What I came to realise about myself during my (mostly) successful trip to New Zealand
There’s been one item on my bucket list that I’ve been itching to tick off for a while — to see the Southern Lights. The urge to do this grew stronger when in January 2023 I saw a really strong Northern Lights display in Iceland.
So towards the end of 2023 I decided to book the trip of a lifetime to New Zealand to go see the Southern Lights, Lord of the Rings sites and if we were lucky, a Kiwi.
The trip would span:
- Auckland
- Invercargill
- Stewart Island
- Dunedin
- Oamaru
- Wellington
And the budget for the holiday given the many locations we wanted to visit would reflect this, hence the need for it to be a once in a lifetime trip!
Colin’s misadventures in the Land of the Long White Cloud
We flew from Manchester in the UK to Auckland in NZ with a seven hour layover in Houston which wasn’t so bad as it gave us an opportunity to grab a bite to eat, get some WiFi and keep in touch with people.
The flights to NZ weren’t too bad with the 14 hour flight from Houston to Auckland being relatively easy as I managed to get two seats together in economy so we didn’t have to deal with a random person next to us and on the way to Houston there was a spare seat next to us.
When we landed in NZ it was two days later (left the UK on the 7th, landed in US on the 7th, flew from the US on the 7th and landed in NZ on the 9th) and while we slept on the plane we were shattered.
Auckland
It was a very early arrival into Auckland so we were faced with 6 hours to kill before we could check into our hotel room. We filled this time by going to MacDonald’s (called Maccas, not Maccy D’s in NZ) and walking around the harbour.
Even though it was technically winter, Auckland was still around 14–18C so it was a pleasant walk and we were able to get a good feel of the city we’d be spending the next 5 days in. Auckland has a nice vibe to it, kinda like Kingston-upon-Thames, but with the Thames not being brown and nasty.
The hotel room we had at M-Social was really nice, the view out of the window overlooked the harbour so the sunrise and sunset were stunning. The room itself covered all our needs with things like razors and toothbrushes provided which I’ve never had in a hotel room before.
During the short stay in Auckland we managed to get a lot of walking in, visiting a fair amount of the downtown and harbour areas. We found some streets to be a little rough but given it’s a city we weren’t too shocked by this.
The highlight of this section of the trip was the tour to Hobbiton, a movie set that was left in-tact after the filming of The Hobbit films (and technically it was also used for The Lord of the Rings but that set was torn down after filming).
Hobbiton was a great little tour, we were up at 6am to get a 3 hour bus to the site which wasn’t a problem for us as the jet lag hadn’t cleared up yet so we were wide awake. The site itself was really cool with a guided tour through the various parts of the set and information about the different scales of hobbit hole used for different perspectives.
I got some great pictures of the different hobbit holes, including Bilbo/Frodo’s house and after walking through Hobbiton we went to the Green Dragon for a beer before jumping back on the bus and heading to the Waitomo Glow Worm caves which were absolutely mesmerising.
We also visited Auckland Zoo which had some really mischievous starlings in its cafe that made for an entertaining lunch but also the zoo itself was really impressive and a joy to walk around. The same can be said about the Aquarium which had an epic tunnel and turtle rescue tank.
Stewart Island
The bucket list item was to go to Stewart Island and see the Southern Lights. The thinking being that as we were there in winter and Stewart Island is one of the islands nearest to Antartica and is also a dark skies area that we’d have an ideal setting to see Aurora Australis.
So we took a two hour flight from Auckland to Invercargill and then waited for the 20 minute flight from Invercargill to Oban. It was really fun bundling into a 8 seater plane and flying out there, it felt like such an adventure.
We were staying in a cabin halfway between Horseshoe bay and Oban and as we don’t drive it was a bit of a walk to get anywhere but this also meant we were in a great location for Kiwi spotting. Unfortunately we didn’t manage to see any Kiwi but we certainly heard them!
While on the island we took a lot of walks, including one 7km walk that my watch registered as containing 66 flights of stairs so my leg muscles were thoroughly worked out. There were some really picturesque trials on the island and it felt like being in the Uncharted games.
Unfortunately the weather was really bad when we were on Stewart Island and the one day we had clear skies there was very weak solar activity so I didn’t get to see the Southern Lights, the closest being pictures that the owners of the cafe in Oban took when the activity was really strong a couple of weeks before our visit.
We did however get to go to Ulva Island which made me realise how much I love exploring and photographing wildlife. On the trip out there were only 7 of us on the boat so it was really isolated and just walking around with my camera out, quietly hunting for birds in the rainforest trying to take a picture of them was something I had never experienced before but it became one of my favourite activities during the trip.
It was our first sighting of a Kaka that made that trip to Ulva Island, where we were just walking looking at the ground for signs of a Kiwi and then I was told to look up and there was one just perched on a tree in front of me. A very memorable moment.
Invercargill
We didn’t spend long in Invercargill as it was more of a stopping off point between Stewart Island and our flight to Wellington (from which we’d be immediately heading to Dunedin to get to Oamaru).
We really enjoyed walking through Victoria Park and seeing all the animals they have there.
One thing that I noticed about invercargill was the shop on the high street, they were a lot more hobby / interest centric which I appreciated as most downtown areas tend to cater more for foodie types.
Oamaru
Our trip to Oamaru was mostly centred around going to the Little Blue Penguin colony there. We don’t get wild penguins in Yorkshire so as I was in the area I wanted to stop by and say hello.
Oamaru itself was really nice, having a kind of coastal retreat vibe to it and the penguins were only a 15 minute walk from where we stayed.
I was a little taken aback after missing out on the Southern Lights to see that photography wasn’t permitted during the penguin viewing but understood how the lights from phones can mess with the penguins.
So I sat there and watched them come in from a busy hunt and waddle up the rocks and run home. Some of them walked through the seating area so we got to see them closer than those in the fancier seats.
As we were walking back on the first day I noticed a dark shape on the rocks and sure enough it was a little penguin. So we watched it climb and run to its nest. A very nice way to end the evening.
The next day we went back and I stood there with my zoom lens out ready to capture the first penguin to head home before the rest started and I would be told to put my camera away.
And it paid off, I managed to get the shot I wanted and it cemented my interest in wildlife photography.
Wellington
After the overnight stay on our way to Oamaru we finally got into Wellington properly.
If I’m honest I don’t think Wellington was the best way to end the trip, we spent a lot of time in nature and then overwrote those short term memories with an urban experience.
Wellington itself though was nice with a lot of museums and short walk away and Zealandia a 20 minute bus ride up the hill.
The national museum was full of really thought provoking displays and it really drove home how shit the British were to the Māori. I especially liked the galleopoli exhibit with its giant set pieces made by Weta.
Zealandia gave us another taste of exploration and had some stunning views that really made you feel small. We spend three hours walking on one trail which took us up and down hills while surrounded by all manner or birds intrigued to see humans, it felt like you were trekking through a jungle, the craziest part of this being how close it was to central Wellington.
We also went to Wellington Zoo which is where we saw our Kiwi for the trip. They also had a Red Panda (I love Red Pandas) so I spent a lot of time there watching it run around.
After Zealandia we did a bit more Lord of the Rings tourism. Going to Mount Victoria to see where early test footage was shot (the get off the road scene and the introduction to the ring wraiths were shot there). This was followed by a trip to Weta Workshop which gave me a lot of opportunity to nerd out.
Heading home
Then it was time to head back to the UK, doing the reverse of the route out to NZ. This didn’t go so well with our connection from Houston to Manchester cancelled and rebooked onto a flight a day later.
This meant my plan home was a little derailed. I had assumed I’d be going from 10C in NZ to a short air conditioned transition in Houston to arriving to 10C in the UK. Instead I found myself standing waiting for a bus in 37C!
Safe to say when we landed in Manchester and the sky was grey and the wind cut through me I was happy to be home.
What I learned
My main takeaway from the trip, was how much I enjoy exploring nature and hunting wildlife to take pictures. I’ve always been a very urban person but I think that trip has made me appreciate the natural world.
Other things that I learned were:
- NZ loves pies and you can get them everywhere
- Those pies will pretty much always have cheese on top of the filling
- Hotel rooms in NZ have a window that looks into the toilet, I couldn’t find an explanation for this though
- You can buy Manchester in Woolies (it’s what they call bedding
- I need to work on my low light photography skills (I have so many blurry penguin pics)
- NZ has this amazing liquorice sweet that has crunchy grape sherbet in it
- NZ has chocolate that tastes like pre-Kraft foods owned Cadbury’s called Whitaker’s and I wish I could get it in the UK
Lastly I learned what I want to do when I go back to try and tick off that bucket list item again.
- You can fly to Auckland from New York which given how easy it is to get to New York from Manchester would be a better route, or a route that the upgrade from economy could be very justified for
- I want to spend more time in Auckland, I really enjoyed the vibe so was a shame to have spent so little time there
- I need to spend a month on Stewart island to give myself the best chance seeing the Southern Lights
- Ulva island has non-nocturnal Kiwis so I can spend my days going there to spot them and then spend my evenings looking at the sky for the Southern Lights
