North Island tour

Finally back from my two week vacation!

We started with a flight to Auckland where we spent only one night. We didn't have much time but we went up the sky tower to get expansive views of the city as well as going to the Auckland War Memorial and Museum. After Auckland we took a bus to Hamilton where we went to the zoo and explored the city. We weren't sure what to expect from Hamilton but it turned out being a cute, pretty little city. Next stop was Rotorua!

First off, we stayed at this awesome hostel called Crank. The hostel overlooked an indoor climbing wall next door, had a free gym, affordable wi-fi and a great atmosphere. Rotorua is an active geothermal area and therefore smells like sulphur... which you only kind of get used to. Our first day there we went to Paradise Valley Springs Wildlife Park which allows you to pet lions!! They were actually pretty coarse to the touch.

While in Rotorua we also stumbled upon a life size chess board set up in the grass and played two games. The pieces were made of wood and pretty heavy. 

Lastly we spent a few hours at Hell's Gate geothermal park and mud spa. We got a tour of the park and some of its geothermal features, mostly hot sulphur or mud pools. Afterwards we got a mud bath followed by a sulphur bath. They were really fun! But little did we know the water would tarnish our jewelry and cause us (and our clothes) to smell like sulphur for the rest of the trip. 

Wellington was my favorite stop of the North Island trip and is the capital of New Zealand. Wellington is a big city with more character than Auckland and had a lot of free things to do. As far as activities go, I only spent $2.00 in Wellington. First we toured the New Zealand parliament buildings. The big "beehive" on the left are the executive offices and the stone building on the right is the parliament house. To the right of that, out of sight, is the parliament library. The debate room in the parliament house is modeled almost exactly to the house of commons in England. What was really interesting is that New Zealand only has a house of representatives, as they abolished their senate years ago. 

Views of Wellington after a trip on the cable car. 

We also went to New Zealand's national museum, Te Papa, which was free and a really, really neat museum! It was a great trip. I'm certainly glad to be back in Lincoln where I can relax for a while.

South Island road trip - Part 2

Scroll down if you haven't read part 1 yet.

We made it to Queenstown the next afternoon with a few scenery stops along the way- one of which being Blue Pools, in Haast pass. The pools were beautiful but once again surrounded by sand flies. This time however we were taking our time there to build a rock sculpture and had to endure them longer. I was mostly covered up minus my ankles, which they immediately targeted. Due to the concentrated bites in that area my ankles swelled up pretty bad. They’re still red and swollen as I speak.

Queenstown was one of my favorite places. It’s quite literally a trendy, mountain, ski town. We didn’t spend much time there, just dinner at Fergburger. 

We stayed at a campground near there before heading to Milford Sound in the morning. The fiordlands were incredible. It was raining when we reached them and because of this there were heaps of waterfalls just coming off the mountains everywhere. Our guide told us that there are over a thousand waterfalls in the fiordlands. We had a cruise booked to tour Milford Sound and got to kayak as well.

Our trip started to turn on our drive back up from Milford Sound. There was one particularly long, steep hill that I was convinced we wouldn’t make it up. Thankfully, we did, but due to a one-way tunnel at the top we were forced to stop, that’s when I began to smell burning. When it came time to start on that hill, I slowly made it into first and into the tunnel, but the car had no power. The rev’s got higher and the car smoked even more. We were forced to back out of the tunnel. A couple hours later a tow truck came and confirmed that our clutch had been blown. We took a two-hour drive and towed it to the nearest town, where the car still remains. Thankfully, the rental company paid for us to take a bus back to Queenstown where they would give us a replacement.

…Which they did. We headed back to Christchurch with a few more stops on the way.

A Kea bird

Wanaka

The church of the good shepherd at Lake Tekapo

Then about 16km from campus our second car blew out a rear tire. We were able to change it and made it to campus without too much of a hitch.

Now it’s time for a nap.

South Island road trip - Part 1

Wow, one of the most memorable adventures I have had the privilege to take part in. From the first minute my heart was racing and we knew this would be one hell of a trip.

It started when we picked up the rental car in downtown Christchurch. All they had left at the time were manuals and so we had no choice but to accept the challenge. Turns out I was the best of the group and it was my job to drive it back – I soon learned that it would be my job to drive 95% of the trip. While initially getting out of the parking lot was not easy to say the least, the rest of the 25-minute drive went surprisingly well considering the circumstances. There was one succession of stalls, but nothing too major. The car, a Daihatsu Sirion (nicknamed the Sirloin), was tiny; we had to repack and compress our stuff to make it all fit – but it made it.

We left campus at about 6pm and made it to Hokitika on the west coast of the south island in about 3.5 hours. The windy mountain roads forced me to learn stick real fast, but again, it all went surprisingly well. We pitched our tents at a lake campsite that evening and then left in the morning for Fox Glacier as we had a guided tour booked that afternoon. New Zealand is pretty much only mountain roads and the “Sirloin” almost didn’t make it up a few of the bigger hills…

The glacier was incredible. We hiked up to it and then spent at least another hour on the ice itself. What I found most interesting was how much it grows and recedes each year. There was a wooden staircase on the side of the valley where the glacier once sit, a substantial distance from where it lies today. After the glacier we continued down the coast as far as we could get to set ourselves up for a quicker drive to Queenstown the next day. We stopped at another lake campsite, which again was beautiful, but this time plagued with sand flies – basically the New Zealand version of mosquitoes, which I came to learn also love to bite me. 

April Break!

I leave this evening for my two week April break!

Starting with a 1900km road trip/camping of the South Island and then flying to the North Island for more exploring, this time by bus.

Should be quite the adventure!!
Expect pictures and stories upon my return :)