Holiday in New Zealand

6 friends: Cameron, Caitlin, Devin, Trenton, Chris, and Me

10 days

1 camper van

South Island, New Zealand

Our trip started off by waking up at 3 am to catch a flight from Sydney to Christchurch, New Zealand. When I arrived in New Zealand I found the hostel and explored Christchurch a little bit. I crashed early that night and woke up the next morning to find the girls running up to the hostel after they had just pushed the broken campervan down the street. Once we got a new camper van, we started our adventure around the south island. Our first stop was Lake Tekapo where we found a nice spot off the side of the road for our first night of sleep. Surprisingly, a few snowflakes had fallen that morning and we were all unprepared for the chilly weather. We began to realize that nature pee’s and no showers would be common this trip J

Waking up at Lake Tekapo was beautiful; we explored around the lake and found a tiny beautiful church that overlooked the lake. The water was incredibly blue from the glaciers and as we traveled that day we were amazed by the breathtaking views so of course we stopped off along scenic points whenever we got a chance. On our drive to Wanaka, we came across a “free food” sign and pulled over to check it out. New Zealand is starting a “driver reviver” program to keep their drivers’ safe and alert. We got free lattes, apples, bbq, candy, etc. It was amazing and much needed J

We made it to Wanaka and gazed at the stars that night. We pulled off the side of the road to sleep that night and apparently it is illegal. We were woken up at 4:45 am to a loud knock from the council of security. They made us move or the cops were coming to fine us. Chris frantically yet half asleep quickly drove away to another location.

The boys went skydiving and the girls enjoyed a beautiful day at the hot pools. We met up with the boys and heard about their thrilling adventure and finished the night by eating dinner by the lake and enjoying the sunset. We headed to Queenstown that night. Once we arrived we walked along the quaint little town and ran into Mike and Sean (friends from Clemson). We got to catch up a little and they decided to crash along our trip for a few days with us. We sat and listened to live music.

BUNGY JUMPING NEVIS!!! We woke up with nerves, knowing we would be jumping 143 meters from a pod. We made it and all jumped. It was an incredible peaceful experience and we all made it alive (although I got a hemorrhage in my left eyeball from the negative force) but no worries, I have another eyeball J It was definitely worth the thrilling experience. We went hiking afterwards and at the top of the mountain there was a luge. It was hilarious and so fun as we all luged back down the mountain. That night we headed for Milford Sound. On our way to Milford Sound we found a fallen avalanche that had formed into an igloo.

Milford Sound was beautiful but once we got there we decided to explore around. We found a gate that we climbed over and trekked through to arrive upon a giant waterfall and to get better views of this place. It was incredible.

On our way to Mt. Cook, we stopped off at Chasm. We hiked and got lost in a jungle where the boys found a cliff that led into the glaciered water. After we strategically climbed down to capture photos of the boys jumping off the cliff we headed back through Queenstown to grab dinner before we arrived at our next stop, Mt. Cook.

On our way to Mt. Cook, we all had to entertain ourselves and stay awake by singing and dancing to requested songs. And each night we had the lovely opportunities of hearing stories about gnomes that Trenton would creatively make up and share with the van-winches. As we drive all through New Zealand we have realized that more sheep inhabit the land than humans. Thousands of sheep, farm-raised deer, elk, cows, and lamas populate New Zealand.

Once we got to Mt. Cook, we hiked up Tazman glacier lake and blue pools. It was beautiful and on our last night we stopped in a town called, Geraldine. It was the creepiest town but we needed to charge up our vehicle at a trailer park J

We arrived back at the camper van place to turn it in and in hopes that they wouldn’t see the crack that we put in the side and a few other damages along the way. The boys flew out that night and we stayed another night at a backpackers in Christchurch. The next morning I went to the airport, yet couldn’t fly out because the flights were too full for standby. I was stuck in the airport and slept on the floor that night. I was able to fly out the next morning and make it back home to Newcastle.

New Zealand is an incredibly beautiful place.