It's a beautiful day out in Auckland again, and I'm sitting here thinking how much I love this country. The past 9 days have been a whirlwind of travelling, meeting new people, and seeing unbelievable sights; and since I have a couple more days before part 3 of my mid-semester break, I'll try and catch you all up on the past week and a half of my incredible adventures!
Wednesday, April 8th
Let's just say getting 2 hrs of sleep before you travel is a terrible idea. I was so exhausted, and wanted to get to the airport extra early since it's was my first time travelling by myself. It turns out I could have slept in a couple extra hours because checking into the Auckland airport was the easiest process I've ever had to go through at an airport and it took less than 15 minutes to get all checked in and find my gate. I had a short layover in Wellington before heading to Dunedin, where I stayed the night. One of my good friends that I met here in Auckland (Anna), who actually goes to Madison has a friend who is also studying abroad through AustraLearn, but at the University of Otago in Dunedin. She asked him if I could stay with him for the night, and he was kind enough to agree. His name is Dan, and him and his flatmates were fantastic hosts! They sent me on a Speight's tour (well known New Zealand brewery), and were also hosting a party at their place the night I was there! As much fun as I was having though, I was so tired and ended up going to bed before midnight! I met so many people, and had a really great time, even though it was bitter cold and rainy.
Thursday, April 9th
In the morning, we all helped clean up and then went out to breakfast in town. Dan and his friend, Travis had bought a car the day before, so Dan was nice enough to drive me to the historic Dunedin train station, which is apparently one of the most photographed places in the country. I understood once I saw it. Even on a dreary day, it was stunning. I arrived early, but somehow almost managed to miss the bus to Queenstown because I didn't realize one of the buses that was there for awhile was actually the one I needed to be on, and had been waiting for me. Ooops.
The bus ride from Dunedin to Queenstown took about 4 and a half hours, and we arrived at the city centre at 6:30. I was scheduled to bungy jump at 7. I made it up to the top of the Ledge just in time to be the last jumper of the night. The Ledge Bungy is unique in that you're not attached by you're ankles, so you can have a running start to your jump, and also because it's the only place in New Zealand where you can jump at night. Since I felt a little lame that I wasn't doing the Nevis Bungy (164m compared to the 47m fall at the Ledge), I wanted to do something a little crazier than just dive off, so I decided to flip off. I ended up tying the record for the number of revolutions (4), and I actually didn't think it was that scary!! However, I did close my eyes, and since it was dark out, I couldn't even see where I was falling into. After that, I headed back town the gondola, and hiked up a massive hill to get to my hostel.
Friday, April 10th
I got to sleep in, which was great! Even though I've never been to Colorado, Queenstown is how I would picture Colorado with the mountains in the background and really nice streets to shop around at in the center of the city. For as many wild adventure activites as there are to do in Queenstown, the town itself seemed pretty quiet and low-key. I went to a little cafe for brunch, before I started my fun-filled day of activities. It was a combo. package that let me take a jet boat ride on the Shotover River, helicopter ride from the top of a mountain to the top of the gondola station, and then go luging! The jet boat was way more exciting than I anticipated! The driver would get the boat within inches of the rock walls, and do 360 degree spins every couple minutes!
Next was the helicopter ride, which was another first for me, and the view was spectacular!!! A family sat in the back, which meant I was fortunate enough to get the front seat next to the pilot! He dropped me off at the same place that I bungy jumped from, but this time I tried the luge!! I
think the best way to describe the luge is to imagine yourself as a character in Mario-Kart.
That's exactly how I felt. I stayed up there for awhile longer to watch the sun go down behind the mountains, and it was overwhelmed with content. Queenstown is definitely one of the most beautiful places I've seen so far, and I would love to go back and stay longer!
After I got back down to the main drag of town, I hit up Fergberger after hearing from several people that I had to go there. The place was packed, and my monstrous hawaiian burger was delicious!Saturday, April 11th
Originally, the plan was to leave Queenstown by Saturday, but I knew I would be kicking myself later if I left without making a trip out to Milford Sound. It's one of the most popular places people visit in New Zealand, known for its scenic beauty. I was ecstatic when I walked down in the morning and had the chance to see the sun rise while we were waiting for the coach to pick us up.
Unfortunately, it happened to be quite foggy and rainy that day. It's about a five hour coach trip from Queenstown, followed by an hour and 45 min. cruise. The nice part about the rain was that it created hundreds of mini waterfalls down the mountains, which was really neat to see.
On the way back to Queenstown, the weather turned around and became sunny and gorgeious out. Go figure. We stopped at a place called Te Anau on the way there and back. Here are pictures from almost the same spot about 5 hours apart.
Sunday, April 12th
The next day was pretty much just spent on a bus from Queenstown to Christchurch, since I was flying out the following day to head back to Auckland. We had three breaks along the way, making it about an 8hr trip. Here's a few pictures from the stops we made...
One of the places we stopped was Lake Tekapo, which I had originally wanted to spend a night at because it's known as one of the starriest places in the world. Had I known it was this beautiful in the daylight too, I would have tried harder to actually make it there for a day.
Once I made it to Christchurch, I walked around a bit to check out the city. I would have loved to have made it in the Art Museum, but it was closed by the time we got in. Christchurch is the biggest city in the South Island with a population around 400,000 people, but it didn't seem like a big city at all in comparison to Auckland, and the brick roads in the city centre definitely gave it a warm, small town feeling.
Travelling by myself actually went a lot smoother than I had expected, and it was great to have all the time in the world to think about anything and everything under the sun. It was a wonderful 5 days, and it came to an end at the perfect time when I was starting to get a little Auckland-sick. I would love to go back to the South Island and explore more, because I know there are so many other incredible places that I didn't have time to see. However, I would definitely want to do it with someone that I can share the experience with.Well, I'll work on writing about part 2 of my break tomorrow, because that's all I have the patience for at the moment! Much love!
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