The only small downside to living in New Zealand, is that we are thousands of miles away from anywhere. While there are countless opportunities to get out and explore Aotearoa, it’s difficult and often very expensive to travel overseas. So, for the past three or four years, my ‘holidays’ have consisted of traveling back to Iowa for Christmas or weddings.
It’s been a whirlwind five weeks since leaving New Zealand that has seen me on 11 different flights, two long-distance buses, a road trip from Iowa to Illinois, and a cargo ship up Chile’s West Coast. I’m writing this quick update after again returning to the Land of the Long White Cloud – New Zealand.
As I sat down on my Santiago to Auckland flight, the Argentinean seated next to me asked, “So, are you heading home?” I thought for a moment, and then replied – “Yes, I guess you could say that.”
In reality of course, it’s not that simple – home is many things: family, history, friends, stability and the comforts of sharing a place with others who you share memories with, or those who have similar motivations, passions and outlooks on life. Similar to me and I would guess thousands of others in New Zealand, the Argentinean guy next to me in seat 27F has remained in New Zealand much longer than he anticipated – six years longer, in fact. I often share my passion for this country in this blog, and this passion is shared by many others who now too call New Zealand home.
For now, I’ve one more flight (number 12) before arriving back in Queenstown. Fittingly, I’m arriving on opening day of the ski season at Coronet Peak; the winter season is one of my favorites in New Zealand – a time when the mountains become white with snow, the days shorter but the time in the sunlight all the more meaningful, and a time accented by the continued anticipation of powder.
The past five weeks have flown by and were complimented by experiences I’ll remember for the rest of my life. I’ll write more about the highlights from South America in the coming weeks, yet for the time being here are some of the high points from the last five weeks.
The original motivations behind this five week hiatus from New Zealand were to travel to New Hampton, Iowa, for one of my best friend’s weddings. It was an hugely special day and I was honored to stand amongst other friends beside Chris as he married the love of his life.
An added bonus of the wedding was having time to connect with so many other fantastic friends who I’ve seen very rarely over the past five years since first setting off backpacking in Ireland. I’m pretty sure we nearly drank this small Iowa town out of booze over the course of a couple nights.
Okay, while I didn’t quite master the dance — I spent an evening learning the basics before enjoying a fantastic tango performance. Whilst Buenos Aires (nor the steaks in Argentina) didn’t blow me away, the highlight of the visit to the city was experiencing the national dance – the Tango. A visit to Argentina’s capital city woudn’t be complete without seeing a show that illustrated this huge part of Argentinean culture.
While my lesson was brief, it gave me enough of a introduction to the dance to be blown away by the show later on in the evening. Over a three course meal with friends and too many bottles of Malbec, we observed an hour long Tango show with fascinating dancing and catchy live orchestra music.
I should mention the motivations behind the visit to South America were to connect with my girlfriend Maura who is on a four month backpacking adventure around the continent. After time in Buenos Aires, we headed south to the massive expanse of mountains and flatland that is Patagonia.
The highlight here was a tour of the Perito Moreno Glacier – seeing and walking on this massive and hugely powerful piece of ancient ice was one of the most incredible things I’ve ever experienced in my life. I’ve hundreds of photos from the tour, and will be sharing more of these over the coming weeks.
I’ve always dreamed of traveling between continents on a freighter ship and in Chile, I had an opportunity to do something similar.
Over the course of four nights and three days, we traveled through the fiords of Chile’s West Coast on a cargo ship. We shared the boat with all of about 12 other passengers and trucks and trucks full of cattle, horses, and other pieces of cargo. It was a brilliant experience in many respects; a highlight was simply being disconnected from the internet or a cell phone for so long. I’ll review the experience more in the coming days.
After almost 10 days of solid traveling, I was terribly excited to simply chill out — Bariloche in Argentina’s Lake District provided a perfect opportunity for this. This town in many ways reminded me of Queenstown – glacial lakes, mountains and loads of terrific tramping opportunities.
It’s a town I liked so much, I’m very keen to return someday to live for a couple months and learn Spanish. Which brings me to…
One of the most addictive aspects of traveling to me is escaping one’s comfort zone. The challenges that come from arriving someplace new and being forced to make your way without knowing the language is something I miss terribly. New Zealand is lots of things, but it certainly isn’t a challenging place to travel as a native English speaker.
I greatly enjoyed slowly polishing up on my very limited Spanish abilities over the course of a couple of weeks. The slow progression of picking up more of a language after being immersed in a different culture is hugely exciting and addicting.
South America, I will be back one day. For now, it’s off to one of the most beautiful places in the world to do a bit of snowboarding.
First, you’ll probably know that in the past six months or so, the frequency of my posts here at Backpackingmatt.com have dropped significantly. A combination of a 9-5 day job that consumes much of my time and a New Zealand mountain playground right outside my backdoor result in there never being quite enough hours in the day. If I’m not working, I’m out riding my mountain bike, or climbing mountains or going on hikes around Queenstown.
Secondly, you’ll know that I’ve temporarily packed away the backpack and have been basing myself in what I constantly refer to as the most beautiful place in the world – Queenstown, New Zealand. This epic little corner of New Zealand’s South Island has become my adopted home – and slowly but surely, I’m falling more and more in love with New Zealand each day.
I’ve been here for almost three years and as a result there are dozens of posts in the archives of this travel blog offering advice and inspiration to backpackers considering a trip to the Land of the Long White Cloud. As a self-proclaimed New Zealand backpacking expert, I daily get emails from travelers considering a trip here looking for advice. I gladly reply and take much joy in knowing that my tips in some way will positively benefit their experience exploring New Zealand.
I enjoy writing about New Zealand, and I enjoy encouraging others to visit New Zealand – yet as this is a travel blog, there is only so much I can accomplish in this space. I’ve always thought the logical next step was to develop a NZ specific travel site. It’s been an idea that has been changing (and growing) in my mind as the months passed, and finally — I’m well on my way to developing it.
PlanitNZ.com will will become a one-stop resource for the budget traveler, backpacker and internet savvy traveler prior to coming to New Zealand and after they arrive. A wealth of regional information will give you an understanding of New Zealand – where its regions are, what is on offer, what to expect and where to go.
I’m constantly amazed at how little the rest of the world knows about New Zealand (Yes, it’s safe. Yes, everyone speaks English). This site will address this issue. The regional content will be complimented by practical advice designed to put you at ease when planning an adventure backpacking in New Zealand – when to come, what to pack, suggested itineraries, ways to get around and more.
This base content will be continuously updated and will be complimented by an ongoing travel blog from travelers currently exploring New Zealand. Their stories, photos, tips and advice will keep a fresh face Go Backpacking New Zealand.
This won’t be advice simply from me (NZ backpacking expert or not). I’ve taken on a number of researchers currently out exploring New Zealand – they’re researching the far away corners of each island so your planning experience will be enhanced by having the most up to date information on the Land of the Long White Cloud.
My goal is to produce more than just an information portal to New Zealand. Rather, it’s my hope that PlanitNZ.com will continue to be utilized by travelers after they arrive. How?
Your PlaniT NZ is a user-based system that allows you to interact with other visitors on PlanitNZ.com.
Driving from Auckland to Wellington and keen to share petrol? Post the ride on PlaniT NZ. Fancy spending a couple weeks travelling with some fellow backpackers on the South Island? Get in touch with similar minded folks by posting your trip on PlaniT NZ. Looking for a job in the Bay of Islands? Find it on PlaniT NZ.
While the website isn’t yet live, we plan on launching in early July. Prior to this, we’re giving away an epic New Zealand prize package thanks to three terrific co-sponsors.
JUCY Rentals, Skydive Lake Wanaka and grabaseat have all co-sponsored a sweepstakes currently running on our Facebook Page.
Up for grabs is a New Zealand travel package consisting of:This travel package is valued at over $1,000 and can be yours by simply going to our Facebook page, giving us and our sponsors a “Like” and sharing your name and email so we can email you when we go live.
If you’ve dreamed of a trip to New Zealand – but have never felt you had the budget to travel here – now is your chance.
I’ve based myself in New Zealand for the past 22 months – give or take, that’s about 660 days.
The time just slips away. They say that happens the older you get, and while I don’t doubt this is true, I’m confident the happier you are someplace and the more content you are with your life, the quicker the hours, days and weeks disappear.
I originally left home in 2007 to explore the unknown; I wasn’t ready to settle down and had a deep desire to see more of this world we live in.
The journey to where I am today has been a roller coaster of highs and lows – undoubtedly, the moments of pure elation outnumber the challenges.
I’ve traveled the world by way of working holidays in an effort to gain a better understanding of the cultures of the countries I’ve traveled through. In between or during these working holidays, I’ve managed to backpack to some exceptionally special places. Without a doubt, there is so much more of this world I’m yearning to see – the rest of Southeast Asia, Eastern Europe, China, South & Central America and the list goes on.
Many of the posts in the archives of this blog encourage others to leave the comforts of home, pack a bag, and explore far away places. As the tagline of this blog says, Life’s a Journey; I believe the world begs to be explored, experienced and learned from.
Each day that passes here on the beautiful South Island of New Zealand reinforces my indescribable love of this area of the world. Weekly Daily, I’m reminded of how special this place is and I find this terribly frightening.
While I still have the desire to travel to new places, right now I’m beyond content with my life in New Zealand. Most of the time, at least. I do still get that itch that only those inflicted with the bite of the travel bug know. Reading about Adventurous Kate’s travels through Europe to TBU or the Mobile Lawyer’s adventure on the Ultimate Train Challenge still leave me with that taste for wanting to experience new things and face new challenges.
The problem is there is so much here I still want to do. I want to climb Mitre Peak. I want to compete in a multi-day adventure race. I want to go surfing in the Catlins. I want to ride my bike in a brevit. I want to get into backcountry snowboarding.
I love my job, my quaint rented lakeside bach with lake and mountain views, my mates and the lifestyle that New Zealand brings on. The budding minimalist that was me in Thailand traveling with only a Macpac daypack is slowly beginning to acquire things – a bike, bike gear, a snowboarding. Potentially a kayak and climbing gear? A second bike?
At what point do I become a hypocrite who encourages others to leave home and travel the world while I stay in this comfortable bubble which I like to call paradise?
I haven’t moved on permanently from being a backpacker. I continue to read travel blogs, add experiences to my bucket list and still yearn to see more of this world. And I will. This working holiday has simply continued on for longer than anticipated. I’m one of many who have come to Queenstown and stayed longer than expected – if you’ve traveled here, you’ll certainly understand why.
I love my life here and for the time being I’m content with that. There is certainly more of this world I want to see – but for now, that’ll have to wait for another day.
It’s certainly not how I envisioned things going; yet, as I’ve learned in the last year – things don’t always go as planned.
I certainly never would have expected life to take me to small villages in Ireland, one of Europe’s most inspiring cities – Edinburgh, the markets of Turkey, the fjords of Norway, the canals of Venice, or the mountains of New Zealand.
Luck perhaps isn’t the correct word to use. As anyone branching off into the life of long term travel knows, it certainly has its ups and downs. Be that living in hostels, dealing with budget issues, overcoming travel planning woes or the unknowns that come from leading a life of uncertainty, long term travel is by no means easy.
So 18 months later, I’m still in New Zealand. There have been no shortage of obstacles to overcome in Aotearoa, don’t get me wrong – and ironically perhaps, these obstacles have added to my love of NZ. Overcoming the challenges life tosses at you inevitably shape you into the person you ultimately become.
Like many of my previous experiences traveling abroad, I originally arrived in New Zealand on a working holiday. Working holidays are a fantastic way to properly assimilate into the society of a country you’ve traveled to. You can absorb the culture and take it in as if the country were your home. You get to know its people, see it from their eyes as opposed to the eyes of a tourist.
New Zealand is a country with no shortage of space. It’s a land of sweeping vistas, towering mountains and thick and uninhabited bush. It’s a country with 4 million people, 40 million sheep, and 100,000 square miles of land. New Zealanders love their sport – while there is no question of their love for ‘the rugby,’ they also have a special appreciation for the beautiful country they inhabit and make plenty of efforts to get out and explore it.
Lately, I’ve been right with them.
As I mentioned in my last update, I’ve returned to New Zealand to run NZbyBike.com. I spend my days promoting mountain biking in New Zealand – it’s an epic place to ride, and inevitably, I’ve fallen in love with the sport myself. It’s a bloody great job, yet it’s by no means easy running a web start-up and has been taking up a significant amount of my time.
I’ve developed even more of an appreciation for bloggers like Steph from 20 Something Travel who balanced full-time work along with developing and running a superb travel blog.
In an effort to keep budget travel and backpacking focused posts coming your way more frequently, I’ve taken on a fellow American expat and travel blogger as a contributing writer for Backpackingmatt.com. Expect to see more content from Australia-based Lauren Fritsky of TheLifeThatBroke.com over the coming months with a focus on budget travel and backpacking in Australia.
Thanks for following along – for daily glimpses into my life living in New Zealand, be sure to follow me on Twitter.
Happy Travels,
(Backpacking)Matt
‘Life’s a Journey‘
Please leave your tips for balancing work, travel, and an active life along with running a blog in the comments section below. Alternatively, email them to me at matt (at) backpackingmatt (dot) com and I’ll feature the best in a post next month.
Backpacking Matt 
