Hello, and thank you so much for deciding to read this post!
It’s quite long with lots and lots of photos.
So sit back, enjoy, and feel free to split it up into a few sittings.
And keep scrolling past all the photos until you see ‘the end!’
We love you all
-Scott and Marissa
Day 1, 3.11.23
Marissa’s Step father, Stuart Scow, who passed away the morning we were to leave on our honeymoon, had offered us a wedding present for airline tickets to anywhere in the world.
Where did we select?? New Zealand!!
Stuart used travel points and to maximize his points, our flights from Phoenix to Auckland included a 24 hour lay over in Fiji.
Not the worst place to have a lay over, right?
Marissa and I arrived in Nadi on Fiji airlines.
In classic Scott fashion, instead of booking a world famous resort in Fiji for the night, I found a $69/night Airbnb that was a room in a house.
We were picked up by our airbnb host, Yuki, who is Chinese but moved to Fiji 4 years ago to have a more peaceful life for her, her 2 kids, and Husband.
En route back to her home, Yuki drives us to the marina port which is about a 1/4 miles from her house and says we are early enough to catch an entire day cruise out to an island!
With no official plans for the, we decide that’s what we wanna do!
We took a large boat out to South sea island to spend the day snorkeling. On the island we rode in a glass bottom boat, snorkeled (where I was able to free dive deeper than I have ever, about 50 feet on one breath) and watched some native Fijian dances.
It’s so surreal to be here on a honeymoon, I’m actually married. I love how low key Marissa is and just vibes out with stuff.
After our day trip on the island, we get seafood at Blue Fish, a restaurant in the marina and catch the sunset.
The next morning we wake early for our flight. Our host’s Husband, who, sadly, neither of us remember his name, cooked us a simple chinese breakfast of eggs, toast, and jam.
Many people are very scared of the world and how dishonest people are, but in our experience, it’s when you travel that your eyes are opened to how wonderful the majority of humans are.
We all know the news stations dont make money from head lines like ‘newly married couple were picked up by strangers at the airport, shown all the best spots, made breakfast and took them to the airport at 6am the next day’
But in our experience, thats the majority
These strangers put so much energy into making us feel welcomed to their country and their home. For what we paid they went far beyond for the simple reason of it’s the right thing to do.
Day 2, March 12, 2023
Yuki takes us to the airport, hugs all around, and sends us on our way. We landed in Auckland and get our Toyota Hiace camper conversion from Lucky rentals.
The reviews for this company were very, very poor.
But it was the only place that had open reservations, so we had a lot of worries leading up to our trip. Many reviews about the van simply not being there, being very very dirty, or being broken.
In the end, the company was great, got us from the airport, and had our van ready.
Our first planned stop, after getting the van, was to Cathedral cove in Hahei, but our shuttle ride to the rental place, was told by a random French lady that a recent flood ruined the road to Cathedral cove.
We got very lucky she told us because we would have otherwise just drove to that part of the country to be let down.
So we pivoted and decided to go to the Town Rotorua which has native Māori villages. Marissa had initially wanted to go here but we cut it out because we didn’t want to cram too many things into one day.
So we get in our van, stop for Indian food, and hit the road.
New Zealand has heavy roots with British and Indian populations because the United Kingdom of Great Britain once had rule over the New Zealand government. And as British ships would port in New Zealand, Indian nationals would jump ship and stay. This led to a slowly growing Indian population on the islands.
Day 3, 3/13/23:
Last night we drove to Rotorua and we woke up in the camper van parking lot. It’s a medium size lot and everyone is just posted up with their camper chairs and tables making breakfast out the back of their vans.
This is in Rotoura.
We go on a walking tour of a still-active Maori tribe, the Whakarewarewa village. Māori are the native settlers of New Zealand and only got there 500-600 years ago, making New Zealand the most recently settled country in the world.
We see a ton of geothermal pools. The Māori people used the geothermal pool water to cook (boil) their food in.
They cooked us some corn-on-the-cob in the sulfur smelling water and it was soooo good. After the tour we walked around the village and all the geothermal pools.
For cleaning and relaxing, the Maori also had mini canals that trenched hot water from the geothermal pool into a man made hot tub. The natives would open the trench in the morning and by mid afternoon have a pool of water to bathe in!
After our tour, we stop and get some pies. They are like pot pies but mini and stuffed with the coolest things.
The Pies are a British thing.
I got a seafood pie and a smoked fish pie. Marissa got an apricot chicken Camembert pie.
From here we drive to a house we found on the app WikiCamps
The house owners have parking space in their yard and opens it up to campers (the house is on land outside of Cambridge, New Zealand).
We used WikiCamps to find most of the places to park our camper van each night. In the USA, it’s similar to the app iOverlander, which is an opensource app where people post safe spots to park or camp overnight, be it an open field, parking lot, or a holiday park (a ‘holiday park’ is what you would call a KOA campground in the USA). Then others review if the spot is safe or not.
In New Zealand, caravaning around the country is as popular as road trips in the USA, so the country has adapted and finding a safe place to park is very, very easy compared to the USA. The cities have designated parking lots where campervans are allowed to park. The national parks have huge fields open to camper vans parking. And then of course, people rent out space on their private land to park.
Day4, 3/14/23
We wake on that little farm/homestead outside of Hamilton and make some breakfast with our microwave oven.
I paid the homeowner, Andrew, $20 NZD ($15 for the night stay and 2.50 each for our showers).
That’s like $12usd. I also filled up the water tank on our camper.
We drove 25 minutes to the Hamilton Temple. It was soooo gorgeous. It was bright white and sitting on top of a hill. We get there around 10:30 am and walk in to do baptisms. There was another older couple in there and the workers were so excited to have FOUR people there to do baptisms at once because it was a smaller temple and they don’t usually have that many.
The other couple was from Utah. Well the husband Gary was but his wife was a Kiwi and they met when she was on a mission in Provo, UT later in her life. They were older 70-80’s.
After baptisms we walked the grounds and surrounding park that the church built. The surrounding area reminded me so much of the rolling hills seen on the east coast of the USA, in Virginia mainly. But because the temps never get below the 40’s here, you see palm trees, ferns, and tropical trees
This temple was built in the 50’s and back then it was mainly volunteer workers. It took 5 years to build and all volunteer work.
Next I fixed the Broken water pump on the van and we brainstormed next moves. We had a few key items we wanted to see on this two week trip, but each day we decided where we wanted to end up next.
We decided to head to Tongariro National park and skip doing anything in Hamilton. This would get us closer to Wellington and allow us extra time to chill. We had a ferry ticket booked for
Friday 3/17/23.
The drive down was spectacular. The rolling hills are so vast and beautiful. The hills are steeper as we go south and have sheep and cattle ALL over them. Then mix in a random river to cap the scene. This place is a kind of beauty that cannot be found elsewhere. There’s also so many species of trees we’ve never seen mixed in so it looks like another planet.
I had seen the Mangahuia Campsite online, so we headed there. It’s inside Tongariro National Park. We arrived and I got so excited because we are backed up to a small river and surrounded by a lush forest.
Stunning.
But we soon realize it’s a pay before hand on the internet thing.
There’s a sign that said something like ‘these campsites are booked online, if you didn’t book a spot, please park elsewhere.”
Marissa looked it up and noticed there are 15 total bookings allowed each day. So we decide to go count the actual spots taken and how many are available. There were 15 already taken but 2 more available, and ours. So a total of 18. There was also one other spot someone could park but not a full spot. So we were like 15 are already here and there are 2-3 open, let’s just stay because there are spots for the people who actually paid.
We spent the evening preparing for our hike the next day. We are going to do the Tongariro Alpine Crossing. I paid $94 NZD for us to get a parking spot and shuttle because it’s a tough 12 mile through hike up to a volcano
Day 5, 3/15/23:
We wake early, oatmeal it up with some blueberries and mini kiwis (grape sized kiwis that are eaten like grapes).
We drove the van to the shuttle spot about 30 minutes away and waited for the 9am shuttle that we paid for through Tongariro Crossing shuttle. The hike started in a pretty desolate desert-like area at the base of the Ruapehu volcano.
Once we got to the saddle, we were able to see all the sky-blue crater lakes which is where we sat and had lunch.
The hike was very long, about 12.5 miles. The last 5 miles, which was on the other side of the mountain pass we walked up, was mostly forest.
The last 2 miles was in this lush green forest with tons of fern trees and even some redwood-type trees. We took a lil detour to see Ketetahi falls.
Back at the van we got in and decided to drive to Whanganui. We need to be in Wellington by Friday mid-day and I was like ‘we haven’t seen the ocean in New Zealand yet, so let’s make this ocean front town a stop’
The drive to this city was on a small back country road through what I’m calling sheep land.
There were thousands and thousands of sheep all through this mountainside. Those guys really climb up steep and high! There were times the scenery was so beautiful my mouth opened and I gasped for air. I’m talking the greenest grass rolling hills with rivers flowing through them and the rivers are lined with lush forests. Then you have these white sheep all over the landscapes like white little plants. The trees are so massive here. Hundreds of feet high.
Just after sunset we make it to the Castle Cliff beach caravan parking spot (we found it on WikiCamps).
It’s sooo cool how accommodating this country is to camper vans and mini rv’s. They designate free caravan lots all over the country. You can park there as long as your van is certified self contained. There’s an entire organization that monitors and inspects and stuff. It’s wild.
Sleeping in a van down by the river is the popular thing here. I haven’t seen any large RV’s, just mini campers like ours and then some bigger ones that are built on cargo van chassis. Makes sense cause that back road we just took would not work for a large vehicle.
Day 5, 3/16/23
We wake at Castle cliff beach to realize it’s a black sand beach! We get ready and go for a walk down the beach. It’s so vast and about one mile down the beach we saw some cliffs, so we headed that way.
On our walk we find a massive bed of sea shells just congregated together in a large 20×20 pile. It’s definitely natural.
After our walk we drove a bit to where the river meets the sea. I check online to see if our ferry ride to the South Island isn’t canceled. This has been a stressor because the ferry company we hired has a broken ship and we’ve been told several times that peoples trips have been canceled. Well I read on the ferry site that our ship has all bookings canceled.
I call the van rental place and after a bit we realize we should be good!
So much stress is created by the things our minds come up with.
From here we drove down to Wellington except Marissa found a holiday park in Petone, a town just north of Wellington. It was really nice and $35 usd for a spot to park our camper and plug to the grid, water, and to drain our pooper.
The holiday park had a bouncy blob thing and we played on it for a bit. Great times. Then a long hot shower.
Day 6, 3/17/23.
Wake in our holiday park. It’s raining hard and sideways!
Because it was raining heavily, we changed our Zealandia tour to 1pm. So from 10-1pm we went grocery shopping and got local butter (New Zealand is known for all their fresh cow products because the cows are all free range, just like the sheep).
We also drove to Mt. Victoria overlook and ate some of our food.
During the Zealandia tour we picked kawa kawa leaves (which wasn’t allowed) to boil in water for tea! The leaves, when you chew them, make your mouth numb. I loved this. The Maori used the leaves for mouth pains and the tea’s for headaches
After the Zealandia tour we made our way to the ferry in Wellington.
While waiting to drive onto the ferry, we had both the driver and passenger windows down in our van. A big gust of wind came and the Ferry ticket blew out the car and into the sea!! As I was trying to retrieve the ticket, which was unsuccesful, two black swans swam past.
Also while waiting, parked next to us was a small rally car with two kids doing a rally this weekend. They reminded me of a younger me (Scott) and we chatted for at least an hour, I’m sure marissa was bored.
Day 7 3/18/22:
Last night we got off the ferry in Picton, NZ about 12:30 am. Here’s a photo of our van packed tightly on the ferry:
We drove around for 30 minutes trying to find a stealth place to park but ended up parking in the city park (which was the central square of the city). We were so exhausted and passed out until our 8am alarm.
Our plan for the day is to hike to the snout, which is a land peak that overlooks the water and you can see all the surrounding sounds. From there we will drive as far as we can towards Christchurch.
On our hike, when we got to the snout overlook, a young guy named Dean showed up with his saxophone and played us some tunes as we watched the sailboats in the sound. What a magical moment.
Day 8, 3/19/22
It’s Sunday and last night we made it just north of Christchurch, stopping in the town called Rangiora. We stayed at a holiday park (RV park). Simple, cheap, and quiet.
We went to church in a small little ward there. I remember during church there was a dog running through the church, up and down the aisles, and we couldn’t tell if somebody owned it or if it was a stray dog. After church we met the bishop’s wife. Her name was Dion. She was very sweet and had a few daughters.
We found out the dog was owned by a church member who lived on the property!
After church, we drove the van through Arthur’s Pass, which was more beautiful than I imagined it would be.
Reviews said it was very stunning. Photos showed it was mediocre. Stunning it was.
We stopped and hiked a waterfall called Devils Punch Bowl Falls.
So magic.
We stopped the van several times because the scenery was too much to take and had to stop and look and take more photos.
We made it to the other side of Arthur’s Pass and headed south down route 6. We stopped in Ruatapu at this DOC campervan campground, it was called Lake Mahinapua DOC Camping.
These campgrounds are so simple yet effective. It’s where the country clears lots of land, puts up toilets, and a money collection box. Here is the spot we parked:
After a vanlife dinner of smoked salmon, we walked down a very luscious forest path to a spot called swimmers Beach. There was a weird bird without wings that walked past us like it was a pedestrian. Walking through the forest was so beautiful with Marissa because we had never seen such a dense forest. Swimmers beach was a let down (see the photo and the disappointment in Marissa’s face).
Day 9, 3.20.23
We woke up in the camper spot which was in Ruatapu. We drove to Franz Josef and walked to the glacier, except I’m not mentioning it was pouring rain, which is the first time weather has ruined our honeymoon plans.
So we really couldn’t hike the good trails.
Before leaving the van for our walk, I cut 3 holes into a mini trash bag to act as a poncho.
It did nothing.
We were able to walk and see the glacier, which was really cool because you were hiking in a lush forest and then boom, a massive mound of snow and ice.
But it was pouring rain, so a lot of the trail was closed, and it was raining sideways again, so we took a few pointless photos and went back.
Next we drove to Fox glacier (which is a town name). We parked and pondered what to do.
As mentioned, we are essentially planning the entire trip one day at a time, so we have to stop and look at what there is to do in the next town/day. The only thing we booked ahead of time was the camper van and ferry ride.
Oh, and if you’re reading this, and ever plan to visit New Zealand, and take a rental car between islands, you must book your ferry crossing months out.
I decided we should just stay put and not try to make more ground today because the rain was really bad and dangerous and plus we could really use a relaxing day.
So we hit up the store to restock then found a holiday park nearby (we were still in the town of Fox Glacier).
We took long, long, and hot showers, did a load of laundry, had wild sex, and ended the night with a glow worm walk in the forest (the campground put this on). It was pouring rain so we bought ponchos earlier which came in clutch.
The glow worms were very magical.
Almost like blue stars in a dark sky.
Day 10, 3.21.23
We wake in Fox Glacier and drive first to Bruce bay. Our goal for today is to get as far south on 6 as we can.
At Bruce bay there’s this 20’ wide river that is flowing from out of the forest, across the sand beach (in a large S), and right into the ocean.
It was beautiful.
On top of that, the beach was lined with bright white marble rocks that had clearly been smoothed in a river.
Next we stopped at knights point lookout where Marissa had the idea to speak in a language no one knew, a fake language. It was hilarious as we walked near people and made speech sounds to each other, smiling and laughing, like we were having a real conversation (keeping very serious faces).
Here was the lookout:
Next we stopped at ship creek which was this cool spot where a creek flowed into the ocean but in a completely different way than Bruce bay.
Next we stopped in Haast (for a grocery restock), onto Thunder Creek falls, and finally Blue pools.
Thunder creek falls was pretty but at this point we are becoming numb to all the pretty views.
Blue pools had a 1.2 km hike to it and this was really cool because we got to walk over 2 suspended footbridges. The “pools” we’re just a really pretty blue flowing river. We watched kids skip rocks, two older ladies get in for a freezing swim (the water is blue because it’s mostly melted glacier water), and we also watched four kayakers paddle up stream and kinda surf this rapid.
After that we drove down to Wanaka. The road went alongside lake Wanaka and that was jaw dropping because it was a massive lake with huge mountains across it and it went on seemingly forever.
That night we made it to Wanaka and camped alongside lake Hawea, which also had massive mountains in the backdrop,it was spectacular to cook and eat dinner with these views and we were so excited to wake to them:
Marissa asked me to strip tease her and I did a funny beatbox. No service in this spot so it’s cool to see how we can create our own fun.
Tomorrow we are headed to Mt. Cook. Marissa isn’t excited for the cold but I just looked up some hikes there and people are raving about how beautiful it is.
We really wanted to make it down to Milford Sound, but decided not too because it would create far too much driving. It was possible without time, but we’d spend an extra 12 hours on the road.
Day 11, 3.22.23:
Today we woke up at the lake and drove into Wanaka for fuel. We stopped and got some of these cookies that a store called Countdown makes. They are chocolate chip cookies made with wheat flour. So good.
Wanaka was a cool little resort looking town. It was the only town we actually had the desire to look around at, but we didn’t.
We drove off towards Mt. Cook. On the way we stopped at High Country Salmon farm where we got to feed some farm salmon (so massive they were!). We bought sashimi, a salmon and kumara pie, and a fancy muffin.
Total tourist trap and tourists we were.
On our way out I bought a slab of cold smoked truffle salmon.
After being tourists, we finally got to the Mt. Cook/Aoraki area. It’s a lodge town in this small valley surrounded by massive mountains.
We hike the hooker valley track out to hooker lake (hiking trails are called ‘tracks’ instead of trails). Along the way are just the most majestic mountain View’s with small waterfalls all around and glaciers on every peak. Just stunning.
At Hooker lake we watched a piece of iceberg fall off a large iceberg and then watched it slowly float towards the river exit and down the rapids!
Scott decided he wanted to touch the main glacier at the end of Hooker lake, so we started walking along the extremely steep and rocky shore.
Marissa followed.
But even from the start of the hike today, Marissa wasn’t really feeling a hike, let alone an extra improv sketch walk. We made it about half way across the length of the lake, and after several chats about if we should keep going, Scott decided to turn around due to daylight.
Walking back, it was almost full night and these 2 black cat-like looking animals were following us.
Eventually the two animals made their way in front of us. After some time they both turned around and charged at us! Marissa barked like a dog to scare them off.
Scott just stood there in shock like what the heck are these things.
Come to find out, they were possums!
For vanlife dinner we had cold smoked truffle salmon (from that Salmon farm) on an Asian salad with a side of pesto basil gnocchi and toast with New Zealand butter.
Day 12, 3.23.23:
Last night, after getting back to the van, we decided not to search for an official camp spot and just kept the van parked on the side of the main road.
We wake on the roadside in the Mt. cook area. The mountain view out our window was so majestic I would believe you if you told me I was dreaming.
We woke late, about 9:30am.
It’s been interesting how exhausted we are each morning when most days we don’t have much physical activity. It’s clear driving and road trips take so much mental energy it drains you very much. Being transient in general does that.
Anyway, Marissa makes us eggs, toast, and tea for breakfast. We aren’t done waking up and ready to roll until 12:30!
Yesterday Scott expressed wanting to hike a mountain track to look down on Hooker lake. But after our longer than expected hike yesterday and our clear sense of exhaustion today, we decided to just chill and drive towards Christchurch.
The trip is winding down and we are definitely sight-seen worn out. And starting Friday the 25th, we have a long travel journey back to the USA which includes four flights.
With the exception of a quick hike up to Tasman Glacier (and lake) look out, which was just down the road from where we slept in Mt. Cook, the rest of the day was spent driving towards Christchurch.
We made it to Rakaia, which is about 30 minutes south of Christchurch. We found a nice holiday park and parked out in the backwoods of it. After dinner we walked down a path to a river. Then back to the van for cuddles and sleep.
Day 13, 3.24.24
We woke up at our holiday park in Rakaia. While dumping the toilet waste I freaking dropped the waste cap down the drain station drain! I was so annoyed with myself and the drain system that had a 4” hole and no screen.
The sign said to remove the grate before dumping, so I did. Then I set the cap on the ledge and kicked it in with my foot and down the hole it went . I asked the worker lady who was nearby and she said it’s gone and no getting it. But when I went back to the drain, I got on my hands and knees, looked into the poop hole, I could see it floating down there! I found a broom stick laying on a tree and was able to get it up!
So lucky, but I did have to stick my arm down the waste hole a good bit.
We drove into Christchurch and look for an Op Shop, the term kiwi’s use for a thrift store. We stopped at Vinnie’s. We needed to replace some kitchenware we broke on the trip (the van was stocked with glass cups and ceramic bowls, which aren’t the best for moving vehicles).
From here we went to the botanical gardens which was a massive park located on the west side of town (Christchurch). We did a pine tree tour which was so cool. Christchurh’s weather is so mild they can grow pine trees from all over the world, and this park had them all in one place!
What’s even more wild is they can grow palm trees because it doesn’t freeze here. It’s so temperate here I can’t imagine you’d be able to see this many species of trees/plants in one part of the world, let alone one free city park. I saw Mexican fan palms (a palm tree) right next to massive elm trees. Sequoia redwoods next to pines from Argentina. Check out this photo, the entire surroundings are like the beautiful summer you’d see on the east coast of the USA, but then are fan palm trees too:
That night we used our WikiCamps app to find a street parking spot used for Nunweek park. Maybe I mentioned it earlier, but cities allow campervans to park overnight in city park parking areas as long as the camper van is certified self contained.
Day 14, 3.25.23
We woke in our street parking spot outside Nunweek park, which was about 5 minutes from the airport and our drop off at Happy Campers. We wake, pack, and make our way to the Happy Campers drop off.
We got to the company and the young worker told us we cannot leave the toilet with pee in it, so we had to go find a place to dump it. We ended up going back to Nunweek park and dumping it into the public toilet, which actually worked well.
At the checkout, there was a young girl named Marissa who checked the mileage, asked us if anything was broken, and essentially was like ok looks good, you’re all set.
No walk around, no system checks, nothing.
And just like that, our tiny home for the last 2 weeks was gone. Here are a few more photos of our van:
Things we loved about New Zealand:
-you pump gas before paying
-Seamless ending supply of water. The water pressure is so high on showers, toilets, and sinks
-Free Artesian water spickets in city square
-how kind everyone is
-how fast people stop, without a fancy light, for humans at crosswalks
-The sheep
-If you’re a company employee, your employer files your tax return
-To drive a Dodge Trx truck you need a commercial license
-The flowing rivers all have grey water. Not brown or green
The End!