With a month to see as much of New Zealand as we possibly could, a friend and I set off on a long road trip.

We started in the North, seeing everything we had time to see—this mainly being Piha beach and Cathedral Cove—and over a few days drove all the way down to Wellington to catch a ferry to the South Island where we had planned to spend the majority of our time seeing places we’ve long wanted to visit.

As we crossed the Southern Alps through Arthur’s Pass I pulled over to photograph the road with insane mountains surrounding us everywhere we looked. Unfortunately, as we pulled over to get the photo we got bogged down in the mud, as it had rained the night before.

In the middle of nowhere with no reception, we tried to push the car out ourselves but had no luck. Though that changed when a woman driving by stopped for us and got a local farmer to drag our van out with his ute. Definitely made us more hesitant about where to pull over for the rest of the trip—lesson learned!

One of the most memorable experiences was our stay at Mount Cook. On the first day, we woke up at 4 AM to do the Hooker Valley Track. Seeing the light shining over on the peaks when no one else was around, was something else. Soaring mountains were everywhere we looked, not to mention giant suspension bridges with waterfalls flowing alongside.

The next day we did a plane tour around Mount Cook and landed on the Tasman Glacier. It was the first time either of us had been on a plane so small, so we were definitely both a bit on edge at first. Despite this, it all went too fast, it felt like five minutes yet we were flying and on the Tasman Glacier for over an hour. Goes to show how quickly time really does go when you’re so captivated by everything around you.

Originally, I had thought a month would be more than long enough to see everything I wanted to see, but even now I’m dying to go back and do it all over again. New Zealand is nothing short of a dream.