What an adventure! Sorry for the long break between entries but I just got back yesterday and this entry is sure to be a long one so brace yourselves!
Day 1
We hopped onto the ferry around 8 in the morning on Saturday April 3rd. The ride was absolutely beautiful and even though halfway in I got something in my eye and spent an hour trying to get it out, the ride was still awesome. Up on deck the wind was blowing so hard you had to hang onto the hand rail in order to not fall over.
Even though it was super windy, they view from the boat was absolutely beautiful. It was a three hour boat ride but we were always able to see land on at least one side of the boat.
When we arrived in Picton and got off the ferry, we made our way to the car rental place and of course, there were problems right away. The original car we were supposed to get had been in an accident so we were told we had to wait an hour or so until another car was returned and then we could have that one. No big deal right? Well, after we started the paper work for the new car, the guy realized the tabs were going to expire four days into our trip and if we didn't get them renewed we would not be able to drive the car. Well, in New Zealand, you have to go get your car inspected before you can renew the tabs so we were going to have to drive to a vtnz car place and get the car checked out. Well, for our troubles, he gave us two free days for the car. That was nice. This wasn't the end of our troubles...but I'll keep going with the road trip first.
I was the first one to drive on the wrong side of the road and it was crazy! The blinker is on the other side of the steering wheel and your right turns have to be wide and you can turn left on red lights...all the rules are backwards! After we left Picton, we drove for about two hours until we reached Nelson, with a few stops along the way. We stopped at the Peiorus River which had these cliffs that you could jump off of...so we did :) The water was freezing but it was a great start to our holiday! Once we arrived in Nelson, we found a campsite and just hung out the rest of the night, eating our first meal together as a group :)
The next day, we drove from Nelson to Abel Tasman and on the way encountered an Easter Festival that we stopped at and did some shopping and had lunch for a few hours. It was a nice little surprise and gave us something to do for that day. When we got to the outskirts of Abel Tasman National Park, we stayed at Old MacDonald's Farm for the night and booked our kayaking and water taxi trips for the next few days. From Old MacDonald's Farm, we walked to the beach and took some pictures, it was low tide so the water seemed really far away from us at the time.
The next morning we were up super early to start our Kayaking trip of the coastline of Abel Tasman. We had a one hour safety and preparation meeting and then we headed out to the ocean!
After we all got into our kayaks and started our five hour trip, my motion sickness kicked in and the group had to drop me off on the coast and continue without me :( I was way to sick to continue and I didn't want to hold them back...so I walked the hour and a half back to where we started and just hung out for the rest of the day and had dinner ready for the group when they got back. I'm a little bummed I didn't get to see the entire route but I did get to see one of the islands off the coast. We had a sausage sizzle that night and just went to bed early because everyone was so exhausted.
The next day, day 4, we took a water taxi to Bark Bay and hiked the 7 hours back to Old MacDonald's Farm. Because of the low tide, the water taxi had to be pulled by a tractor probably half a mile out to where the ocean got deep enough for the boat to take off.
It was pretty entertaining seeing 15 or so tractors pulling all of these boats out to the water. The day before, when we left for kayaking, we starting paddling right off the shoreline. It was really amazing to me to see how drastic the difference is between high tide and low tide.
After the water taxi dropped us off at Bark Bay, we started walking the beautiful paths through Abel Tasman and I took way too many pictures.
Most of the paths were really nicely laid out for us and the walk was just incredible. It was a really long day but it was definitely worth it. At one point on the hike, there is a path that takes only half an hour if the tide is low, but if the tide is high you have to walk around for an hour and a half, and of course, it was high tide by the time we got there. It was really nice to walk around but that was about four hours in and half an hour sounded much nicer than an hour and a half detour. We did get to see some really cool things along the way including a few swing bridges and Cleopatra's Pool which is in the picture below. The whole park was just beautiful and the water is so clear it's amazing.
We made it back around 5 or so from the hike with a few blisters but it was an incredible day. The next day the fun really began with the car problems. We had to bring the car back to nelson to have it inspected and of course, it didn't pass inspection. So after I spent an hour trying to reach the car rental company, they told me we'd have to bring the car to an ace rental place and exchange it for a new car. Well, that meant us driving all the way to Greymouth in one day, which was not what we had planned. But, we needed the car so we started on our way and left nelson at probably 10 am. Along the way we stopped at a seal colony which was on this incredibly beautiful beach.
We hung around there for about an hour taking pictures and such and then kept driving. Our next stop was my favorite from the entire trip. We stopped at Punakaiki and watched the sunset over the pancake rocks.
The rocks themselves are really cool, they have multiple layers which makes them look like pancakes and we were there during high tide so we also got to see the really amazing blowholes that seemed to be everywhere. It took about an hour for the sun to set but watching the sun disappear from the horizon was just incredible.
It was an incredible moment and probably something I'll remember for the rest of my life. After we saw the sunset and got a few pictures afterwards, we kept on our journey to Greymouth to return the car. We were told that we had until 10 pm to get the car there so we arrived in Greymouth around 8:30 and decided to get something to eat first since we had some time. Well, we didn't arrive at the rental place/holiday car park until 9:30 and the guy who was helping us was not very helpful at all. He was rude and angry and I had been told we would be refunded for our day since we had to get the car exchanged and he didn't believe us and it was just ridiculous. Originally we never received a contract for our other car so he also thought we had stolen the car or something, which is crazy but whatever. In the morning I called the woman I had previously talked to and she sorted everything out for us so in the end, we ended up with 3 free days, a free tank of gas and we didnt' have to pay for our drivers. Not a bad deal, but the hassle was pretty inconvenient.
The switching of the cars....
Alright, now that the car situation was over, we could finally enjoy our trip :)
The next day, we left greymouth and headed towards the Franz Josef glacier. We stopped in Hokitika for lunch and some shopping and then just walked up to the base of the glacier, we didn't want to pay for an actual glacier hike, although it was a beautiful day.
I had never seen a glacier before and certainly not up close so this was a really exciting part of the trip for me! The scenery was of course gorgeous as well...the walk to the base took about two hours round trip and then we checked into our campsite and went on a pretty scary walk through the bush to find some glo worms. Although they were few and far between, we did see a few! Nighttime in New Zealand can get pretty creepy because there is absolutely no light pollution from cities or anything so I was definitely clutching to Chelsea during the glo worm walk. I'm still a little afraid of the dark....
Anyways, the next day we headed towards Fox Glacier and although they were different, I didn't get as close to this one because I wasn't as excited about it. Fox did have some pretty incredible rivers and streams running off of it though. Beware though...
After Fox Glacier, we drove to Lake Wanaka, which is absolutely beautiful and met up with some friends from Wellington and tented with them for the night. On our way, my wish came true to run through a field of sheep :) The sheep wanted nothing to do with me but it was still exciting.
The next morning, we woke up at 5:30 to hike up Iron Mountain to see the sun rise over the valley. It was a pretty hard uphill hike which took about an hour but of course, it was worth it!
After our hike, we headed back to the campsite, packed up our stuff and made a quick stop at Puzzle world before we continued on to Queenstown. Puzzle world was just a silly little shop, very similar to the Cosmos in the Black Hills of South Dakota. After we arrived in Queenstown, we booked our Bungy jump for the next day and then hit up Fergburger, the best burger place I've ever been to in my life. We found a nice little campsite near the lake and went to bed early, I was super nervous at Bungy though!
We woke up early the next morning to face our fate! The day had finally come to Bungy, and of course it was off the third highest in the world! 134 meters, which is 440 feet approximately. We got suited up with all our gear and then headed out to the platform!
I jumped first :/ and it was the most incredible experience of my life! I got the video so everyone at home can see that I actually did it, but it went so quick it's almost hard to remember! I survived and I'm sooo glad I did it!
When we got back to Queenstown our group celebrated with another trip to Fergburger! We were all worn out by the time afternoon rolled around we just had a lazy night and went to bed early again because we had to be up super early the next morning for our trip to Milford Sound. We parted ways with our friends from Wellington and left early to drive the five hours to Milford Sound. Chelsea, Flo and myself took the cruise around the sound and even though it was raining, the views were still incredible!
The mountains come straight up out of the water and continue straight down into the sea for at least another 300 feet. Our boat got right up next to the cliffs and stuck it's nose into a few of the hundreds of waterfalls that had formed because of the rain. The mountains were streaked with all the waterfalls and it was such a cool thing to see.
After the cruise, we looked for a place to stay in Milford but everything was booked so we drove an hour and a half back to Te Anau and slept in beds for the first time in ten days! It was so nice and because it was really raining that night, it probably kept us dry as well.
From Te Anau we drove down to Invercargill which is on the southern tip of the south island. The city didn't have much to offer but we did stop by the beach which was really nice, even though it was raining. We could drive the car right onto the beach and we just hung out there for about an hour taking pictures and eating some PB&J.
Our pretty little rental car :)
After the beach, we stopped at Splash Palace for a few hours because admission was only $3.40 for students and they had a hottub, sauna, waterslide and diving boards. It was a nice break from the car and from sight seeing! We decided to try KFC that night, it is not the same at all and I was very disappointed. They didn't even have their delicious biscuits! Oh well, we learned our lesson! From Invercargill we drove about an hour to Slope Point and stayed at the backpackers there. We were the only ones at the backpackers and it was a really creepy drive out there because it was on a gravel road which felt like it was leading us to the middle of nowhere. Fortunately, the backpackers was really nice and we survived the night!
The next morning we went to Slope Point which is the southernmost tip of the South Island.
It's not that exciting but it's fun to say that I've been that close to Antarctica! I dont' really know how close it is but it was freezing and windy so it felt like it was right next door!
After Slope Point we made the long drive to Dunedin, which was definitely not my favorite city. Chelsea had a friend who goes to school there though so we stopped for a few hours and had dinner with her. We did drive the Peninsula in Dunedin and got to see a seal up close!
He was just hanging out and probably loving the attention! After we parted ways with Chelsea's friend, we did take a quick detour to the steepest street in the world! The car definitely did not want to go up it...it sits at a 19 degree angle which doesn't sound big, but it was ridiculous! After we had our excitement on the street we headed towards the Moeraki Boulders and camped that night just off the beach. Chelsea and Ben woke up early to see the sunrise over the boulders, I was a little lazy and didn't get that far, but I'll steal their pictures and make sure I have some to show everyone when I get back :) We packed up our tents, and headed to Christchurch, our final destination on our crazy long journey around the South Island! We dropped Ben off at the airport, he had a flight a day earlier than the rest of the group, and then found a backpackers and pretty much called it a night! We did go out for drinks and pizza but nothing too exciting, we just wanted to commemorate our trip. The next morning we had to wake up super early to catch our 6:45 plane back to Wellington and when we finally got back, I never thought I'd be so happy to see Nexus again!
It was a great trip, and after 13 days of sleeping in tents, seeing sunrises and sunsets, it will be a holiday I'll never forget :)
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