THE ULTIMATE SOUTH ISLAND, NZ GUIDE 🥾🏞️☀️🌊🪻

hello everyone!!!!

I spent 23 days in South Island, New Zealand last December and am finally getting to writing about it!

⚠️this is not your regular travel guide⚠️

In this guide, I’ll be posting about hiking, road trip spots, food reccs & thrilling activities! Each week, I’ll do in depth posts for each portion of my trip so follow and stayed tuned!!

BRIEF BREAKDOWN OF MY 23 DAYS:

🥾First 2 weeks, we mostly did the greatwalks which are multiday hikes.

1. Routeburn Track

2. Milford Track

3. Kepler Track

*important notes for hiking further down the post*

I’ll provide easy day hikes/walks options in my posts too if you’re not keen on hiking for multiple days in a row!

🚙Road trip on the last week

1. Milford Sounds

2. Lake Tekapo

3. Mount Cook

4. Wanaka

5. Queenstown

✨Queenstown Airbnb deets here ✨

⚠️🚨⚠️IMPORTANT TO NOTE IF YOU’RE PLANNING ON HIKING⚠️🚨⚠️

Please please please do tons of research if planning on hiking.

🥾We did 3 Great walks of the South Island and as independent unguided walkers.

All these 3 hikes are multiday hikes meaning being in the mountains for 2-3 days, no exiting back to the land/town/whatever. No showers cos you’re in the forest duh?!!

Food/clothing/tents/equipment or supplies, you’ll have to bring by yourself.

𝐓𝐑𝐀𝐍𝐒𝐏𝐎𝐑𝐓 𝐅𝐎𝐑 𝐇𝐈𝐊𝐈𝐍𝐆;

We had arrange a pick up from our hostel and was dropped off from the the start point of the track. You can drive yourself but you’ll exit a track a different way - so mean you’ll either need to get someone to drive your car to the end point, which is a pretty penny, or just book the pickups. Pickups are very common, its the preferred way for transport for alot of hikers! Ps, the Milford Track can only be entered/exited by boat - really had the being-dropped-off-at-a-deserted-island-to-survive feels 😂

𝐀𝐂𝐂𝐎𝐌𝐌𝐒 (hiking):

You can choose to camp or stay in huts set up for hikers.

𝘕𝘖𝘛𝘌: whichever option you choose, you’ll need to book and register before going on these hikes - these are safety measures as rangers do take attendance at end of each day to track if everyone has reached camp or if someone went missing.

*𝘗𝘭𝘦𝘢𝘴𝘦 𝘤𝘩𝘦𝘤𝘬 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘋𝘦𝘱𝘢𝘳𝘵𝘮𝘦𝘯𝘵 𝘰𝘧 𝘊𝘰𝘯𝘴𝘦𝘳𝘷𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯 𝘸𝘦𝘣𝘴𝘪𝘵𝘦 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘣𝘦𝘴𝘵 𝘵𝘪𝘮𝘦 𝘵𝘰 𝘩𝘪𝘬𝘦 & 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘩𝘶𝘵𝘴/𝘤𝘢𝘮𝘱𝘴𝘪𝘵𝘦 𝘣𝘰𝘰𝘬𝘪𝘯𝘨𝘴!

Differences between both options:

• bunk beds, running water, gas stoves & flush toilets avail for huts.

• campsites only have drop toilets & running water. you’ll need you own stove to cook.

Note: if you’re camping, you can’t just camp anywhere, there are dedicated areas/spot for camping.

⚠️ hiking in winter is strongly not recommended as there will be no rangers on site.

We did this in summer (in mid December - its summer season in NZ) & weather was mostly good!

✅ long daylight hours

✅ day was not too hot

✅ nights are still cold as we’re in the mountains so defs still have to bring a puffer jacket and long pants

Follow and stay tuned for more in depth posts and itinerary breakdown of what we did in our hiking and road trip! If you have any questions, feel free to drop them down below!

Te Waipounamu / South Island

#newzealand #NewZealandTravelGuide #southisland #NewZealandTravel #hikingadventures #newzealandhiking #lemon8travel #MyLemon8Diary #holybananapieTravels