Van Tour New Zealand and Return to Wellington || February 2020

End of our Van Tour New Zealand and Return to Wellington || February 2020

Hello everyone and welcome. Today I am telling you about what happened this month in New Zealand. As you know, in my post from January 2020 & and in some videos on my Youtube Channel; I told you that I am doing a New Zealand’s South Island van trip.

Concluding the Van Tour New Zealand

We had planned from the beginning to do two months and we started traveling regardless of the time. It turned out that it took us exactly two months. Without some of the setbacks suffered it could have been a little faster. Regardless, we managed to see many interesting things. We will make time to return to some places that we could not visit in the future.

Dunedin

During this last month we visited Dunedin, a university town. We were stuck there for a week as there was a storm all over “Southland.”

Being this city a very accessible place if we were students. But being tourists doing a van trip we had some problems.

Finding parking near the city, which forced us to go out in the rain several times. Without access to showers, we return the van got wet… Jona got sick and even after the storm, we had to wait a while for us to feel good to continue with the trip.

If we had not stayed here we would have been trapped in another part of Otago or Southland. Perhaps we would have had more problems not having access to bathrooms and so on, despite the rain problem.

End of our Van Tour New Zealand and Return to Wellington || February 2020

Deep South

After Dunedin, we visited the rest of the Otago peninsula, saw some penguins and more. We head south, visit the Catlins, Okawa, Waikawa, Invercagill.

One of the must-sees of New Zealand is Milford and Doubtful Sounds in Fiorland. However due to the storm we passed in Dunedin (which affected other areas in the south. The road to Milfrord was closed and the reserves for Doubtful were full for up to 6 days. We didn’t want to waste getting stuck in one place, especially after a week in Dunedin.

That’s why we decided to pass this place and continue our journey. We have the idea of ​​returning at some point to also explore Steward Island.

Queenstown

Making a “loop” or “circuit” returning north through Te Anau to Queenstown where JUMP OUT OF A PLANE! first in free fall for 20 seconds and then parachute.

Parachute in Queenstown

This was all on February 14th. The day where obviously I also went out with my boyfriend Jona to enjoy some of the restaurants in Queenstown like The Fat Lamb, the famous Ferburger burgers and an Irish Pub.

After Queenstown we continue our journey north to see the famous glaciers. Our luck from the previous storm decided to follow us this time and there was a cyclone on the east coast (where the glaciers are located). The night we arrived at the Fox Glacier camp, the cyclone affected the road to the glacier.

Franz Josef Glacier

We still had the chance to go to the glacier but we had to walk the stretch of road, doing the walk for 2 hours. Since the prediction of the day was sunny at noon until around 4 or 5, we decided not to visit this glacier. Rather thinking about the possibility of visiting the Franz Josef glacier before it rained there too.

End of our Van Tour New Zealand and Return to Wellington || February 2020

Hokatika

Kiwis in Hokatika

So we visited this glacier, we continued our trip to Hokatika where I saw a couple of kiwis for the first time and we saw them jumping! (Kiwis, not us!) The caretaker of the place (Kiwi National Center) told us that when they brought the male, he taught the female to jump as a game and that they also fight from time to time because the male wants to have baby kiwis and the female does not want to.

We heard them “scream” and when the group of people who were watching the kiwis feed with us left, we stayed to watch them a little longer and we saw them jumping, it was very funny and Jona (who has seen kiwis before in his life) said that this is the most interesting experience with kiwis in his life.

Later, we saw another pair of kiwis at the Christchurch Zoo but this experience was better. In Hokatika we also saw the famous glow worm. It was a very special experience.

Glow Worms

Christchurch

I concluded this trip, ending in Christchurch, where Jona has some friends and we were able to stay for a few days to relax, socialize, and explore the city a bit.

End of our Van Tour New Zealand and Return to Wellington || February 2020

Reflection on my travels

Being alone the first months that I spent in Thailand, traveling and now that we toured the south of New Zealand… We realized and especially I realized that although I really like to travel and that will not change, Nor will I stop traveling… I also really like spending time at home, watching series, relaxing without moving all the time.

Being in Thailand and living alone for the first time I realized that the feeling of having a place of my own to go to and being able to decide what to do, have the opportunity to decorate, give love to your home because at the end of the day, is to give love to yourself and your space.

The fact of traveling and living on the road may sound like a dream to many and although I feel 100% lucky to have the opportunity to do so, I can now say that it is definitely a life that I couldn’t live all the time.

Without a doubt I want to continue traveling and knowing places and cultures, I will continue to do so. However, very long periods of time are somewhat complicated, they get in the way of being able to follow routines and meet personal goals.

There are people who will have more tolerance to instability and others who will have less, however I feel that it is only human to want to have something that makes you feel that you have your feet on the ground and that you are not lost.

Even vloggers who are dedicated to making travel videos have said it and I feel that everyone who travels or lives an unstable life (for any other reason) can feel identified. I will be writing about my trip to New Zealand and posting the previous trips here before the videos come to light as it is faster and easier and I would like to be able to post things more according to the day and what is happening month after month like that that they are aware of the blog.

Coronavirus

Among other news, the coronavirus reached both Mexico and New Zealand. In Mexico two cases were reported and in New Zealand the first one arrived in Auckland. I thought it would be very difficult for him to get to New Zealand but it seems that a resident came back from Iran and was infected.

They quarantined the person and his family but obviously other people were coming on the plane that he was coming from and he was also transported by a private company to his house so hopefully no one in contact with the person has been infected.

If there was no other infected, we have a chance that it is an isolated case and it will not spread. Authorities say it is under control and there is little likelihood of contagion. I care more about the situation in Mexico at the moment.

What’s next?

Next month we will be back in Wellington, looking for a place to live and a job to work for the rest of the year. We still don’t know if we are going to live in Wellington or if we will move to Christchurch. There is also the possibility of trying to extend my visa if we get a good job and feel good here.

Otherwise, I’m also open to the possibility of getting different jobs, trying to find a modeling agency here, singing, etc. Other than 9-5. If I find an interesting job 9-5 or something part time is also another of my options. It all depends on what you find.

Favorites for February: Series, movies and books

While in Christchurch we took time to relax and watch some series on Netflix such as: I’m not okay with this, Siempre Bruja, Ghost Bride, Sex Education, Diablero. We also saw the movie Chef and saw some episodes of cooking series like Ugly Delicious and Chef Show.

I started reading the book Burried Giant, at the beginning of the year I thought about the idea of ​​reading again since I have not read in a long time, almost since I was in middle school or high school, where I read very often. My purpose is to read one book a month.

Last month I read The Alchemist, this month I started The Buried Giant, I have not finished it but I will count as valid at the end of the year having read 12 books even if it is not strictly one in each month.

End of our Van Tour New Zealand and Return to Wellington || February 2020

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