South Island coming to an end..

I'm now in Christchurch where I'm staying with Abbey, Erin's sister. Yesterday, I just relaxed and wandered around town. Today, I slept in and went through the botanical gardens. Christchurch is a funny place. There's Montreal St, Antigua St, Gloucester St, Manchester St, Oxford Terrace, the Avon River... And there's a fair bit of architecture that fits in with all the British place names. In Cathedral Square, theres a giant chess set, along with some jewelery stands and a Starbucks. All the people I've been meeting up with over and over are leaving from Christchurch this week. Gillis left yesterday, and the rest leave on the weekend. It's strange not to be seeing the same people, since I'm not staying with them at hostels. Anji and Adam went to Kaikoura until Friday, when I leave Christchurch. I'm just saying good bye to everyone! I suppose it's somewhat appropriate. Fresh start for the North Island...?

"Skipping" in Christchurch.

Staying with Abbey is nice. I had food that was made in an oven for the first time in a while. I slept in my own room, not a dorm with 7 other people. I don't have to label my food. Abbey works at a bike store in Christchurch and she and her flat mates are all into cycling. One of her flat mates designs women's cycling clothing. It's called "Athena" and there's a website but I can't remember it!

I spent the weekend in Queenstown where I celebrated my birthday. It was really fun! Anji and I went to bed to read before the guys (they were playing poker) on Friday. Around 1am, when we were about to turn off the lights, the guys came in with a piece of cake, a "3" candle, balloons and sparkling wine. We ended up getting dressed and going back out. I think the guys had more fun with the surprise than I did. They had bought little whistles that go in the end of the balloon so when you let the air out it makes a fair bit of noise. On Saturday, my actual birthday, we went luging on the mountain overlooking Queenstown. We walked up instead of paying for the gondola. It was a really nice walk through a forest that reminded me of Kotkajärv. The luging itself was tons of fun, and cheaper than most activities in New Zealand. You sit in this little cart and go down a track and try not to fall out on the corners. While a group of us did that, two of my friends went to do the Nevis bungy jump. A full 134m (?) towards a little river in a deep valley. And Tiina thinks I'm crazy!

Luging in Queenstown.

After Queenstown, I went to Mt. Cook Village with a couple of people. It was pouring rain the entire afternoon when we arrived. And the next morning. I was feeling like I might get sick, so I didn't do the 4 hour hike with my friends. I didn't want to get stuck in the rain and cold, so when it started to clear up, I did a few shorter walks near the village. It was very scenic. Even more so the next morning when we were leaving and the clouds had lifted from the mountain tops. The village is just surrounded by mountains! Mt Cook is the highest in New Zealand. The village itself wasn't too exciting. A hotel, motel, hostel, cafe, info centre, guide centre, a one room school, 100 residents and not much else. I've been having some problems with the memory card I was using in my camera so my pictures of Lake Pukaki didn't save! It's a really strange, milky turquoise colour because of the "rock flour" from the glaciers that feed it. Look it up!

The hostel at Mt. Cook (but that's not Mt. Cook in the background).

Before I left Dunedin for Queenstown, I met up with Meredith, Abbey and Erin's sister who is studying at Otago. We went out to dinner at a restaurant (!) and then to see a sketch comdey show at the university. It was offensive, rude and very funny! There was one group called the Selwyn Ballet that was quite good. It was a group of guys, who had obviously practiced a lot, doing ballet in see through tutus. They had all worn their most colourful underwear to match their super-serious expressions. There were also a male and a female barber shop quartet type choirs that had some pretty clever lyrics to well known songs. And let's not forget all the bad puns! One sketch was a guy at an easel, drawing and erasing, drawing and erasing. He said, "This is the worst sketch ever!" Plenty of skits like that.

The day after that, I went to see penguins on the peninsula. First, we stopped at the Royal Albatross colony, the only place in the world where albatross breed on the mainland. They are huge birds! At the penguin colony, we saw sheep, seals, blue penguins (world's smallest) and yellow-eyed penguins (world's rarest). They had these trenches and hiding huts to view the yellow eyed penguins. We got to see one coming out of the water! Very cool!

A little blue penguin in a penguin box.

Tomorrow I leave for Kaikoura, where, if the weather's okay, I'll go whale watching. Then it's off to the North Island to finish off New Zealand!

The Deep (Chilly) South

Stewart Island.

I went to Stewart Island, which is New Zealand's 3rd largest island, and it was raining. The ferry ride over was okay, almost fun. We rented scooters (mopeds) for the afternoon and had some godo, damp fun. Stewart Island only has 27km of road. The next day I was going to go for a half day hike before my afternoon ferry left. So I headed out, but it was raining a little harder, so after 20 minutes, I headed back, bought a piece of really yummy carrot cake and watched Fly Boys at our hostel. And wrung my pants out, since they were literally dripping wet. But it was really pretty. There were constantly rainbows.

Scootering by the chain that connects Stewart Island to the mainland.

The ferry ride back wasn't quite so pleasant, because it was quite windy and quite wavy. Hazel's sister Mary met me in Bluff and I stayed over at her place. It was so nice not to have to cook. And to have dessert that came out of an oven! I looked through her cookbooks for things I could make while travelling, but ended up finding a bunch of things to make when I get home. Then, I spent the next night in Invercargill at her daughter Erin's house. I went to the museum with her and saw the tuataras there. They're living dinosaurs. We had really yummy fish and chips for dinner. It was local blue cod.

In the morning I was back off on the bus to Dunedin along the Southern Scenic Route. We stopped in a few places but it was unbelievably windy! I've never been in such strong wind. You could lean back and be supported by the wind (briefly...). Unfortunately, there were no sea lions or dolphins because of the wind, and the petrified forest at Curio Bay was under water. But the wind was amazing!

No sea lions, lots of wind!

When we arrived in Dunedin, we went off to do a tour of the Speight's brewery. It was quite interesting. At the end, there was beer tasting. Unfortunately, I don't drink beer so I couldn't really appreciate it, or the fact that you could have as much as you wanted in the 15 minutes we were at the tasting bar. They had some interesting brews, though. One was with chocolate (it tasted a bit like cold coffee) and one was with apricots. It did smell like apricots.

In the morning, I did a tour of the Cadbury factory. I've been looking forward to that for a while now. The Cadbury's chocolate here is so much better. I've been eating a lot of it... We got all kinds of samples during the tour. Mmmm...

In the afternoon, I went to the botanical gardens with a couple of friends. There wasn't much in bloom, since it is fall here, but there was a really neat aviary. It had all kinds of birds from the south Pacific. But I left my camera at my hostel!


Pictures to go with my last post:

Queenstown from where some friends did a bungy jump.

Mirror Lakes in Fiordland on the way to Milford Sound.

Waterfalls in Milford Sound.

Haast Pass.

Can you say "adrenalin"?

I left Queenstown this morning and am writing from Tuatapere, in the middle of a bunch of sheep farms. We went to Milford Sound todday which was just gorgeous. I'll post pictures next time. On the drive from there to here, we passed huge fields packed with sheep. More sheep than I've ever seen. And a beautiful pink sunset. (There might be snow overnight.)

Queenstown is the adventure capital of New Zealand, so of course I had to join in the fun. I did a bungy jump from 43m at Kawarau bridge near Queenstown. It's the oldest commercial bungy jump. I wasn't planning on it, but then I saw my friends doing it, and it wasn't really that high... The river was pretty. It was really scary at the end when I was just dangling upside down waiting to get into the raft. Apperently I screamed really loudly when I first jumped. But it was so cool!! 2 of my friends are doing the "Thrillogy", which is 3 of the many bungy jumps in the area, including the highest at 134m. The other one, we went to watch, was on a mountain overlooking Queenstown. I'm glad I did the one over water and not over rocks and trees.

A few days before, I did a sky dive from 15 000 feet in Wanaka. It was a tandem skydive, so I was jumping with a professional strapped to my back. He was in control of everything, so I didn't have to decide to get out of the plane. All of a sudden, we were just plummeting through the sky. It was scary at first. 60 seconds of freefall before the parachute opened! Once it was open, it was as if we stopped moving. I had a beautiful view of the Lake Wanaka area. I was on such a high for the rest of the day. It was just an amazing experience! I couldn't imagine doing it multiple times a day though. One of the tandem jumpers said he did about 20 in one day, although 10 was more typical.

I also went to Puzzling World in Wanaka and did a walk there that was pretty much just up a really steep hill for a couple of hours and then back down. Great view though. We went to the Cinema Paradiso to see a NZ movie called "Black Sheep". Very funny. Only here will you find a movie about zombie sheep. The main character grew up on a sheep farm, but developed a sheep phobia. And there were really yummy fresh cookies at intermission!

Before Wanaka, we stayed in Makarora, also in the middle of nowhere. We drove through the Haast pass to get there. Haast Pass was quite dramatic, but my pictures didn't turn out well. I'll try to get one from someone else.

I'm having an amazing time. I'm heading to Stewart Island tomorrow, unless there's a storm, in which case the ferry may not go. We'll see what happens! Maybe I'll do another skydive instead!

West Coast

I still can't get over it! I'm in New Zealand! Internet access here is slow and expensive, hence the lack of posts and why I haven't been replying to emails. Not to mention I've been so busy. It's been raining a lot, but it hasn't really affected me much. I've been eating a LOT of peanut butter. Breakfast and lunch, everyday. So I bought oatmeal, thinking I would just add sugar, since all the hostel kitchens have had it so far. But not this one. So I put peanut butter in my porridge. Dinner has been better. Lots of pasta. But I've also made stir fry and rice and a stew.

Typical view in Abel Tasman.

I did the Abel Tasman Coastal Track for 2 nights. I had to cross an estuary at low tide. It was still up to my hips at one point. It was so beautiful! Blue ocean, green forests, golden beaches... It was pouring rain the whole time except when I was walking! I was going to take a water taxi back but it was too rough to land on the beach, so the company sent a van to get us. 2 people had to catch a bus to Nelson at 4:30. We got picked up at 3 and it's a 1.5 hour drive... So the guy was speeding. Kiwis are maniacs behind the wheel! Tight little curvy mountain roads falling off a cliff are posted at 80+km/h. Roads that would be 70 at home are 100. I haven't been one a single multi-lane highway on the south island, but I've definitly gone faster than 100km/h. Anyways, we got pulled over. And then we were followed for 15 minutes because there was nothing else in the town for the police to do! The people still made their bus, because our driver knew the bus driver. Everybody knows everybody else here, it seems.

Some girls I walked with in Abel Tasman.

Then I got stranded in Marahau, the access town for the park, because my bus left early. One of the locals took me to town to get groceries. They were all really friendly. And there were a few people who had stayed from the bus, who I'm still hanging around with. I did my laundry and walked on the beach. There are much worse places to be stranded.

Pancake Rocks in Punakaiki.

We drove down the coast to a place called Cape Foulwind where we had yet more magnificent views of gorgeous beaches in the middle of nowhere. Then we stopped at Punakaiki to see the pancake rocks there. Pretty neat, lots of nice views. We stayed overnight in a town of 40 people and 100 cows called Barrytown. Some people went bone carving in the morning, but I walked to the beach with Inge from the Netherlands. (I'm hanging out with a bunch of Dutch people.) We went looking for greenstone (jade) not really expecting to find any, but then we found tons! Or so we thought. Apperently it wasn't, but who knows! It was fun, despite the thousands of sandfly bites I got!

Coming out of a wormhole in the glacier.

Now I'm in Franz Josef Glacier Village. I did a glacier walk yesterday on the "steepest guided glacier in the world". It was pretty cool. The views were, as usual, amazing. I spent 5 hours walking on a glacier. All the guides were in shorts and t-shirts! It wasn't that cold, but not that warm either. This morning I did a hike with my friend through the rainforest here. We had a snack on a rock in the middle of a glacial river. Now I'm sitting in an internet cafe in an old, converted bus. Tomorrow I head down towards Mt. Aspiring National Park and then to Queenstown. I might stop in Wanaka for a couple of nights as well.

On the walk this morning.