South Island Pictures: Lake Tekapo, Mount Cook, Queenstown, and Milford Sound

This was a gorgeous day for viewing Lake Tekapo. On a perfect day, the mountains are reflected in the lake, but the water was moving too much for that on this day. Mount Cook is in the background.


The Church of the Good Shepherd is on the bank of Lake Tekapo and has a fantastic view behind the alter.

Mount Cook is all its glory ... actually, to be honest, Mount Cook is just out of sight of this picture, just to the right of the frame. The entire view was incredible, though.

This was a view I saw often during the trip. I don't think it would be possible to deny that me and my mom were tourists!

This is Queenstown early in the morning when we left for Milford Sound. There was a little more light than this, but I fiddled with the setting on my camera and changed it around so the blues were highlighted. I like this picture better than the automatic ones we took, although my mom disagrees with me.

Mom strategically placed me in this photo so that it seems as if the waterfall behind me is bouncing off of my head. Way to be, Mom.

The beginning of Milford Sound. It cleared up as we sailed out to sea, but the misty clouds actually made for a great landscape.

And, of course, me on the Pride of Milford cruising the sound! [fjord]

Abel Tasman

I know I haven’t gotten the rest of my South Island trip up yet, but that is already in the past, so I wanted to write this up while I remembered it so well.

I took off on Tuesday for a five-day trip around the Abel Tasman area.  I had walked into STA Travel about a month earlier and said to the agent I always use, “I want to go sea kayaking, tramping, and horse trekking somewhere.  Let’s plan a trip!”  I did this trip by myself, and I am happy that I went alone.  It was great to not be responsible or accountable to anyone, to be free to walk the track as fast or as slow as I felt like, and to be able to take random detours without asking anyone if they wanted to go with me.  

On Tuesday I flew to Nelson and then caught a series of busses to Marahau, a settlement on the edge of Abel Tasman National Park.  I arrived in mid-afternoon, so after I dropped my bags in my room, I headed off for a brief walk into the park.  I was struck by how many people I passed coming out.  The Abel Tasman Coastal Track is one of the “Great Walks” of New Zealand, and it is also one of the easiest, so it is popular with hikers and campers.  It is also popular because there are so many ways to do the track.  You can do any combination of tramping, kayaking, and taking a water taxi to see the park in different ways.  I didn’t want to be out there at dusk, so I just headed about an hour in and an hour out.  Abel Tasman is part of Golden Bay, so named for its golden beaches.  The rocks that make up this part of the land are mostly granite and sandstone, so they form the traditional sand colour with very fine beaches.

Wednesday I was booked to do a full-day sea kayaking trip.  This was an amazing day for being on the water.  I really love kayaking; I love being on the water, and paddling through the water, and being able to look out over the horizon and be level with the water.  We had a small group.  It was me, an elderly Canadian couple, and a younger couple from the Netherlands, as well as our official guide and a guide-in-training.  We took a water taxi to Torrent Bay and then got in kayaks there.  I was in a double kayaking with the guide-in-training, a 21 year old girl named Sanne who moved here from the Netherlands about two years ago.  I enjoyed sharing a kayak with her because she talked often and was very friendly and open.  We kayaked around a couple of bays and rocks, including a small island where fur seals liked to hang out in the sun.  There were even a couple playing around in the water as we paddled past.  The sun was shining, the water was a deep green, and there was little wind to impede our kayaks.  The only real swells came from the water taxis as they powered past.

We put in at Mosquito Bay for lunch a little after 1.  Don’t be fooled by the name; I think it was named such so that it would keep everyone else away.  Lunch was included in this little excursion, and you would not believe what a good lunch it was.  We had apples, apple juice, tea, coffee, banana bread, kababs (think pita bread with beef and Turkish salad), chocolate, and more.  These kayaks held so much!  We even had a little gas grill!  Anyways, we hung around for awhile, exploring and eating and enjoying the sunshine.  KP, our half-Maori guide, was waiting for more of the tide to come in before we took off.  The tides in Abel Tasman are amazing.  They go out for a long ways, and when high tide comes in, it forms all kinds of lagoons you would never realize are there.  Case in point: during my explorations, I found a large sandy area around the backside of the bay.  When we left, the tide had come in enough to flood it deep enough to kayak in!

The wind had picked up in the afternoon, so that combined with the water taxis’ wakes made the water a bit choppier.  Turns out this was just what KP had in mind.  We kayaked out to the fur seal island again, but this time we went on the ocean side and all came together, side-by-side, to form a raft shape.  KP pulled out a giant sail, which we held up by the paddles, and we sailed back to Torrent Bay!  It was very relaxing.  I was in the front of my kayak holding on to the front of the one next to me, which of course meant that I was splashed a lot as we cut through the waves.  I got to sit back and enjoy the sunshine and conversation with the other kayakers, though.  

We had a bit of a wait when we got back to Torrent Bay, but that wasn’t too bad as I didn’t have anything else planned for the evening.  The water taxis were remarkably understaffed to handle transporting all the kayakers back to Marahau.  This is getting into the high season for tourists, so the water taxis should have been more prepared.  There were a lot of kayakers, but my guide was really good and always steered us clear of the pack.

That evening was a lazy evening with dinner, a walk on the sand dunes, my book, and chatting with the other backpackers in the hostel.  You can meet some extraordinary people as your travel around.  I finally met someone with that strong north England accent, so north English that it starts to sound almost Irish.  I met several older women who were all travelling alone, even camping alone.  I don’t think I could do that, camp alone.  Let’s be honest, being outside in the dark still creeps me out.

I was leaving the next day for Motueka at 5:30 PM, so I had basically the whole day to explore the park.  The big plan was to take a water taxi up to Torrent  Bay and walk to four hour track back to Marahau, stopping at all the little beaches and cliffs along the way.  I had booked the taxi when I first got to Marahau, so I figured I was all set to go.  I still went, but it wasn’t exactly what I had planned on.  I woke up to rain, and as the morning went on, it started to pour harder and faster.  Needless to say, I was soaked (even with a raincoat) within about 10 minutes of walking the track.  I had decided to cut across Anchorage Bay because it was low tide, but the rain had still started to flood the lagoon.  Also, my jeans just seemed to soak up every drop of moisture I encountered, which was a lot.  There were still some amazing views, and I did enjoy my walk, but the thought “Get me off this bloody trail!” definitely ran through my head once or twice.  I ended up doing the trail in a little over 3 hours.  I wish it hadn’t been raining and I had had a chance to really stop and explore more of it, but there you go.  Of course, my clothes were soaked and I was chilled, so I had to change as soon as I got back to my backpacker’s, but with the constant rain I stayed chilled and a little soaked for the rest of the day.

Motueka was a little bit better.  Let’s be honest, I was glad to leave Marahau when I hopped on the bus.  It had cleared up in Motueka, which made it all enjoyable, and I had a room to myself, which was especially nice.  My backpacker’s was a really good one, but it was fairly far out of town, which meant I needed to track down a ride to go in for dinner.  I caught a ride with two guys heading in to play touch rugby, and then the guy from the office came and picked me up on the way home.  I ate my ‘burger and chups’ in the back living room while catching up on the news (this backpacker’s owners live in a separate section of the hostel).  Then the owners came back, so I talked to them for a little while.  They spent 11 months in ’99-’00 touring around America in a campervan, and we talked about that for awhile.  I also realized that it was Thanksgiving Day, so my Thanksgiving consisted of me walking in the rain and eating a hamburger and fries for dinner.  Yum.

I only stayed in Motueka for the one night and headed off to Collingwood early the next morning.  I was going here to do my horse trekking around the Farewell Spit area.  This was amazing.  I am hard-pressed      to decide which was better, horse trekking or sea kayaking.  Farewell Spit was amazing in that it was practically deserted; none of the hordes of travellers like in Abel Tasman.  The horse trekking was completely awesome.  I love horses, even though I don’t ride too often.  It was me, the guide, and a young couple from Hong Kong.  (Incidentally, the lady was so short she had great difficulty getting on her horse!)  Don’t be confused, this was not just us riding horses around a field or something like that.  We were up on cliffs and running along mountain ridges, sometimes following the trails sheep had cut into the side of the mountains because there was no other way to go.  Farewell Spit is a 26km piece of land that is basically just rising out of the ocean.  We were running the ridges at the beginning of the spit.  It was amazing because it was so remote.  We didn’t see anyone up there, and it didn’t seem like many people came up there, anyway.  We were travelling through sheep country.  The sheep aren’t as scared of the horses, so you can get a lot closer to them than you ever would on foot.  I felt like I was exploring unknown hills in Wales or something like that, but then we would reach a ridge and you could see the sea on both sides.  Sometimes we would find ourselves in deep valleys, and the horses would have to run full-out to get to the top.  It was a great way to spend the better part of the day.

I was driven back into town, so I explored Collingwood a little while.  It is a pleasant settlement.  I really did enjoy its quietness, its small-town simplicity.  I was excited to discover that they had the original Rosy Glow Chocolates, a homemade chocolate company that has a sister store in Nelson (I found out that the store in Nelson is run by the woman’s daughter).  There was a nice beach and some pleasant walkways.  After being so active for four days, I enjoyed a nice sunset overlooking the town with a glass or two of wine.

I had a leisurely time the next morning because my bus didn’t leave until 11 AM, so I hung around the beach reading my book until time to go.  I caught no fewer than three different coaches and transfers back to the Nelson Airport and flew back to the windy, wet, and cold city of Wellington.  Not so good to be back in that kind of ever-changing weather, but lo and behold, I had a surprise waiting for me back home.  Nina had waited for me to come home before going to go see the new Harry Potter movie, so within an hour of arriving home we were heading into town to see the movie.  I enjoyed it so much!  It was legitimately creepy and a bit nerve-racking, and this is from someone who knows exactly what is going to happen!  I am really happy that she waited for me to come home to see it.  We had fun walking down there and then discussing the movie on the way home.  By the time we arrived back, Claudia had come home from her tubing trip, so we all sat down and discussed our trips and watched a movie on TV.  (Meredith is still in China.)  I love having real flatmates again!

South Island Pictures: Christchurch

The Christ Church Cathedral in the Town Square. About two weeks after we were here, Green MP and co-leader Rod Donald's funeral service was held here.


The town square also has a life sized chess board. I wish there were some people in the picture to compare to, but trust me, the pieces are much bigger than your typical table-top set.


After exploring the museum and grabbing some hot tea, we took a stroll through some gardens downtown.


It was springtime while we were in the south island, and all of the flowers and trees were budding. Gorgeous gardens!


This is the most expensive part of Christchurch (I think). It is a beautiful private drive than follows the River Avon for a time, and there are big houses with English and Greek style gardens and private boat docks. You can see that the house here has a private island connected by a bridge. How about that as a chipping green?

Our sightseeing tour took us right up to the top of the closest mountain, so the view behind us is Christchurch and - beyond that - the sea. As an interesting point, this outlook is maintained and orginally erected by a local Rotary club.

This is the infamous Hagglund truck thing that we rode in at the Antarctic Centre. Mom and I were in that back cabin (the one on the left), and there was a camera connection so that the driver in the front part could check on us to make sure we were all still OK and hadn't fallen out or anything.


Me and the penguins! This is one of my favourite pictures from the trip. The Antarctic Centre Museum had cold-weather clothes you could dress up in and had some little scenes for taking pictures. I hate to burst your bubble, but those aren't real penguins, and that isn't real snow.

South Island: Day 4/5/6 (Queenstown, Fox Glacier, Bushman's Centre, Punakaiki)

Day 4 wasn’t too terribly exciting.  It was one of our days of travel.  We left Queenstown early in the morning and arrived in Fox Glacier Township mid- to late-afternoon.  We did have a couple of interesting stops along the way.  We visited the fruit orchard again, and this time we purchased some amazing fruit leather.  We stopped at a random beach, and I took a picture of a really cool tree.  The one big stop was at Bushman’s Travel Centre.  This is the kind of back country place that exists purely as a truck stop.  There is no town; there are only the two buildings and some fenced-in animals to occupy the tourists.  I must also mention the ginormous bug that graces the outer wall of the building that my mother insisted on photographing, although I have no idea why any human would desire to see that bug ever again.  This place also serves possum and has a policy of ‘You catch it, we’ll cook it.’  I understand this includes roadkill.  A very interesting place.

Anyways, we make it through this back country and arrive at our hostel at the Fox Glacier.  This was a really nice hostel.  It was raining and there wasn’t anything to do in town, so after having a really good meal, we borrowed some movies from the front desk and settled in to have a movie night.  (Because of the weather and our lack of transportation, we did the same thing on the next night as well.)  This was an excellent plan because I finally saw Whale Rider, a movie about the Maori culture and how it affects a girl.  It won all kinds of awards and is a very good movie.  We also saw Wag the Dog, which I find hysterical.  It’s a satire on the American government, and everyone should see it as well.

Day 5 was considerably more exciting as it was the day of our trek up the Fox Glacier.  It was still pouring, so we borrowed waterproof boots, pants, and jackets from the company.  My boots didn’t fit correctly, so I ended up wearing three pairs of heavy socks to fill up the empty space.  This was good in the end as it prevented the base layer of socks from getting too wet (those socks being my own).  We piled into a rickety bus that had considerable trouble getting started, and off we went!  There were two guides, a guy (from America) and a girl (from not New Zealand, I don’t remember where).  My mom and I ended up with the girl, Becky.  It was a fairly easy hike up to the glacier, taking only about 45 minutes.  We had to climb over the terminal moraine (the rock debris pushed down the mountain by the glacier), and while that was somewhat difficult, I really enjoyed it because I love climbing around on rocks.  Right before we reached the glacier we stopped to put our crampons on our shoes, and off we went!

I should point out several things here.

First, the Fox Glacier is an amazing geological piece because it is a glacier that is surrounded by rain forest and ends only a few hundred meters from the sea.  This only happens in two other places: the Franz Joseph Glacier (about 30 minutes from the Fox Glacier) and somewhere in Chile or something like that.  It is pretty cool.

Second, I don’t do well on ice.  I grew up in the south, far enough south to where if anything even resembling frozen water falls from the sky or appears on the ground, everything shuts down.  I don’t know how to ski well, I don’t ice skate with any kind of skill, I don’t enjoy walking on ice, and I certainly don’t know how to drive on it.  I would be fine if I didn’t get so nervous because then I wouldn’t tense up, and being tense is what makes ice so dangerous.  But there we have it.  I was seriously outside my comfort zone on the glacier.

My mother, on the other hand, is apparently descended from Eskimos or penguins or something, because she was practically jumping around on the glacier and seriously disrupting my sense of balance.

No, it was not as bad as that.  I really enjoyed hiking up the glacier, and it is cool to be at the highest point and be surrounded by ice and still see the forest beyond the edge.  It was raining the entire time we were hiking up the moraine, but as soon as we got to the ice, the rain let up, and by the time we reached the end of our trek, it had stopped completely.  Of course, as soon as we had our crampons off, it started again and was even worse than before, but at least we were done with the ice.   The trek down was more treacherous than the trek up because all of the rain had made the ice melt faster, so the stairs that had been cut into the ice were all but gone, and we relied on our crampons much more.

When it cleared up that afternoon, I really wanted to go do the tramp around the lake, but we couldn’t because it was too far away to walk, and we didn’t have a separate means of transportation.  We settled for an early dinner and another good movie night before crashing into bed.

Day 6 was our longest day of travel.  We left at something like 8 in the morning and didn’t get to Nelson till about 7:30 at night.  We had a ton of stops during the day, though, so those took up a lot of time.  I have only just realized that we visited the Bushman’s Centre on this day, not Day 4, so transplant everything you read about it on Day 4 to Day 6.

Our major stop on this day, the stop I was most excited about, was the stop at Punakaiki.  This is a little town near some national parks on the coast, and it is famous for its Pancake Rocks.  These are limestone layers that have been eroded away over the years so that it looks like columns of ‘pancakes’ all stacked up on one another.  There are some really cool ‘surge pools’ where the water crashes up during the tidal flow against the walls of the rocks.  It was way cool, and I had been talking about this stop for roughly the entire trip.  I was so happy we finally got to stop there!

Quick [long] Update

I am now officially settled in to my new flat. We've been here for more than a week now, and everything is coming together. Meredith isn't here often because she works such long hours and then goes to the gym, and Nina has class all morning long, so it is often just me and Claudia hanging around. I spent the week finally catching my breath from everything going on and re-organizing my life. I've also been catching up on my movies. Nina worked in a theater for something like 5 years, so she is always ready to catch a movie in town. That's a convienent kind of person for me to share a flat with!

I have also been cooking real food as I am no longer catered, and what an experience. We all know that I am not the best or most enjoyable cook in the world, and my issues are magnified by the fact that I am unfamiliar with our kitchen equipment. (For example, we have now learned that our stove heats up very quickly and gets very hot. We never turn it more than halfway on now!) Don't worry, I am still eating well, not starving, but it is a little intimidating when Nina comes down to cook the equivalent of a 5-course meal and you are having basic chicken and vegetables. No, not that drastic, but she is a great cook. We are also trying to eat together as a flat sometimes. Last Friday night Meredith cooked us all mexican food! It was my first burrito since being in Wellington, and it was great. That is the only kind of food I miss being here - mexican/cuban. Man, what I wouldn't give for a meal from Bridgetown!

That was a good start to the weekend. We all sat around and watched movies together that night because Saturday was our big night. Meredith and I started off with a cocktail party at 5PM. Kay, the president of Meredith's host club, had announced that she was going to have a cocktail party around her place for the Rotarians and their guests, and she nicely extended the invitation to include me. We had a great time. Kay had a wide selection of champagne, wine, spirits, and munchies, and get this - I even tried some shellfish. To be fair, I still don't like the texture, but hey, I tried it again at least. I also got to talk a lot about what I am doing with my education and the Kiwi and American political systems, so much so that I ended up on my soap box about the Supreme Court again and stayed longer than I thought I was going to. Meredith had to remind me that I had plans to meet Claudia and Nina at 7:10!

I was meeting Claudia and Nina at Sandwiches for a drink before we headed out to - get this - a fashion show. Claudia had found a flyer earlier in the week about an up-and-coming New Zealand designers' show that would showcase several new summer lines, and as none of us had ever been to a fashion show before, we decided it would be a great experience. It was really cool, but the host and hostess were a bit too cheesy for my liking. Also, the models were 'real' people, not just stick thin Barbie wannabes. We definately liked seeing what Kiwis were going to be looking for in the summer. Meredith couldn't join us because her social schedule was already too booked; she had not one but two birthday parties to attend that evening.

After the show, the three of us grabbed some quick dinner before heading out to the clubs. We hadn't been out as flatmates, and all of us wanted to go dancing. Meredith was supposed to meet us in town later in the evening after the parties, but we never caught up with her because we were already inside and she didn't feel like waiting in line. Very understandable! Claudia and I ended up dancing mainly at one club that we like a lot, and I kept running into people that I knew there. I love how Wellington is small-town homey like that; usually, people run in about the same circles, so you run into people all over the place! The only sad part about the evening is that I hadn't realized that the All Blacks were playing Ireland in rugby, so I missed the game. Very sad! No worries, though; the All Blacks won.

Sunday brought my second Rotary engagement of the weekend. Paula Smith is the head of the committee that basically brings scholars to New Zealand, and she invited the rest of her committee, all of the scholars, and our counselors out on her boat for an afternoon of sailing and food. Unfortunately, we ended up not being able to go out on the boat, so we went to her house for a nice lunch instead. (New Zealand just sank HMNZS Wellington as a dive attraction off of the coast of Wellington. It was set to sink Saturday, and Paula's husband, a lawyer, was taking clients out on his boat to see the explosion and sinking. High winds prevented the event on Saturday, and when it was moved to Sunday, we lost our chance to go out on the boat ourselves.) This was the first opportunity I have had to meet all of the scholars. Of course, I knew Amy and Meredith, but I also met Chris Petersen (who is leaving sometime in the next couple of months) and Carrie Oelberger (who just arrived about three weeks ago). It was nice to have all of the scholars and counselors in one room to socialize and share stories, not to mention finally meeting some of the members of the committee who are responsible for us getting to Wellington. Paula's house is also beautiful. She has a home on Oriental Parade with big bay windows facing the harbour and city. It was amazing how she opened up her home to all of us for the afternoon.

As fun as the afternoon was, it became more emotional at the end. This was the last time Meredith and I, as well as everyone else, would see Amy in New Zealand (at least for a long time). Her scholarship period was up, and she left today to go back to Kentucky. I know that she has some amazing experiences to take back home with her, and I am sure she is already out there sharing as much as she can. I imagine it will be hard to go home. I will be excited to be home, but it is difficult to really explain everything you have experienced to people who have never been to where you have travelled. I will do my best, armed with an arsenal of memories, pictures, and blog posts, to convey the Kiwi was of life in my speeches and stories. It will be very odd being in Wellington without Amy. She was here when Meredith and I first arrived here. She already knew her way around, she already had a network of contacts, she already knew what was going on. Her information and instant friendship was invaluable in our first few weeks here in New Zealand. I hope that Meredith and I can be the same for the new scholars who are arriving while we are still here.

More flat pictures

I have been trying to add these four pictures to my post from Sunday ever since I put up that post, and the computer gods of this world and the next have thwarted my every attempt. I gave up and decided just to put up another post. Have fun!

Welcome to the world of aluminium. My window is that one on the top in the middle. The building is built into a hill, which is why it looks like the car is tipping over. That is actually my flatmate Claudia’s new (very old) car. She’s a big surfer, so it seats two and has loads of space for her gear. She is going to put a wooden platform in it so she can store her gear on the bottom, sleep in her car, and store her surf board on the underside of the roof.

A proper closet! I have so much storage in this room. There are also the boxes above the desk, which is nice. And look at those drawers in the closet! Really, this is like the Ritz after what I have been living in.

Check out all the space! I have to walk several paces between the sides of the room now. No more being able to touch two opposite walls at the same time.

And another corner of my room. It’s a real bedside table with shelves for books! And of course, I have a nice green duvet cover and blue and green pillows. The pillows are currently more comfortable, but I also think my mind frame that I love this room has a lot to do with that.

New Flat pictures

Ahhh, the joys of an external window. I can never explain to you how excited I was about the external window unless you have lived without one as I have. I don’t even care that it opens out to the construction.

This is the view of the kitchen and front door and half of the living room. It is nice having a dining room table and a real kitchen and a microwave again. A lot of times the flatmates will be eating at the same time, and it is nice to be eating with friends again.

My new furnished living room! Everything you see (minus the Tui poster) came with the flat. I have lounging couches again!

This is the view from our living room window. I don’t typically advocate cutting down trees, but if we lost those on the left, we could see straight down to the harbour, and the view would be perfect. Either way, it is amazing.

South Island: Day 2/3 (Lake Tekapo, Mount Cook, Queenstown, and Milford Sound)

All of our days on this south island trip started early. We kept catching busses at 7AM (towards the end we did catch one as late as 8:30 or 9). The problem with catching busses so early is that we both had to shower, get ready, pack, check out, and walk to wherever we were catching our bus. It really took a lot out of us, having to get up that early every morning. It didn’t help that nothing was open that early for us to get coffee/tea and breakfast. Every time we came across packets of instant coffee, Mom would stash them away in her suitcase for our next stop!

Day 2 had us leaving Christchurch and ending up in Queenstown. This trip took all day because we stopped in so many different locations. Newman’s, the bus company that we used, has a policy that a driver can only drive for so many hours. This translates into a LOT of rest and ‘comfort’ stops. I felt like we were just getting off of the bus every hour! Some of the stops were quite nice, though.

Our first big stop was Lake Tekapo (pronounced teh-ka-po, with the emphasis on ‘teh’). This is a gorgeous lake with incredible views of Mount Cook in the distance. All of the landscape in the south island seemed to be magnified in one way or another. The mountains were huge, being a part of the Southern Alps. The water was clearer and bluer and more dramatic because of the glaciers. Even river beds were more dramatic because they had once been carved out by glaciers. Anyways, so we stop at Lake Tekapo, take lots of pictures, and then wander over to the Church of the Good Shepherd, where we take ever more pictures.

I should mention here that on this day, all of our stops were deluged with Asian tourists. There was a huge double-decker tour bus filled with Asians who were following our same timetable, so they were always at every stop we made. It was nice in that it gave us plenty of people to ask to take pictures of the two of us, but it was annoying because everything was crowded and loud.

The next time we got off of the bus, we were at Mount Cook (or as close as we were going to be getting). My mom and I had lunch reservations in a really flash dining room at the hotel, the Hermitage. One whole wall was giant multi-story windows facing the mountains, Mount Cook in particular. After being on the bus for so long, it was really pleasant to have a real meal and not just a toasted sandwich in some random stop. We hung out here for a good while, wandering around and taking an obscene amount of pictures of the snow-covered mountains. The air was so clear, everything was still and pretty, the weather was even comfortable. It was a good stop.

A couple of random stops later, we ended up in Queenstown. I really liked Queenstown as a city. It is a lot like I imagine Tahoe or Aspen is. (Actually, a delegation from one of those cities – I forget which one – recently visited Queenstown and warned the city council to make sure Queenstown doesn’t end up like those cities: unaffordable for the average Kiwi, a city of rich holiday-ers.) It is set in the mountains on a lake (carved out by glaciers, of course), and it is incredibly picturesque. Great lighting on the street for the evening. Mom and I had a light dinner (wine and bread with dips) in a café/restaurant. We had two seats at a bench that opened up to a window overlooking the street, so we got to people watch while we ate. Of course, this is the south island, so everything started closing down, so after wandering for awhile, we headed back to try and get some sleep. (I emphasize try. This was the night we had some big group of late-teens/twenty-somethings running back and forth between rooms until about 5AM, and they definitely did not let us sleep.)

It was a shame that we hadn’t gotten any sleep because our next day was one of our longest. It was our Milford Sound excursion! As the crow flies, Milford Sound is really close to Queenstown, but you can’t drive straight there. You have to circle around the mountains, so it takes ages. Milford Sound is on the west coast of the south island, which means it rains something like 250+ days a year. This is because it gets the warm air currents that come from Australia and have picked up water over the Tasman Sea, but as the air starts to climb the mountains, it dumps the collected water as rain and snow. But anyways, this isn’t supposed to be a meteorology lesson. The point is that is was raining when we were at Milford, but that was really good in a way. When it rains, thousands of waterfalls appear all over the sound (which, by the way, isn’t really a sound. A sound is carved out by rivers, and this was carved out by glaciers, making it a fjord. But that is once again beside the point). They appear when it starts to rain because the running water has to find somewhere to go, and within 30 minutes of the end of the rainfall, the waterfalls have disappeared again. It was really cool. Mom took a picture of me with them as the background, and she conveniently positioned me to make it seem like a waterfall was bouncing off of my head.

Of course, the actual boat ride was awesome as well. We took a 3 hour tour of the sound (fjord), going all the way out to where it meets the Tasman. Mom did great on the boat ride; thank goodness for seasickness medication. As we got to the sea, the waves started getting a lot bigger. Also, there was some crazy wind out there! I was on the top deck with this lady, and the captain comes in the speaker, saying, “I would just like to warn our passengers on the top deck that we will be experiencing high winds for about the next half hour.” As soon as he said that, the winds HIT, and hit big time. It was so crazy because you could actually see the gusts as they travelled to you. They would make the water swirl up above the regular sea level. Very cool. I got a really good picture of the ‘water tornado.’ One other cool thing was the dolphins that followed our boat as it left the dock. They were so playful, playing it up for all the tourists with cameras. They would race alongside the boat, jump in the air, and just basically seemed to be having a lot of fun.

The ride back was pretty uneventful. Mom and I were both exhausted and fell asleep. Well, slept for as long as you can when you keep being tossed around sharp corners in the New Zealand bush. Back in Queenstown, Mom got very happy when she bought herself a REALLY NICE New Zealand souvenir, and then we went out for dinner. I was very excited because Mom actually went to an Indian restaurant with me. I love Indian food (partly because of the non-prevalence of dairy products), and Mom isn’t particularly fond of spices. She had chicken korma, though, and even tried some of my more spicy food. It was a very enjoyable dinner.

South Island: Day 1 (Christchurch)

I woke up at dark thirty in the morning to catch my 6:30AM flight to Christchurch.  My mom landed there about 45 minutes before me, but what with customs and her hiking boots, I ended up waiting for her.  There was no time for jet lag.  We hightailed it from the airport, dropped our luggage at the YHA, and made it to the town square by 9AM to meet our tour guide.

Our tour only had two other people scheduled in it, so we went by foot around most of the city.  Christchurch is really beautiful in the springtime.  It is known as the most “English” city in New Zealand, and the architecture and landscaping reflect the title.  Everything is done in a mainly Queen Anne style, and there are cute English gardens and parks everywhere.  There is even a river than runs through town and cuts across the Queen’s Gardens.  This was the prettiest town we were in on the whole trip, I think.  

After this sightseeing tour, we got dropped off at the Antarctic Centre.  The majority of the Antarctic explorations leave from Christchurch, and several countries – including the USA – have permanent laboratories and stations in Christchurch.  There is a really cool museum that Mom and I explored.  I got my picture taken with the fake penguins, played with all of the little-kid-inspired exhibits, and checked out the gift shop.  The museum also had a “blizzard room” that Mom refused to go in.  It was a room that got as dark as it does in Antarctica and then high winds kicked in, simulating a snow storm.  Mom said that she had enough blizzards up north and didn’t need another one in New Zealand.

We also did a Hagglund Ride while we were at the museum.  This was a model of the vehicle that they use while in Antarctica, and we went around a track out back.  We were jostled around, plunged under water (the vehicle, not us personally), and pulled over hills and canyons.  This vehicle can take anything Mother Nature throws at it.  Mom was very nervous before we got on.  She kept saying to me, “What have you gotten me in to?!”  I think she had fun, though.  There was a kid about five or six years old in the cabin with us, and I don’t think she could get too scared if they little kid was having fun.

One thing I noticed about Christchurch – and the south island in general – is how late things open and how early they close.  I have been living in Wellington, a city where you can go out to dinner, then go to a bar, and then get your coffee in the morning, all without going home.  This is not so in the south island.  Cafes don’t open until 8AM at earliest, with many not opening till 9AM.  Everything shuts down at night, and unless you are going to an actual bar, you can’t really find anything else going on.  I was expecting something more like Wellington.  I hadn’t really visited other big cities outside of Wellington before (with the exception of Taupo, and that doesn’t count because I was sick), so I expected them to be all like Wellington.  It caused me to be a little irritated before I realized that everything is not Wellington.  I ended up still having a fabulous time in the south island of course.  This is only Day 1!

Wai-te-ata and Guy Fawkes

OK, I am officially back in the connected world.  I have been so busy lately that I finally have a chance to relax now!  I took a tour through the south island with my mom (look for more detailed posts on that later), and ever since I got back to Wellington I feel like I haven’t even had time to sleep.

One reason I have been so busy is that I have officially moved out of my old flat to a new one.  I am so happy about this change.  My old flat was fine, but it was small and dirty and not well furnished.  Also, while I was friendly with my flatmates, we weren’t friends, and it was weird for me to not live with real friends.  Now, I am in a much bigger flat.  It is more like a townhouse.  The first level has the kitchen and living room, and they are a huge upgrade from Mckenzies.  It is completely furnished, so we have furniture and a TV and pots and pans and cooking utensils.  There is also a TON of storage space for food and a large storage cubby for all of our luggage.  The next level has two bedrooms and a bathroom, and the third level also has two bedrooms and a bathroom.  The bathrooms are nicer, and my room is twice as big as mine in Mckenzies.  I am on the top level, and I share it with a Swiss student named Nina.  Claudia and Meredith, two of my friends from Wellington, live on the second floor.  It is so nice to live with friends again.  This flat is also above the Terrace, so it has amazing views of the city.  My room doesn’t look out over the city (it faces the carpark), but it is OK because it is a little bigger than the rooms on the other side.  Also, I get to people watch because everyone walks by my window.  I love it.  We all moved in yesterday, and we are planning a housewarming party eventually.

Of course, my address has changed.  Also, I don’t know my new landline, but you can still reach me on my mobile.  My postal address is:
Katie Roan
Flat 7
15 Wai-te-ata Road
Kelburn
Wellington
New Zealand

Send me mail!

Between moving out of Mckenzies and into Wai-te-ata, it was time to celebrate Guy Fawkes Day here in New Zealand (and England, too, I think).  Now, this is the story.  Back in 1605, Guy Fawkes, among others, concocted a plan to blow up the British Parliament building.  It was intended to be the beginning of an uprising by the English Catholics, who were distressed about the religious laws of the time.  The local police were informed of the plot by an anonymous letter and thwarted the effort, and the fuse was never lit, so Parliament remained standing.  In New Zealand, the day used to be celebrated with bonfires and the burning of Guy Fawkes in effigy.  There would be contests to see who could make the best Guy Fawkes, and children would take him around town in wheelbarrows to collect donations to a local charity.  (“Penny for the Guy Fawkes.”)  Nowadays, bonfires are outlawed in an attempt to lessen the dangerous activities, so people celebrate by setting off fireworks.  Fireworks are only sold in the week preceding Guy Fawkes Day and are only legal for that time period.  The city also has a huge 15-minute display in the harbour.  I went with Mark and Anna down to the waterfront to watch it.  If you are around a radio, there is also a synchronised soundtrack broadcast.  It was like having the 4th of July in November.  I decided it was good to finally have a 4th of July celebration as we started class on 4 July this year.

OK, that’s it for now.  Detailed south island descriptions and pictures to be up … eventually.  And, of course, pictures of the new flat!

Whanganui Pics [Part 2]

Amy took this picture of me on the trail up into the bush to Mt. Damper Falls.


The one and only Mt. Damper Falls, the tallest waterfall in the North Island at something like 86 metres. It was well worth the hike in.
We were really back into the New Zealand bush. We had seen the rolling hills as we drove up to Taupo, but nothing like this. The hills just went on forever until they disappeared into the horizon. And, of course, you have the mandatory sheep perched on every cliff and in every gully.

Credit where credit is due: Amy (I think) took this picture, and it is so fantastic that it deserves to be on my blog.
Proof I am still alive (or was as of 16 October 2005). This is outside the church in Jerusalem on the Whanganui River Road. This is a prime example of the Maori artwork adorning the Catholic church in Jerusalem. What a mix of cultures!

After dropping our luggage at the Whagamomona Hotel, we decided to venture a little further on for some exploration. We turned down a side road, and what do we see? An entire row of pig skins! Apparently, wild pig hunting is a big sport in the area, and some of the men will leave the skins out as proof of a catch. Not so appealing; many of the people in the van thought Amy was crazy for jumping out to take this picture. I am happy she did!

And for the last: driving along, we found some little piggies (roughly one day old!) by the side of the road. Momma Pig is to the right, just out of sight of the picture. Amy and I being the livestock tourists that we are, we had to jump out of the van to try and attempt a picture without sending them too far down the road. My zoom helped out a lot in this picture.