On The Road Again

2 weeks we had left together until we were going to split up. And 10 days before we were going to sell our Steve. The day we were supposed to leave Max felt really ill. He’d been having serious fevers throughout the night and unfortunately I couldn’t drive. So priority one was for him to get better! I was pretty shocked; I’ve never seen him ill haha. But you could tell that once we were on the road again, we both felt free. Leaving Te Anau behind, going to Queenstown. I never get bored driving around. Back at home, a 2-hour drive would be a pain in the ass and absolutely boring… But New Zealand is just stunning, every kilometer you drive. You’re just in the middle of nowhere. Surrounded by mountains, driving past lakes, roads through valleys and after every hour there’s a cute little township with 30 houses. As so on the road to Queenstown. The town was called ‘Garston’ and it had a honey shop where you could taste for free. Honey is a big thing in New Zealand, especially the expensive ‘Manuka Honey’. Never thought that I’d be into honey, but you can definitely tell the difference when it’s fresh and natural!

Off to Queenstown. It wasn’t my first time to visit and a lot of people absolutely love it. I’ve never been that impressed but we needed some good food so it was the place to be! A lot of the locals always talk about some good ‘burger’ places. I’ve also never had a great taste for burgers but Max did. ‘Fur burgers’ it was called and there was huge que, I guess that means it is worth it. I couldn’t believe the size of it, almost bigger than my head, but the best burger I’ve ever eaten. No overnight for is in Queenstown but Glenorchy seemed the perfect stop. There was a ‘DOC’ campsite close to one of the most beautiful hikes in New Zealand called ‘Routeburn track’. Glenorchy was another nice little town but the campsite was completely in the middle of nowhere. Since it’s getting winter, we were the only ones there! It felt really nice to be surrounded by silence after a couple of months’ work. Getting dark around 5 we cuddles up in our old Steve and watched Game of Thrones. I felt happy and free in every kind of way. I was just laying there in my car with my fairy lights and way too many duvets. It was cold but cozy and nice to have that natural sleeping pattern again.

We woke up really early and did a little walk to a lake, nothing special you’d say but I was just enjoying the nature around me. It was the reason I was in NZ, just to walk and be in the middle of nowhere. I really wanted to walk a part of the Routeburn but the weather wouldn’t allow it. Next stop was Wanaka, a place I supposed to fall in love with. I was really excited and Damien was going to join us for our further travels. Like Max said, it’s a nice feeling to drive somewhere with a couple of cars. And they were right about Wanaka, I could live there! An awesome and youthful town with a mirror lake and way too many awesome walks around. We cooked some dinner with a beautiful view and just before I was going to mention a campsite Damien said he had a surprise for us. ‘Wait two hours’, he said. Without any clue we just spent our time on pool and watched some rugby. ‘Follow me’, driving out of town into the farms. Damien stopped at a random house and parked…. Surprise! He rented us 2 nights in a way to fancy air B&B which I could never afford. We had our own king size beds and I never slept that well in my life! Cheers Damien! We ended the night with a bottle of Jack Daniels and hours of playing ‘Love letter’. Not to mention the fancy king size hangover in the morning ;)