The final trip!
By Laura Docherty, UNSW, Australia
UNSW has a three term system which means that we finish lectures in April – so I have a 5 month summer holiday! To kick it off, me and a group of friends decided to hire a motor home and do a 2 week road trip around the South Island of New Zealand. When I found out I was coming to Australia I wasn’t sure whether I would want to or be able to get over to New Zealand, but having done so, I am so glad that I did! It is quite an expensive country even in comparison to Australia so it requires a lot of planning to do on a budget, but I would say it’s definitely worth it.
We hired a 6 person motor home from Jucy, which was quite terrifying because neither of us had ever driven something so large and in charge: 8 meters long and 3.5 meters tall! Once we got to grips with the size of it the driving wasn’t actually too hard (we just had to avoid slipping on ice, hitting any possums or crashing into any of the other newby RV drivers on the roads!).
Freedom camping is legal in New Zealand, so we were allowed to park almost anywhere without paying and stay there for the night. This meant we found some amazing rural camping spots, sometimes with no other cars around us for miles!
Some of the highlights of the trip were Wanaka and Roy’s Peak – a mountain the size of Ben Nevis which we hiked at 3am so that we were at the summit for sunrise. It was absolutely incredible and I would recommend this to everyone despite the early wake up call! However, on the way down I did slip in mud twice meaning I had to do the rest of the 3 hour hike in cold, wet clothes…
We also loved Te Anau, which is a beautiful lakeside town which is the starting point for Milford Sound – an incredible Fiordland formed when a glacier melted thousands of years ago. We booked a boat cruise around Milford Sound which was a great way to see the landscapes without having to spend hundreds on a helicopter tour!
Our final few days were spent in Queenstown, where we tried the famous Fergburger, Patagonia chocolatier and went ziplining through the Remarkables mountain range. It was such a fun way to end the most spectacular road trip yet!
