South Island Trip

This is a big, old tree in Queenstown on the South Island. I am posting a select few photos (I took over 500) to give a general idea of how beautiful New Zealand is. Have you seen Lord of the Rings? Zena? That's pretty much spot on what it looks like.

To start, I flew into Auckland, where my sister and her friend Steph picked me up. We stayed at my sister's boyfriend's house in Auckland for a couple of nights before flying to Christchurch. Outside of the apartment we were staying at, there is a big hill called Mt. Hobson, which doubles as a cow pasture (cows in New Zealand are in excellent shape--they routinely climb mountainsides with the goats and sheep, much unlike the cows in prairieland Iowa). This is the stunning view of downtown Auckland from the top of Mt. Hobson.

From Auckland, we flew into Christchurch, where we saw this unmistakable warning to bicyclists attempting to ride on the train tracks.

From Christchurch, we hired a car and drove to a little town on the Banks Pensinsula called Akaroa. Here is a photo from the drive through the mountainside.

Akaroa is a cute oceanside small town, with a heavy French influence, so we sat in the Cricket pitch and ate cheese and drank wine. Or, rather, they drank wine and I had a tasty Lemon Lime and Bitters. We discovered a beautiful old cemetery on a hill, nestled between the mountains and the ocean.

After Akaroa, we drove to Arthur's Pass, which is a mountain pass in the Southern Alps. It was an overcast day, and we did a couple of short hikes, including the Devil's Punchbowl Waterfall.

We camped about 8K outside of Arthur's Pass village, and in the morning, I took some photos of the sunrise over the Southern Alps. Here is a view to the West, as the red sky and rising sun turns the mountains into rich colours. This is the spot where I stood by myself, surrounded by mountains on four sides, in a little valley with a low stream and heaps of rocks, birds, and lupines (which are not native to New Zealand therefore not such a good thing to have around but beautiful nonetheless). I was far enough from the campsite that I couldn't see or hear any people at all. It was a really lovely moment, watching the sun come up and feeling alone and small but exhilerated.

On the way to Arthur's Pass, we stopped at Castle Hill and did some amateur rock climbing.

We drove to Mt. Cook on another overcast day. Just as we were approaching the mountain, the sun came out and a huge double rainbow appeared. We hiked in the mist to a lookout where we could see the Tasman Glacier, which is the largest glacier of New Zealand.


We continued driving after our hikes on Mt. Cook. The sun came out, and we came to Rakaia Gorge. Rock mineral has colored the water. Apparently, it is also a good spot for fly fishing.


Continuing Southward, we stopped at the Clay Cliffs. These cliffs are towering and amazing. It was a hot, hot day and the beating sun on these clay formations was unforgiving.

Whoops--I skipped Lake Tekapo. In the center of Caterbury district, there are a couple of beautiful, tranquil, big lakes. Lake Tekapo is one of them, and there is a sweet little village. We spent a whole day hanging out by the lake in the sun, writing postcards. Here are Kjersti and Steph, sitting on a bench at Lake Tekapo. Who are they writing to? Is it you?


And this is from the top of Mount John, which is just outside of Lake Tekapo. We got a little silly. Altitude?


Our next big adventure was Mildford Sound, in the Fjordland National Park. On the way there, we stopped at Mirror Lakes.


And then, the highlight of my South Island trip, Milford Sound! We arrived in the evening and saw this:

It was so beautiful that we splurged and bought cruise tickets, to see the Sound from the water. We were supposed to take the cruise the following morning, but when we woke up, it was pouring rain. We were disappointed, but when we arrived at the cruise station to board our boat, the women at the desk gave us huge grins and said we would love the cruise in the rain. And, just because they are nice and wanted to prove that we would love it just as much in rain as in sun, they offered us a free second cruise when the sun came out.
And they were right. In the rain, waterfalls poured off the mountains! Everywhere, water streaming, splashing, just dumping out of the rocks and evaporating back into the air before hitting the ground. It was unreal! Here are photos from both cruises, the rainy one and the sunny one.

Our last stop was Queenstown, the adventure capital of New Zealand. As adventurous as we are, we did not bungee, skydive, or parasail. Instead, we visited the Botanical Gardens, and I found a beautiful, old tree.

So, there you go, pics of the first half of my New Zealand trip. And to leave you, here are a few things New Zealand:

I'll post about the North Island camper van trip later.

Wanaka

This morning I am in a little mountain town called Wanaka, where I stayed at a hostel literally at the foot of the mountains. We are making a five hour drive today to Milford Sound, on the West Coast of the South Island. Yesterday we went to Mt. Cook, the hightest point in the Southern Alps, and hiked in furious winds, rain, and then sudden sunshine and saw the most amazing rainbow over the mountains!

I can't even begin to describe how beautiful it is here. I have heaps of pictures to post, when I have enough time online--so far I can only find expensive spots to pay for a few minutes at a time online.

Imagine waking up every morning to the sun rising over the Southern Alps, and falling asleep to the Southern hemisphere stars. It's unreal--any pictures I take can't even come close to how incredible it is.

That's all for now--my time is running out.

Cheers from Wanaka!

Auckland

I am in Auckland, NZ staying with some friends of my sister. I have been here now for a couple of days. The jetlag wasn't as bad as I had anticipated--in fact, it really wasn't bad at all. The flight was long but not too terrible, except for the fact that the airline mixed up my request for a vegetarian meal.

So far, I been soaking up the warmth (and what little sun has been around--it's been rainy) and learning as many Kiwi phrases as possible.

We just booked a flight to the South Island for next week. We are flying into Christchurch, on the East side of the island, and then flying out of Queenstown, further west and south, a couple of weeks later.

There are two kids who live here every other weekend, and they are here this weekend. They are having a blast making fun of the things I say, like "groceries," and, "sidewalk." (They say "shopping," and "footpath".)

There is a huge hill just across the way from the flat we are staying in, and Kjersti and I climbed in yesterday. We had to make our way through the cows grazing at the bottom of the hill. Apparently the cows climb the hill too, because the whole way up we had to side step the cow shit (and Kjersti was barefoot). At the top of the hill, we could see a panoramic view of downtown Auckland and the ocean. It was beautiful!

There are so many beautiful things ahead. When I introduce myself and say I just got here and that I am from the states, the first thing people say is, "Have you been to the South Island yet?" I am very excited to travel with Kjersti and Steph to the South Island!

Also, the New Zealanders looooove to make fun of the Aussies and the Crown. Also, people outside of Auckland rag on Aucklanders. There is even a legitimate term, Jafa, which stands for Just Another Fuckin' Aucklander. In fact, last night we turned on the tv and watched a local program which had made a documentary about Jafas. No joke.

Alright--I am off to drink coffee in the sun that is trying to break through. Imagine--in St. Paul it snowed the other day and it's cold, and here I am in a T-shirt and capris! Yes!