More South Island, New Zealand

After being in New Zealand a little bit longer, I still cannot believe that I was surfing and laying out on the beach in Australia only two weeks ago.  Since we have gotten here, we have had many a cold, wet day and I have seen a lot of snow.

Where did I leave off?  After we said goodbye to Lee at the Christchurch airport, we had planned to drive south on the South Island.  However, bad weather and flooding to the south forced us to completely change our plans and head north instead to a town called Kaikoura.  We got into Kaikoura after dark and decided to stay at a motel for the night instead of a hostel to save money.

Since there are four of us traveling together, it makes sense for us to get motel rooms when they are available instead of hostels because they are usually around $100 for the night (hostels are between $25-30 each).  The pro of having a motel room is there is usually a private kitchen and bathroom for our use - and sometimes even a TV (luxury!), but the con is that we do not get to meet other travelers as we would in a hostel.

One quick side note - The reason we stay at motels instead of hotels is that we are yet to find an American hotel room that has two double beds.  The standard hotel rooms in Australia and New Zealand have only one queen bed or two twin beds...

When we got to the motel in Kaikoura, Vic was so excited that the series finale of Lost was on TV (I haven’t even been keeping up with this season - too hard while travelling!) that he did not realize that the heater he had turned on was burning a hole in the carpet!  This would come to cost him $500 New Zealand dollars!!

That definitely put a damper on the beginning of our tour of the South Island.  We had been planning to go whale watching in Kaikoura (what the town is known for), but after the carpet incident, we decided it was too expensive.  Instead, we decided to visit the local seal colony (for free!) which turned out to be pretty amazing.  We watched the seals playing in the waves, and there were four baby seals who came quite close to us.  We had a favorite baby seal - he looked like he might be in need of some medical attention - and we spent a lot of time just watching the seals before heading out of Kaikoura.

From Kaikoura, we tried our best to cheer Vic up by going wine tasting in Blenheim in the Marlborough region.  This region of New Zealand is famous for their white wine, especially Sauvignon Blanc and Riesling.  I offered to drive the car so that Vic could maximize his wine tasting experience, and we ended up going to four wineries.  One of the wineries even had a beer tasting!  The boys did the beer tasting while Amy and I sat out.  I was glad that I did, because the beer did not end up tasting very good...

After wine tasting, we drove a little farther north and decided to stay in a small town called Picton on the northern coast of the South Island to break up our drive for tomorrow.  If we were going to take the Interislander ferry from the South Island to the North Island, Picton is the port town where we would catch the ferry.  Instead though, we would be flying from Christchurch to Wellington (in the North Island) after our tour of the South Island.

Our hostel in Picton was very homey and cute.  They did not even give us room keys because they have a trust policy where no one locks the doors.  We were even served chocolate pudding and ice cream after dinner (which was delicious!) and were able to use their heated spa.

The next morning, we were served free breakfast at the hostel (although that really just means cereal and toast) before we set off again.  Our goal was to reach Abel Tasman National Park in the northwest corner of the South Island.  We ended up stopping and finding a place to stay in a VERY small town called Marahau at the entrance to the park.  Since it was early afternoon, we booked a room for the night at a hostel there (although the hostel was just us basically staying on this family’s farm) and went to go see Split Apple Rock.

We climbed the rocks for a bit and just enjoyed the scenery of Split Apple Rock (first sandy beach we had seen so far in New Zealand!).  It was finally nice to have a dry (and somewhat warmer) day.  I forgot to mention that the northern part of the South Island (including Blenheim where we wine tasted and Nelson which we drove through) are known for being the sunniest places on the South Island.  Well, they did not disappoint us and we had been seeing sun and dry weather for the past couple of days - what a much needed change!

However, the nice weather did not last long unfortunately.  We had driven to Abel Tasman National Park in the hopes of doing a 4-hour hike.  When we awoke the next morning however, the bad weather had returned and we decided it would not be worthwhile even getting out of the car.

Instead, we set off driving again down the wild west coast of the South Island.  Our next point of interest was the Franz Josef glacier, however we wanted to stop somewhere halfway for the night to break up the drive.

We ended up picking the small town of Punakaiki, which is known for its beautiful coastline, Pancake Rocks and Blowholes.  We chose Punakaiki because of this adorable hostel we found there.  Instead of bunk beds like a typical hostel, we all had mattresses on the floor in this attic-like room, a fireplace, a kitchen, and two bathrooms.  Our “retreat” (what they call the units) was literally in the middle of the woods, and if we wanted to leave for any reason, we had to walk in the pitch dark to the main part of the hostel.  I would definitely have been scared to stay here if I was alone...  In the morning, we bought fresh-baked bread from the hostel along with chocolate chip muffins (yum!)

While in Punakaiki, we did the walk to the Pancake Rocks and Blowhole.  The Pancake Rocks are named as such because the rocks apparently look like pancakes stacked on top of one another, and when the tide is high, the waves crash into them creating a blowhole effect.  The tide was too low for us to actually see the blowhole, but we did spot some dolphins swimming along the coast.  We also explored the Punakaiki Cavern which is a small cave.  We only had my small flashlight and Amy’s headtorch (which the batteries were low), so it was interesting walking around in the dark down in the cave.

From Punakaiki, we were headed to Franz Josef where we would be staying for two nights.  Since we had begun researching things to do on the South Island, we decided that hiking on the fastest moving glacier in the world for a day was a definite must!  On the way to the town of Franz Josef, we made a slight detour in the small town of Hokitika to see the infamous gorge that we were told we must see.  We were not disappointed - the gorge has some of the most beautiful turquoise water I have ever seen!

The next morning, we were waking up early to hike the Franz Josef glacier, so once we found a hostel, we booked in for two nights and went to bed.  In the AM, we woke up bright and early and drove to meet our guides for the full-day glacier hike.  Vic had decided to sit out the Franz Josef hike to save money, so it would only be Amy, Mark, and I for the day.

After checking in, we were given waterproof jackets and pants, wool gloves, hiking boots, and cramp-ons (metal shoes that would hook onto our hiking boots for climbing on the ice).  Then, we took a 10-minute bus drive from the Franz Josef town center to the glacier parking lot.  I really had no idea what to expect since I had only seen pictures and have never seen a glacier in real life before.  The view before us was absolutely breathtaking but also very confusing.  What I mean by this is that our perspective was completely thrown off as soon as we saw the glacier.  It is enormous in size, however it did not appear to look very big from where we were standing.  However, our guides warned us that this would happen - the walk from where we were standing to the glacier was about 2km and took 40 minutes even though it appeared to look much closer!

As we got close to the ice, we put on our cramp-ons and had to quickly get used to walking with them when we reached the ice.  It took a couple of practice steps before I felt completely comfortable trusting them to hold me on the ice.  We also met our guide for the day, Zack (he looked like a ginger version of McLovin’ and like he was not much older than 12!).  He told us a little more about the glacier - it is the fastest moving glacier - the guides have to scout out new features to show us each day.  This means that caves they had taken groups through the day before may no longer be there on the following day.  Before I met Zack, I had never met anyone who said Eh? or Sweet as (a common New Zealand saying) so much haha.

Despite the fact that Zack looked like he was younger than everyone on the glacier hike, he swung his ice pick with authority carving out steps for us along the way.  He seemed very knowledgeable about the glacier even though he had only been a guide for a little over a year.  He even shared a story with us about a time when he had to helicoptered off the glacier because he had accidentally put his ice pick through his shoe and big toe!!

Luckily, on our tour, we escaped without anyone getting hurt.  We were able to climb through a few blue ice caves (the ice is blue because it is so cold!) and walk between some tight crevasses on the glacier.  At one point along the hike, I accidentally dropped my camera and it disappeared from view into a crevasse in the glacier!  I was frozen in shock because I thought it was lost forever, however Amy rescued it by sticking her entire arm into freezing cold water.  Good thing my camera is waterproof!

One of the best things about the Franz Josef hike was an enormous blue ice cave that we went through towards the end of the day.  We definitely got wet during this part, but it was fine since we were almost through the hike.  It would have been a different story if we had wet socks and hiking boots earlier in the day!  The cave was about 40m long, and even Zack and the other guides said it was one of the most amazing features they had found on the glacier in a long time.  While we were going through the cave, I heard a loud crack and thought that the whole thing might come crashing down on us.  We made it safely out however, and hiked the entire way back to the carpark (it took what seemed like FOREVER!).  We were exhausted and sore when we returned to our hostel in the town center, and we were glad that we were staying an extra night.

The next morning, we were driving to Queenstown (extreme sports capital of the world).  We had visited Queenstown already with Lee (where we did the canyon swing), however we wanted to revisit it since we had such a great time.  This time around, we were hoping to go skiing on Coronet Peak - opening day was anticipated to be the following day!

This time around in Queenstown, the boys decided to go skydiving (Amy and I had already done it), so Amy and I decided to go skiing.  We went to rent clothes and skis since we definitely did not have anything warm enough to wear.  Just by chance we ended up going to a new ski rental place, and we were their first customers!  This meant that our skis, boots, and even snowboard pants were brand-new.  The equipment we were given was definitely the nicest I have ever used.

It was very confusing to me to be skiing in June!  It was opening day on Coronet Peak, so the mountain was pretty crowded.  Amy was used to skiing on blades, so we took a few smaller runs at first until we were comfortable before moving onto the harder runs.  The view from the top of the mountain was amazing, and we spent the entire afternoon skiing without even stopping for a break.

There were two things that stand out for me from skiing - one was the ski lift passes.  Instead of tickets that hang from your jacket/pants, they gave us cards that we could keep in our pockets.  They have magnets built into them that scan when you get onto the ski lift.  The cards keep track of your vertical distance (the distance you ski) and can be refilled online if we wanted to come back and ski again so we wouldn’t have to wait in line.  The second thing was how little snow there was.  I had never been skiing before where there were literally bald spots in the snow.  Queenstown had not gotten snow for the last couple of days, so they made some snow so that they could open the mountain early.  Even though it was a little scary at times skiing where the snow was thin (we didn’t want to ruin our brand-new equipment), we had a great time.

That night after skiing, we drove south to Te Anau so that we would be there in the morning for our trip to Milford Sound.  The road from Te Anau to Milford Sound (which is the only road to Milford Sound) is one of the most dangerous in the world because of avalanche risk.  For this reason, we decided it would be better to join a tour group from Te Anau instead of driving ourselves.

We left early in the morning with our tour group to Milford Sound and arrived around lunchtime.  On the drive, it started to snow!  There was definitely not enough snow for there to be a risk of avalanche, but it was nice to let someone else drive for once.  Our tour guide was also very knowledgeable about the area.

 

When we got into Milford Sound, we took a lunchtime cruise through the mountains.  I have never seen so many waterfalls in my life!  It was rainy and cold, so we stayed inside the boat for most of the cruise.  Milford Sound is not actually a sound; it is technically a fiord - although I can never remember the difference haha.  I know that they have something to do with places where the ocean have overflowed into valleys and created rivers.  Even though the weather was cold and rainy, the scenery at Milford Sound was still beautiful.

On the drive back to Te Anau, we saw a couple of kea.  They are similar to parrots but native to New Zealand.  Supposedly, they walk like penguins and act like clowns, but I did not get to witness this.  Similar to monkeys in Africa or lorakeets in Australia, the local people consider them to be a nuisance.  However, I quite enjoyed seeing them and watched them for a bit.

From Te Anau, we were headed to Dunedin on the southeast coast of the South Island.  Dunedin would be our last stop on the South Island before heading to Wellington on the North Island from Christchurch.  We stayed in Dunedin for two nights, and it was the coldest I have been in New Zealand so far!  It is very rare to find central heating in buildings in New Zealand.  Instead, they have small portable heaters in each room that do not provide enough heat!  It is very rare when we find an open-fire, but we treasure those moments.

In Dunedin, we were so cold while watching the second Lord of the Rings movie that we asked reception at the hostel if they had hot water bottles.  Luckily they did!  I kept mine for the entire night and cuddled it to sleep.

The next day we decided to do the Speight’s Brewery tour in Dunedin (Speight’s is a famous beer in the South Island) since it was still cold and rainy.  The tour was actually not very good - it was the queen’s birthday (national holiday), so the brewery was not operational and we just walked around the empty rooms and hallways.  The upside of the tour though was at the end we were given tasting glasses and were able to pour as much beer as we wanted for ourselves!

Before leaving Dunedin, I made it a point to visit Baldwin Street, the steepest street in the world.  I was a little skeptical after having lived in San Francisco, but after walking to the top, I realized that it might actually be the steepest.

From Dunedin, we headed to Christchurch for the third and final time.  We are catching a flight tomorrow for the North Island.  I am not really sure what to expect, but I have heard things about volcanoes, hot pools, and warmer weather.  All three things remind me of Costa Rica actually.  However, I am ready to see something new.  The South Island was amazing scenery, friendly people (although not the best looking haha), lots of one-way bridges (which I do not understand!) and a lot of snow.  Who knows what the North Island will bring...

New Zealand on a whim

In an effort to be spontaneous, we had booked one-way tickets to New Zealand from Brisbane.  We had no plans once we got into Christchurch, we just knew that we did not want to be locked into an itinerary.  In case we loved New Zealand and wanted to stay longer (or vice versa), we wanted the flexibility to do so.  However, when we got to the Brisbane airport to check-in for our flight, we quickly found out that was not going to be the case.  Since we did not have visas for New Zealand, we needed to show proof of a return flight to Australia from New Zealand.  So much for being spontaneous...

In a matter of 30 minutes, we had to estimate how long we would need to stay in New Zealand and book our return flights using computers at the airport.  We collectively decided that we would want at least four weeks to do both the South and North Islands of New Zealand and booked a return flight for June 21st to Australia.  Even still, if we needed more time, we could pay a change fee and extend or shorten our trip.

Due to having to book return flights, we were running to the gate after last call and barely made it our flight even though we had gotten to the airport with plenty of time.  During the entire flight, I still could not believe that I was actually on my way to New Zealand.  Just the day before, I was planning to be in a town on the East Coast of Australia called Bundaberg getting my SCUBA certification.  Instead, I was on an international flight to Christchurch, New Zealand, and I had absolutely no idea what I was getting myself into.  I did not even have time to do any research about New Zealand!

As we were flying into Christchurch, we looked out the plane window to see dark clouds and rain.  Over the loudspeaker, the pilot announced the outside temperature - 12 degrees Celsius! (it was 25 degrees Celsius where we were in Australia!)  I had not packed any warm clothes, but Vic was nice enough to lend me his red Canada sweatshirt for the duration of our New Zealand trip.  One thing to say about this - a lot of American travelers pretend that they are Canadian because they are embarrassed to be American, but that is not what I was doing...promise!  Even though I have the sweatshirt (or “jumper” as they would call it here), I still have to layer almost every other piece of clothing I have - it is so cold and wet!

We stayed the first night in New Zealand in Cathedral Square in Christchurch but decided to leave the next morning and drive to Queenstown.  Lee (one of the guys I am currently traveling with) is leaving on Saturday (May 29) from Christchurch, so we planned to do a fast loop of the South Island.  After he leaves, we are going to revisit places we liked but did not get to spend much time as well as see other parts of the South Island before heading to the North Island where it is supposed to be warmer.

On the way to Queenstown, we stopped at a place called Lake Tekapo.  Even though it was rainy, cloudy, and cold, we could still tell that the lake was a beautiful place.  The only way to describe the lakes in New Zealand accurately is that the water is a milky blue - the water is clear, but it looks like someone poured milk in it!

We got into Queenstown after dark, so we were amazed by the scenery that awaited us when we woke up the next morning.  For those of you that do not know, Queenstown is the extreme sports capital of the world, and we were excited to see our options for adrenaline.  A few of us had already gone skydiving before, so we wanted to try something different and collectively agreed that we were not interested in bungee jumping.  We decided to go canyon swinging instead in the Shotover Canyon and booked it in 2 days (they did not have availability for all of us the next day).

Also, in the spirit of Queenstown, we made up a series of dares during the drive to complete by Saturday.  The first person to complete 5 dares would get one drink from each of the rest of us.  The dares were silly - for example, one of the dares was to put on my wetsuit and ask someone at reception where we could rent a surfboard.  This would be funny because it is the beginning of winter and Queenstown is located on a lake inland from the beach!  No one actually completed this dare and the game was never complete, however as part of the game, I wore my retainers out our first night in Queenstown, Mark wore eyeliner, and we styled Vic’s hair into horns (hilarious!).

Our first night in Queenstown, we decided to go to the casino and played $5 blackjack.  Afterward, we went to a bar that had been recommended to us called World Bar.  Known for serving cocktails in teapots, World Bar was a great spot - the dreadlocked DJ played good music and we danced the night away.

The next day, we tried another Queenstown institution - Fergburger!  I can honestly say that the Cockadoodle Oink burger I shared with Amy was one of the best I have ever had.  It was enormous and we ended up taking our leftovers for the drive to Lake Wanaka.  Only an hour and a half from Queenstown, Lake Wanaka is another milky blue lake surrounded by amazing scenery.  Even though it has been cold and rainy each day so far, it is hard not to appreciate the endless scenery that New Zealand has to offer.  And another New Zealand fact that we can attest to - there are so many sheep!  Supposedly, there are 10 sheep for every person (4 million people and about 40 million sheep).

After Lake Wanaka, we drove back to Queenstown and decided to play a friendly game of poker in our hostel for $5 buy-in.  I ended up getting some great hands (and bluffed when I didn’t) and won the entire pot (ended up only being $20, but still)!

Canyon swinging day had arrived the next morning, and we were all nervous and excited.  Vic was the only one who was terrified and regretted signing up to do it.  We decided to play a few holes of Frisbee golf in the morning at the Queenstown Gardens (Vic and I were Team Gino, Lee and Amy were Team Brit, and Mark was Team Grumpy) to get our minds off the extreme sport awaiting us in the afternoon.  At the end of 4 holes, Team Gino and Team Grumpy were tied, but we had to pause the game to make our canyon swinging reservation.

We drove out to Shotover Canyon, and on the way we were expected to decide on a position for the jump.  Similar to bungee jumping, canyon swinging involves jumping off a ledge into a canyon.  There is a 60 meter freefall (which is the same as the highest bungee in the world, also located in Queenstown).  However, the difference between canyon swinging and bungee jumping is that instead of bouncing at the end, canyon swinging continues into a 200 meter swing at speeds of up to 150 km per hour.  Also, there are only a few positions for bungee jumping, whereas there are about 60 different positions for canyon swinging.

Since Vic was terrified, he jumped first and was off the platform before we even had time to videotape him.  He took a running leap and jumped headfirst into the canyon below.  Mark was next and decided to do a backflip off the ledge.  Amy, Lee, and I were next and we all were gutsy enough to do the Pin Drop position.  The Pin Drop position involves leaning forward at the waist with your hands behind your back while you jump sideways off the platform.  Since you do not have any limbs exposed, the Pin Drop is one of the scariest positions and can gain the fastest speeds.  The only way that I can explain the experience of the Pin Drop is that it was terrifying and the adrenaline rush was incredible!

In fact, Amy, Mark, and I decided to do a second jump - this time trying harder positions.  Mark went first and did Gimp Boy Goes to Hollywood which meant he fell headfirst into canyon and Amy tried the Elvis Cutaway position.  Somehow I was talked into doing the position called the “Chair of Death!”  I was seated in a plastic chair and a seatbelt was strapped to my waist.  Basically, I was expected to lean the chair backwards over the edge, backflipping into the abyss below.  This would have been terrifying enough, however the guys working the swing taunted me by holding me off the edge of the cliff.  In fact, Lee could not do a second jump because he was so distraught by watching my chair jump.  Amy was the only one brave enough to do a third jump - she attempted to do backflips!

With our adrenaline pumping, we decided to drive to Mount Cook Village later that night.  On the drive, I talked to my mom and dad on the phone just as it started to snow.  The snow continued for the rest of the drive, and by the time we arrived in Mount Cook, we were worried that we might get snowed in!  We made it safely and stayed the night at the only hostel in town.  By chance, some of the other people were watching Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, and since I had never seen any of the trilogy, we decided to watch it.  How appropriate to watch Lord of the Rings in New Zealand where it was filmed!

The next morning, we awoke to a winter wonderland and snow continued to fall throughout the day.  We went on a 2-hour hike through the snow called the Kea Point walk.  It was a beautiful walk and we stopped to have a few snowball fights along the way.  There was a lookout over the lake surrounded by snow-covered mountains at the end of the walk, and of course I slipped and fell the whole way down the stairs, bruising my tailbone!  After walking back and eating soup for lunch, we decided it would be best to drive the entire way to Christchurch that night in case the snow got worse.

Once again, we stayed the night in Cathedral Square in Christchurch and celebrated Lee’s last night in New Zealand at a nearby Irish pub.  Even though it was still rainy the next morning, we decided to walk around Christchurch before heading to the airport.  Not a very pretty city, Christchurch offers even less to see on a cold, rainy day.

At the airport, we said goodbye to Lee and decided to roughly plan out the duration of our trip in New Zealand.  We returned our rental Toyota Rav-4 that we had had for the last 5 days and traded it in for a smaller car since there would only be four of us.  Since many of the roads are closed due to weather conditions (rain and flooding in the Southeast and snow in Queenstown and the Southwest), we decided to begin by driving  North to Kaikoura that night.

We planned to have our smaller car on the South Island for 10 days or so, then fly to Wellington in the North Island and get a campervan for the last 2 weeks we would be in New Zealand.  The weather is expected to be drier and warmer in the North Island, so we definitely wanted to rent a campervan for the experience as well as to save a little money.  And also, it would be nice to have a home for more than a few nights (even though it would be in a van) as we are starting to tire of living out of suitcases and moving every few days...