Flashpacking New Zealand with Stray – Day 14 – Slow Day

Featured
The scenery of New Zealand's south island heading from Franz Josef to Makarora

After our visit to Franz Josef Glacier yesterday, we’ve got two days of transport before arriving in Queenstown.  Today we traveled to the hamlet of Makarora which didn’t have much for us except for dinner, a place to sleep and karaoke, but I’ll get to that in a minute.

See more →

Flashpacking New Zealand with Stray – Days 12 and 13 – Franz Josef Glacier

Featured
Our guide leads us down a portion of the Franz Josef Glacier.

Today we not only slept in but left at half-past noon due to one of our activities being canceled.  Normally we would have stopped in Hokitika to check out the greenstone factory and, possibly, carve our own greenstone.  It wasn’t quite clear if we would have just watched or been able to do it ourselves, [...]

See more →

Flashpacking New Zealand with Stray – Day 11 – Cape Foulwind

Featured
From the shore along the Beach Cave between Cape Foulwind and Greymouth in New Zealand.

Today we head south along the west coast of the south island.  Our destination is the town of Greymouth, which, by all accounts, isn’t much of a destination.  It’s basically a sleep stop on the way down to our next major spot – Franz Josef Glacier.  However, just because it’s a transport day doesn’t mean [...]

See more →

Flashpacking New Zealand with Stray – Days 9 & 10 – Abel Tasman

Featured
Torrent Bay at Abel Tasman National Park

We rushed out far too early this morning to make sure we made the 8am ferry from Wellington to the south island.  There were five of us from the original bus, which I’ll refer to from here on out as Bus #1.  With the new passengers, we had a bit of a bridge in Lauren, [...]

See more →

Flashpacking New Zealand with Stray – Days 7 & 8 – Wellington

Featured
An orc placed above the check out desk at the Weta Cave.

Today was taken up with the “Ultimate Lord of the Rings Tour” put on by Movie tours in Wellington.  From 10:30 – 6:30 it was all Lord of the Rings, all of the time.  The rain stayed away for most of the day, but we got caught in a downpour toward the end of the [...]

See more →

Flashpacking New Zealand with Stray – Day 6 – Te Papa

Featured
The Stray Tribe at the playgound

Our group got up and out an hour early today to try and beat some of the weather and get in a few stops along the way to Wellington, the capitol of New Zealand.  The weather continued to dump rain on us along the way, but we got a lucky break when we stopped to [...]

See more →

Flashpacking New Zealand with Stray – Day 5 – National Park

Featured
Jan, aka.

The following is posted from the road during the middle of a month long trip through New Zealand with Stray.  If you don’t know who stray is, read the intro to the trip or check out their website. In an attempt to give you an idea of what the trip is like I’ll be posting [...]

See more →

Flashpacking New Zealand with Stray – Day 4 – Blue Duck Lodge

Featured
Dan Steele and the four other members of the Stray bus that did the safari.

Woke up early this morning on the off chance there would be a dawn skydive in the works, but the sound of rain and outside quickly told me that wasn’t going to happen.  Got some work done and headed out to get on the bus.  A handful of the tribe were a bit late getting [...]

See more →

Flashpacking New Zealand with Stray – Day 3 – Hell’s Gate

Featured
Danger - Don't stray from the path when walking the park at Hell's Gate.

We woke up this morning to the sounds of ABBA blaring out of the kitchen.  Apparently this is the standard wake up music for the groups that stay at the Maori.  Either Uncle Boy is really really into ABBA, or he’s having fun with his new extended family.

See more →

Flashpacking New Zealand with Stray – Day 2 – Maori Culture

Featured
Performaing the Haka at Uncle Boy's in New Zealand

Up and out by 8am this morning headed to Wiatomo for some caving.  There’s multiple options for activities today so the way it works on the bus is Mambo will tell us a bit about each option before passing back a clipboard where we sign up for what we want.  The activities are all at [...]

See more →

Flashpacking New Zealand with Stray – Day 1 – Endless Summer

Featured
Surfer Girls on Raglan Beach

Day one started about like you’d expect – an early rise, an eagerness to get started, and a curiosity about the people I’d be traveling with over the next week or so before hopping off in Wellington.  My itinerary is such that I’ll be spending extra time in Wellington and Queenstown, which means I’ll be [...]

See more →

Stray Off the Beaten Track – A Flashpacker Tours New Zealand

Featured
The Stray bus in the New Zealand wilderness.

I’m about to stray from the standard articles that you might be used to on this blog.  Eight hours from now I will be starting day one of a 27-day trip around both islands of New Zealand with a company called “Stray”.  I will be blogging regularly about the experience and the activities we will [...]

See more →