New Zealand: The End of the Trilogy

One of the rivers we checked out as we left Milford Sound. . .it had a sign that said "Maximum Weight = 5 people". . .eek!

A waterfall we found after a 10 minute hike.


Being silly/bored in the van. . .sorry it's upside down!

A rainbow appeared as we were kayaking once the rain stopped.

A view of the sound from my kayak.

After the bungy jump we were all on an adrenaline high, but we figured it was best to get on the road asap. The boys, of course, had to make one last stop at Fergburger and then we got on our way. Our drive to Milford Sound was going to be long. . .but I managed to convince the boys to let me drive. So for the first 2 hours of the trip I was in control of our Vanette. The boys all claim that I was absolutely terrible and was practically off the road most of the time. I still firmly believe that they are lying to me and that I actually was a very good driver (I let you decide who you think is telling the truth).

We were told that the last two hours of the drive would be pretty slow and difficult, so I opted for a passenger seat and let Nick take over the wheel. It started to get dark out and it was raining as we drove (we were in a rainforest) but we finally made it to our hostel around 8 pm. The hostel was pretty creepy because it was surrounded by woods, it was raining and storming outside, and it was separated from all other civilization. Even the boys admitted to being a little creeped out. It actually turned out to be a pretty descent hostel with nice rooms and toilets, but it also felt eerily like the setting of a horror movie.

We cooked ourselves dinner again. . .this time we made tacos and then we had a pretty quiet night. I had been trying to convince the guys to play Farkel (a dice game) with me for the entire trip. They finally caved (probably because of the lack of things to do in Milford: population 100) and we played one game. None of them would admit that they actually enjoyed it though and one or two of them insisted it was the worst game they'd ever played. . .typical boys.

The next morning we were up early again in order to make it to our kayak tour. It was pouring rain outside and so we all prepared for another wet day. Our tour guide informed us that rainy days are the best days to be out on the Sound. Once we got out on the water we found out he was absolutely right. We were in a group of 10 people and we all were placed in 2 person kayaks. Justin and I were paired up and I took the front and left him in charge of steering in the back. When we got out on the Sound we were surrounded by huge mountains jutting directly out of the ocean with absolutely no beach. There were tons and tons of waterfalls streaming down the sides of the mountains. We saw one waterfall which our guide told us was 3 times taller than Niagra Falls! We kayaked around for about 4 hours and during the trip we came across a lot of seals relaxing on the rocks. Our guide informed us that these were the young bachelors who weren't old enough to go out fishing yet. He also told us that the last scene of the LOTR was actually taped where we had been kayaking. . .so if you're wondering what it looked like, check out the movie!

The kayaking was amazing, but Justin and I were constantly behind the rest of the group. For some reason we ended up being the slowest kayak, but we got over that quickly and just enjoyed ourselves. The rain stopped early into the trip which made everything much more pleasant. Our guide said we were very lucky because most of the waterfalls stop after just one hour with no rain. It worked out perfectly for us because it rained enough for the waterfalls to be plentiful, but then it stopped so we could just enjoy the ride.

After kayaking we were once again sopping wet and we headed straight for the showers. We got in the car and decided that we wanted to head back to Queenstown again. There is a two-hour stretch of highway between Milford Sound and a slightly larger town called Te Anau which is absolutely beautiful. We stopped every 20 minutes or so to do short little hikes and take pictures of glaciers and water falls and rivers.

Eventually we made it back to Queenstown, found a hostel and cooked ourselves a delicious meal of grilled cheese sandwiches and tomato soup. We checked out the town for the rest of the night. We tried our hands at gambling and Nick actually ended up winning $50 on blackjack. I just stuck to the slots and lost a whole $4 before I decided that I'm just not lucky enough to gamble.

The next morning, after breakfast and a walk around town, we got in the car and headed toward Dunedin, a town on the east coast of NZ. It was a long drive, but we wanted to get there in time to do a penguin tour. Dunedin is well-known for it's exotic wildlife with yellow-eyed penguins, blud penguins, seals, and a lot of birds. We arrived in Dunedin at 4:45, just in time to take the last yellow-eyed penguin tour. They drove us out to a beach where a colony of around 60 penguins live. We were informed that these penguins are endangered and that we had to walk through a series of tunnels and hide-aways in order to stay hidden. We were able to see a few penguins walking up the beach returning from a day of fishing and we saw a few others just hanging out around the beach. It was fun to see penguins in their actual habitat as opposed to just at a zoo.

We had trouble finding a hostel again that night (you'd think we would have learned by now that we should book early) and were forced to put three of us in one room and two in another. Tim, Justin and I were in a four-person room with a guy named James. He was a thirty-five year old New Zealander who was perfectly nice, but a little. . .um. . .interesting. He told us almost immediately that he was trying to get on the NZ version of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? He therefore quizzed us all about where we were from in the US, the capitals of our states, and any other interesting facts that could be used as a question on the show. He chatted to us for quite awhile before we were finally able to sneak away.

We were all starving, so we began searching frantically for a restaurant. We ended up finding a little hole-in-the-wall Japanese restaurant and had some delicious food. We were all so exhausted from our busy week that we just went straight to bed. The next morning we got up and ate breakfast at a little cafe called. . .drum roll please. . .the Excelsior Cafe! It reminded me of home and made me smile. We then drove our Vanette to the steepest street in the world (Baldwin Street) and Ben insisted that we try to drive up it. I was a little skeptical about Vanna White's ability to make it up the street (it was really, really steep), but he was sure that she would make it. Much to my surprise she made it up just fine and we survived the drive back down it also.

It was then time to hit the road and get back to Christchurch. We had to return Vanna White by 5 pm that day, so we got back to the city, returned the van and then found ourselves some dinner. We went to a Texas-inspired restaurant with huge servings of ribs and burgers and fries. The food was wonderful (but then again anything tastes wonderful when you have been living off of pb & j for a week) and we were all pretty content after our meal.

Justin and I were flying out at 6:30 am on Sunday and decided that it would be easiest to just stay up the whole night rather than sleeping for just a few hours. So, the five of us stayed out quite late, but the other three guys decided to go to bed because they had later flights. Justin and I just hung out in the lounge of the hostel watching movies and drinking coffee. By the time we got to the airport we were both pretty tired, but we had to wait to get through customs and security before we could sleep. We were also informed that you have to pay $25 to leave the country. We were a little outraged, but didn't have much of a choice.

We finally got on the plane around 6:20 and promptly fell asleep (neither of us actually remember taking off) and slept for a good two hours. We arrived in Sydney at 8 am (there's a time difference) and we quickly collected our baggage and jumped on the bus to take us back to Wollongong. We made it home around 10:30 and promptly went to the dining hall to get some breakfast. I had every intention of staying awake for most of the afternoon to do some much overdue homework, but after about 10 minutes of studying I fell asleep and didn't wake up for about 3 hours.

All in all it was an absolutely amazing trip and I am seriously considering living in New Zealand for half a year after I graduate. But we'll have to see what happens. . .