Travel – Roadtrip to Queenstown and Fox Glacier

 

We recently headed off on a long weekend adventure to Queenstown and I thought I’d share it with you guys. We decided to leave for Christchurch on Thursday evening after work.

We drove down as dusk was setting and the full moon peeped through the clouds. She was beautiful! I love the moon, and it felt like she was guiding us safely to our destination, popping up around every corner and mountain top sillhoette.

Day 1 – Nelson to Christchurch (415kms’s)

We got to Christchurch and booked in to our accomodation for the night, made some herbal tea, had a shower and got into bed. I had prepped a bunch of food for the trip down the night before, so we had dinner on the road.

The drive down to Christchurch is just over 5 hours, I can’t really remember how long it took us but it’s around 415kms. We went the route past Hanmer Springs as you can see in the image below:

Day 2 – Christchurch to Wanaka (428kms)

The next morning we woke up and made an early start to Wanaka. It was Easter Friday so a lot of the cafe’s were closed. We decided to make a quick breakfast/coffee stop in Ashburton (which is just outside of Christchurch) and got back on the road. 

The drive down to Wanaka was quite long. Initially there is a lot of farms and flat farmlands – Canterbury is very flat and there’s not a great deal to see. Once we had gotten a bit farther, we passed through Geraldine which was so pretty. It would definitely be a spot I’d like to visit again and explore a bit more – but we were set on getting to our destination. 

We did stop for coffee at The Farm Barn Cafe along State Highway 79, just past Geraldine. It was such a cute cafe with great gift options, along with yummy coffee and tasty cabinet treats – a lot of vegan and plant based options too. And that’s what I love so much about New Zealand, everywhere caters for everyone – even if you think you’re in the middle of nowhere – I can assure you there’ll be sugar and dairy free drink and food options. 

I’d say from about Geraldine onwards the scenery changes and becomes amazingly beautiful. As we left the misty cafe, we defended out of the mist belt and all the mountain ranges became visible. It was such a lovely day too – which made the scenery all around look even better. 

We continued along and stopped at the ever popular Lake Tekapo, along with 3million other tourists. We didn’t stay too long, just took a few snaps and carried on. We continued past Lake Pukaki but unfortunately the mist had returned and it was so thick, we really couldn’t see much at all.

We then briefly stoped at Omarama and what a cute little spot, all the trees had full on autumnal vibes, with rich earthy hues and just made the little town to quaint.

We past the Clay Cliffs just out of Omarama and headed through the Lindis Pass which also meant we crossed over from Canterbury into Otago. As we headed through the mountains, I could imagine the road in Winter being full of snow.

The mountain sides were all quite barren which I presumed is an indication of how cold it gets, meaning not much is happy to live there plant wise. 

We made it to Wanaka just in time for lunch, and headed to Speight’s Ale House as it was the only place that had a spot for us to nab. We sat in the sun while we re-fuelled which was so divine!

Over looking a beautiful pond with all the Autumn colours everywhere – we definitely came down at a good time. A bit later though would have been even more spectacular with Autumn in full swing. 

After lunch we head to #thatwanakatree, which I have honestly waited to long to photograph. For those who don’t know, it’s an iconic tree in Wanaka that is growing on the side of Lake Wanaka – in the water. It’s amazing and so beautiful! We then checked into our accomodation spot, which had such a beautiful view, and headed back into Wanaka for a stroll around.

After some dinner we headed back to our accomodation to warm up, it was quite chilly down there – even more so in Queenstown! Much colder than it has been in Nelson, and it’s not even Winter yet! 

Day 3 – Wanaka to Arrowtown and Queenstown (67kms)

We woke up and headed into Wanaka for breakfast. The afternoon before we had sat at a lovely little cafe and had some warm drinks – Nick had a loose leaf peppermint tea and I had one of the most delicious turmeric lattes I’ve ever had!

Goodness it was delicious, so the plan was to head back to that cafe in the morning for coffee (Nick) and a turmeric latte (for me). The cafe is called Big Fig and it’s just on the main road into Wanaka by the lake front. We had brought our re-usable thermal travel mugs so brought them into the cafe and saved 50cents on each drink – winning!

We then made our way to Queenstown. Next was the obligatory stop at Bradrona (Mount Cardrona is one of the well know skiing mountains in Queenstown) a iconic stretch of fence laced in bra’s in support of Woman’s Breast Cancer in New Zealand. I was happily obliged to leave my crimson red number behind along with a giggle with one of the asian tourist’s that joked that her’s was too big it’d break the fence.

We continued over the Crown Range and stopped at the top at the viewing point to get some images of the impeccable view down into Queenstown. Just breath-taking! I think a few weeks later we would have seen the true autumn beauty of this time of year, but it was amazing none-the-less.

Down the hill we went, to the iconic mining village of Arrowtown. It’s known for it’s beauty in the winter as the avenue of tree’s going into the town turn bright red hues. Still a pretty little town to mosey down with a herbal tea and camera in hand. 

Onward to Queenstown and the weather began misbehaving – but that didn’t stop us. We went up the Skyline Queenstown cable car to see the views from the top. They were beautiful, even if it was raining intermittently and the mountains were covered in a hazy misty blanket. 

We continued to do the Luge a few times in the rain – which was such fun, probably not the wisest choice as I had quite a chest cold – but it was worth it. We then had lunch in the restaurant at the top which was delicious! It was a huge buffet with such delicious options and all prepared beautifully!

Once we’d fuelled up and warmed up with some peppermint tea, we did a few more laps on the luge and headed back down. Even in the crappy weather – we still had a great time! 

The plan was to stay in Queenstown for dinner so the afternoon was spent walking down around the waterfront, along the Queenstown gardens, feeding the lake fish in the underwater aquarium and finding another Big Fig cafe for some afternoon tea.

If the weather was better we would have maybe done more but it was honestly so cold I just wanted to stay warm! So warm turmeric lattes and raw treats it was. Having been on my gut cleanse for 6 weeks, having a few treats was much more enticing that braving the cold. 

We ended up having dinner by the waterfront at Ivy & Lola’s Kitchen & Bar. We sat next to the heaters, rugged up with blankets and sipping on the most divine mulled wine with the most beautiful view. It was so special and I remember feeling so grateful, happy and content. One of those moments that you hang on to – or perhaps hangs onto you. 

The reason we wanted to stay in Queenstown for dinner was because Nick has booked us in to the Minus 5 Ice Bar for an after dinner cocktail. It was such fun and what an experience. The whole bar is made out of ice, including the cocktail glasses, and dotted around are the most intricate ice sculptures. So beautiful and such a fun and different thing to do. 

We then headed back to Wanaka the the full moon in front of us – she was so big and full and beautiful! Dancing behind the clouds, again I felt in awe of her beauty. 

Day 4 – Wanaka to The West Coat and Fox Glacier (262kms)

Our plan was to get to the West Coast to see the Glaciers, but first a stop at Puzzling World was on the itinerary. A wonderful collection of optical illusions, puzzles, mind warps and one HUGE maze – it was such fun. We didn’t finish the maze as apparently it can take up to 2.5hrs – understandably as it was big and so confusing! But that was okay because we had an epic road trip journey ahead of us.

This was one of the most beautiful drives we’ve ever done in New Zealand so far! The amount of waterfalls we saw alone was breathtaking, even if the weather wasn’t the greatest. From Wanaka we headed up past the spectacular Lake Hawea and then back along Lake Wanaka.

I wish the sun had come out just for this bit because with the mountains all around it would have been so magical, but anyway it was still magnificent to see. 

Our first stop on the voyage up the rugged West Coast was the Blue Pools Walk which is just outside of Wanaka on State Highway 6. It was such a beautiful scenic walk through a magical fairyland forrest – lush with green vibrant moss and natural New Zealand fauna. Like all the walkways in New Zealand, this one was pristine and just so so so beautiful!

A short walk from that car park leads you to the magical Blue Pools. I do think that the ‘blueness’ of the pools would be more evident with more sunlight and maybe later in the day – and as we were there on a drizzly gloomy morning, they weren’t as blue as we’d hoped they would have been. But still an magical sight to see and highly recommended if you’re on you’re way through – especially on a good day. 

Onwards through the mountains, passing rivers, waterfalls, cloud covered peaks and sneaky snippets of snow capped mountains and then rolling waves of the ocean – the drive was impeccable and truly gave you the rugged feeling of the barely touched west Coast of New Zealand. 

We stopped for a brief lunch in Haast and carried on. We arrived at Fox Glacier at around 2.30pm and as parts of the road have been washed away from the recent heavy rains, a portion of the track was closed – meaning that instead of a short walk from the car park, we had to walk from the main road up which added on an hour or so to our timeline. Besides our hastily pace – we walked through again the most lush and whimsical forrest jungle – it was truly like something out of a dream! 

We made it to the viewing point of Fox Glacier and stood in awe of it’s magnificence. Wow! Definitely something to cross off the bucket list – surreal! On seeing photographs of it before, it’s scary how much it has receded – frightening in fact. And on a side note – Nick and I have been watching One Strange Rock on Netflix and holy crap! Is it an eye opener to the planet we live on and it’s intricacies! Highly highly highly recommended! 

We decided on our walk back to the car that it was getting to dark to be able to do the walk up to Franz Josef Glacier which is the next one along the way just past this one – so that one will be done another day. Hopefully in a helicopter (#manifestingmydreams).

Fox Glacier to Hokitika (157kms)

We were staying in Hokitika for the night so got back on the road and drove through, past Franz Josef Glacier and over the newly fixed bridge that recently got washed away leaving tourists stranded this side of the river. Luckily for us it opened just in time for our road trip.

This journey was long, and probably the longest stretch of the whole trip. Don’t get me wrong the scenery was still so beautiful but I think by this stage we were just quite tired and ready for a good nights sleep. Which is exactly what we did once we reached our destination.

Our Trip – A Summary

In total we drove just under 1900km’s and pretty much did a near round trip of the belly of the South Island. It was such a great trip and one we’ve been wanting to do for ages! I’m so grateful we were able to go on such short notice and on a long weekend – it was just meant to be I guess.

We then decided to do the Swing Bridge Walk about 30km’s outside of Hokitika – it was again another beautiful walk. And then it was time for the stretch home back to Nelson. 

 

Hope you enjoyed this travel post, and if so let me know your dream travel destination or if you’ve travelled a similar route before. I’d love to hear about it … let’s get chatting in the comment section below: