The Land of Sheep and Hobbits

This post is massively delayed, but between returning to the States, dealing with jet lag, and working to get out of debt, I just haven't had the chance to sit down and write this (no matter, how amazing it was). Anyway, during the exam period at the end of the semester (in mid-June) I managed to steal 9 days in New Zealand (only on the South Island unfortunately) between my last of three final papers and my one and only final. I went it alone because most of my housemates had already been and the timing was very specific to my schedule. I found a great, hop-on hop-off bus tour however, which ended up working out perfectly because I met lots of other single travellers and didn't have to worry about driving or finding hostels.

I crammed so many things into those 9 days it would be impossible to talk about all of them here - and you'd probably get sick of reading after about page 5 - so I present the highlights below.

Literally my second whole day in New Zealand, I climbed on a glacier. Yes, New Zealand has glaciers...three actually. I walked on Franz Josef Glacier, took pictures of Fox Glacier, and was told of Tasman Glacier. It was a bit rainy all day, but that's what makes the glacier so I couldn't complain too much. We were on the ice for 6 hours and saw both white ice (more air) and blue ice; particularly gorgeous were the ice caves, formed from water running through the ice. Our guides also decided to make us crawl through a claustrophobia-inducing tunnel - photographic evidence below. It was one of the most awesome experiences ever.

Franz Josef glacier; blue ice cave; claustrophobia tunnel; view from glacier toward valley



Although I did spend many hours on the bus driving from place to place at a (surprisingly) rapid pace, we stopped frequently to go on walks and take pictures of various scenery. While just about everything was absolutely breathtaking and pratically untouched, after a certain point it is difficult to come up with better tags than "Mountains," "Mountains 2," "Mountains 3," "View from (blank)," and "View from (blank) 2." Check out my flickr, you'll see.

Mountain reflected in lake; "Gates of Haast" (so very LOTR); wiggly bridge; ski cabin hostel in the middle of nowhere; beautiful scenery




The big stop on the South Island is Queenstown...also known as the adventure capital of the world. On the way we stopped in Wanaka and visited Puzzling World; it's a hard to describe - interactive quasi-museum - with a gigantic person sized labyrinth, optical illusion rooms, and plenty of puzzles to mess around with (and probably fail at). I stayed in a hostel with most of my friends from the bus, which was great. Aside from the adventure activities, more on that later, I also ate a few huge burgers from a great joint called Fergburger. The picture below includes my Australian cellphone (which is fairly standard in size) for scale. Seriously, one of the best burgers I've ever had if not the best.

Labyrinth; moon over mountains; Fergburger



My first day in Queenstown I bungy jumped for the second time from the 3rd highest bungy in the world (134 meters compared to my 50 meter original jump). It's called Nevis and is a suspended pod in the middle of a gorge. The fall to the end of the bungy extension can take up to 8.5 seconds...aka it's intense. And amazing! I will brag about this for the rest of my life. Perhaps one of the scariest parts was the ride over to the pod in the cable car; it was entirely open on the sides and, though we were firmly attached to a safety line, it was still unnerving.

Suspended pod and cable car; mid-jump (somewhere around the 4 second mark?)


After the bungy, I did a jetboat through a very small canyon. It was also fun, as expected, though very, very, very cold. The boats were capable of doing 360 degree spins - both thrilling and different (though nothing compared to the adrenalin rush of my earlier jump).

I said goodbye to most of my Stray bus friends that night as they were heading off to do the most southern parts of the island that I didn't have time for. Instead, I had a day tour of Milford Sound planned. Funnily enough, the bus I was on followed the Stray bus (which goes to Milford on the first day of the southern loop) all the way to the Sound and was actually on the same boat, so I got to defect from my new tourmates in favor of more time with my Stray friends. It was rather hazy, which was a cool effect but I would have been happy for it to raise and let some sun in. It was definitely awe inspiring in person, but the pictures do it much less justice than usual because you can't see the mountain peaks.

My busmates; Milford Sound


After a full day in Milford Sound, I spent the next day on the bus back up to Christchurch. I visited the International Antarctic Center and putzed (is there a correct way to spell that word?) around town for the day, then headed slightly out of "town center" - if you can call it that - to go to an All Blacks game. For those out of the loop, the All Blacks are New Zealand's national rugby union team. They were playing England, which was especially exciting because NZ is a big destination for the British, so there were plenty of opposition fans. The All Blacks creamed England, and it didn't rain so all in all it was a good night (though it was ridiculously cold - stupid wind).

Christchurch cathedral; All Blacks game


After the game, I returned to the airport where I spent my time before my 6am flight. This meant being locked out of the terminals and sleeping on a very uncomfortable chair in the International Arrivals area. Thankfully, I wasn't kicked out into the cold Christchurch night, as I have no idea where I would have stayed or what I would have done for about four hours at midnight in New Zealand.

These photos definitely don't do the place justice (neither do any of the 200 or so I took) but feel free to peruse my flickr; the pictures there were uploaded and tagged with care, so many of them have additional information on them.

One more post to come as a general wrap-up, thoughts, etc. especially about reverse culture shock (wait...I'm supposed to look left first?! since when?).

Room 10, 17 Coogee St

Welcome to 17 Coogee Street. Although it looks small, it goes on forever into the back, much like many DC townhouses. This will be home sweet home for me and 16 other study abroad students for the next 4 months. Yes, you read that right, 16 students. Luckily, all the roommates (thus far) are pretty awesome and easy going.

The accomodation is great, especially living upstairs as I do. The windows on the right of the building are directly above my bed. My roommate just arrived today. She is from New Jersey and it seems like we should get along well. Funnily, I am in the minority in the house in that I am neither Canadian (we have 3 Queens' students) nor a business major (all but one).

The first floor is kind of boarding house style, while the upstairs is more homey. They boys are downstairs while the girls are upstairs. Obviously, the boys are jealous of our digs upstairs and tend to hang out up there. There's no aircon in the house, but the fans do a good job so it's okay. There's also a guest house/love shack in the backyard with another girl and a house manager, Justin. He's the guy we go to to troubleshoot problems with the house. Basically, his story is exactly the story my parents don't want to tell about me; he was a study abroad student last year and fell in love with the place and transfered.

Front door from the top of the stairs; Upstairs kitchen; Upstairs common area

A picture of my room will be forthcoming, but it needs to be completely unpacked and cleaned first.

One of the things I'm most appreciative of (other than the lack of communication issues) is the general lack of culture shock. I am, however, enjoying discovering the differences between well known American items and their Australian counterparts; grocery shopping especially pointed these out to me. I debated, but finally bought the Rice Bubbles over the Frosties. I passed on Cheese Supreme Doritos. The 2 liter Coke bottles are kind of awesome because they look exactly like the one's you would get from a vending machine, except bigger.

Just to make you all jealous: I am simultaneously 15 minutes from the beach and 15 minutes from Uni (although there's a killer hill to get there). Some postcards have been bought and will hopefully be in the post shortly.

Key: aircon = a/c, air conditioning; Rice Bubbles = Rice Crispies; Frosties = Frosted Flakes; Uni = university (duh); post = mail

LAX

Thus far today I have survived not sleeping last night (so I'd be tired for the flights and avoid jet lag as much as possible), a 5:30 am cab ride to National, absolutely no difficulties in Denver, waiting in line twice for ticketing for Qantas (the Australian airline), and being on hold for more than an hour and a half with STA trying to get my Sydney ticket reissued because I'm an idiot...don't ask. I've been in an airport since 6 am this morning and have had 10+ hours of layover time thus far.

I met a ridiculous British woman who is on my flight at dinner. She moved over and sat near me and another guy also travelling to Sydney (not on our flight). Carole - with an "e" so I wouldn't forget - promptly invited me to stay at her house 3 hours north of Sydney. She's also let me in on the best white wine to buy. She was going to visit me on the plane when she got bored, but was surprised when I said I could, hypothetically, sleep 10 of the 14 hours the flight takes. She also told a couple of stories multiple times, but it was nice to have someone else to talk to after a day of travelling alone.

Finally, I exchanged the bulk of my cash in the airport tonight. First, the Australian dollar is finally worth more than the American dollar ($1.03 bought 1$AUD). Second, their bills are really really pretty. They get longer as they go up in denomination and they only have singles as coins, not bills. 5s are purple, 10s are blue, 20s are red, and 50s are yellow; they also all have a cutout with a plastic inlay that is kind of awesome.