Alright! Here is the first actual blog about my adventures lately. As many of you know I was in New Zealand from November 20th to the 27th with my friend Tara. The night before we flew out, I went to see New Moon with my Aussie friends (and yes Charlie, it was definitely awesome!) and Tara did some final packing up of her room as she is leaving Australia mid December, which I am quite sad about!!! You might want to make sure you have a lot of time… this could take a while 
Friday, November 20th, 2009. In the morning we made our flight with 2 minutes to spare… note-to-self: When flying with Jetstar, when they say you must check in an hour before your flight, they literally mean DO NOT BE LATE! Once we were on our flight we had meat pies then tried to nap. We had the 1st row of the plane which was unreal, I’ve never had unlimited leg room before! Nothing else too exciting happened on the flight other than Tara tried to paint her nails and the flight attendant almost tackled her because nail polish is considered and “extreme fire hazaard” — who knew!? Once we got into Christchurch, NZ we headed to Apex car rentals where we picked up our car “Sunny” then hit the town to do some exploring. Christchurch is one of the most beautiful cities I’ve been too. Its quite big but has a small town feel to it. There is a small river that runs through the city with multiple bridges that cross over it and tons of flowers and trees.
After exploring we found a backpackers called “Charlie B’s Backpackers” where we hung out for pretty much the rest of the night (literally nothing was open after 8:30 in the city) and went to bed early.
Saturday, November 21st, 2009. We had an early morning at 7:45am because we wanted to see a bit more of Christchurch before we made our way down the east coast of the South Island to Dunedin. We went to this huge cathedral in Christchurch that was absolutely beautiful. It reminded me of the churches I saw in Spain. A lot of stained glass, a massive pipe organ, and this huge baptismal fountain. After we explored the church, we headed out of Christchurch.
Our first stop was at Cookie Time Factory in Templeton. Cookie Time was the home of the worlds biggest cookie. To our dismay, the cookie was baked over 10 years ago, we there was none left. It was so cool to see how they baked such a giant cookie though! After this stop, I had a go at driving for my first time while on exchange. Thats right, driving on the right side of the car on the left side of the road. At first it was pretty weird, Tara always reminded me “tight lefts and big rights” for turning, but within 15 minutes it felt normal and we had no problems.
Our next stop was at the Moeraki Boulders which were about an hour outside of Dunedin.
These rocks were SO cool! They were perfectly rounded boulders, in only one spot on this big beach. Apparently they were already perfectly round underneath the earth and as the dirt eroded away, the boulders were exposed. There was only a hand full of people there when we first got there so it was pretty neat to have the rocks all to ourselves (except in the above pictures… those people were in the majority of our pictures…. thanks guys). After the boulders we stopped at many places such as Totara (where meat originated from in NZ), Shag Point (we thought the name was hilarious), and a super dodgey cheese factory – which we did NOT enter.
When we finally got to Dunedin, we first stopped at the train station. Fun fact!! The Dunedin Train station is the 2nd most photographed building in the southern hemisphere next to the Sydney Opera House! Pretty cool! Across the street from the station was the Cadbury factory (Thank you Katie Robyn for telling me about it!), and up the road from there was Baldwin Street: The Worlds Steepest Street. We climbed the street and decided to hit up the Cadbury factory first thing in the morning.
We had some difficulty finding a hostel/backpackers in Dunedin. When we asked people they seemed to be a bit stunned at what we were saying, either that or it was a language barrier! Who knows!! We ended up driving around for almost 2 hours looking for somewhere to stay and decided to just bit the bullet and stay in a hotel instead of a backpackers. The hotel we stayed at was a “Quality Hotel”, however when we rocked up to our room two young love birds were completely making out infront of our door. Not awkward in the least…. Riiiight. After we got into our room we watched a bit of soccer and headed to bed.
Sunday, November 22nd, 2009. This was a MASSIVE day for the AmeriCanadian duo. We were at the Cadbury factory by 9am, in time for the 9:30am tour. Our elderly guide named John led us through the Cadbury factory tour where we got free chocolate and climbed 69 steps up to see a 30m chocolate fall pour out 1 ton of chocolate in 30 seconds. Yes…. I was in heaven. It was amazing!!! Unfortunately we weren’t allowed to bring cameras into the chocolate tour until the end so I couldn’t get a picture of the chocolate fall. Sad sad.. I know! However Tara and I did get a picture in front of the mountain of Crunchie bars… this ones for you Dad! And yes, they were REAL chocolate bars.
After the Cadbury factory we headed to a place called Larnach Castle. This place was absolutely stunning! The drive up their in itself was completely amazing. New Zealand is so green!!! The castle grounds consisted of multiple flower gardens and a self guided tour of the castle. I think both Tara and my favorite garden was the South Seas Garden. It overlooked the ocean which was scattered with islands and Dunedin off in the distance.
After the castle, we headed to another destination called Tunnel Beach. This beach was absolutely BREATHTAKING! I have never seen anything like it. The landscape was just rolling hills that were SO green (like everything in New Zealand), covered with sheep, that suddenly just dropped off into the ocean. The cliffs were so dramatic and gorgeous. Then to top it off, to get down to the beach you had to go down this tunnel, which honestly looked exactly like the rabbit hole from Alice in Wonderland. The beach was probably only 100m long and there were maybe 15 people there? I think I’ll just post a picture of it because after all, a picture says a thousand words!
As you can see, it was stunning. This was our last stop before heading to Queenstown. Queenstown is probably the most popular place for tourists when going to New Zealand. They have pretty much everything you’d want to do from skydiving to jet boating, oh and lets not forget the many Lord of the Rings tours (which we did not do… dang). When we first arrived at Queenstown we needed to pick up our friend Mike, who is Tara’s housemate. The bus was dropping him off at Athol St. Bus terminal. Yes… please reread that. It does say ATHOL street. Really pronounce that and you will realize why Tara and I found that hilarious. (Sorta like Urath… hahaha!). Once we found Mike we checked in at Base Backpackers, which was pretty much on the main street of Queenstown. We had supper at the world renowned Fergburger, which was quite delicious, then spent the night planning the rest of the trip at Starbucks. That was a VERY compact but awesome day.
Monday, November 23rd, 2009. We all slept in until 9am because at 10:30am we needed to meet up with the last two travelers we were meeting up with, our friends from our Marine Biology class named Lauren and Jenny who flew into Queenstown that day. We got lunch and mostly just hung around all day waiting for skydiving, which was supposed to be after lunch in the afternoon. When we got to NZone (the skydiving company), the guy working there told us that it was way too windy for us to go up. We all thought he was joking, but unfortunately he wasn’t! So all four of us were completely bummed that not only did we need to reschedule for Wednesday, but we also had missed out a day of activities–or so we thought. The guy behind the desk, trying to be helpful, starting naming things off that we could do. He mentioned “The Nevis” (bungee jumping) which is something that I had really been considering doing. I asked him about it and he told me the next bus was leaving at 3:00pm… and it was 2:55pm. I had to make a split second decision if I was going to do it or not. However, the Nevis isn’t just any bungee jumping place. The Nevis is the 3rd highest bungee site in the world. Plus the other girls didn’t want to go but they really thought that if I wanted to do it I should go. So with that, I hopped on a bus alone 3 minutes later and was on my way to the Nevis.
Words cannot really describe the Nevis. Other than HUGE. Or maybe Massive. Or of course my favorite, TERRIFYING!!!! It was 143m high in the middle of this valley. Once we had signed our lives away and were all suited up, we headed out towards the site. The little hut where you bungee from is suspended and you can’t walk to it. The only way you can get out there is by a bungee trolley. Which is pretty much like an open gondola. Yes Mom, you would absolutely hate it. I waited for probably 15 minutes until it was my turn. It was the weirdest feeling, I mean jumping towards a shallow river 143m below you really goes against every human instinct you have. I didn’t feel nervous, but I didn’t feel calm. I think I was mostly anxious but excited!! I think everyone should see my face once I stand up on the little ledge I have to jump from. I don’t have a picture of it, its on the video. Hopefully I will be able to show most of you at some point! Here are a few pictures of the Nevis.
This is the bungee trolley carrying the first few people out to the bungee site. As you can see, the little hut hanging out there is WELL above the river.
This picture pretty much speaks for itself. Bon voyage Kelsey!
After I did the Nevis, I was pretty stoked! They had a deal that you could also do the worlds highest canyon swing called the Nevis Arc. I decided that “when in Rome” I should do it while I’m here! I’m not sure when I’ll be back in New Zealand so if I have the chance I should just do it! The canyon swing is pretty much exactly what it sounds like. A GIANT swing that makes you feel like your flying. I ended up going on it backwards and upside down. Which was SO fun but a bit scary. Its all part of the thrill I guess!
After all the adrenalin junkie activities at the Nevis site was over, I headed back to Queenstown on the bus with everyone else. All but 1 guy jumped so everyone was pretty excited. When I got back to Queenstown, some how all of us ran into each other in the street. The girls ended up going bungee jumping at another location and Mike did a river boarding day trip. We decided to go out for supper at this little Mexican place to look at pictures and talk about everyones day.
After supper we all went back to the backpackers, showered and got ready to go to Queenstown’s famous ice bar called Minus 5. We had to make reservations because only a limited number of people can go in at once and you can only go in for 30 minutes. Minus 5 was so awesome inside and definitely worth the wait! When you first arrive they give you big parkas, gloves, and Ugg boots to wear while your inside.
Everything from the furniture to the cups to the walls are ice – plus you get a free drink! Tara and I had a cocktail called “Yellow Snow”. After Minus 5 we headed back to the backpackers to call it a night because we had a really early morning ahead of us the next day!
Tuesday, November 24th, 2009. We were all up and gone by 7:30am on Tuesday. Jenny and Lauren were on a tour to Milford Sound and Mike, Tara, and myself decided to drive to Milford Sound at the guidance of Caroline (what we named our GPS lady). On the way to Milford sound we stopped here and there to see water falls, snow, or the odd Kea (the only mountainous parrot in the world!). When we got to Milford sound we decided we would book a cruise to take us around the sound. We booked onto the boat called the Milford Wanderer, which sort of looked like a miniature pirate ship. Milford sound is stunning. Basically its where the ocean comes winding in through the mountains. There were heaps of waterfalls and really really tall cliffs. I think that Milford sound was made by a glacier and thats why the cliffs are so sharp. The tour guide said that some of the cliffs are close to 1km high! At the beginning of the cruise it was raining a lot but that may have turned out to be sort of beneficial for us because there were SO many waterfalls. On the cruise we headed out to the Tasman Sea and saw a whole bunch of seals and also a really rare and super cute colony of penguins! Not every day you get to see penguins and I definitely consider myself a lucky girl!
After the cruise was over we did a short hike up to a look out to have a view of Milford sound then got petrol and carried on our way back to Queenstown. Once all five of us met up again we went out for supper to Winnies Pizza place. Which is a gourmet pizza place and if your ever in Queenstown you should really go to! I got the Tri-facta pizza which had toppings consisted of pieces of steak, bacon, bbq sauce, and other things. Definitely a step away from the ol’ regular cheese pizza!! We were all exhausted from getting up at 6am so we hit the hay pretty early after pizza.
Wednesday, November 25th, 2009. Tara and I got up early so that we could check out of our backpackers and hit the shops before skydiving which was supposed to be at 10:30am. However when we went to make sure it was still on, it was delayed until 11:30am. So we shopped until 11am but when we went back to NZone skydiving, the wind had picked up and sure enough sky diving was cancelled for the day. Jenny and Lauren rebooked for Thursday (and I found out later that it was cancelled Thursday too! Bummer!!!) but Tara, Mike and I were heading out to the west coast of the south island and couldn’t reschedule again. All five of us headed to Wanaka which is about an hour outside of Queenstown. There we checked again if skydiving was a go but, once again, it was a no go. Which made us both very sad because that was the end of our chance to skydive–for now at least! We had “fish n chups” in Wanaka then hung out on the beach before saying good bye to the Jenny and Lauren. After saying our goodbye’s, Tara, Mike and myself headed off to Fox Glacier and Franz Joseph.
On the way to the glacier we tried to stop at anything that looked interesting. It was raining a lot once we got into the
mountains which put a bit of a damper on our exploring capabilities. Although at one point we found this really cool waterfall that had a small river infront of it. Mike and I decided that we wanted a closer view of the waterfall and set out to cross the river. It didn’t really dawn on us until we started to cross the river how cold the water really was. It felt like it was about +1 celcius. When we got to the other side our feet were aching but it was definitely worth the view! I decided that it would be fun to climb this massive rock that was in front of the waterfall. Which was really fun however posed to be a bit troublesome to get down. Good thing I watched Tarzan all those years!
Fox Glacier was a bit of a let down, mostly because of the pouring rain. Although Mike and I did go on a quick hike which was fun in the rain. Tara started getting sick and didn’t have a jacket so she opted out of the 15-20 min hike.
When we got to the town of Franz Joseph we ended up staying at a place called Rainforest Resort. Which was a really nice place with a huge “bubbly spa”. Crappy for us thought because the spa closed at 8pm and we didn’t arrive until around 10pm. Oh well, we were content with spending the night in the hotel room watching episodes of Glee and getting to bed.
Thursday, November 26th, 2009. Our last day in New Zealand! One this day I remember looking back at the trip and thinking how crazy fast time had gone by. It honestly felt like we had been in New Zealand maybe 2-3 days? Not almost a week. As we drove to Franz Joseph glacier, we all realized how much we had seen and done in New Zealand with the short amount of time we had.
We started out by doing the hour and a half return hike up to the glacier itself. It was pretty cool… literally. Franz Joseph glacier is one of the only glaciers in the world that is growing instead of retreating. It was pretty neat because if you were on a guided tour you could climb up the glacier.
We didn’t know you could do that until we were physically at the glacier. I guess even if we could have known we wouldn’t have had time to do it. Off to the side from the glacier was this water fall and little stream. We decided since our water bottles were empty, to fill up and try out some fresh water right from the water fall. It was really weird because the water didn’t taste like floride, or minerals, it just tasted like fresh water — or how water should taste, tasteless! After we got back to Sunny, we drove to a local grocery store and picked up enough food to last us for the rest of our journey.
Our next stop after Franz Joseph was Arthurs Pass, which was FREEZING!!! I think its at a pretty high altitude and the place was full of retirees and hikers. While paying for gas I was asked the typical question “Where in Canada are you from?” and I responded with “Saskatchewan”, as I was about to explain where in the country it was the guy was like “Oh sweet! I’m from Maple Creek”. Turns out he had just moved to New Zealand 3 days earlier and was travelling through the country while working. Small world! He then proceeded to give me his facebook name and I’m supposed to add him…. Hmm.
We arrived back in Christchurch around supper time. We had successfully driven around most of the south island and arrived back in one piece! That was quite a huge feat for us! We cleaned Sunny and Mike checked into a backpackers. We then decided we needed somewhere to hang out for a while and since everything in Christchurch closes at 8pm, we could only stay in Starbucks for so long. We relocated to the BK lounge (aka Burgerking) and hung out there for three hours until it was time for Mike to drop us at the airport, which was around midnight.
We said our good byes to Mike and then set up camp in a corner of the airport. To our surprise, there was a lot of other backpackers and people sleeping in the airport as well. We loved that we weren’t the only cheap people who didn’t want to pay for a hostel for 5 hours! Power to the people! So we watched a few more episodes of Glee, slept and finally boarded the plane back to Brissy.
This was an epic description of our adventures, with a ton of things I didn’t include. You’ll have to see some of the 2,000 pictures to get the jist of it! (Ok people!! I have Tara’s pictures too!! It wasn’t 100% ALL my pictures!)
Mike, Jenny, and Lauren — If you read this I hope you all know how amazing this trip was for me! You all are awesome people and I am so lucky to have got to know you over this semester. I really hope we keep in touch and that everything back in the U.S. of A goes great. And if it doesn’t, you still have a place to stay in Brisbane for the next 6 months !!! I would absolutely LOVE to have you!!! I can’t wait to see you all next Thanksgiving for my first American Thanksgiving!!!
Tara — You are so sweet as bru! My AmeriCanadian friend!!! You have been unbelievably awesome this semester. Moreton Bay, Heron Island, and now New Zealand!! I can’t believe that 4 months has gone by so fast, and I honestly don’t know what I’ll do without my Aussie Bestie! I hope you have an absolute blast in the Whitsundays with your parents and a great trip home afterwards. I can’t wait for our first of many skype dates to hear all about it. Tell Kayla I said G’day and you two can start planning a trip back here in June-ish? Or whenever I am still here . I am already so excited for an American Thanksgiving! I love you and I’ll miss you HEAPS!!!!
If anyone out there is still readying this, thanks for sticking with me! I know it was pretty detailed but I just want to be able to look back in a years time and remember the great adventures with great people I had.
Now the count down is on until I am back on Canadian soil for December! Stay tuned for Adventures in Canada with Melinda and I. Shout outs to Sally and Rian on their trip to South Africa! I can’t wait to hear about it, please don’t get mulled by a hippo!!!
Oh and one more thing…. LETS GO RIDERS!!!!!!
-Kels
