Justin and I have always loved to travel. And this is something that didn’t stop when we had kids (Juliette was on 26 flights before she was one). But there is something incredibly special about travelling together, without kids. It’s like we’re transported back to our dating days, or our newlywed life. We get time together to talk, to be, to explore and adventure. And for the past few years, we’ve been incredibly fortunate to be able to prioritise taking trips together — usually twice a year.

This time, we were looking at five days away together in November — just us. Just. Us. YAYAYAYAYAYYY!!!!!

After a ton of fun brainstorm options we quickly settled on New Zealand. Justin had been a few times (even lived there for a few years as a toddler) but I had never been. So this place that everyone raved about, quickly became our top choice. We decided to fly into Christchurch and then RV around Lake Takepo and Mt Cook before returning back. And wow, it did not disappoint!

Travel Day

We love flying no matter what, but when we fly without kids, it’s extra special 🙂 And international trips always start with the Qantas First Class Lounge!!

This was one of the first times we’d been there for a meal other than breakfast and so I got to try the famous salt and pepper squid! It was so good we ordered seconds 🙂

And had to try the famous pavlova too!

We flew from Melbourne to Christchurch and landed around midnight. We couldn’t pick up the RV until the morning, so we got a hotel near the airport. When I say near, we actually walked our luggage through the airport parking lot and across the street to the hotel (later we realised we could have taken a luggage trolly).

Let the RV trip begin!

The next morning we woke up and went to get our RV! We rented an Apollo Euro Quest RV (which is a slightly older Maui RV) but they gave us a Maui RV which was fantastic. It sleeps four but was great for us two — plus room for extra storage space.

The first part of an RV trip for us is one of the best which is…grocery shopping! There is something wonderfully apocalyptic about getting completely prepared with all of our groceries and supplies. We checked out four different times from Woolies…after realising we had more space in the fridge, or remembering other things we wanted.

And after we were stocked up with some of the best groceries EVER…we were off on the open road!!! To say it was an expansive, stunning drive would be an understatement.

After a few hours of driving we stopped at a famous bakery that Justin had researched called Fairlie Bakehouse. They specialise in pies and they really were delicious. We even stopped there on the way back to try more.

And then with our last little push we arrived at Lake Tekapo. I hadn’t seen a lot of pictures of this before our trip, so when we rounded the corner I squealed out loud when I saw how turquoise the water was. It was like Lake Tahoe, but very turquoise, very quiet, very undeveloped and no boats on the water at all. It was STUNNING. I’ve never seen anything like it before.

For our first night in Lake Tekapo, we stayed at Lakes Edge which is a gorgeous camp/RV park on the bank of the lake. It is an easy 20 min walk into town to the famous Church of the Good Shepherd, but given that we stopped every three steps to take photos of the gorgeous purple and white lupin flowers, it took us a good hour 🙂

Their facilities at Lakes Edge are top notch — great showers, big communal kitchen, multiple BBQs, laundry. Can’t imagine a better place to stay!

Check out our RV!

The next day we set off for the Mt. Cook area. We drove past Lake Pukaki, which, similar to Lake Tekapo, is completely undeveloped with crystal, turquoise water. Having the backdrop of the snow-capped mountains made it feel all the more majestic. So much of the scenery here reminded me of Alaska — grand mountains, bright lakes, colourful wildflowers and very few people.

We continued on to the Mt. Cook area where we settled into a little RV park at White Horse Hill Campground. We stayed there two nights since it was so central to tons of hikes and even our heli hike airport.

The first afternoon we decided to our top priority hike — the one we really didn’t want to miss. It was the Hooker Valley Track. This was a 10km, 3 hour hike. We started at 4pm but since it stays light so late, we figured that would be fine. There are so many reasons why it was great going in the late afternoon:

1. The crowds were less intense
2. The sun was less intense
3. The sky was super clear and the light was striking when it hit Mt Cook

When I say this walk was like being in heaven on Earth, it really was. The scenery was so breathtaking, it was almost hard to take it all in. It wasn’t until I rewatched some of the movies that I felt the breadth of what we were seeing. The hike was incredible. The final lookout of Mt. Cook, with the glacial Hooker Lake below was just stunning.

And then back in time for another amazing RV dinner and a windy night’s sleep. The nights we were there it was so windy. Our RV shook all night but all I could think of were the poor campers with tents blowing all over the place outside. We were super grateful for our home on wheels.

Our HELI HIKE!!!

The next day we were scheduled to take a heli hike — a helicopter ride up to a glacier for a hike on the glacier. We had checked the weather and seen that visibility was looking awful. We weren’t sure we’d be able to go up, but when we showed up at the office, they were ready to go!

The actual helicopter was also a thrill. I got to sit next to the windows there and back and the feeling of floating and flying over scenery like this left me with a dropped jaw and permanent smile the whole time.

We chose to hike on Tasman glacier. I didn’t realise the difference when booking but the guide said that if we had chosen Fox glacier, there would have been about 200 people on the glacier, vs this one had only about 20 on the entire glacier. Rarely could we even see another group.

We spent about two hours on the glacier, exploring little crevasses and caves and taking in the majestic beauty. I wonder how long glaciers like this will be here and if our grandkids and great grandkids will get to do this the way we did. Will they melt due to global warming? Will tourists overtake these gorgeous places? It left us feeling immensely grateful for this opportunity to be in such pure and natural beauty.

That afternoon we did a short hike from our campground up to Kea Point, just above Mueller Lake. The last lookout we wanted to see was Tasman Glacier View, which we did the next day before driving out. That gave us a very cool view of what we had seen the day before on the heli hike.

And with that, we said goodbye to Mt. Cook. That last day was super cloudy, with no visibility of Mt. Cook at all. We were so grateful we did the Hooker Valley Track the first day and that we got so lucky with visibility on our heli hike. That day also had pretty intense winds, so we heard that the helicopter trips were cancelled due to wind. Again…felt super grateful.

So we drove back to our dear Lakes Edge campground and decided to spend the afternoon relaxing at Tekapo Springs. It was a nice way of unwinding before the big night we had planned.

When we first arrived at Lake Takepo on our first day of the trip, we started to explore star gazing tours. It turns out, this Lake Takepo area is one of just a few gold-standard dark sky reserves in the world. They’re those with the lowest light pollution, darkest skies, and best night sky stargazing opportunities. The entire community has come together to limit light pollution (regulations on street lights, house lights and hours) so that people can see the stars so much more clearly and brilliantly here.

We had a few coffees, watch The Gladiator (I had some catching up to do before seeing #2 when we got back) and then went on a midnight tour with the Dark Sky Project. We booked into the Crater Experience and it was breathtaking. We saw the Milky Way, the constellations, and even Saturn. We saw countless shooting stars and even tried our hand at some iphone shots.

I knew Justin would love it since he loves stars and space, but I was amazed at how in awe I was throughout the whole thing.

And if that wasn’t enough, we then booked a second stargazing tour after that, which started around 2:30am. This one had a photography focus to it, where they took pictures of us under the stars, which was kind of unique and fun.

At that point it was after 4:00am. We were tired but so excited by our newfound iphone skills that we went to the Church of the Good Shepherd (the most iconic spot in Lake Tekapo) to take more pictures. We were shaking from the cold, but Justin had to pull me away around 4:45am to go back to the RV to sleep.

The next day we said goodbye to Lake Tekapo. We checked out of the RV campground and made another amazing breakfast on the edge of the lake. We grabbed a coffee on the way and off we went back to Christchurch.

It was an easy drive back and after unloading the RV (which took a surprisingly long time with all of our bits and bobs), we were off to the airport.

If you think this is where the fun ended, you are wrong. Justin was really excited that an Emirates flight was strangely flying from Christchurch to Sydney, so we used miles to upgrade to business class. We were just like Penelope Cruz in the Emirates commercials, getting some champagne at the bar and enjoying a myriad of snacks and treats. The service was impeccable and it was the best 3 hour flight of my life.

Justin and I often say that when we travel, things just work out for us. We feel incredibly grateful that we often just get great luck. But that can only happen (statistically) if sometimes they don’t 🙂 So when we got to Sydney and our flight was delayed, we worried this might be the time. They quickly boarded the plane, so as not to miss the 11pm curfew in Sydney but as we were sitting there and the clocked ticked over 11pm, we knew we’d be out of luck. We deplaned, and used our Amazing Race skills to divide and conquer — getting our luggage, finding out about transportation and hotel vouchers and calling around for anywhere to sleep that night.

Even with the hiccup, we felt so grateful to not be sleeping on a bench at the airport, and to have a safe, clean comfortable hotel for the night (or for a few hours) and the next morning to be on our way back home.

It was an incredible trip that we’ll never forget!