New Zealand

Just got back to the Gold Coast from our Easter holiday in New Zealand. What an amazing country!

The crew: Scott, Collin, David, Rob, Greg, Tommy, Tim, Lauren, and I

We flew out of Brisbane airport on Sunday, April 4th at 9:20 A.M. and landed in Christchurch, New Zealand at 3:40 P.M.

We rented a 10-passenger van from Ace Rentals so after we got our luggage and went through the customs process (very time-consuming), we took a shuttle over to the Rental company's warehouse to pick up our car.

After signing paperwork and loading up the van, we drove our manual van around Christchurch in search of food. We saw a cute pub called Speight's Ale House and decided to eat there. It was such a great restaurant and it had a really great patio that wrapped around, which is where we sat. All the boys ordered huge slabs of steak and I settled for a burger. I can honestly say, it was the best meal I had had in a long time. Speight's is a brewery in the south island and they have an entire line of beers that are sold throughout New Zealand so we all tried a bunch of the different draft beers and stuffed our faces before leaving to find our hostel. I had booked us all a room at a hostel called Charlie B's Backpackers. We all got put together in one 10-person room which was nice

so we didn't have to worry about our luggage. After playing CatchPhrase for about an hour, we headed out to explore the city of Christchurch, as it is one of the biggest cities on the South Island. We ran around the downtown, taking pictures and enjoying the cold but fresh air.

On Monday, we woke up early to get an early start on the drive. Since Sunday was Easter, Monday was still considered an extension of the holiday so nothing was open. We had to settle on brekky from Subway (not good at all). Then we left Christchurch to head down south on the eastern side of the island. We drove for about 3 hours when we looked to the left and saw the ocean! I had no idea that we were that close to the edge of the country so it was really exciting. We decided to stop off in a town called Timaru where we walked down this random trail through fields and ended up at a little alcove where the beach was. It was nothing like the beaches in Gold Coast. It was gorgeous and kind of private. I took some great pictures with my Canon Rebel and the boys explored the rocky point near the water.

The next place we stopped was about an hour later when we were starving for lunch. We stopped in Oamaru, a pretty small town but big compared to the towns we had previously driven through that day. Some of the boys got fish and chips at a hole-in-the-wall but the rest of us cruised down to this pizza and pasta joint called Filadelphios. It was delicious and definitely hit the spot. Before getting back in the van we went into a surf shop and looked around. Rob was talking to the guy that ran the shop about skateboarding and the guy says, "if you like skateboarding, you should go check out upstairs." We all decide to go see what the guy was talking about and the 'stairs' was a narrow passageway that served as shoe storage for the store, behind a hidden wall up through a midget-size door. Once we got to the top of the sketchy stairs, we couldn't believe what we saw. The entire second floor was converted into 2 huge skate ramps! The boys, being the skater/surfer/snowboarders that they are, grabbed skateboards and started working these ramps. It was really cool and reminded me of something out of a movie.

We finally left Oamaru and headed down for our final destination of the day- Dunedin. Tommy, Tim, and Scott had purchased a tent and sleeping bags back in Australia so they decided to camp at a travellors camping grounds in Dunedin. Collin, David, Rob, Greg, Lauren and I decided to pay the extra $5 and sleep at The Central Hostel which was right in downtown. Dunedin is a really cool city and home to one of the South Islands biggest universities. So it was a lot like a college town but absolutely beautiful with the rolling hills and victorian architecture. After showering and getting ready, we all headed out to dinner and drinks at the Bog Irish Pub. Like I mentioned, Monday was still considered a holiday so the town was really quiet and it was a more mellow nightlife.

On Tuesday, we woke up and decided to walk around and see more of Dunedin. We made our way through the downtown shops and up to the Cathedral Station which was an ornate train station set in the center of this circular plaza, surrounded by a large stone cathedral and some primitive shops, grass lawns and fountains.

We ate lunch at a little cafe and then drove the van to Baldwin Street. I had done some research before our trip of the coolest things to do and see in the South Island and I discovered Baldwin Street. This is in the Guinness Books as the World's Steepest Street. Obviously, I knew we had to see it. We drove to it and decided to run up it- it is way steeper than it looks! We all took some pictures on the street and watched as our friends' van struggled its way up the street. It was really cool to see it and be there.

After that we got back on the road and headed to Te Anau, a little town in the Fiordlands. We arrived as the sun was going down so we booked a room at the Lakefront hostel (the 3 boys camped again) and walked into town to find dinner. We ended up eating at a tavern called The Ranch and it was a loud, fun sports bar with pool tables and music. We knew we had an early wake up call the next morning so we hit the hay relatively early.

On Wednesday, we woke up before the sun was out. We got gas and coffee (awful tasting) and started our drive to Milford Sounds. We booked a cruise the night before so we had to get up there early. It was a gorgeous drive throughout the Fiordlands and the scenery was unreal. It was also freezing out. I had on 2 shirts, a flannel shirt, and a sweatshirt and I was still freezing. We made it up to the port and got our tickets.

We eventually boarded the M.V. Sinbad, a large catamaran/cruise ship. We set sail and the boat took us for an hour+ ride throughout the Milford Sound and through various channels. The sights were absolutely breathtaking- I've never seen such beautiful and picturesque sights! We saw dolphins swimming and seal perched on rocks and numerous waterfalls. It was awesome and I took a ton of pictures!

The Milford Sound cruise took up a majority of the day and by the time we got back to Te Anau and started on our way up the western coast, it was getting dark. We drove for about 2 hours when we finally made it to Queenstown- one of the highly anticipated stops on our roadtrip. It was already dark so we didn't get to see much of the town.

We checked in at the Base Hostel which had a perfect location in downtown Queenstown. We showered, got ready and headed next door to the Altitude bar. It was a really cool place with a dance floor, large tables with couches, and pool tables. It was fun and we ran into a lot of our friends who were doing their own roadtrips around New Zealand.

On Thursday morning, Tommy, David, Collin, Greg, Rob and Tim got up early and went bungy-jumping at a place called Nevis which is known as the second highest bungy-jump in the world!

Lauren, Scott and I didn't want to waste our money so we walked around downtown Queenstown, ate lunch at Winnie's Pizzeria, and watched boats come and go from the harbor. It was a beautiful day with not a cloud in the sky and the perfect day to explore the quaint and gorgeous town. We met up with the rest of the boys after they bungy-jumped at a burger joint called FergBurger. Honestly, hands down one of the best

burgers I've ever had and the portions were huge!! After lunch everyone went their separate ways to do/see various things. Rob and I went on a hunt for a store that sold cheap sunglasses since my cheap ones broke in the car and my nice Marc Jacobs were missing a screw. Later that night a big group of us went to dinner at the World Bar. It was a really cool place and the atmosphere was like a ski lodge with large deer heads on the walls and a huge fireplace. After we ate we got some drinks at our favorite spot, The Buffalo Club, and ended up going to a couple different bars- Altitude, The Pub, Winnie's, Lonestar, and World Bar. It was a really fun night and a lot of our friends from Australia were also in Queenstown so it was fun hanging out in a huge group!

On Friday morning, our crew [except for Collin] got up early and went Jet-Boating. Its an hour ride through the Shotover River in a fast boat that whips around and does 360-degree spins going over 200 km/hour! It was very adrenaline pumping and awesome!

After that we all met up at FergBurger again. In the afternoon, a couple of the guys went to an internet cafe while Tommy, Tim, Scott, Lauren and I headed on a hike. We hiked up the very steep trail up Queenstown hill, a large mountain that overlooks the city and lake. It was such a pretty hike and the lovely pine smell made me miss Colorado. We made it to the top where there was a lookout point where we got panoramic views of the mountainous terrain of New Zealand, as well as the lakes and town that comprises Queenstown. I'm glad we went on the hike and I got some great pictures! That night we went to the Buffalo Club bar again and helped our friend Hayley's (who also goes to CU) 21st birthday which was at midnight.

On Saturday, we walked around the town some more and browsed through a flea market on Steamers Wharf. The boys had soup and played pokies at The Pub while Lauren and I bought souvenirs. We left Queenstown in the afternoon and headed north along the western edge of the South Island. We drove through the popular town of Wanaka which is known for its placid lake, Lake Wanaka, and for being very close to a major ski resort. We drove for what seemed like forever until we reached our next destination- Franz Josef Glacier. We got into the town around 10 and struggled to find a hostel with vacancy until we finally stopped at a Camp grounds/hostel area that could fit us all. We then hurried to the couple stores in the small town and luckily found another Speight's Ale House open and serving food. We ate and drank a couple beers before going to bed.

On Sunday, we drove to the Fiordland National Park where the glacier was. We were going to do the guided glacier hike but it was really expensive and lasted 8 hours...none of us were in the mood to hike for 8 hours. So instead we did our own version and followed the paths to through a basin of rocks to where the actual glacier was. It was really interesting to see because it looked like a giant snowball wedged between to mountains. It was really pretty and we went all the way over to it (past the 'no-trespassing' signs!) and touched it! It was really pretty and I had never seen anything like it before! We stayed for awhile, taking pictures and goofing around before getting back in the van and heading towards our last destination on the roadtrip- Christchurch.

The drive from Franz Josef Glacier to Christchurch was a pretty heavy 5 hours and 45 minutes but we enjoyed the last stretch through the "Lord of The Rings" backdrop. We made it to Christchurch before the sun went down and ate dinner at the same Speight's Ale House that we had eaten our first unreal meal at the first night! It was just as good the second time around! We stayed at the Base Hostel in Christchurch this time and we had our own huge room with a connected bathroom! We played more CatchPhrase and headed down to the bar at the hostel. It was a pretty mellow night as well and we just tried to make the trip last as long as possible!

On Monday, Lauren and I woke up and walked to a cafe where we got bagels and coffee. It was a perfect day with sunny skies and 80 degree weather. We walked around the shops in Christchurch for a little since we didn't see much of the city the first night. We ended up walking to the Oxford Terrace- a grassy park area with a statued fountain, pretty trees, park benches, a stream, bridges and beautiful flowers. Since it was such a nice day Lauren and I decided to lay in the middle of the grass and enjoy laying under the hot sun...such a nice change from the cold days we had had prior! Around noon we drove back to Ace Rentals, dropped off our van, and took the complimentary shuttle to the airport in Christchurch.

All-in-all, it was a great trip and I've never done anything like that before and I'm really glad I did. Everyone in our van was a joy to be around and I had such a blast with them all. We saw so many beautiful places and beautiful things and I will never forget this adventure. I am so thankful that I was able to do something like this as not many people can say they roadtripped through New Zealand. It was a once in a lifetime chance and I truly had the best time!