South Korea

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South Korea was a nice intro into Asia. To be honest, I wasn’t super thrilled about exploring Asia before this trip (Grant’s was Africa.) But we both were surprised at how well we enjoyed both continents. Although I enjoyed the more nature/animal parts of our trip, Seoul was a neat city to explore. The subway system is extensive, easy to use, very clean, and allows you to easily make it to multiple parts of the city. Some key points we learned from visiting Seoul:

• A visit to the DMZ is a must. We hear a lot about the conflict between North and South Korea on the news but it is worth it to actually go and see it and hear more about the history behind the creation of the zone. (Would recommend visiting the War Museum of Korea as it helps in putting the full story together)
• Go hiking! The trail system was one of the best trails we’ve visited and they are very big on safety.
• Look at the weather and pack the right gear. It was pretty cold when we were there so I was ready for the warm weather in Vietnam.

Vietnam (Da Nang)

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To be transparent, the reason Grant chose Da Nang was because of the Golden Bridge. However, we didn’t realize the bridge was actually part of an amusement park, but it turned out to be worth it. We enjoyed the vibes of Da Nang as it reminded us of San Diego with the beach and people and we were able to make some day trips out of the city to explore nearby parts of Vietnam. Grant and I would probably rank this in our top three countries we visited on our trip.

• Motorbiking is a must in Vietnam! Although I didn’t do my own bike, it allowed you the freedom to explore on your own rather than getting a Grab car or renting a car. It’s a little terrifying at first, but once you get the feel for it, we felt like locals.
• There were plenty of options to choose from as far as food goes. I had to be a little more cautious with anything labeled as “seafood” with my shellfish allergy, but was still able to enjoy a mix of Vietnamese cuisine along with comfort “Western” food.
• Get pampered! The massages are so cheap here and were actually pretty good. Although I wasn’t the biggest fan of a traditional Thai massage.

Cambodia

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Cambodia was definitely hot! Being from the South and Texas, I can usually take the heat. However, when you’re having to wear pants and cover your shoulders to explore Angkor Wat in 100+ degree temps, ruins the enjoyment a little. And this was of course where Grant’s rash first started. But Angkor Wat is definitely a place everyone should go and visit at least once (just plan a little better with the weather.) We only explored Angkor Wat but we met a lot of people that tacked on other parts of Cambodia along with Angkor Wat to their trip to Thailand and Vietnam. Depends on what you are trying to see in Cambodia.

• We had read that the streets and neighborhoods in Cambodia were full of trash, but surprisingly in the area of our Airbnb wasn’t that bad. We passed a group of school kids that were doing a required street clean activity Saturday morning. Our Tuk-Tuk driver said they have started these programs to help clean up the Siem Reap area.
• They don’t allow tourists to enter Angkor Wat without a driver so just hire one through Airbnb. The Airbnb’s are so cheap out there and you get a lot for your money. Better than going through a hotel/resort.

Bali, Indonesia

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Like I said in my initial blog posts on our week in Bali, this was not what we had expected when we first booked Bali. It is a beautiful country to visit, but we realized that before you visit you should figure out what you want to experience there.

• If you want more of a relaxing beach vibe, stay on the southern point of the island near Uluwatu, or as we have since learned from friends the north part sounds more desolate. If you are looking for more of the adventure/hiking vibe, stay on the eastern side of the country. If you want to do the touristy things such as the Monkey Forest, Bali Swing, Tegalalang Rice Terrace, then stay in Ubud and day trip.
• Traffic in the country is terrible and the roads are mostly one way streets unless you are in Denpasar. We thought about motorbiking but it’s not as easy as in Vietnam since you’ll mostly be sitting in traffic.

Australia

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• Cairns, Queensland

Definitely one of the must see cities in Australia. The city had a small town feel to it but had plenty to do both in and out of the city. Of course, the big thing to do is a Great Barrier Reef experience and I would say just spend the money to do two days out on the outer reef. Green Island was fun to explore but you see more on the outer reef tours. Renting a car is fun especially if you’ve never really driven on the opposite side of the road before and allows you to take the drive up the coast and make some stops along the way. The beaches there are so empty (due to the “salties” and marine stingers) so you can enjoy some time to yourself.

Places to see/visit in or near Cairns:

• Hartley’s Crocodile Adventure
• Daintree National Rainforest (We wish we had more time here to actually enjoy some hiking in the rainforest)
• Churro Time in the esplanade (seriously some of the best churros I’ve ever had)

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• Sydney, New South Wales

If someone is going all the way out to Australia, you have to take the time to visit Sydney and do the iconic touristy activities. There is plenty to do in the city, however, if you’re wanting more adventure and hiking you have to go outside the city to visit Blue Ridge Mountains. Some tidbits about Sydney:

• Great public transportation! It is so cheap and convenient to hop onto anything in the city from the metro to the ferry and just tap your credit card.
• The tour of the Sydney Opera House is worth it to take a peak inside without having to pay the fee for a show.
• If you’re expecting to see wildlife in the wild, you won’t get that in Sydney. You’ll have to go to the zoos to see the koalas and kangaroos.
• The multiple attraction pass is a good way to knock off a bunch of the tourist attractions and makes it cheaper.

New Zealand

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Absolutely spend more than just 12 days in this country! Besides the safari in Kenya, New Zealand tops my favorite country of the entire trip. The country is just overall beautiful and plenty of adventure and activities to do. The weather also plays a big role in what you can/cannot do during the day, but it is definitely a place I want to go back and spend more time in. I think the best way to explore the country is to probably do the reverse of what we did and start on the North Island before enjoying the views of the South Island.

• If you enjoy camping, this is the place for you. We saw numerous camper vans across the South Island and is definitely a cheap way to see the country. In some cities (especially on the South Island), there are very few hotels to choose from though we were thoroughly surprised at how much we liked most places we stayed in.
• Visiting Queenstown: you have to grab a meal at Fergburger, head up Skyline Queenstown to do the luge, and do one of the adventure activities like the gorge swing or if you’re more adventurous than us…bungee jumping.
• And I will definitely promote the Kaikoura Dolphin Encounter because that was one of the highlights of the trip! I’m trying to convince Grant we should do this next trip:

Things we wish we could have seen in New Zealand:

• Visit Christchurch. We had to choose between short trip to Christchurch for afternoon or head straight to Kaikoura so ended up missing out on visiting Christchurch.
• Grant really wants to skydive over Fox Glacier but the skydiving company requires over 500 jumps and to bring your own gear…
• Do the Tongariro Alpine Crossing. The weather is a big component in whether or not you can hike.

As we’ve settled back into a routine here in LA and finally finished out the blog posts, I wanted to say thank you to everyone who has been reading these posts. It really has been fun to write about the activities we’ve done, places we’ve seen, and people we’ve met throughout these last few months of our trip. Although it was frustrating at times as we’ve realized how blessed we are (for the most part) to have consistently working internet. The best internet we had was in Dubai while surprisingly some of the worst internet we experienced (aside from parts of Africa) was in Australia and New Zealand. This made it hard to upload the photos into the blog site since of course everyone wants to see the photos more so than reading about our days. So while most of the blog was written in the notepad on my phone, we had to wait until we had better internet to share the photos and blog posts with everyone. I also have Grant proofread and add any tidbits that I may have missed so that is why New Zealand has taken a little longer to post as he has gotten back into the full swing of SpaceX.

But I wanted to use this post to share our final thoughts on the countries and places we’ve traveled as a way for us to remember what we liked/didn’t like about certain places and maybe help others decide where they would like to visit! I may break this up into several posts as we’ve traveled to 15 countries this year and I don’t want to miss anything. Especially since our most asked question is what was your favorite place! And that is definitely a hard one to answer as each country we’ve visited had something we enjoyed!

South America

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• Iguazu Falls

Absolutely beautiful part of Argentina! (And probably the favorite waterfalls we saw on our trip even if the water level was down). Definitely something you should tack on to your list if you plan to visit Argentina. You can visit in just a couple of days as you take one day to spend on the Argentina side and the next to do the Brazil side. Stay in one of the resorts as there is not much food available outside the area on either side of the river.

• Ushuaia

Lots of nature to see in this part of the country especially in Tierra del Fuego. We wish we could have seen more than what we did but the weather does play a role in how much you can do. And it’s so far south that even in their summer we were still in our winter coats. Stop by the Post Office at the End of the World and send a postcard! Though we don’t know how well they actually send as we both sent some to each of our parents and they never said anything about receiving it. Also, if you enjoy seeing penguins, it is worth it to go spend the time with them on the island. (I will always be the advocate for any of our animal activities!)

• El Calafate

This one has mixed reviews. From some of the people we met on our trip in South America, it sounds like this little town has become a tourist trap. The prices of most meals were definitely higher than what we spent anywhere else on our trip in South America. But it was still a neat town and gave us the opportunity to walk on the Perito Moreno glacier which was impressive to see. Also gives you a realization of how much global warming is impacting these natural wonders as you listen to these guides talk about where the glacier used to be and how much it has receded. But aside from that, there’s not much to do in town and all of your activities are some distance away. Many people we talked to recommended just going to El Chalten (iconic peak from Patagonia jacket logo), which we did not get a chance to do on this trip.

• Puerto Natales

The main starting point for hiking the W or O circuit in Patagonia. We only spent enough time to catch some sleep and a couple of meals before hiking, but they do have some great restaurant options to try. And plenty of stores to stock up supplies for your hike in Patagonia. And there are plenty of other backpackers in the area so you know you’re in the right place (especially when you’re heading to the bus station).

• Torres del Paine National Park

If you love backpacking this is definitely a hike to do! I have a love/hate relationship with backpacking as it’s mostly Type 2 fun for me. As I stated in my Patagonia posts, Grant is much better at backpacking than I am and probably gets annoyed with my complaining during some of the hikes. But looking back on our hikes and backpacking trips, I am glad that we did it and got to enjoy some pretty incredible views. And our national parks need to step it up when it comes to resources available during thru hikes. Torres del Paine had an incredible setup between the tent sites, supplies available for rent, lodging, and amazing meals available for purchase.

Turkey

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• Istanbul

The big cities on our trip weren’t the highest on my favorite list, but they were still worth the visit. The historical sites of Istanbul were amazing to see and marvel at the fact we were standing in places that have been around for almost 1,500 years. We realized though that it is probably better to stay in a different part of Istanbul and just metro in to the historical district for all the tourist places. And we did a terrible job at actually trying more Turkish cuisine than just kebabs and baklava. Also, be aware the Call to Prayer is heard throughout the entirety of the city on loud speakers so you may be woken up before sunrise by the first call.

Africa

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• Uganda

Just note any animal excursions in Africa will be pricey. But getting to do the chimp trekking and the gorilla trekking was amazing. My favorite was the chimp trekking over the gorillas as it felt more adventurous walking in the woods trying to find them and hearing their calls from a distance whereas the gorilla family is already found by trackers prior to your group arriving. Don’t get me wrong both were extraordinary to see and be that close to a primate that could literally turn on you at any second and do quite the damage.

• Kenya

Absolutely incredible! I have always been a huge fan of zoos but after being on safari and being within striking distance of some of these animals just puts anything you experience at a city zoo to shame. I think this is the one part of the trip Grant and I consistently say is our favorite thing we did on the trip. Again it is pricey but worth every penny as it gets you the flights to the different conservancies, lodging, very delicious food (probably the best food of our trip), and multiple game drives. And it is worth it to do private game drives so you can kind of dictate what you want to see out there! Jay and Brandi did a great job giving us two different experiences between our time in Lewa Conservancy along with Masai Mara.

• Zimbabwe (Victoria Falls)

This made our list of places people should go visit but don’t go out of your way just to see it. You should tack it on in addition to another African country. Like Iguazu Falls, the water levels and the weather play a factor in the experience you get at the falls. And the town again has very much so become a tourist trap. All the prices are jacked up from the food to the souvenirs (and we weren’t the best at negotiating for our souvenirs…).

• South Africa (Cape Town)

Everyone before our trip was commenting on how dangerous Cape Town would be, but to be honest we never once felt unsafe. I mean you keep your guard up like you do in any other big city but we never really encountered a situation where we felt unsafe. This was also another country we wish we had more time to explore. There were other hikes and other activities we wish could have done like Lion’s Head and Robbins Island (where Nelson Mandela was imprisoned).

• Namibia

I will say this was probably one of the more unique countries we went to on our trip as it has a mix of everything from desert to coastal towns to safari land (though we didn’t do one on our trip). The sand dunes were really impressive to see in person especially from the sky in the hot air balloon. This isn’t high on our list of places to make a return trip to but we are interested to see how the tourism industry grows in the country over the next ten years and definitely will recommend to friends to try to see these dunes sometime in their life.

Dubai, UAE

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I surprisingly enjoyed Dubai. Grant keeps telling people this is a soft introduction to the Middle East and I would say that is true. It truly is a melting pot of cultures in that city and there are cameras everywhere (basically watching your every move) so no one is apt to commit a crime. Plus the punishments for any crime are severe enough to also deter any wrongdoings. Walking around the city, even at night, felt very safe. And the city is kid friendly. There were multiple families we encountered on our few days there and seemed like there were kid friendly activities to enjoy. Like in Turkey, we did a terrible job at enjoying local cuisine since a lot of their tourist activities are centered in or near a mall.

The next post I’ll discuss our visits to Southeast Asia and Australia/New Zealand!

The last few days of our New Zealand leg, Grant started to get another bout of rash spreading now on both legs. We had already booked an appointment to be seen the day after arriving in the states, but the pain was starting to affect him to the point where it was hard to walk comfortably. I tried to encourage him to go to the ER after our dinner with his coworkers, but he just wanted to make it back to the states. However, he woke up that morning around 4:15 feeling warm and in more pain. I was getting seriously concerned as we had a long day ahead of us with two flights and I was worried that if we weren’t seen something serious could happen. My medical brain was flashing to the worse case scenarios (aka getting septic while flying over several thousand miles of ocean!) and needless to say I broke down. 

Grant finally agreed to go to the emergency room where we spent the next 5 hours trying to be seen. They got us in quickly to triage and take some blood, but anyone who has been to the ER knows it’s a whole process to be seen. We were quickly encroaching on our time to head to the airport and were coming up with options depending on what the bloodwork stated. Thankfully, the infection hadn’t spread to the blood so we were able to get some antibiotics to take with us and head to the airport. Needless to say the next 24 hours weren’t the most comfortable for Grant sitting in a cramped seat with both knees in pain. He was asked while getting off our connecting flight in Fiji if he wanted to use a wheelchair, but declined (we often debate which one of us is the most stubborn).  

Once we arrived back in the states, Grant went through a couple of doctor visits to finally get an answer on what was going on. The urgent care doctor in San Diego was frustrated that no one in this entire saga had thought to drain and culture any of the infected sites. She was concerned that with all of our travels he may have picked up something exotic as this seemed worse than any other MRSA infection she has seen. She prolonged the course of Bactrim he had been started on and told us we should have the results within a couple of days. Thankfully, we finally had an answer with the results: MRSA. Grant may not have enjoyed me having to continually push out any infection left within the wounds, but needless to say it has been great practice for me throughout this experience. 

Although it has taken a couple of weeks and a change in antibiotics due to finding out he’s allergic to sulfa medications, we have finally cleared the infection and he now has the scars as a lovely reminder. Though this may have not been the best way to end the trip, we are thankful that this was the only serious medical issue we encountered over the last few months.

Grant put together the following video of our time in New Zealand complete with drone footage and videos of our activities!

Our last full morning of our trip we packed our bags and headed out to the Waitomo Heritage center to check in for our activity. Earlier in the week, Grant had found a black water rafting tour that goes through the Waitomo Caves to give a mix of adventure along with enjoying the view of glow worms above. As I had never been down in a cave before, I was a little nervous about how it would go, but was willing to give it a shot. And as I had learned throughout the trip, taking a chance on these adventurous activities has been worth it! 

When we arrived, there were very few people there and no one at the desk to check in. We ended up sitting next to Valerie, a Canadian working in New Zealand for the next year. After chatting with her for a few minutes, two guides came up and asked if we were ready to go. Lucky for us, it was just Grant and I along with Valerie! Our guides, David (from Quebec) and Matt (from Arizona) told us we would be able to do a little bit more within the caves since it was such a small group. After a quick chat, we hopped into the vans to head to the rafting site to change into our gear. Since Valerie and David were both Canadian, they rattled off in French to each other while Grant enjoyed talking to Matt about skydiving. Once there, they gave us wetsuits, socks, boots, and a hard hat with light. 

Then it was off to the opening of the cave. As there were two waterfalls we would be jumping off, we got a quick lesson on the proper way to jump. Before we knew it, it was time to head underground in to the cave. They.told us the week prior, the water level was up about 3 feet so there was a lot more floating in the river. For us, it was a good mix of walking and floating, especially near the end of the tour. With a small group, we got to do a quick maze through in the cave wall, jump off two waterfalls, a waterfall crawl, and kiss a whale bone (supposedly gives you 20 years good luck…we’ll see.) I enjoyed all the activities we got to do, although jumping backwards off the waterfalls was a little nerve-racking, but thankfully they weren’t that tall. The waterfall crawl was interesting and hard! Trying to crawl under was tough as I felt the water was trying to push me off the side (which it did the first time around), but managed to get through on the second try. Grant also flew into the pool of water on his first try. 

After our activities, we got to float through the rest of the cave just enjoying the site of the glow worms above us. The picture below was a long exposure shot so they aren’t actually that bright in person, but it was still worth it to see them. They are definitely interesting creatures! We learned that they spend most of their life in the larvae stage (which is what you see in the cave) and they have strings that hang down made of mucous and urea that act as a spider web to catch insects. Once they catch them, they inject stomach acid into their prey to dissolve in order to eat. They go through a transition stage like a butterfly, but once they emerge from their cocoon they don’t survive more than a few days. 

Once we were finished with the rafting tour, we hopped out of the water and headed back to the rafting site for a nice hot shower. The water was freezing while we were in the cave but it was amazing how well the wetsuits kept you warm the entire time. (Well besides your hands if you kept using them to direct your tube in the water). After rinsing off and changing, we headed back to the homestead to look at the pictures and eat a free snack. Matt and Grant connected through Facebook to potentially jump together this summer in Perris while the two Canadians exchanged numbers (we think they were definitely flirting with each other). Grant also mentioned to me on the way out that his knee had hurt a bit while crawling through the caves but at least the thick wetsuit gave it some cushion.

After a quick ice cream break at the shop next door, we hit the road for our last activity of the trip, the Hobbiton movie set tour. To be honest, I have never seen any of the Lord of the Rings films (more of a HP fan) but I will say the tour was very interesting to see and walk through. Since we arrived an hour before our set time, we checked in with the front desk to see if they would let us move our time up. We were able to hop on the tour heading out in less than 10 minutes! We hopped on the tour bus that took us across the street into the Alexander sheep farm towards the Hobbiton village. The Alexander family, we learned, was looking to diversify their sheep operation in the late 90’s. As chance would have it, Director Peter Jackson located the Alexander farm during a helicopter scouting operation and decided he wanted this farm to be the location of Hobbiton in his upcoming Lord of the Rings movie. The family worked out a deal with the movie team and the rest is history!

Some interesting facts we learned on the tour: 

• Filming for the LOTR trilogy exterior scenes took 3 months
• Filming for the Hobbit trilogy exterior scenes took 12 days (the whole site was initially torn down so they had to rebuild it, now it’s being preserved through these tours)
• The crew put so much attention to detail that you could guess the profession of the owner of each Hobbit hole based off what was outside their home
• Used to have real jars of honey outside a Hobbit house on the tour but they kept getting stolen and sold on eBay
• NZ army built the road into the farm for the set after funding ran out and the army “wasn’t very busy” (pre 9/11 times)
  • Many of the extras in battle scenes in the movie were the same soldiers that helped build the set
• The firefighters actually burned the Green Dragon Inn down in the scene where Frodo has a vision of the city being pillaged
• The tree behind the Bag End residence is the only fake tree and has over 250,000 wired leaves all spray painted the “perfect” shade of green
• Peter Jackson wanted plum trees in Hobbiton true to the book but felt a real tree looked too large for scale so the crew planted apple and pear trees but before filming cut off all the real fruit and spliced plum tree branches in

Once we made it through the village and over to the Green Dragon, we enjoyed a scone and a beverage before concluding our tour. We received a free stein due to a portion of the village being under construction. They are currently building out three hobbit holes to allow for visitors to go in and explore the inside of a hobbit hole complete with rooms and hobbit decor. 

We then headed up to Auckland to meet up with two of Grant’s previous coworkers from SpaceX for dinner. Bruce is a native Kiwi and recently moved back to New Zealand while Keith and his partner were out visiting while on their long trip. It was a nice way to end a long, fun day. But we weren’t expecting the early morning that was to come the next day. 

The following morning we grabbed breakfast at the hotel before heading to the rental car place to pick up our car for the rest of our time in NZ. We had a four hour drive ahead of us from Wellington to National Park so we hit the road. We could already tell a difference between the north and south islands of NZ as there were more cities along the highway. And a lot more options for food if you needed to stop for a quick snack break. 

We stopped and grabbed a coffee at a local coffee shop in the town of Foxtown. We asked where the closest public restroom was and she told us it was in a bright orange building right next to the windmill in town. We found out it is a full size replica of the windmills in the Netherlands and is the only fully operational one in the Southern Hemisphere. Before we left the town to continue our drive to National Park, I wanted to try the hometown soda, Foxton Fizz. We tried the raspberry and cocktail flavor. We both preferred the raspberry flavor but they weren’t bad for sodas. The soda company is one of the last independent soft drink companies in New Zealand that’s hasn’t been shut down by Coca Cola and Pepsi. 

We again made a couple stops along the route for some drone footage. Grant got a cool shot going over and through one of the bridges. He didn’t keep it up for long as it was a super windy afternoon and was afraid something would happen to the drone – he actually struggled a bit to get it back to him but succeeded. When we drove into the small town of National Park, we realized there wasn’t much to do and since it was the day before a national holiday (ANZAC day) we learned there was really only one restaurant open in town. 

While checking in to our room, we asked the receptionist about the shuttle service for the Tongariro Alpine Crossing hike and she told us the hike would likely be cancelled the following day due to cold temps and low visibility. They had actually cancelled it the day we were checking in and she said she was shocked since it was such a nice sunny day, but the cloud coverage was too thick at the peak so was cancelled due to low visibility. She told us to keep a check on the website as they would update whether or not the shuttles would be running in the morning. After taking a quick nap, we headed to Spiral Restaurant to grab dinner. We went at the perfect time as we beat most of the dinner rush. By the time we finished, they were having people placed on a waitlist. We initially wanted to enjoy some dessert, but the waiting staff seemed stress with all the customers so we closed out and headed to the local convenience store to grab some snacks for the hike tomorrow, even if not the one we’d planned. 

Checking the alpine crossing weather and shuttle schedule, we decided to forgo the big hike even if shuttles were running. The temperature with the wind chill was supposed to be about 15-20F and we were definitely not equipped for that kind of weather. And the only shuttle scheduled to run in the morning was the 5:45 am and neither of us wanted to wake up that early for a “possible hike”. 

The next morning we woke up around 7 and quickly checked the shuttle sites to see if they ran any that morning. The alpine crossing was “strongly discouraged to hikers due to low visibility and cold temperatures” so all shuttles had been shut down for the day. So we headed to Whakapapa Village (which in their native language the “wh” sounds like an “f” so it threw us off every time someone said the word) to figure out the best hike to do that day before heading north. We initially planned to do the Tama Lakes hike which the rangers said gives you a similar type feel to the Tongariro crossing, but we decided to stick with the Taranaki Falls loop since it was pretty cold and windy. 

After our 2 hour hike around the loop, we headed to Waitomo where we had another adventure day planned in a cave. We stopped in the town of Turangi to grab some lunch and coffee for the rest of the drive. Once we arrived in Waitomo, we checked into our hotel and our receptionist asked if we had noticed his hat once he saw our address. The receptionist was wearing a UCLA hat but when asked if he attended, we learned he just liked the colors of the hat and had actually never been to California. It is crazy how a college in the states has now become such a clothing brand in other parts of the world, especially Australia and New Zealand.

Looking at available dinner options in town, we found nothing that sounded of interest so we decided to head to the town of Otorohanga for some ramen. What should have been a short 15 minute ride turned into about a 40 minute drive. As the road was shut down due to an accident, we had to take the long route through windy, dark back roads. We hoped eating our food there would help give it time to clear up but unfortunately it didn’t. Once back at the hotel, we prepped our bags for the cave activity and enjoyed an episode of Bondi Rescue (which we grew addicted to on the last leg of our trip) before heading to bed for our last full day of our trip. 

My absolute favorite day of the trip! Nothing beats African safaris, but swimming in the open ocean with dolphins was absolutely incredible.

Our morning started early, as we needed to pack everything in the car before checking in for the encounter at 8 am. We only needed to bring our swimsuits and towels, as they provided everything else for us. We rented a GoPro for the encounter, which I’m glad we did, as Grant got some fantastic videos of them swimming up to us. And after watching the videos, we realized they were making a lot of noise in the water that we couldn’t initially tell when swimming with them.

After putting on our wet suits, we watched the safety video and boarded the bus for the quick 10-minute ride to the boats. We learned during the video and ride that this is a special place in the world in that these Dusky Dolphins do not need to migrate – they stay in this area year round. They are the smallest breed of dolphins in the world but are extremely playful and enjoy jumping out of the water to do flips and tricks. The encounter does not do any feeding or allow people to touch the dolphins so as to not disturb their natural habits.

They split us into two groups and loaded us onto the boats to head toward the group of dolphins. They said this was a good morning for the tour as the water was calm, and the dolphins were spotted just 15 minutes off the coast meaning we got to spend more time swimming and less time in transit. Once we arrived where they were, we put on our snorkel equipment and prepared to hop into the water. I ended up being the first to jump in and swam towards them. They told us to act like dolphins by making a bunch of noises in our snorkels to attract them and try to swim like them, especially if they came up to us. So you’ll notice in the videos there’s a lot of people (including us) making ridiculous noises but we felt it helped them want to play.

It took me the second time hopping in the water to finally find Grant while swimming. Though we were both in awe of what was happening, we were focused on getting as much time swimming with the dolphins as possible. It was crazy to interact with them as they would look you in the eye and spin around you. They are super fast swimmers, and I would get dizzy after about the third or fourth spin with them. After our swim time, we enjoyed viewing them from the boat’s bow. We got some good pictures of them jumping out of the water, especially around the paddleboarders and kayakers. I was sad when it was time to head back to shore!

We once saw a video that you can go to the waters far north of Finland in the winter and swim in the freezing arctic circle with wild Orcas. This experience 100% confirmed that I would enjoy this so hope to make this a future trip as the Orca is my favorite animal in the world.

Back at the center, we stopped by the front desk to have them download the GoPro photos and videos to have them before we left. We asked them where they recommended lunch, and they both agreed Slam Club was the best for a good sandwich.

After lunch, we tried to head back to the shore to get some drone footage of the dolphins, but unfortunately, we were just inside a no-fly zone, so instead, we made our way to Picton to catch the ferry to the North Island for our last few days of the trip. And in true Meghan fashion, I was worried about checking in on time for the ferry and wasn’t thrilled when Grant wanted to head back into town to get some dinner as we didn’t know if the ferry had food. We grabbed Subway sandwiches and returned to the ferry station to board. And like Grant always says in these situations, “It always works out.” I’ve relaxed a little bit on the travel day stress, but I still can’t help myself with wanting to be early to things. It’s hard to break the habit after it’s been engrained for so long.

Once boarded, we hung out outside until the ferry left the dock to get a view of the strait while there was still some daylight left. However, it quickly got dark within the first ten minutes of the ride, so we headed inside to find a seat and get warm. The three-hour ferry passed quickly as Grant read and I watched some Netflix and worked on the blog.

When we arrived in Wellington, we grabbed our bags and an Uber to head to our hotel. Our Romanian driver was not a big fan of the group of Asians that were blocking the roadway to load their luggage onto their tour buses. He was quite the character but told us he loved living in Wellington as they are far away from the politics of the rest of the world. He dropped us off at our hotel and quickly rushed off for another Uber pickup. Again, we checked into the hotel with no one checking our IDs. I didn’t get used to that as everywhere in the States requires an ID and card for incidentals. Our room was small, but it was a place to rest our heads for the night before we continued our journey toward Auckland.

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.

The town of Haast is a town of fewer than 100 people, so there weren’t many breakfast options available. We stopped by the visitors center to ask the ranger which activity was better, seeing the glaciers or visiting Mt. Cook as one last sanity check on our plans. She recommended the glaciers, so we continued toward Fox Glacier and Franz Josef. She also recommended stopping at the Salmon Farmland Cafe for breakfast if we could wait another 45 minutes to eat.

The ranger also recommended stopping at Ship Creek to walk around the beach and up to the lookout tower. And again, being on the west coast, we were attacked by a lovely swarm of sandflies. No matter how quickly you get in and out of the car, they always find their way in. (I felt terrible turning in our rental car in Picton as we probably had a good few sandflies killed on the windows inside, and they definitely splatter blood when you kill them.) It was about a 20-minute drive to Paringa for the cafe, and it didn’t look like much from the road. But they had several pools of salmon along with some other fish and eels when you walked up the ramp to the cafe. I grabbed a bagel with salmon and capers while Grant did cream cheese and jalapeños on his. Since the ATMs haven’t liked any of our cards, we hadn’t been able to get any cash out, so when their machine wasn’t working due to spotty wifi, we had to wait and see if their wifi would reset for the device to work. Once we finally paid, Grant tried to mention Starlink to the waitress, but she had no interest in listening to his pitch.

With bellies full, we headed back on the road toward Fox Glacier. Everything we had read about the town said it was small and most hotels were likely booked, so we decided to stay in Franz Josef. The ranger in Haast told us there was a lookout point in Fox Glacier where you could drive to get a view of the glacier if you didn’t want to hike the hour to the bottom of the glacier. We decided to go to the lookout point to make it to Franz Josef before dark, and we knew the forecast had clouds rolling in so we wanted to make sure we could get a view. Although the clouds were pretty thick, we saw a small glimpse of the glacier from afar. But the more exciting thing at the lookout point was the keas. These birds are the world’s only alpine parrots, and they are nicknamed the “naughty alpine parrot” as they have grown accustomed to humans and can be destructive to cars since they like to bite the rubber trims on the car doors. We also read they are endangered so we were glad we got to see them.

After grabbing some pictures (mainly of the keas), we continued our journey to Franz Josef and checked into the hotel for the next few days. We headed into town to talk with Air Safaris to see if we could get on a scenic flight to see the glaciers from above. However, with the thick clouds rolling in, they were grounding most of the longer flights. The receptionist told us we could check with some of the helicopter companies in town to see if they were getting a flight in that afternoon. Most helicopter flights weren’t heading around Mt. Cook and the glaciers and were doing short 15-minute rides. We decided it wasn’t worth the money we’d spend on a short flight. We stopped by Air Safaris again to see if they were getting any flights in. It turns out a car wreck an hour north of the town caused a power outage, so no one was flying for the rest of the afternoon due to comms being down. The next day was supposed to rain, so she took our information and would let us know availability for flights Saturday morning. Since flights were grounded, we headed to hike to Franz Josef Glacier viewpoint.

We thought the hike would be much longer than it was, but it was only about a 15-minute walk to the stopping point. It was crazy to see the sign showing where the glacier was over 100 years ago and where it is now. When we first arrived, the clouds covered most of the glacier, so we decided to wait a few minutes to see if they would clear. And fortunately for us, they did! And a good thing we did since that would be the only time we would see it that weekend. We headed back into town to figure out dinner. Since the power was still out, only a few restaurants had generators, so we headed to The Landing for dinner. It felt like we were back in Kenya with the huge portion sizes! Needless to say, we had leftovers to bring back with us, which turned out to be dinner the next night.

The next morning, Grant woke up easier than I did and headed to grab some breakfast to bring back to the room while I caught a little more sleep. We finished packing and headed to our hike about an hour north of Queenstown. The hike was called Roy’s Peak, and looking up the trail’s difficulty, we had read that the track was basically all uphill with very few flat reprieves. We were okay with the hike as long as we didn’t have to boulder or use our hands to climb. The drive to the trailhead was quite scenic, going through a mountain pass where we happened to get to see a hot air balloon land on top of the hill.

However, the reviews were definitely correct. If you look at the elevation map, it is straight up and straight down for the entirety of the 16km hike. And with 4100 feet of elevation gain! We planned to get to certain curves of the switchbacks before stopping for a breather or water break. You play hopscotch with the other hikers heading up, as we all needed those stopping breaks. Along the trail, we witnessed two paragliders flying down the side of the peak. That is the fastest way to get down the mountain. Although the quads were burning the entire way up, it was fun to take in the views of the clouds rolling in and all the sheep grazing on the hillsides. (Though Grant would likely say it didn’t look like I was having too much fun during the middle portion of the journey up… though we definitely did better than a number of couples we observed arguing on the way up due to how strenuous the elevation gain was).

We decided to skip the first photo spot to reach the peak. Unlike our hikes in Patagonia, these signs were accurate with the time and distance to each point. It was about 30ish minutes to the peak, and we grabbed a spot on the concrete slab at the top to enjoy the snacks we had brought. Looking around at the other hikers, I realized we needed to step up our snack options for our hikes. Some people brought food containers, like soup and sandwiches, while we just had apples and some trail mix.

We grabbed our photos at the top before heading down to the initial photo stop. We realized some people we hiked up with likely stopped at this one and never headed up to the peak. Although the views were similar, you got better views of the nearby lake at the lower point. The descent was much faster, and the entire hike took us about 4 hours to complete with all our stops.

Hungry and ready for a rest break for our legs, we headed into the nearby town of Lake Wanaka for some food and to figure out our plans for the next couple of days. Grant had initially planned to skydive over Fox Glacier as it is said to have the best views in the world for skydiving. However, Grant got an email from the skydiving company saying he needed to have 500 skydives under his belt, whereas he “only” has 150, so solo skydiving was out. Since that was out, we needed to decide between the Mount Cook or the glacier sides of the mountain range. We’d read the Mount Cook side, though gorgeous, is fairly comparable to driving through Colorado so we ultimately decided to head toward Franz Josef and stay there for the next couple of days to see giant glaciers rolling through rainforests right next to the beach. We then knew we’d be heading to Kaikoura for our dolphin encounter Sunday, which was a bit of a longer drive from the glacier side of the range but we felt worth it.

Once our meals were finished, we hit the road and headed for the town of Haast, as we wanted to avoid driving too much in the dark so as to not miss all the scenery. We made some stops along the way to fly the drone and take pictures of the scenery around us. I crashed early that night while Grant uploaded and edited some photos from his camera and drone.