The week kicked off with a decent 6 hour car journey back to Wollongong from Werris Creek. We stopped off at subway and eventually made it back by mid-afternoon. In the evening we had a meet and greet event to get to know people around KB a bit more. I cant believe how many fresh eyed, bushy tailed first years there are. For once I don't feel like the young one which is a peculiar feeling.
Tuesday kicked off with a picnic in the botanic gardens, when I say picnic I mean go and sit down before playing some touch and soccer. The afternoon was pretty chilled out and we rounded off the day with a little session of pictionary. Wednesday was another chilled day, getting some chores done before we went out for my first time at the night out venue for this session called The Grand, which is pretty similar to Glasshouse last session. The free party bus was as buzzing as ever! We came back and munched on some garlic bread and crashed.
The beach consumed most of Thursday, it was great getting back in the sun and clear blue water. We played some more slips of course! Next thing I know evening has come round and I played a few games with the peeps who were in my flat and had a chilled out evo (evening, yes thats a thing now, im making it a thing). Friday rolled by and we hit the beach again, there was a crown of about 40-50 which was awesome. Played lots of slips, fribee and managed to bit in a bit of a surf. By the time we got back I grabbed some grub and we had some games and drinks up in a friends flat.
The highlight of saturday was playing some KB sports at the sun set. We had a great game of soccer, my shin held up but Ill have to rest it from now on :|. Straight after this we hit up the first of many free bbq's, had myself some snags. We spent the evening at mine, playing some games and having some drinks. Somehow we managed to stay up 5am, twas a great evening meeting some new people.
Saturday was another chiller day. The week rounded off with a bit of the house party over at Northcote playing some awesome but loud games. It did end at 10pm but we made the rest of the night still fun heading back to KB.
Ooo I also received a parcel from Mum! Its always great getting a parcel from home :). She sent a great calendar with pics from our holiday, mints, some really cool stubbies (beer chillers) and socks.
The beginning of the week was pretty chilled, I went to town three times to get thongs (flip flops). Apparently adults thongs rarely come in size 7, how silly is that. I eventually decided to buy an 8 and manage with them. I also did some food shopping at the farmers market and woolies. Monday and Tuesday evenings were spent at friends houses catching up with everyone.
Wednesday came around and I spent the majority of the day writing up my blog for NZ, in the evening we had some free waffles, which were delicious as ever. Next thing I know Thursday has arrived and I had a meeting about my project for this session, did some job application bits and bobs then started watching the 3rd series of Sherlock... How good is it?!
The weekend kicked off on Friday morning, six of us got our overnight bags together and made a very length journey to Werris Creek for a 21st party. We left KB at 10.30 and jumped on the train for 6 hours, then got picked up and had a further 1.5 hrs by car. It was a pretty long way but we passed the time paying card games and chatting. Amazingly the train ticket only cost $4.30! My mind was truly blown! We arrived at about 8.30 pm and I went out with the family to feed the cows and then got to ride a quad bike over the farm which was heaps of fun!
We were served up a well received spag bol, by this time we had started a few beers. Fast-forward 5 hours, we had played loads of cricket slips and were ready for bed. An amazing brekkie of eggs and bacon was cooked up for about 20 of us which went down a treat. The whole of Saturday was spent mucking about outside playing frisbee, tennis (on their very own tennis court, how cool!), slips and chilling out in the paddling pool.
The whole weekend was so hot, humid and we were being swarmed with flies. By about 4 o clock the celebrations began and the first of 25 cases of beer were opened. Even more people arrived throughout the night and by dinnertime there must have easily been 50-60 people on their 5000 acre farm in the middle of the countryside. Steaks and chicken was cooked for dinner with rolls and coleslaw... delicious was an understatement. Somehow we made it to 3.30am before deciding to call it a night. The morning came all too quickly so I moved from sleeping in the tent to inside and managed to grab a bed and got a few more hours sleep which were well needed. It was a sluggish morning spent saying bye to people and then some inbetweeners. We grabbed a quick lunch and decided to head out with their boat to a dam and try out some tubing and water skiing. I was of course first in the water on an inflatable tube and was towed around the lake. It was so much fun but so tiring on the arms, I did stack it quite a few times which were slightly painful but equally fun. The weather came in a bit so we chilled a bit and managed to make a quick attempt at water skiing before we left. I somehow managed to get up third time and once I got the hang of it managed to stay up for a good 20-30 seconds. Although when I fell down the ski's kept slipping off my little feet.
We headed back to Werris Creek in the rain for a cool sunset and a lovely dinner. The evening passed quickly watching TV before I got a very early night.
First off apologies for the lack of posts on the blog for the past 4 weeks but I have been away in NZ, so lucky for you this post will be an absolute monster edition.
My adventure to NZ started with a 3.5 hour flight from Sydney at 18.40 which meant that I arrived into Auckland at 23.40. I flew with Air NZ and they were pretty good, I got to watch some TV and strangely enough the plane was only half full. Nonetheless I made it through Auckland airport (minus a few apples, darn security!) and managed to find my bus to the city. I also bought a sim card for my phone, which proceeded to not work on me :| oh well, 4 weeks withough 3G may actually do me some good! I stayed at YHA in Auckland which was suitable enough, I was chucked in a 3 bed dorm and by this time is was 1.30am so I tried to get some sleep before my early start in the morning.
I didnt really sleep much just because I was worried of missing my bus in the morning but alas I found the bus stop and the stray bus pulled up. Just a quick tangent, so I booked a pass with a company called Stray (100% recommend them!) so its basically a hop-on hop-off bus service that takes you to cool places all around NZ, they have buses 5 days a week so if you want to stop off at a place its very easy to do. If youre thinking of travelling NZ and are on your own I would definitely recommend Stray, there motto is “off the beaten track” which was very true with some of the places we stayed!
Our driver jumped out, barefoot, dreadlocks and pretty wacky (I guess yo have to be to do that job), turns out he was called Splash and we made our way to the stray office for a little introduction and began our journey. On our way to Thames we did some introductions on the microphone and the awkwardness and nervousness of the bus slowly receded. We stopped in Thames for a supermarket stop and then continued on our way to Hahei, via a great viewpoint for a lunch stop. We also stopped off at Hot Water Beach, geothermal heat warms the water under the sand and if you dig a hole apparently its pretty warm. I intended on doing that but instead we went body surfing in the sea with Splash and a few poms. It’s safe to safe me and Splash got the hang of body surfing and the other two didnt, there were some spectacular wipeouts! We headed to our accommodation in Hahei which was right on the beach on a campsite. I shared a cosey dorm with 3 other people. The late afternoon consisted of a sea kyaking trip to Cathedral Cove, so I jumped in a double kyak with a yank (later nicknamed Cecil, we will get to that later!) and we had a pleasant paddle along the coast a bit. We stopped off at Stingray Bay for some hot drinks and we just had to swim out to a rock in the sea and do some dives, flips (front and back) and bombs off it! By the time we returned it was time to get the BBQ going and everyone pitched in and helped out we had loads and loads of food! Snags, steaks, salad, veggies NOM NOM NOM! After dinner we cracked open some beers (FYI when I beers, for me I usually mean cider! But ciders just doesn’t sound as cool!) and it was a great opportunity to get chatting to lots of people, which I did.
A lovely 7.45am departure greeted us, we made stop off for a pie at the home of the Kiwi Drink, L and P, they had a big statue of the bottle so naturally we got a group piccy infront of the statue.
We stopped off for a supermarket stop and lunch in Raglan, I took the opportunity to adjust my plans and add an extra day in Rotorua. We checked into our accommodation, which was basically set on the side of a hill in a terrace style, we had a view of the sea, just. Our afternoon activities consisted of hitting the beach, which due to iron in the nearby rocks had black sand. Very strange and very hot! Unsurprisingly we headed out into the sea, I think it would be more appropriate to say we battle in the sea again some bit old waves and very strong undercurrents. In addition to this we did some sand dune jumping, jumping up and down the sand dunes may I add. Dinner came in the form of fish and chips, all I need to say is YUM. After this we had a few bevvies and headed to watch the sunset. Sunset was not the most spectacular I had ever seen as it set behind the hills but even so it was still cool. We ended up coming back out to the same stop to do a bit of star gazing later that night and on our way back from there we got our first experience of seeing glow worms. They were tiny little lights set in the rocky vegetation by the driveway.
Once again we departed at 7.45am, and I was feeling a bit under the weather with a bit of a cold. Our next destination was Waitomo Caves, we arrived by mid-morning and I chose to do the Tumu Tumu Tubing. We were split into two groups and somehow managed to be in the group with only 5 of us (all friends), bonus! We were whisked off up the hill to get kitted up in 7mm thick wet suits, gum boots, and helmets. We made the short walk above the caves themselves to the entrance and descended down a ladder into a completely different world. Geek alert! The caves were formed from the dissolution of calcium carbonate (aka limestone). Inside the caves there were stalactites and stalagmites everywhere with areas of shallow and deep water. We walked, floated, jumped, squeezed and swam through the cave system with an array of glow worm above our heads, very cool! We also made their first ever mud slide, we were just walking along this incline and we were just saying how awesome it would be if it was a mud slide, so guess what we did, chucked loads of water over it and made it an awesome slide. 3 hours later we made a quick dash to the warm showers before jumping back on the bus to our next nights stop.
These two photos were taken at Arapuni Falls, I can' t remember where they should go! Oops.
We met our host for the night by the largest commercially rafter waterfall in the world (7m) and we had a little talk about some NZ fauna and flora before we jumped back on the bus to head to his Maori house. We underwent an official welcoming ceremony, which involved a lot of talking in Maori and we had to touch noses twice with our hosts. Twice! Not three times as that means that you like them ;). The then Maori performed traditional songs and dances for us. Man do they have great voices! Without a doubt for me the highlight was when they performed the Haka, it was pretty spine-tingling. Later in the evening the lads were taken off to the side to learn some of the Haka. We were taught the moves and went through it twice before being rushed back inside to perform for everyone, we tried our best and that’s what is important. Also, I learnt that I am not a very angry person and really suck at pulling a scary Maori face! We were given a great feed of a roast… YUM! Our accommodation for the night was 40 beds spread out on the floor of their large hall; I don’t think I have ever seen that many beds in one room. We rounded off the night listening to a Maori telling us traditional stories.
Thankfully we had a slightly later start today and headed to our activity of the day which was to visit Devils Gate Geothermal Park. The park was full of very hot water pool full of sulphur and very very acidic. Some of them had a pH of 2! The sulphur smell was of course pretty foul but our tour guide gave a great tour describing all the pools and letting us have a free spa treatment with the mud! We hopped back on the bus and a group of us decided to hop off the bus for a night in a place called Rotorua. We stayed at a hostel called the 4 Canoes (definitely recommend), this place had 3 swimming pools, one of which was geothermally heated and it had an amazing kitchen! Dinner this evening consisted of an indoor cooked BBQ, burgers, salad and sweet potato. It was absolutely amazing! We had a quiet evening, I caught up on technology with the free wifi and we then put the Worlds End movie on (Hot Fuzz is still their best!) with some popcorn before getting a reasonably early sleep.
We kicked off the next day pretty early, heading down to the info centre to jump on a bus to the infamous Hobbiton, the location of the Shire from the LOTR and Hobbit films. It was really cool walking around seeing all the locations from the Hobbit films (never got into LOTR!) especially all the Hobbit holes. The tour was really interesting and we ended the tour at the Green Dragon Pub where one of my friends had his first ever beer, pretty epic hey! I did treat myself to a lovely cold cider which was well deserved! On our journey back we stopped at the supermarket to get dinner and spent the rest of the afternoon by the pool. We rustled up a risotto for dinner which was delish! We played some card games in the evening and clocks (you Aussi’s will know it) went down pretty well. Gradually numbers dwindled and somehow managed to stay in the pool til 2.30am, I think they forgot to come and close it oops.
Just a quick note on the funny nicknames that we managed to acquire during the trip so far; starting off with me, apparently I look a bit like Tom Daley the English diver so I was nicknames Tom. A fellow pom was misheard saying his name to a german fella and he thought his name was Bridget so that stuck. Our Aussi friend was nicknamed Ozzy… inventive right! Another fellow pom was nicknamed Bilbo because he took the lead of a walk in a Bilbo-esc manner (I wasn’t there for that so I hope I have got it right). We were struggling for the last nickname so whilst playing cards we asked a driver of a random bus company for a nickname and he said Cecil. We also had another pom join us, appropriately nicknamed Mum.
We had a late start (8.30am) and checked out of our hostel, making our way to our next Stray bus. Our next driver rocked up, she was called Kia and quite different to Splash but still did her job well enough. We were pretty excited about the reclining seats and foot rests! Our next overnight destination was Lake Aniwhenua (wh is pronounced f) and we stopped off at NZ oldest stone carving by the Maori which are 1100 year old. In addition we stopped off at a cool little waterfall and were given a quick talk about the problem that the dam (built in the 80’s) has upon eel migration, interesting stuff and pretty ironic as we were talking about migration patterns in the pool the night before. We arrived at our accommodation at Lake Aniwhenua, it was a lovely little place set on the top of a small hill overlooking the Lake. I took this opportunity to do a little surgery on the bottom of my foot as I had a very weird cut on my foot. It turns out I had a chunk of glass lodged in my foot and I managed to prize it out with some tweezers luckily. Our hosts were a lovely family who believe that tourism is the key to improving the economic situation of the local area, so we were welcomed with open arms and treated very well. The afternoon and evening were spent pretty relaxed, we tried to go to for a swim in the lake but it was very weedy and shallow. For dinner our hosts cooked a lovely meal in a Hangi, which is a traditional Maori method of cooking. You dig a big hole in the ground and place rocks in the hole. Using a big blow torch you heat the rocks until they are glowing and then put the food over the top and some water and then cover in layers and layers of dirt and bags. The aim is to stop the steam escaping and your food is steamed to perfection. It is left for a few hours and hey presto dinner was served. We had chicken, pork, lamb, salad, rice, potatoes, stuffing, gravy and then an array of dessert. To fit in with traditional we ate out of bowls made from woven leaves. As the local area has high levels of depravity all of the left-overs were boxed up by us and delivered to local families who are in dire need of assistance. We spent the evening chatting on an epic swing before getting another well-deserved early night.
We eventually made it to bed and was woken up by a pom and a Aussi jumping in my bed, it could be worse I guess. I was very grateful of a bacon sandwich being made for me, not that I was hung over, just starving and tired! It was a pretty rubbish weather day today so we made the trip up to a rock climbing centre for the afternoon. This place was pretty epic! For $10 we got kitted out and could spend as long as we wanted on the walls. The walls must have been 17m high or something like that, massive. It was great fun scaling the walls and I had a go on the rope climb, it was going really well but I kept spinning around the rope and getting caught so I could really have a decent attempt at the record time. Dinner time came around so we headed back and whipped up and amazing nacho dish with home-made guacamole, bacon, Dorito’s and the leftover spag bol. To finish to devoured a chocolate cake. It was a meal of epic proportions! Our time in Taupo was drawing to a close and we spent the last evening watching Going The Distance, which went down surprisingly well.
We got a reasonable lay in (8am) and cooked up some hash browns topped with cheese and ham for breakfast. Our stray bus rocked up with our next driver, Possum, she was pretty cool actually. We stopped off at the supermarket before making a 30km ish treck down a dirt road in the coach, it was pretty bumpy and slow but we eventually made it to Blue Duck Station. We were welcomed into the farm and a few of us went for a walk down to a lovely waterfall. The walk was pretty picturesque through sub-tropical forest along a river valley. Eventually we arrived at a pretty impressive waterfall, it was definitely jumpable but it wasn't worth the risk of injury so we went down to the bottom of the waterfall for a swim. Of course I had to live up to my nickname, there was a fallen log resting on the rocks so I did some dives and flips off it into the pretty cold water. It was definitely the coldest water we had been in up to this point of the trip. The clouds descended and we got a bit wet walking back but jumping the hot shower was pretty amazing. By the time I was out of the shower dinner had been made for us so we sat down to a really good tuna pasta bake. We spend the rest of the night playing a board game called the Game of Life, which we were doing really bad in until the end and somehow managed to come second, perhaps my counting was a bit off. We had a game of night time Frisbee with torches and I a little trip up onto the roof to collect the Frisbee. I was feeling pretty achey from the rock climbing I think so finished the night chatting by the fire.
The plan for today was to walk the Tongariro Corssing, one of the best day walks in the world (20km long). Unfortunately the weather was not kind to us so it was called off with 85km winds at the highlands. Instead we made our way to our accommodation in Tongariro Village and nommed on some tuna melts for lunch. After that I headed out for a pretty fresh jog, I found a decent route and did 5 laps of it. It was good getting a bit of time to myself after being around people constant for 10 days (no offense folks). We headed to the pub in the afternoon and I was served my first proper pint in a long time, none of this scooner lark. As it was Mum’s last night we bought dinner at our accommodation and I thoroughly enjoyed my burger and glass of wine. Later in the evening we made a trip to get ice cream and we even made an even later walk around the block before bed.
We had a reasonable start this morning and clambered aboard the bus and made our way down to Wellington. The journey was marred by the departure of Mum in Bulls. But alas we had to continue, we stopped off at an epic big kids playground and before you doubt it yes 15 20-30 year olds went crazy on the playground! We captured some great videos in the hamster wheel.
We eventually made it to Nomads in Wellington and headed out to the Te Papa centre. I think it’s the best museum I have ever been in and if I had been ten years younger I would have spent all day in there. It was really interactive and even better that it was free. By the time we got back it was time to get our free meal, simple spag bol, not too big but it filled a gap. The evening was spent hilariously in the downstairs bar. Mum you can skip to the next paragraphJ! On arrival we took part in a drinking game and somehow managed to win two free $25 shots. These shots were insane! The bartender balanced two shot glasses in the top of a larger glass filled with red bull, one shot was tequila one was Jager. He then mixed up some concoction in a cocktail maker and poured two pink shots. We had to do the pink on first, then tequila then the Jager dropped into the red bull and made a Jagerbomb. It was surprisingly good actually. The night progressed and we all had a great time, there may have been some dancing on tables.
Mum start reading again from here J. Getting up for 6am was definitely not fun. We all were feeling a bit fragile but made it to our ferry on time. This ferry took us from North to South Island. It was a stunning trip along the NZ coastline and was made even better by spotting some Orca’s. We spent the rest of the day in the coach travelling to Abel Tasman. We checked into our accommodation called the Barn and a few of us headed down to the sea, or tidal flats I should say. I think it’s the most beautiful tidal flats I have ever been to. The sun was out, lots of birdlife was around and we tried to go for a dip but only managed to find water waist deep. By the time we got back we dashed out to contender number one for “the best burger in NZ” and I admit it was pretty darn good. Contender number two is located in Queenstown.
Today was an absolute stinker, the rain descended and we were limited to the confines of our hostel room until 3pm. I can’t remember the last time the weather stopped me doing what I wanted on this side of the world; it’s a very familiar yet unfamiliar feeling. It eventually clear and we went for a walk along the coast, visiting some secluded beaches along the way. The water was pretty dirty due to lots of suspended sediment, despite this we still were tempted to go for a dip. I don’t think I have ever walked so far from the beach front and still been only waist deep in water. By the time we got back to the hostel we got dinner going. Our first course of dinner came just as the rain stopped at 4pm, a course of cheese, biscuits and wine, classy hey! Second dinner was chicken pesto pasta which was lovely. We spent the rest of the evening chatting and eventually made it to bed.
Check out was at 10am so we got a great night’s sleep! It was definitely the best night’s sleep so far. The morning was spent chilling by the pancake rocks before we started our drive for the day. We had an eventful journey, especially when the wing mirror got hit by a digger and swing in and smashed the passenger window. Luckily nobody was hurt so we finished the drive with cardboard over the window. We eventually made it to our accommodation at Franz Josef. We had pasta for dinner sandwiched between happy hour at the pub.
Today was our big trip to the Franz Josef glacier. We headed up to the activity shop to get kitted up in waterproof trousers, wind jackets, boots and crampons ready for the trip. Our guide took us across the road to the heli pad. Yes that’s right we were getting a helicopter up to the glacier. Five of us squeezed into the helicopter with the pilot and we zoomed off into the air. It was my first ever experience in a helicopter and it was pretty darn cool! We headed up the valley and was dropped off on the glacier. We met our next guide and put our crampons on, over the next 3 and a half hours we walked around the glacier learning about it. It was pretty dirty because it was set in the base of an eroding valley but it was still awesome. Just as the clouds started to descend again we were picked up and whisked back to the heli pad. Our Ice Explorer trip gave us free entry into some hot pools over the road from our hostel. So we wallowed away the rest of the arvo in the hot pools. We made a quick spag bol for dinner and headed to the bar for the rubix cube party (which failed pretty bad I think), We took it easy and chatted all night like the wild people we are. I forgot to mention I did my one and only clothes wash here, yes that’s how many clothes I brought haha!
Our replacement bus departed at 9am and we made the journey to Lake Matheson, for a little walk around it. I got some great shots of the mountains reflecting in the still water. The rest of the day was spent on the coach travelling to Wanaka. We stopped off at a few viewpoints which were spectacular and finally made it to Base in Wanaka. The customary supermarket trip happened and we head down to the Lake, admiring the amazing view. Dinner came in the form of a delicious but spicy noodley curry. An early night was greatly appreciated, not after some great ice cream!
Lake Matheson
Lake Wanaka
Today we made an early departure and a few of us were dropped off at this small airfield to learn how to fly a plane. I was third up and got to take a passenger for free, bonus! We jumped in this little plane with 3 seats and a propeller on the front. The pilot gave me a 10 second overview of the controls and then I was taxi-ing us to the runway. At the end of the runway I spun us around and gunned it, we zoomed forward and I eventually pulled up and we gradually rose into the air, it was an amazing feeling! We levelled off at 2000m and admired the stunning view of Lake Wanaka and the surrounding hills and valleys. It was unbelievable! We eventually turned around and headed back, it got bumpy as we passed over a river; maybe the cold air off water affected the plane. Landing was a bit nervy as I had no idea what I was meant to be doing but I went with it and did my best, it seemed fairly smooth and the pilot complimented me on it. We jumped back in the bus for a while and then jumped off again at the world’s first ever bungy jump. This was our opportunity to sign up for any of the bungy’s or swings we wanted. I had been debating whether to do a bungy or skydive the whole trip and finally managed to convince myself that I wanted to do the Nevis tandem swing, the largest swing in the world. What was I thinking!? After booking I was pretty nervous about it but as it’s not a self-release I was hoping I wouldn't scream too much. We made it to Queenstown fairly early so we went for a walk down to the lake and we had to go for a dip in the blue glacial water. Man was it cold, I would say it was colder than the waterfall at Blue Duck Station. Despite the cold it really refreshed us. NZ best burger competition candidate number 2 was tonight dinner, it’s a place called Fergburger. I ordered a cockadoodle oink, basically chicken and bacon. This burger was without doubt the best burger I have ever eaten! Whether it was the taste, the company, the location or a combination of all three but it was phenomenal. Fergburger is number 1 in my eyes without a shadow of a doubt. I will be dreaming about it for a long long time. We grabbed a few bevvies and chilled by the lake then hit up the hostel bar and bumped into a few familiar faces. We finished the night off sharing around a few more burgers by the lake in the dark, more YUMMY times.
Fergburger!
It was so good not having to get up at 7am, so at a more respectable 8.30 me and my tandem buddy Eddy made our way to the Nevis shop and jumped on the Nevis bus to the Nevis Swing. It’s safe to say that I was very nervous on the journey up there, barely speaking. If you didn't know I’m not the most comfortable with heights and falling long distances, jumping off a rock into the sea is heaps of fun. But the idea of falling further really gets to me. We arrived to this massive canyon with the release station perched 20m off the edge of the canyon. We got kitted up in surprisingly comfortable harnesses, by this time my knees and hands were shaking pretty good, I think it is probably the most nervous I had ever been. The safety guy asked how we wanted to be released. So we said head first, why not?! I’ve come this far, go hard or go home so they/I say. Picture this me and Ozzy upside-down in harnesses at the top of a 70m free-fall then a 300m swing with me absolutely bricking it. The release dude asked whether we wanted a countdown or surprise we shouted surprise and the millisecond we had finished saying surprise he pressed the button and we plummeted straight down. I was so glad he did it quickly as I would have freaking if he had waited. That first few seconds of free-fall I was freaking a little bit, but as soon as we hit the swing it was awesome! It felt like we were flying across the canyon, the adrenalin that was going through me was insane. The journey back up to the release station was really surreal aswell, just gliding through the air in the middle of a canyon. We purchased the video which should be below and I did some editing to cut it down from 5mins long, just a heads up the scream was Eddy not me J, tehe. I am so glad that I went through with it, proving to myself that I can do something like that, but I don’t think I could do it again.
We jumped back on the bus after watching people do the Nevis Bungy, a 143m free-fall, no way would I be able to throw myself off! After getting back to the hostel the lads wanted to go up the gondola to a great viewpoint above Queenstown. The view at the top was phenomenal! Big mountains, blue lakes, Queenstown below but unfortunately a coal powered boat was emitting a black smoke into the valley. What a way to ruin such a beautiful place! At the top there was also a luge, so us 5 lads jumped on and hurtled our way down this luge, overtaking all of the slower people. Imagine having five lads zoom past you at twice your speed racing each other! It was unbelievably funny and such a rush. Back at the hostel we had a quiet few hours and I decided to head out for a jog. 45 minutes later I thought I had better turn around, it was a really good jog actually and jumping the lake at the end was really refreshing and good for the muscles. Once back at the hostel I looked up my route and I did a casual 13km, wow. This evening we cooked up a stir fry and a bit of wine, before stopping in the hostel bar, fergburger and then bed.
Today we made a day trip to Milford Sound. It was a way too early start but we had to see off Cecil on the Stray bus first. Once he had gone on his way we jumped on our Juicy bus for the lengthy trip to Milford Sound. We stopped off along the way at multiple viewpoints to the amazing scenery. Our driver was a quirky chap who loved to talk and talk. We eventually arrived and jumped on the cruise boat for our trip on the Fjord and to the mouth. The trip was really beautiful with dramatic scenery rising up either side of us. We spotted some seals and got dunked in a waterfall. The journey back to the hostel was a long one but they on The Lone Ranger film which helped to pass the time. Because of our late turn to the hostel dinner consisted of jam on toast, very student I know. We crashed to bed pretty soon after.
So that’s how good a lie in feels! We woke at around 9.30 and it was bliss. The morning was spent chilling by the lake in the sun; we headed back to the hostel for lunch and then back to the beach for the afternoon. It was a great lazy day and I went for another dip in the cold lake. Eddy’s dad was visiting so we all went out and grabbed a bit of food together, I devoured an amazing steak washed down with some lovely cider. The last night with all of these great friends was really special!
So today is probably one of the lowest day of my trip so far. The group of friends that I have been with the past 21 days has begun to split up and today was my turn to continue on my journey, to ensure that I got back in time for my flight. It’s quite amazing how travelling and spending 24/7 with people means you really get to know people, and I would like to think have forged some pretty strong friendships. Saying bye and getting on the bus was a lot harder than I was expecting. My driver was called Postie, he seemed alright and before I know it I was on my way, back travelling on my own again. It was a very strange feeling! We stopped off at a very blue Lake Puaki for a photo stop. It was really picturesque! Our accommodation for the night was near Mt Cook, NZ highest point. We checked in and went for a decent walk to a glacial lake. It was good 1h20 walk and we arrived at the Lake and found icebergs that had grounded with the receding water. Despite this me and two fellow poms thought it would be a great idea to go for a dip. Now I though the waterfall and the Lake were cold, they were not cold. This water must have been around 5 degrees or something ridiculous like that. We went in and within 30s were getting numb. We made a quick dash to the iceberg, touched it and rushed back. I was very glad I had bought a change of clothes. I think we were the only ones who were crazy enough to go in. We had been to a rubbish supermarket on the coach that day so I decided to go for another student meal of beans on toast. It filled a gap and that was about it. After dinner we made the short walk up to the big hotel before waiting around until sunset and went stargazing. I think it was probably one of the best night’s skies I had ever seen!
Our departure from Mt Cook was at 8am, not too bad when you get to bed at a reasonable time. We stopped off at Lake Tekapo for some pictures, and then jumped back on the bus for 4 hours with a bit of a stop in the middle. We arrived at Rangitata by mid-afternoon and our accommodation was a great little place with an open plan living room and kitchen and the dorms had triple bunk beds. These beds were ridiculously high, and of course I snagged a top bunk. Our late lunch consisted of a nice and healthy salad after which I headed out for a nice run on a dirt track. The evening was pretty chilled, we made pizza’s again, then an amazing chocolate dessert and finishing the evening watching How to Lose Friend and Alienate People. I got another early night’s sleep thankfully.
Lake Tekapo
At 6.30am we all clambered onto the bus and the first few hours there was silence on the bus as everyone slept! We dropped some people off at Christchurch airport and continued with our half full bus. We made it to Kaikoura and a group of us jumped aboard this small fishing boat with a skipper who had a wooden leg and no fingers. We idled out a little and then he told us to hold on as he gunned the engine and we zoomed out to sea! After a good ten mins bouncing over the waves we stopped and put some fishing lines down. This was my first ever fishing trip so I was expecting to have to be really patient but alas 20s after the line went down we had nibbles, so I wound my line back up and hey presto I had some sea perch on my line. We hauled in a whole heap of fish before heading over the crayfish pots. On our way we came across some dolphins and a penguin. We must have got about 10 crayfish in the pots and had to throw back some of the juveniles but we still had a good haul. The skipper gunned it back to shore and we made our way back to the hostel to check in and headed straight back out to try some wine with the crayfish at the skipper’s house. We sat in his garden and tasted some wine, were taught how to steam crayfish and then ate the crayfish which was good, not a big fish fan but it was ok. It was a really good night getting to meet some locals of Kaikoura and we stopped off at a bar on the way home.
Tiny fishing boat
The bus was a bit late picking us up so at 9.30am we departed and made a leisurely trip to the ferry terminal to head back to North Island. The journey across was pretty drab as the drizzle and cloud came in. We watched White House Down and laughed most of the way through it and then some of Mr Poppers Penguins, we all groaned when they turned it off midway through. We made it to Wellington pretty late and I did a quick costume change and headed out to meet a family friend. It was a lovely evening chatting at the Irish Pub then at a Chinese Restaurant. The Chinese food was amazing! Although I wouldn’t be saying that at 4am the next morning. I then found my fellow poms and we tried to go out but it was so busy with the Rugby 7’s competition on that we didn’t last too long and headed back. Whilst at the hostel they popped out and came back with more Chinese food, it’s safe to say I wolfed more food down and immediately went to sleep… not to self don’t eat lots of food and go straight to bed because you will be up at 4am watching the meal in reverse, not enjoyable.
I didn’t get back to sleep before we had to leave at 6.40am. We spent the whole day on the coach travelling back up to Auckland. It was a 10 hour drive in total, ouch! I managed to start reading my book; I was carrying it around for 25 days and eventually started it. We rocked up at Nomads late arvo and headed out for a subway dinner and we spent the evening watching the Rugby 7’s on TV. We ended the night sitting by the harbour and I finally went to bed in a dorm full of strangers. Not the most ideal way to spent the last night but what can you do.
My last morning in NZ I woke pretty early to catch my bus to the airport and got through the airport without any problems, I had a moments confusion when my flight was delayed by an hour and the NZ noticeboards didn’t say it was delayed they just displayed the new time. Even so I got on the flight and watched the Internship to finish my trip. I was picked up by a friend at the station with all my stuff from storage and dropped off back at Kooloobong, my Australian “home”.
So there it is, 4 weeks around New Zealand. I don’t quite know how to describe how amazing it has been. I have met some amazing people who I hope to be friends with for a long time in the future. My experiences whilst in NZ will definitely stay with me forever, I can’t quite believe everything that I have done and experienced in the past 4 weeks. At the time you are just living in the moment but when you look back you can appreciate how amazing it has been.
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