Hello Autumn… Well in New Zealand anyway.
The summer warmth is drawing to a close and we’ve seen our first snowy mountains at Lake Ōhau Lodge, and the very end of March saw us move to an even colder new location in the extremely beautiful, extremely remote location in the middle of a world-famous Pinot Noir region of Central Otago… More on that next month!
March for us has seen us visit Lake Tekapo and the renowned Hot Springs there, a trip to Mount Cook National Village for some epic hiking with our beloved friend from a previous job, and the Jess & Ben Travel team is now three with the addition of Kevin the Kea – a small teddy that Jess just couldn’t leave in the shop.
We got some absolutely epic shots while we were at Mount Cook and have included a selection of them in this post. Check them out below!
Mount Cook National Village
We love it here we’ve been a couple of times to this area but this time was by far our favourite. We did an epic hike and had a good couple of beverages at the Hermitage.
Click here to read our article where we compare two of the most iconic tracks in the area: Sealy Tarns vs Hooker Valley Track.
Lake Tekapo
We actually visited this place twice this month! Once with our work friends to go to the thermal pools, and then again with our friend Tara for a night away. Home to Ben’s favourite bridge in New Zealand, Lake Tekapo is a stunning tourist town set next to one of the most iconic lakes and churches in New Zealand.
Lake Ōhau
Our temporary home, where we have been living and working at the lodge since the start of January. This area is also home to some phenomenal landscapes and walking tracks in the Mackenzie District. Last month we did the Ben Ōhau and Greta Stream Track, and this month we did a track called North Temple Track.
The North Temple Track saw us traverse through the temple valley, which takes you over rivers, through the bush, and into the wide, stones valley. You definitely have to enjoy the journey rather than the destination on this one; when we got to the end, there wasn’t much to see! But we still had a great time.
Queenstown
We visited the adventure capital of New Zealand for 24hrs over the easter weekend. We had an incredible dinner out at Rātā – more about this in our favourite moments. We arrived on Saturday, so we made our way straight to the waterfront to have a wander around the handmade market, there were so many amazing things here from hand carved pounamu to candles that look like cake.
We also stopped and had an ice cream and a sorbet from Patagonia Ice Creamery- delicious!
As this was the first time in civilisation for a while, Ben got a much-needed haircut and Jess got a pedicure!
We did also pop past the famous Fergburger. We didn’t go for a burger as the queues were insane, but we did pop to the Fergbaker and get some goodies for the road trip to St. Bathans.
Boring SEO & Website Achievements
This is a new section in the Jess & Ben Travel Newsletter where we want to share our blogging achievements and milestones.
We are a year into our blogging journey now, and a lot of that time has been spent learning how to build a website from scratch, learning what the hell SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is, and how to turn our experiences into useful, concise travel articles to help you out on your own travel journey.
10,000 Impressions
First things first, we hit our first 10k impressions– Yay!
An impression is counted whenever our content appears on a search result page on Google. This means that 10,000+ people have seen or scrolled past some of our content, which we are thrilled about because it shows that Google is seeing our content as useful and is putting it in front of people to click on- which is the entire point of creating the website: to share our tips, tricks and stories with the world.
In March alone we had 8.37k impressions and 95 clicks on our website, so this is great, and we are so happy!
Top Content
Here is some of our top-ranking content on Google (which we are super proud of).
That Wānaka Tree
In this article we cover the important need to know bits of information about this beautifully photogenic tree, such as:
- Why that Wānaka tree is famous
- How to find the Wānaka tree
- Facts and the history about that Wānaka tree
How to renew a British passport from New Zealand
This is a very specific article but a very useful one to those who need it!
10 Things to do in Oamaru
When we visited Oamaru, on the South Island’s East Coast and is the Steampunk Capital of the world, we found a multitude of free and unusual things to do in Oamaru.
Travel Tales: Our Favourite Moments
Playing Darts and Drinking Whiskey at Lake Ōhau Lodge
Something we regularly underestimate is the power of a chill but fun games evening. Ben has wanted to play darts the entire time we’ve been at the lodge so when the bar was quiet and we had an evening off, we did. It turns out we both aren’t pros (who’d have thought?) but we’re pretty evenly matched for once!
We drank a range of Scottish whiskeys including an incredibly Smokey number that we both loved called Smoke-Head!
Hiking up to The Ōhau Snow Fields: Ben’s favourite, Jess’s least
So this is a story… We started off on what 99% of people would say is an easy one road track up. But, we saw that there was a shortcut/old track so in true Jess and Ben style we decided to take it.
This was the start of an exceptionally long journey up the side of a valley. The path seemed to disappear into the grass after about 1km but instead of doing the smart thing and turning around, we carried on…
Things are starting to get a bit rockier underfoot and all around us so walking in the usual upright position is becoming alot harder. Fast forward 300m and the rocks are big, there all we can see in any direction, except in the very distance, at the end of the valley we can see the end point, the chair lift of the ski field. With no way to turn back now we push on in that direction, up the side of the valley.
We scramble along on all fours over rocks until at one point Jess sits down and is seriously debating if we’re going to need to be helicoptered. We keep going and then we reach a grassy patch. With a drop of an unknown height to our right and a sheer vertical face to our left we have no choice really but scramble and jump along like mountain goats. Jess the entire time shouting “I hate this”.
After 3km of scaling the valley we see a path directly above us which we assume is the road, we make a b-line towards it.
After two and a bit hours of scrambling through a valley we are just metres away from what we believe to be the road/original path we should have been on. With one last near vertical crawl over loose rocks we find ourselves finally back on track.
The rest of the walk was great, we only had a few more feet to go, but we were tired hungry and the sun would soon be setting, so we walked on until we could see the ski field and turned to head back. Never once stepping foot off the path again.
Sealy Tarns: A Mount Cook Hike
Sealy Tarns was a magnificent hike in Mount Cook National Village, with this particular hike taking you up to an elevation of 2,600 metres, putting you at a significantly similar height as Mount Cook itself!
The gruelling 2000 steps to the top snakes up the mountain along the Mueller Hut route, and at the top there is a perfectly placed picnic bench for you to enjoy your packed lunch and one of the best views in New Zealand.
Rātā: A Tasting Menu
Both of us love good food and wine.
Rātā is a restaurant in Queenstown that has been on our bucket list of places to visit since we got here.
We booked in and had a 7 course tasting menu with wine pairing, and it was delicious! The chefs did a phenomenal job of catering to Jess’ various allergies and dietary requirements, and we had the best evening.
Upcoming Adventures: What’s on our horizon
On the move…
At the start of March, we handed in our letters of resignation at Lake Ohau Lodge after a few months of being there. We are heading to a tiny tiny place called St. Bathans for a couple of months. We’re looking forward to being in a new part of the country slightly further south from where we are now.
As an old mining town, Saint Bathans has so much history which we can’t wait to learn about. And some say that the building is haunted…
Our new jobs start on the 1st April and we can’t wait!
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Jess & Ben Travel
What incredibly spectacular places you are visiting. Wonderful! Enjoy xx
Thank you so much!! Pretty cool aren’t they! x