New Zealand, 2018

My campervan for 5 weeks en route to Mount Cook.

If you are looking for a campground to view the southernmost cyclone to hit New Zealand from its epicenter, I highly recommend the Pohara Beach area. Campground staff were very helpful moving you during flooding, mid-storm evacuation planning, and gave you regular updates on the status of the roads that washed away trapping over 6,000 people in the region for about a week. 

I flew into Christchurch Jan 27 and reunited with Anna who is on a round-the-world travel sabbatical.  We only briefly met about 3 years ago at a Costa Rica surf camp, but each of us thought it was a good idea to spend 5 weeks trapped in a campervan with a pseudo-stranger with zero planning. After all ... what could possibly go wrong?

South island beauty!

We tried to rent a camper, but it turns out we were not the only ones thinking about visiting New Zealand during high season, so every campervan on both islands was sold out for over a month. As such, I bought a minivan that was recently converted into something you could sleep in and we headed for the mountains.

Hobbiton!

It was as we were driving towards rainy snow capped peaks that Anna informed me that she had only been camping once in her life, does not like to be wet or cold, and only had clothes suitable for the Cambodian jungles she just left. Although I previously had serious moral issues with slavery, at the time, I was beginning to see the merit of selling her into indentured servitude.

Near Queenstown in front of our B&B.

Ultimately, I brokered a deal to let her go for two half eaten apples to two Germans (Alex and his buddy Christopher) on a mountain top near Fox Glacier. They walked away from the deal while we were still in escrow ... it really is a buyers market around here!

I can't remember what I did ... but I probably deserved this.

The landscape on the NZ south island is breathtaking, you have to be flexible and constantly change your plans to minimize rainy days, but the effort is worth it to hike up epic peaks surrounded by ice-blue surreal lakes formed by nearby glacier melts.




It only took Anna and I a few days to find our travel rhythm of hiking somewhere amazing, having lunch on a mountaintop, and figuring out where to go the next day while drinking boxed wine (affectionately called Card-Bordeaux).

Able Tasman the night after the cyclone.

After 3 weeks of car camping, we decided to treat ourselves and stay in an all glass cabin on a beach in Abel Tasman. It was during check in that we found out a cyclone was going to hit the next day. Being without internet is a great way to avoid the non-stop news/politics of your homeland, but it does have its drawback of not knowing if you are about to be in the center of a natural disaster 

Other than getting very wet and changing from our coastal death trap to a more inland motel, our only true inconvenience from Cyclone Gita was that the only exit to the area was a curvy mountain road that temporarily decided it wanted to reinvent itself as a beautiful waterfall. Effectively, this wiped out our plans to hike the North Island, but we were very happy no lives were lost in the storm and ensuing flooding.

Anna launches her drone near the Hooker Valley trek.

Anna is now heading to Hawaii and I've just arrived in Bali where I'm staying at a surf camp and then will meet up with Adam (who I also met in a Costa Rica surf camp 2 years ago) and maybe I'll be able to see Erin in Vietnam on the way back home to the states. If you are in southeast asia, let me know and hopefully we can travel together for a bit.

The impossibly blue waters of Wanaka.

Special thanks to Anthony and Evelyn for hosting my last days in Australia, Andy and Elaine for the kindness they showed us in Cambridge, Tabytha for being my tour guide in Auckland (and for getting us free VIP tickets to Beck), and to Ana for being such a wonderful travel mate and friend.

Sorry, for the delayed response to emails and calls, looking forward to hearing from you and seeing you soon, Tony

See you next time New Zealand!

Anna did not seem to appreciate getting sold for an apple, 
but it seemed like the right price at the time. 

Our first priority when we heard the cyclone was coming
was to get a several day supply of booze.

Cyclone Gita preparedness Meeting.

We may not have had gas for our stove, openers for caned food,
but we always remembered to have cold beer in the car for post hike celebrations. 

Roughing it at a B&B near Queenstown.

Thanks again for being the perfect
Auckland pub crawl guide.

Anthony shows me how to
properly celebrate Australia Day!

Tabytha worked her magic and was able to get us
free front row tickets to Beck in Auckland!!!