We woke up early Saturday morning and took a shuttle to the airport for our 6:30 flight to Christchurch. We booked a rental car in advance in preparation for our road trip around the south island so once we landed we took a quick shuttle from the airport to the rental place and picked up the ‘Silver Bullet II’. Since it was still fairly early on a weekend not a lot was open. We grabbed breakfast at the first café we found.
Interesting New Zealand Fact #1: Businesses open late and close early.
This has been one of the things I’ve had to get used to. Maybe it’s because I live in a college town but I’ve generally found that most stores – the grocery store, coffee shops, gas stations, etc – are open whenever I need to go to them. Never make such an assumption in New Zealand. More on this later...After breakfast we spent the day walking around the city checking out the sites: the cathedral, downtown architecture, sidewalk market, various shops, and the Bridge of Remembrance (a WWI memorial) and enjoyed the first day of break by taking tons of pictures. Towards the end of the afternoon we decided to head to Sumner Beach to watch the sunset. We played in the sand, climbed the rocks, collected seashells/driftwood, and saw a beach wedding! I don’t think I will ever get tired of visiting New Zealand beaches. We had dinner at a little café by the beach and then headed back to Christchurch where we were staying in a backpacker’s hostel for the night.
Interesting New Zealand Fact #2: At backpacker’s hostels, everyone is your best friend. Seriously. People are not afraid to walk around topless, ask you for money, or invite you to dance on the tables.
I was a little nervous about staying in a backpacker’s hostel, mainly because I had no idea what to expect. For those of you not familiar with hostels I’ll just give you a quick rundown: you pay approximately $30 for a bunk bed (which, yes Karalyn, you have to make yourself!!) and use of common bathroom/dining/lounge/laundry areas. Basically, it’s just like summer camp.
We started out early again Sunday morning to make the six hour drive to Queenstown. Christina and I shared driving duty for the whole trip and are now experts at driving on the left side of the road. We made the most of our time in the car with ‘get to know you’ games, ‘blasts from the past’ courtesy of our ipods (Spice Girls anyone?), and the occasional Chinese fire drill and stops in small towns along the way when we needed to stretch our legs.
We got to Queenstown Sunday night, unloaded our stuff at the hostel, walked around town, took some pictures, and got dinner. Queenstown is very touristy but it’s so beautiful. We kept joking that the scenery in our pictures looked like fake backdrops because it was that picturesque. Pine trees, snow covered mountains, and blue lakes everywhere.
Monday was D-Day. Aka, the day Karalyn and I paid someone money to strap bungy cords to our feet and let us jump off a bridge.
Interesting New Zealand Fact #3: The Kawarau Bridge is the first commercial bungy jump site in the world.
It was a very surreal experience. That first second your feet leave the platform is terrifying but the feeling of flying through the air is so cool. I loved it. I would do it again in a heartbeat. And the view from the Kawarau Bridge was amazing; I think that was part of the reason I liked it so much.
We spent the rest of the day in Queenstown and later that night went to a place called Minus 5 which is a bar made entirely out of ice. The chairs, sculptures, walls, glasses. All ice. It was literally minus five degrees (Celsius) and they provide you with a big, floor-length jacket, mittens, and boots to keep you (semi) warm!
Tuesday marked the beginning of the ‘outdoorsy’ portion of our trip. We drove a few hours to Fiordland National Park where we planned to do a three hour hike to Lake Marian.
Interesting New Zealand Fact #4: Apparently there are no actual hiking paths in New Zealand, instead, just little arrows that show you which way to climb over the rocks and through the trees.
There was an avalanche in the area not too long ago which flooded the rivers and, as a result, our hike was a bit more intense than we anticipated. At times, we were literally climbing up a downhill river. I have a huge bruise on my side that is turning a nice shade of green (which, according to Christina, means it’s healing) to prove it. After an exhausting day hiking we ate dinner (at the only place to eat within a two hour radius) and spent the night at the Milford Lodge (the only place to stay within a two hour radius).
The place we were staying at offered great deals on cruises through Milford Sound (which was nominated for 7 wonders of the world) so we booked a cheap, two-hour cruise for Wednesday morning. It was a little rainy but the fog made for great scenery; it reminded me of those suspenseful scenes in movies when you can just see the islands/cliffs behind the fog. We saw tons of waterfalls, towering cliffs, a rainbow, seals, and even dolphins!
After Milford Sound we hopped back in the car for another long drive to Franz Josef where we were doing a glacier hike the next morning. Franz Josef is only about 200 miles from Milford Sound but there is only one road from Milford Sound and it goes in a big loop up to Franz Josef so it’s about an 8 hour drive. Let me just stop right here and tell you a few reasons why the roads in New Zealand are kind of crazy.
1. There is basically just one road (one lane each way) from one place to the next on the entire south island.
2. The one road almost never goes straight to where you want to go but winds around a mountain and/or lake.
3. Most of these roads are named highway 6 or some variation of that. These include 6a and 6b.
4. There is an insane amount of roadkill.
5. It gets dark around 5:30 and there are no lights on the side of the road.
Back to the trip: The first half of the drive to Franz Josef went pretty quickly and we stopped in Queenstown on our way through to grab an early dinner at Fergburger, which has the self-proclaimed best burger in New Zealand and I’m pretty sure it was the best burger I’ve ever eaten. It makes me hungry just thinking about it. After our quick lunch Christina took over driving duty and we were back on the road to Franz Josef. The drive was going well; we had our gas stops planned out and were pretty sure we’d be able to make it to the hostel before it got too late. We pulled into a town called Haast at 7:53pm for our scheduled gas stop (our last fill-up before Franz Josef) but couldn’t seem to find the gas station. I ran into the local supermarket to ask for directions and was informed that there was a gas station in town, but it had already closed for the night and there was no way we would be able to make it to Franz Josef without filling up first so we had better plan on just staying the night in Haast. None of us were very excited about this option because we had already booked our hostel in Franz Josef and scheduled a glacier hike for 8:45 the next morning, which we would miss unless we got there tonight. About this time the rain started to pick up and we all got back in the car to talk it over. Remembering that the rental car came with roadside assistance we decided to give them a call and see if they could help us out. We all thought this was a great idea and pulled out our cell phones, only to discover that there was no cell service in Haast. Let’s recap: Running out of gas in a deserted town? Check. Dark and rainy? Check. No cell service? Check. Pushy locals who are trying to convince you to stay at their establishments? Check. It was about this time that Christina mentioned 'horror movie' and I was beginning to wonder which of us would get killed-off first. We decided to run back into the supermarket to see if they had a phone we could use. After getting disconnected multiple times we finally got through, only to be put on hold, at which point the owners of the supermarket informed us that they were closing for the night and we would have to go. Seriously?
Luckily, there was a payphone around the block and we finally got through to the roadside assistance service. They called the gas station in Haast, which refused to open up, but thankfully there was a gas station in the next town that agreed to open for small fee. We were finally back on the road and, after an exhausting day, we pulled up to the hostel around 11, showered, and went to bed.
On Thursday we did a glacier hike, which ended up lasting for about five hours. It was probably the most exhausting part of the trip but it was a great experience. I have never done anything like that before. It was a guided hike and they provided us with jackets, mittens, boots, and crampons (spikes for walking on ice). We squeezed through tight crevices (I felt like I was in an ice cube) and climbed up and down the glacier, which turned out to be much bigger than it looked from the distance. Overall it was another wonderful, tiring day in New Zealand. We grabbed lunch in town to get some energy back and then headed to Christchurch for our flight back to Wellington the next morning.
Quotes from the trip:
“What?! I have to make my own bed?” –Karalyn
“Don’t worry. I’m an expert at driving on the left side of the road at night in terrible weather.” - Christina
P.S. I just posted a few pictures here, there are tons more on facebook. If you don't have facebook or want me to email them to you just let me know!
