Last full day in New Zealand...

Today was my last full day in Auckland, and the last full day of my travels. I spent the day seeing more of Auckland, and to do this I went up in the Sky Tower. The Sky Tower says it is the highest viewing platform in the southern hemisphere. I'm not sure I believe this, as the Eureka Building in Melbourne also claims to be the highest in the southern hemisphere. Anyway, it offered great views of the city, and was a great place to see. The weather was gorgeous, and the sky was clear, so I could see a lot. I then went to Albert Park, which is a very beautiful park in the city. Since it's spring here, all the flowers were blooming, and it was very nice. This afternoon I took a harbor cruise. It was an hour and a half cruise around the harbor, and made a short stop at Rangitoto Island, which is a volcano. The cruise was great, because the weather was perfect for it, and it showed some great views of the city and the surrounding islands and stuff in the harbor.

Tomorrow I head home. My flight from Auckland is at 2pm (on Wednesday), so I have to be at the airport by noon. I have to take a 45 min shuttle, meaning I have to leave a little after 11. It's a 12 hour flight to LA, then a layover and flight to Seattle. I arrive in Seattle at 1pm on Wednesday, meaning I actually arrive an hour before I left....weird huh?

I've posted all the pictures from New Zealand, including skydiving pictures, so here's the link: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2222253&id=27216207&l=df1615eb60. Enjoy!!

SKYDIVE!!!

On Saturday, we headed to Taupo, which was a very short drive, only a couple hours. I had planned to skydive in Taupo, and that's why I was staying there. The skydive was scheduled for Saturday afternoon, but the weather wasn't very good, so it was postponed until Sunday. It was kind of a letdown, because I had pumped myself up thinking I was going to be skydiving on Saturday, and then it didn't happen. But, the weather was a lot better on Sunday, so I was able to skydive!! It was awesome!! I wasn't that scared, not as scared as I thought. I jumped at 15,000 feet. There was one guy in the plane who jumped at 12,000 feet, and it wasn't until they opened the door and he jumped that I got scared. I had a really great partner, his name was Charley, and he totally knew what he was doing, which helped me a lot to not be scared. Plus, he does all the work so all you have to do is sit there and then he jumps out the plane, and you are going with him!! The freefall was 60 seconds and then he opened he parachute. During the freefall, it doesn't really feel like you are falling, it's like you are just laying down and a whole bunch of really really strong air is blowing in your face. Once the parachute is open, you get to look around, and the scenery was awesome! I can't even say how great it was! I have a DVD and pictures of it too.

Sunday afternoon, after the big jump, I took the bus to Rotorua. That night, I went to a Maori Cultural event and dinner. The Maori are the native people of New Zealand, and they performed some dances, and we had a dinner that was cooked in the ground. It was really good!!

Today (Monday) I took the bus to Auckland, the capital of New Zealand. In the afternoon I walked around a bit and took a ferry to Devonport, a little town across the harbour. It was a cute area, and I got some really good pictures of the Auckland skyline.

Tomorrow is my last full day in New Zealand! I can't believe how fast the trip has gone! I fly on Wednesday, first to LA, then to Seattle.

The North Island

On Wednesday, I went on a Lord of the Rings Tour (yes, another one....yes, I'm a nerd). It was a really good tour. It went to the site of Edoras, the capital city of the Rohans in the second and third movies. The buildings and set are not there anymore, they had to take it all down at the end of filming, but the scenery is stunning. Wednesday night I flew from Christchurch to Wellington, which is on the north island. By flying, I saved two days and didn't have to repeat part of the trip by going to Kaikoura again. Wellington is the capital of New Zealand, and I spent Thursday exploring. I went to the Te Papa Museum of New Zealand, which was really cool, and saw the Parliament Building, and walked around downtown. Wellington is a pretty nice city, and the weather was really great.

Today, Friday, was spent back on the bus going to Napier. Napier is the Art Deco capital of New Zealand, and has some very cool architecture. It's also on the west coast, so the Pacific Ocean is right next to it.

Tomorrow it's off to Taupo, then on to Auckland. I can't believe how fast the trip has gone, and I can't believe I have less than a week before I head back home!

Back in Christchurch

I'm back in Christchurch, which means I've now completed a loop of the South Island, since Christchurch is where I started in New Zealand. Tomorrow I fly to Wellington, which is on the North Island, so today is my last day on the South Island. I can't believe I only have one more week, the last two weeks in New Zealand have gone by so fast.

On Saturday, I left Queenstown on the bus and headed to Dunedin. I was kinda sad to leave Queenstown, as I really liked it. Dunedin was settled by the Scottish, so there is a lot of cool architecture, lots of stone buildings, and quite a few old churches. I stayed two nights in Dunedin, so I had a whole day to explore. I stayed at the Leviathan Hotel, and there was a rugby team staying in the hostel part of the hotel, so they gave us all rooms in the hotel part. It was wonderful! I had my own room, my own bathroom (which was in the room and not down the hall), and my own TV. On Saturday afternoon, I went on the Elm Wildlife Tour, and we saw fur seals, sea lions, and penguins. The penguins were the reason I wanted to go, and we saw two kinds, Yellow-eyed Penguins, and Blue Penguins. The Blue Penguins were all in nests, so we didn't get to see them outside, but the Yellow-eyed Penguins we got to see walk out of the water and across the beach. They are so cute when they move! My favorite part was when they would jump over stuff.

On Sunday, I walked around, and took pictures of several churches, and of the Railway Station, which is the second most photographed building in the Southern Hemisphere. I also went on a tour of the Cadbury Chocolate Factory. The Factory was closed, as it was a weekend, but we still were able to see the factory, and we got free chocolate.

Monday I took the bus from Dunedin to Lake Tekapo. Along the way we stopped at the Moerak Boulders. I've seen a lot of beaches and rock formations on the trip, so seeing another wasn't all that exciting. The Moeraki Boulders and completely round, and that's what makes them unique, so they were a little bit interesting to see. I am getting really spoiled about beaches though, when going to a beach doesn't excite me anymore. Lake Tekapo is a really really small town, with not a lot to do. We stayed at the Lakeside Hostel, which had some great views of the lake, and we had a BBQ with the people on the bus.

Today, Tuesday, I took the bus back to Christchurch. The weather again is really nice and warm. It's always nice to be back to a city you've been to previously, because even though you don't really know the city, it's nice to have your bearings a little bit, and feel like you know where you are going after being in strange cities for so long.

Queenstown

I've been in Queenstown for the past couple days. On Wednesday, I got to sleep in for the first time in quite a while, which was really nice. I didn't have anything planned for the day, so just walked around the downtown area of Queenstown, which has some great shopping, and went sunglasses shopping, since my old pair broke. I found a new pair at Sunglasses Hut, and I really like them. Queenstown is a really great place, I really like the downtown area, it's really cute, and it's right next to the lake, which is gorgeous with the mountains in the background. In the afternoon, I took the gondola up to the top of the mountain overlooking the city. It was really high, and the views were great. At the top, they have a little luge course, and I did that too. The luge is one you sit up on, and it has handle bars so you can steer and go faster or slower. It was really really fun. It was really cold though, my hand were freezing by the time I was done. It also snowed a little when I was at the top, that's how cold it is. It was fun to see snow though!

On Thursday, I was supposed to go to Milford Sound on a day trip. Milford Sound is supposed to be gorgeous, and where all the typical NZ scenery pictures are taken. However, the road to Milford Sound was closed because of avalance danger, so the trip was cancelled. So, the trip was rescheduled for the following day, Friday. Instead, I went on a Lord of the Rings Tour. It went to several places where filming took place, some of which are not on paved roads, so we went offroading a bit, including through some rivers. It was really fun, and cool to see where they filmed certain parts of the movie.

Today is now Friday, and I was supposed to go to Milford Sound today. However, the road was again closed, so the trip was again cancelled. I'm leaving Queenstown tomorrow, so unfortunately I'm not going to get to go to Milford Sound. So today is another relaxing day just hanging out in Queenstown. Queenstown is a good place to have an extra day though, and I'm enjoying having a couple more relaxing, slower paced days after spending the last week on the bus. Tomorrow I leave for Dunedin, and I'm hoping the weather warms up!

I've posted some pictures from New Zealand. Here's the link: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2222253&id=27216207&l=df1615eb60

The West Coast

On Sunday, we left Nelson and followed the west coast to Greymouth. Nelson is the sunshine capital of NZ, and gets the most days of sun of any other city, so it was very nice and warm when we left, and the weather steadily declined the further we went. The west coast has a rainforest, and gets a lot of rain. By the time we got to Greymouth, it was rainy and stormy. Along the way to Greymouth, we stopped several times to see the coast and take pictures. One of the stops was at the Pancake Rocks, which were pretty cool rocks that are compressed one on top of the other and look like pancakes. We also drove along the part of the coast where movies such as King Kong and Jurassic Park were filmed, because the coast is pretty empty, with no houses.

Greymouth is a really small town, with not a lot to do, and since it was raining, no one wanted to go outside anyway. We took a tour of the Monteith Brewery that night, followed by sampling their beer and wine, and then to a BBQ. It was a fun night, and I hung out with some of the people traveling on the bus.

Monday we left Greymouth and traveled to Franz Josef. Along the way, we stopped at a small town called Ross, which is a gold mining town, and is really really small. We arrived in Franz Josef around noon, so had the afternoon. Franz Josef has a glacier and that's the main attraction in the town. That afternoon, I did a glacier hike, where we got to hike on the glacier. We had to wear really thick water proof boots, and crampons, which are the spikes that go over your boots. It was really cool to be able to walk on the ice, and walk through some of the crevices. The hike they take you on changes regularly, and the guide said the one we did was the best he's ever seen.

September 1st is the first day of spring for New Zealand. It didn't feel like spring today as we travelled from Franz Josef to Queenstown, and it rained pretty much the whole way. We travelled through a lot of really pretty country, and it would have been nicer if it was clear instead of cloudy and rainy, but it was still great. We passed some mountains with snow on them that was the location for the filming of the Lord of the Rings snow scenes. We also passed Lake Wanaka, which is the longest lake in NZ. We arrived in Queenstown this afternoon and I walked around a little, but didn't do much, as I have two full days in Queenstown. Queenstown is the adventure capital of the world, and you can go skydiving, bungy jumping, skiing, anything like that. I don't think I'll be doing any of that, but it's still an exciting town, and the area around it is gorgeous, with snow covered mountains and a lake. It's really cold here though, probably the coldest weather so far, but it is just the end of winter.

New Zealand is lovely!

My first few days in New Zealand have been awesome! I'm doing a tour of New Zealand on the Magic bus. It's a hop on hop off bus that follows a route, and you can choose to just stay on the route and complete the tour of New Zealand or can get off at any of the towns along the way and stay for as many days as you like. There are mandatory overnight stops in certain cities, and if you were to stay on the route the whole time, only staying the nights in the mandatory places, it would take you 14 days to do the whole tour. My plan is to stay pretty much on the route, but take a few extra days here and there. The nice thing about Magic Bus is they will book your hostels and activites for you, so it's really easy to travel. When you get in the bus in the morning, they pass around a sheet and you sign up for what you want to do and where you want to stay, and the driver books it for you.

So, Friday morning, we left Christchurch and headed for Kaikoura, which is north of Christchurch, and along the coast. The drive was very pretty, with lots of hills that go right up to the edge of the ocean. The drive was just under 4 hours, so we arrived in Kaikoura around noon. Kaikoura is beautiful, and I took some great pictures outside the hostel with the ocean in front and snowy mountains behind. That afternoon, I went whale watching. We ended up seeing two Sperm Whales, but they both surfaced multiple times, so we had a total of five whale sightings. The whales come to the surface to breathe, and spend about 5 minutes on the surface, and then go back down. When they go back down, they flip their tails up, which was really cool (although my camera is not fast enough so I didn't get too many good pictures, most of the pictures just show the edge of the tail as it is entering the water). The views from the boat were awesome too, and the weather was great, so it was a wonderful afternoon. I had fish and chips for dinner, because Kaikoura is known for having some of the best fish and chips in New Zealand, and it was very very good (although instead of chips I had potato wedges, but they were really good).

This morning, Saturday, we left Kairkoura and headed toward Picton, which is on the very north part of the South island. We stopped along the way at a seal colony (there were several babies, and they were really cute) and we also stopped at a winery for wine tasting. We stopped at the Montana Winery, which is the biggest winery in New Zealand, and tried several wines. Then we continued to Picton, where many people on the bus got off. Picton is where you catch the ferry to the north island, and some were doing that. There were also some that came on the ferry to the south island, so we got a bunch of new people on the bus. I will be taking the ferry in about a week, so I'll be back to Picton then. We had a break in Picton, so I wandered around a bit. It's a small town, but the weather was sunny and warm, and the harbor area was very pretty, so it was fun. I also was on the lookout for a new pair of sunglasses, since I discovered that morning that mine broke, but I didn't find any I liked. We then continued on to Nelson, which is where I'm staying the night. Nelson is another small town (I think the majority of the cities in New Zealand are small, as I was told that there are only 2 million people in the whole country). I walked around Nelson a bit, and saw the Christ Church Cathedral, which is in the center of town.

The weather here has been great so far, it's been sunny and warm. I was prepared for colder weather, and thought it would be colder than Melbourne, but it hasn't been so far. However, I heard the weather report today was calling for rain tomorrow, but hopefully it will stay nice!