Photo & text by Adam Foster. 

The first shot from my New Zealand road trip! New Zealand is such a beautiful, clean and epic country. In our 3 week road trip we managed to see plenty; driving from the North to South Island. Each drive took us through national parks, past lakes, mountains, rivers and beautiful coast lines. We had to stop every few miles - there was so much to take photos of across the ever changing landscapes.

The road trip consisted of:

2796 miles driven across the North and South Islands (with a ferry trip in-between). An average of 2.3 hours a day
10 National parks visited including Te Urewera, Whanganui, Tongariro, Abel Tasman, Kahurangi, Paparora, Nelson Lakes, Arthur’s Pass, Westland, Aoraki
100+ Mountains including Mt Cook, Mt Ruapehu (aka Mt Doom), Mt Ngauruhoe, Mt Adams, Mt Sefton, Mt John, Mt Tasman
50+ Lakes including Lake Taupo, Lake Tekapo, Lake Matheson, Lake Pukaki, Lake Rotorua
12 Cities & towns slept in, including Wellington, Christchurch, Auckland, Rotorua, Taupo, Kaikoura, Twizel, Greymouth, Takaka
6 Beaches including Wharariki Beach, Hot Water Beach, Wharekho Beach
3 Glaciers walked to. They were the Fox Glacier, Franz Josef Glacier & Tasman Glaciers
2 Thermal Parks, Orakei Korako & Whakarewarewa
856 Photos taken, 23 gigs worth. 101 editing & liked
5 Lime shakes drunk (amazing!)
2 Kiwi burgers eaten
3 Animals killed by the car (1 cat, 2 small birds) ;(
0 Wild kiwis’s seen (but we did see 2 captive so they are defiantly not mythical)

Highlights would be Skydiving over Lake Taupo, driving through Arthur’s Pass, Wharariki Beach in the golden bay was stunning (that’s where this photo was taken), Lake Tekapo and the surrounding glaciers were also incredible.