New Zealand, Day 7

Getting back to you all... Picking up from Day 7! (I'm currently on Day 11 so I'll do my best to remember)
April 15th... We got on the bus and headed for Kaikoura via Christchurch. We continued to bus along through out the mountains, rainforests, hills & dry/flat land. The terrain here is just mind blowing. We stopped for breakfast and lunch along the way of our journey. Karen almost had a heart attack at lunch, she ordered Fish & chips and basically wound up with a bag of salt. Not even eatable. As we drove into Kaikoura, our bus driver informed us that Kaikoura simply means, "Where the mountains meet the Sea". He was right about that. Even though the weather wasn't the best for us here, we thoroughly enjoyed. It was quite cloudy and rainy. There were huge waves crashing against the rocks, ACTUAL boulders this time. Before we were dropped off at our hotel, our driver took us to the seal colony. This was my first time seeing seals! They truly look like a fish out of water. They all looked dead, but as we got closer they wiggled around a bit. Nothing crazy, sort of weird.  They were spread amongst the rocks and grass. We headed to our hotel after a few pictures. I took a run around town then we went for Indian. I'm never ordering Indian food HOT ever again. I was crying, seriously. I used a whole thing of yogurt he brought me. This shit was waaay too hot for my liking. I mean, really... How is that enjoyable? My nose was running, I've had the whole pitcher of water by now and wouldn't be apposed to him bringing me more yogurt. My god! After we got through dinner, we headed back to our place right down the road and called it quits.

New Zealand, Day 6

We're off! I mean, early too. We checked out of Dunedin & went straight on through to Lake Tekapo. Of course we stopped along the way scoping all the mountains and scenery. It's nuts how we'll be in the rainforest for a few minutes then go through a tunnel and the land is flat & dry. Complete opposites. We started off the morning by climbing the world's steepest hill. A bit of an early wake up hike! It was nice. I've never seen such thing. I don't understand what possess people to live on this street either (Baldwin Street, google it if you don't believe me). After the hike, we hopped back onto the bus to go see

"boulders". What a let down that was. A boulder is & should be massive. We got off the bus, walked down a path to the beach to see these little rocks that were maybe 3 feet tall and 4 feet wide. I shit you not. Alright guy, just because we're backpackers doesn't mean you have to amp it up for us to be let down. Haha, no worries. Karen & I went into a little cafe for brekky & coffee. It was an all day adventure making it to Lake Tekapo, but we arrived eventually around 4:30p.m. We've been putting alot of time in on this bus! We checked in, threw our things down & off we went to rent mountain bikes. I'm so happy we did too. We got to view the Lake from afar & traveled all amongst these windy roads, passing sheep & lambs along the way. The trail we took was a lot longer than we expected. We didn't mind though, we were having a blast. We stopped at two wooden benches on the way back to embrace the scenery. What a beautiful little place this town was. Very little. We made our way back to the Lodge two hours later with sore legs & scenic memories embedded in our heads. Of course it wouldn't be a night without Thai or Indian. We walked into town bundled in our warmest clothing & went to Tekapo Thai, the best Thai I've ever had. After stuffing our faces, we walked back along the road... not too well lit, but it's very safe here. We arrived back to our Lake Lodge & took showers & jumped in bed. Nothing too exciting today, just tons of scenery & a long bus ride followed by a delicious dinner!

New Zealand, Day 5

Today, we checked out of Southern Laughter around 8a.m and waited in the frigid cold for our bus to pick us up again. From Queenstown, we drove all around the mountains with frequent stops along the way for pictures & restroom breaks. Our first stop was around 9:45a.m for brekky at a tiny café. I was in heaven, this café is known to have the best coffee in the south island of New Zealand. A skinny vanilla latte with an extra shot of espresso has never tasted so good before! We hopped back on the bus and came straight to Dunedin. This town has a strong Scottish heritage with marvelous beer, called Speites. We checked into the Leviathon Hotel and chilled before we hit the town in the late afternoon. We had nibbles at a café before our brewery tour at 6. It was my first brewery tour ever! I enjoyed it, a lot more interesting than I was expecting. There’s so much that goes into producing beer that I had never even thought about before. We tasted a few different beers. They had a malt beer that had a hint of coffee/mocha in it. I had to try it! Surprisingly, I enjoyed it. Not an every day sort of beer, it was very dark and heavy. It was a good little taste though. We tried some others than went for a late dinner at the brewery. We decided to take a night off Thai or Indian for once. We chatted about life and things for a bit until we realized how upset we were becoming from the realization that we don’t have much time left here at all! Not New Zealand, but more so Australia as a big picture. Time is flying by here; that we know. It’s just crazy. My birthday was already two months ago! What the hell? Where does time go!?

New Zealand, Day 4 in Queenstown

Today was the first day we got to sleep in! Cha-ching! We woke up around ten andd threw our faces on and stepped right into our sneakers. We were out the door for the best meal of the day. What a crisp, fresh morning it was. As we walked down the hill from our hostel, Southern Laughter, I hopped into a hole in the wall tee shirt place. I was interested in the shirts until I heard my stomach growl. I asked the lady where we should head for breakfast & she sent us around the corner to Voodoo Cafe. Locals know best. She had it spot on! Strong coffee & a vegetarian omelette before jumping out of an airplane was delicious. Yes, I went skydiving… again! It was so enjoyable this time. I could actually enjoy the scenery and, surprisingly, relax. My tandem guy was from Syrbia, meaning he was a towering seven foot so we had no problems landing this time! Thank god, my bum wasn’t our landing for us both. It was another phenomenal experience. Dropping from a plane with mountains nearly as high as you are with white snowcaps was gorgeous. The greenish blue lakes below us as well.  Everything was so damn pretty. I feel as if a bit of me belongs here. Do you ever have that certain feeling of attachment to a place? So strong that your heart really latches onto it & you just automatically tell yourself, wow. This is me. I could see myself here. I could do this for a while. Well, I did. Queenstown has a backpackers, cosmopolitan sort of feel. It’s very chill and all the people are just lovely down to earth human beings. Everyone means well and is always there to help you out. It’s very clean and eco-friendly. There’s heaps and heaps of cafes and coffee shops that gaze over an enormous lake. It’s very outdoorsy, meaning opportunities are endless. So many ways to stay fit! The town is definitely my favorite thus far.

After our adrenaline rush from hell, Karen & I walked around town. It was nice to have a chill day to relax and do what we wanted with no bus worries. I purchased some Birkenstocks for a steal. We ate at Bombay Palace (Indian) for dinner. No complaints what so ever. I really want to try to cook Indian food when I return home. Later in the evening, I took a run around the beautiful lake and town. I stepped outside & took a deep breath of campfire. I could run forever with these views! I love that smell, it reminds me of home sweet home. It was nice, but I was well on my way jogging around town. When I returned after a few miles, Karen had the brilliant idea to go for gelato. It was a wonderful way to end our evening. Great gelato, so many flavors! We chatted over our cold gelato in the little hole in the wall dessert joint then headed back. Such early birds we are! It’s just so exhausting. We try to catch up on sleep as much as we can. I feel like I’ve been gone for ages & it’s only been 4 days… two weeks to go!

New Zealand, Day 3

Day 3: Today, we stopped around various Lakes and things. I honestly forgot to blog so I can’t remember too much now. It’s day 5 and I’m trying to blog about day 3. We left Franz Joseph to Queenstown. We left super early in the morning & did many stops along the way. This way the longest bus day so far. We stopped at a beach and Thunder Creek waterfall. We bussed our way through the rainforest and around beautiful lakes all day (Lake Wanaka being one of them). Our next stop was at a marvelous fruit and veggie store. There were fruits from all over the world! Everything was so fresh. We got a handful of fruits and went out to the garden in the backyard to enjoy an apple. What a pretty stop this was. We left shortly after making our way to a bungy jumping site. Our bus was passing heaps and heaps of wineries. I wanted to stop and wine taste so badly! What a strategic, intriquitte way for developing fine wines. The wineries have to set the grapes up so perfectly that the sun hits the grape at a certain angle for the best taste. Fascinating. We didn’t get to stop. We went straight on through to the bungy site. There was a guy on our bus that did it so our whole bus got to watch! It was my first time ever seeing that in real life. I would never want something strapped around my feet flinging me all around and dunking me in water!! No thank you. We didn’t get to Queenstown until five that night! I fell in love instantly! What a seriously amazing town.

Travels along a beautiful, unntouched country

New Zealand. What a gorgeous country. First off, I'd just like to recommend anyone of any age to visit here. I highly advise it, honestly. I've never seen so much endless green nature before in my life. I learned today that the leaves on every New Zealand tree never die, that's why it's constantly green here. Interesting. Okay okay, so my adventure started in Christchurch. We stayed at a hotel right near the airport for the night, it was getting late and we were draggin. We woke up, got screwed out of breakfast and had our Magic Bus waiting on us outside to begin our travels to Greymouth. Not too much going on there, but I've came to the conclusion that their really isn't anything going on anywhere here. So much land, little amount of people. I love it.  It's so quiet and peaceful everywhere we go. In Greymouth, we  found a hotel called Kingsgate. We checked in late afternoon and kicked our feet up for a bit. Went to this unique coffee cafe in town for a nibbles and lattes. Obviously the coffee was to die for. We poked around a little store where I picked up a neon NZ hat that has done wonders for my frigid little ears. Around 6 we went to Cafe Frank's where we indulged in yummy Thai food. Superb! We finished early and went back to our hotel to call it quits around 9. We were dying for some much needed sleep at this point. I turned my bed heater on high and fell asleep to The Devil Wears Prada.
10 hours later the most obnoxious ringtone Karen could possibly find went off around 7a.m. We both woke up still craving another couple hours of sleep. This is an exhausting trip, but I don't care one bit. Every day is a new adventure, a new place I've never been or seen before! I'm not about to take anything for granted over here. We hopped on the bus again from Kingsgate hotel, Greymouth, traveling across the mountainous South Island to Franz Joseph. We stopped a few times along the way, as it was about a 4-5 hour bus ride with exquisite views. It's hard for me to fathom the natural beauty of this country. I've just never seen anything like it before, only in Lord of The Rings? Nerd. As we arrived to Franz, we got all checked in to our hostel as well as a famous glacier hike. Google it. It honestly looked fake hiking towards it. We both loved the experience. It was about a ten minute bus ride from Franz into the woods and through the rainforest. We started our hike right away, climbing up a huge rock to get to the glacier. We put our spikes on and we were off! About a mile away from where we hopped off the van. Our journey all through the ice tunnels began. What an experience. The glacier upon the massive, green mountains and waterfalls was worth a million words. I stood and just looked all around me. Never have I been to a place so speechless, so naturally beautiful. Everything just looks completely untouched. Waterfalls spilling over the mountains, appearing miles long from top to bottom. They were everywhere! I love waterfalls. Such a peaceful trip. It was quite the workout for us all, but so worth every second.
We made it back to the shop and handed in our spikes from our shoes and headed back to the hostel to grab our bathingsuits to warm up in the hot pools. We had a wonderful little dinner at Priya... We were literally the only people in there. Like I said, there's no one around! Great Indian food and naan. We chatted about life for a bit over our chicken tikki marsala and prawn marsala. Perfect meal to wind down the night! We love our Indian and Thai foods. I ordered Earl Grey tea to go and enjoyed it on the walk across the street to the hot pools. We had 3 pools to choose based on temperature, which were all nestled inside of the rainforest with the nature all around us. Quite big pools, we choose the hottest one, being 110 degrees. We'd been freezing all day! Karen and I chatted with an older Irish couple whom we found quite interesting. We left the pool soon after and here I am updating everyone on my life overseas. I'm enjoying every second. I miss everyone, but wow... I really need some sleep. We'll be up at 6:45a.m tomorrow... I swear, I feel like every morning is just getting earlier and earlier. Womp.
Until tomorrow.

hobbits.

Welp, midterm testing’s are over with and I’m well on my way to New Zealand with Karen! It’s been a wack day. We’ve been all over the place. I guess it doesn’t help having two airheads together for a vacation that went to uni club the night before. HA, that being said, we “sort of” packed last night before we went to uni club. We wanted to say our goodbyes to everyone before heading off for lecture recess. We threw together various warm clothes and headed out. Haha, I guess we’re really adapted to the Australian mindset. I would’ve never done that at home. I usually have everything packed a couple days before and itinerary printed. However, neither of us had our itineraries printed out for our flight, or even knew where we’re staying the night once we arrive in Christchruch… Funny thing is, we’re on the plane right now and still don’t know where we’re staying. So, we have to wonder around tonight at midnight looking for accommodation. Hopefully there will be some sort of place open or we’re sleeping on the beach… Or this plane? I’m sure they wouldn’t mind anyway. Hey, at least we thought about it ten minutes before we boarded the plane and called about 5 places looking for any type of open beds! All the hostels are booked and hotels are as well which I thought was strange. Apparently, there’s a ton of damage in town from the earthquake so a lot of hotels and things have been knocked down, but still leaving many places to stay. We’ll figure it out. No worries.

So my day today consisted of running all around, throwing clothes in my bag in hopes that I have everything I need and mailing last minute things to friends/family. I woke up around eight to chat at my supportive, handsome boyfriend. We skyped for a few then I went to back to sleep til ten. I had to get up even though I was still so tired. Time was flying by and I had things to do before I left. I skyped with Ry again when I woke up as I was packing. I had lunch with Lauren & Liz in the midst of things, consisting of a few bites of fish and vegetables. After lunch, I mailed some things to the states and met Karen at her place to catch a cab to the airport. Well, the cab came… and went. Of course we were too busy chatting with Cammie to even notice. We saw a white car turn around, not even realizing it had a lit up taxi sign on the top of it. He was already well on his way back down the street. We rang the cab company again and he came back to pick us up! Whew. We’re in the cab on the way to the airport, finally. I looked at Karen and said, “ Yeah, so I’m pretty sure I have everything we’ll need”. She looked at me with such confidence and said, “I agree, I mean… as long as we have our passports that’s all that really matters”. OH SHIT! Karen, I’m sorry doll, but I don’t have my passport. Cab driver you’re going to have to whip this bad boy around. I’m a complete airhead!! She didn’t believe a word I said because I’m always joking with people. I was like no seriously, the most important thing I need, I forgot. Of course. I felt horrible, it was already 1:35p.m and our flight was at 2:30. I sprinted upstairs and got my passport and headed straight back down. Now we’re on the way! No, really. We get there with some time to spare. I forgot that security is like a walk in the park. You literally can just walk on through with your belt, shoes and all. Odd, right? I sent my backpack through the conveyor belt and forgot to take my lap top out. It came through and TSA told me I’ll have to take my lap top out “next time”. No worries, run along and catch your flight. Whoops, totally slipped my mind. Seems to be the ongoing lackadaisical attitude of the day. This usually happens when I don’t have coffee or Ryan to remind me of what’s really going on in the outside world. Earth to Jenny!! Ah well, we made it through customs and directly to our gate. We chilled for a bit then hopped on the plane to Brisbane. It’s only an hour flight or so. With only a short layover, we didn’t have too much time to spare. We went through International Security again and had to get all checked in. Karen and I walked up to the desk assuming everything would be quite fine without paperwork. The lady goes, “ Ello ladies, just checking in?”

“Well, yes ma’am”.

“Do you have your tickets/ itinerary and did you check any bags in this afternoon?”

“Yes, we have bags checked and no itinerary”.

“Do you have anything?”

“Haha, ummm no not really. We just know we’re flying Air New Zealand and our flight is… soon? Help?”

“So you don’t have baggage tickets?”

“Nope. The lady in Townsville never gave them to us because she said we didn’t need them and our bags would be directly transferred to the next plane”.

“WRONG”.

This went on for a solid fifteen minutes with the helpful lady checking us in. I guess we were only giving her information she asked for. Not really helping out too much to hurry up the process now that I think of it. Sorry lady, but just put me on that god damn plane. We’re just backpackers! No, we’re not taking your precious soil or goodies from Aussie to New Zealand. In the end, she was very helpful and informative towards us. We ended up with our itineraries and arrived at our gate. Our flight was pushed back about 30 minutes, but that’s alright! Everyone at the gate looks like a hobbit I thought to myself. Seriously. I found it quite comical. Once we got on the plane, we were shortly accompanied by a video of Richard Simmons on our personal T.V jazzersizing about safety on the plane. HAHA, google it. We would never have anything like that in the states. Everything has to have a strict regimen and serious, uptight outlook. Booooring. I slowly became more relaxed and de-stressed once I settled in. Thank you Gene Simmons. We made it! Woo!

 Both, north and south Islands of New Zealand are the size of Colorado, meaning that theirs only a population of 4 million spread amongst the two. Just to put that into comparison, the state of New York has a population of 50 million. Mind blowing I tell ya. It will feel like no one is here. We will feel the comfort from mountains, snow caps and breathtaking views over the span of the next 18 days rather than people. I’m going from one beautiful country to the next. What more could a girl ask for? Tea and crumpets? Nope, we already had that along with chicken cordon bleu. Geez, classy little plane we’re on here! I could never complain about anything over here. I’ve only heard wonderful things about this country of absolute beauty. I can’t wait to explore. Tomorrow we have to take a train from Christchurch to Greymouth. It’s about a four hour train ride. I’ll probably be blogging some more about how our night goes. Not too worried about it though, someone will help us out. We only need a few hours rest until we’re off again anyway. Our train leaves at 8:15a.m so we’ll try to get there around 7:30-7:45a.m. That’s what we aim for. Hopefully we’re not too out of it in the morning like we were today. As long as we make it to the train station, we’ll be all set. Fingers crossed!

I’m seriously so excited for this trip. I never thought I’d be able to go to New Zealand. What thrilling experience I have ahead of me for the month of April. What a way to start my new year being 21. I have no regrets and I truly think this is going to be one of the best years of my life. I do get homesick here and there, but I keep telling myself that I’ll be back in two months to spend a long summer with Ryan. I can’t wait for that. We’re both really looking forward to it! As for now, I have a lot of the outside world to explore and it’s all just sitting in the palms of my hands. I look forward to waking up for early morning jogs around the windy mountains. I want to feel the pavement beneath my Nike’s as I gaze upon this bright green, healthy country. What a feeling. Wish me luck tonight, I’ll need it.