Backpacking Mamasita: Long Weekend Escapade

Visiting my favorite playground, the South Island of New Zealand during long weekend has been my regular activities every year. Flying over Southern Alps on the way to Christchurch is one of many reasons to keep going back for more. I often choose Christchurch as starting point because it's convenient and quite central, with deals from Jetstar and Air NZ as low as $45 one way, it's also an invitation that I just couldn't resist!

Lake Tekapo

Christchurch is just over an hour flight from Auckland, on one of my recent visits, I stayed 1 night here at a hostel and the next early morning, with my rental car, I made my way down south around 4 hours drive to Mt Cook National Park. I don't think there has been a dull moment when driving around South Island. The view was either better or even better. It was hard not to stop for some photos really. Then I entertained myself by singing along some of Sam Smith's tunes from the CD I brought with me from Auckland. I love his voice, it really made the long drive even more excited! On the way there, I made lunch stop by the side of Lake Tekapo. It was truly picturesque by day and quite captivating by night as it's voted as one of the darkest sky on earth, so stargazing around here is something that shouldn't be crossed off from your list if you ever venture yourself out this way.

Road to nowhere...

Watered and fed, I continued driving towards the National Park. As I approached Mt Cook Village, the weather was drastically changed from sunny and clear blue sky to strong winds and rain. Consequently, I had to cancel my walk at Hooker Valley Track that I had already planned before. it was such a bummer as I was looking forward to do this spectacular walk. Oh well, is it a blessing in disguise for a return visit? I'll take it as a yes! In the end, my short one night stay in Mt Cook was spent mostly indoors in my hostel reading and chatting with other travelers.

I lost count after 10 :)

The next day I drove around 500km north to a place called Kaikoura, it's situated on the east coast of South Island. One of my favorite spot actually. It has ticked the boxes for me, from abundant wildlife to the fresh seafood especially lobsters or here they call it, crayfish. Here in Kaikoura, I have made arrangements to do a Whale Watching by plane. Gambling with the weather and only had one night in this coastal town, I left it to the mercy of Mother Nature. The next morning I was woken up by the sound of waves outside my hostel, however the day didn't look quite promising. It was overcast and windy. But much to my surprise, the Whale Watching still proceed as planned. Sperm Whales, the residents of Kaikoura ocean live few miles in the trench that stretched between Kaikoura all the way to the much warmer water in Tonga in the South Pacific. As we flew circling the trench from 500 feet above the sea level on an 8-seater plane, we had all our eyes on the lookout of these magnificent creature, the gentle giants. After nearly an hour in the sky, there was still no sight of the Whales. The luck was clearly not on our side that time. Our contact told us that the Whale was in the deep water for over an hour so he should have been coming back up to the surface to breathe. But he didn't. Despite not seeing one single Whale, the scenery managed to take our breath away. The fifty shades of blue of the ocean beneath us, the coastal town from a distance, mountain ranges surrounding this quiet little town was just incredible. There was still a lot to marvel from this trip.

Mt Cook National Park. Can you spot the rainbow?

Weather changed drastically in Mt Cook National Park

After this excursion, I went for a drive to a place that Kaikoura is famous for, Seal Colony! It was only short 5-10 minutes drive from town centre. All the seals were living in the wild, mostly scattered around the beach. I played with fur seal pups, they are the cutest thing ever. The adult ones were there too but they were "busy" napping on the beach. So I thought I babysit their babies while they had their rest ha!

Seal Pups Colony in Kaikoura

Seal Pups trying to decide what game they're going to play =)

Mama Seal seems to be in total bliss =)

From Kaikoura, I made my way back to Christchurch in such terrible weather. Made it to the plane that took me back to Auckland just in time as I was the last passenger who boarded the plane. Phew! Sadly, I lost my travel pillow during the frantic run from car park to Gate 18 where I boarded the plane.

Mountain Ranges as seen from Whale Watching plane

As I munched a packet of M&Ms when the plane made its way to the runway, I can finally put my feet up and contemplate what I been doing throughout this long weekend and thinking to myself I don't think I ever did that many driving hours in 3 days and had to keep on going despite the bad weather! Even though this trip was already my fifth time to South Island, I am still speechless by its rugged and dramatic landscape, how it consistently swept me off my feet! ♥

"It's good to have an end to journey towards, but it is the journey that matters in the end" - Ursula Le Guin