Days 9-11: Kaikoura, Christchurch & Twizel, Aoraki and Mt. Cook

The Skinny if you're just here for the highlights: We ferried from the North Island to the South Island through absurdly beautiful fjords, watched Sean surf beneath snowcapped mountains in Kaikōura, ate some incredible seafood, and then continued south through Christchurch to Aoraki / Mount Cook National Park. What started as a “we’ll see how far we make it” hike to Mueller Hut turned into one of the coolest hikes of the trip so far: glaciers, glissading, alpine lakes, ridiculous views, and just enough snow to keep things interesting. Also, Noah Kahan dropped a 21-song album at exactly the right moment for a six-hour Autumn drive.

Scroll down for pictures.

Journey to the South Island

Just 10 minutes from our hotel, we arrived at the ferry terminal a bit too early the next morning and waited in the parking queue for a while. Once we drove onto the absolutely massive ferry, we rushed out of our car and up to the 8th floor to secure a good window seat. This ferry was like a proper cruise ship, with several dining options, play areas for kids, lounges, movie showings, live music etc. We spent a lot of time on the upper roof deck taking in the views of the crystal clear blue water. Once we entered the fjords approaching the South Island, the scenery became almost impossible to photograph accurately—the photos and videos genuinely do not do it justice. From the deck, we were able to spot some cool fish in this super clean water and passed several salmon farms.

When we touched down, we hit the road to the coastal town Kaikōura. As we drove through Marlborough, we evidently passed vineyards everywhere we looked, but our itinerary did not accommodate for a wine tasting detour. Eventually we had views of the most amazing 8-9000 ft. jagged peaks which, thanks to the weather that bogged us down on the North Island, were even more impressive now covered in snow.

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Kaikōura

We pulled in to Kaikoura just in time for Sean to rent a surfboard and (thick) wetsuit from Coastal Sports and hit Mangamaunu for a sunset surf sesh. Even as just an onlooker, I can confidently say this surf break was insanely cool. Sean, one of only five surfers out there, caught smooth, rolling rights with snowcapped mountains towering behind him. He says he spent most of the time out there staring at the mountains.

For dinner, we were on the hunt for seafood. First we enjoyed seafood chowder and homemade crab/corn empanadas from Strawberry Tree in town. Then we headed to Cods and Crayfish for lobster (“crayfish,” as they call it there) and hot chips. Crayfish is really popular in Kaikoura. Other spots that looked great were Nim's Bin on the way into town before Mangamaunu and Kaikoura BBQ on the beach. After dinner, we drove out to point for some star gazing. The sky was very clear and we saw some great stars, but with the brightness of the moon, we didn't quite get the full on 'dark sky' experience.

We spent the night at a simple hostel, which had awesome first-light views the next morning. After a cup of coffee in the warmth, we drove out the first point (chimney) to catch the full sunrise, which was pretty incredible. The snowcapped mountains glowed pink with alpenglow in the background. We sat on some very jagged rocks coming out of the ocean and glimpsed the sunrise reflected in the tidal pools beneath our feet. Another fun fact we learned ahead of time from Garry-- these formations were the result of the well known 2011 Christchurch Earthquake (as well as the even larger but less well known 2016 Kaikoura Earthquake) which dramatically reshaped parts of the coastline, lifting sections of the ocean floor and exposing jagged rock formations.

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After sunrise, we headed for a coffee and breakfast on our way out of town.

Anzac Day

April 25 is ANZAC Day, a national public holiday commemorating the 1915 landing of New Zealand and Australian troops at Gallipoli. New Zealanders really seem to honor this day in a genuine sense. Even though the 25th landed on a Saturday, businesses-- even tourism-related shops-- were closed or opened late, and the ones that weren’t implemented a holiday surcharge. Rather than serving as an excuse for a long weekend, ANZAC Day in New Zealand felt deeply reflective, observed throughout the country with small services, acts of remembrance, and the signature red poppy flower.

Christchurch

April 25 would be our longest driving time day of the trip, with 6.5 hours to Aoraki/ Mount Cook National Park. Luckily, the practical halfway point was Christchurch, and even more favorably, Noah Kahn (finally :) ) released his new 21 song album the night before, so we had a lot of fun playing the new songs on this beautiful autumn drive. Christchurch was cute. What we really loved was the incredible food hall, Riverside Market. We were completely overwhelmed, but ultimately landed on a sampler of oysters and some fresh sandwiches for lunch, which we ate outside by the river. It was an absolutely perfect sunny, crisp fall day. We also grabbed some fresh fruit and bagels for our breakfast the next day since the park is pretty remote. After lunch we walked around the city for a while-- there were a lot of rebuild efforts underway, still making restorations from the earthquake 15 years ago.

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Finally, the Alps

Aoraki/ Mount Cook National Park

The rest of the drive was very pretty, and also felt very long. As we got closer to the park, the fall foliage really started to pop. The mountains here are completely insane, and the massive glacial lake somehow made the whole landscape feel even bigger. We spent the last hour of the drive pointing out potential ski lines (we had to use our imagination though since there was only a first-storm-of-the-season worth of snow). On our drive down to Twizel for dinner, we were blessed with the most spectacular alpenglow sunset around the lake and mountains.

Muller Hut hike

The sunrise the next morning managed to rival, if not beat, the sunset. It absolutely painted the sky. Our objective today was to hike to the Mueller hut, but with the snow and our lack of equipment, we were not sure we would make it to the top. Along the Mueller hut route, after 200 flights of wooden stairs, is a lookout called Sealy Tarns, and we were pretty confident we could make it at least to that point. We set out on the hike, agreeing to turn around whenever we no longer felt comfortable continuing. Luckily, we never hit that point. The views throughout the hike were bonkers and kept getting better the further we went. about 500 more vertical feet past Sealy Tarns, we hit snowline, but the snow was just soft enough that we could put in a bootpack up the face of the mountain (and still firm enough that we felt good about the way down still being supportable). Up high, we had beautiful views of glaciers, and eventually rounded a bend to the Muller Hut.

The hut itself was a super cool spot. It was clean, simple, pretty big, and well equipped-- would be a fun spot to spend the night (though that was not in our plan). We decided to climb up another 500 feet above the hut to the top of Mount Ollivier. For this last stretch, we were joined by two lovely gals from New Zealand who were kind enough to take some sweet pictures of us on their good camera and also give us loads of recommendations for our next stop, Wanaka. As you might see in the photos, there was a gorgeous cloud hanging over the peak of Mount Cook like a halo.

On the way back down, the snow had softened just enough to make for perfect glissading conditions, so we had a great time riding down the two snow covered faces on our bums (I think I enjoyed this a bit more than Sean). Once we passed Sealy Tarns, the rest of the hike was a bit of a drag. The stairs felt like they went on forever, which wasn't helped by the fact that later in the day, they were crowded with traffic going both ways, but only wide enough for one person at a time to pass. All in all, the hike was about 4,000 vertical feet and 10 miles. After we finally finished, we got to hit the Sauna and shower up at the Haka House.

Edmund Hillary Museum

Inside the historic Heritage House hotel right inside the park, there was a standing Edmund Hillary museum. We checked it out before hitting the road to Wanaka. It was filled with interesting mountaineering history, especially surrounding Mount Cook, and even had the first ever Ski Plane (like a sea plane, but for landing on a snow field).

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So yes, at this point I am beginning to understand why people say the South Island is way cooler than the North Island, but that feels almost unfair to the North Island, which is amazing in its own right.

Surfing Kaikoura was a huge highlight for Sean, and we were both blown away by Mount Cook National Park.