Sorry it took a minute but we had midterm reviews on Friday and I had a lot to catch up, but now thats out of the way and I can finish telling you about new Zealand.
DAY 3
Monday 17- Today we had scheduled a sea Kayaking trip on Milford Sound for 10:00 in the morning, well ended up waking up early to pouring rain. Ya, super excited about that. It was a five minute drive over the sound and kayaks. Once there, we were suited up. It was actually really nice because they provided you with everything you needed. They gave up thermal pants and shirts, over fleeces, a rain jacket, and a skirt that fit around your waist and over the kayak to keep the water out. By 10:30ish we were on the water, in the pouring rain by the way. Not gonna lie, it was kind of miserable. Im not a big fan of standing in the freezing rain feeling like a wet cat. Fortunately though, 20 mins after being on the water the rain stopped and the sky cleared up and it was beautiful. It was pretty crazy to actually be in the sound, it was beautiful and massive. Its really hard to get any sort of proportion in the pictures, but trust me its extremely large. We kayaked around for a few hours, ate lunch on the water, had a group pee in the woods, saw the rare Fiordland Crested penguin and Fur seals; it was an awesome day. I actually did learn a lot about the Sound, which by the way, its not a Sound at all, its actually a Fjord. Not only was Milford misnamed but the other 13 Sounds in the areas turned out to be Fjords as well. Since this was discovered so late and Milford was already so famous with half a million visitors each year, the name was kept Milford Sound. They did try to alleviate this mistake by renaming the whole region Fiordland. Its a nice gesture, but they misspelled Fjord. Almost New Zealand...
So this fjord was formed a long time ago when a glacier moved and cut through these solid granite mountains. They were able to measure the speed at which the glacier moved and they believed it moved up to 10 meters a day, which is crazy. These mountains that were left behind would normally resemble the mountain faces in Yosemite of just bare rock, but that region of New Zealand is so wet that moss can gross on the rock face. The moss grows really thick and in some parts up to a foot deep. The moss catches seeds so plants and even trees are able to grow using the moss as a foundation. Sometimes though the vegetation can become too heavy and you get a tree avalanche. You can look at the mountains and see huge bare patches on the face and see where a whole side of the mountains vegetation has slid off into the water.
On the mountains you can also see the constant stream of water and waterfalls coming down the mountain and feeding the fjord. The fjord has both saltwater from the sea and freshwater from the rains and glacier waterfalls. The top 10- 15 meters, dependent on rain fall, is all freshwater. This top portion is dark and murky because all the water leading to the fjord has been tinted with minerals from the ground. The top layer is also the coldest water. Underneath the fresh water is the salt water. In the deep basin the salt water can be up 250 meters deep. The guide said that this was a popular place for divers because the mixture of water makes a unique environment and when you dive, you can actually see a distinct line where the fresh and salt water meet.
A majority of the freshwater in the fjord comes from the two permanent waterfalls, Sterling Falls and Bowen Falls. We got to kayak right up underneath Bowen Falls. The falls are 160 meters tall (3x the height of Niagra) and its fed by a glacier. This waterfall supplies all of Milfords power and also all of its drinking water, which does not need to be filtered by the way.
We had a really great trip on the water, but after a few hours of wet tennis shoes and paddling, your ready to get off the water. We drove back to the lodge, which I found out later that I left my camera on the shuttle :(, and im still waiting for it to be shipped to me. We took an easy night playing Yahtzee and walked the glow worm trail. Ya that seemed neat at the beginning to see glow worms, but turned into stumbling through spiderwebs and tripping over logs in the dark. It was still good just for the crack of it.
DAY 4
Tuesday 18- We woke up a little later this morning so we had a late start. We headed back to Queenstown and arrived around 3. Celine, julia, and I decided to ride the Gonadala up the mountain. We got some pretty awesome views of Queens. From there we watched all the paragliders floating down the mountain, well on a whim I decided to go paragliding. Why not? It was the best place to do it! It was pretty cool. You get all strapped up and you basically walk down the slope of the mountain until the wind picks up your shoot and then you float down. For those of you too weenie to skydive, I would recommend paragliding, its fun. After that little excursion, we hit up Fergburger again. Jules and I split the Sweet Bambi this time : Deer patty, plum chutney, brie, lettuce, tomato, and onion with fries and a beer. Fabulous dinner. After that we ran into some of our friends from Swinburne and we all headed to World Bar where they were going to start their pub crawl. The specialty at the bar were Teapots. Just as it sounds, they take a small teapot and fill it with one of their fancy mix drinks then give you some shot glasses or a cup to drink it with. We ended up following them on their pub crawl and had a pretty good time. We would roll up to a bar, dance our faces off for 45 minutes, then move on. There are some really cool looking bars in Queens. We left around 1230 and headed to our favorite lake spot, out past any lights. The stars at night above the lake are crystal clear. Not too often can you go out at night and be able to see the milky way.
DAY 5
Wednesday 19- We all woke up early because it was skydiving day!! I was sitting this one out though but it was going to be the first dives for Julia, Celine, and Doug. They were all super nervous before hand but they all said that once they were strapped up, they were ready. Celine jumped from 9000 feet and Doug and Julia jumped from 12000 feet. The difference in free fall time from 9000 to 12000 is about 20 seconds. It was the perfect day to jump. They were all kinda jacked after jumping ha, but for good reason. After, we went to the market, fixed lunch by the beach, then swung by the skydive place to pick up everyones pictures and videos. By 3 we were heading to Fox Glacier for our glacier hike in the morning. It was quite a drive and we ended up driving in the night. Found out there are quite a lot of possums in New Zealand and all of them wait till the last minute before darting in front of your car. They were introduced to NZ awhile ago from OZ and they are now a pest and most people would suggest just running them over. Just a helpful hint if youre ever in NZ.
DAY 6
Thursday 20- Julia, Celine, and I all signed up for the glacier hike on Fox Glacier. For the hike they provide you with boots, socks, gloves, snow pants, rain jackets, grampons ( metal spikes you tie to your boots to walk on the ice), and a back pack if you need it. They drive you to the front of the Glacier and from there you hike up to the ice, then you get to walk around on the ice. We spent a few hours trekking around this massive ice sheets checking out the different formations and cracks. It was pretty neat, I had no idea really what a glacier looked like. I had this vision of a pointed iceberg sitting on the land, which to some extent it is, but not so mountainous. The guide said it changes every week so every tour is different. What is a glacier you ask? Well, ill tell you. Well in order for a glacier to form you need a cold, wet region. As it so happens at Fox Glacier, they can get up to 45- 80 meters of snow a year along with 11 meters of rain. To get that much rain and snow, the region has rain showers 200 days out of the year. That would get so old, i dunno how the residents deal with it. All of this rain helps to freeze the snow and all that weight helps to compact the snow down to sheets of ice only a few meters thick. These sheets start to pile up and over time, gravity wins. The ice will start to slide down the mountain cutting out deep valleys. Fox glacier now only moves up to a meter a day but you can see the valley that the glacier left as it receded back. The valley it forms is "U" shaped and has a flat bottom. On the side of the valleys you can see the height of the glacier by the distinct vegetation lines. The glacier trip was pretty great, thats something I most likely will never experience again. If you get a chance, do it, it kind of blows your mind.
After the hike, we hopped into our campervan and drove through Franz Joseph up to Arthurs Pass. Along the way we stopped at an overlook and while we were there we had a run in with a Kea. Keas are a type of parrot ,that are now endangered, and they are really smart and curious. The issue with keas are that they are a lot of fun and they get really close to you and will hop into your car and onto you tables, but they also get into your things and cause a lot of problems. They also become dependent on people if you feed them and then they can no longer survive in the wild. Well we definitely werent helping their cause. Our bad. Well we made it to Arthurs Pass and since it was still light out we hiked up to the Devils Punchbowl Falls. Of course we didnt follow the path and instead bushwhacked our way through the woods. Its really the only way to hike. The falls were beautiful. We hopped the rails and hiked right up under the falls. I really enjoyed the hike and spending time in the woods. Honestly, all the trees and bushes there are straight out of Lord of the Rings, its great. They are all old and gnarled and has this almost creepy vibe to them. After the hike we stopped at the Alpine Hotel and bar and had some munchies. It had this log cabin feel with a pool table, fire, and leather couches. We all had beers, had some nachos, and dessert and sat around the fire. It was great. Even better, the owner had a giant, fluffy orange cat named Ernie! Not only did I have cake and ice cream, I got cat cuddles too. Awesome. We also met this guy Oliver who had been traveling around NZ as well. We all hung out drinking beers and had a game of scrabble. It was the best end to a night.
Ernie is the cats meow for sure
DAY 7
Friday 21- Its the first day we got to sleep in some without an alarm, but unfortunately we woke up to a park ranger knocking on our window to let us know that we needed to pay for sleeping in the campsite. Almost a peaceful morning. On top of that, I think all the altitude changes got to me because I woke up with a sore throat, no bueno. We then had another run in with keas, they were all over the campsite and kept jumping on the tables while we were trying to eat breakfast. One even got into Celines bag and pulled out her scarf. We then jumped into the car and drove the 300 km to Hanmer Springs where they have the hot pools and springs. We arrived around 3. The hot springs are a bunch of different outdoor pools, not all being fed by the hot springs. There were maybe 15 different pools, including a kids play area and a lazy river. They also had sulfur pools and mineral pools all between 25-42 degrees Celsius. You just hop from pool to pool, relaxing. Its the best way to end any long trip. After hanging out in the pools for a few hours we walked around Hanmen looking at some shops, but there really wasnt a lot going on since most places close at 5. We eventually had to drive out of town about 20 minutes to find a campsite and curl up for the night.
DAY 8
Saturday 22- Our last morning in NZ and the last day with the campervan. This morning I did wake up pretty sick, I was really stuffed and just achey all over. Im glad that whatever I caught held off until the last day. We packed up and organized some and started back to Christchurch where we had to return our campervan by 4. We got into town early so we went to check out the downtown. I did not realize but about a year ago there was a large earthquake that destroyed most of downtown. What we found though was this grassroots community of shops and cafes all built by shipping containers. It was really cool and something that I wish Cincinnati had. The containers were painted bright colors and stacked on top of one another and had glass fronts to create shop fronts. The project is called Restart and its a way to bring people back to downtown and create jobs. We hung around, ate some lunch and sat by the river for awhile. Fun fact, the river in Christchurch is full of eels. Im really not joking. We saw this family take out this raw meat and start throwing it in the river and being the curious one, I walked down to check it out. Sure enough there are a pile of eels at the bank snatching up the meat. The things you learn... Well by 4 we finally had the campervan gassed up and returned to Britz. So long friend, you were good to us on those smooth roads, but those rough roads and bumps...you wont be missed. At this point we had a choice. Our flight didnt leave until 6:15 the next morning so we could walk and find a hostel to hang out and sleep in, or save the $25 and hang out at the airport. Guess where I spent the next 14 hours? ya, the airport. Let me tell you, there is nothing harder or more cold than an airport floor. In the end we boarded our plane on time, caught a quick nap, and then was lucky enough to have a friend pick us up from the Melbourne airport that morning.
The trip was amazing and beautiful and im so lucky that I had the chance to go. If you are thinking about going, go. Its awesome. Also for those of you who are Facebook friends with me, go and check out all my New Zealand pictures!
<3
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