When I fall in love with a place I struggle to look at photos for months… how could I have possibly captured the vast beauty of New Zealand?

It all began with a conversation which sparked the idea of chasing the southern lights, and for that reason we visited New Zealand. I also wanted to visit NZ because I heard there were a lot of sheep there, and we saw so many!!

✈

We drove from Christchurch to our first stop - Lake Coleridge which was only a teaser of New Zealand’s sheer beauty.

On our way to Lake Tekapo, a small quaint town with the clearest blue waters.

We ended our day with the best Japanese (probably the only one - its a very small town) restaurant in Lake Tekapo and I was relieved that they had vegan options (not just rice).

We began the next day waking up early in an attempt to capture sunrise. Even though it was cloudy it was still so beautiful.

One of my most favourite spots we visited was Aoraki/Mt Cook National Park. We were able to get so close to the mountains and hike towards glaciers. We also drove past Lake Pukaki with the most vibrant turquoise coloured waters.

*GASPS*

Once we reached this pathway, we were only a couple minutes away from the glacier.

The glacier was absolutely stunning. We were lucky enough that during our hike at times the clouds would roll away from Mt Cook and we could see it in its entirety. I’ve heard that quite often Mt Cook is a really shy mountain.

In the above photo Luan is in the shot but blended in - he looks like a tiny speck! See if you can find him. I was down by the rocks (see photo below) when it was taken :O

We ended our day watching the sunset over Lake Pukaki.

Thanks for joining me on my NZ journey. Part 2 will be up where I write about visiting Mount Cook National Park again. In the mean time if you’d like to continue reading more about NZ head to Luan’s blog here.