New Zealand - South Island

After a month and a half of working downtown Sydney I decided to take my first "vacation"/trip to the south island of New Zealand.

I started in Christchurch and took a bus tour called "Stray" around the south island. So many crazy things happened along the way on my little Stray adventure, so to quote the Kiwi's, I'll say "SWEET AS!"

My very first thoughts of NZ were, "geez, there are a lot of sheep!" Apparently 10 X more sheep than people! Our first stop on the tour was a little town called Kaikoura... well known for it's crayfish, fur seals, dolphins, and whale watching. I decided to go seal swimming here and I must say that experience is right up there with scuba diving the reef in Oz. Amazing! A group of us all geared up in our wet suits and snorkels and slowly made our way out to a seal colony not far off shore. As we swam through a little rock crevase, most of the seals were still perched up on the rocks. I'd say there were probably around 50 - 80 seals all around us as we swam through towards the open pool in the middle of the colony. As the tide came in they all started to slip into the water and swim all around us. They weren't at all afraid of us, but they were definitely curious. At one point I turned around and there was a big male about 5 meters away from me and he started to swim right towards me! My heart started to thump in my chest and I looked towards the guide because I didn't know what to do, but he wasn't looking in my direction. I looked back at the seal and he was literally right in front of me! He looked at me curiously for about 5 seconds and then dived under the water, did a couple flips and swam away. I can't explain the pleasure it was to be apart of the habitat of these beautiful wild animals. It was totally awesome!

Our next stop was Abel Tasman national park. At this point we had our core bus group... most of which were picked up in Picton coming down from Wellington in the north island. This also included our driver Hoover who was doing her very first south island trip on her own. She made a deal with us that if she screwed up in anyway, we were allowed to think of silly things for her to do. Well, of course being her first trip she was bound to take a wrong turn somewhere and sure enough, on the way to Abel Tasman she made a wrong turn that took us an hour in the opposite direction of where we were supposed to go. So we were 2 hours late in arriving at Old MacDonalds Farm... yes that is where we stayed, and yes, it was literally a farm with ducks, sheep, shamels, etc. So Hoovers punishment for her mistake was to dress up as a farmer and sing "Old MacDonald" at the local pub that evening. Good times!

The next day I took part in a 1/2 day kayak in Abel Tasman where I got to enjoy the scenery of the park from out on the water. I wish I could've spent more time there, but I only had 2 weeks to go through the south island, so we moved on the next day to Berrytown.

On the way to Berrytown we had to make a stop. Apparently Hoover messed up again with something, though I don't know what. Her punishment this time was to stop on the side of the road, hop a fence and chase some sheep. (I've attached the link of the video of this which was posted on YouTube.) Too funny! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qowQs-PpCTs

Berrytown wasn't anything special. I think only 40 people live there and it was just a place for us to stop overnight before heading to Franz Josef. To make a fun night out of it we all dressed up as the opposite sex and had a little party. The guys performed a rendition of YMCA, which was hilarous. (See photo)

The "hang-over" bus departed the next day for Franz Josef. Along the way we made a stop to pick up groceries and gifts. As we were about ready to leave, the bus wouldn't start! A bunch of the guys all piled at the back to push the bus and thankfully it didn't take too long before we were up and running again, so we made it to Franz Josef safe and sound. Luckily that night was a little more low-key as I had an 8 hour hike up the Franz Josef glacier the following day. The hike was incredible. We wore crampons on our shoes so that we could walk on the ice without slipping and we hiked through caves and crevases in the glacier which made it that much more fun. We were also lucky enough to see NZ's only mountain parrot, called a Kea, on our way down the glacier.

The next couple days, again, were stops on the way to Queenstown. Makaroa was our first stop. It was a beautiful camp park in which we all stayed in little cabins. The night was entertaining as we did karaoke at the bar. Me and a couple of the girls sang "I Will Survive"... sorry, no video for this. The next day we stayed in a beautiful little town called Wanaka which had incredible views. It actually reminded me of Vancouver with the surrounding mountains and waterfront.

The next stop was definitely my favourite place of the south island, Queenstown. It's like a bigger version of Whistler with tons to do and absolutely stunning scenery. A few us of went up the gondola which over-looks Queenstown and raced each other on the luge runs at the top. I also took a day trip to Milford Sound, which also was just stunning. I got my first penquin sightings there... they're so cute! Also lots of mountains, waterfalls, and seals.

Queenstown was also the place where most of the people on the bus went their separate ways. Some headed home, others more south to Stuart Island, and a few, like me, back to Christchurch. It was sad to say good-bye to the friends that I met here, but I'm hoping to see some of them in Sydney as a lot of people continue on to Australia for more travelling.

Finally, I ended up back in Christchurch where I will spend my last couple of days in NZ before heading back to Australia. I will be going swimming with the dolphins here and maybe do some shopping at the markets. I've thoroughly enjoyed my time in NZ and wish I could spend more time here. I may just have to come back!

Back to Sydney on Tuesday where I will spend Christmas on the beach with a BBQ! Sweet as!