I was slightly torn between starting with the most recent events in my life and then adding posts in a chronologically haphazard way, but have decided instead to be organized in at least this one tiny aspect of my life. I believe I left off somewhere before my first NZ road trip over Easter Break, so I will begin my captivating narrative there.
My First NZ Road Trip: Adventurous Times on the West Coast
So back in April, my flatmate Tim and I decided we would use the week-long Easter Break from university commitments to go to Queenstown and the West Coast of the South Island. Thanks to Tim owning a car, I reap all the benefits of convenient transport without having to pay ridiculous petrol fees (close to 3x what we pay in the States), per-kilometre fees (yes, you essentially have to "buy" kilometres), and Warrant of Fitness fees (every 6 months you have to pay to have your car deemed safe to drive and/or any repairs required to deem your car safe to drive). I did of course chip in for petrol on the road trip, but my point is it is just way too expensive to own a vehicle here. Throw in even higher registration fees and car insurance premiums than we have in the States, and it's fun times ahead as you watch your paycheck disappear completely.
At any rate, we were very excited about this trip. Our other flatmates Manu and Ella didn't really want to go, which quite frankly made it a little easier to plan the details. We decided on a 6-day/5-night trip: 3 nights in Queenstown and 2 on the West Coast. Queenstown is about a 3-hour drive from Dunedin and the adventure capital of the South Island (Rotorua is the same for the North Island). There's all kinds of crazy things to do there, such as bungee jumping, skydiving, white water rafting, a luge, jet boating, etc. There's also lots of season-related exciting activities you can partake in, such as snowboarding, skiing, etc. Tim had gone white water rafting before in the North Island and said it was heaps of fun, and he was quite keen to do it again. I always thought white water rafting would be exciting, but was always nervous about being thrown out of the raft into a rock. Maybe somewhat of an irrational fear, but I didn't really know what to expect. Out of nowhere, I randomly decided I wanted to go bungee jumping. I think the main reason for this is because I'd already heard of Queenstown, and bungee jumping in Q-town in particular. One of the people I know who has done it there is my friend Janelle (if you're reading this, hi Janelle!) who studied abroad in Australia for a semster and visited NZ while she was there. I also think my thought process was along the lines of: how often am I going to have the opportunity to do this? What's interesting is that I am deathly afraid of heights. So my desire to jump was quite strange. I really don't have an explanation for it. Tim also does not like heights and did not share my sudden, inexplicable desire to leap off a bridge, but we made a deal. He would jump if I would raft. We were going to Q for adventures, right? So what the hell.
Bungee jumping is thus far the most thrilling, terrifying, and completely amazing thing I have ever done. I jumped off a 140-ft high bridge above the Kawarau River (this was actually the shortest of 3 jumps available) and it was SO CRAZY! I loved it. There was a viewing platform along the river where you could watch people do it, so I think we just watched for about half an hour until we finally got up the nerve to do it. I was basically playing mind tricks the whole time to avoid thinking about what I was voluntarily about to do. My main motivation to jump, however, was that the alternative was to be pushed. I watched a few unwilling people get to edge and stand there for so long that the bungee people just pushed them off! Oh hell no. So I got up to the edge, the guy counted to 3, and I dove off (in perfect form, I might add).
Seriously a blast. Now I desperately want to go again because my brain has completely erased the memory of me jumping off- I still remember swinging and bouncing around on the bungee, but for the life of me can't remember jumping/falling (although I can still remember the complete terror of jumping/falling). I think my brain is trying to protect me from a traumatic experience. At any rate, can't wait for Round 2! :)
So then later that same day, with barely enough time to recover from the morning's adrenaline high, we went white water rafting. It was a lot different than I expected. For one thing, it really wasn't dangerous. At no time was I actually afraid of being thrown from the raft. You tuck your feet under the person's seat in front of you, and you're actually pretty secure that way. Even if you lose your hand grip, you should stay in the raft. We had a very interesting raft guide named Zeb that kept us entertained with amusing anecdotes the entire time. The rapids we went through ranged from Class 1 - Class 4. There are 5 classes total. 1 is the easiest, and basically calm water with barely any current. 5 is for experienced rafters and apparently gets pretty crazy. Most of our trip was in classes 2 & 3, although we did hit some 4 rapids towards the end. All in all this was also a blast, and something I definitely want to do again.
We also drove about 3 hours south one of the days were we in Q to Milford Sound. This is located very close to the bottom of the south island on the western side, and consists of stunning waterfalls, staggering cliffs, foresty areas, fantastic walking trails, and more. Unfortunately we thought it would be a shorter drive than it was, and we had to leave earlier than we would've liked as it was getting dark somewhat early. It was absolutely beautiful though and I would definitely love to go back sometime.
Part 2 of our road trip involved driving about another 3 hours north and along the west coast of the south island, up to a tiny little village named Haast. I use the word village reluctantly, because it doesn't even deserve that title. It is basically a street with a backpacker/motel, a tiny grocery store, a fish and chips place, a cafe, and a more dinner-style restuarant. I can't remember the name of this restaraunt, but it was something ridiculous and involved the world "Antler." There were also maybe 1-3 streets coming off this main road with a few houses. It probably had a population of about a hundred. About 2k down the motorway (I'm quite sure of this distance as we ended up walking it one night when had had a teensy bit too much to drink) was a bar called the Speight's Cafe. (Not sure if I've mentioned before, but Speights is a very popular NZ beer brand and is known as "The Pride of the South." It's not bad. They produce several different beers such as Old Dark, Summit, etc. It's a decent variety.) Anyways this local pub was where all the townies hung out and presumably got drunk every night. (There's not a whole hell of a lot else to do there.) It was pretty rowdy the first night we were there, and we had some good times.
Anyways, the reason we stayed in this godforsaken speck on the map was because it is a pretty decent and centralized location for west coast exploring/sightseeing. There were some gorgeous walks/hikes/beaches right near our accommodation, so we really enjoyed that. Additionally, it is about an hour to an hour and a half south of New Zealand's 2 famous glaciers, Fox Glacier and Franz Josef Glacier. These were stunning. (I think Franz Josef was the one I liked better, but they were both very cool.) There was a little bit of a walk for each of them, which was nice because they are both surrounded by gorgeous scenery.
One of the most entertaining and potentially fatal aspects of this mini-holiday was learning how to drive on the left side of the road. I have a valid Michigan driver's license, which Tim and I are reasonably certain is valid here (although we're not entirely sure, which could lead to some interesting situations). What's difficult about driving on the opposite side of the road, for those of you that never have, is that you are sitting on the right side of the car. It's easy enough to get used to being on the wrong side, and reversing left and right hand turns, but for some reason sitting on the right side while driving is ridiculous. I was having the hardest time centering the car. Tim was a champ though. He would just occasionally and calmly alert me to the fact that I was in a ditch on the lefthand shoulder. Haha it was quite the experience for both of us. But we did both survive and suffered only minimal anxiety. (Just to jump ahead to the future briefly- I am now an excellent wrong-side-of-the-road-and-car driver. The real trouble will be when I attempt to switch back to the right side of the road.)
I'm going to post some gorgeous pictures taken during our Easter road trip and our mini-road trip north of Dunedin along the east coast in July. I'm going to save my December/Christmas adventures for another post, because they warrant lots of detail and heaps more envious photos :)
Awe-inspiring, jealousy-inducing kiwi photography
(....and more to come soon, along with captions! Just very time-consuming uploading them all here!)
