New Zealand

KIA ORA! (Maori greeting of hi or literally meaning to “be well/healthy”)

I’m a bit late with this update, but adjusting back to reality has been tough after 2 weeks of amazing adventures. New Zealand is one of the most beautiful countries I have visited so far and is in high contention as one of my favorites alongside Croatia. Also known as Aotearoa or “long white cloud” by the native Maori (pronounced like moldy bread, a neat tip I picked up), New Zealand is only a 4 hour flight from Brisbane and thus the perfect Easter holiday destination. I was fortunate enough to have two full weeks off while my host family was on vacation and took full advantage of the time to explore a country that has been at the top of my list of places to go for quite some time now. While New Zealand isn’t anywhere near the size of Australia and could very easily be overlooked on a map, two weeks was barely enough time to even graze the surface of this spectacular country, but after two weeks of little sleep and pure excitement, I feel pretty confident that I did it justice. But not to fear, I will definitely be going back sometime down the road.

The first stop was Christchurch, the biggest city in the south island, even if it doesn’t seem that way anymore after the 2011 earthquakes. There isn’t a whole lot to do in Christchurch now, the aftermath of an earthquake that occurred 4 years ago is still very much as prevalent now as it was then. The whole town still feels like a ghost town with collapsed buildings and closed off streets around every turn. Looking at pictures from before the quake at a beautiful bustling city filled with street cars and gardens, it is hard to picture the same city today. That’s not to say the city doesn’t still have some charm left, the rivers still there and there are still a lot of green spaces, but it’s definitely not what it once was.

Christchurch!

The highlight of my stay in Christchurch was the chance to stay at the Jailhouse Accommodation Hostel. An actual prison starting in 1874 all the way up to 1999, the new owners have turned the existing cells into hostel rooms. The concept is pretty cool in itself, but add the fact that real prisoners actually stayed in the same cells makes it even cooler and maybe a little bit creepy. I can now say I spent a night in jail or rather two as I stayed there again on my way up to the north island after my tour of the south island. Were still only on day 1 though.

Jail

Day 2 after my very comfortably spent night spent in jail, I joined up with my Contiki group, who I would be traveling through the south island with for the next 9 days. Contiki is a tour company with tours all over the world specifically catering to travelers aged 18-35. When researching my trip to NZ, I considered doing the whole trip solo, but was recommended by a friend to look into a Contiki trip. Needless to say I am so glad I took her advice as these next 9 days would not have been the same if I had been on my own. Most of the others on the tour were also travelling alone and it was a great way to have instant travel buddies and now friends for life.

The first day on board the coach, another amazing perk of joining Contiki was not worrying about transportation, was spent traveling south to Franz Josef, the glacier region of the south island. The great part about the south island is the amazing scenery everywhere you go, which makes spending hours on a bus a bit more bearable. We arrived into Franz Josef late in the afternoon and spent our first night getting to know one another and of course watching the New Zealand vs. Australia Cricket final. A bit of conflicting interest in the group on this one as a majority of the travelers in the group were from Australia, yet we were in New Zealand. Australia prevailed in the end, making my trip back to Oz a bit easier.

Contiki Crew

Day 3 included a hike to the base of the Franz Josef glacier. To say glacier country is beautiful is an understatement, there are no words to describe the atmosphere around the glacier. The air is ten times fresher and you’re just in awe of the beauty around you. Franz Josef was one of my favorite stops of the tour.

Franz Josef Glacier

Day 4 marked another day on the coach using all the free bus Wi-Fi we could (although 300 MB was never enough for the day.) This time we were headed even further south to Queenstown, known as New Zealand’s resort town and adventure capital of the world. On the way to Queenstown we stopped in a tiny town called Wanaka and had the chance to try out their human maze, which looked way easier than it actually was. It only took us a good 35 minutes to get out… After a nice pit stop we were back on the bus and arrived into Queenstown that evening. The city of Queenstown itself is spectacular, situated between numerous mountains it is not your average city. Being situated so far south it was also the coldest I’d had to endure since being home for Christmas. It was almost refreshing though and the sun was still shining so all was okay. That night we went on a gondola ride up to the Skyline Restaurant in Queenstown where the views overlooking the city and lake were absolutely stunning. Not to mention the food! Buffet style and a travelers dream. The dessert room (yes room!) was an experience in itself. Name a dessert and they had it, and you could have as many as you wanted-maybe not the best idea. I definitely recommend a stop if you’re ever in Queenstown.

View from the Skyline Restaurant

Day 5 we had a scheduled ride on Queenstown’s top attraction, the Shotover Jet, a 360◦ Jet tour on the Shotover River. There’s a reason it is rated the top attraction in Queenstown. It was a fun 30 minutes of fearing for my life and I’d go again in a heartbeat. The drivers seriously have the craziest job and lots of skill, getting so close to the rocks you thought we were going to hit them. The rest of the day was spent exploring Queenstown and trying out the talked about burger spot, Fergburger, which did live up to its expectations! Not a bad lunch/dinner-the burgers are giant!

Shotover Jet

Day 6 was a day trip to Milford Sound. Milford Sound is probably the most known tourist destination in New Zealand and while it was beautiful, I wasn’t the biggest fan. The weather at Milford Sound is rain 99% of the time as it is an inlet formed by glaciers off of the Tasman Sea. The ride out to Milford Sound from Queenstown was 5 hours in itself and add on another 5 for the journey back, with a bus driver from hell, it wasn’t the most pleasant experience. New Zealand is just as beautiful everywhere else that a trip to Milford Sound after hearing all the hype about it is a bit disappointing. But I can say I’ve seen it now I guess.

Milford Sound

Day 7 I went horseback riding as an optional activity. To get to the horse farm we got to take the old TSS Earnslaw steamship from Queenstown across the lake to Walter Peak. While I used to ride when I was younger, I was not prepared for how hard the ride was going to be. We had a nice small group, one other girl from the tour, myself, the guide and of course the horses which allowed us to go at our own pace, which included cantering up mountains and trotting alongside some of the most beautiful and serene scenery outside of Queenstown. Needless to say I was a bit sore the next day, but the ride was definitely worth all the spectacular views we got to see.

Horseback Riding

Day 8 we left Queenstown to head to Dunedin, New Zealand’s student city and also the home to Speight’s Brewery, New Zealand’s famous beer. We were able to tour the brewery and afterwards taste some of the beers-and by taste it was pretty much a free for all as the guide was very gracious and let us try and sample them as many times as we pleased. Even though the beer was not up to my German beer standards, it wasn’t awful. We followed our tour with a dinner in their Ale House, pumpkin soup, beer baked garlic bread, lamb shank and mash. Amazing! We continued our night by checking out Dunedin’s student nightlife, which considering it was the night before Easter wasn’t too shabby. New Zealand and Australia have a law though that no alcohol can be served or bought on Good Friday or Easter, so come midnight our night was cut a bit short.

Speights Brewery

Day 9 or Easter was spent first off by a visit to the Cadbury Chocolate factory and cafe, because no Easter is complete without chocolate. The Carmelo hot chocolate was heavenly! Next stop was climbing Dunedin’s other claim to fame, Baldwin St. or the steepest street in the world-although there has been some debate whether it really is the steepest. After climbing the street and celebrating by rolling candy Jaffa’s (a small chocolate ball with an orange flavored coating popular in Australia and New Zealand) down the hill we were headed to Lake Ohau. Lake Ohau was by far the most secluded town we visited, but the views of the Southern Alps and the popular Mt. Cook visible from our lake front lodge were incredible. We celebrated our last night together as a group with a toga party and some illicit Easter alcohol.

Baldwin St.

Day 10 our last day was spent driving back up north to Christchurch. Fortunately most of us were spending at least another night in Christchurch before heading our separate ways so we were able to enjoy each other’s company for one last night. And even though I slept straight through it we got to experience one of Christchurch’s well known earthquakes. It was only a 3.8 magnitude compared to the devastating 2011 6.3 quake.

Day 11 marked the first day of my travels without my Contiki group and I found it a bit tough to travel alone after such a great trip. I left Christchurch bright and early with the NakedBus-a cheap traveler’s bus service in New Zealand and was headed up to Picton to catch the ferry to the North Island. I had a good 6 hours too many to explore the small city of Picton while I waited on my ferry, but fortunately I met another girl in the same situation and we explored and ate our way through the numerous cafes while we waited for our ferry. The Interislander ferry transports passengers and cars between the north and south islands. The ride itself takes a good 3 hours, but the ferry is well equipped to entertain its passengers for this long, with cafes, shops, a cinema, an arcade, a kids play place and numerous couches to nap on aboard the ship. I opted for the couches after a long day of traveling. We finally made it into Wellington, the capital of New Zealand and the North Island’s ferry port late that night. I was Couchsurfing that night, which I’d ever only done once in Brussels and never alone, so I was a bit worried how the experience would turn out. But I needn’t worry, my host was very gracious and picked me up at the ferry terminal and made me feel right at home. This marked night one of sleeping on a couch.

Ferry Ride

Day 12 I had the entire day free to explore rainy Wellington-the sun literally did not come out once the whole 24 hours I was there- and I took the time to try some of Wellington’s well known coffee, visit the botanical gardens and to explore the national Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa. Te Papa is a massive 6 or 7 story museum situated right on the harbor and the best part about it is it’s free for all! It is probably one of the best museums I have visited. It covered the history of New Zealand all the way from the Maori people, who are the first known inhabitants of the country, to the natural disasters that effect New Zealand. I think my favorite exhibit was the natural disasters, which pretty much any disaster you can think of effects New Zealand. Part of the reason for this is New Zealand is situated right on a fault line in between the Pacific and Australian plates. After being in Christchurch I found the earthquake exhibit extremely fascinating and it shows how much the geography of New Zealand has changed over the years and will continue to change due to its location.

Rainy Wellington

The museum also had a really interesting temporary exhibit about the airline Air New Zealand, showing how the airline has changed throughout the years, with different uniforms and plane changes. The coolest part was there 3D simulator showing what the future of flights may look like-think visualizers of being on a beach or in another city the whole flight. I definitely recommend checking out the National Museum if you’re ever in Wellington.

That night I had to catch another bus up to Auckland, the biggest city in New Zealand situated in the north of the north island. Auckland’s a good 10 hour drive from Wellington so I choose to take an overnight sleeper bus, which the sleeper part was falsely advertised and the bus was no different than a normal coach. Thanks NakedBus. It was a rough 10 hours trying to sleep on a bus, a packed bus nonetheless meaning I couldn’t lay out on the seats, and I was a bit exhausted when the bus got into Auckland at 6am. I managed to explore a little bit and to see the harbor before I succumbed to Starbucks and took advantage of their free Wi-Fi and outlets. I was Couchsurfing again in Auckland and once it was a reasonable hour again I met up with my new host, who happened to be another American from Michigan-small world! After dropping my bags off, not that I had that much since I decided it would be a great idea to not check a bag (although I am pretty proud of myself for making it two weeks with only a backpack) I headed off to grab lunch with a girl I had met on my Contiki tour who was also in Auckland now! It was nice to see another familiar face and helped a bit with Contiki withdrawal. I then spent that afternoon walking to and climbing up Auckland’s dormant volcano Mount Eden. The view of the city from the top of the volcano is absolutely amazing!

Volcano Climbing

After a night of no sleep and some intense volcano climbing I called it an early night and headed to bed for day 3 of couch/bus sleeping (at this point though I would have slept soundly anywhere.)

Day 14 I booked a day trip to Waitomo and Rotorua, two cities about 3 hours southeast from Auckland. Waitomo is known for its stunning glowworm caves and Rotorua for its mud pools and active geysers. The glowworm caves were pretty neat to see and we got to take a boat ride through the caves, illuminated only by the glowworms.

Entrance to the caves-no photographs allowed inside

In Rotorua our first stop was to a sheep farm (New Zealand is covered in sheep farms and is known for its sheep) and had the chance to see a sheep shearing and watch a sheep dog herd up the sheep. After getting the full farm tour we were off to see a Maori culture performance and the famous mud pools and geysers. The culture performance was interesting to watch and we got to participate in Maori song and dance. The whole city of Rotorua smells of a constant sulfur smell from the geysers, but it gets really bad the closer you get. We made it just in time though to see the larger of the two geysers go off. It was a pretty spectacular sight.

Sheep Shearing

Sheep Hearding

Just hanging out with some sheep

Maori Cultural Performance

Mud Pool

Geyser

Day 15 my last full day in New Zealand I had another day trip booked up to the Bay of Islands, literally a bay of 144 islands, almost as far north as you can go in New Zealand. Luckily it was a nice sunny day and the perfect day for a cruise to the famous Hole in the Rock (again literally a big hole in a rock.) Along the way we were able to see numerous dolphins swimming alongside our boat and some of the more famous islands. It’s absolutely beautiful around the whole area and I was sad I couldn’t have stayed longer.

Dolphins

Hole in the Rock

After a beautiful day the tour headed back to Auckland. I had the chance that night to meet up with another old friend, this time one of my good friends from Germany who just happened to fly into Auckland that afternoon for an internship. It was great to see her after 2 years apart and we enjoyed catching up over pizza, even though she was feeling a bit jetlagged.

Reunited!

The next morning I had to leave bright and early at 3 am for the airport. The whole two weeks had run very smoothly as far as travels plans went so it was only fitting that in my last couple of hours something had to go wrong. I had scheduled and paid for a shuttle through NakedBus ahead a time (once again thank you NakedBus), but after making sure to get to the shuttle stop extra early, the shuttle drove right past, which I think is even worse than not showing up. Lucky for me I got to take an extremely expensive taxi ride to the airport which is a good 45 minutes from the city. But the most important thing was that I made my flight back to Brisbane and more importantly back to my bed!

New Zealand was a great adventure and I will definitely be going back to do all the things I didn’t have the time to do this time around, mainly skiing in Queenstown and bungy jumping-really regretting not doing a bungy jump, but no worries I will be back New Zealand!

Moeraki Boulders