South Island 2 - Glaciers, Pancake Rocks, Surfing

On to the second week of the trip! When we arrived in Arthur's Pass National Park, it was getting dark, and we decided to find a place to stay. It was freezing outside, so we ruled out camping, but the hostels and motels were too expensive. Then we stumbled upon a little cabin called "The Sanctuary", with a phone next to the door which rang the cabin owner in Christchurch when I picked it up. The owner was very friendly. He gave me the passcode to the cabin door, and explained that he operated his sanctuary on the basis of trust- he gives the passcode to travelers who ring him, and trusts that they will leave fifteen dollars in the Honesty Box inside. What an awesome system! There were two German travelers already staying in the Sanctuary, and we spent the night stoking the fire, enjoying some wine and chatting while Jake played the guitar; it was a very nice night. The next day we did a short hike to a waterfall before taking off for the west coast. As usual, we came across tons of sheep on the way:



By the time we arrived in Hokitika on the coast, we had just enough time to set up our tent on the beach and enjoy the sunset. The next morning Nikki and I went into town and went shopping for New Zealand greenstone necklaces, which are hand-carved in Hokitika. Greenstone is a big part of New Zealand and Maori tradition, and we'd both wanted a necklace for a while. Greenstone necklaces are traditionally given as a gift, and the variety of shapes signify different things. Nikki and I bought necklaces for one another; each was in the shape of a Koru, which is a spiral which signifies new beginnings and growth.

Afterwards we headed to the Franz Josef Glacier in Westland National park. I was considering getting a guided tour through the glacier and in between the crevasses, but I didn't have the money for the tour and crampons, so instead we hiked right up to the glacier and enjoyed the (FREE) view:



Afterwards we headed back up the coast and grudgingly set up our tent. Nikki and I wanted to sleep in the car, but Jake convinced us to set up a tent by the beach in spite of the sand flies and rain. It was ultimately worth it in the morning, when the rain took a break and the sky was covered in rainbows for the rest of the day. We headed further up the coast to Paparoa National Park, where we saw the famous Pancake Rocks, which are a series of layered rocks that remain somewhat of a geological mystery.




We continued on to Karamea, where a woman at the visitors center told us about some of the less-traversed beaches up the coast, in Kahurangi National Park. The one beach that caught our attention from her description was Scotts Beach, which she said was a secluded beach that would "make you feel like you were Robinson Crusoe, alone on an untouched and empty beach". Of course, that was all we needed to hear. We headed all the way up the coast, crossed a bridge, hiked part of the Heaphy Track through a mountain, and arrived at our little abandoned beach. And it was beautiful, isolated, and one of nicest places I've ever been. There was even a nice big boulder to climb!









There was also an awkward wingless bird that looked like a distant cousin of the kiwi, and it walked directly up to us, hung around us most of the night, and tried to eat my finger!



The next morning we took a long trip to the east coast, to a nice beach town called Kaikoura. The drive took us almost the entire day, so we ended up checking into a hostel and relaxing the rest of the evening. We got up the next morning, psyched about our surfing plans. Jake got a short board, and Nikki and I rented long boards, which we barely managed to squeeze into our car. Oddly enough, Jake is from Michigan and Nikki and I are from California and Hawaii, but he is a much more experienced surfer than either of us- so much for locational stereotypes. We surfed on Kaikoura beach, which was gorgeous, but rocky:



It's technically called a "black sand beach", but the black sand is actually just black rocks. The place further down the coast where we actually ended up surfing had huge boulders, so I needed to dive off the board before I got anywhere near the shore (that is, if I didn't fall off the board already). I managed to stand for a few seconds, but I didn't manage to do anything too fancy. I hope to surf more over the summer, especially since I'm lucky enough to live by the beach.

We spent the evening at the Whaler, the local pub, before turning in. We woke up the next morning, packed, and headed up to Picton, where we took the ferry in to Wellington. I was bruised from surfing, completely bitten up from the sandflies, dirty from my lack of showering, really sick of trail mix and salami, but happy as a clown. I made so many memories on this trip that I will never forget. The South Island was breathtaking, and it had a really friendly smalltown feel- people smiled and waved to us as we drove around the island. But returning back to Wellington also felt like coming home. I also realized that this was probably my last big trip before the semester is over, and I felt simultaneously disappointed and elated. I've grown very attached to this country, but my time's running out. I'll be cheesy and compare my study abroad experience to life; part of what makes it so special is that it's fleeting.

South Island 1 - Bungy Jump, Ice Bar, Tours

I returned from my two week South Island trip two days ago, and have been incredibly busy sorting everything out since then. But I think it's about time to start writing things down. It was an amazing trip, and I've decided to write a separate blog post for the first and second week, since there are so many pictures and adventures to divulge.

So, to start at the beginning, Nikki and I spent the first week together, traveling by bus and pitching our tent wherever we could. We landed in Queenstown in the morning, and had an incredibly busy first day. We first pitched our tent at a campsite, and then walked through the Queenstown gardens and lake:



Then I split from Nikki to catch the bus to the Kawarau Bridge Bungy- the world's very first commercial bungy. I actually wasn't afraid, although these Canadian and Australian guys who took the bus with me found that hard to believe. Bungy jumping definitely takes more guts than skydiving, though, because you need to jump off yourself instead of being shoved by a tandem diver. I wanted to touch the water below the bridge, so the man who tied my feet told me to simply fall straight forward off the bridge (as opposed to jumping which would reduce the pull of my bodyweight). I wasn't afraid, even when hopping up to the edge of the bridge with my legs tied and looking down at the rapids. The closest I came to fear was the split-second after plunging from the bridge, when my brain registered that I was heading towards the ground and seemed to ask me "have you forgotten about your evolutionary goal of self-preservation? What the HELL are you doing?". I didn't feel that when skydiving; I was so high up, my brain never really processed that I was falling to the ground.




Later that night, Nikki and I met up with some other kids on our study abroad program who are currently studying in Christchurch but happened to be in Queenstown that night, and we went to an ice bar. It was negative 8 degrees in there, so we were required to wear parkas and gloves (the gloves helped with the ice glasses, too). The entrance fee was a little steep, but I'd always wanted to go to an ice bar, and I've been steadily chipping away various life goals New Zealand, so why not this one as well?




Afterwards we tried enjoying the local bar, Buffalo, but were drained and decided to call it a day. Camping in Queenstown was alright, but it was definitely frosty, and we both woke up in the middle of the night shivering. We also had to wake up early to catch the long bus ride to Milford Sound. Milford Sound is definitely one of the more famous scenic places in New Zealand, most well known for it's starkly tall mountains, which were carved through by a massive glacier. Pictures definitely can't do this place justice; I literally couldn't capture the scale of a cruise ship next to one of the massive Milford mountains because they were just too big for my lense. But seeing a cruise ship look like a toy boat next to a mountain definitely gave us a sense of perspective (you can sort of see on on the left):


I was also wearing a hat and sunglasses during the cruise, and a few Japanese tourists mistook me for a celebrity. They approached me with their camera and asked for a picture- I thought they were asking me to take a picture of them, but instead they wanted to take a picture WITH me. I wonder who they thought I was?

We arrived back in Queenstown later that night, and had a Fergburger- a large burger from a restaurant that we'd heard about from a few different people. We met two Brazilian men at Fergburger who ended up challenging us to a game of pool. Nikki and I were severely lacking in pool skills, but we ended up learning a bit of Portuguese (which I promptly forgot by the next morning). We woke up early yet again the next morning, to catch a bus to Dunedin. This coastal city was modeled after Edinburgh, and had a lot of nice churches. We took a bus out to the Otago Peninsula, a more rural area outside of Dunedin where were were hoping to camp. We ended up setting up our tent on land labeled as a "Nature Reserve", overlooking the coast:


We thought we were all alone up there, until a man came upon us eating dinner, and asked us what we were doing on his land. Whoops! He let us stay as long as we promised not to start a fire or leave any rubbish behind. Perhaps it would have been better if we'd moved, because that night there was a powerful rainstorm, and we got the worst of the winds and rain on the top of the mountain. We were a little worried about the sturdiness of our tent, since we bought it used and later realized it was labeled as a "tnet" instead of a "tent"- if the manufacturers couldn't spell tent right, what else would be wrong with it? But our sturdy tnet never fell over. It did sway in the wind, though; at some points it bent so low that it touched our noses. The next morning we headed back into the city and decided to check into a hostel and have a shower. The shower and the hostel were heavenly: our room had a balcony along with a friendly cat sitting purring on the edge of the bed.

The next day we took the tours of Cadbury Chocolate Factory and the Speights Brewery. They didn't allow us to take pictures inside of the factory, but I was still excited because Cadbury is to New Zealand what Hershey is to America; the chocolate king. And Speights' slogan basically sums the brew up: "Pride of the South". It's a South Island brew, and has a rich history as part of Southern culture. The parallels between American "southern pride" and the pride of the South Island were pretty striking, especially when looking at how Southern culture was marketed; a glorification of small town values, cowboy-like farmers, the simple life, and lots of folksy banjo music. After our tour we got to try as much of the different Speights brews as we wanted; if you ever get a chance to try Speights, I'd highly recommend Old Dark Ale.


The next day we hopped on a bus to Christchurch to meet up with my flatmate Jake- the guys he was originally sharing a car ended their vacation early, and Nikki and I decided it would be nice to hop in a car for half our trip. I was planning on helping Jake drive, but the car had a stick shift, and neither Nikki nor I knew how to drive manual. Jake had only learned the day before, so getting the car to cooperate was a bit of a hassle. Christchurch was the largest city in the South Island, and it wasn't particularly fascinating, so we decided to head out to Arthur's Pass National Park. It was Saturday by this point, so I think I'll stop this entry here.

Quad Biking, Trip Planning

I haven't posted here for a while, since life has been incredibly hectic. I figured that it was about time for an update, however, since yesterday I finally went quad biking (this was on the must-do list)! Quad biking, also called four-wheeling, involves riding this awesome contraption through rocky, messy terrain:



Unfortunately, I couldn't get any action shots because I was busy actually riding the quad bike up and down mountains, and through rivers (a little hazardous when it comes to protecting my precious digital camera). But I did manage to get a few pictures of us during a few stops:







It was a great, messy experience. I learned not to panic when my engine smoked as I rode through the water... I loved riding through the rocky parts... I managed to dodge a suicidal sheep that ran in front of my quad bike... I even got up to 60 km/hr when we rode down a highway!

After the quad biking, we went wine tasting in a local winery in Wairarapa; the wine was very good, although I must admit that I have limited skills as a wine taster. I'm just beginning to distinguish between different types of wines, and frankly half of the descriptions people use for wines sound made up. Can you really smell nutmeg, lychee, sawdust, apricot or almonds in there? Even though I doubt I'll ever have the imagination, pretentiousness, or budget to be a true wine connoisseur, I am interested in trying more wines and expanding my palette, especially since I'm finally 21. Right now, it all tastes good to me :-)

We also when to a local Greytown chocolate factory called Schoc, where they make experimental flavors, such as lime chili chocolate and strawberry pepper chocolate. They let us try samples of the flavors, and I decided on the dark rose chocolate, which came with actual rose petals in the package- some of the finest chocolate I've ever had!

I probably should have been using Sunday to work on my two research papers, which are both due in four days, but I'm glad I didn't miss these experiences. Things will only get more intense from here. After turning in my two research papers this friday, I'll be gearing up to do my South Island trip with Nikki. We'll be flying into Queenstown, and heading to Milford Sound, camping in Fiordland National Park, traveling to Dunedin, Christchurch, the Franz Josef Glacier, and various other national parks where we can camp. We've split on a tent in an attempt to save money on hostels (as well to get a real outdoors experience), and we'll be hopping into a rental car with my flatmate halfway through the trip. We left some of the trip open for wandering and spontaneous decisions, which I think will be nice.

Even though I haven't been updating on everything, life has definitely been busy. Outside of school, I've been attending events, meals and parties with new people, and generally being as sociable as I can. I've met some amazing, quirky and interesting locals and international people, and want to continue to do so while I can. I have developed a lot of new relationships, stories and memories, which have been both positive and negative, joyful and painful, relaxing and stressful, and always enlightening. It's difficult to truly articulate my life here... there are so many factors, it's too complex to properly elaborate. But I've learned a lot about myself, introspectively and socially, in relation to different people and cultures.

Also, I baked these fudge cookies, and even though they looked funny, they were delicious: