Day 1

We arrived into Reykjavík after a very early start. 3:30am wake and cabbed to Gatwick. After a night of stressing on the weight of our luggage, the nice guy at the airport let us put our carry on into the hold. Which made for a nice surprise when we got to our first stop to see the salt and pepper had exploded through one of the carry-on bag! Laughter and explicits ensued. Who could really be mad though, we were in Iceland! First stop was Hallgrímskirkja, a massive church in downtown Reykjavík. State Architect Guðjón Samúelsson's, is said to have designed it to resemble the trap rocks, mountains and glaciers of Iceland's landscape. The 360 view from the top was epic.

We dropped of our bags at the Airbnb and then headed to the Bonus Supermarket to stock up on supplies. There was an awesome little bakery called Brauð & Co. where we got the most amazing cinnamon rolls from, warm straight out of the oven!

We made our way on the Golden Circle route. First stop there was a horse farm. It was cool to see them up close, but they were so confined! We knew we'd be seeing a lot more so next stop was the Þingvellir National Park. We parked in the less busy car park and walked through a small canyon to the Öxarárfoss waterfall. The landscape is unreal, so raw, muted tones from the volcanic rock and the moss that thrives off it. In some places and reminds me a lot of the desert road and MacKenzie country back home (in NZ).

Next stop was the Great and the Strokkur Geyser. We knew we were running behind schedule but headed up to Gullfoss Falls. It was impressive, windy and very popular. Would have been interesting 5 years ago, there are now cafes at a lot of major attractions, and a sign saying no drones! So many times I wish I had bought a drone though.

We missed Faxi falls knowing we were running out of time and headed south then back north into the highlands to Háifoss falls. The roads got very quiet, so quiet that we didn’t see anyone at all. The turn off for the falls was gravel and 16km long. Crossed two small rivers then climbed up into the mountains. There’s no way our original rental was going to cut it. A VW Golf, which then we upgraded to a Suziki Jimny which then Reykjavík Cars upgraded to a Daica Duster. We got 50 meters from the car park and decided not to drive across the snow and ice. The waterfall was insane. It’s the highest waterfall in Iceland and there was snow everywhere, with new snow falling. We were the only people there, it was a moment that we'll never forget.

With the light almost gone we made the hour and a half journey back via Kerið crater. A small explosive crater literally on the side of the road with bluish water (no photos sorry). The drive back to Reykjavík was wet and once we got closer and higher in altitude we had to drive through a snow storm, the first but defintely not the last!