Our first rainy day in New Zealand allowed us to sleep in that morning. We weren’t rushing to get moving because we had booked a quad bike tour for 2 pm that afternoon. We headed into town to grab breakfast at SnakeBite Brewery and some coins at the grocery store to do laundry since we could finally get some cash out at the ATM in town. 

Checking into the quad bike tour, we were worried we would be stuck in a large group, but most of the people in the office were doing the kayaking tour. It ended up being just the two of us on an ATV while the group of three from Australia drove the buggy. Although it rained the entire time we were on the tour, it was so much fun! Their slogan is “The wetter, the better!” That was definitely true. Grant had so much fun splashing in several puddles and driving through the flooded trails in the rainforest. I kept telling him we were told we weren’t supposed to splash water overhead but he chose to have selective hearing on this rule. The guide also ignored this rule and actually flooded his engine and had to have a coworker bring him a replacement. In the last half of our tour, we went on the river bed, watched the buggy get stuck, and ended up bottoming out multiple times (our ATV made it through all the terrain much easier).

Although they give you waterproof pants and jackets, we still were a little wet after the drive. But it was worth it! And it made our rainy day better than just hanging out in the hotel room. Afterward, we stopped by the Landing restaurant again to warm up and grab a beverage/snack before heading back to relax the rest of the evening (besides the multiple trips made to the laundry mat for our laundry.) And we also got to catch the news coverage of the Starship launch as well as a couple of Starlink commercials.

The following day we woke up hoping to catch a flight over the glaciers. However, as we started packing the car to check out, we noticed some thick fog hanging over the mountains. We stopped by Air Safaris, who planned on making a flight once the fog cleared, so we headed to grab some breakfast to fill up in case we got on the flight. One thing we were looking forward to once we got back home was our American breakfasts with our shredded hashbrowns and our traditional sausage. 

Since it was still foggy, we headed to the West Coast Wildlife Center to see their national bird, the Kiwi. We kept seeing signs all over the country about watching out for kiwis and were disappointed when we never saw any, so we figured this was our only chance. The birds are nocturnal and mostly sleep in a hidden area during the day, so we would not have seen them alone. The exhibit was a dark and open-air exhibit where we couldn’t take pictures of them, but it was interesting to sit and watch them walk around their habitat. They also had a display with information on the glaciers. We learned (and saw first hand that day) that the Franz Josef Glacier region gets some of the most precipitation in the world, averaging at 15 meters (49 ft) of precipitation per year. After the glacier part of the museum we went to a Tuatara exhibit. The tuatara looks a lot like a lizard. However, there are various differences between the two, including: 

• Their lineage goes back to the age of the dinosaurs 60 million years ago
• Can live up to 100 years in the wild
• Having a parietal eye on the top of their head
• Are nocturnal
• Only live in New Zealand

After our quick tour of the wildlife center, we stopped by Air Safaris one last time to see if there was any chance they were flying. They told us it was likely a no-go for the day, especially at that time since we had about a 6.5-hour drive to Kaikoura. The front-desk lady we’d been chatting with the last couple days asked, “you do know that’s a far drive right,” but my years of driving through Texas and Tennessee and Grant’s history of driving a lot to San Francisco have made both of us road trip champions. So we hit the road and headed towards Arthurs Pass, the highest pass you can take through the Southern Alps. We stopped for pictures and drone footage along the route before finally making it to Kaikoura. We arrived in the dark, so that we couldn’t tell the scenery around us, but we could tell we climbed up and down some mountains along the route. Since the office was closed for check-in (and finally heading to the correct hotel), we dropped our bags off before heading down the street for some pizza.