CRISTINE FARINAS

Next weekend, we are going to commence our adventure in England. But before we do so, I thought I'd finish writing about our South Island adventure first. Whilst I thoroughly enjoyed  Wanaka ,   Milford Sound was the highlight of my trip to the South Island. I say "my" because unfortunately, J missed out on this amazing trip. As much as I wanted him to be with me to experience the enchanting Milford Sound, he was quite unwell (but not unwell enough for me to give up the ultimate reason why I went to the South Island). To say the least, I left him in Queenstown while I ventured 12 hours away on a bus with some strangers.  I left our hotel at around 0630am for a 0645am pick up. It was still dark but Queenstown felt like a safe place so I walked confidently to the bus stop on my own. The Cruise Milford bus arrived on time and when I showed my ticket to the driver, he asked where my companion was. I said he was unwell. The driver had this judgemental look on his fac

Apart from Milford Sound, the only other reason why I wanted to go to the South Island was The Wanaka Tree. I've read so much about this lonely tree even before we left for New Zealand, so I was adamant to find it whilst I was in the country.  We arrived in Wanaka just after sunset so we didn't get the opportunity to explore the beautiful town. When we arrived at the hotel, the first thing I asked for was the location of  the most photographed tree in New Zealand (apparently) because I booked the hotel without knowing my geography (which is typical of me). I didn't expect that the tree was indeed only a five-minute walk away from our hotel. I was very excited to say the least. And because we only planned to stay in Wanaka for a day, my best option was to see the lone tree in the morning before we left for Queenstown. I knew that the area is often flocked by tourists and so I made an extra effort to get up before sunrise and walked to the tree. When I o

I finally found an excuse to write about our South Island adventure last year. Basically, my family recently went on a road trip to the Northern Philippines and I would be lying if I say that I am not jealous. How I wish I was there to experience the scary zig-zag road going up to Sagada with them, but hey, such is life. So instead of feeling jealous (and home-sick) yet again, I went through our New Zealand photos and realised that I have not written about our incredible journey from Wellington to Queenstown. This is one of the best things that we did in New Zealand. I intend to go back in the future because we missed a great deal of other beautiful and exciting things in the South Island. Five days was definitely not enough. Anyway, I planned our itinerary in such a way that J could get enough rest in between driving as he hasn't driven long distance before. So, here's how we did it: Day 1: Picton to Kaikoura via Blenheim (2hrs), then Kaikoura to Hanmer Springs via Le