[This one’s going to be a long one, as it recaps the remainder of our travels throughout NZ. It's a bit old (i wrote it during my travels back to the states), as it took me a while to sift through the enormous amount of pictures, but here it is!]
After our first night in Te Anau we drove the 2 hours to Milford Sound and did a cruise out to where the sound meets the ocean. This was a really neat experience for me after having kayaked part of Milford earlier in the semester. The family loved it and they were so impressed. It was a really cool time to spend together appreciating the vastness and magnitude of God’s glory as revealed in creation. Something that still awed me about Milford was the sheer size of it – it’s one of those places where you really can’t accurately judge size or distance by looking at it, like an optical illusion. It’s just so big. The Milford road is also great (there’s only one road that goes to Milford); driving there is a big part of the cool experience of visiting the area. At about the halfway part of the journey is a long tunnel that goes through one of the mountains. We stopped along the way back a few times and dad and nick spotted some fish in the streams along the road, average size for this area but about 4 times the size of most trout back home. We went back to stay a second night in Te Anau and mum and dad tried their first NZ-style fish & chips, complete with newspaper packaging.
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| Milford Sound |
From there we headed to Queenstown, known as the adventure capital of the world. Also known (by me) as the most touristy and money-sucking place in New Zealand. It really is a cool town and there are so many unique places to shop and eat and see, but it’s just so expensive and there are so many people everywhere. We happened to be there during Winterfest, an annual festival celebrating…winter! There was ice-skating and a stage set up with live music and fireworks. We got there earlier in the afternoon and it was a nice day out, so we decided that it was time to go and do one of my long-awaited plans: bungee jump. I have been talking to Matt about bungee all semester now and wasn’t sure if he was going to commit to do it with me or not. I wanted to jump tandem, where we are both hooked to the same cord, because I wanted to share the experience with him. We drove out to the AJ Hackett bridge, the first commercialized bungee bridge in the world, and opted to get our heads dunked in the river. Man was it an awesome experience. It wasn’t nearly as scary as I’d expected and over so much faster than I wanted it to be. I’d do it again in a heartbeat, if it weren’t for the excessive price.
In addition to our adrenaline high we also did a lot of shopping, as Queenstown has a whole lot of stores and ski stuff, to Matt and Nick’s pleasure. The next day Dad and Nick went on a fishing day-trip and Mom and Matt and I shopped more – good for the shopping beast inside of me, bad for our wallets. My most exciting purchase was at Lulu Lemon, a yoga store that just opened in Queenstown. Paula works at a Lulu at home, and has been wearing the attire throughout the whole semester and it’s really cool stuff. There isn’t a location opened close to PA, so I figured I’d have to wait until I visit her in Canada to go to a store, but I got lucky. Though now that I’ve shopped there I’m officially broke. But I’m a happy broke girl! Also that afternoon I was reminded of what a small world we live in – while eating lunch Matt spotted a guy who works at the park at Seven Springs and went over to talk to him (he was here to work at the Remarkables, a local ski report, for the NZ winter season). That night was the opening of Winterfest and we watched the fireworks and then had a delicious spaghetti meal whilst watching the sky movie: Bounty Hunter. Later on I took mum to Patagonia, that amazing chocolate place, for some gelato. She was pretty much in her element, as any chocolate-lover would be in that place.
The next morning we got up early and drove the 3.5 hours to Mt. Cook National Park, where we hiked the Hooker Valley Track. This was a really cool experience for the family, who hadn’t yet seen the tallest mountain in NZ (Mt. Cook), and it was also great for me too because this was the first big hike we got to do as a family in NZ and this was also the track that we had planned to do earlier in the semester but didn’t have enough time (or energy) after climbing the Mueller Hut Route. We had fantastic weather for the hike and it went right up to the Hooker Glacier (I think that is the name of it).
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| Hooker Valley Track |
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| Hooker Valley swingbridge |
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| Hooker Glacier (lake) |
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| dad and i at the top of Mt. John |
Then that night we stayed at Lake Tekapo and enjoyed time at the Tekapo hotpools. This was also the first time we stayed in a budget room (like a hostel) and it went really well, and saved us a bunch of money. The next morning we drove about a half hour east and met up with Maxine at a café called Eat…original, I know. It was actually a neat little place though. Maxine had gotten her wisdom teeth out about a few days earlier and my family missed meeting her by just a few hours, as she headed back to her hometown (Geraldine) earlier on the day that they arrived in Dunedin. It was great to see her again and get to hang out one more time before saying goodbye for the long-term. She also suggested a good hike for us to do in the Tekapo area, which we would be driving back through on our way over to Wanaka. So after parting ways with Maxine we went back and hiked up Mt. John, which led us to the top of stunning views and an observatory/café. Then our treat after the hike was going back to the hotpools, for which we had a return pass since we got there late the evening before. Then to top it all off we drove the few hours to Wanaka and Matt/Nick/I enjoyed an evening at the cinemas, as we had encouraged mom and dad to take the evening to themselves and go out to a nice dinner. Well. The cinema was cool, as we’d expected, because it’s a dinner & a movie place – you buy a ticket and then sit to watch the movie on really comfy couches with pillows and eat your food during the movie. The one bad thing was that we lied to get Nick in to see the Hangover II (which was foul…funny, but foul; first one was way better) and I really regret choosing to lie, it was plainly wrong. Hah, and the idea of giving mom and dad a nice evening to themselves was sort of a flop too, since nothing nice was opened when they tried to go and eat dinner and they just ended up having Subway. That is actually a fairly normal thing here in NZ, outside of big cities at least; even though it was only about 8:45 all of the regular restaurants had already finished serving dinner, it’s just not common for places to stay opened late (not that I would even consider 8:45 late).
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| Tekapo Hotpools |
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| accidental (but so good!) rainbow shot |
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| Church of the Good Shepherd, on Lake Tekapo |
The next morning before heading out of Wanaka we shopped a bit and then headed to Puzzling World, a local Wanaka attraction. This place was COOL. It’s all about optical illusions and messing with your brain. The coolest part, I think, was the room with the following faces…it was a great big semi-circular room with tons of faces indented into the walls and when you covered one eye and walked around the room it looked like the faces were extended from the walls and it appeared as though they were moving with you as you walked around the room. After we finished inside PW we went out into the maze, a really elaborate labyrinth with 4 colored towers, one at each corner. We decided to make it a race: me and mom versus dad, Matt, and Nick. The challenge was to find the towers in order: yellow, green, blue, red. This maze was insane and we quickly realized that it was somehow created with human psychology in mind (no pun intended)…we found that the turns that made sense were rarely the ones that led to where we wanted to go. It was definitely the most difficult maze I’ve ever done. For the majority of the time mom and I were really losing; dad and the boys found both the yellow and green towers before we even got to yellow. But the tables turned when we found the blue one really fast and they were still looking for red we somehow found it in like 2 minutes time! But, it’s never that easy, because finding the finish was the hardest part of all and the guys ended up exiting and waiting for at least a half hour before we decided to just give up and go out an emergency exit, as we needed to get moving down the road to the west coast. Mom and I like to think that we all won, since she and I found all four towers first but the guys got out before we did…but the men hold to the fact that we are the losers and they won, obviously. Anyways, we drove to the west coast that afternoon and stayed the night at a really nice place called Sunset Hotel at Fox and saw an incredible rainbow just as we arrived, right before sunset.
The next morning we got up to hike as close as we could get to Fox Glacier. Man those glaciers are so much bigger than they look from far away. The road there was really neat because it had signs on the way up to it saying “in 1750 the glacier was here”, so that gave an idea of how really massive they used to be, and they still look so so big. We also stopped and hiked up to Franz Joseph Glacier, which is the other big one about 40 minutes north and that one was also impressive. After that we drove farther up the west coast to Punakaiki, where we explored the pancake rocks – these huge rock towers coming up out of the sea. Then that night we stayed in a west coast town called Westport and the next morning continued in our travels, this time heading over to the east coast. We were going to try to make it up to Golden Bay to kayak and see some beaches but thought that it would be cramming too much into too little time, and since we really wanted to be able to go dolphin watching/swimming in Kaikoura we just decided to head down that way. The night before our dolphin excursion we stayed at a motel called the White Morph and it was the nicest place we’d stayed at yet and for a pretty decent price. We went out to eat and the evening special was steak dinners, so can’t complain about that : ) Then we all relaxed and watched movies and since it was Wednesday night my two tv shows were on: Drop Dead Diva (be proud Maxine!) and The Mentalist. Funny thing is that they are both American shows, even though I’d never heard of them til I got here to study in NZ. OH yeah, that was also the night when matt and nick ganged up on me so that matt could hold me down while nick farted on my face. Talk about gross. But I’ve got to say, despite those moments when I wanted to punch Nick (whom we’ve nicknamed ‘farticus’) I have one pretty cool family.
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| dusk view, opposite Fox Glacier |
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| the 3 kids at Pancake Rocks |
On Thursday we had the Dolphin Encounter booked for 8:30 am. At 8:15 we got a call informing us that it was cancelled due to rough seas, but that they could reschedule us for the 12:30 tour. Nice of them to let us know so far in advance…we went ahead and rebooked and then spent the morning just hanging around Kaikoura, which is a neat little town. This is the place where we had camped along the side of the ocean earlier in the semester, where I got to sleep in my hammock right above the sea. Mom and Dad went for a walk and Matt and Nick played on the beach and I journaled and then we all shopped for a bit and hung out at a café until it was time for our tour, which was again cancelled, still because of the waves. Although it was disappointing there was nothing we could have done about it and so no point in being upset (it’s a pretty good method to live by, actually). But, as sometimes happens, a really great thing came of this tour not happening. In our shopping one of the clerks recommended we drive a little way out of town and find this waterfall off the side of the road where baby seals have been found playing. We figured why not, we aren’t in a hurry. We were told that it’s about 15 minutes north along the coastal road, about 12 kilometers. So we set out to find this waterfall but when we had been driving for over 20 minutes and well over 12 kilometers and still hadn’t found anything remotely like what was described we turned back. Back in Kaikoura dad wanted to stop at a hunting and fishing outfitter and while there we chatted with the guy working and I asked him where we went wrong…he explained in more detail where this place is and gave us the name of the stream that we needed to park directly after, but his instructions didn’t make complete sense either because the little town that he described as ‘you’ve gone too far when…’ was the one we did pass. [we’ve found in asking for guidance that many kiwis, while so friendly, don’t give the best directions] We told the guy thanks but that we probably would just forget it anyways, since Hanmer (our next destination) was in the opposite direction. But he strongly encouraged that we try again, saying that it would be well worth it. So again we drove north, passed through the ‘too far’ town and went past our initial turn-around point. And not even 2 minutes past where we had earlier given up the search we found Ohau Stream and the carpark. It was funny though, because the first lady who had told us of the seals ensured us that there is a sign to mark where to go, and as we got out of the car we saw no such sign. But anyways, we were there. Excited, we went over to the entrance of the path and passed by two men digging holes in the ground, doing something related to the Department of Conservation, and we made sure we were where we wanted to be. The path walked right beside the stream, which we now understood flows underneath the road bridge and down to the ocean. Almost immediately we spotted a few small seals playing in the stream, making their way upstream, the same direction in which we were walking. All the way up we saw seals, all babies, in small groupings; it was so neat! The path continued onto where I knew should be this supposed waterfall. I ran on ahead, expecting something amazing. And boy was it amazing. I came to the base of the waterfall, maybe 15-20 meters high, and falling into a shallow pool where there were TONS of baby seals everywhere – in the water, on the rocks, sometimes a little bit into the woods…words can’t describe how neat this was. And they were all babies…the one volunteer explained that during the winter months the little ones make their way the whole way up the stream to the pool to socialize and play, while the mamas stay down in the ocean. Then every few days the babies go back down to the ocean to feed. It was really cool to have then come up to sniff you out, which they would sometimes do if you stood really still. And I also really appreciated that the volunteers were there for the well-being of the seals but they weren’t uptight or anything, just overseers. If a seal came up to one of the visitors it was fine, and they didn’t make you move or scold you for being too close or anything. I think sometimes that America needs to be a bit more relaxed about things like this. Apparently this area is on private property and the owner just wants to keep it as natural as possible for the seals – another unlikely thing to see back home, where the area would be fenced-off and visitors would be charged a fee to see this wonder of nature. Anyways, this was SUCH as cool experience, one of the most incredible things I’ve ever seen. God’s creativity was so evident here. Oh and after we got back out into the carpark we noticed something that wasn’t there before: a sign marking the seal viewing area. Apparently that’s what the guys were doing, so at least the lady’s directions weren’t totally wrong : )
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| seal colonies along the Kaikoura highway |
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| the waterfall!! |
We traveled southwest to a place called Hanmer, where the infamous Hanmer Springs hotpools are. These are the most popular hotpools on the south island, and I would say totally worth stopping by. Although not natural (though some pools did bring in natural water) the resort is really big and a cool place to spend an afternoon or evening to relax. The pools are all different shapes, sizes, and temperatures and you can just hop from one to the next. We stayed the night in Hanmer and then headed back to the west coast the next morning to catch a train from Greymouth to Christchurch. The TranzAlpine Train is a popular ride and it travels a scenic route through Arthur’s Pass and on to the east coast. It was especially cool because the mountains are snowcapped at this time of winter. And the situation couldn’t have worked out much more perfectly – Alex wanted to ride the train as well but didn’t want to do round trip, and neither did we. So he rode from Christchurch to Greymouth in the morning and then we gave him the keys to our Kimmel-mobile (now named Bernard) and he drove Arthur’s Pass back to chc while we rode the train in the afternoon, and we all arrived back in chc within a half hour of each other, not too shabby. Our hotel in chc (Central Park Motor Lodge) was nice and we all went out to eat at Hell Pizza, as my family hadn’t yet ‘gone to Hell’. Oh if you only knew the amount of puns we have enjoyed with that this semester.
For our last full day in NZ the fam had planned to ski at Mt. Hutt, a resort about an hour away from chc. We had been following conditions on Hutt for the duration of my family’s time here because so far the season has been really dry and all of the resorts opened later than expected. Hutt actually opened just a few days ago; it had been originally scheduled to open at the beginning of June. This is the resort that Alex will be spending much of his time at, working with the Snowboarders for Christ crew and ministering on the slopes. Since it just opened the conditions weren’t too favorable and my parents and I decided to save the cost of renting and ~$90/each lift passes and just let the guys go up, since most of what they would do was park stuff anyways. So we got them on their way and then mum and dad and I found a café in Methven (which wasn’t very good) and then hung out for a while at McDonald’s in Ashburton, where the mochachinos are actually really really good AND McD’s also offers free wifi – win win! Then we headed back near Hutt and did some hiking before meeting back up with the guys. Yesterday was another beautiful day too…we have lucked out with fantastic weather for most of this trip, a rarity for the winter season on the south island. The evening was a blur of packing up and trying to get to bed early since mom/dad/matt/nick’s flight left on Sunday at 6 am to fly to Sydney before continuing on to LA. I got up to drive them to the airport at 3 am…at least there wasn’t much traffic. I was even able to park and stay in the drop-off zone without getting a ticket. I slept for a few more hours before getting on with my morning of checking out of our motel and dropping Bernard off at the Rent-a Dent place. Alex and I met up and he took me for coffee before the airport and it was really good to get to hang out one more time before leaving…he’s been such a blessing in my life and I’m excited to meet back up again this fall at school.
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| mum & dad : ) |
From there we headed to Queenstown, known as the adventure capital of the world. Also known (by me) as the most touristy and money-sucking place in New Zealand. It really is a cool town and there are so many unique places to shop and eat and see, but it’s just so expensive and there are so many people everywhere. We happened to be there during Winterfest, an annual festival celebrating…winter! There was ice-skating and a stage set up with live music and fireworks. We got there earlier in the afternoon and it was a nice day out, so we decided that it was time to go and do one of my long-awaited plans: bungee jump. I have been talking to Matt about bungee all semester now and wasn’t sure if he was going to commit to do it with me or not. I wanted to jump tandem, where we are both hooked to the same cord, because I wanted to share the experience with him. We drove out to the AJ Hackett bridge, the first commercialized bungee bridge in the world, and opted to get our heads dunked in the river. Man was it an awesome experience. It wasn’t nearly as scary as I’d expected and over so much faster than I wanted it to be. I’d do it again in a heartbeat, if it weren’t for the excessive price.
