New Zealand trip

Arrived in Sydney late on Wednesday. Looks like i'll be here until Monday, when I'll make my way up the east coast to Byron Bay and Brisbane where I'll meet up with Stuart, a friend from Wellington.

Here's the predictable Sydney tourist picture.

Annd I'm back in Christchurch. After about 2 weeks doing a loop around the South Island I find myself back in the city for one more night. A quick rundown of my past 2 weeks:


Monday Morning (June 5) I jumped on a bus from Christchurch to a small town on the west coast called Barrytown. Barrytown was where I was supposed to meet up with Stray, the bus company i'd decided to do the South Island tour with. The town only had 5 houses and a hostel (that was completely empty including staff when I arrived). Since I found myself alone, I decided to read on the (cold) beach and check out the sunset. After it set I returned to the hostel to check in.

The (only) reason Stray stops in Barrytown is to meet up with this old guy who teaches you to make knives from scratch. Unfortunately on Tuesday, the day I was there, the place was closed. With knife dude not making knives and no bus leaving till the next day, I decided to do a hike up a mountain behind the hostel. By two i still hadn't made it to the top of the thing and had no clue how much farther it would be so I begrudgingly gave up and started the long trek back to the hostel completely starved. (no grocery store in Barrytown). Luckily the hostel had a bar, and the bar made a mean cheeseburger. That dinner may have been the best of my trip.

Wednesday was my first day on the Stray bus. There were only 5 of us on the bus and we were all about the same age, so it was really easy to get to know everyone. After a quick stop at pancake rocks, we traveled down the west coast to the Franz Joseph glacier, a growing glacier that's surrounded by a rainforest. I signed up to do a day walk up the thing on Thursday. Our guide on the hike actually carved out our steps the entire way with a pick axe - it was pretty amazing - and for some reason I was more tired at the end of the day than he was.







Friday we headed off to Queenstown, a town created to suck the money out of you. It was there that, as seen in my last entry, I did the Nevis Bungy, a 134 meter jump off a cable car. I'd decided to stay in Queenstown for a week, which knowing its reputation for making you bleed money, probably wasn't the wisest plan. I ended up crashing at my friend Maureen's house after 3 days to try to save money and it kind of worked... She lived far enough from town that I wasn't tempted to eat out and I was saving on accommodation as well. Their house also had an awesome view (below).



After a week, I jumped back on the 7am Stray bus to see the Milford Sound, a sure-fire highlight of the trip that everyone raves about. The boat ride ended up being incredibly wet and foggy, which is apparently pretty normal in that area – one of the rainiest in New Zealand. Unfortunately, due to the rain and fog, most of my pictures didn't come out that great. Here's one to give an idea of the sound.



Saturday, after a night in Te Anu, we headed farther south to Invercargill, a freezing and, yes, rainy place (soo much rain in the south) where you catch the ferry to Stewart Island, one of the only places to see kiwi birds in their natural habitat and one of the least inhabited places in NZ. Unfortunately the weather wasn’t cooperating, so no one wanted to go to Stewart Island since we might not make it back. That night we just stayed in the hostel and didn’t really do too much.

The next day we headed to Dunedin, on the east coast of the South Island. The weather, again, was pretty horrible and closed a few roads so we had to skip the Catlins wilderness area, which is supposed to be pretty awesome. Since we skipped the Catlins, we got to Dunedin early and had the afternoon to kill. The Speights brewery tour was the perfect way to kill the afternoon... Free tastes at the end too!

Woke up early Monday morning and after a quick stop at the steepest street in the world, headed up the east coast back to Christchurch. Obviously a lot of scenery on the whole trip as well. Below are some pictures of pictures taken along the route.









Tomorrow I'm off to Sydney. Just over two weeks til I return home.

Playlist:

Fly My Pretties - Quiet Girl
Red Hot Chili Peppers - Slow Cheetah
Ted Leo and the Pharmasists - Under the Hedge
A Tribe Called Quest - Verses From The Abstract
Hellen Stellar - This Time Around
Ryan Adams - If I Am A Stranger

445ft. I couldn't comprehend the height till I actually had to jump.

Last night, my last night in Wellington, was 80's night Indigo, and that's the bar we decided to patronize, which worried me at first. Never a huge fan of the 80's I was skeptical of the fun that everyone insisted I'd have.

I've never seen a DJ so enveloped in the music he was playing. Besides dancing on his own he'd throw up a touchdown sign at key points in the song, and dizzy himself with some vicious head banging. I would have been entertained even without the music. Luckily, he mixed in some U2, Talking Heads and Pixies with the standard cheesy 80's fare. I managed to survive the night.

Anyway, I write this from Christchurch, which i flew into this afternoon and where I start my South Island circuit from tomorrow (Monday). I'll be leaving at 7:15am for the west coast and end up back in Christchurch two and a half weeks from now for my flight to Australia.

Playlist:

Metric - Hustle Rose
Broken Social Scene - 7/4 (Shoreline)
Meredith Bragg and the Terminals - Carolina
Pixies - Hey
Nightmare's on Wax - The Sweetest
Patty Griffen - Florida