The last few days have taken us through some of the wildest and most varied hiking we have done in New Zealand — all in the south, not far from Glenorchy and Te Anau. You could call it "From Alpine Valleys to Tropical Jungles", because that is exactly what happened. This country has an almost unreasonable variety of landscapes packed into a small space.
The Road to Glenorchy
The drive to Glenorchy along Lake Wakatipu is something else entirely. Each bend in the road delivers a view that makes you pull over involuntarily. It felt like driving through a painting — the kind of scenery that makes you understand immediately why New Zealand attracts so many filmmakers.
We even had to deal with some very motivated local traffic on the way — the kind that moves slowly and in large groups.
Fiordland: Alpine and Jungle
The hikes here split neatly into two worlds. The Sugarloaf track pushed us upward through open alpine terrain — two hours of ascent rewarded with sweeping views — while the Rodger Inlet track at Lake Monowai plunged us into something that felt genuinely tropical: dense, dripping, tangled jungle where William discovered that his famous shortcuts are not always reliable.
The wildlife was a constant companion — curious birds who had never learned to be afraid, flying ducks over the lake, and at least one very brave little creature who decided to inspect us at close range.
Our First Boat Hitchhike
The highlight of the past few days — and honestly one of the highlights of the whole New Zealand trip — came at the end of the jungle hike. With six hours of dense forest return walking ahead of us and energy levels already low, we spotted a small fishing boat on the lake. We waved. They stopped. Local fishermen, passing by, agreed to ferry us back to where the car was parked.
We could not have been luckier. Sometimes the universe just hands you exactly what you need.
Now we are turning the car north again. Our flight to Papua leaves in just one week, so we will be driving back towards Auckland. But we still have a few exciting stops planned for the road.