBnB. Buy SIM cards for both Carol & Tom’s phones: Spark’s “NZ Travel SIM” for foreigners, $49 SIM, good for 2 months, gives 5 gb, 200min talk, 200 texts. Buy backpacking & other food; butane cigarette lighter for stove; Snowpeak Gigapower stove fuel isobutane/propane mix for dinners+breakfasts for 9 days (2 Hollyford+4 Rees-Dart+3 Gillespie). Gas cooking stoves are provided in Milford & Routeburn Huts.
30. Sunday Dec 30: Drive from Christchurch 4 hours to Glentanner Park, night 1/3. Nice short loop: Big Tree Walk in Peel Forest Park Scenic Reserve. See breathtakingly colorful fields of Russell lupin flowers via Lakes Tekapo & Pukaki.
31. Mount Cook 2/3: Glentanner Park. Hooker Valley Track (GMap: White Horse Hill Campsite, 6.8 miles, 450 feet), same trailhead as Sealy Tarns.
1. January 1: Mount Cook 3/3: Glentanner Park. Sealy Tarns (Start on Kea Point track from GMap: White Horse Hill Campsite, 5 miles RT, 1717 feet, steep) [or hike further to spectacular Mueller Hut 7.8 mi RT/3400 ft].
2. January 2: Drive to Te Anau 5 hours. Next 3 nights T&C, next 2 nights DRK: Te Anau Lakefront Backpackers. DRK: tent sites for four on Jan 2, 3, and 11.
3. Te Anau: Buy backcountry hut passes. We rested today, but here are local hiking options: Kepler Track dayhike options: Take Brod Bay Water Taxi (Fiordland Outdoors Co. – Kepler Water Taxi, GMap) then walk back to Te Anau 11km. Or Brod Bay to Luxmore Hut 10.2 mi / 2870ft RT (or shorter to views at bushline). Longer: Brod Bay to Mount Luxmore 11.6mi/4000ft gain RT. Water Taxi 8.30am or 9.30am, return 4.30pm. Or Kepler Heli Hike drops you at Mt Luxmore Hut (optional walk 3 hrs RT 1300ft to summit Mt Luxmore) then walk back 4 hrs to Brod Bay Water Taxi.
4. DRK begin Routeburn day 1/4: hike from the Divide to MacKenzie Campsite. T&C day hike, joining DRK on Routeburn Track, to Key Summit side trip 3 hrs RT 4.7 mi/ 1389 ft. T&C hike Marion Falls/The Gantry GMap 20min round trip [optionally one can hike onwards to Lake Marion 3 hrs RT 4.4 mi/1565 ft.]
5. Saturday Jan 5: T&C: Leave car at Te Anau Downs Boat Launch, GMap. Take 10:30am ferry to Glade Wharf to start Milford Track; first day is easy hike 3mi/5km. [Total distance would have been 36-40 miles in 4 days with 4600ft up, 5200ft down]. [DRK 2/4: to Routeburn Falls Hut. Gas cooking stoves are provided in Milford & Routeburn Huts.]
6. Sunday Jan 6: T&C: Milford Track second day: Due to flooding delaying forward progress by an extra night, we return 5km from Clinton Hut to Glade Wharf; catch the 3:00 pm ferry to Te Anau Downs. Because Te Anau lodging is fully booked, we drive our car 90 minutes to the deserted Riversdale Hotel. [DRK 3/4: MacKenzie Hut.]
7. T&C hike Earland Falls, meeting DRK [on their Routeburn day 4/4] on their hike back to The Divide. DRK stay in Te Anau Lakefront Backpackers BBH (dorm room 3 people, shared bathroom). T&C: stay in Distinction Te Anau Hotel & Villas booked on short notice 2 days ago.
8. T&C, DRK drive both cars to end of Hollyford Road End to leave one car, then all 5 go in one car to Milford Sound where it remains parked for 3 nights. Past Homer Tunnel, see The Chasm GMap via 20 minute walk. All of us overnight in dorm beds at Milford Sound Lodge (laundry available; hot showers; public kitchen; café; GMap).
9. Hollyford Track see map, day 1/3: Easy day: Bring cooking stove kit with lighter & fuel, backup sleeping pads in case of full hut, changes of clothing & fresh camera & backup batteries. 10:30am airplane short flight for all of us (www.tripsandtramps.com) from Milford Sound to Martins Bay airstrip, walk 3.5 miles to Martins Bay Hut, dormitory lodging with pit toilets, partly on washed-out, muddy trail. Warning: Sandflies bit us voraciously at Martins Bay and in the Hollyford Valley; so put on your DEET repellent before exposure. Walk 2 more miles round trip on good trail to see the wonderfully entertaining New Zealand fur seal colony.
10. Hollyford Track 2/3: Jetboat charter for 5 from 2.00pm-3:00pm, run by www.hollyfordtrack.com from Martins Bay Hut along length of Lake Mckerrow to Pyke River Confluence, NZ$130/person, www.tripsandtramps.com. Ride the Jetboat. Then hike to Hidden Falls Hut (12 bunks, GMap) 10.5 km, 3–4 hr.
11. Hollyford Track 3/3: hike from Hidden Falls Hut to Lower Hollyford Road, Hollyford Trailhead, 9 km, 2–3 hr. All of us drive in one car to recover other car at Milford Sound. Drive 2 cars back to Te Anau Lakefront Backpackers.
12. Drive 2.3 hours from Te Anau to Queenstown Top 10 Holiday Park night 1 of 2. GMap 1/2 T&C Self Contained Cabin. DRK in tents.
13. Queenstown Top 10 Holiday Park night 2 of 2. I hiked a very scenic loop over the steep ridge of Ben Lomond Scenic Reserve starting from top of Skyline Gondola. One can extend this hike to Ben Lomond Track from 1-6.9 miles with 500-3236 ft gain in 5-6 hrs round trip. [Other good options outside of town: Bob’s Cove; or Glacier Burn: 4.6 mi/2152 ft. RT steep, rooty, GMap] (The DOC office in Makarora is unmanned, so get tomorrow’s Gillespie Circuit hut tickets and track info at Wanaka DOC office before going to Makarora; or get 6-month Hut Passes as we did.)
14. As of today, nothing was prebooked, allowing a 3-day window for Rees-Dart Track (DOC). The forecast was good, so we hiked Day 1/5: we left one car at Chinaman’s Bluff in Dart Valley and shuttled all five of us in the other car to Muddy Creek parking lot in Rees Valley, via stream crossings possible in good weather in our Toyota Corolla & RAV4 rental cars. If in doubt, hire a car shuttle service, or possible jetboat in Dart Valley. We hike 11.9 miles, 1650 ft. up, 400 ft. down, from Muddy Creek to Shelter Rock Hut. (The first 4 miles are on a road which a 4WD shuttle could shorten, but you wouldn’t want to leave a car beyond Muddy Creek, isolated by possibly flooded stream crossings.)
15. Rees-Dart Track 2/5: 6.2mi/9km with 1885 feet gain, steep on good trail to Rees Saddle, then a surprisingly punishing 1800 feet down on many scrambling very steep drop-offs, to Dart Hut.
16. Rees-Dart Track 3/5: side trip: Hike to spectacular, steep Cascade Saddle (12.5 miles round trip with 3200 ft gain), the major goal and highlight of our 2019 trip! (Beware of several possibly uncrossable flooded stream crossings in rainy weather.)
17. Rees-Dart Track 4/5: 11.25 miles, 1150 ft. up, 2600 ft. down, to Daly’s Flat Hut, on the easiest footpath conditions out of the five days. (Except beware of several possibly uncrossable flooded stream crossings in rainy weather). Sandflies are voracious here; so put on your DEET repellent before exposure.
18. Rees-Dart Track 5/5: 10 miles, 1250 ft. up, 1440 ft. down to Chinaman’s Bluff parking lot, car shuttle. Walk by an eerie partly-submerged forest killed by the flooded blue-green lake in Dredge Flat, which was dammed by the 2014 Jan 04 landslide, which had required rough rerouting of three sections of the Rees-Dart Track (reopened in late 2017). Watch your step when tired! Other than slow clambering steeply up and down required through the rooty reroutes, the remaining path conditions today resembled speedy Great Walk standards. A section signed for cliff “exposure” turned out to be a safe, wide, well protected path with stairs and railings, with nice views over the new lake. Suspended glacial powder colors the lake a beautiful turquoise. Although this was our most difficult ever hut walk in 30 years, Rees-Dart Track paid off as our best experience in New Zealand! This night we stayed in Wanaka (Albert Town, AirBnb night 1 of 5).
19. Wanaka (Albert Town, AirBnb 2 of 5): We relaxed. [Nearby popular option: Roy’s Peak: park by 6:30-7am, 8-9.7 mi / 3500-4000 ft gain to good view of Lake Wanaka.]
20. Wanaka (Albert Town, AirBnb 3 of 5): Get up early to avoid the crowds, drive 80 minutes to hike the memorable Rob Roy Valley Track (easy 7 miles, 1700 feet gain).
21. Wanaka (Albert Town, AirBnb 4 of 5): We relaxed. [Nearby option: hike Diamond Lake Track 3.9 mi/1529 ft, GMap.]
22. Wanaka (Albert Town, AirBnb 5 of 5): We relaxed.
23. From Makarora, start Gillespie Pass circuit 1/4: NZ$25 per person jetboat on Makarora River to Young River confluence, hike 10.6 miles, 2480 ft. up, 810 ft. down, 6.5 hrs to Young Hut. [One can optionally fly (Wilkin Jetboats Siberia Experience NZ$375 or Southern Alps Air NZ$395).]
24. Gillespie Pass circuit 2/4: Young Hut via very steep Gillespie Pass to Siberia Hut 7mi/3020 ft up/3400ft down, steep, 6-8 hours. DEET repellent is advised to ward off clouds of sandflies at Siberia Hut. [Optional side trip to spectacular Crucible Lake adds 5.3mi/2040 ft 4+hrs RT, making a strenuous 12.3-mile day with 5440 ft gain; or else hike tomorrow from Siberia Hut as we did.]
25. Gillespie Pass circuit 3/4: spectacular Crucible Lake 9.3 miles/2100ft round trip hike starting from Siberia Hut.
26. Gillespie Pass circuit 4/4: 4.2mi/300ft gain/1300ft down one way to the exciting jetboat ride NZ$110pp from Kerin Forks to Makarora. Stay in Makarora Travel Centre, where Carol stayed 4 nights to take a break from this rougher track.
27. Leaving Makarora, we stroll to the attractive Blue Pools in Mount Aspiring National Park. Walk up Haast Pass Lookout to absorb the area’s history. Along the drive over Haast Pass to Fox Glacier, we liked popular Thunder Creek Falls. Haast Visitor Centre (run by DOC) helps organize your West Coast visit. All five of us stay in bunks in a small private room at Fox Glacier Top 10 Holiday Park.
28. West Coast: Near Fox Glacier, we drove through nice wilderness to foggy Gillespies Beach, in Westland Tai Poutini National Park. Close-ups of the exceptionally loud chorus cicadas were fun to capture on video in the bush. Walk around Lake Matheson, still attractive when the Alps are covered in cloud (but more magical when Mounts Cook and Tasman reflect, as in 2007). We five stay in a larger double room with kitchen in delightful Greymouth Seaside TOP 10 Holiday Park, night 1 of 2.
29. West Coast: Greymouth Seaside TOP 10 Holiday Park, night 2 of 2. In Paparoa National Park, revisit fascinating Pancake Rocks; and hike gorgeous Pororari River Track. [More local options: Hokitika Gorge. Or Charming Creek Walkway.]
30. Jan 30: Drive to Christchurch, via Arthurs Pass NP: Devils Punchbowl, 4 mi RT 745 ft gain to high waterfall. Christchurch in an AirBnb house, which lacked air conditioning. Look for Christchurch lodging with AC in summer, as temperatures reached 92 degrees Fahrenheit today!
31. Thurs Jan 31: We returned the rental car with full tank of petrol by 2:00pm. After 5 weeks in NZ, we depart CHC at 15:30pm, arriving in SFO 12:45pm (arriving before we started that same Thursday afternoon, due to crossing International Dateline). Flight times going eastwards are quicker due to prevailing winds: 4 hrs plus 3hr40min stopover plus 10hr 30min = 18hr 10min total duration. Rent car one way from SFO to Chico 3.5+ hrs. After several nights in Chico, we drove our own car to Seattle.
Recommended guidebooks for New Zealand
Search for latest “New Zealand travel” books at Amazon.com.
We optimize our valuable travel time with good guides:
- Lonely Planet New Zealand (Travel Guide) Paperback: carry this essential guide on the trip.
- Lonely Planet Hiking & Tramping in New Zealand (Travel Guide) – 2018. Carry along this good backpacking and hut-walking planner.
- New Zealand, National Geographic Adventure Map, 3500 – Folded Map, updated frequently
Beautiful, glossy books for planning trips, making handsome souvenirs (heavier than above):
- Lonely Planet Discover New Zealand (Travel Guide) Paperback – 2018: LP’s “Discover” series is on handsome, heavy glossy paper, a good souvenir, helpful for trip planning.
- DK Eyewitness Travel Guide New Zealand Paperback: is another attractive, well-researched guide series on heavy photo paper.