Aotearoa – Exploring the Land of the Long White Cloud

We spent most of February in New Zealand, a trip we had been looking forward to for ages. But just five days before we were set to leave, Air New Zealand cancelled our flight! You can imagine we didn’t get much sleep that night after seeing the email. Thankfully, the next day, we managed to sort everything out – they rebooked us on the same flight a day early. After a frantic scramble to find a rental car and hotel for the extra night, we were all set and even got an extra day to enjoy our trip!

We took thousands of pictures, and I could talk for hours about the trip – but I’ll try to rein myself in and keep it as short as possible. (If want to see a larger version of a picture, just click on it.)

Our journey started with a non-stop flight from Vancouver to Auckland. Thanks to the time difference, we landed at 5 a.m. Stepping out of cool, rainy Canada into a beautiful summer day in Auckland was such a treat! We also loved New Zealand’s coffee culture; really good coffee prepared with love was available everywhere.

From Auckland, we drove south toward the east coast and the Coromandel Peninsula.

Naturally, Hobbiton near Matamata was a must-see. I’m not the biggest Lord of the Rings fan – fantasy just isn’t my genre – but my husband is, and I enjoyed the books and movies enough to appreciate the chance to see all the LOTR locations in New Zealand.

From there, we headed to the thermal areas of the North Island around Rotorua. We are big fans of Yellowstone and fascinated by geysers, so we were thrilled to see what New Zealand has to offer in terms of thermal features.

We also spent some time hiking in Tongariro National Park, another spot Peter Jackson used for LOTR filming. We even managed to find the location of Gollum’s Pool!

Just north of Wellington, we stopped at Kaitoke Regional Park—the filming location for Rivendell.

Sightseeing in big cities isn’t really our thing, but we did spend some time exploring Wellington, especially in and around the parliament buildings.

From Wellington, we took the Interislander Ferry across the Cook Strait to the South Island.

The next day, we spent our time on a day hike in Abel Tasman National Park.

From there, we headed down the west coast of the South Island, stopping at several locations like Cape Foulwind and the Tauranga Bay Seal Colony.

Following the coast, we visited Hokitika and the glaciers of the Southern Alps.

Then we crossed the mountains to Wanaka and continued onward to Queenstown. Beyond Queenstown and Glenorchy lies another area rich with LOTR filming locations, including the Dart River Valley, which served as the backdrop for Isengard.

Next, we stopped in Te Anau, our gateway to Fiordland National Park. From here, we explored the stunning landscapes with cruises on both Milford and Doubtful Sound.

We drove through Southland, stopping at lighthouses, hiking to waterfalls, and spotting plenty of seals, one sea lion on the beach, and a stunning sunrise at Nugget Point framed by a full double rainbow.

From Dunedin on the east coast, we turned inland again to visit Mount Cook National Park. We did a lot of hiking there – really the only way to explore it – and I set a personal record with nearly 26,000 steps that day.

We returned to the east coast to visit Christchurch and then headed to Akaroa. February isn’t the best time to see penguins in the wild, as the young ones fledge in January, and by the time we reached the penguin colonies on the South Island, the birds were already going through their “catastrophic moult.” During this phase, they lose and replace all their feathers at once and can’t swim, so they stay hidden away. We were able to take a tour with Pohatu Penguins to their colony in Flea Bay outside Akaroa, where we saw a few penguins in mid-moult. (The penguins are not bothered by people watching, as long as everyone stays very quiet.)

We spent our last morning in Christchurch at the International Antarctic Centre, which was another highlight of the trip.

Then we flew back to Auckland and from there to Vancouver. My husband was thrilled to see that the plane taking us back to Canada was adorned with All Blacks livery.

And of course, I visited as many quilt shops as I could and bought a ton of Kiwiana fabrics. I haven’t done anything with them yet – just brainstorming ideas for future projects. We will see what I can come up with!

Overall, it was a fantastic trip. If you think you can visit New Zealand once to “get it out of your system”, think again! We are definitely hooked and will try to go back when we can.