First Kiwi road trip!

I’ve been writing A LOT about new years and resolutions. How to make them happen, what my last year’s goals were and what I’m planning for this year.

I haven’t actually shared about what I did this New Year’s and our holiday which is really exciting to me. In Canada it’s usually always cold and I have zero motivation to go out. So imagine my excitement to know I could be outside for New Year’s enjoying the wear not bundling up and let me tell you.. it was Great, So much fun!

I consider myself so incredibly lucky to be here in NZ, even more lucky to take our New Year’s road trip and even moooreee lucky to meet such awesome people along the way.

There were about 18 of us out for New Years. All friends of my boyfriend who for most I met for the first time. Which for me… yep I was nervous. Turned out I had nothing to worry about. Super cool group of people. We all had so much and I’ve made friends that I’m pretty excited to get to know even more!

We all started out at Lake Wanaka. It was a week filled of sun, boating, relaxing and cracking a cold one! The lake is absolutely beautiful. Home to the famous Roys Peak which we didn’t hike this time but went on a couple other hikes and will come back for that one.

It has a busy cute town filled with shops, cafes and delicious restaurants like the Asian restaurant Aliviate we went to for a birthday party. I highly recommend. We had So Much Food! I think we all ate something we never tried before, octopus, venison, squid… I know I did.

We filled out days lying on the rocky beach, taking the jet boats out, which might I add are so cool! Very shallow hull boats that you can just zip around in. Lots of fun! The water in my opinion was artic. Even for this Canadian it was cold! I stuck my toes in but that’s about it.

New Year’s itself was a fun day of hiking, watching the guys place wizards sticks seeing how got the most silly and then dancing the night away into 2017.

Chris and I left on the 2^nd for little road trip part of our holiday. We went took a look at the museum of Toy and Transport in Wanaka before heading to the famous Cardrona hotel for a quick bite to eat, stopped in Arrowtown then off to Queenstown where we stayed one night. Love it there! So cool to be in such a tourist town. Much like Vancouver with high end shops and places to eat but so much adventure awaits! We had tons of fun on the luge and riding the gondola, walking around the city square and of course taking a ride on the shot over jet! All so much fun which as you can tell the pics say it all! We will definitely be back!

We continued on to Cromwell for a quick stop and a snap with the giant fruit and parked ourselves at Lake Tekapo with some good friends for the night. We took advantage of the hot pools there, which I loveeeedd. We took the boat out, threw a line in and just relaxed. Beautiful lake, which the bluest water I’ve ever seen! Took time to take in the Lupines which grow wild and a look at the famous Church of the good shepherd.

We continued home driving through winding roads and gorgeous landscapes. Grabbing an ice cream along the way it was a great start to my NZ travel. Chris was amazing driving the whole way making sure I got all the shots.

We had a few busy days after that, attending a best friend of Chris’ engagement party, taking a trip up to Lake Lyndon for the day and watching the local harness racing which I picked the first winner based on the fact it looks like my horse! Next time maybe I’l put some money down.

It’s been a wonderful holiday. I love traveling and seeing new things! I met some really great people, had lots of laughs and tons of fun! I cannot wait for the next trip which I’ll start planning real soon!

What did you do for the holidays?