Highlights From a Year Exploring New Zealand's South Island

It has been a year since we moved to New Zealand. A year without travelling overseas once seemed like a punishment worse than death, but now I’ve come to see it as being a bit like home detention. I’ve been stuck in New Zealand, due to a fast approaching wedding which has been eating all our money, but I have still been travelling. It has been the perfect excuse to finally get to know my own country (more specifically, my own island). My year spent exploring New Zealand’s South Island has been one of my best travel experiences to date.

Update: I wrote that intro a week or so ago and since then things have been pretty crazy. I just got married and I haven’t had a spare moment to update my blog – this is the longest I’ve gone without publishing a post! This post was going to be long, detailed and informative, but now it’s just a collection of photos from my year exploring New Zealand’s South Island. I have so much to say about this full-on 12 months, but I really need some sleep before continuing to tour my wife’s family around New Zealand. Luckily I’ve written about all of these places before, either on this blog or my South Island focused one.

There is so much to see in New Zealand (especially the South Island), so I hope these photos give you some inspiration for planning your trip. Some of these regions, like Queenstown, Abel Tasman National Park and Fiordland are pretty popular, but some of the places we have visited over the last 12 months have been fairly off the beaten path. Enjoy, and if you have any questions about any of these places, feel free to give me an email or send me a message on Facebook – and stay tuned for far more detailed posts on travelling around the South Island.