New Zealand: The South Island

On my departure from sunny Brisbane last week I headed for New Zealand for a week of exploring before beginning the long trip back to the US. I have had a great week in New Zealand, but knowing I can’t go back to Brisbane at the end of my travels I think I am finally ready to come home and am looking forward to stepping onto that plane in a few hours. I’ll share with you some of my adventures from the past week:

Christchurch

Christchurch Cathedral

I flew into Auckland late on Tuesday evening and hoped on a plane to the south island the next morning. My first stop was Christchurch, the garden city. The centre of Christchurch is a beautiful cathedral, the Christchurch Cathedral. I spent some time visiting the cathedral and then watching some entertaining street performers in the main town square outside the cathedral.

Cathedral Window

Botanical Gardens.

This part of the city forms one end of the cultural precinct and I spent the rest of my day exploring the rest. There are a bunch of neat old buildings filled with different museums and craft centres. These places were interesting to browse through, however my favourite places to visit were the banks of the river and the botanical gardens. The river has gondoliers that will take you for a ride down the river and since it is spring time in New Zealand there were many beautiful flowers throughout the botanical gardens. I would have loved to have more time to explore the city but the next morning it was on to my next destination.

Gondaliers

Tranz Scenic Railway

Southern Alps

Thursday morning I hopped on the Tranz Scenic Railway which travels from Christchurch to Greymouth across the Southern Alps. Turns out I picked the right day to do this journey as it was the 20th birthday of the trip and as such we got extra perks, like birthday cake. I was even interviewed for the local new station, so who knows maybe Im famous throughout New Zealand now.

The trip began by travelling through the Canterbury Planes which are mostly farmland. Lots and lots of sheep, but pretty non-the less. After making it through the planes, the real scenery began as we entered the Alps. The glacial rivers and snow-covered mountains were beautiful making it an enjoyable trip across the middle of New Zealand.

Glacial Rivers

Greymouth

The train arrived into Greymouth which is probably best known as the entrance to the west coast of the south island. It is a fairly small town; however, a lot of people stop here on their way around the island so it is slowly growing with things to do. I opted to spend my afternoon in Greymouth visiting Dragon Cave to try black water rafting. This is something I had been wanting to do in New Zealand after reading about a place on the North Island in an airline magazine so I was excited to find a place to do it in the South.

Caving!

The term rafting is a bit misleading as for the most part you are walking or swimming through the cave and it is only for part of it that you are floating down the river in the cave, but it was fun none-the-less. After receiving our gear (wetsuits, thermal shirts, gum boots, helmets and lights) we drove about 10 minutes to the cave. From here we had a 20 minute walk to the cave which was quite toasty in all our gear (on of the few times I can say I was hot in New Zealand!). Once we made it to the cave we began our descent into the dark. There was a river running into the entrance of the cave so the initial part of the trip involved climbing over rocks and wading through the river as we made our way down.

After a bit we made it to a pool of water that was deep enough to swim across and we got our first chance to swim in the cave. It was cold! After our short swim we stopped for an afternoon tea of sorts: candy bars and hot chocolate. The hot chocolate hit the spot after the cold swim. We turned off our lights while we had this snack and got our first glimpse of the glow worms living in the cave are quite pretty creatures, although not when you look at them up close.

Jumping off a Waterfall

After our snack we continued down the cave and had a chance to jump off a waterfall into the pool of water below it. The waterfall wasn’t super high but it was still a fun jump and beat the other option taken by some – using a ladder. Not long after the jump we made it to the final part of our venture down into the cave, the tubing. After hopping on our tubes we got to float down a segment of the cave in the dark while watching the glow worms. At times there were so many it was like the night sky.

Innertube Time!

After floating down the cave it was time to head back up to the entrance. I opted to take a different route through a small tunnel along the side. At times it got a bit tricky weaving through the narrow passage and navigating the sometimes deep pools of water you needed to climb through. At the end there was a small hole (called the rebirth) the squeeze your way through. We of course all made it and exited the cave.

Small Spaces!

On the way back to the van we stopped at the hydroslide. After being briefed on the dangers (something tells me they wouldn’t let you do it in the US) we had a go. Our guide was a bit more conservative than the others, saying he would only let us go once as in his experience people are careful and do it correctly the first time and then keep doing it again and again until they hurt themselves. I had my try, and apparently did it correctly (which is indicated by the amount of water you get up your nose). It was a fun ride but I think once was more than enough for me as it wasn’t exactly a smooth trip.

Franz Josef Glacier

Franz Josef Glacier.

My UQ Friends: Trish, Tyler and Lincoln.

Friday morning I caught an early morning bus (my $1 NZ fare!) to Franz Josef glacier. On arrival at the glacier I met up with three friends from Brisbane: Tyler (one of my roommates), Trish and Lincoln. We joined up with Franz Josef Glacier guides to do a guided hike of the face of the glacier. After a 40 minute hike to the glacier we were split up into groups for our time on the glacier. We opted for the sure on your feet/adventurous group which Trish and I were a bit unsure about but ended up being the right decision. The build and maintain a track around the glacier through steps they cut into the ice. After strapping on our crampons we began our trek up the face of the glacier. I was quite surprised at the beginning of the trip by how dirty and rocky (you could hardly see any snow or ice) the face of the glacier was; however, as we made our way higher up the face we began to see some of the more beautiful parts. The highlight of the trip was squeezing ourselves through a newly formed crevasse. Inside this space the ice was a vibrant blue because it was newly exposed and much more like I had pictured a glacier to be like. We also got to see some caves that were being formed although none were quite big enough to walk through.

Crevasse.

Narrower Yet.

Tyler with the Axe.

Bus to Queenstown

I had expected my trip from Franz Josef to Queenstown to be one of the more boring days of my trip; however, the bus stopped a lot of views of the sights and to stretch our legs that I got to see a lot more than I expected. I have included some pictures from this trip:

Knight’s Point

Lake Wanaka.

Queenstown from the Highest Sealed Road in New Zealand.

Milford Sound

Te Anu.

On my first day in Queenstown I joined a tour to Milford Sound. Milford Sound is located about 61km from Queenstown; however, because the road must weave around mountains the journey is around 231km. The journey starts much like the trip from Christchurch to Greymouth: lots of farmland. Our first stop was in Te Anu: to pick up some passengers and to allow the driver a break so he meets driving regulations. I was quite happy to have this stop as there was a beautiful rainbow over the lake and I liked having a chance to see it.

Plains of Fiordland National Park.

Shortly after leaving Te Anu the real highlights of the trip began as we entered Fiordland National Park. (All of the water ways were misnamed as sounds when discovered which has been acknowledged by naming the park after fjords – although it is spelled wrong). The scenery from this park is right out of Lord of the Rings and reminded me a lot of the scenery in Tasmania. We had several stops on our way to Milford Sound and the journey itself was quite spectacular. It rained throughout much of the trip but this turned out to be an added bonus as the waterfalls were bigger and there were hundreds if not thousands of waterfalls that only appear during the rain – it was amazing!

Waterfalls.

Milford Sound.

Milford Sound itself was also quite beautiful as it too was covered in waterfalls. We lucked out and the rain stopped about halfway through the 2 hour boat trip around the sound. Some other highlights from the sound included seeing New Zealand Fur Seals, Dolphins and 3 rare crested penguins that are only found in New Zealand. It was our lucky day.

Milford Sound Waterfalls.

Rare Crested Penguins.

A more permanent, big waterfall.

The sun came out for most of our trip back so we got to see the scenery in the sun as well although we didn’t get to stop.

Queenstown

View of Queenstown from the Skyline Gondola.

Queenstown is a very beautiful town as it sits on Lake Wakatipu (the third largest lake in New Zealand) and is surrounded by mountains (including one range called the Remarkables). Queenstown is known for being an adventure town (lots of skydiving, bungee jumping and other extreme activities) but I opted for a more scenic experience with lots of tramping (hiking in this part of the world). I took the skyline gondola up one of the mountains behind Queenstown and spent some time doing some tramping on the mountain top. There were some great views from up there. Afterwards, I walked along the edge of the lake – not the whole way as it is about 50 miles long and there isn’t trail around the whole thing about most of the track near Queenstown.

Tramping Views.

Forrest.

Lake Wakatipu.

Lake Wakatipu.

Neat clouds at Sunset.

Shortly I begin the long trip back home. I will be flying to LA with Tyler and Trish and it will be good to have some company along the way although I plan to sleep as much of the flight as possible. I am looking forward to seeing you all but not the cold – it’s been 60 degrees for most of my time in New Zealand and I have been cold most of the time, needless to say I’m a bit scared for the 30 degree temperatures I’ve seen in the weather forecasts for Minnesota. Brrr!