New Zealand Road Trip

January 15, 2026 · 1 min read

Four of us, twelve days, one Toyota Corolla, across New Zealand.

We picked up the car at Christchurch Airport and dropped it off in Queenstown twelve days later. In between: an Auckland ferry, a Queenstown bike tour, Onsen Hot Pools after a long hike. The kind of trip where you pack too much into every day because you don’t know when you’ll be back.

We also had the best salmon ever by Lake Tekapo (and that’s coming from someone living in Seattle).

New Zealand is absurdly beautiful. It feels like a movie set that no one told the crew to strike. Every viewpoint looks staged. After a while you stop being impressed and just accept that this is what the country looks like.