Soreness. Stiffness. Dead legs.

That would be sufficient terms to describe the state of mine and my wife’s legs after our long hike the day before.

We slowly got out of bed and meandered into Greymouth. We had a great breakfast at Maggie’s Kitchen where we got a homestyle breakfast and I had the french toast with bacon while Sanna had pancakes.

After that we walked around downtown Greymouth which included a look around the seawall and the old Greymouth Clock Tower.

Another attraction of Greymouth is Monteith’s Brewery Company which is headquartered in Greymouth and represents the beer scene on the west coast of South Island.

For my valiant efforts the day before with the hike up Roberts Point, Sanna surprised me with a tour of the brewery and a beer tasting session.

To be totally honest, I am not the biggest beer drinker nor will I ever say I am a beer connoisseur. However, I am nerd and any chance learn about the process of anything let alone get insight into production, logistics and history of a company, I am game. So the tour was interesting and enlightening to say the least.

Sanna and I indulged ourselves with 6 different beers produced by Monteith’s including an American Pale Ale that was pretty nice. But, I think the highlight of the whole experience was that Sanna discovered a beer that she actually likes and can imagine herself ordering if she remotely had a taste for beer. For the record, that beer was called “The Radler“.

Since I did the drinking, I let Sanna do the driving. From Greymouth we drove across the island and stopped in Hanmer Springs.

Other than Milford Sound, the another attraction we highlighted while planning for New Zealand was the thermal springs in Hanmer Springs. Frankly we modified the itinerary to ensure we stopped there.

We arrived in Hanmer Springs in the early evening and after we quickly checked into our hotel and walked (in a stiff and slightly painful manner) to the nearby hot springs.

We went to the hot springs because we have never experienced them. The other godsend about our decision to stop and check out the hot springs was that we were so sore from the previous day’s hike, the relaxing evening at the hot springs took on a therapeutic feel.

The next day we had a nice breakfast before we casually drove to Christchurch where we found our hotel and returned our rental car at the Christchurch Airport.

Luckily our hotel was in a central Christchurch and made it easy for us to stroll around. We didn’t have any set schedule. We just explored around town. We purchased gifts for the kids including our newborn nephew Theo. Also, I did my obligatory postcards and sent them out to family and friends.

One observation Sanna and I made about Christchurch is that the city is still recovering and rebuilding after the severe earthquakes that hit the city in 2010 and 2016. The most emblematic example of the earthquake damage is the Christchurch Cathedral which still stands in disrepair.

Otherwise, Christchurch gives us the feeling of a hipster and artistic city and gave a nice atmosphere.

In Summation, New Zealand and South Island to be specific is simply magical. You can literally drive pretty much any stretch of road and find a picturesque environment. New Zealand feels clean and fresh as simple as it sounds. South Island is wild and mostly untouched. Probably due to the rough and mountainous terrain of the island. I suggest, if you can, take a good chunk of time, get a car and just drive and enjoy the view.

Top things I learned from South Island.

1. One way bridges can be tricky
2. There is sheep. Everywhere
3. Fergburger is worth it. Get Fergburger in your life. Full stop.
4. Take a cruise while at Milford Sound. Plus stay dry
5. Kill possums and buy the fur by products to support the conservation of natural kiwi birds
6. Hanmer Springs is nice but the food is very expensive for what it is
7. Rugby runs through the blood of New Zealand
8. Don’t drive crazy around the turns in the mountains unless you want to test your fate (and car)

We woke up in Te Anau after an amazing cruise around Milford Sound. Today would be a lot of driving as we travel up to Franz Josef Glacier. We had an idea that even though we won’t really stop anywhere, there should be an abundance of picturesque views on on this drive to Glacier Country.

We got up and got breakfast before we got in the car, synced up our podcasts plus the most diverse road trip play list you can think of, and hit the road.

Like I said, more driving than stopping this day, but from the pictures, you will see that pictures does all of talking at this point. We did stop at Lake Wanaka for lunch and stroll around the lake that gives the town its name before continuing the migration to the west coast of the South Island and heading north.

We made it to Glacier Country after dark and arrived into the small town named after the Franz Josef Glacier where we quickly checked into our hostel room and had dinner. We called it a night as soon as possible as we knew tomorrow would be an eventful day in more ways than one.

We woke up and knew today was important.

The main reason is that today, March 28, is our fourth year wedding anniversary. So, you know what that means…..

That classic will be played a few times throughout the day.

Another reason, was that Sanna and I would hike for 11 kilometers and go up over 600 meters to get a good view of Franz Josef Glacier.

Sanna and I have learned already that we are sometimes foolishly stubborn. Our excursion up to Roberts Point on our anniversary would be an excellent example of this self assessment.

The Roberts Point trail was hailed and warned as a trail for “experienced” and “mature” hikers. We thought to ourselves, well we have hiked before and we consider ourselves pretty mature and experienced so we should have no trouble with this trail.

Boy we were in for a rude awakening. The estimated return time for this hike was 5 hours. We did it in 7 hours. 7 hours due to the amount times we had to stop because we were either exhausted on the way up or experiencing muscle cramps and spasms on the way back down.

Let’s just say after we were done, we got our fill of hiking for a short while. However, it was worth it.

Behind those smiles were tired and sweaty existences. Moreover, the thought of the pending doom of our trek back down lingered heavily on our minds while we were up there.

The timely and arduous trail didn’t give us much time to drive up to Greymouth for a nice anniversary dinner.

We got some amazing shots on the drive north on west coast north of Franz Josef towards Greymouth.

So, we did what we could. As a result, we had a romantic dinner in our accommodation which was two pizzas from dominoes and water. That meal oozed with intimacy and romanticism as we ate 5 dollar pizzas on the cardboard it came in.

But it was nice to calm down after a lot walking (including some actual climbing) and some driving and just laugh at our inherent ability to ignore the warning signs then show a funny and blinded faith in our ability. Case in point for our grueling hike up a mountain because we didn’t want to be defeated and to retreat plus we had the desire to get a great view of a glacier which are not that common outside of Arctic environments.

Lastly, it is just another adventure that continues to forge us together on this journey we are exploring together as a married couple. Love my Sanna Byrd.