This is going to be our final NZ blog post, being written entirely from the airport lounge.

This trip has been quite the adventure, from motorhoming for the first time, to the unique and beautiful scenery, to one-of-a-kind experiences and everything in between. There’s still so much we would love to do here, though, and we’re already thinking about coming back.

With our last blog, we ran out of steam before finishing off the trip, so we wanted to really work to complete this one. It’s been hard, with the spotty internet (which was admittedly way better on the North Island) and our general tiredness at the end of the long days, but getting all of the experiences written down and sorting through photos helps us remember all of the best things we’ve done here. Ultimately, it’s a blog for us as well, to make sure we appreciate the little moments as well as the big ones.

We’re going to leave this one with some of our favourite experiences overall. Which is hard, because there were SO MANY great parts of this trip. But this is what we came up with.

Hobbiton.

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Milford Sound.

Kayaking on Milford Sound and drinking water from a glacier – that four hours before was part of the glacier we could see – was unforgettable.

Rafting on the Mohaka.

Freedom camping.

There’s nothing quite like waking up with no one around, next to stunning scenery and surrounded by nature.

Finding pounamu.

Walks to incredible places – Blue Pools, Hokitika Gorge, and falls galore.

Redwoods Treewalk.

Driving around the South Island.

Every bridge, every corner, every mountain – the South Island took our breath away more times than we could count, and certainly more times than we remembered to photograph it.