ANTICLIMACTIC DAY!!!!!!!!!
Pretty much everything we did this day just sucked. When we were in the car, the sun was out and it was nice and beautiful but as soon as we stepped out, it was windy and raining. Pretty much, New Zealand just hated us this day.
Now for the list of uneventful stops:
1. Slope Point- The most southern point of the south island of New Zealand. It was pretty cool, but windy and cold and raining.
2. Waipapa Point- Went here to see sea lions...... FAIL
3. Fossil Forest- just a bunch of stairs leading to the beach...... WTF?
4. Niagara Falls, NZ- nothing like the Niagara Falls in NY, not that I've ever been, but this was a couple rocks in the middle of a stream. The guy who named it, thought it would be funny after seeing the monstrosity of the falls in the US.
5.McLean Falls- the falls that should have been named Niagara Falls, NZ because at least there was a waterfall.
After those 5 uneventful stops we decided to quit for the night, so we drove around to find a place to park and it was raining and we were driving on a scary gravel road that was close to the ocean and once again Sarah has terrible night time car etiquette so Becca forces her to sing Disney songs :)
We parked close to Jack's Blowhole so we could go the next morning even though it would probably be uneventful because we got their the night before and we literally had the worst night of sleep humanly possible. It rained and was freezing and I'm pretty sure that it even hailed at one point in the night.
Holy crap.... it was just a terrible day!!!!
Monday, June 6, 2011
South Island Trip Day #9
The morning was beautiful. It started off with a gorgeous sunrise and Starbucks muffins.... yummy. Then we were off to the beach for the day. Well.... it wasn't really a beach, more like lots of rocks that jetted out into the ocean that you could climb on and have fun and not get wet unless you really wanted to. Which we didn't really want to because it was freezing cold. So we walked around on them and sang Beatles songs :)
And apparently, there is a Beatles song for every occasion :)
Then Sarah decided she wanted to almost die. She wanted to climb across the rocks to a bit of beach where her and Becca could swim but she fell while climbing across and almost, positively gave herself a concussion. Scary shit.
After leaving the beach, we decided to head to the Bluff Scenic Reserve to eat some lunch and while there, we met a local man whose mom was the last arranged marriage between the Dunedin and Christchurch Maori tribes. He had been away living in England since he was 17 and this was only his second time being back in all that time!! Talk about crazy!!
Oh and for those of you who don't know, Bluff is the southern most city of New Zealand. It's known for it's oyster industry and for having a playful strait Faveaux.
We then said goodbye to Bluff and headed back to Invercargill for a night with our Starbucks friends. We had a good time and we happy to have met and hung out with some real Kiwi's. Then it was off to bed for the night to continue on our journey early the next day.
And apparently, there is a Beatles song for every occasion :)
Then Sarah decided she wanted to almost die. She wanted to climb across the rocks to a bit of beach where her and Becca could swim but she fell while climbing across and almost, positively gave herself a concussion. Scary shit.
After leaving the beach, we decided to head to the Bluff Scenic Reserve to eat some lunch and while there, we met a local man whose mom was the last arranged marriage between the Dunedin and Christchurch Maori tribes. He had been away living in England since he was 17 and this was only his second time being back in all that time!! Talk about crazy!!
Oh and for those of you who don't know, Bluff is the southern most city of New Zealand. It's known for it's oyster industry and for having a playful strait Faveaux.
We then said goodbye to Bluff and headed back to Invercargill for a night with our Starbucks friends. We had a good time and we happy to have met and hung out with some real Kiwi's. Then it was off to bed for the night to continue on our journey early the next day.
South Island Trip Day #8
MAVORA LAKES!!!
Well that's what we would have seen if it had not been foggier than a mug outside. It was still pretty cool though because it really did look Lord of the Rings style. We went for a bit of a tramp along the North Mavora Lake but I wasn't really wearing proper shoe attire to tramp 3 hours to the South Lake. Turns out, walking across uneven ground in Converse for a long time kills your feet. So back to the car we went!...... After crossing a creepy swing bridge for the second time that day.
The drive back to the main highway was pretty much a living hell. I guess in New Zealand their idea of a gravel road is a road that has approximately 8 inches of gravel that isn't really gravel but instead giant boulders. Don't worry, I only almost went in the ditch twice..... and I wasn't even driving fast! The first time, I admit, I was going a bit fast and got sucked in a little bit and bounced of some weeds and maybe a little bit of ground, but the second time. Not my fault. The gravel just suuuuuckkkkked me in all the way to the side, where Ferdinand was basically waist deep in the gravel. Getting out was easy, but the noise that he made when we were stopped was not normal or pretty, so we lifted the hood to check out what was going on. I know a little bit about cars, thanks to my dad, but not really enough to determine if something is actually wrong, but looking inside the hood, all I saw was rocks and loooooots of them. So I decided to keep driving to shake some of the rocks loose and in the next town, if the car was still making the noise, we would stop at a mechanic. After driving probably 15ish km and shaking out a bunch of rocks (I'm sorry if your windshield chipped as a result of me), the car was still making that noise so we stopped at a tiny mechanic where the man who helped us was an adorable, giant, blonde man. The conversation there went a bit like this:
SARAH: *between laughs*--So we were like driving on this gravel road and our car started making really scary noises and we just like really need you to tell us if the noise is really that scary or not.
Him: what kind of noise is your car making?
ME: *after looking at the others* -- well.... it's growling
Him: it's growling??
ME: yep... growling
He was looking at us like we were absolutely crazy, but then he started the car up and realized that it was actually growling. So what does he do? He puts the car on the lift and gets this tool thing out and just removes about 20 pounds of rock between the engine and engine suspension. :) So I was right about the rocks, but not about the quantity that was stuck in there.
After leaving the mechanic, we were off to Invercargill, or the deep south as I once heard it called, for the night. Once we arrived in Invercargill, we snuck onto a holiday park to use their shower facilities. That was an interesting experience. Then we were off to Queen's Park in the city center to enjoy the botanical gardens and the amazing aviary. Of course, this is where my camera would decide to die so we decided to head downtown to find an internet cafe to email our families and charge our batteries. We didn't find an internet cafe but we did find a Starbucks and thank goodness we went there. We ended up with sacks and sacks of food that was just going to be thrown out that night and the two girls working were extremely nice. They invited us to hang out the next night with them and some of their friends, so we agreed because it's not very often you get an invitation to hang out with people you just met, especially in New Zealand. After leaving Starbucks we went to get some dinner and ended up eating a whole roasted chicken and a bowl of mashed potatoes. It was sooo delicious and really hit the spot after eating canned chicken sandwiches and chips for the last 3 days.
The next day we were off to Bluff.
Well that's what we would have seen if it had not been foggier than a mug outside. It was still pretty cool though because it really did look Lord of the Rings style. We went for a bit of a tramp along the North Mavora Lake but I wasn't really wearing proper shoe attire to tramp 3 hours to the South Lake. Turns out, walking across uneven ground in Converse for a long time kills your feet. So back to the car we went!...... After crossing a creepy swing bridge for the second time that day.
The drive back to the main highway was pretty much a living hell. I guess in New Zealand their idea of a gravel road is a road that has approximately 8 inches of gravel that isn't really gravel but instead giant boulders. Don't worry, I only almost went in the ditch twice..... and I wasn't even driving fast! The first time, I admit, I was going a bit fast and got sucked in a little bit and bounced of some weeds and maybe a little bit of ground, but the second time. Not my fault. The gravel just suuuuuckkkkked me in all the way to the side, where Ferdinand was basically waist deep in the gravel. Getting out was easy, but the noise that he made when we were stopped was not normal or pretty, so we lifted the hood to check out what was going on. I know a little bit about cars, thanks to my dad, but not really enough to determine if something is actually wrong, but looking inside the hood, all I saw was rocks and loooooots of them. So I decided to keep driving to shake some of the rocks loose and in the next town, if the car was still making the noise, we would stop at a mechanic. After driving probably 15ish km and shaking out a bunch of rocks (I'm sorry if your windshield chipped as a result of me), the car was still making that noise so we stopped at a tiny mechanic where the man who helped us was an adorable, giant, blonde man. The conversation there went a bit like this:
SARAH: *between laughs*--So we were like driving on this gravel road and our car started making really scary noises and we just like really need you to tell us if the noise is really that scary or not.
Him: what kind of noise is your car making?
ME: *after looking at the others* -- well.... it's growling
Him: it's growling??
ME: yep... growling
He was looking at us like we were absolutely crazy, but then he started the car up and realized that it was actually growling. So what does he do? He puts the car on the lift and gets this tool thing out and just removes about 20 pounds of rock between the engine and engine suspension. :) So I was right about the rocks, but not about the quantity that was stuck in there.
After leaving the mechanic, we were off to Invercargill, or the deep south as I once heard it called, for the night. Once we arrived in Invercargill, we snuck onto a holiday park to use their shower facilities. That was an interesting experience. Then we were off to Queen's Park in the city center to enjoy the botanical gardens and the amazing aviary. Of course, this is where my camera would decide to die so we decided to head downtown to find an internet cafe to email our families and charge our batteries. We didn't find an internet cafe but we did find a Starbucks and thank goodness we went there. We ended up with sacks and sacks of food that was just going to be thrown out that night and the two girls working were extremely nice. They invited us to hang out the next night with them and some of their friends, so we agreed because it's not very often you get an invitation to hang out with people you just met, especially in New Zealand. After leaving Starbucks we went to get some dinner and ended up eating a whole roasted chicken and a bowl of mashed potatoes. It was sooo delicious and really hit the spot after eating canned chicken sandwiches and chips for the last 3 days.
The next day we were off to Bluff.
South Island Trip Day #7
Day 7 was the big day at Milford Sound. For those of you who don't know, Milford Sound is supposed to be one of the most beautiful places in New Zealand. You get to see the ocean, cool wildlife and find cool shells on the beach..... that is if it isn't raining, which is does, 364/365 days a year, and if you aren't being attacked by sandflies the entire day.
We arrived that morning after making a quick stop at The Chasm, which was cool, but it was down pouring and cold so probably not worth the 20 minute hike in the long run. After the stop at The Chasm, we drove through Homer Tunnel which was dug by like 5 guys over a long period of time (if you're more interested, I suggest you wiki it) and then finally we arrived at Milford and what was it doing outside...... you guessed it...... pouring!!! So we went on a short hike to get the "big view" of Milford and we couldn't see anything through all the fog and the giant raindrops falling from the sky. After the descend we went into the information center to dry off a bit and to see how much the Milford Cruise costs (super expensive, but from what I hear, worth it) and we decided against going and just sat in the car to see if the rain would clear off so we could get an actual view of the sound.
Turns out, the waiting served us well. At about 2pm (after waiting about 3 hours) the rain finally stopped and the clouds disappeared for the most part. Turns out, when people say that Milford is gorgeous, they aren't lying. It was absolutely gorgeous! Words really can't describe the landscape so I'll post a picture for you to feast your eyes upon!
Not too bad, aye?
After saying goodbye to Milford after spending hours looking for shells on the beach, we started the drive back to Te Anau, but on the way we wanted to stop at Mirror Lakes and eat dinner. Mirror Lakes was pretty awesome. It gave us the view that Lake Matheson would have given us if it hadn't been so ridiculously cloudy the day that we went there. Another cool thing about Mirror Lakes were the little duck like creatures called scaups. These things will actually dive underwater for like 20-30 seconds and then just pop back up in some other place. We got lots of amusement from watching them dive down and then pop back up.
We then left Mirror Lakes to head to Mavora Lakes for the next day. For those of you who don't know, Mavora Lakes is where they shot parts of the the Lord of the Rings Triology. But.... while driving there, we saw the most beautiful sight at Te Anau Lake (the one we ate dinner at the night before). The light was hitting the lake in the most gorgeous way that it actually turned the lake an extremely blue color that was almost as beautiful as Milford was (for pictures, check out facebook). After leaving the lake, we were definitely on our way to Mavora Lakes but of course there was going to be one more stop. And what was that stop for, you ask? It was for Becca to chase a sheep down the road in order to take a picture. Her exact words upon re-entering the car "I did not get the picture, but I did chase it and scare it that way."
You've read it folks, my best friend, is a sheep chasing freak.
We arrived that morning after making a quick stop at The Chasm, which was cool, but it was down pouring and cold so probably not worth the 20 minute hike in the long run. After the stop at The Chasm, we drove through Homer Tunnel which was dug by like 5 guys over a long period of time (if you're more interested, I suggest you wiki it) and then finally we arrived at Milford and what was it doing outside...... you guessed it...... pouring!!! So we went on a short hike to get the "big view" of Milford and we couldn't see anything through all the fog and the giant raindrops falling from the sky. After the descend we went into the information center to dry off a bit and to see how much the Milford Cruise costs (super expensive, but from what I hear, worth it) and we decided against going and just sat in the car to see if the rain would clear off so we could get an actual view of the sound.
Turns out, the waiting served us well. At about 2pm (after waiting about 3 hours) the rain finally stopped and the clouds disappeared for the most part. Turns out, when people say that Milford is gorgeous, they aren't lying. It was absolutely gorgeous! Words really can't describe the landscape so I'll post a picture for you to feast your eyes upon!Not too bad, aye?
After saying goodbye to Milford after spending hours looking for shells on the beach, we started the drive back to Te Anau, but on the way we wanted to stop at Mirror Lakes and eat dinner. Mirror Lakes was pretty awesome. It gave us the view that Lake Matheson would have given us if it hadn't been so ridiculously cloudy the day that we went there. Another cool thing about Mirror Lakes were the little duck like creatures called scaups. These things will actually dive underwater for like 20-30 seconds and then just pop back up in some other place. We got lots of amusement from watching them dive down and then pop back up.
We then left Mirror Lakes to head to Mavora Lakes for the next day. For those of you who don't know, Mavora Lakes is where they shot parts of the the Lord of the Rings Triology. But.... while driving there, we saw the most beautiful sight at Te Anau Lake (the one we ate dinner at the night before). The light was hitting the lake in the most gorgeous way that it actually turned the lake an extremely blue color that was almost as beautiful as Milford was (for pictures, check out facebook). After leaving the lake, we were definitely on our way to Mavora Lakes but of course there was going to be one more stop. And what was that stop for, you ask? It was for Becca to chase a sheep down the road in order to take a picture. Her exact words upon re-entering the car "I did not get the picture, but I did chase it and scare it that way."
You've read it folks, my best friend, is a sheep chasing freak.
Monday, May 16, 2011
South Island Trip Day #6
Good morrrning!!!!
This day starts with Becca on a hanglide trip. She was supposed to leave us the key to the car and her room key for the hostel but didn't actually do either of those so when we went to check out at 10, we couldn't technically check her out and we had to explain to the people working at the front desk that we were leaving and had all of her stuff out of the room but that she wasn't able to be there to turn in her key because she was floating in the air like a bird. NBD. So Sarah and I head out to wander the town because we can't load anything into the car because we think that Becca has the keys and that means that we aren't able to leave Queenstown to go explore the small places around the city. So what do we do..... we get a hot dog and chips and go lay on the brick wall that overlooks Lake Wakitipu and stare and the Asian tourists giving their stereotypical peace sign pictures with their iPhone. Talk about hilarious. We then get a text message from Becca saying that she's on her way back from hangliding and asking us where she should meet us. We tell her that she's got the keys so we haven't been able to go anywhere and she says she swears she doesn't have them. Turns out, Sarah has had the keys in her purse the entire morning and we could have been exploring cool things instead of gawking at Asian tourists. We go and get the car, load it up and then head off to Arrowstown, a small town north of Queenstown. We first stopped at Coronet Peak where Becca spent the morning and just looked at the beautiful landscape and view of Queenstown from atop this gorgeous mountain. Then it was off to Arrowstown. I wasn't feeling well at this point so I decided to take a nap on a hillside while the others were off exploring the little colony. Let me tell you... it was probably the best I had slept the entire trip!!!
After Arrowstown, we started for Te Ana, the last place you can get food or gas before Milford Sound. We had to drive through all of this little bity towns to get to Te Anau and I spent most of the day sleeping across the backseat. Motion sickness was killer!!! At one point Sarah turns around and says "Dakota, sit up and put your seat belt on, there's a cop" and I was like "are we getting pulled over" and she goes "yep". So I sit up quickly and put my seat belt just as the cop was approaching the window. In New Zealand, if someone isn't wearing a seat belt, that person gets fined and the driver of the car gets fined so it was a good thing Sarah was looking out. The police woman starts talking to Becca about how she was speeding and how her license was about to expire and how she was going to write her a ticket. Holy crap did I feel bad!!!!!!....but it did provide us with something to laugh about for the rest of the trip because it happened in the smallest town with nobody around. From them on... we referred to it as "stupid Mossburn" About an hour later we arrived in Te Anau, headed to the grocery store to get some food for our trek to Milford and sat by the Lake Te Anau just at sunset to enjoy the last bit of sun on the lake. We then left Te Anau to get as close to Milford as possible to camp for the night and we found a cute little campsite that was like 5 bucks a person to stay at. Luckily for us, Sarah put the envelope in the wrong place so we ended up getting our money back the next day. That night, sleep was rough because it rained all night long. The cold and loud of the rain, along with the uncomfortableness of the car made it fairly difficult to sleep for the night but we were determined to be well rested for the next day at Milford Sound.
This day starts with Becca on a hanglide trip. She was supposed to leave us the key to the car and her room key for the hostel but didn't actually do either of those so when we went to check out at 10, we couldn't technically check her out and we had to explain to the people working at the front desk that we were leaving and had all of her stuff out of the room but that she wasn't able to be there to turn in her key because she was floating in the air like a bird. NBD. So Sarah and I head out to wander the town because we can't load anything into the car because we think that Becca has the keys and that means that we aren't able to leave Queenstown to go explore the small places around the city. So what do we do..... we get a hot dog and chips and go lay on the brick wall that overlooks Lake Wakitipu and stare and the Asian tourists giving their stereotypical peace sign pictures with their iPhone. Talk about hilarious. We then get a text message from Becca saying that she's on her way back from hangliding and asking us where she should meet us. We tell her that she's got the keys so we haven't been able to go anywhere and she says she swears she doesn't have them. Turns out, Sarah has had the keys in her purse the entire morning and we could have been exploring cool things instead of gawking at Asian tourists. We go and get the car, load it up and then head off to Arrowstown, a small town north of Queenstown. We first stopped at Coronet Peak where Becca spent the morning and just looked at the beautiful landscape and view of Queenstown from atop this gorgeous mountain. Then it was off to Arrowstown. I wasn't feeling well at this point so I decided to take a nap on a hillside while the others were off exploring the little colony. Let me tell you... it was probably the best I had slept the entire trip!!!
After Arrowstown, we started for Te Ana, the last place you can get food or gas before Milford Sound. We had to drive through all of this little bity towns to get to Te Anau and I spent most of the day sleeping across the backseat. Motion sickness was killer!!! At one point Sarah turns around and says "Dakota, sit up and put your seat belt on, there's a cop" and I was like "are we getting pulled over" and she goes "yep". So I sit up quickly and put my seat belt just as the cop was approaching the window. In New Zealand, if someone isn't wearing a seat belt, that person gets fined and the driver of the car gets fined so it was a good thing Sarah was looking out. The police woman starts talking to Becca about how she was speeding and how her license was about to expire and how she was going to write her a ticket. Holy crap did I feel bad!!!!!!....but it did provide us with something to laugh about for the rest of the trip because it happened in the smallest town with nobody around. From them on... we referred to it as "stupid Mossburn" About an hour later we arrived in Te Anau, headed to the grocery store to get some food for our trek to Milford and sat by the Lake Te Anau just at sunset to enjoy the last bit of sun on the lake. We then left Te Anau to get as close to Milford as possible to camp for the night and we found a cute little campsite that was like 5 bucks a person to stay at. Luckily for us, Sarah put the envelope in the wrong place so we ended up getting our money back the next day. That night, sleep was rough because it rained all night long. The cold and loud of the rain, along with the uncomfortableness of the car made it fairly difficult to sleep for the night but we were determined to be well rested for the next day at Milford Sound.
Saturday, May 14, 2011
South Island Trip Day #5
Day 5 was pretty uneventful. We laid around for most of the day, did a bit of laundry, and went for a walk around the town. Then our hostel had free dinner that was delicious and a $1000 bar tab at a local bar for all the people staying in the hostel. Before we headed to the bar a friend from school walks into the hostel and we find out that he's staying in our room. Talk about strange. We also met two other people who were moving into our hostel who had met Brock, our friend, on a Milford Sound track a few days before.
Talk about a crazy turn of events. The next day we would be off to Te Anau before heading to Milford Sound.
Talk about a crazy turn of events. The next day we would be off to Te Anau before heading to Milford Sound.
South Island Trip Day #4
The day had finally come for the first time since we'd left Auckland that we were finally going to...... you guessed it....... SHOWER!!! We woke up at sunrise yet again and all we had on our minds was that nice hot shower and finally getting clean, but then we realized we couldn't actually check into our hostel until 9 am so we drove to the lakefront and just sat there. Well stupid me forgot to turn the lights off and the car died, while we were sitting in front of a group of people who I then had to go ask if I could borrow some jumper cables (really a rental car without jumpers.... that should definitely be included). After a few attempts I finally came across a German boy and and Austrian girl who had a set of jumpers and were willing to help us get our car started back up. The girl comforted us by telling us that their car had died like their second day into their trip. At 9 we then headed to the hostel where we found out that we couldn't actually get into our room until 2pm. Sweet. Luckily, they were nice enough to let us use the showers before we were headed out to wander around Queenstown.
Queenstown is probably one of the cutest little towns I've ever seen. It's full of tiny little shops, gorgeous architecture and wonderfully nice people. We first went just walking around and then we saw a couple of souvenir shops to go into to get some things for back home. While walking we saw the first Mexican restaurant in all of New Zealand. I swear to you that they are nowhere to be found here. Thai, Chinese, Indian..... all over the place.... but Mexican, nowhere. After seeing the restaurant, we knew we had to eat dinner there for Sarah's birthday and then we sent her off on her skydiving adventure. While she was gone Becca and I did some more roaming around until it was finally time to check into our hostel. Once we got there we met all 9 of our hostelmates. The rest of the day was pretty boring. We laid around and got ready for a night out because we had heard about a blindfolded bar crawl that our hostel was putting on and we knew we had to do it.
First we headed to dinner at the Mexican restaurant for Sarah's birthday where I had the tastiest enchiladas of my life. It was soo nice to finally have Mexican in my life again. After that we were off to get some green monster (for those of you who want to know, message me and I'll tell you all about it) and then it was off to the blindfolded bar crawl which was a crazy experience and something I don't think I would do again. Somehow being led across a strange town in a line of people just freaks me out. :) Then it was home for the night to get up and explore some more the next day.
Queenstown is probably one of the cutest little towns I've ever seen. It's full of tiny little shops, gorgeous architecture and wonderfully nice people. We first went just walking around and then we saw a couple of souvenir shops to go into to get some things for back home. While walking we saw the first Mexican restaurant in all of New Zealand. I swear to you that they are nowhere to be found here. Thai, Chinese, Indian..... all over the place.... but Mexican, nowhere. After seeing the restaurant, we knew we had to eat dinner there for Sarah's birthday and then we sent her off on her skydiving adventure. While she was gone Becca and I did some more roaming around until it was finally time to check into our hostel. Once we got there we met all 9 of our hostelmates. The rest of the day was pretty boring. We laid around and got ready for a night out because we had heard about a blindfolded bar crawl that our hostel was putting on and we knew we had to do it.
First we headed to dinner at the Mexican restaurant for Sarah's birthday where I had the tastiest enchiladas of my life. It was soo nice to finally have Mexican in my life again. After that we were off to get some green monster (for those of you who want to know, message me and I'll tell you all about it) and then it was off to the blindfolded bar crawl which was a crazy experience and something I don't think I would do again. Somehow being led across a strange town in a line of people just freaks me out. :) Then it was home for the night to get up and explore some more the next day.
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