New Zealand — Happily Madz

6 cities - 7 days

I am so beyond overdue with this blog post but it’s one that I had to end up publishing, even if it meant months later.. That is because I have a bucket list for things I need to accomplish in my life and going to New Zealand has been on my top 5 for as long as I can remember!.

We had a little over a week to see as much of New Zealand as we possibly could. After hours of mapping out cities, activities, and everything else it takes to plan a trip.. I was able to create an itinerary through https://travefy.com that I think made for a pretty freaking phenomenal trip.

This is the order of the cities we drove through

Auckland -> Rotorua -> Taupo -> Wellington -> Fox Glacier -> Queenstown

Trip Highlights!

Bungee Jumping in Taupo:

I have been bungee jumping in Costa Rica before so it wasn’t something completely new.. However the 2 experiences were completely different.

This is the highest “water touch” bungee in New Zealand. Unless you’re about 55 kgs, it’s unlikely you’ll actually be able to get dunked in the water. Nonetheless, it was an awesome experience. I tried the jump a little different this time and jumped off backwards, which is also known as “the angel of death”.

Valley Walk Franz Joseph Glacier:

There are two major glaciers that people usually go hike which are Franz Joseph Glacier and Fox Glacier. To be honest, I'm not sure what the differences are between the two but we ended walking through Franz Joseph! It was a beautiful "valley walk" with stunning scenery. Towards the end of the walk you get a picture perfect view of the glacier. If I had the choice, I would have done the "heli hike". It's when this helicopters drops you and your group at the top of the mountain and you hike through the glacier. It's definitely a much more expensive option but it looked so worth it!

Hiking Roys Peak:

AMAZING experience. I definitely almost passed out like 10 times during this 11km hike. It was so freaking intense and for someone as out of shape as I am, I almost didn't make it. That's also because my brother and I were trying to survive off of one tiny gatorade bottle between the both of us. We were getting so dehydrated and had given our water bottles to the rest of my family that gave up after about 20 minutes into the hike.. We ended up finding some water streams flowing through the mountain that helped us make it to the top. Nonetheless, the view was incredible and so worth the hike. In total the hike took us around 5 hours and we were so incredibly sore after.

Jet Boating Queenstown:

Queenstown was hands down my favorite city in New Zealand.. Some people call it the adventure capital of the world?! Anyways, it was insanely beautiful as was most of New Zealand but they also had such fun activities. One of my favorites was Jet Boating, think jet ski...but a boat. Here's a video!

We also swam in thermal pools in Rotorua, went paragliding in Queenstown, strolled through the city of Auckland, and much more! We packed as much as we could in the short time that we had there. If I could do New Zealand again, I would definitely not drive through all of it again..that became extremely exhausting. The total trip became over 24 hours of driving from Auckland all the way to Queenstown. However, it still was a great way to see as much of New Zealand as we could. The only thing I'm still sad about was not making it to Milford Sound. We heard such amazing things about it but I'll just have to include it on my list for next time! I'm thinking Australia + Queenstown in the future ;)

There's so much I'm probably forgetting to mention in this post, it's definitely been a while since we've been back. To sum it up, New Zealand was everything I had imagined it to be and more. I'm so grateful I've been able to cross it off my bucket list. It was hands down one of the best trips I have ever been on!