"Sweet As", New Zealand

New Zealand…wow! I have written this blog over and over in my head for about two weeks now and still can’t figure out the perfect way to start this blog or give New Zealand the credit it deserves. I’m going to try my best but just know to fully understand the beauty and uniqueness of the places I am describing you will have to visit for yourself. New Zealand should be on everyone’s “to do” list and if you EVER get a chance to go, take my advice and don’t think twice about making the trip.

On September 24^th our group of 11 Americans + 1 kiwi (New Zealander) began the trip of a lifetime exploring all the adventures that New Zealand’s south island had to offer. 9 of us were from Wollongong Uni and the additional 2 boys who joined us study at Sydney Uni. We all hopped the much familiar train from Wollongong to Sydney and set out on our journey that will be remembered forever (if only I had known the shower I took an hour previous to the train ride would be my last formal shower for about 10 days I probably would have spent a few extra seconds to scrub behind my ears…)

After a bit of a delay we landed in Christchurch around 1:50 am. Our sleeping arrangements for the night?: right where we stepped off the plane (little did I know this would be a reoccurring trend for our little vacation. After about 3 hours of “sleep” in the airport under the florescent lights and the reassuring sound of the loudspeaker every 15 minutes it was time to start our day. Daniel, Sonya, and John took a bus to grab our homes for the next ten days aka spaceships aka bright orange minivans with “SPACESHIP” written across the side. They say it fits 4 but sleeps 2 (how that is suppose to work? We will never will know).  Seeing a bright red row of spaceships pull up at the airport after hours of delay (the spaceship company forgot that it was day light savings time that morning) amped my excitement for the trip ahead. Their names were Jay, Qui-Gon Jinn, Ophirous and they were obnoxious, loud, and oh so perfect J No hideing you were a tourist in these babies!

Our adventure started with simply finding a grocery store to stock up before hitting the road. Our spaceship, “Jay-Ez” we nicknamed it, was put to the test to navigate around the earthquake devastated city of Christchurch. After several U-turns we finally found one and needless to say our GPS privileges and leading abilities were revoked from that point on for the rest of the trip. Regardless, we made it and after a quick lunch break we were on the road to Nelson to find our home for the next couple of nights.

While we may have driven for close to 7 hours, the views provided endless entertainment and inspiring conversations. As much as everyone knows how much I HATE car rides I could drive and ride around in New Zealand for days straight. The scenery is ever changing from rolling lush green hills, huge rocky cliffs, snow covered mountains and valleys, to tropical blue bodies of water, the view outside the window never gets dull. But GOOD GOD there are a lot of freakin sheep! (7 sheep to 1 person in New Zealand) I can definitely vouch for this…they are everywhere! Surprisingly though we never got to touch one. Our plan was to pull off to a shoulder and hop a fence, but that never happened. I’m blaming the lead spaceship not stopping…cough*Daniel*cough. J Regardless, they looked adorable and shoop (our made-up singular name for sheep) humor was rolling in the vans the entire time

On our drive to Nelson we stopped a few times to stretch our legs and take a few photos along the coast and of the beautiful vineyards. We even spotted a seal on the edge of the beach and of course we had to pull over and investigate! I nearly fainted when she saw it, and Robby instantly proclaimed it was a puppy, as he calls any animal that is somewhat attractive…Pre-med major? Robby’s attempt to touch him was unsuccessful several times. Who knew seal’s were that quick? As night came, we finally rolled into Nelson. We stopped in a Countdown (supermarket) parking lot and set up shop for our first cooked dinner out of the vans. Liz and I made about a $1.50 meal consisting of pasta and basic tomato sauce (this wouldn’t be the last). Our next task was to find a place to sleep; this was by far our toughest challenge of the trip. We drove around aimlessly for about an hour before finding a local park. We began to set up tents and fold out the beds in the spaceship. We got really good at this by the end of the trip. I felt like a NASCAR pit crew trying to be the fastest and most efficient van of the group. Liz and I got to the point where we didn’t even have to open doors to the cold morning air, we could fold everything and be ready in less than 30 minutes to head to our next destination.

The next day we drove to Abel Tasman National Park, which was about 2 hours from Nelson. We explored and hiked there for the day. The park is absolutely breath-taking! The blue Caribbean waters mixed with snow capped mountains in the background created the best views. The weather was amazing as well (as it was for the whole trip). The days were warm when the sun came out but the nights got very cold (0/-3c). But for a place where it rains 200 days out  of the year and to only get some sprinkles when were driving was VERY lucky. After a few hours of hiking, we sat on the beach and enjoyed PBs &Js while a few of the boys went onward exploring. We found several waterfalls, caves and artsy photo spots along our hike. Once we were out of energy we ventured back to our space station to find our “accommodation” for the night. We settled on a beautiful camp ground between Nelson and Abel Tasman that was right on the water. We had our first “shower” (in the hose pipe in the FREEZING cold) and ran around the playground until sun down. That night, we had a fire on the beach, got to know each other a little better, and did some intense stargazing. The Milky Way was phenomenal!

Our luch spot at Abel Tasman National Park. What a view!

Tuesday began our Rugby Cup extravaganza. We started our day slowly with a pit stop at McDonalds to recharge cameras and get a quick internet fix. Then we drove into town, bought all the essentials for the typical obnoxious American outfits and settled into a spot for tailgating. I really enjoyed the town of Nelson. Not only was it beautiful (like every other place in NZ) but the atmosphere coming from a town hosting the world cup was amazing. It was neat to be a part of such a huge tradition. New Zealanders and Aussies really love their “footy” and it was easy to feed off of everyone’s positive energy. We met up with our 12^th addition to our group in town (A local New Zealander that one of the guys on our trip knew). Baden used us from then on out as an excuse to do all of the touristy things in his country he had always wanted to do. After we showed him the traditional American football tailgating (which he loved) we headed to the gate for the game.

To hear my national anthem at the start of the match and watch the American players link arms in unity sent chills down my spine. It was the first time since I have been here that I was around so many people who loved our country just like we did. For some reason seeing all the American flags and face paint wasn’t just a shallow view of the colors “red, white, and blue”… it was home, it was my country. After the anthems sang it was game time! The environment was much what I imagine an Olympic event to be. Unfortunately, USA is still in the building stages of a solid rugby team, but we still managed to have a good run. Italy 27, USA 10. We all had such a blast and surprisingly made a lot of Italian friends in the stands. That night we drove to a spot the police suggested we camp, only to be woken by a park security guard at 3 am (note: we were planning to start our morning drive at 4:30 am), forcing us to move back to our original park location. But we moved, slept for another hour, and it was off again.

AMERICA!!

Wednesday was one of our longest days in terms of driving. We drove all the way from Nelson to Fox Glacier before noon then to Queenstown at night. But with our Backstreet Boys and Brittany Spears playlist the drive flew by (at least for us girls! Haha). I got a lot of driving experience on this trip and needless to say I have gotten pretty good! (even have learned to drive manual on a friend’s car in Wollongong!)

The drive was beautiful and went from snow capped mountains to scenes from what looked like Jurassic Park! Once we reached Fox Glacier central we were given guidance about the glacier and warm hiking gear. This was also the start to an epic “game of life” (started by Baden our fun-loving Kiwi). If you haven’t heard of the game, every time someone says the word “M.I.N.E”. they have to do 10 pushups, where ever they were at the time. So basically from this point on if I talk about anything we did, pushups were almost always involved by multiple people, multiple times, and in the most obscure places possible. I’m sure outsiders found this completely hilarious or just plain annoying!

Fox Glacier was everything I had imagined it to be. The enormity of ice was incredible. Once we reached a certain part we stopped to put our cramp-ons on our boots and used walking sticks. The metal “cleats” or cramp-ons made it 10x easier to walk on the ice. We were guided around the glacier and taken to a cravass to explore. So cool! Once I was in the cravass, I looked up and kind of got intimidated at the size of ice surrounding me, but definitely worth it and unlike anything I had ever done before! We got to fill our water bottles with glacier water and walked through an ice tunnel. Once we got back, it was to the spaceships for a long drive to Queenstown. That night was a great night of bonding for our car. We went back and forth telling some pretty intense stories about ourselves making me love and understand everyone in our car even more. I didn’t know any of the people on the trip real well before hand besides my good friend from Liz from Indiana who I met here and hang out with daily. But we all got a long better than expected and I have gain a new appreciation for every single one in the group. Sharing an experience like we did really brings people together.   

Glacier Hikeing at Fox Glacier

The next morning we drove to Milford Sound, the most scenic drive of the trip in my opinion. We winded through mountains and cool tunnels, pulling over occasionally to snap photos and see more of the amazing view (waterfalls, snowy mountains). Milford was beautiful! We took the nature cruise which allowed us to cruise the sound and come up close and personal with nature’s beauty. We pulled right up to the bottom of waterfalls, to the edges of the mountain cliffs to see the sea lions and seals and then cruised beside some of the rarest penguins in the world! The sound is a very unique place because of its two ecosystems that are located within it. The bottom water table in the sound is salt water which allowed dolphins and turtles to live amongst than the top was freshwater which inhabited an entire different aquatic life. It was a beautiful tour complete with complimentary coffee/tea. The caffeine was amazing at the time!

Milford Sound

After the cruise we then drove back to Foirdland to see the Te Anau glowworm caves. This was one of my favorite parts of the trip. We took a sunset cruise to the cave where we then got out to explore the inside. Since our group was so large we got our own tour through the caves with the best guide ever! God bless his soul for putting up with us. Or shall I say for dealing with Zack’s poor digestive system that nearly killed us all in the middle of the cave. Even after all of that, our guide said we were the “best group ever” and made his job so much fun.  The inside was beautiful. We walked through the pathways stopping to look at the cave walls and waterfalls and natural pools. Our guide then asked us to be silent and turn off our cameras when we got to this certain spot (you think this would be an easy task for mature international students who choose to live tens of thousands of miles away from home…but nooooOOOOO) haha many jokes and cracks were made simply due to the fact we had just had caffeine for the first time in a week but everyone eventually settled and we rowed off in a little row boat in to the complete darkness. The sight was AMAZING. I have never before been in complete darkness and silence at the same time but  it is something I will never forget. I was so peaceful and relaxing and as if the world was put on pause for a couple of minutes. But wait!... for the best part of the story, you were not alone in this cave of darkness. As you looked up at the caves ceiling and you realized were visiting the home of thousands of little glowworms that lit up the caves ceiling like a blanket of stars. It was absolutely beautiful and something you have to experience for yourself. We made it back to the footpath and after a set of pushups (I was horrible at the game and always was trick in to saying the word!) we were back on the boat heading back to our vans. We then drove to Queenstown to our home park and finally were privileged to sleep in the next morning for the first time in days! 

Friday, a few of the boys went bungee jumping at Nevis while we went to McDonalds to shower and recharge. Yes…I said shower at Mickey D’s. We finally had warm sink water just deep enough to fit our heads, and the hand dryer made our hair look like a million bucks J We had planned to spend a relaxing day in town but unexpectedly the drive shaft  on our van broke (of course I was driving)! Luckily we were in one of the largest cities in New Zealand and a “space station” was nearby to solve all of our problems. Because we had insurance on the van they reimbursed us with a new van and we were back in business. We still had to deal with the hassle of waiting for a tow truck and roadside assistance to handle the situation but we took advantage of our time and played a game of soccer with some locals at a park. Our new van: “Kay” became our new home and not only did she come with a full tank of gas, but she had fancy patterned bedding! Oh spaceship humor. That night we ate our one and only meal out at Fergburger, the most happening place in QT and an amazing burger joint. The vibe of Queenstown is awesome. The town and all the people are so laid back and friendly. That night we hung out at the Queenstown Park for some drinks and told some fun stories and then went to a pub (World Famous Ministry of Sports) for the South Africa vs. Samoa world cup game. It was a fun night.

The next day we split into groups again with most going to mountain bike, while about four of us hiked a nearby mountain trail. Thinking about my past luck with vacations and injuries…I decided a bike ride down the side of a mountain would probably be pushing it. So a hike it was! The bikers had a blast but the views from our hike were beautiful. Once we all got back together we drove half way between Queenstown and Christchurch to make the next day’s return easier.

For our last night we had an epic campsite. We were in the middle of nowhere with a campfire and stream to our backs. The stars were brighter than ever and everyone was glowing at the amazing adventures the week had brought us. We got to bed at a decent time and drove to Lake Tekapo the next day.

 

Our Beautiful last campsite...

 



Equipt with campfire :)



Lake Tekapo is definitely something to be seen. I never knew water could be such a beautiful vibrant color. We spent a little time taking in the scenery and going through a cute little church on the rocks, then made our final trip to Christchurch to return our spaceships!

View of Lake Tekapo from the church

Once we returned our spaceships we were left to wander the Christchurch airport aimlessly all day and night until our 6am flight the following morning. Some would call our behavior loitering, but what else were we going to do? We all took our first full body shower since leaving Wollongong and life was the best. If you are ever lost or looking for something in the Christchurch airport, just give me a call and I will be able to direct you to wherever you need to go.

The great thing about our group to NZ was the diversity we had with 11 Americans from eight different states (Indiana, North Carolina, California, Alabama, Colorado, Delaware, Idaho, Alaska) and one Kiwi from the North Island. It made for an interesting conversation when someone would ask where we were from and how we knew each other.

 

Overall the trip was unbelievable. We planned extremely well and stayed to a very conservative budget; spending $35 on food the entire week and under $1000 for the whole trip! That’s impressive for the amount that we saw and the adventures we went on. I expected tempers to collide and have some conflict in the huge group we had, but everyone was amazing and just pulled closer together. It was the best trip I could have asked for leaving me wanting more. New Zealand cannot be described in words, its beauty and atmosphere is unmatched to anything I have ever experienced. The locals say it best: “Sweet as”, New Zealand.