The next two days pretty much ran together as they were our last two days in the South Island.
Day 14 started with Sarah driving for the first time from Lake Tekapo to Christchurch and let me tell you, I'm glad I was sleeping because I probably would have freaked out. Once we got into Christchurch we walked around a little bit to see what damage the earthquake at the beginning of the semester had done. It was absolutely terrifying to see the collapsed buildings and all the beautiful things that once stood on the ground in thousands of pieces. The whole city center was blocked by military to prevent people from entering. It was completely mind-boggling. After finding out there wasn't much to do in Christchurch and eating lunch, we headed off the Birdlings Flat which is a beach known for its stones. The ocean was vicious at this point and almost ate Becca on multiple occasions. I got some pretty need stones that just need a little polishing and they'll be gorgeous. After that, we ate fish and chips at this little diner and were off to find a place to sleep for the night.
Day 15 started with the short drive to Akaroa, just a little French settlement. Becca and Sarah explored while I slept in the car because I was still not feeling well from the night in the rain/ hail by Jack's Blowhole. Then we were headed back to the car rental building to turn in Ferdinand and head to the airport to head back to Auckland.
Once I arrived in Auckland I was happy to be in my own bed without the people I'd spent the last two weeks yet, but the funniest part was that the very next day we acted like we hadn't seen each other in years.
Overall, the trip was a blast and a lot of memories were made that I'll never forget. If any of you are planning on traveling to New Zealand, renting a car is the way to go, that way you can stop when you feel like it and keep driving if something doesn't sound interesting to you. If you decide to take a bus, then you're just NUTS.
Monday, June 6, 2011
South Island Trip Day #13
The morning started with a drive to Lake Pukaki which was like a milky color from all the clay runoff it got. It was absolutely gorgeous with the mountains in the background and the sun hitting the lake just right. We kept on driving to Mt. Cook where we would take a tramp up the Hooker Valley just far enough to get a good picture of Mt. Cook. I wasn't feeling well that day so the hike took a lot out of me and so I was happy when we got back into the car and headed towards Lake Tekapo for the night.
Once we got to Tekapo we walked around the lake and took lots of pictures and I even skipped stones like I did when I was a little kid. It was incredible to see the mountains and sun reflect of the lake and it created a beautiful picture. We were off to find a place to sleep for the night and it turns out so were some other vehicles so we all ended up parked together :)
Once we got to Tekapo we walked around the lake and took lots of pictures and I even skipped stones like I did when I was a little kid. It was incredible to see the mountains and sun reflect of the lake and it created a beautiful picture. We were off to find a place to sleep for the night and it turns out so were some other vehicles so we all ended up parked together :)
South Island Trip Day #12
We were going to go to the only castle in New Zealand that morning, but it turns out it's 27 bucks to get it. Not really worth it, so we just decided to leave Dunedin. So it was off to Shag Point! and we finally got to see sea lions!!!!!!!!!! They were so cute just laying on the rocks sunbathing :) That's the life I want to live.
Then we went to the Moeraki Boulders which are featured in The Chronicles of Narnia: Journey of the Dawn Treader. They were probably my favorite part about the South Island. I loved being able to walk along the beach and climb all over these boulders which just happened to be placed in the ocean of no apparent reason. If you want to learn more, I suggest you wiki them because they are a strange monument that nobody knows why they are in existence.
After the Boulders we were off to Oamaru to see some penguins, we paid to go into the blue penguin colony where we saw two penguins that were molting. Then we saw a giant sea lion who we named Stanley just chilling on the wharf deciding whether he wanted to go back for a swim or not. Eventually he decided to go for it and left us. After we headed to the yellow- eyed penguin lookout in hopes of catching a few penguins leaving the ocean for shore for the night. We waited forever in the cold for them to come and the first one that came out we missed because we were in the wrong spot. After that I decided to go back to the car because I was extremely cold and not feeling all that well. The other two came back and said that four more came on shore and that they got some pictures, so I just looked at those. All I really wanted to see that day was sea lions and I got my wish.
Then it was time for McDonald's, which usually I hate, but that night I really, really enjoyed it and we were off to Mt. Cook for the next day's adventures.
Then we went to the Moeraki Boulders which are featured in The Chronicles of Narnia: Journey of the Dawn Treader. They were probably my favorite part about the South Island. I loved being able to walk along the beach and climb all over these boulders which just happened to be placed in the ocean of no apparent reason. If you want to learn more, I suggest you wiki them because they are a strange monument that nobody knows why they are in existence.
After the Boulders we were off to Oamaru to see some penguins, we paid to go into the blue penguin colony where we saw two penguins that were molting. Then we saw a giant sea lion who we named Stanley just chilling on the wharf deciding whether he wanted to go back for a swim or not. Eventually he decided to go for it and left us. After we headed to the yellow- eyed penguin lookout in hopes of catching a few penguins leaving the ocean for shore for the night. We waited forever in the cold for them to come and the first one that came out we missed because we were in the wrong spot. After that I decided to go back to the car because I was extremely cold and not feeling all that well. The other two came back and said that four more came on shore and that they got some pictures, so I just looked at those. All I really wanted to see that day was sea lions and I got my wish.
Then it was time for McDonald's, which usually I hate, but that night I really, really enjoyed it and we were off to Mt. Cook for the next day's adventures.
South Island Trip Day #11
Day 11 started with Jack's Blowhole, which was..... you guessed it, ANTICLIMACTIC!
In the words of Becca it was "Jack's Blowhole, mostly without the blow" and in the words of Sarah "Jack's slightly inland water filled ravine". It pretty much sucked.
After Waipapa Point the day before, I was on a mission to see sea lions and Sarah was on a mission to see penguins so we stopped at Nugget Point to see if we could spot either, but of course, nothing but it was an absolutely gorgeous view of the ocean!
Then we were off to Dunedin which is a cute little college town known for it's architecture, Cadbury World, and Speights Brewery. By this point, we were cold and tired and all we wanted to do was sleep. That didn't actually happen, but I'm not allowed to tell you what did happen, so we'll go with we were in bed by 8pm and woke up nice and refreshed the next morning :)
In the words of Becca it was "Jack's Blowhole, mostly without the blow" and in the words of Sarah "Jack's slightly inland water filled ravine". It pretty much sucked.
After Waipapa Point the day before, I was on a mission to see sea lions and Sarah was on a mission to see penguins so we stopped at Nugget Point to see if we could spot either, but of course, nothing but it was an absolutely gorgeous view of the ocean!
Then we were off to Dunedin which is a cute little college town known for it's architecture, Cadbury World, and Speights Brewery. By this point, we were cold and tired and all we wanted to do was sleep. That didn't actually happen, but I'm not allowed to tell you what did happen, so we'll go with we were in bed by 8pm and woke up nice and refreshed the next morning :)
South Island Trip Day #10
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!!!!
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!!!!
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.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)