The Final Trip

I'm currently sitting at Grafton Hall in Auckland, right back to the same place I began my journey. I remember arriving here with Cayla way back on February 3rd for Orientation and now it is June 28th, and the journey is about to be over.

The Last Night all together with my floormates Theresa and Katie

The day after we got back from Australia I had to say my first goodbyes. It began with Zac, Paddy, and Jared which are just some of the most fun guys I know and were greatly missed. That night was the last night that our core group of girls were going to be together. This meant of course, one last trip to the Grouse. It was crazy to believe that these people had become my family for the past 5 months. We had seen each other through homesickness, relationship problems, hangovers, family issues, injuries; pretty much life.

"5 best mates" outside of the Infamous Grouse

The following day was definitely the hardest. I had to wake up to say goodbye to Katie, who lived across the hall and who I love to death. We had so many great times watching TV, yelling across the hall, and our great talks. Only hours later, I said goodbye to Lannette, equally loved, but definitely an easier goodbye since she only lives 2 hours away. That night was the hardest goodbye and it was to Elyse. She was flying to the Phillipines for another study abroad semester and an internship. She lived right next to me and was there for me through everything. I hope she is ok in the Phillipines because she was really worried about it and I can't wait to pick her up from LAX in December. That pretty much left Emma, Sam, and I. Sam left the next day and I miss her already, though I know when I visit in November, we are going to have an amazing time. Emma and I spent that day packing while Surprise Surprise, Jared came back before he took off. So it was us three for a while until it was my turn to catch my short flight up to Auckland.

I waited in the Auckland Airport for Sophia, who was on a flight 30 minutes after mine. We had a bit of trouble finding a rental car for as cheap as we wanted, but once we did, we were on our way to Hamilton. We made it to Kirk's, another EAP kid from Berkeley and made ourselves at home. That night we went out with his friends and watched some highly entertaining Karaoke.

The following day we went on a drive to fill up our time to Te Aroha. We went to go see a geyser, but because of the rain, we took refuge in a cute cafe to watch through the window. Sophia and I caught up on life having mochas and chai lattes and cake, hoping to catch a glimpse of the geyser. Turned out we had missed the times it went off, and the other attraction, a soda water drinking fountain was broken so it was time to leave Te Aroha. We took a detour going home to hit up Matamata, aka Hobbiton. While neither one of us wanted to pay $60 to see the actual location, we did stop to take a picture with the Hobbiton sign. They also had a very cool I-site that was LOTR inspired. It was just one more cool LOTR thing I got to experience.

We then decided to meet up with my friend Mike in Cambridge. He had been our cave guide when we went to the Waitomo Caves way back in February. After a beer at the pub, his mom invited us over for a delicious home cooked meal. It was the first family dinner I had since I had left home and it was nice to be welcomed in so graciously.

The following day Sophia and I decided to do some thrift store shopping and just general wandering. We stopped by a couple of places in town and scoured the Salvation army. It was then that Sophia said we should stop by a tattoo place. She had wanted to get a Maori style Kiwi tattoo for her time here. She had also recently lost her flatmate Rachel who was also studying abroad here and wanted to commemorate her as well. I sat with her as she got it, which she took like a champ and then headed out to the car.

Unfortunately, I had forgotten to turn the lights off, but the car started anyway, only to die 5 minutes later on a random residential street. We got a guy to help us jumpstart it and we drove around for 20 minutes before it died again. We had to call the rental guy to use the AA and get a tow truck to drive it back to the university. The following day was dedicated to getting the car to run again. We walked to a car parts place to get a new battery. Thankfully, the guy that sold it to us drove us back to the Uni and installed it before we drove it back to the car parts place to get a new altenator belt and have that put on. I thought that would be the solution but it turned out that the altenator was not charging the battery. So that left us with the option of driving half the distance between Hamilton and Auckland to meet the rental guy to get a new car. We drove an hour to get a new car and made it back in time to get ready for the All Blacks game that night.

The All Blacks are the National Rugby team of New Zealand and half the team is from the Canterbury Crusaders, the team I cheered for down in Christchurch. Sophia and I got there to see them do the Haka and the game started. It ended up being 29-10, not nearly as good as the 42-9 the week before but amazing nonetheless. It was definitely on my to do list in this country and I am now super excited for the Rugby World Cup next year.
All Blacks Pride

After the game we went to hang out with Mike again down in Cambridge. It was a new thing to go to a party that didn't consist of only Americans and French which had been the case in Christchurch. Instead it was a ton of Maori guys who would sponteiniously break out in the Haka at random times. The Haka is a Maori dance that originally was meant to scare enemies before battle, however, in this case, it was just plain entertaining.

The next day was the day I said goodbye to Sophia. After getting lost on the way to the aiport, we finally made it and I sent her on her way back to California. I had luckily found somewhere to stay with EAP kids studying in Auckland and have been just chilling and watching movies till I leave tomorrow. It was really nice to get to catch up with the friends I had made in February. Though, I'm not looking forward to anymore goodbyes...

Just to show you all what the best Rugby in the world looks like

Dunedin and The End of A Journey

We drove through exhaustion to arrive in Dunedin around 10 where we were quickly ushered into Marguerite's queen size bed. She very persistently insisted that us three should sleep in a bed after the Stewart Island adventure. I kinda love her and immediately was asleep. At Otago University, they had only had one week off for break so they were already back at school. Unfortunately that meant Marguerite (from the first road trip) had an essay due. Once she turned it in, we were able to grab a quick lunch with her before she had to head off the class.

This is one of the buildings at the University of Otago

Dunedin is known for being a Scottish town and is considered a crazy college town. It was a nice day and so we decided to go explore. We walked to the town square and saw the beautiful architecture of the bus station as well as their many churches. Mostly we were just relaxing and exploring. It was a nice change to have good weather and not rushing off to go do anything in particular. We also walked by the Cadbury factory and it smelled fantastic.

I really like chocolate, unfortunately we didn't go in.

We wandered back to Marguerite's really cool apartment and made dinner with her housemates. This included tiny Brittany (she's 4'8 with enough energy for someone 7 ft tall) and Taryn, her kiwi host. Turns out Brittany loved Lord of the Rings and Taryn was as well and had worked as a LOTR tour guide in Queenstown. So that left us with one thing to do; watch The Two Towers. It was great because Taryn and I kept turning to each other about trivia and found that the other already knew it.

The following morning we got up to go to the farmers market in town. It reminded me a lot of Santa Cruz with fresh produce and great bread products. I got this great Lemon loaf, a bag of the best apples ever, free pasta, CHEESE! and chocolate truffle tea. Overall a good start to the final day of our road trip. We also ran into a couple of people from Lincoln and got to see Joanna from our road trip at the beginning of the year. It was really nice to have a large group of us EAP kids togeter again.

Once we got back to the house, it was really hard to get moving out. It was hard to leave the comfort of Dunedin and Marguerite's house. I've said it before and I will say it again, she is by far the nicest person I've ever met. We finally packed up Bluebird and set out from her apartment. We made a short stop at the World's Steepest Street Baldwin Street. It didn't look too bad until you started walking up it. Apparently it has a grade of 35%.

We had one more stop in mind on the way home. It's called the Moeraki Boulders. They are these perfectly round giant boulders on a beach. It was an incredibly beautiful and warm day and I definitely wished I had a bathing suit on. We hung out by the boulders just messing around for a while. I just enjoyed being at the beach, Elyse was jumping from boulder to boulder, and Lannette found a good boulder to meditate on. It perfectly described each of us.

The journey was so close to the end; we were 2 hours from home when as Elyse was driving there was a popping sound. We got outside and found the spare tire we had put on to replace the one with wire poking out of it had popped. We pulled the wire tire out again, and I changed my first tire! It was actually a lot easier than I expected and not too bad when there's 3 girls working on it. I then took over driving to the nearest town to find a replacement.

Unfortunately we stopped in a town where almost every place was closed and we were going to have to pay a special call out fee. At the last moment, the lady at the gas station rememebered Firestone closed at 5 (it was 4:45). We rushed over to find 5 mechanics having beers and watching Nascar on the big screen. As they changed our tire, they offered us beer from a bathtub in the garage. We had coffee instead. It was highly entertaining though watching them try really hard to get us to hang out for a bit. However, we were tired and just wanted to get home.

We got into Lincoln around 7:30, made our RA Paul let us into our rooms. And the journey had ended. We had traveled everywhere south of Christchurch: Lake Tekapo, Lake Puakaki, Wanaka, Arrowtown, Queenstown, Milford Sound, Stewart Island, Dunedin, then back to Christchurch once more. I had seen the most beautiful aqua lake, seen more glaciers than I can count, jumped off a cliff, found a new favorite place on horseback, experienced a waterfall up close and personal, and hiked in the worst weather imaginable. And I wouldn't take any of it back! It was an incredible journey, and while it had its up and downs, was something I will remember forever.

Heres the link to the last photo album of the road trip.
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=173974&id=665896295&l=2bf6c86e68

Stewart Island

First off, I'm dedicating this blog entry to Kelli so she will get off my back about my picture choices. Personally, I think she has should take advantage of being my fb friend and look at the albums, but thats just me. Also, this specific entry goes to her, because she definitely could/would never do what I did.


So we awoke on the morning of the 12th to a beautiful double rainbow as we drove out of the Fiordland National park. We stopped to book our tickets for a ferry later that day to Stewart Island. That was also when I checked my email and found that Richard Taylor, of Weta Workshop fame and five time academy award winner(the man that made LOTR seem real) had replied to my email saying that yes, he would be available to give me a tour of the Weta Workshop. Of course, I freaked out just a bit. Then it was on to Invercargill, our stocking up point before catching the ferry.

Once at Invercargill, we loaded up on groceries and drove to Bluff where we had to catch the ferry. We had a ticket for 5 meaning we would arrive at 6. We packed up our bags with our food and clothes and I was really excited to use my backpacking backpack for the first time. Then we hopped aboard. The water between New Zealand and Stewart Island at the southern tip of the south island is notorious for being rough water. I settled down with my complementary tea and prepared for the worse. It wasn't actually that bad at all.

Once we arrived on the island, we went and found the only campground in town, and paid an absurd amount of money to sleep on a lawn. Our tent had to be covered with a tarp due to the fact that it was a 2 person, children's summer tent. Basically the cheapest thing we could find. We then had fantastic fish and chips before hanging out in the lounge and going to bed.

We started out early the next morning by heading to the DOC office to book the huts on the Raikoura Track. This was the southern most Great Walk (easy, beautiful recommended walks) in New Zealand. Stewart Island was known for two things: being super wet (rain 260 days a year) and being extremely beautiful. We were really excited for this hike and started around noon. Once we actually hit the path, we realized it was going to be an adventure. There were puddles and mud everywhere! And guess who didn't have waterproof hiking boots? That's right, me. Fortunately, it wasn't raining very hard and we took a nice easy pace before arriving at the hut at 5. The hike had been through a beautiful forest that reminded me of hawaii a lot, mostly due to the big ferns covering the floor.

Despite the beauty, I was extremely happy to reach the hut. I wanted my wet socks and shoes off and I was starving! We had hot dogs before we did a group massage session in the hut. Then we entertained ourselve with card games, MASH, and sticking various shoes into the fire place to dry them off.

The next morning we woke up to see our worst nightmare; horizontal wind and trees whipping around in the wind. Our original plan to get up early and start on the longest and hardest part of the track was postponed. We considered various options for an hour and in that time, the weather got slightly better. I put on my rain pants, my slightly dried socks and shoes, and headed out. It was worst than the day before on the mud and two minutes in, my feet we drenched and I had mud to my shins.

It got worse as we reached the incline part of the track. All the dirt had been washed away leaving slippery roots as stairs to climb up at a 45 degree angle. I struggled with my giant backpack on as I slipped everywhere, fell into a tree, and banged my knees. I hated my life for the first 4 hours of that part. I either was slipping somewhere, falling into puddles, banging into this and that, overall MISERABLE!

Then we started going downhill, wooden steps appeared, the rain ceased, and the sun came out. Magically it made all the difference. I was by myself at this point; we found that Elyse likes her alone time and goes really fast, while Lannette likes to go slowly and take it all in leaving me in the middle zone. I was singing every musical song I could think of because I think I was losing my mind.

I finally saw a sign saying 30 minutes to our campsite. We had decided that we wanted to do the hut one night and then camp the second night. I emerged from the forest to see a perfect beach and sunshine. I found some perfectly intact spiral shells the size of baseballs and the famous Paua shell of NZ. And of course, Elyse. The first thing I did was get out of my wet clothes and then set up the tent to get in before it started raining again. I had a dinner of a peanut butter and jelly sandwich before preparing for bed. This is when things got interesting.

The wind picked up again and we had the tarp on over the tent. We each had our mats, but only 2 sleeping bags for 3 people. We zipped them together before spooning each other for warmth. The wind whipped around, as the tarp made thundering sounds, making each of us jump everytime. I think we said "OMG WE ARE GOING TO DIE!!!" about 20 times that night. The water started to come in and we had to keep rotating to stop our hips from hurting too much on one side. Overall, we got little amounts of sleep but definitely were closer than ever before (literally).

Typical NZ weather, we woke up to perfect blue skies and sun, just in time for the easy 2 hour hike part of the track. This part followed the coast and we could look out and see the pretty ocean. After a short amount of hiking time, we emerged out of the forest once more and onto the street. At this point we had 5k (3 miles or so) on the street back to town...and it was hilly. I wasn't having it, so first chance I got, my thumb went out and we jumped into the back of a construction truck and rode into town.

We walked into the DOC office straight for the bathroom. I was so happy to see a real toilet and to wash my face. Camping makes you appreciate the small things in your life. I changed into dry clothes again and immediately wanted hot food. I found this really cool cafe owned by this awesome American lady and had a chicken pesto panini and a brownie. Then we chilled in the warm DOC office before our ferry back to the mainland.

While the way to Stewart Island had been fairly easy, the way back was awful. I went straight to sleep to avoid getting sick and woke up to find myself back on the mainland. Then it was on to Dunedain.

I took so many pictures from this place. PLEASE GO LOOK AT THEM!!! words cant do them justice. and I'm talking to you kelli!
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=173974&id=665896295&l=2bf6c86e68

Also, according to my mother, theres a lot of people out there reading this. I would love to know who my audience is (so I can stop talking about alcohol all the time) so please leave me a comment!

Milford Sound

We arrived around dusk in Milford Sound National Park. We had talked to Sophia who had just come from there and had been told there was somewhere we could sleep for free. The DOC sites were only $5 which was much improved than other campsites we had seen but tried for the Hollyford campsite area instead. We stopped at this museum before the Hollyford hike to get an idea of where we were. The campsites there were $10 bucks and we just wanted to sleep in our car. We found out that at the end of the road there was a carpark where you technically aren't supposed to camp, but really who was going to go out there. While in the museum I saw a kid wearing a University of Hawaii shirt. Being my father's daughter, I started talking to him and found out he had "studied abroad" there for a semester. The group of guys were actually from the east coast and were studying abroad at Victoria University in Wellington. Then we left for the carpark.

I don't think I have ever been somewhere so dark and creepy in my entire life. We drove in passing dead man's creek and hangman's drop and it was so dark I couldn't see my hand in front of my face. I never considered myself scared of the dark but that was really scary. We were also concerned about getting caught sleeping where we weren't supposed to so in the early morning when we saw headlights, I tensed up. But we awoke with no problems and the sun shining. We decided to finally use the stove we bought and made eggs on toast. We then decided to do the short hike to see the waterfalls before doing part of the Hollyford track. Arriving at the waterfall, we saw the same group of guys from the night before and hung out with them a bit before we headed back down.

From there we did 2 hours into the Hollyford Track. It's normally a 6 day in and out track but we didn't have that amount of time. It was a nice easy flat trail following a river with glaciers in site the whole time.

Once back at the car, we drove into Milford Sound to see about kayaking the sound the next day. We signed up for the afternoon kayak trip at the Milford Sound Lodge when they told us there was no where for us to sleep for free or cheap in the area. We then went back out of Milford, through this giant tunnel in the mountain before going to the nearest DOC campsite. While searching for the toilet, guess who we run into? The boys from the hike earlier had set up a campfire. We hung out with them for a while before going to sleep preparing for 4 hours of kayaking the next day.

The morning of the 11th, we drove 45 minutes back into Milford Sound, used the Lodge's kitchen for eggs on toast before finding out they canceled our kayaking trip because of bad weather. Lannette was really upset because this had been the part she was looking forward to the most. We decided to do an afternoon trip on the Ferry showing the Sound. While I think it would have been really cool to see the sound up close from the kayak, it was still amazing from the ferry. We saw the entire sound, all the way to the Tasman Sea and got up close and personal when he backed us into a waterfall. I even got to see dolphins. All the while, the rain was pouring down which meant we got drenched but also that there were trickling waterfalls down the lush mountain sides everywhere.

Once back on land again, we dried off in the only pub around and had a delicious dinner of tortelloni. Then we found the jenga blocks and played multiple rounds while the pub filled with grizzled boating types that looked at us like we were crazy sitting in a corner on the floor playing with blocks.

We then ran into the group of guys from the campsite again! I told them they were stalking us, then we headed for the lodge to use the internet, which convienantly was also where they were staying. Then it was time to find a campsite to sleep at for the night.

Here's a video of the waterfall the boat backed me in to. No zooming required.

The Longest and Craziest Day Ever

So when last I left you, I was about to start the longest and craziest day of my life. We woke up early on the 8th, sometime around 7, which for me, is already not a good start. We then walked to the Shotover Canyon Swing office Dowtown and a bit after 8, they loaded us up in a van and drove us 10 minutes to the canyon. On the way there, we watched a video showing the different jumping styles we could do. Sitting there watching people jump off the ledge was getting me so incredibly nervous, I thought I was going to have a break down and cry. Then when we arrived and walked through the main office I finally looked down at the canyon, which of course was a very bad idea.

I chose to go last and therefore was the last one to get in my harness once we got to the ledge. Elyse went first in our group and just jumped off forward, Lannette did the same next. Then it was my turn. I chose to do the cutaway, which meant they were supposed to cut a string and I fell in a sitting position. They chose to torture me instead and do the 7 string cutaway where they cut each string individually. Let's just say they aren't very nice there. You get a good sense of their personalities by watching the video.

I tried so hard to not focus on what was happening, so when he started pushing down on my shoulder, I freaked out. Then as the rope snapped, I screamed as I dropped from 109 meters high, did a 60 meter freefall, before swinging 200 meters at 150 Kph. To say I was terrified would be an understatement. Once back at the top, I was still uncomfortable and it took me a while to get myself collected again. Elyse chose to do another jump, the Gimp Boy goes to Hollywood, where she hangs upside down and they drop her. Lannette also did another one, which consisted of her sitting in a plastic chair and leaning backwards off the edge and doing flips the whole way down. They tortured her so much that she had a panic attack and cried. Of course once she back up, they were joyous tears.
"Yay I survived!"

In general, it was something I got to say I've done, and will never have to do ever again. I'm not an adrenaline junkie and that was a bit more than I could handle, but I do get to say "yes, I have jumped off a cliff before" which sounds pretty badass if I do say so myself.

Once we were back in town, I found an awesome japanese lunch special and spoiled myself with a great bento box for lunch. Then we did some shopping before the Horseback riding tour. This resulted in me buying my first ever backpacking backpack! I was extremely excited about it, especially since it was on sale. Then it was time to head over to the Dart Stable town office. There we were picked up by a bus that took us an hour along the lake to Glenorchy. We stopped on the way and saw this incredible view.

Once at the Dart Stable, they asked us our experience level. Usually I'm around the middle because of all the horse camps I went to as a kid. This time, Elyse and I were the 2nd and 3rd most experienced. We had a bunch of girls with us who had never ridden. We then climbed back on a bus, drove past a couple of scenes from the movie Wolverine before arriving in Paradise. No really, its called Paradise. I then was given Merlin, described as "moderately ornery." Elyse was given Harry, who really didn't like other horses, but had been one of the opening horses in the beginning of Prince Caspian. Then it was time to hit the trail.

We rode out from the stable, into the forest. Instantly I knew where we were. The lighting and everything was exactly like Amon Hen (the end of the first LOTR). To the left Aragorn was fighting Lurtz, to the right, Merry and Pippin were attempting to flee. A bit further into the forest, the trees became larger, and I was transferred to Lothlorien. Once we rode out of the forest, we overlooked Dart River surrounded in the background by tree covered hills, seen when the Uruks leave for Helms Deep from Isengard. We also saw areas used in Prince Caspian and more sites used for Wolverine.

It was an incredible ride in the most beautiful place on earth. I would love to go again and do their longer advanced ride, including river fording. They were knowledgable and the horses had great personalities. I had a great ride even though Merlin tried to pull me over the top when I tried to stop him from eating. I realized how much I missed horseback riding. Maybe when I get back and I'm not completely and utterly broke, I will go more often.

Once back in town, we made dinner before heading out to do a pub crawl. The pub crawl was an epic fail considering you pay for it, to get "free" drinks at each bar. However, you stay at the bar for 30-45 minutes and then your buzz is gone. We ditched it towards the middle to go meet up with my fellow EAP kid and love Sophia who goes to Canterbury. Then we ended up running into a bunch of Lincoln kids before we called it a night and went back to the hostel.

The following morning we got to a slow start. We packed up the car before getting another Fergburger and heading out for Milford sound.

Heres a link to pictures!
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=173718&id=665896295&l=a737a7161e

Rob Roy Glacier and Arrowtown

The next day we awoke bright and early and drove back into town to stop at the Department of Conservation (DOC) office to find out about this hike we wanted to do. It was listed in the Lonely Planet as being really great because there was a swing bridge, waterfalls, and glaciers; sounded perfect to me. So we picked up a map and found that it was about an hour away on mostly an unpaved road. This was slightly concerning but we decided to not worry about it.

The drive towards the Rob Roy Valley was beautiful as we drove out of Wanaka and along a wandering river. Up ahead we could see the glacier and along us were heaps (kiwi slang for a lot) of sheep and cows. We were admiring the waterfalls on our left while yelling "SHEEP!" at the sheep on our right when all of a sudden, we heard a pop and the sound of gurgling. Mind you, at this point we were about 40 minutes in with nothing in site for miles. Turns out Bluebird had overheated and her coolant had exploded. We were helped by a couple of men who told us to fill her back up and take her slow until we could get her looked at. I've learned on this trip, no matter how little a man knows about cars, he will undoubtably stop and pretend to know about them for a group of girls.
Us above the Rob Roy Valley

We continued on to the car park for the hike where we had lunch before hitting the trail. There was indeed a pretty fun swing bridge and the hike led upward towards the Rob Roy glacier. We were above the river almost all of the way up and continued to follow it to the lookout point for the glaciers and waterfalls. It was extremely green and reminded me a lot of what its like to hike in hawaii. We finally got to the top which consisted of a valley with a bunch of giant rocks where everyone was enjoying food and the view. It was gorgeous because there was a glacier about 1/3 of the way around the top and everywhere tiny waterfalls from the melting ice.
That white part towards the top is the glacier.

Once we got down we attempted to drive back to Wanaka. Of course Bluebird had other plans and we once again had to stop so she wouldn't overheat. And on cue, two men came over to check her out, but we already had the situation under control. This situation repeated multiple times on the way to Arrowtown and we considered turning around and waiting in Wanaka. Fortunately, the way to Arrowtown was mostly downhill so we finally made it to the mining town of New Zealand. Arrowtown reminded me instantly of Knott's Berry Farm with its store fronts resembling frontier stores. We found the New Orleans Hotel with hot fires and the kitchen still running (despite it being 9:30 pm). I warmed up by the fire with a ham and cheese and enjoyed their comfy couches. Then as the bar closed, we went to find a place off the highway to sleep.

The following morning we had a delicious breakfast at their amazing bakery. I had french toast with berries and enjoyed having a legit breakfast again. Then we dropped Bluebird off at a mechanic. This meant we had the whole day to explore the town. Turns out they had two scenes for LOTR shot here and Lannette wanted to mine for gold. It was convienantly a beautiful day so we spent it relaxing by the river.
We found the exact spot where Isildur is killed and kinda maybe found the spot the black riders ride towards Arwen in the first movie. In general it was nice just to relax and enjoy the beautiful fall trees and the trickling river.
This is exactly where Isildur is attacked in the Prologue.


Heres a link to the trip from the start to Arrowtown! http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=173183&id=665896295&l=c875d7d7cf

Let the Road Trip Begin

Alright, I know you have all been waiting for it, and it's finally here! I've been back for a week now, but because Elyse wanted to photoshop my pictures, I put off doing an entry. But seeing as its now 2:30 in the morning, I figured what better time to begin writing about the awesomeness that was my mid semester break. You will notice one of the themes of this trip is LOTR.

So we began our road trip on Saturday the 3rd, later than originally expected (I really hate packing). Our original plan was to drive all the way to Wanaka as a stopping point before Queenstown. However, with our late start and a few stops here and there, we arrived at Lake Tekapo around 6ish and figured it was a good first stop. Lake Tekapo was carved out by a glacier and because of the sediments, has a milky color, which is reflected by the sky and creates the most beautiful shade of turquoise. Can you tell I'm smitten with the lake? So we had a lovely dinner of cheese, salami, bread, and cucumber, which would later become the usual, before we went to the only bar in town. Turns out, we were practically the only young people there. Most people were over 50 but they had incredible live 80s music. Pretty entertaining.

Meet Bluebird, our beloved car


That night we slept in our car (Bluebird) right on the lake and we were so lucky to have it instead of a tent. It poured and hailed that night and I had an irrational fear that the lake was going to overflow. However, we awoke Easter morning to a fairly nice day and started off with a delicious breakfast of eggs on toast with bacon. Then we stopped off at the tiny stone church to barely look inside and "go to church for easter". After more gawking at the lake, we hit the road.

Pretty blue water makes me happy!


It didn't take long for our second stop. I saw a sign that said free food- 1 meter. Free and Food may be my favorite words as a college student. Turns out because so many people drive long distances in New Zealand, they have driver revivers. This one was by the State Insurance and we got free Coffee, Sausages, Cookies, Water, and an Apple. It was fairly exciting. Elyse also was super stoked because the Burt Munroe Motorcycle was parked behind someones car and she got to sit in it. Apparently it's a really famous story, I think the movie is called the Fastest Indian.

I swear I spend half of this blog talking about food.


After that short stop, we made one more in Twizel. We didn't really get out of the car, but we did look out over Pelenor fields (the battle in the 3rd LOTR outside of Gondor). We then came into Wanaka just before sunset. Wanaka is also incredibly gorgeous as a lake town. We enjoyed wandering around the craft fair before snacking on the beach watching the sun set behind the mountains. Wanaka was also used in LOTR for when Gandalf is riding the Eagle away from Orthanc. Overall, a perfect way to end the day. Then we found a "gourmet burger" place for our easter dinner. I originally thought it was pretty good, but that was before Fergburger (more to come on that). We planned out a general idea for the rest of our trip before retiring to the car.

However, our night's sleep got cut short. I heard Elyse say "Oh no" as I rolled over to see a light shine into our car. Turns out the parking lot that said no camping had slowly emptied throughout the night. We were now the only car and the bright light was the security guard saying the cops were right behind him and we should leave before we got fined. I drove at 4 in the morning out of town to sleep on the highway area and will from now on have a big fear about being woken up while sleeping in cars.

Beautiful Wanaka

The Magic of Mid Semester Break

Normally around this time of year, everyone is leaving college to head home or somewhere exotic for Easter/Spring Break. Since home is not an option, and I'm already somewhere exotic, I guess that means a road trip! Another magical thing is that it's not Spring here, it's Autumn, so instead of a short week before starting another quarter, I get a whole two weeks. And you can bet I'm going to make the most of it.

We don't have much of a plan, it's more like general areas we would like to see. We are planning on heading South to hit up Queenstown, Stewart Island, Milford Sound and the Fiordlands. We plan to leave tomorrow morning to arrive later in Wanaka, just outside of Queenstown. It's less touristy and is supposed to be pretty amazing.

After that we will go to Queenstown which is known as the extreme sports capital of New Zealand. While I most likely wont be doing any skydiving or bungy jumping, there might be a possibility of Zorbing in my future. It's basically a giant hamster ball for people to roll down hills. Pretty much as extreme as I'm planning. Queenstown also provides another thing that makes me happy; Lord of the Rings locations! Hopefully my LOTR location guidebook will make itself useful.

Next would most likely be Stewart Island, but due to the expensive ferry ticket, it will most likely be the thing that we cut. It's known for having many a kiwi (the birds) and beautiful tropical tracks. It's also really close to Antartica. If we don't end up there, it will most likely be the Fiordlands or Milford Sound for some really great tramping (hiking). I'm still on a search for a great backpacking backpack, hopefully I will find one in Queenstown. Apparently they are practically a requirement for New Zealand and not having one makes it very difficult.


So basically this is extremely unplanned. We will probably sleep a large amount of time in the car, a Nissan named Bluebird. I can't really say what to expect besides seeing the beauty known as the South Island, but I can tell you it will be an adventure. I look forward to sharing with you all the tales of my travels in two weeks when I return!

"The road goes ever on and on"
-Bilbo Baggins

Queenstown


Milford Sound

The Best Day of My Life

Clearly the title states it all. After having the best breakfast I've had yet in New Zealand at this cute cafe, we wandered aimlessly in Wellington. While my initial opinion of Wellington was negative because it was so early when we arrived and it was incredibly windy, it is actually an adorable city. The architecture was really neat and had a mix of a lot of styles.

We eventually ended up at the Te Papau Museum, which was perfect since it was free and we had time to waste. It ended up being one of the coolest museums I've seen. It was really interactive and I think we spent most of our time going through all these pictures and videos of New Zealand you could look at. Despite being about a decade older than their target audience, I had an amazing time. In two hours, we had only covered the bottom floor and there were more exhibits to see. I wish I had had a week to check everything out, but we had an appointment.

We walked to our pickup location where I unpatiently waited. Once we saw the van pull up with Wellington Movie Tours on the side, I knew that this was going to be a fantastic day. The group I was with kept laughing at me because I was so excited, I had a goofy grin glued to my face. Thats right everyone, we were going on a Lord of the Rings Tour!

I knew immediately that it was going to be so much fun. Right off the back, the tour guide and I began swapping trivia as he drove up the windy roads to Mt. Victoria. This was location for all the scenes when the Hobbits are escaping Hobbiton from the Black Riders. First stop was a small cliff which they used for the hobbit's perspective looking down at the Black Riders coming to Weathertop. It was also used in the 3rd film for Dunharrow when Aragorn and Theoden are surveying the Rohan camp. Not too exciting yet, but was still fairly cool. Next, he shows us a scene on his laptop from the extended version (which I am quite familiar with) when Frodo and Sam are leaving the Shire. Then, he pulls out a frying pan and two pipes, exactly like the one in the film and says "Who wants to be Sam and who wants to be Frodo". The nerd inside me explodes.

We take turns being both before heading to the shortcut to mushrooms scene. We all pile exactly like all the hobbits when they escape from Farmer Maggot, in the exact spot Elijiah, Sean, Billy, and Dom had all been, even including the broken carrot. Farther down the road was the "Get off the Road!" scene, and the hiding from the black rider in the roots of the tree scene. Unfortunately the tree in that scene was artificial, but it wasn't difficult to imagine. We also turned Cayla, Lannette, and I into a Black Rider at the top of a hill, which was quite clever. Then it was back to the car.

Seeing the exact trees and spots for filming was amazing, but next we were heading to somewhere I had been dreaming about for years; the Weta Workshop. At this point I was literally bouncing in my seat and had to get a stern look from Cayla to calm down a bit. We arrived at the Weta Cave and walked in to see Lurtz to my left (hes the big Uruk kai who kills Boromir in the first film. To my right, Gollum. I was definitely in my geekdom heaven. There were props and costumes and puppets and books galore. I couldn't take it all in at once. We watched a behind the scenes of Weta movie where I recognized some people from the DVD appendices. After that, I had a great chat with one of the workers in the cave who had been in the film and shared my love for Alan Lee's artwork (Conceptial artist for LOTR). I was strongly encouraged (peer pressured) into buying Arwen's evenstar since they had been discontinued and I had wanted one for years. I was the last person in the cave and was rushed out to finish our tour.

We drove by the beaches where the inspiration for Shelob's lair was found and headed back into Wellington. We drove past the location for the premiere and I pictured what it must have been like with all the people and the red carpet. It was truly a great tour and cost less than it was worth. I look forward to making another stop at the Weta Workshop before I leave New Zealand.

We went out that night before we had to catch our ferry at 2:30. It was nice to put on makeup and be girly for the first time in a week. We had fun before we headed to load our car onto the ferry. This is when I get really stressed. We had apparently lost our confirmation number, were supposed to be there an hour before instead of a half hour, and we weren't being allowed on. The other car was already there and had to come back to help us. After what seemed like eternity, we figured it out and threw everyone in the car as we raced down the ramp to the ferry.

Once on board, I found a nice corner in the play area, curled up, and fell asleep. We awoke on the south island at 5:30 in the morning, drove long enough to find a park, pulled out sleeping bags and went to sleep. We got a few more hours in before the long drive to Christchurch.

Heres a link to all the pictures from the Tour, there are some pretty good ones.
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=156750&id=665896295&l=adcb9da96b

Bubbling Mud and Huka Falls

So next on our journey we had planned on doing the Tongariro Crossing or "the climb to Mt. Doom". Unfortunately, we ended up getting the storm from the south island a bit sooner than expected and were left trying to figure out what to do next. Since we had skipped Rotorua to get to the caves in time, we decided to give it another go. It was a long day of driving and by the time we got there, it was dark and we just set up camp.

That morning I awoke to what might be the most obnoxious bird ever created. It had this awful squawk and then this scratchy one but I made it another hour of sleep before I went outside of the tent. Turns out there were tons of these evil dinosaur birds, including babies and they had ransacked everyone's food and were running wild. I've nicknamed them devil birds and spawn of satan. Either way, we all ended up awake because of them and were within walking distance of Lake Rotorua. It wasn't too impressive but the funny colored water and steam coming out of some nearby streams and holes were kinda neat.

Despite it being super early, Cayla, Lannette, and I decided we wanted to try some infamous Hells Pizza. We got lost on the way and found a cool park with bubbling mud and eventually got there. Guess we weren't thinking too well since it hadn't opened yet and kinda killed all the fun. As we wandered aimlessly in the city we saw a Native American performer (kinda weird in NZ) and went to pee in a McDonalds. When we came out, Kirk, another EAP kid traveling with another group was there. It was by far one of the weirdest, what are the chances kind of thing. He didn't have school for a while so we told him to meet us in Wellington in a few days. After enough time we got our pizza, and met up with the other group at Blue Lake.

I think after being on the go for so long, we kinda just wanted to chill out and relax. Blue Lake was perfect for that and we enjoyed our pizza, drew, wrote, and just actually got to know each other. We were a group joined by an interest in traveling the north island and eventually ending up on the south island so it was nice to spend time with everyone.

We hit the road once more and stopped at Huka Falls outside of Taupo. At first it looked kinda lame; there were too many people and it just looked like a giant river. But once you walked a bit more to the falls part, it got incredible. It was so incredibly fast moving and massive and the crashing of the falls was so deep, bubbles came up 30 yards away. All the fast moving water was a beautiful torquoise and the falls fell into a deep dark teal. It was one of those beautiful natural wonders that you feel like you could stay forever.

After dragging ourselves away, we decided to drive all the way to Wellington. This was going to be our longest drive but we assumed that finding a campground late in the day would be difficult. After fixing the lights so we could drive through the night, we drove all the way to the capital and arrived at 2 am. We were quickly hustled into our rooms at a hostel where I tried my best not to wake up the other people. Wellington is called Windy Wellington and it was definitely living up to it's name. The wind was blowing down the alley and I swore the building was going to come down a couple of times but having a bed for the first time in a few days helped make it easier to get to sleep. The following day was the one I had been looking forward to for years....

Burnt Bums and Waitomo Caves

So as the sun rose and came brightly through our giant sunroof in the van, I woke up after the most uncomfortable night of sleep to see where we had travelled to the night before. We had slept in the parking lot of Hot Water Beach, but because it had been so dark when we arrived, I had no idea what it looked like. For the most part, it was like any other beach, but the real attraction was far to the left by an outcrop of rock. There was where the hot water from the thermals below ground bubbled up to the surface.

The other group had gone ahead and were already sitting in a shallow hole they had dug as their own personal jacuzzis. I joined them but quickly burnt my bum (yes, the kiwis refer to their bottoms as bums) and had to find a spot that didn't have the hot water bubbling up. Most of the group ended up laying where the water came up from the ocean so they didn't get too hot. At one point I attempted to take a group shot but couldn't stand in the right spot because the sand and water was burning my feet! It was definitely really odd to see steam rising from the sand and watching the waves bubble with boiling water.

After dragging a couple of people away, we got back on the road to head to the area of Waitomo. This was one of things we were anticipating the most because Waitomo caves meant blackwater rafting and glow worms. They were also the caves used in the Planet Earth: Cave episode. After a long drive, we got to a cheap campground where we met quite possibly the nicest kiwi couple yet. Peter was from New Zealand but Linda was from Minnesota and had met him online. They offered us electricity, use of the kitchen, showers, even air mattresses and permission to sleep inside the kitchen if we didn't have tents all for only $10. We swapped stories with them over quesodillas (we were severely missing Mexican food) and eagerly were looking forward to the following day.

Because the caves only did tours of 6, 3 people went in the earlier group while the rest of us went to visit the kiwi house. It was right against the campground and was the very first kiwi house in New Zealand. They were also responsible for breeding and exporting kiwis all over the world. We saw the only large spotted kiwi allowed in captivity and realized that they are fairly awkward looking birds. Then we went to check out the caves.

We arrived at the office then drove another 10 minutes to get to a dressing station for the caves. This meant peeing for the last time for another 4 hours, wearing the most uncomfortable (either too big or too small) overall wetsuits, harnesses,a helmet, huge white rubber rain boots, and a wetsuit jacket. Let me just say, we were all looking really sexy about then. We did some practice abseiling (where you release yourself on a rope down in the cave) before doing it for real. I refused to go first but was still really nervous when it was my turn. Our hot cave guide Mike told me to step off the ledge to hang 90 ft in the air and I think my heart jumped into my throat. I took a step...and didn't move at all. Turns out I wasn't so heavy that it wasn't that hard to control the speed I went down. I took my time absorbing the beautiful scenery of green plants pushing through the cave walls and the river below me.

Once I was at the bottom, I had a good chance to really look around. The main entrance to the cave was more like a crevice than a cave. It was about 90 feet deep and at the bottom had a river. The river ran through a cave to the left and the right and ahead to the left was the area we abseiled down and the right was how we would get out. This was a slight incline with the rock broken away to reveal small ledges where we would eventually have to rock climb out. But now I'm getting ahead of myself.

When we were all down we picked up black intertubes and walked into the caves in the stream. At once, you could see a tiny light of green and then there were more and more lights. We turned off our head lamps and looked around at thousands of green glow worms covering the entire ceiling of the cave. We sat down and looked up at what looked like the night sky with stars of green. Turns out that glow worms are actually larvae or maggots and use sticky threads hanging down to capture food. The light is used to attract insects and they do this for 9 months before they pupate then reproduce and die. We also saw and eel swimming around before we sat down in our intertubes and floated or blackwater rafted down the stream back to the entrance.

Here we ran into the other group and started a water fight, which resulted in me slipping on a rock and landing directly on my thigh while taking down Joanna as well. I have to say, definitely one of my most impressive bruises. We did some more floating before we got to some sections that had tiny holes off to the side. Our guide then asked us if we wanted to try squeezing through them. I did a couple, but Cayla went crazy and went through some of the ridiculously tiny holes. After a hot drink, some story swapping, and some chocolate at the end of the cave, we floated once more under the lights of the glow worms to the entrance.

This was the part I was fearing the most. We were supposed to climb out in oversized rubber boots filled with water, up a slippery rock face and trust that our guide at the top would hold on if we fell. Everyone else did just fine getting up, but there was a certain outcrop that was looking like it was going to cause me some problems. I did alright till I got to the part where I had to pull myself by my arms. I then got to be the only person in the group to fall as I slipped and hit my side against the rock. The adrenaline got me the rest of the way up, and despite being really cool to do, I was a bit shaken inside.

We made it back to the office where we enjoyed some soup, bought pictures of our adventures, and then push started the car out of the parking lot. I do have to say I think my greatest accomplishment was only falling 6 times the whole 4 hours we were down in the caves. It was definitely one of those things you had to do in New Zealand and was worth all the bruises.

Cathedral Cove

So one good thing about not having internet and therefore being unable to update the blog with my travels of the North Island was that I finally got caught up on my actual journal. It's definitely a good thing too because I never would have remembered all the amazing things we saw and did without it and the pictures I took. We began our road trip on Feb 9th, with a sedan (soon to be called The Mazda) and a giant janky van (which was the car I road in). Our plan was to leave for Coromandel Peninsula in the morning and do both Cathedral Cove and Hot Water Beach in that day. Of course plans change, and we didn't leave till much later.

The drive to Cathedral Cove was beautiful and we were finally beginning to realize that we were in fact in New Zealand. Auckland had been great but it was a city and didn't compare to the amazing green hills filled with giant trees and fern forests that we saw on the road. We arrive at Cathedral Cove and then spend the next 45 minutes finding a way to fix the window. On the way to the cove, the driver window regulator (the thing that makes the window go up and down) broke and the window fell down into the door. Thank god our driver Cody, was a mechanic and very non-chalantly began to rip the door panel off, pull out the regulator and demand we find sticks to hold the window up. This began a search for what ridiculous items can we stick into the door to hold this window up. The end result was sticks, a rubber sandal, McDonalds cup, a newspaper crumpled up and a block of concrete...and some travel brochures jammed at the top for friction.

This meant that it was fairly late as we actually started down to the beach front. Cayla and I were so excited that we ran almost all the way down to the water, only stopping to take pictures and when the flip flopping sound of my sandals got out of control. As we hit the stairs heading down to the beach we looked up and saw a giant rock in the middle of the water and a smaller island farther out. To our right was 3 caves and a waterfall and to the left, a giant hole in the limestone where the water had made a tunnel to another beach. We screamed "WE'RE IN NEW ZEALAND!" as we spun around on the beach, ran like crazy people, and immediately went into the water. I think we scared the couple on the beach, but we really didn't care. It was the first time I had felt like I was truly in New Zealand.

The rest of the group finally made it down and we all explored the beach. Sarah was halfway up a cliffside and we checked out one of the caves. The other half was jumping of the island and some of us were heading through the hole in the rock to the other beach. It turned out that this was the same location for Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian when the Pevensies first arrive in Narnia again. It definitely felt like a different world. We decided to head back up to the car as the sun fell and attempted to find a campground. We ended up at the parking lot for hot water beach, our location for the next day and slept in the car. Cayla and I were definitely thankful for the Tylenol PM or we would never have fallen asleep. I've decided it was quite possibly one of the most uncomfortable nights of sleeping ever and after that, refused to sleep in the car.

Lincoln at last

Yay finally at my new home for the next semester. It's been quite a journey to get here and I will definitely fill it all in. So far I've uploaded about 400 pictures from the past week on the road on facebook, and over the next few days will post a section on each day on the road. For now, I'm going to enjoy being stationary for a while and begin exploring my new home. Till then, check out the pics!

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=156745&id=665896295&l=5cf96f18a6

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=156750&id=665896295&l=adcb9da96b