Kia Ora!
I am writing to you from beautiful NEW ZEALAND! It’s absolutely incredible here. Honestly, if this is where my exchange had been to, I may never have come home. J There are so many mountains and it is just beautiful. Almost feels like home! But there are more sheep here than there are in Colorado—a lot more sheep. Though, not as many sheep as I had been expecting. More cows. Maybe I’m just in the wrong area...hmm. So, since I have a lot to write about, I’m breaking this into two different sections: one I’m posting now, and another that I’m posting in a few days. Then there will be a final NZ one and probably one USA one once I get home so three/four more posts? Almost done! Weird.
So, here is a list of Things Smart People Do When Travelling:
1. Make Bookings (especially for accommodation)
2. Have Maps (cities you don’t know can be confusing)
3. Know the Weather or Season of the Place they’ll be Visiting and Bring the Right Clothes (In June, it’s winter in New Zealand…btw)
4. Don’t hike Steep Streets after the Rain (they’re slick!)
5. Read Signs fully (especially if there is a time element involved)
These are all things I failed to do in some way, shape, or form. However, none of them have led to disaster, so it’s all just funny now. You’ll see why as you read. (They may be in part 2).
So my last blog was posted literally from the airplane leaving Sydney. We were waiting for a connecting flight with 10 passengers, so we were just waiting and I decided to post! Yay for portable modems. Due to the ash cloud, Qantas has chosen not to fly to NZ at all, however, Air New Zealand is still flying, just lower and slower, which means that my flight got in at 1:30AM rather than 11:30PM. Oh well, I made it, right?! Now, though, I’ve been here for a week and I’m sitting on the InterIslander Ferry to the North Island. What fun!
My first night in New Zealand I had a nice night in jail…Just kidding! Well, kind of. J I stayed in a hostel called “Jailhouse Accommodation.” It’s a refurbished jail (duh), but they have a lot of fun with it—such as since I was getting in so late, they sent me directions called “How to Break Into Jail,” the directions that they also sent me to show my cab driver (if I took a cab) were in a document called “Go to Jail,” their travel desk had some sign about “Release for Good Behavior,” and checkout procedures were posted as “Escaping from Jail.” Really, very silly. But excellent hostel. I definitely recommend it if you’re in Christchurch. Check out this video to get an idea:
I arrived in Christchurch. Christchurch is a kind of strange place to be at the moment. There’s definitely still sadness there from the earthquake, but there’s also a clear ambition to rebuild and keep moving forward, which I admire and respect a lot. There are a lot of places that still have caution tape or cones blocking off an area, but there has already been work done to begin restoring the city. There is also the “red zone,” which is where the ground is still too faulty and the buildings are too dangerous for people to be near, much less in, and it’s totally fenced off. It’s kind of strange flying in right now, especially at night, because, as with most big cities, you fly in over the lights, but to the left (well, from my seat) there is a large black area that is otherwise surrounded by lights. The man next to me told me that was the “red zone.” The New Zealand Government has just offered to buy over 5000 homes that have been damaged too severely to be repaired at pre-damage values from red zone residents to allow them to relocate without huge debt. Not sure what that will do to the NZ government.
Because of this, I didn’t stay long in Christchurch. Transportation is still kind of shaky and a lot of what people go to see in Christchurch is in the red zone, so it’s off limits at the moment. However, I do want to go back to Christchurch in the future. Even though I was only there for a little while, the people were all really friendly and I really enjoyed the time I was there. I can’t wait to see it when they’ve rebuilt.
I went back to the airport to claim my rental car. I have a really cute little blue car. I’ve named her Suzie. We’re going to be good friends! So, Suzie and I headed off from Christchurch. There were two ways to get to where I was headed for the night—one through the mountains and one next to the shoreline. Any guesses as to which I chose? That’s right, mountains won, hands down. Really, do you honestly think that there was any competition? I’ve been mountain sick! Lol. The road I took went through Methven, which, for my fellow LOTR fans, I found out from a tourist information kiosk played home to Edoras in the films. Fun fact! There was a tour, but I didn’t have the time or money to do it. I’m putting it on the list for my next New Zealand escapade.
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| From Suzie's Mirror |
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| Edoras is somewhere in there! |
Driving in New Zealand is kind of crazy. Aside from the fact that I’m on the opposite side of the road than what I’m used to; there are some other major differences. Speed limits are posted at the edges of towns and then not again until you reach the next town. You just kind of have to assume the speed limit is still 100KM an hour until you see another sign. It’s a bit scary. There are really narrow roads with lots of twists and turns (allow me to emphasize, LOTS of twists and turns) and most roads are only 2 lanes. Except for bridges. You’re lucky if those are 2 lanes…most of them are 1 lane, which makes them interesting to drive across—talk about nerve wracking! And these are the major state HIGHWAYS I’m talking about! But it’s also super fun to drive here. The scenery surrounding you is AMAZING and the roads are really well-kept, so they’re great to drive on. And after not really driving for 6 months, I’m loving having wheels under me again. I think my favorite part of driving, though, is when I’m stopped for sheep crossing. It’s happened twice now where I’ve just had to stop in the middle of the highway and let the farmer and his/her sheep run around my car before I keep on my way. It’s pretty fun.
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| New Zealand traffic is BAAA-d (sorry, couldn't help myself!) |
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| One-Way Bridge |
My final goal for that day was Lake Tekapo. Lake Tekapo was a fun little town with a permanent population of just under 400. It’s on the edge of a beautiful lake and in one of the darkest sky regions of New Zealand (it was cloudy the night I was there, but one of the most high powered telescopes in the southern hemisphere is located here and is apparently amazing. Next time, eh?). It’s totally surrounded by mountains, so there are tons of fun walking trails ranging in distance from 2km to 28km. I didn’t have time to do anything longer than the 2km hike, but it was lovely. I would have definitely enjoyed a longer hike, if I had the time and the right gear. :)
Interesting thing of being in a VERY southern country that is also VERY mountainous: winter can be really cold here. You’d think that I would have considered that, but you would be wrong. Lol. I have minimal warm clothes with me (it was 105 when I arrived in Australia! Who would plan to be cold when facing that?!) and will probably look the same in most of my photos (I’m changing clothes, my jacket is just permanently attached to my body right now!), but I’m still enjoying it. This is also Lesson 3—so if anyone decides to come to New Zealand in winter, don’t pack for an American summer! But still, it’s pretty great. I’m not loving that the sun doesn’t rise until almost 8:30, though. It’s just so hard to get moving if the sun’s not up! But the area is absolutely beautiful. Lake Tekapo is a small town in the middle of a pine forest, so it’s amazing and just felt like Colorado, but still different—definitely New Zealand.
The most striking thing to me, though, was the color of the lake. In all honesty, the color of ALL of the water here has been incredible. It’s really rich—almost teal. It’s beautiful. Rivers, lakes, streams, everything! I honestly wouldn’t believe the color if I didn’t see it for myself. WOW! I’ve taken a huge number of water shots since arriving. More will most likely follow.
From Lake Tekapo, I went back east to State Highway 1 and headed south. One of the random stop-offs I made to stretch and take a break from the road was at the Moeraki Boulders. These are huge, naturally round boulders just kind of hanging out on this stretch of beach. There is not really any good information on them I can find, but they sounded cool and provided an excellent chance to stretch my legs, get some fresh air, and walk around. Plus, they’re just really cool looking.
Check out: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moeraki_Boulders for more info if you’re interested!
From there, I headed straight down to Dunedin. Dunedin is known for being the most Scottish of any New Zealand city. Having never been to Scotland, I cannot comment on this either way except to say that I saw men (yes, plural) wearing kilts. Enough said.
Fact: driving in new cities on your own is really kind of scary. Especially if you’re on the opposite side of the road. But really, all cities have their own “city rules” that you only know if you live there or drive there often. I drove into Dunedin with no real idea of where I was going or where I was staying, I just went. Lol. Probably not one of my better decisions (aka, Lesson 1). I will also add to this that I got horribly lost in Dunedin (aka Lesson 2) and was honked at a few times. However, I did not go the wrong way on any one-way streets. So I have that going for me. Fortunately, I found a hostel and moved in before heading off to my selected adventure for the day: Speight’s Brewery Tour.
Speight’s is the New Zealand beer of choice. Kind of like Budweiser or Coors is for the US. The difference is that Speight’s is good. I mean it’s really good. So I went on the brewery tour and met three girls who work in Vail at the resort! Small world! The tour was really fun and ended, of course, with a tasting room. And learning to pull beer at the turf club paid off—I already knew how and didn’t need a lesson on the tap! The cider was really good and so was the pilsner, the three star gold medal ale was pretty good, too, but the darker ones I was not such a fan of. I did also have my first black and tan, though, which was pretty good. Definitely improved the taste or the darker beer, at least in my opinion. Apparently the only state you can buy Speight’s in is Hawai’i. That’s a bit sad. But then again, I guess that makes it more special for New Zealand.
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| Speight's--Pride of the South |
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| And it's delicious! |
After that, I went back to the hostel and cooked dinner where I met two more Americans, making 5 in one day. That's more than I met pretty much my entire time in Australia. They’re here on working holiday and are employed by one of the ski resorts, but since there is no snow right now, they’re just on standby until the snow falls. Really nice people, though. Hope the snow comes soon for them!
The next morning, I went to Cadbury World to go on the Chocolate Factory Tour. Due again to my poor planning, I didn’t make a reservation and therefore couldn’t get on a tour until 11:30—school tours, dang it. So, having an hour and a half to kill, I decided I would go do the one other thing I really wanted to see in Dunedin: Baldwin Street.
Baldwin Street is the steepest residential street in the world (according to Wikipedia, this could be contended, but you don’t tell any Kiwi that! Plus, it’s Wikipedia, it’s the crazy old cat lady of the Internet—somewhat useful, but also kind of out there and “what?” about conspiracy theories…and cats). It’s fairly ridiculous. No one in their right mind would really want to drive it, I don’t think. It may kill your car. And as for running it…haha. But people do! I hiked up it and I could definitely feel it. It had also just rained that morning, so it was pretty slick and kind of dumb to hike in my traction-less shoes, but I didn’t fall! (This was Lesson 4). Kind of like the meadow of Eagle Peak, but without being able to cut across back and fourth. I counted steps on the way back down: 273. On a street that is probably less than 2 blocks long. New Zealanders are insane: but in the best possible way.
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| I'm a champ! |
So, after that, you can’t feel bad about going to a chocolate factory! We all got to wear those oh so attractive hair nets and had to remove all jewelry (though I’m not totally sure why, we didn’t touch anything!) before going in. We went through a lot of the factory and they even have a chocolate waterfall! It’s pretty cool. Apparently, the original Willy Wonka movie (not the Johnny Depp one that makes you think you may have taken the wrong medication) used Cadbury products for most of the chocolate and candy. Who knew?! So it kind of was like visiting Willy Wonka’s factory! No oompa loompas, though. Plus, you get lots of free chocolate and samples. I was a big fan of the warm, liquid chocolate sample we got. Very delicious. We weren’t allowed to take cameras in, so all of my photos are outside the factory, but it was really cool to see.
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| Inside the cocoa beans |
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| Outside the cocoa beans |
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| I make this look GOOD! |
After that, I got back together with Suzie after an extended absence and we headed off towards Queenstown. Again, it was an absolutely beautiful drive. But also proving that “Mountain Pass=Beautiful” in the daytime and “Mountain Pass=SKETCHY” at night holds true in most countries. Anyone who has driven a narrow mountain pass anywhere in the world (yes, this includes Colorado) knows what I’m talking about. It’s scary! I was fortunate to not have to drive the pass I was on at night, but I was thinking, “If I had left 1 hour later, this could be pretty terrifying right now,” for a lot of the trip.
So, that’s all for this time! Next time, Queenstown and the West Coast! Hope everyone is doing well! Please keep RTLC in your prayers. They’re still evacuated, even though the fire isn’t too close anymore. Safety first, I understand, but it's hard to not be on site.
Lots of love,
Leah.
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