Hey Y'all
I know i haven't been on in awhile but there is not a whole lot of new going on with me, or at least i wanted to build up a few cool things to say before typing out another post. First things first, the weather is getting incredible and it's officially spring here!!! I'm loving it except that the beach is constantly calling my name, making it incredibly difficult to focus on class and sometimes making it even harder to go to class. But don't worry mom, I'm doing what i need to. Last week we had a beautiful day so me and a small group of friends went to our favorite hidden away beach, Taylor's mistake, where we made a fire and camped under the stars for the night. It was so much fun, we drank, played music, sang songs, then curled up in our sleeping bags right on the sand with no roof over our heads. It was so much fun! The next morning we woke up and sat in the sun all day. A few people paddled out on there surf boards while me and a few other did a short but beautiful hike. On the way back from the hike, we heard our friends on there boards call out to us. Well they were just down in the water below us ranting and raving about the cliff jump they had just done. Well, who am i to pass up on an opportunity to do something cool while in New Zealand, no one that's who. So after watching my friend Ryan jump in with no wet suit, both surfers had them on, and come up alive I was feeling confident enough to do it myself. It was so much fun, absolutely freezing cold, but sweet nonetheless. I've never done a cliff jump before so I'm was more than happy to make that one my first. This past weekend my friends and I headed to a place called Hanmer Springs, a sweet little village known for it's natural hot springs. After getting a late start on friday night, we made up for it with a hearty party. The next morning we woke up, did a nice hike and checked out the sites before jumping in the hot pools for the afternoon. The place was really cool, it had pools of varying temps, ranging from 28 degrees Celsius to 41 degrees Celsius. After taking all we could of sweating and being dehydrated we hit the road on the way back, which for the guys in my car and I was an adventure in of itself. After noticing some weird shifting patterns we had all the emergency and warning lights come on in the car, certainly nothing of which we wanted to see. Especially since our other friends in the other car were well ahead of us and in a rush to return the rental. After pulling off and restarting the car all seemed fine, that was until we smelt a prominent burning smell throughout the car. Again we pulled over, promptly followed by a police officer who told us there was a garage just 5 minutes up the road. Well we made it there, where we checked the oil to find it had absolutely none. We promptly put a liter and a half in and hit the road again. From there on we had no more problems and luckily enough got home safe. Crisis averted, thank god.
Overall, my classes are going fair. They're really difficult to deal with sometimes because they have so many references to there own politics and history of which i have no idea. My social work class especially has been difficult because it is all about the welfare of New Zealand, so when i have to write a paper, i have no basis to start it since i know none of their programs nor know any of the history of their programs.It is also way more difficult to get an A here. For my first antarctic studies test, we had 50 minutes to write 4 essays, i wrote the entirety of the time and was still unable to do better than a B, ugh. Good thing there is only one class that my grade transfers home and effects my GPA. That class is going OK, again tough to understand, but the one grade i've had in it so far has been an A.
Otherwise things here are pretty standard, my friends are all super nice and i enjoy them, but i am still definitely missing everyone at home. This upcoming weekend i plan on heading up to Kaikoura to go whale watching which should be absolutely amazing and possibly hang out at the sea food festival.
Any other questions, feel free to shoot me a comment.
Love, Cheers!
-Garrett
Monday, September 29, 2008
Thursday, September 18, 2008
Hey there
Hey, i know i haven't written much lately, but not a whole lot has been going on since i got back from my break. Back to the classes and the like, blah. Last weekend i spent a weekend volunteering, it was a blast. It was a group of about 14 australearn kids that all headed to akaroa and transplanted lavender bushes from an old lavender farm to a park. We had some amazing meals that the people who ran our hostel made us and were able to go out on the owners boat. We saw hector dolphins which are the smallest and rarest dolphins on earth, only living on the south shore of new zealand and numbering in the 5000's. The weather has finally taken a turn for the better here, and i can go outside in shorts. I've spent a few beautiful days at the beach learning to skim board and trying to work on getting out to surf, but it's still a bit too cold to spend an extended amount of time in the water without a wet suit. But yeah that's about it. If there is anyone who wants a post card from me that hasn't got one yet just let give me your address and i'll be sure to get one to you.
Cheers!
Cheers!
Monday, September 8, 2008
Sunday, September 7, 2008
Continued
**sorry if the writing is lame or makes no sense, i originally planned on editing and revising but then...well then i got really lazy and realized my point will get across anyways. Also note links to my pictures will be put up as soon as they're uploaded to photobucket
Day 5
Ahh, we got to sleep in which was so nice after the long day of kayaking. We also got to get back in touch with the world and jump online. After that we made our way to another healthy brunch of fish and chips, then we really started our day heading off onto a hike which ended up taking far longer than expected. It was really pretty however, which for the most part made up for the length. We first headed up to a look out to look over and out into the bay, which was gorgeous. For the next two hours however we didn’t see anything but the trees surrounding us. The forest was really cool and so was the trail although the ups and downs were absolutely exhausting. After finally making it through that portion of our trail we came to a trail sign saying we were still looking at about 4 hours of hiking yet…we were demoralized to say the least, however at this point we really had no choice but to forage on and head home. We reached the town of Opua and found a little shop bought a bit of food and an energy drink then headed off onto the last section of our trail, supposed to take some 2 hours. This was by far my favorite part of the trail, it was all along the coast looking out into the bay. Taking us into mangrove swamps and back a bit into what looked like a tropical forest. Along the way found a little shout off to a look out, it was up quite uneven and steep terrain. About half way up this little path we had a big step up where I completely tore open the crotch of my pants. The only pants I brought for this first half of the trip. After the sun set we finally found ourselves at home completely exhausted and run down but we had made it and that’s what matters. We were really excited for dinner too, spaghetti with sausage and with some homebrewed tea from some plants our kayak guide had suggested we make tea from. Well the tea tasted pretty good overall, although we didn’t have any sugar to sweeten it up a bit, but when we went to cook our sausages we only found out that they had been thrown out…so it was shells and a bit of tomato sauce for dinner, not the hardiest of meals. After dinner we took showers cleaned up played a bit of pool and then hit the hay more than ready for bed.
Day 6
Another early morning, we had a bus to catch. After trying to get up for the sunrise and reconsidering we slept another hour then got ourselves moving. We packed up and headed to our bus stop, then headed off to Auckland. We of course met awesome people again, one at the bus stop, Caroline from Scotland who lives in Swaziland, and another guy who’s name I never caught who was a professional photographer. He showed us some of the shoots he had done, his pictures were, as expected, spectacular. Although the start of the bus ride was a bit flat and farmy it ended up being one of my favorite drives thus far in NZ. Ocean on one side with rolling hills and mountains on the other. We got to our hostel and then meandered out onto the town. New Plymouth is a cool little town/city place. After buying a few groceries for our adventure we bought a pizza ate pizza hut which was delicious, we again headed back to the hostel where we et some amazing people, again. I'm sure by now you're sick of hearing about meeting amazing people but they're everywhere and we can't help it. We talked to them for a few hours and then called it a night getting prepared for our big tramp the next day.
Day 7
We got up early and prepared to start the day. We got on our very early bus, and headed out to Egmont village where we thought the visitor center and our hike started. What we didn't know is that we actually got dropped off about 16 km (10 miles) away from the START of our hike. We had no choice so we started walking thumbs out with hopes to catch a ride. Luckily we hadn't made it far when a park employee pulled over and gave us a ride to the top of the mountain, we got so lucky! From there we checked out the trail, talking to the park ranger, made a plan of action and headed out. It was the most amazing trip tramp I’ve ever done. Really rugged terrain, beautiful outlooks, diverse scenery, and a cool hut to stay in for the night. When we made it to our hut we signed in and checked out what everyone else had to say about the place we were staying for the night. Every comment above ours, every single one, said huge rat problem, or angry rat, or we slept good...after we barricaded our rat friend in for the night. Then on top of there being a rat problem, both me and Luke for matches or a lighter, so we had no means for lighting up the heater to keep us warm for the night, needless to say we were disappointed. But the view from out our hut window was amazing...and the stars that night, like nothing i had ever seen. Clear and twinkling and as far as the eye can see. It was just gorgeous. We woke up the next morning to a cold and rainy day. We packed up waited for a break in the weather and hit the trail back to the visitor center where we figured we have to complete our ten mile walk back to our bus stop. The trip back went much quicker the second time around but was even more beautiful since the clouds and mist had cleared a bit more. Upon getting back to the visitor center, dirty and smellier than we had ever been in life, we took a seat for 20 minutes then headed out onto our 10 miles hike home. it was short lived though, again hitchhiking and nice people pulling through to get us a ride back to our bus stop, I love nice people! That night we got home, settled into our hostel yet again and headed out for more groceries and another pizza hut pizza, which was again delicious. Upon getting home we met our roommate a middle aged aussie man who we talked with late into the night regarding politics, social welfare systems, peanut butter and jelly, we covered every aspect under the sun.
Day 8
Once again another early morning and a walk to the bus stop. We took the bus from new Plymouth down to wellington. On the ride we met another uni student heading back to her school in wellington who was super friendly as per usual who we got to ask all about life in NZ and life as a uni student for a Kiwi. (Side note: The attractive girls live on the north island. If you ever come to NZ and are a single male you will want to know this and will thank me later.) After a bus switch and six hours later we arrived in Wellington Exhausted from lack of sleep and long hikes still wearing on us. We found local hostel where we were able to store our bags for the few hours we'd get to spend in Wellington. Wellington was a really cool city, as expected being NZ's capital city. It was clean and had some really cool public art as well as some awesome capital buildings. We did a short hike through the botanical gardens to a lookout down onto the bay which was beautiful. We then found this cable car ride which was supposed to be awesome and to our surprise really cheap. We got there and asked how long of a ride it was, 15-20 minutes, so we figured it would just be a quick loop around the city which would be cool. Well...it turns out it was just a ride up a hill, maybe half a mile. Ending at the botanical gardens, then a ride right back down. We just laughed about it and enjoyed our ride, and re-enjoyed our view from the botanical gardens. After that we found ourselves some lovely McDonalds dinner and found our way to the airport to fly on home to ChCh. That night we got home took nice showers packed for our second week then headed off again towards queenstown. We drove through the night, still exhausted only catching brief naps until about 3am when we were running out of gas and decided to sleep in the car outside a gas station and waited for it to open. We got a couple hours of extremely uncomfortable sleep then again hit the road after refueling. We got to queenstown around 9:30am and started to explore the city, looking for fun things to do and a hostel to stay in for the next couple nights. We found a nice place with a kitchen in the room and four beds all to our own for $26 about $20 USD, it also offered us a spa (hot tub) and plenty of other little perks. The four bed place being perfect since we had met up with our friends Jon and will in chch and headed out with them. After settling into our place we decided to go out do jet boating. It was sooo fun and sooo cool. WE shot up shallow rivers and across big lakes, doing 180s and just flying around in general, we had a blast. After that we did some grocery shopping, and put some air in one of our tires which seems to be slowly losing air...eek. We then made dinner and settled in calling it an early night to finally get some good sleep and rest up for our big day the next day.
Day 9
We woke up and had a great breakfast of scrambled eggs and toast, then me and Luke broke off to go do the nevis bungy jump. We got there early and check in. By the time the bus came to pick us up and take us out to our site we were bursting with anticipation. The bus ride was about 45 minutes through some beautiful scenery and along some cliff sides. When we got there they harnessed us up and sent us out on a little basket type thing out to the main bungy pod. Me being the heaviest of the group of 11 went first. It was sooo scary. First they make you sit in this birthing type station to strap your feet in and get you all set up, the whole time you're looking over your shoulder out at what you're about to jump off. You then get up and waddled over to the edge, my heart was racing. I had to be asked to move further out onto the ledge, oh my goodness i was freaking out at this point. He started the countdown, 3...2...1...then gave me a suggestive nudge and i leapt out. The feeling was incredible and felt far from 8.5 seconds of free fall. It was sooo cool. Everyone should bungy at some point in their lives if given the chance. Especially the nevis if at all possible. Luke loved it too. After we jumped we were sent back across where we watched more people jump. After that we headed back into town to look for haircuts. We didn't have any luck finding cheap ones especially since we just want a couple of ridiculous hair do's but we did find a little piercing place where I decided to get my ear pierced. It's the inside part of my ear i got done. I got it there since my face isn't made for piercing and this would be a bit more hidden, except that she put a huge ball on it so it stands out pretty good in there. Overall, it was something I wanted to experience and have done now, so I’m more than satisfied with it. After that me and Luke headed back to the hostel and met up with john and will who mountain biked all day. From there Jon and Luke switched places and me and Jon went and got a fish and chip's lunch. After that we bought a couple scrumpies and went back to the room to start the drinking at 3 and to watch a movie til the other boys got back. From there we got an awesome dinner at fergburger, which served the most amazing burger ever, and then headed out to minus five bar where everything is made of ice, even the glasses, it was really cool. There were tons of different ice sculptures throughout it as well as some really nice ladies from Boston we talked to the majority of the time we were in there. We hopped to a few different bars from there and then after another stop for chips at fergburger called it a night.
Day 10
We woke up and checked out of our hostel then decided to make our way out to Wanaka. The drive was as expected gorgeous! We did a little hostel shopping then found our place for the night and settled in. We made a big lunch then went to walk around the town and check it out, and to find out when the Rugby match would be on. After we finished exploring we made a beautiful chicken alfredo for dinner then headed back out to the bar for the game. It was a blowout, all blacks (NZ's national team) vs. Samoa, 101-13, absolutely outrageous. After the game we watched some karaoke and then headed home since the other three boys have to get up early and ski.
Day 11
The boys got up and got the tire fixed then after hearing the snow report decided to wait another day for skiing. So instead we watched a movie and caught a bit more sleep. After that we headed out to do a hike which because of a missed turned we never found. However, the drive was absolutely beautiful and we did find a couple other shorts hikes to do. After exploring around and throwing the rugby around we went to the grocery store then went back and made a brilliant fajita dinner. After that we ate ice cream and relaxed for the night (mostly playing on kids play sets in the park), getting ready for checking out, heading to the glaciers, and hiking/skiing all day tomorrow.
Day 12
My day started off awesome, besides the fact that my camera screen broke. I slept in and checked us out of our hostel then headed out on my own, since everyone else had gone skiing, and started a beautiful hike up mt roy. I started along the lake, enjoying the sunshine and mountains then found my way along the road to the mt roy trail. The trail was pretty bland, about ten foot wide and just switchbacks all the way up the hillside, so I decided to liven things up a bit and started exploring the mountainside without the trail. It was fun, and the scenery was amazing. Looking down onto the lake was awesome as well as at all the surrounding mountains, and then into the town. After a few hours on the mountainside i decided to head back down and make my way into town, since I needed to be back for when the other guys got back from skiing. After struggling to find my way to the part of the coastal track I had skipped to make sure not to miss mount Roy, I was off again and headed back towards town. I was certainly pooped and ready to sit down when I got there and it's a good thing since we were looking at something like a 4 hours drive ahead up to fox glacier, where we would be staying for the next couple days. The ride was beautiful at first but quickly became quite dull when the sun went down. We made it there around 9pm thinking we'd have a note on the door stating where we were to go since we would be getting in after the office closed. We did find the note...but it wasn't for us. It was for some other group of Irish people, so we had absolutely no idea where to go or what to do. We contemplated simply sleeping in their kitchen, but before shacking up there we again met some extremely nice people who explored the hostel and found a room with four beds and no one in it (we didn't realize it was a no lock hostel and all we had to do was explore a bit, to find our way). We settled in and got ready for our days tomorrow.
Day 13
9:20 am i reported to fox glacier guide building. From there I started my day of all day hiking out on fox glacier. It was quite amazing! I had such a good time. Also, my guide looked just like Cornelius from the Rudolph the red nose reindeer claymation movie. Pretty much you just need to check out my pictures to see what i did all day. After getting back from my hike at approximately 5pm i met up with the guys, of which two sky dived in the morning, and we headed to Gillespies beach, which was as expected beautiful, like everything else in this country. We watched the sun set and skipped rocks out on the surf, which was quite large, then headed home for showers and a movie. The hostel we stayed in offered a huge projector screen to watch movies so we maxed and relaxed with that for the night.
Day 14
Our Final day…After sleeping in a bit we set off on the road towards Franz Josef glacier, the second of the two big ones. We got there took a few pictures but due to recent weather weren’t able to get very close, which was a bit disappointing. From there we headed up the west coast, which just so happens to be a rainforest, for another spectacular drive and for the pancake rocks. We got to punakaiki right as high tide hit which was perfect to see the blow holes. As the waves crashed in water shot up through different holes which had formed from the water erosion of the sandstone and limestone over the years. It was awesome, of course it was awesome and beautiful even without the shooting water, but who am I to complain about getting both. From there we headed off again on our way back to the Chch. We had to drive back across the country and through the beautiful mountains. Although it was dark by the end of them what we were able to see was fantastic. We all got home, and went our separate ways to shower, shave, get to work on our laundry and get ready for class the next day. In summary: The trip was absolutely amazing!
Day 5
Ahh, we got to sleep in which was so nice after the long day of kayaking. We also got to get back in touch with the world and jump online. After that we made our way to another healthy brunch of fish and chips, then we really started our day heading off onto a hike which ended up taking far longer than expected. It was really pretty however, which for the most part made up for the length. We first headed up to a look out to look over and out into the bay, which was gorgeous. For the next two hours however we didn’t see anything but the trees surrounding us. The forest was really cool and so was the trail although the ups and downs were absolutely exhausting. After finally making it through that portion of our trail we came to a trail sign saying we were still looking at about 4 hours of hiking yet…we were demoralized to say the least, however at this point we really had no choice but to forage on and head home. We reached the town of Opua and found a little shop bought a bit of food and an energy drink then headed off onto the last section of our trail, supposed to take some 2 hours. This was by far my favorite part of the trail, it was all along the coast looking out into the bay. Taking us into mangrove swamps and back a bit into what looked like a tropical forest. Along the way found a little shout off to a look out, it was up quite uneven and steep terrain. About half way up this little path we had a big step up where I completely tore open the crotch of my pants. The only pants I brought for this first half of the trip. After the sun set we finally found ourselves at home completely exhausted and run down but we had made it and that’s what matters. We were really excited for dinner too, spaghetti with sausage and with some homebrewed tea from some plants our kayak guide had suggested we make tea from. Well the tea tasted pretty good overall, although we didn’t have any sugar to sweeten it up a bit, but when we went to cook our sausages we only found out that they had been thrown out…so it was shells and a bit of tomato sauce for dinner, not the hardiest of meals. After dinner we took showers cleaned up played a bit of pool and then hit the hay more than ready for bed.
Day 6
Another early morning, we had a bus to catch. After trying to get up for the sunrise and reconsidering we slept another hour then got ourselves moving. We packed up and headed to our bus stop, then headed off to Auckland. We of course met awesome people again, one at the bus stop, Caroline from Scotland who lives in Swaziland, and another guy who’s name I never caught who was a professional photographer. He showed us some of the shoots he had done, his pictures were, as expected, spectacular. Although the start of the bus ride was a bit flat and farmy it ended up being one of my favorite drives thus far in NZ. Ocean on one side with rolling hills and mountains on the other. We got to our hostel and then meandered out onto the town. New Plymouth is a cool little town/city place. After buying a few groceries for our adventure we bought a pizza ate pizza hut which was delicious, we again headed back to the hostel where we et some amazing people, again. I'm sure by now you're sick of hearing about meeting amazing people but they're everywhere and we can't help it. We talked to them for a few hours and then called it a night getting prepared for our big tramp the next day.
Day 7
We got up early and prepared to start the day. We got on our very early bus, and headed out to Egmont village where we thought the visitor center and our hike started. What we didn't know is that we actually got dropped off about 16 km (10 miles) away from the START of our hike. We had no choice so we started walking thumbs out with hopes to catch a ride. Luckily we hadn't made it far when a park employee pulled over and gave us a ride to the top of the mountain, we got so lucky! From there we checked out the trail, talking to the park ranger, made a plan of action and headed out. It was the most amazing trip tramp I’ve ever done. Really rugged terrain, beautiful outlooks, diverse scenery, and a cool hut to stay in for the night. When we made it to our hut we signed in and checked out what everyone else had to say about the place we were staying for the night. Every comment above ours, every single one, said huge rat problem, or angry rat, or we slept good...after we barricaded our rat friend in for the night. Then on top of there being a rat problem, both me and Luke for matches or a lighter, so we had no means for lighting up the heater to keep us warm for the night, needless to say we were disappointed. But the view from out our hut window was amazing...and the stars that night, like nothing i had ever seen. Clear and twinkling and as far as the eye can see. It was just gorgeous. We woke up the next morning to a cold and rainy day. We packed up waited for a break in the weather and hit the trail back to the visitor center where we figured we have to complete our ten mile walk back to our bus stop. The trip back went much quicker the second time around but was even more beautiful since the clouds and mist had cleared a bit more. Upon getting back to the visitor center, dirty and smellier than we had ever been in life, we took a seat for 20 minutes then headed out onto our 10 miles hike home. it was short lived though, again hitchhiking and nice people pulling through to get us a ride back to our bus stop, I love nice people! That night we got home, settled into our hostel yet again and headed out for more groceries and another pizza hut pizza, which was again delicious. Upon getting home we met our roommate a middle aged aussie man who we talked with late into the night regarding politics, social welfare systems, peanut butter and jelly, we covered every aspect under the sun.
Day 8
Once again another early morning and a walk to the bus stop. We took the bus from new Plymouth down to wellington. On the ride we met another uni student heading back to her school in wellington who was super friendly as per usual who we got to ask all about life in NZ and life as a uni student for a Kiwi. (Side note: The attractive girls live on the north island. If you ever come to NZ and are a single male you will want to know this and will thank me later.) After a bus switch and six hours later we arrived in Wellington Exhausted from lack of sleep and long hikes still wearing on us. We found local hostel where we were able to store our bags for the few hours we'd get to spend in Wellington. Wellington was a really cool city, as expected being NZ's capital city. It was clean and had some really cool public art as well as some awesome capital buildings. We did a short hike through the botanical gardens to a lookout down onto the bay which was beautiful. We then found this cable car ride which was supposed to be awesome and to our surprise really cheap. We got there and asked how long of a ride it was, 15-20 minutes, so we figured it would just be a quick loop around the city which would be cool. Well...it turns out it was just a ride up a hill, maybe half a mile. Ending at the botanical gardens, then a ride right back down. We just laughed about it and enjoyed our ride, and re-enjoyed our view from the botanical gardens. After that we found ourselves some lovely McDonalds dinner and found our way to the airport to fly on home to ChCh. That night we got home took nice showers packed for our second week then headed off again towards queenstown. We drove through the night, still exhausted only catching brief naps until about 3am when we were running out of gas and decided to sleep in the car outside a gas station and waited for it to open. We got a couple hours of extremely uncomfortable sleep then again hit the road after refueling. We got to queenstown around 9:30am and started to explore the city, looking for fun things to do and a hostel to stay in for the next couple nights. We found a nice place with a kitchen in the room and four beds all to our own for $26 about $20 USD, it also offered us a spa (hot tub) and plenty of other little perks. The four bed place being perfect since we had met up with our friends Jon and will in chch and headed out with them. After settling into our place we decided to go out do jet boating. It was sooo fun and sooo cool. WE shot up shallow rivers and across big lakes, doing 180s and just flying around in general, we had a blast. After that we did some grocery shopping, and put some air in one of our tires which seems to be slowly losing air...eek. We then made dinner and settled in calling it an early night to finally get some good sleep and rest up for our big day the next day.
Day 9
We woke up and had a great breakfast of scrambled eggs and toast, then me and Luke broke off to go do the nevis bungy jump. We got there early and check in. By the time the bus came to pick us up and take us out to our site we were bursting with anticipation. The bus ride was about 45 minutes through some beautiful scenery and along some cliff sides. When we got there they harnessed us up and sent us out on a little basket type thing out to the main bungy pod. Me being the heaviest of the group of 11 went first. It was sooo scary. First they make you sit in this birthing type station to strap your feet in and get you all set up, the whole time you're looking over your shoulder out at what you're about to jump off. You then get up and waddled over to the edge, my heart was racing. I had to be asked to move further out onto the ledge, oh my goodness i was freaking out at this point. He started the countdown, 3...2...1...then gave me a suggestive nudge and i leapt out. The feeling was incredible and felt far from 8.5 seconds of free fall. It was sooo cool. Everyone should bungy at some point in their lives if given the chance. Especially the nevis if at all possible. Luke loved it too. After we jumped we were sent back across where we watched more people jump. After that we headed back into town to look for haircuts. We didn't have any luck finding cheap ones especially since we just want a couple of ridiculous hair do's but we did find a little piercing place where I decided to get my ear pierced. It's the inside part of my ear i got done. I got it there since my face isn't made for piercing and this would be a bit more hidden, except that she put a huge ball on it so it stands out pretty good in there. Overall, it was something I wanted to experience and have done now, so I’m more than satisfied with it. After that me and Luke headed back to the hostel and met up with john and will who mountain biked all day. From there Jon and Luke switched places and me and Jon went and got a fish and chip's lunch. After that we bought a couple scrumpies and went back to the room to start the drinking at 3 and to watch a movie til the other boys got back. From there we got an awesome dinner at fergburger, which served the most amazing burger ever, and then headed out to minus five bar where everything is made of ice, even the glasses, it was really cool. There were tons of different ice sculptures throughout it as well as some really nice ladies from Boston we talked to the majority of the time we were in there. We hopped to a few different bars from there and then after another stop for chips at fergburger called it a night.
Day 10
We woke up and checked out of our hostel then decided to make our way out to Wanaka. The drive was as expected gorgeous! We did a little hostel shopping then found our place for the night and settled in. We made a big lunch then went to walk around the town and check it out, and to find out when the Rugby match would be on. After we finished exploring we made a beautiful chicken alfredo for dinner then headed back out to the bar for the game. It was a blowout, all blacks (NZ's national team) vs. Samoa, 101-13, absolutely outrageous. After the game we watched some karaoke and then headed home since the other three boys have to get up early and ski.
Day 11
The boys got up and got the tire fixed then after hearing the snow report decided to wait another day for skiing. So instead we watched a movie and caught a bit more sleep. After that we headed out to do a hike which because of a missed turned we never found. However, the drive was absolutely beautiful and we did find a couple other shorts hikes to do. After exploring around and throwing the rugby around we went to the grocery store then went back and made a brilliant fajita dinner. After that we ate ice cream and relaxed for the night (mostly playing on kids play sets in the park), getting ready for checking out, heading to the glaciers, and hiking/skiing all day tomorrow.
Day 12
My day started off awesome, besides the fact that my camera screen broke. I slept in and checked us out of our hostel then headed out on my own, since everyone else had gone skiing, and started a beautiful hike up mt roy. I started along the lake, enjoying the sunshine and mountains then found my way along the road to the mt roy trail. The trail was pretty bland, about ten foot wide and just switchbacks all the way up the hillside, so I decided to liven things up a bit and started exploring the mountainside without the trail. It was fun, and the scenery was amazing. Looking down onto the lake was awesome as well as at all the surrounding mountains, and then into the town. After a few hours on the mountainside i decided to head back down and make my way into town, since I needed to be back for when the other guys got back from skiing. After struggling to find my way to the part of the coastal track I had skipped to make sure not to miss mount Roy, I was off again and headed back towards town. I was certainly pooped and ready to sit down when I got there and it's a good thing since we were looking at something like a 4 hours drive ahead up to fox glacier, where we would be staying for the next couple days. The ride was beautiful at first but quickly became quite dull when the sun went down. We made it there around 9pm thinking we'd have a note on the door stating where we were to go since we would be getting in after the office closed. We did find the note...but it wasn't for us. It was for some other group of Irish people, so we had absolutely no idea where to go or what to do. We contemplated simply sleeping in their kitchen, but before shacking up there we again met some extremely nice people who explored the hostel and found a room with four beds and no one in it (we didn't realize it was a no lock hostel and all we had to do was explore a bit, to find our way). We settled in and got ready for our days tomorrow.
Day 13
9:20 am i reported to fox glacier guide building. From there I started my day of all day hiking out on fox glacier. It was quite amazing! I had such a good time. Also, my guide looked just like Cornelius from the Rudolph the red nose reindeer claymation movie. Pretty much you just need to check out my pictures to see what i did all day. After getting back from my hike at approximately 5pm i met up with the guys, of which two sky dived in the morning, and we headed to Gillespies beach, which was as expected beautiful, like everything else in this country. We watched the sun set and skipped rocks out on the surf, which was quite large, then headed home for showers and a movie. The hostel we stayed in offered a huge projector screen to watch movies so we maxed and relaxed with that for the night.
Day 14
Our Final day…After sleeping in a bit we set off on the road towards Franz Josef glacier, the second of the two big ones. We got there took a few pictures but due to recent weather weren’t able to get very close, which was a bit disappointing. From there we headed up the west coast, which just so happens to be a rainforest, for another spectacular drive and for the pancake rocks. We got to punakaiki right as high tide hit which was perfect to see the blow holes. As the waves crashed in water shot up through different holes which had formed from the water erosion of the sandstone and limestone over the years. It was awesome, of course it was awesome and beautiful even without the shooting water, but who am I to complain about getting both. From there we headed off again on our way back to the Chch. We had to drive back across the country and through the beautiful mountains. Although it was dark by the end of them what we were able to see was fantastic. We all got home, and went our separate ways to shower, shave, get to work on our laundry and get ready for class the next day. In summary: The trip was absolutely amazing!
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