Kia ora! Earlier this year, I was lucky enough to have the MOST incredible family trip to New Zealand’s South Island, and I’m excited to share all the incredible adventures that we had along the way. Over the next few blog posts, I’ll be diving into everything you absolutely must have on your New Zealand bucket list. Read the previous blog post here. For a bit of context: my brother lives in NZ, so my mum and I travelled over for a family holiday with him. It was packed with hikes, swims, and endless mountain views. This trip marked my second time in this stunning country (after exploring the North Island in December 2022 with my Mum and Dad and brother), and I was beyond excited to come back. Trust me, there’s so much to see and do in New Zealand, I hope this blog helps inspire anyone looking to plan their own trip.

After waving goodbye to Mount Cook Village, the final stretch of the South Island road trip was upon us.

Lake Tekapo

Lake Tekapo was the first rest stop along the way and what a beautiful place to stop for a coffee and a wander.

We had a look at the Church of the Good Shepherd and crossed the MacLaren footbridge.

Fairle

Sadly no pictures from this stop but the entire trip Rich was raving about a pie from Fairle so this was a necessary stop.

As you can imagine, there were a lot of jokes about things being ‘Fairle good’ from here on in.

Timaru

After some dinner, we headed to the harbour to wait for nightfall to gather with the other avid penguin watchers!

We spotted, through the darkness, a couple of blue penguins coming out of the sea and back to their nests in the rocks but we were at the end of the season, so sadly did not see many more.

Still very cool to see some!

Kaikōura

We did a short 5km hike around the peninsula and stumbled across the cutest seals and their pups.

I really enjoyed seeing a bit of Kaikōura, it’s a really gorgeous stretch of coastline… it has my seal of approval.

Picton

At Picton we headed to our accommodation, The Tombstone Lodge Motel.

I loved how quirky this place was, the coffin front door gave me a good chuckle.. as did the ‘rest in peace’ sign.

The Ferry to North Island

The next day, we caught the Inter-islander ferry back to the North Island (where Rich lives) for a final few days in New Zealand.

Coming up next in the blog is the Tongariro Crossing and a kayak on Lake Taupo. See you there!