So, I was traveling mainly with this girl Kana from Chicago, and Jeff from Boston.
We were able to meet up with other friends along the way, but mostly, it was the three of us, touring the South Island of New Zealand. :)
We flew to Christchurch on the 24th. I was supposed to stay with a friend from Orientation, but he ended up being out of town that day for his own spring break. Kana had made arrangements already to stay at this guy Patrick's apartment. Patrick was gone too, but had left his room key hidden for her to find. So I joined her, in free housing. :) Christchurch is a bit boring, in all
honesty. Although I bet its much more interesting when you get to see and hang out with people you know. It was a very BRITISH town... which sounds weird, but its true. We went to the botanical gardens and a museum and to Cathedral Square. Very pretty and quaint. We woke up to the most amazing sunrise.
The next morning we caught a bus out to Dunedin, on the south part of the South Island. This was probably one of my favorite places to go. Dunedin is a very student-oriented place. 20,000 of the 10,000 people there are students. So yes, everything is oriented to our age group. I have a friend from GW named Alex, who is studying abroad for a YEAR in Dunedin! So a few weeks before leaving I called and asked if I could stay with him and he was kind enough to let me. He
had a car, which I wasn't expecting. He drove up to the train station to pick me up, let me drop my stuff off, and then we headed to Sandfly Beach. This beach was SO cool. It was a very small, blocked off by two huge walls of rock: it gave the beach a very private feel.
He convinced me to jump off of a little cliff onto the soft sand piles underneath and that was
fun. We ran and played in these HUGE sand dunes, rolling down them, running up them, etc, etc.
There were also a bunch of sea lions just lying around. They actually blended in VERY well with the rocks. To the point where I wouldn't see it was an animal till either I was very close, or it moved. We saw a movie that night and then went to sleep. Climbing sand is hard work.
The next day, Alex took me to this really cool garden. It started off at this beautiful little pond with ducks and wound around to this pretty, hidden place.
The paths into the woods were incredible. EVERYTHING was covered in moss. I felt as though I'd stepped into Nature's version of the Emerald City.
There were also see-saws, monkey bars, and swings. Needless to say I had a great amount of fun on those. He had class from 2-4, so I met up with Jeff (O, Jeff and Kana had made other accommodation arrangements beforehand) and hit the Otago museum which was pretty cool. And when Alex got back, we hung out, cooked dinner, played Gin Rumi, watched a VERY weird movie, and then went to bed. :) The next day we left for Queenstown!!!!
Queenstown is... AMAZING. It reminds me of the little mountain towns back home. The first day we got there the air was super dry, and super cold. It was that perfect, crisp, cold, mountain air. I felt at home!
The first night we just walked around this little town and hung out and relaxed. The second day we did a Canyon Swing... I never knew I could scream like that. You are harnessed to this awesome mechanism that allows you to swing over the Shotover River. But before you can start swinging, there's a 60 meter (or 197 foot) freefall drop. Now, I wasn't completely aware of how much of a free fall there was. But o boy there was. I had to just will myself to jump off that cliff. Everything in your mind and body is telling you to NOT jump, but it's amazing. And yes, Jeenie screamed like there was no tomorrow. It was absolutely incredible.
Later that day, Jeff and I met up with our friends Ben and Charles while Kana went Bungy Jumping (which i WILL NOT do). The four of us did the Shotover Jet Boat, which is really like this big amusement park water ride, only you're doing it for real. We were getting super close to the rocks and then veering out of the way just in time, doing 360s in the water, getting really, really wet. haha. That night, Ben, Charles, and I went to this thing called the Ice Bar, or the Minus 5 Bar. It is quite literally a bar made entirely of ice. You pay $27 for 30 minutes inside this igloo for a drink, and lots of fun pictures. It was so cold you had to wear an additional coat, gloves, and hat if you needed. The cups were made of ice (which you're allowed to eat), there were ice sculptures, it was really fun!
The second day is what I like to call EPIC DAY. Or perhaps Near-Death Experience Day.
I started the morning by skydiving out of an airplane at 9000 feet! WOOO! That rush was incredible, and despite common perceptions, it's not scary at all! You just feel like you're floating. It is one of two things i HAD to do in NZ. Check. SO much fun. A few hours later we took a really cool helicopter ride to the beginning of our White Water Rafting site. We were doing class 3 and 4 rapids, and on the first set of rapids (class 4), our raft tipped over. All 6 of us toppled into the cold water... and I really had fun! I was rescued by another boat, but I legitimately thought it was awesome. I'm glad it happened! I thought it would have been ironic if I had survived sky diving but not white water rafting. But I didn't, and it was fun fun fun!
When we got back, I took Kana night boarding. She had never boarded before so we stuck on the bunny hill and I taught her how to board! :)
Day 3 in Queenstown was supposed to be a day trip to Milford Sound (supposedly one of the most beautiful places in the world), but the weather conditions were too bad. So we turned around, slept more, and then Kana and I went snowboarding again. Then we had Fergburger... which was amazing as well. Mmmm, yummy food! We left Queenstown the next morning and headed to Franz Josef.
Franz Josef is a tiny little town. Population: 5. No, just kidding. But you get the idea. It was like 3 streets long. haha. We got in, settled down and went to bed early. Queenstown definitely wore us all out a LOT. The next morning, though, we went hiking on the Franz Josef Glacier!! Walking on a giant piece of ice, walking through the crevices, etc etc. It was fun! We were supposed to do a whole day, but it got cut down to a half day (we got refunded), because the weather stunk. Hail hurts when it hits your body at like a million miles per hour!! The wind was so strong it almost knocked over our experienced guide, who was this big Maori guy! SO yeah, needless to say, we couldn't face those. But it was fun nonetheless. I also drank water from the water pockets in the glacier: freshest water out there!
Finally we headed to Nelson. (this is the top of the South Island, so made a huge loop). We stayed in Nelson one night, where we happened to meet up with several friends, some of whom I had not seen since Orientation! It was cool, actually. There were 3 boys I hung out with the most who went to a different school. They were there so it was cool seeing them!! The next morning, Kana and I headed to Abel Tasman, another remarkably beautiful NZ place.
The program had organized a 22-person trip to Abel Tasman. Kana and I had been unable to make the list, so we did our own Abel Tasman trip. We got to stay at the same lodge and hike most of the same hike. We just happened to return early. I spent almost all my time with my 3 orientation friends. It was really cool seeing them again. :D
So that's it, flew into Wellington this morning, and now I am sitting at my desk, finishing this blog. YAY SPRING BREAKKKK!
No comments:
Post a Comment