New Zealand Top Fives

This is a summary of our top five New Zealand favorites for a variety of categories. Again, this post is probably more for us and our memory of the favorite things we did, ate, and saw, but if you are planning a trip to NZ, you just might want to put some of these on your list of things to try! We say goodbye to New Zealand tomorrow and fly to Bangkok, Thailand where we will begin keeping a new list of top fives, I’m sure.

HIKES

1. Mt. Cook – Mueller Hut

2. Routeburn

3. Kepler

4. Tongariro Crossing

5. Abel Tasman

** Honorable Mention:Queen Charlotte, Cape Reinga, Roys Peak

LOLLIES

1. Hokey Pokey

2. Ecclairs

3. Sour Worms

4. Pineapple Lumps

5. Chocolate covered caramels

ICE CREAM

1. Valentino’s Hokey Pokey Gelato

2. Deep South Hokey Pokey

3. Tip Top Hokey Pokey

4. Real Fruit Ice Cream

5. Deep South Goody Goody Gum Drop

BISCUITS/COOKIES

1. Squiggles

2. Tim Tams originals with cocoa

3. Tim Tams caramels with cocoa

4. Melting Moments

5. Afghans

TOWNS

1. New Plymouth

2. Wanaka

3. Christchurch

4. Napier

5. Taupo

MEALS AT RESTAURANTS

1. Thanksgiving spare ribs at Speights Ale House, Wanaka

2. Fish & Chips, Auckland

3. Kebab at The Little Turkish Cafe, Auckland

4. Hot Rocks Pizza, Nelson

5. Potato Burger, Napier

HOLIDAY PARKS

1. Wanaka – Aspiring Campervan Park

2. Taupo – DeBretts

3. Haast – Holiday Park

4. TeAnau – Great Views Holiday Park

5. Cape Reinga DOC

PLACES TO SEE NEXT TIME

1. Doubtful Sound

2. Milford Track

3. Northwest part of the S. Island (Heaphy Track, Arches)

4. Wellington

5. Arthurs Pass

ACTIVITIES FOR NEXT TIME

1. Hot air ballooning

2. Paragliding

3. Maori culture event

4. The rest of the Great Walks

5. Helicopter ride through Mt. Cook National Park

BEST PURCHASES

1. Honey dipper – sounds weird, but we have been looking for a honey dipper (the honey comb like thing at the end of a stick) for ages. We always find the cool ceramic honey containers, but they rarely are supplied with a dipper. Now we have the dipper and will begin looking for the container to compliment.

2. Guitar – John played this little guitar quite often over the past 9 weeks. He has enjoyed it so much he’s going to try and carry it around for the remainder of our trip.

3. Lantern – We stopped by what seemed to be a random garage sale/flea market deal outside of Christchurch and John found a lantern with which he fell in love.

4. Head buff – This is one of those stretchy headband things you see at REI. Erin found one on sale here in a color/style she actually liked and loves it.

5. Lollies – See top five list above.

BEST THINGS WE BROUGHT

1. Big Agnus Sleeping Pads - These amazing pads saved our hips and our backs years of pain and chiropractic visits.

2. Camera – Duh.

3. Computer – So great to have the convenience of the computer and the ability to use it for photo back up.

4. Backpacking gear – We wouldn’t have been able to do most of what we did in NZ without it!

5. iPod and little speaker – Until the little speaker went kaput this was a great combo and allowed us to have music in the car (at least something other than AM radio)