A Bucketlist Birthday Group Trip to New Zealand with Travel Podcaster Jackie Nourse

When I saw Jackie had been to New Zealand, I knew I had to talk to her. I wanted her first impressions: what she loved, what surprised her, all of it.

Jackie is a travel podcaster who goes by Traveling Jackie, and she leads adventure trips for her audience. Her most recent ones were to New Zealand, two back to back, built around her 40th birthday. And she'd waited a long time to get here (she'd talked about it for years).

So we go through it all. Hobbiton and the glowworm caves, then a 10-day South Island loop with a backcountry hut, Aoraki Mount Cook, two cycle trails, Doubtful Sound for her birthday and Milford Sound in sideways rain. Plus why it's easier to get here than you'd think, the Aoraki ridge that fooled a Kiwi guide, and how New Zealand stacks up against Patagonia, the place she's spent much of the last decade going back to. I loved hearing my own country through her eyes. Soooo many places I still haven't been.

In this episode

• Traveling Jackie and her adventure trips
• Why New Zealand for a 40th birthday
• Flying to New Zealand from the US
• Hobbiton and the Waitomo glowworm caves
• A 10-day South Island itinerary
• Bike crashes and Milford Sound in the rain
• Aoraki from Rex Simpson Hut, and the stars
• Hooker Valley Track and Sealy Tarns
• Lake Dunstan Trail, from Cromwell to Clyde
• Jackie's advice, and New Zealand against Patagonia

Traveling Jackie and her adventure trips

Jackie started travelling young. At 18, she moved to Costa Rica to study abroad for a year, and it snowballed from there: her trips kept getting bigger, more epic and longer, and she kept collecting languages and living in different countries.

All of that turned into a blog and a podcast, Jump with Traveling Jackie, which had been running for 11 years when we recorded. It's all about taking the leap: getting outside your comfort zone, having courage and doing the things that scare you. When we recorded, it was nominated for best travel podcast at the iHeartRadio Podcast Awards.

Then, organically, she started inviting her readers and listeners to join her in person, and now she leads trips for her audience. Those trips are about taking the leap too.

Why New Zealand for a 40th birthday

Jackie wants to see the places that speak to her, and those tend to be big mountains, big adventure and gorgeous landscapes.

She grew up at Lake Tahoe, California, with turquoise water, snow-capped mountains and evergreen trees out the window, plus a lot of road trips, camping and national parks. She reckons it ruined her for life. She needs big, epic places to feel lit up.

New Zealand was the one she'd talked about over and over and still hadn't reached. She's a massive Lord of the Rings fan, she's drawn to alpine lakes, mountains and glaciers, and she's spent a lot of time in Patagonia, where everyone told her she'd love New Zealand. When she was turning 40, she decided this was the year, and she wanted the birthday to be a big celebration. So she put it together, and she got to turn 40 here.

Flying to New Zealand from the US

We'd just done a three-month trip around the world when we recorded, and it made me realise how far away New Zealand is from everywhere. It's three hours to Australia, and ten to Singapore. I get now why it takes people so long to make the effort.

Jackie has a different take:

"the best places are the farthest ones away. The best places are the most remote. You know, the best places are the hardest ones to get to."

She was also surprised by how easy it was. Flying to Patagonia, she gets to the southern United States first, then takes a 10-hour flight overnight. Europe is 10 to 12 hours. San Francisco to Auckland was one flight of 13 hours.

And she had no jet lag in either direction. From where she was when we recorded, New Zealand was four hours behind, a day ahead, so you get your night on the plane like any other long flight and arrive without much of a shift.

Hobbiton and the Waitomo glowworm caves

Before the group trip, Jackie and a friend spent a few days in the North Island. Hobbiton was a must (don't judge her). She grew up with Lord of the Rings, so she went straight from the plane to the Shire, and she thinks it might be the happiest place in the world.

I haven't been to Hobbiton. I'll get there one day.

They also wanted to see the glowworms at Waitomo, and they chose the most adventurous way to do it: wetsuits, inner tubes and actual caving, floating backwards into the blackness.

To stay between the two, they found a little town called Cambridge, about halfway, and had a few gloriously chill days before heading south.

I've done the tubing at Waitomo too, jumping off waterfalls in the dark.

A 10-day South Island itinerary

For the group trip, Jackie picked one island. In her view, the North Island is more rolling hills and agriculture, a bit like Napa Valley, and the South Island is big mountains and glaciers, more like Alaska. She wanted big adventure, a lot of hiking and some biking.

The North Island has some awesome beaches and geothermal spots, which I love. For mountains, glaciers, hiking and biking, though, the South Island is where it's at.

With 10 or 11 days, New Zealand is easy to plan. In Patagonia, she'd pick one region and stay there, because it's so spread out. Here, places aren't that far apart.

She ran the same itinerary twice, almost back to back, and loved getting to do it all again:

"There's a magic about going back to a place too where when you've been there once and you get to go back again, there's a sense of familiarity and a sense of, oh, I know this place."

I'm nodding along to that. We've been back to some places in New Zealand five times, and they're still special.

Their route, which they called the Best of the Southern Alps:

• Christchurch, where the group met.
• Lake Tekapo and a night at Rex Simpson Hut, a backcountry hut.
• Aoraki Mount Cook for two nights, with a couple of hikes.
• Omarama, biking part of the Alps 2 Ocean trail, with hot springs.
• Clyde, with wine and more biking on the Lake Dunstan Trail.
• Fiordland, hiking to Luxmore Hut on the Kepler Track and an overnight cruise on Doubtful Sound.
• Milford Sound, a day cruise straight after Doubtful, which made for an interesting comparison back to back, plus hiking and biking around the region.
• The Around the Mountains Trail, biking through the mountains to Lake Wakatipu and along the shore to Walter Peak Station, then the boat across to Queenstown as the grand finale.

Jackie still wants to go back and do all of the Alps 2 Ocean, and more of the multi-day bike trails.

So many visitors do the same loop: down the West Coast, Queenstown, up past Aoraki to Christchurch, with Milford tagged on. I love that Jackie mixed in cycling and hikes that plenty of Kiwis haven't heard of.

A birthday on Doubtful Sound

When she was designing the trip, Jackie asked her local partner where he'd want to spend his own 40th birthday on this itinerary. He took about three seconds to say Doubtful Sound, on the boat. So she built every date around it, and spent her birthday out in the middle of nowhere, under a blanket of stars next to the Tasman Sea. Topping that for her 50th will be hard, so she might do it again.

How the trip worked

Jackie's trips are fully catered. Everything is planned up front with local people, so the only decision her travellers have to make is whether they're going. They had a van, a trailer for the bikes and some luggage, and two guides who were also the drivers. With 11 travellers plus Jackie, they were 14 in total. They stayed roughly two nights in each place, faster than she usually travels, to fit the trip into the leave most people with nine to fives have.

Some of her trips are intense, and they aren't for everyone. The idea is hard adventure every day, then eating really well and sleeping really well every night, so she's very intentional about where they stay and eat.

Jackie can't talk about the trip without the guides. They bridged the gap between the travellers and the locals, the history, the culture and the nature, with information, friendship and laughter, and they became part of the crew both times.

Bike crashes and Milford Sound in the rain

There were a few crashes on the bikes. Jackie had thought the trails would be gravel, and it turned out to be mountain biking, which gave some people pause. It was scary, and so cool to watch them work through it as a team. Some went home planning to buy a mountain bike.

At Milford, one day was so socked in that the ridge hike had no view. They swapped it for a walk through what they called an enchanted forest, so green it came to life in the rain, and it ended up being magical. Leave some room for magic, as Jackie says.

That same day, they did the Milford Sound cruise in whipping wind and sideways rain, and there were thousands of waterfalls coming out of nowhere. The crew told them they were so lucky to see Milford like that. On her second visit, it wasn't raining, and nearly all of those waterfalls had disappeared. As long as the road is open, Jackie reckons rain is the way to see it.

Her tip if you go on a wild day: look for the one they call Disappearing Falls. In strong wind, the water hits the cliff edge and blows straight up into the air, like a whale spout.

Weather changes every visit here. On our first South Island trip, in winter, we drove to Hokitika Gorge for the blue water from Instagram, after five days of rain. It was muddy brown, with waterfalls pouring into the gorge off the hillsides. Back in summer, after a dry spell, it was that beautiful blue.

And at Aoraki one winter, a freak snowstorm covered the whole trail in snow. It might only happen a handful of times a year, and we were there at the right time.

Aoraki from Rex Simpson Hut, and the stars

Aoraki Mount Cook was Jackie's favourite place in the South Island. She calls it magnetic.

Rex Simpson Hut sits almost due east of the mountain. From the hut, they hiked up to a ridge for their first glimpse of Aoraki, and they were seeing it side on. Most photos look at it from the south, where it seems to have twin peaks, and from the east you see those peaks are a mile-long ridge. Jackie couldn't stop looking at it as they walked up the ridge alongside it.

Later that day, they drove around Tekapo and Lake Pukaki under bluebird skies, with the mountain huge in the background, and she kept looking over her shoulder in the van to find it again.

One of their guides, a Kiwi, pointed at Tasman from the ridge, because it looks like a tooth. Jackie, on her second time up there, set him straight.

I did the same thing from the West Coast. I assumed the long one was Tasman and the pointy one was Aoraki, and I was wrong.

Rex Simpson Hut

The hut has a couple of rooms with bunks, a kitchen and a pot belly stove. To get there, you drive around the east side of Lake Tekapo to the trailhead, then walk up.

It's in the dark sky reserve, with no light pollution. You don't sleep super well in a hut, and everyone gets up in the night for the outhouse, which is the best excuse to go outside and look up. For Jackie, the southern sky was new: the Southern Cross, Orion upside down (the pot, as we call it) and a bright Milky Way. Stargazing there is one of her top experiences, and if the night sky gets you too, it covers that whole area, Aoraki included. She loved it so much that she got her first tattoo in Queenstown: a Southern Cross on her arm.

Hooker Valley Track and Sealy Tarns

Jackie rates the Hooker Valley Track: flat, long and totally doable. It reminded her of her favourite trail in the world, to Cerro Torre in Patagonia, an undulating walk to a glacier lake with a tower behind it.

On the second trip, they reached the end with little waves lapping on the rocky shore, icebergs floating out from the glacier, Mount Cook right there and sunshine. She suggested the five or six of them each pick up a rock, make a wish and throw it in, like a coin in the Trevi Fountain. It was the last time she stood there, and she knows she'll be back.

If you're going to the South Island, you can't miss the Hooker Valley Track. Even if you're not sure about hiking, you can do it. I always see families along there, and it takes me ages because I stop for so many photos.

The same day, before the Hooker Valley, they climbed the stairs to Sealy Tarns, up towards Mueller Hut. It's all stairs, and Jackie loves it, because you see everything from above.

I've only done Sealy Tarns in winter, when the tarns were frozen over. I need to go back in summer for those reflections.

Jackie agrees, and reckons autumn would be a really beautiful time to go too, with the leaves turning.

Lake Dunstan Trail, from Cromwell to Clyde

What surprised Jackie most was the quality of the bike trails. The section of the Lake Dunstan Trail from Cromwell to Clyde goes through a gorge. The highway is on one side of the water, and on the other side is a bike trail built into the mountain, with switchbacks up to viewpoints, long downhills, bridges and cantilevered boardwalks out over the water, around the rocks.

It was spring, and the wildflowers were going off, with lilacs, wild thyme and lupins in different colours, turquoise water and rock. They made it so interesting for cyclists: you don't know what's around the next corner, and it makes you want to keep exploring. More of the trail was being built towards Queenstown when she was there, with workers hanging off the cliffs. She hadn't expected any of it:

"I didn't realize I was going to be on one of the most epic single day bike rides of my life during this trip."

I've driven that road, looking across at the cyclists and thinking I was on the wrong side. I haven't done any biking in New Zealand, so Jackie has invited me to try it immediately.

Being away from New Zealand has shown me how much we take for granted: the backcountry hut network, well-maintained trails, the Hooker Valley's boardwalks and bridges, and now our bike trails. I hadn't known that you pay to go into national parks in the States.

Jackie's advice, and New Zealand against Patagonia

Jackie's advice for visitors:

• Just go. Forget about how long the flight is.
• Get off the beaten path as much as you can, and use the trails that are there for you.
• Stay out to watch the stars.
• Get a guide and let them take you places you didn't know existed, like the Around the Mountains Trail.

I'd add: plan your trip around nature. There's no point coming to New Zealand and missing out on the mountains.

Patagonia has a big hold on Jackie's heart, and arriving in New Zealand felt like knowing a place she'd never been. It ranks in her top two. Patagonia stays in there, and New Zealand felt a lot like it, only more compact and accessible, all in one place.

She was only meant to be here for about a month. She extended to five weeks, then her flights were delayed by three days. New Zealand didn't want to let her go, and she didn't want to leave. She could see herself living here.

I've had so many guests who came to New Zealand, didn't want to leave and came back to make it work, so she'd be in good company.

Places from this episode

• Hobbiton
• Waitomo
• Cambridge
• Christchurch
• Lake Tekapo
• Rex Simpson Hut
• Aoraki Mount Cook
• Lake Pukaki
• Hooker Valley Track
• Sealy Tarns
• Omarama
• Alps 2 Ocean
• Clyde
• Cromwell
• Lake Dunstan Trail
• Luxmore Hut
• Kepler Track
• Doubtful Sound
• Milford Sound
• Around the Mountains Trail
• Walter Peak Station
• Lake Wakatipu
• Queenstown
• Hokitika Gorge

Follow Jackie

• Instagram: @travelingjackie
• Podcast: Jump with Traveling Jackie
• Website: travelingjackie.com

More like this

• The Ultimate New Zealand South Island Road Trip in Winter with Barb and Reg
• Exploring the South Island for the First Time as a Kiwi on a 7 Day Road Trip with Hamish McColl
• The Ultimate New Zealand Road Trip with Dane and Stacey
• Bikepacking around the South Island with Rachel Davies

Until then, keep adventuring :)