First, I woke up at the buttcrack of dawn in order to shower, get the rest of my stuff packed for the trip and be at the bus stop with Sarah and Becca by 5am when the bus to the airport came. First of all, we had no idea where the actual bus stop was, so we ended up walking down a giant hill just to walk back up it again (this typically happens in Auckland because the whole city is filled with stinkin' hills). So we made it to the bus stop with 5 minutes to spare after asking some locals if they knew where it was. None of them were of any help considering they were just going home from the bars and partying the night before. So after finally making it on the bus and heading to the airport for our 7:30am flight to Christchurch, we were dreading going through airport security. Little did we know, airport security simply does not exist in NZ. I was never asked to show my id once, not at the ticket counter, not going through security, and not when getting on the plane. Sooooo easy to get through and no dumb liquid rules. Basically, don't take a lighter, don't take a knife and don't take a bomb and you'll be okay to fly.
We boarded our 1.5 hour long flight to ChCh on this plane that literally had more room than the Air NZ giant plane had for a 13 hour flight (and this flight only cost 70 bucks). Once we landed in ChCh we realized we hadn't called the A2B shuttle to pick us up so we could get our rental car. They came and got us and I filled out all the papers for our car, signed my life away and paid with my credit card. We loaded up the car, which we later referred to as Ferdinand the Knight, and we on our way to find a grocery store. So here's the thing.... in NZ, they drive on the left side of the road. Pretty messed up when you've driven many miles on the right side of the road in the left side of the car. The weird thing is, driving on the opposite side of the road and car wasn't the hard part. Nor was driving through the city and these crazy things called round-a-bouts. The hardest damn part about driving in NZ, was remembering that the turn signal is on the windshield wiper side and the windshield wipers are on the turn signal side. I cannot tell you how many times I turned on the windshield wipers while trying to turn on my signal to switch lanes. RUBBISH I tell you, simply RUBBISH!
After finding a grocery store and getting out of ChCh to start our two week road trip, we stopped at this scenic reserve along the way that was supposed to have a pretty cool cave you could go through. We had our flashlights, our non-slip shoes and tons of layers on and we still weren't prepared for how cold or the deep the water would initially be. First, the water was waist deep and FREEZING, but we continued on. The inside of the cave was pitch black, except the light from our flashlights, and there were giant rocks to step on to get through the cave. It was absolutely so much fun and so cool to see all the natural formations that occur without the cave. It was sad because there wasn't a single glowworm :( Getting out of the cave was the hardest part. We had to climb up this creepy, slippery, metal ladder... shimmy across a tiny path above a pool of water and climb out to safety. Once out we changed out of wet clothes, put warm ones on and took many pictures of the mountains and green grass all around us. Then we were off to the Devil's Punchbowl Falls right before heading through Arthur's Pass.
The Devil's Punchbowl was epic. The hike there was beautiful despite the 98709872049857209 stairs that had to be climbed and in NZ these stairs aren't normal. They're like one and a half step stairs so you're constantly pushing up and landing on the same feet. Makes stairs difficult for a girl like me who has had two knee surgeries. Nonetheless, I persevered and made it to the gorgeous falls, where we again took tons of pictures. After that... it was back to the car to find somewhere to sleep for the night. Not an easy task for 3 American to find somewhere "safe" to sleep, in a car, in BFE. We prevailed and found a place to sleep for the night that wasn't too sketchy. We had to mentally prepare what was waiting for us the next day...... the glaciers :)
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