Inspiring New Zealand images have been clogging my instagram feed for quite some time, enticing me to book.  As a travel photographer, New Zealand is on my bucket list of locations I want to capture.  mainly for it’s stunning mountain scenery and its roads that wrap around lakes, but also because it is so close and accessible it actually feels like part of Australia. 

So listening to my inner photography demon telling me to get out and create content, I went ahead and booked a 3 day highlights road tripping journey to NZ in March 2020.

We flew out of Melbourne at 11:50pmAEDST arriving in Christchurch at 5:30amNZT.  Rather tired but excited for the scenery that lay before us,  we picked up our hire car and took off toward Lake Wanaka with first stop Lake Tekapo locked in to our Navigation system.   

As we neared our destination, the sun started to fade and the clouds got darker and moodier.   Just over 3 hours after setting off from Christchurch and a few photo stops along the way, we arrived at Lake Tekapo.  

Lake Tekapo is a massive 6km wide and 27km in length so not knowing which part of the lake to stop and starting to feel the pinch of sleep deprivation we followed our navigation system down a gravel road toward the Old Homestead and found the lakes edge.   Even as the storm approached and the wind picked up making the lake choppy, it was still a magnificent milky blue, nothing we had ever seen before.   The milky blue look is created by the glacier flour, which is extremely fine grounded rock particles from the nearby glaciers.  The mountains in the distance and along the opposite shoreline were stunning and I could only imagine what they would be like in winter covered in white snow.

Lake Pukaki is less than 45 minutes drive from Lake Tekapo and on the way to one of my photography bucket list locations (Mt Cook) so we made this our next stop.  

By the time we made it to Lake Pukaki, the rain became torrential, we decided a 15 minute power nap was key to wait out the storm.  

Feeling a little revived, we drove down a sealed track to photograph the wild river created by the Lake Pukaki overflow.   This was nature at it’s finest.  Perfect pine trees lined a powerful gushing river. 

Time was slipping by and hunger setting in, we drove to Aoraki/Mt Cook Village with a couple of photo stops along the way.  It’s totally true what they say of New Zealand, if you continue to stop off at every photo opportunity, you will never make it to your destination.

Aoraki Village was jam packed, I guess the rain brought everyone inside.  Drenched, tired and hungry  we downed a burger and coke.  Trying to will the rain to stop, but with no such luck.  The longer we waited, the worse it seemed to get.

Making the decision to avoid the 5km hike via Hooker Valley Track was heartbreaking as this was one of my main locations on my photo bucket list and big reason for wanting to visit New Zealand.  But with no signs of the rain easing, no visibility on the track, no sleep for 36 hours and still a 2.5hr drive to our accommodation in Lake Wanaka, we had no choice but to push on.

Driving the roads in New Zealand’s South Island are similar to the roads we drive every day living on the Great Ocean Road.  Every twist and turn along this well maintained road had beautiful scenery to stop and take photos.   

Arriving in Wanaka at 7pm, we grabbed a take away pizza and headed to our accommodation.  A massive day was had and a massive day followed, so lights out.

Lake Wanaka is New Zealand's 4th largest lake and the town itself is a popular ski destination, but plenty of people gather here all times of year.  

Our first stop this morning before taking off on another long road journey, was to grab a coffee to fuel my addiction.  There was quite a few places to grab a good coffee in Wanaka, but we headed to The Coffee Shack.  Good choice.

Fox Glacier was locked in to the GPS and the road was as scenic as the day before.  Heading through the Neck up to Blue Pools track it occurred to me almost every second vehicle on this road was a RV.   (Noting down the Makarora River as a place to come back to for camping and fishing trip).

The Blue Pools track is a scenic forest walk down to deep crystal clear blue pools flowing in to the Makarora River.  A couple of swing bridges later and we are down on the banks of the beautiful icy blue pools.   So far all of the lakes and rivers I have seen on my journey have all been this crystal clear bluish colour.  Something that I have not seen before and nothing short of breathtaking.  

Back in the car we decided to head straight to Fox Glacier as it was a 2.5 hour drive.    Upon arriving, there were signs of roadworks due to a recent landslide so instead of driving to the top, we had to leave the car at the bottom and walk up.   The tracks were being maintained so we were directed to detour through the rainforest. There was a bit of ducking under trees or up a few steps, but it was a beautiful walk and to think we would have missed this if we just drove to the top.

It’s quite surreal when you get to the viewing platform.  Fox Glacier is roughly 13km in length making it the longest glacier in New Zealand.  The Glacier has retreated quite a bit so it is a fair distance from the viewing platform.  Next time I would love to take a guided heli-hike to the actual glacier, to see it up close would be breathtaking.

We made our way back the car, luckily it was all downhill, so the way down was quicker.  As we sat in the carpark eating an apple, taking a much needed drink, we were reflecting on what this scene would be like 10 years from now, will the glacier even exist?  

It was time to go, the midgies were after our blood.

We checked in to our accomodation at Frans Josef glacier just in time for dinner, unfortunately it was too late so we wouldn’t get time to head to the glacier here, instead we went and took photos of the mountain peaks as the sun was setting giving the skies a beautiful golden glow.  

After a sleepless night as the place we were staying decided to throw a party until 3am, not happy, we were up at 6am with the plan to take some sunrise photos, instead we beelined to the nearest place for coffee and then drove just over 2 hours to Hokitika Gorge.   The roads here feel like back roads and without the signs I would have sworn we were heading to someones farm.   

Alas we made it and were the only car here.  Just a 10 minute easy walk from the car park we were in the Gorge.  Usually a magnificent blue like all the other lakes and rivers, but after such a deluge of rain, today the water was a milky grey, which was still pretty amazing.

As we were leaving the droves of tourists were arriving.  We definitely felt it was worth the early start to see this place by ourselves.  Highly recommend you get here before 10am.

We headed to the town of Hokitika for a quick bite to eat before continuing on with our journey back to Christchurch.

The drive from Hokitika to Christchurch was about 3.5hours, through some spectacular scenery.   The road twists and turns  before you make it to Arthurs Pass Village and definitely worth a stop to stretch you legs.  I made a note to come back here for a full day hike on my next trip, but a quick walk (about 10minutes) to the waterfall was going to have to do for now.  I can only imagine what this place looks like in the midst of winter.  Today, the sun was shining, the air was clean and you could see snow on the some of the mountains. 

We stopped for a photo opportunity at O’Malleys Track to view the snow capped mountain with the Waimakariri River in the foreground before continuing to drive all the way to Christchurch.  

Arriving in Christchurch at 6pm.  We grabbed takeaway burgers from the Riverfront and headed to our accommodation for a night of relaxing.  It was a long day eventful day with very little sleep. So an early night was needed.

Sleeping until 9am is not like us, we jumped out of bed.   Christchurch has so many places to choose from for breakfast.  We opted for a well known Allpress espresso in Montreal Street.  Always consistently good in Melbourne.   Allpress know how to do a good coffee wherever you are in the world.  One coffee to eat in with a round of toast for breakfast and grabbing one to go.  We decided to head out to Akaroa for a day trip.  Our flight wasn’t until 9pm, so why not!  Just over an hours drive, some corners with sheer drop off’s and we are there.  

Such a beautiful little harbour town attracting many tourists.  The oldest town in Canterbury with so much history.  French influence still radiates through the streets, with many cafe’s and bakeries flying the French colours.

We walked around the town just taking it all in.  This is our last day here on the Island and I really wanted to breathe in this last breath of mountain fresh Pure New Zealand air.  

Akaroa is a place I would love to come back to and spend a few days.  It would appear my list of places to return keeps growing.

After one of the best toasted sandwiches I’ve ever eaten, we head back to Christchurch to call it a day.