New Zealand - Day 3 & 4

Saturday May 19, 2018

I woke up early Saturday morning to use the restroom and when I stepped out of the van couldn't help but enjoy the (what I thought at the time) amazing sunrise. I snapped a few pics and then went about my business.

It wasn't until I was done that I realize the real spectacle hadn't even begun. I mean look at this!

By far the prettiest sunrise I have ever witnessed! What a great way to start out the day.

We were on the road fairly early again and the first stop of the day was Matai Falls. These falls were also not that great... we didn't even take a picture there. (Though I should explain when I say "not that great" I'm going by New Zealand beauty standards; anywhere else in the world they'd be pretty awesome haha.)  The 15-20 minute walk through the "jungle" was nice though.

Following Matai we drove another 30 ish minutes down the road to McLean Falls. We totally lucked out on the weather this day. It rotated between sprinkling, raining, and sunny all day long and somehow we always managed to be driving when it was raining and walking/hiking when it was sunny/sprinkling. Soooo nice.

McLean falls turned out to be totally worth the drive/hike. It was huge!

It was especially fun because you could scramble up the different levels and get up close and personal with the main fall.

Something about falling water is just so mesmerizing.

After McLean Falls we continued on our way to Curio Bay. I honestly didn't know much about this destination and threw it into our itinerary last minute after reading a small blurb about it. All we knew driving to the place is that it was a bay containing a petrified forest.

We arrived around 9-10 am and rather than stopping at the main parking area we continued driving through the campground to a small car park on a hill overlooking the bay. It was suuuuuuper windy and cold up there, but the view was fantastic.

The hill gradually sloped down towards the bay with a little walking path. We walked down a ways, all the while drinking in the view and snapping pictures. It didn't look like a petrified forest to me, but gosh the scenery was breathtaking.  Plus there wasn't another soul around. About halfway down the hill John turned back to grab the car while I continued on the path to meet him at the mouth of the bay.

Once we got the car re-parked we decided to have some fun scrambling through the tide pools of the bay.

The rocks were suuuuper slippery and we both nearly ate it multiple times. It was awesome being close to the crashing waves though.

The goal was to make our way to the visitor's center area, but we realized that doing so would be impossible without getting pretty wet.

So we back tracked out to the car and drove to the main parking area. I'm really happy we spent time in both places though; the far side of the bay was ridiculously scenic, but it wasn't until you got to the "main" part of the bay that you could see the petrified forest.

I guess I was expecting a bunch of tree rings, but it's the fallen logs that are petrified. We were probably scrambling over similar formations on the other side of the bay without even knowing it haha!

Had I not know better some of the formations would have looked like typical old logs and driftwood half buried in the sand.

What a pretty pretty place, one of the best spots we went to for sure.

Once we had our fill of Curio Bay we continued driving another 1.5 hours south to a little town called Bluff. This was definitely one of those "touristy stops." It's famous because it's literally the end of the road in the South Island and they've put up a pretty cool sign post with the distances to major cities and landmarks. We had a nice picnic lunch inside our car while we waited for a break in the tourists to be able to snap the stereotypical picture haha.

After about 10 minutes we were ready to leave, but since we had spent the time getting  there we decided to explore Bluff a bit more and took a small detour to follow a sign that said "Bluff Hill Lookout." The steep, winding road took us up to the top of the hill where a cool 360 degree lookout had been built.

The wind was incredibly strong up there. So much so that it would blow you back when you jumped and could make you easily lose your balance if you weren't properly braced. We had a bit of fun playing in it before it started to get cold and we went on our way.

From Bluff it was just a 25 minute drive to the Invercargill Holiday Park where we spent the night.

Sunday May 20, 2018

We were sure to get an early start this morning because we had a tour scheduled in Te Anau at 10:15 am and had a 2 hour drive to get there. I'm pretty sure it rained the whole drive, and was still raining without any sign of relief once we reached Te Anau.

We arrived a bit early and spent some time at the Fjordland National Park Visitor's Center learning a bit about the area, getting a few good stop/hike tips, and, most importantly, staying dry. Eventually it came time to embark on our tour and we tried to not let the poor weather bother us.

The tour began with a boat ride across lake Te Anau and we were one of the few people adventurous enough to step outside and go up on the top deck.

It was quite cold and windy, and the rain definitely pelted your face if you faced the wrong direction, but it was kinda fun too.

Once we had crossed the lake they ushered us all off the boat into a pretty nice visitor's center where they talked a bit about the glow worms before breaking us into three groups of about ten people to go into the caves.

No photography was permitted in the caves, but I thought the entrance to the place was pretty dope.

Inside our guide stopped periodically to talk about cool formations or facts about the cave, most of which we couldn't understand because the water rushing past us was loud and his accent was super thick.

Eventually we reached the boats that would take us to the "Glow Worm Grotto" by this point we were past all the rushing water and it was pretty silent. The company does a good job of getting people to turn off all electronics and keep their voices down, which made the experience that much better when they turned off the lights and pulled us to the grotto. It was pretty neat seeing the worms up on the ceiling in utter darkness and dead silence. A very cool experience for sure.

After the tour we went directly to the Te Anau Kiwi Holiday Park and upgraded to a room. The rain never did let up, so the rest of the day ended up being kind of a bust. We spent it relaxing, grocery shopping, watching shows, and doing laundry. That evening we decided to go out to eat at the Ranch Bar and Grill (recommended by our receptionist). We both ordered the Sunday Roast with lamb and it was absolutely to die for! So I guess the day didn't turn out to be as much of a bust as we thought.