Dueling Backpacks

Day 187 (January 1, 2019) - Sydney, Australia Ever since I left Australia in 2004 after studying abroad there for one year, I've been meaning to make it back. I've had several opportunities to do so, including a couple of friends' weddings, but things just never worked out. Since we were definitely going to Southeast Asia, and we had nothing but time, we decided to swing by Australia (this was actually the original reason we visited New Zealand too, because we had made the decision to go to Australia, and New Zealand was in the area, so why not go).

New Zealand was awesome. I’m so glad we decided to go. We almost didn’t because we knew it would cost a fortune. The only reason we ended up there was because we used award travel to get across the Pacific from South America to Australia and it was the same number of points to fly to either Australia or New Zealand. Had we been paying for it outright New Zealand would have been the more expensive ticket, so we decided to get more bang for our buck on the award travel and go for it. 

Day 178 (December 23, 2018) – Taumarunui, North Island, New Zealand New Zealand has thousands of hiking trails, but they note only a select number of them as being Great Walks, meaning that they are some of the best hiking New Zealand has to offer. However, one of these Great Walks is not a walk at all, but a river journey. The Whanganui River Journey is a 5-day canoe or kayak trip down 145 kilometers of the Whanganui River on the North Island. This is what we were going to spend our last week in New Zealand doing, but first we had to get there.

Day 171 (December 16, 2018) - Mueller Hut Hike, South Island, New Zealand It's pretty hard to go wrong when selecting a hike in New Zealand. You could pretty much randomly pick any hike and be impressed with the scenery. But when a particular hike has been called one of the best in New Zealand, you take notice and expect to see something pretty spectacular. We had read that the Mueller Hut hike was one of the best in New Zealand, and it was more amazing than we imagined. We lucked out and had some really great weather, so the scenery was absolutely breathtaking. 

Day 168 (December 13, 2018) – Milford Sound, South Island, New Zealand We left Queenstown on a road trip that would take us first to Milford Sound and then onward to Mt. Cook. Milford Sound is one of the many fjords at the bottom of New Zealand’s South Island, but it’s the only one you can reach by road which makes it the most accessible. Our first stop was Te Anau, only a couple hours’ drive from Queenstown. We arrived early in the afternoon and took the opportunity to dry our tent out on the shores of Lake Te Anau. We were staying in a hostel that night, and it would be our last night inside for a while. Compared to Queenstown, Te Anau was like a small village. It took us about 10 minutes to walk around the entire town center. We stopped for a beer and then grabbed dinner at an Indian restaurant. Back at the hostel we did some laundry, watched a movie, and called it a night.

Day 167 (December 12, 2018) – Queenstown, New Zealand We were told by two separate New Zealanders that they never go to Queenstown because it’s become a playground for rich Americans and no longer feels like New Zealand any more. We were ready to listen to them and change our plans, but by the time we had a chance to do so it was too late to cancel our hostel reservation, so we went anyway. Queenstown is for sure a bit more fun if you have money to spend and we met our fare share of Americans, but I’m still glad we went.

Day 164 (December 9, 2018) – Arthur’s Pass and the West Coast, South Island, New Zealand The Saint James Walkway trek had soaked us to the bone, and we couldn’t bear another night of camping, so we caved on our plans to camp the day after our hike and went back to Christchurch for a night of indoor accommodations. We took hot showers, had a decent meal, got a great night’s sleep, and then headed out again on our intended itinerary.

Day 160 (December 5, 2018) - St. James Walkway, South Island, New Zealand After we decided to come to New Zealand, we knew we had to go on some epic hikes while we were here. New Zealand is known as a great outdoor adventure destination, and we set to work months in advance trying to figure out the perfect hikes to do. New Zealand has a category of hikes called "Great Walks," which typically are the most popular hikes in New Zealand - and for good reason: they have the most outstanding scenery and the best facilities.

Day 155 (November 30, 2018) – Christchurch, New Zealand Nothing exciting happened in Christchurch, but I wanted to write down how we got here so we’d remember.

Our time in Peru felt both very short and very long. The time leading up to our Machu Picchu hike passed by really quickly. We spent a few days on the beach in Mancora and then ran around Cusco like madmen collecting supplies. After we finished our hike and returned to Cusco, after having been to Cachora, Choquequirao, Aguas Calientes, Machu Picchu, and Ollantaytambo, it felt like we had been gone a month even though it had only been a couple weeks. Our remaining time in Cusco, Arequipa, and Lima felt like it was just a long recovery from our hike that seemed to comfortably and quietly pass by.

Day 151 (November 26, 2018) – Lima, Per ú We only had three days in Lima. Two of them were spent shopping and the last was spent walking around the city center. Our introduction to Lima was pretty terrible. The Uber ride from the airport to our Airbnb apartment in the Miraflores neighborhood took forever. We sat in traffic for ages. We didn’t think we were ever going to get there, and by the time we did finally arrive we were already dreading the ride back to the airport in a few days. Lima is huge and congested. Distances may not look far on a map, but they take forever to travel across with all the traffic.

Day 147 (November 22, 2018) – Arequipa, Per ú We spent an entire week in Arequipa, but it went by in a blur. We were busy making bookings for our New Zealand trip, which required a lot more pre-planning than most of our stops in South America. To be honest, we spent most of our time in our Airbnb apartment on our computers that week, but we still spent some time exploring the city. Arequipa ended up being my favorite city in Per ú. It took a bit of getting used to, but there was a lot to enjoy. It felt very authentic, not overly touristy, and a good city to spend some time in.

Day 136 (November 11, 2018) – Ollantaytambo, Per ú On our way back from Machu Picchu we spent a couple nights in Ollantaytambo, within the Sacred Valley of the Incas. This is where many people depart the train from Machu Picchu and grab a bus or van back to Cusco, but we had heard it was an interesting town to spend some time in so decided to stay a couple nights.