After spending a few days in Los Angeles visiting my wonderful family, I was off on my next segment of the trip: New Zealand - land of all things hobbity! The Air NZ flights have safety videos that are themed around The Hobbit (seriously...check it out on youtube!)!!
Since I was only in New Zealand for two short weeks and wanted to see several different places, I spent a good deal of time on buses. I signed up for a pass with Naked Bus (nakedness not required) which gave me 5 trips within NZ. It took a great deal of planning to work out which cities I would visit with so few stops allowed. The two islands are much bigger than they seem! I flew into Auckland (on the north island), where I had my first experience with couch surfing! I slept on the couch of a complete stranger...and enjoyed my time! The people that I stayed with were lovely company and were nice enough to drive me around to do some sight seeing. The next day, I caught a flight to Christ Church (on the south island). After arriving late, I nearly missed my opportunity to check into the hostel and couldn't get an internet connection to get instructions on how to check in after hours. Luckily, the receptionist happened to still be around, catching up on work. I stayed in a outlying area called New Brighton. It was a small town, but had a nice pier.
CC is still in the process of rebuilding after a devastating earthquake in 2011, but I found it quite nice. I spent my only day walking around the city center. There is a seriously massive park containing several different gardens - rose gardens, New Zealand gardens, rock gardens...and the list goes on.
Attached to the Botanic Gardens is the Canterbury Museum - a free museum offering history of the Maori people (the indigenous people of NZ) and an awesome Antarctic exploration display, among other exhibits.
...there were hidden Santas throughout the museum:
...and a mummy!
The local shopping center consists of several large shipping containers hosting popular stores and food stands. It was pretty neat!
My next stop: Queenstown. As I said, I spent a good amount of time on a bus...it really allowed me to see a bit of the country. It was gorgeous!
I arrived, checking into the Haka Lodge Backpackers - one of the nicest hostels I've stayed in on my travels so far. I shared a room with several awesome people who I continued to hang out with during my time in QT. We enjoyed a bbq put on by the hostel, and spent a night out on the town
Queenstown is a lake town known as the adventure capital of the world. With jet boating, sky diving, paragliding, bungee jumping, luge rides, mountain biking, skiing, snowboarding, hikes and so much more...it's hard to run out of exciting things to do (but easy to run out of money to do it).
I opted for cheap options - a hike to the top of Queenstown Hill, which provides glorious 360 degree views:
...and luge riding. I talked one of my roommates into going for a luge ride - which is a gravity propelled kart. We took a gondola to the top, strapped on our helmets and cruised down.
The first ride was the "scenic" ride, allowing riders to get accustomed to the controls (push the handles to slow, pull back to speed up...or was it the opposite?). *Note: next 2 photos taken by another roommate.
The second ride was a little more advanced and allowed us to fly down the mountain...wind in my hair, bugs in my teeth...it was fun!
From Queenstown, I rode with a new friend (the photographer) to Nelson...it was two days of driving and stopping for scenic photos:
We stopped at Fox Glacier for some photos. Unfortunately the glacier is quickly receeding.
I also ate an apple. The following occured completely naturally:
The needle at the center of NZ:
Afterwards, I rode to the beach and went for a nice swim. Who am I kidding...it was freezing. It took everything I had to force myself under the water...But I can officially say I swam in the ocean in New Zealand!
And then I was off...next stop: the North Island.
~Jac
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