Twenty Day South Island Adventure!

I broke down my 20 days of traveling and stories in the South Island to day-by-day to make it easier for you all to read (as well as for me to write and keep track of everything).  This post is gigantic, but I manged to see and do so many things that there is a lot to cover.

For my adventure I had signed up for a trip down the west coast of the South Island offered by my program, TEAN, which started on March 30th and lasted until April 6th.  However, I found out that if I left a few days earlier I could save money on flights so I made a few arrangements and spent an extra couple days in the Christchurch area and visited some friends that attend Lincoln University.  My Spring Break also lasted longer than April 6th so I decided to leave tack on an extra week to travel travel further south and then back up on the east coast again to see some fellow TEAN’ers at Otago University in Dunedin.

I would like to wish you the best of luck in making it to the end…Ready. Set. Good luck.

Day 1: March 26th – My adventure begins!

I caught a 6:40pm bus from Palmy and rode down to Wellington and stayed the night with a fellow NZ TEAN’er to catch my flight to Christchurch the next day.

Day 2:  March 27th – Hello, Christchurch!

I woke up early to make my way to the airport to catch my flight at 8 in the morning. I got a nice surprise while in the terminal as I discovered a few other NZ TEAN’ers were on my same flight down to Christchurch!

Once I landed in Christchurch, I made my way to the local buses to take me to the city center and then caught a bus out to Lincoln University where I would be staying the next few days with a fellow TEAN’er, Alyssa and some other friends.

Lincoln is similar to my uni back in Palmerston; rural and secluded.  My plan once I got to Lincoln was to hit up a store for some fruit but to my luck I didn’t have to spend money as there was an orchard right on the campus! I was able to grab myself some freshly picked apples and peacherines (A peach and nectarine hybrid). Pretty relaxed day exploring the Lincoln campus and meeting everyone 🙂

Day 3: March 28th – Let’s bounce back Christchurch

Today I went into the city of Christchurch to do some exploring.  For those of you that don’t know, Christchurch is the second largest city in New Zealand; and in 2011 it was severely damaged by an earthquake.

Despite the fact that the earthquake was two years ago, the city is still pretty destroyed and a little dead. If I didn’t know any better I would have thought that the earthquake had hit just last month! The destruction zone (a greater portion of downtown) is now closed off and is labeled The Red Zone. Tours are given of the area to explain what exactly has happened and to explain the rebuilding process of the city and how it is changing.

The city has also set up a project in an attempt to get itself back up on its feet. It’s current most active part is the Re:Start Mall which is an outdoor mall consisting of old shipping containers used as business shops, food courts, and cafes. It’s a pretty creative idea and it gave the dying city some life!

To learn more about the Re:Start project check out the site here at: Christchurch City Re:Start

Day 4:  March 29th – Sumner Beach

Woke up today and said goodbye to all my friends at Lincoln and then headed into the city to check into my hostel the Christchurch YMCA.  It was at the YMCA that I would later be meeting my TEAN Spring Break for our 9-Day South Island Adventure!  The group consisted of some  TEAN-Australia people, one fellow TEAN NZ’er (Evan), and myself.

I made it to the hostel around 10 am only to discover that check wasn’t until 2pm… Luckily, they allowed me to store my bags in their luggage area and I was able to make my way to Sumner Beach for the day!

Sumner is about a twenty-thirty minute bus ride from the city bus station, and completely worth visiting. The beach was really nice; there were a ton of people playing in the sand, sun bathing, swimming, surfing, and paddle boarding. I didn’t end up going swimming, but rather I walked along the beach front and went on some hiking trails nearby that provided me with some incredible birds-eye views of the beach. Once I reached the top of the hill I was displeased to discover that the trail had just completely stopped…it took me a minute to realize that the trail didn’t stop, but instead it was completely whipped out by the earthquake.  The whole side of the cliff was just completely no more- guardrail, concrete, and all were now a pile of rubble several meters below the water. The amount of destruction done by the earthquake is mind blowing, especially since it was two years ago!

I managed to find myself another trail that lead to a different part of the hill and then back down to the beach front. Once I got back to the beach I continued walking on the sand to where a crowd of people were gathered around a boat that was stranded in the middle of the sand. It appeared that it had washed up with the tide, and as the tide went back out the boat stayed. After I grabbed the necessary pictures, I made my way to a little fish ‘n’ chips place to grab some lunch.

After lunch I made my way back to the hostel to freshen up and then went for a walk through the Christchurch Botanic Gardens while I waited for Evan to get in. Once Evan arrived we managed to find a cheap place for dinner and then went back to the hostel for the night. The majority of the Australian TEAN’ers didn’t arrive until the middle of the night- so it was wise for us to get some Z’s to prepare for tomorrow.

Day 5: March 30th – TEAN/Stray South Island Adventure: Day 1!

Checked out of the hostel early in the morning and finally met the Australian TEAN’ers and our driver for our trip, Sandfly (no that’s not his real name but a nickname that every Stray driver gets).  Turns out, our trip was a Stray Travel trip! Which, anyone planning to come visit New Zealand and travel around I highly recommend Stray.

We began our long day of travel in our mini stray bus by everyone going one-by-one to the ‘hot seat’ and introducing ourselves to the group: name, what we were most excited to do in NZ, and provide an embarrassing story.

The main destination for Day 1 was to Franz Josef. Along the way we drove through Arthurs Pass and saw Castle Hill, which is a great place to partake in bouldering.  

[For any of you Chronicles of Narnia fans, this is also where battle scenes were shot] 

Our first stop of the day was in the Jade Capital of New Zealand, Hokitika. Here we got a chance to walk around to see a few jade shops, view the jade workshop, and grab some lunch.  After lunch we continued our journey and made another stop at an interesting place, The Bushman’s Centre.

The Bushman’s Centre was established to show visitors to the region how the locals use their forests, and also provide some background on the deer industry within New Zealand.  While at the centre we watched a video providing us with background information on the deer industry, and how deer farming and the deer farm came to be in New Zealand today. Summing up the history, deer were brought into the country and then quickly became overpopulated and began destroying the country. Hunting began and the venison market quickly took roots and made big bucks. The interesting thing about the type of hunting found within New Zealand is that deer were hunted with a net gun and helicopters. Back in the day, people used to jump out of the helicopters onto the deer in order to capture them. Pretty neat history! Also, while at the Bushman Centre, we were able to see some deer, a wallaby, some possums, and an eel.

As we continued on down the west coast, we finally arrived at our destination for the next few days, Franz Josef. The town of Franz Josef is extremely small, approximately 300 people live there yearly and the town pretty much consists of two streets. In Franz Josef we stayed at Rainforest Retreat, which also nicely had its own spa hot tub and restaurant and bar, Monsoon. After checking in, a few of us went to go explore the whole two streets of Franz Josef (which took about ten minutes) and we managed to stumble upon a bakery that was just about to close. The baker hadn’t sold all of his freshly baked goods for the day, he gave us a good deal and I walked away with a snack and the next day’s breakfast!

Day 6:  March 31st – TEAN/Stray South Island Adventure: Day 2!

Everyone eagerly woke up for our adventurous day hiking on the Franz Josef glacier; however, we were quickly disappointed to discover that all heli-hikes were cancelled for the day due over cloudiness. Damn! Well…there goes the day….NOT!

If we couldn’t hike on the glacier, we were sure as hell determined to at least hike to it! After we all went back to the hostel we waited around until after lunch time to start the approximate 8 mile trek round trip to the glacier. Adding to the already exciting day, the rain gods decided they wanted us to be soaked for the entire hike. No matter! We continued on hiking until we reached the final glacier viewing point, only 300 meters away from the base.

Reaching the view point brightened everyone’s day and to add to our newly found energy and joy the rain gods decided to stop raining and the sun outstretched its rays to brighten up the glacial valley (at least, until we turned around to head back to the hostel).

Later that night we decided to celebrate our trek to the glacier by visiting one of the local pubs in town!

 

 

 

 

Day 7:  April 1st – TEAN/Stray South Island Adventure: Day 3!

Bye-bye Franz Josef! We woke up to get on our bus at 9am when our bus driver, Sandfly, informed us that we could make a pit stop near Fox Glacier for anyone who wanted to skydiving.

Sadly, I did not have the funds, but six people were luckily enough to jump out of a plane high above the glacial coast of New Zealand.

While the skydivers were skydiving, the rest of us went to Lake Matheson. Lake Matheson is known as the mirror lake that provides a stellar reflection of Mt. Cook (on a good day). The views and reflections from Lake Matheson were breath-taking; take a look yourself at the pictures below!

Once we retrieved the skydivers we made our way to the popular Haas Beach where we had the opportunity to look for our own pounamu (a.k.a. New Zealand greenstone). I managed to find a greenstone…just not the legit pounamu 😦

After we quickly devoured our lunch in Haas we made our way to the Makaroa River for our jet boating activity. Due to false information, no one ended up bringing a camera on the jet boat ride; which I suppose is fair so that I can spare you all with the incredibly gorgeous pictures that would have done the real thing absolutely no justice. Instead, just imagine yourself jet boating 70 kph through a river valley with enormous, cannot-put-into-words-how-beautiful mountains on either side. The experience was thrilling and definitely something that had to be added and then checked off of my bucket list.

On the way to our final destination for the day we stopped at lookout points for two different lakes:

Lake Wanaka and Lake Hawae. Lake Hawae is known as the ‘richmans’ lake; there are only about 13 yearly residents, and celebrities like Brad Pitt and Russell Crowe have houses on the lake.

At Wanaka we checked into our hostel and later in the evening a group of us headed down to the lake to sit by the lake side and listened to the relaxing flow of the water and gazed up into the night sky to spot a few shooting stars.

Side note, fun fact! We took a bet before we left Franz Glacier as to how many single-lane bridges were between Franz and Wanaka; overall there are 26 and the longest was Haas Bridge (<---good jeopardy stuff right there)

Day 8 – April 2nd – TEAN/Stray South Island Adventure: Day 4!

First stop of the day, Puzzling World! We spent our morning testing our brains with the different puzzles, optical illusions, and the world’s first “3-D” Great Maze.

After discovering our way through the maze we headed off to Cromwell and stopped at Mrs. Jones ice-cream and fruit stand. Fruit AND ice-cream —what more could I ask for?

After leaving Mrs. Jones, we headed for the Kawarau Bridge to get some information on bungee jumping and to watch a few people jump. We were delayed on the way as traffic got stopped due to some mining activity near the road. The weather was too nice to sit on the bus and wait, so we piled out of the bus and played some games like the human knot and ninja, which brought us back to our freshman orientation days. We also finally took a group picture, or well….several (thanks Sandfly for being a good sport and taking a picture on everyone’s camera!)

AJ Hackett – Kawarau Bridge Bungy
Home! I was ecstatic to have arrived at the place where bungee had originated! I am in love and admit to being a bungee freak (I did two while I was studying in Costa Rica last semester).

After walking out onto the Kawarau Bridge and watching a few people jump I went inside to ask about adding the Ledge Bungy and the Kawarau Bridge Bungy to my already booked Nevis Bungy — all-in-all, I was aiming to sign up for the Thrillogy! Sadly the K-Bridge was booked for the day, so I made plans to talk with another person in charge once I got the Nevis Bungy a few days later. Since no one else from the group wanted to add anything, we continued onto Queenstown…

Queenstown is one of the most beautiful places I have ever seen in my life. It is nicknamed the Adventure Capital of the World. Once we got checked into our hostel, Nomads, Evan and I quickly went to go book a trip to Milford Sound for the following day and afterwards we met back up with the group to head up to the Queenstown Skyline and rode the gondola to get a spectacular view of the area and to ride the famous Queenstown luge.

My trip took a drastic turn of events as I ended up dislocating my shoulder by crashing on the luge.

Yes, go ahead, feel free to laugh – I’m still not really sure what exactly happened…one moment I’m sitting on the cart heading down the track, and the next I’m picking myself up off the ground. I didn’t realize the impact the crash had had as I picked myself off the ground and continued down the track to the finish. Once I got to the finish I sensed a surge of pain through the entire left side of my body, and was unable to lift my left arm. It became extremely obvious that it was a dislocation as my arm gradually sank two inches. With the help of some AMAZING friends (seriously Steph, Liz, and Evan- you guys are awesome) and our driver Sandfly, I managed to get from the top of the mountain, ride the gondola down, and walk to the hospital.

If you want to know how to get the workers to speed up the gondola for a faster ride, just dislocate your arm…no actually on second thought, don’t do that.  It’s just not worth the pain.

It took about two hours before the doctor and nurse could pump me with enough morphine, codeine, and laughing gas before they could pop my shoulder back into the socket. The relief felt after the pop back into place is indescribable! Only those who have ever had that experience will understand what I mean, but WOW! Apparently, it was one of the worst dislocations they had ever seen, well…I guess when I do it – I do it good. After some recovery time, I was taken back to the hostel to rest, and luckily once again my friends helped me out by getting myself situated, getting me food, water, powerade, wifi, and my medicine. Thank god for my friends! I seriously could not have asked to be traveling with a better group of people. Thank you Steph, Liz, Evan, Amanda, and Angela!!!

Even through all the commotion and trouble, they were even nice to surprise me with a shot glass to go with my collection from all the places I have been.

Haha, Steph and Evan, thank you so much for the shot glass….but once is definitely more than enough!

 

Edited Note: Later on I ended up writing a post about my incident on the TEAN Blog.  Feel free to check it out: Dislocation in Queenstown: My Adrenaline Crazed Disaster

Day 9 – April 3rd – TEAN/Stray South Island Adventure: Day 5!

Well…due to the incident of yesterday Evan and I had to cancel our Milford Sound trip.
In the morning I went to go get x-rays, and then to see a physical therapist and got fit for a sling that could keep my arm out to the side and allow the shoulder to heal better. Luckily the x-rays showed that everything appeared to go back into place as it should, so with some luck and careful healing I shouldn’t need surgery….just walking away with a higher likelihood of dislocating it again (which, is normal).  Luckily enough, the doctors approved me to continue my traveling around the south island for the next week and a half!

In the afternoon I went with Evan to watch him go swing over a canyon on the Shotover Canyon Swing, the World’s Highest Cliff Jump. The swing consists of a 60 meter freefall and then a 200 meter swing. Evan was crazy enough, he did it twice!

After the swing we came back to Queenstown and met with up with some of the others to get the ‘best burger in the world’ Fergburger. One of the best burgers I’ve had in my life! If you check out the menu online, I tried the Southern Swine.

 

Day 10 – April 4th – TEAN/Stray South Island Adventure: Day 6!

The Nevis Bungy jump day –
The Nevis bungee is the largest bungee in Australasia, being 134 meters above the Nevis river.  I was extremely disappointed that I was now unable to participate in the one activity I SO desired. Although I couldn’t jump, I went along to support my friends. I was surprised to find out that although I couldn’t jump, I was allowed to suit up and take the tram out to the jumping platform with everyone. It was a very bitter-sweet morning but I’m super glad that I went and at least got to see firsthand at what I will be doing before I leave the country (hoping for a good recovery!).

After everyone bungee jumped and purchased their souvenirs we went back to the city. I strolled around the Queenstown waterfront and checked out some of the souvenir shops and made my way through the Queenstown Gardens and ended up relaxing by the lake, Lake Wakatipu.

 

Later in the evening we all went out to celebrate our last night as a group in Queenstown by going on a small pub crawl around the city.

At one of the pubs we went to, there was a mechanical bull which Evan tried his luck at and managed to stay on for about 3 seconds (congrats, dude). Although I missed out on all of the adventure activities in Queenstown, it was still a great day.

Day 11 – April 5th – TEAN/Stray South Island Adventure: Day 7

Time to say goodbye 😥

After spending the past week with the TEAN Australia people and my fellow NZ TEAN’er, Evan, it was time to our goodbye and exchange contact info.  The rest of the group was continuing their trip by heading back to Christchurch and head to their respective universities while I was staying in Queenstown for a few more days before I made my way south to the town, Invercargill.

After the goodbyes were all said, I wheeled by bag a few blocks over to my new hostel, Absoloot. On this morning the clouds began to clear and reveal the tops of the mountain covered in a fresh layer of snow – it was the first snow fall of the year, the first sign that winter was on its way! The view was magnificent! I went around the city taking pictures of the snowy mountains and the lake; even managed to capture one of my favorite images of the entire trip of the snowy covered Remarkables [Mountains].

Later in the afternoon I met up with some NZ TEAN’ers studying in Dunedin, Marne and Jess, and a few of their friends to go hike Queenstown Hill.

The hike took about two hours and gave us a great view of the city, lake, and surrounding mountains. This was certainly a day for incredible views of Queenstown. I swear this place is not real! I don’t know how many times I pinched myself, trying to wake up from what appeared to be a dream…but no matter how many times I did nothing ever happened, the place stayed magnificent.

 

Day 12:  April 6th – A trip (re)scheduled

After dislocating my shoulder, Evan and I had to cancel that Milford Sound together but because I was staying a few extra days I was able to reschedule it. [Sorry man! I’ll make it up to you one day!!] It sure wasn’t as much fun by myself as it would have been with a friend – but I was still able to capture some incredible photos of this ‘8th wonder of the world’.

On the way to Milford Sound, the bus stopped at must-have-photo spots. Along the way we stopped at the Eglinton Valley and Mount Tutoko, which is the highest mountain in the fiord and contains 5 glaciers!

I returned back to Queenstown around 9pm when I heard music playing from the lake front. I decided to go check it out and I stumbled upon a group of people gathered around a man performing a little street concert.

Gradually I made my way to the front of the crowd of about twenty people and by the end of the concert there were well over 50 individuals that had stopped and listened to the man sing. People began to sing along and even began to dance along with the music. At the end of the small street-concert, the man announced his name and informed that crowd that he had some CDs he was selling if anyone was interested, which of course I ended up buying one. If anyone is interested, check him out: Graeme James.

Day 13: April 7th – The lazy and social update day

I said my goodbyes to Queenstown and made my way to the southernmost city of New Zealand, Invercargill.

Once in Invercargill I made my way to my hostel, Tautara, only to discover that check-in wasn’t until later in the afternoon and that they did not have any storage lockers. [womp womp.] So instead of wandering and exploring the city, I took advantage of the hostels free Wi-Fi and, for the first time on the trip, updated my life via social media.

Eventually I was able to check into the hostel and put my bags in the room. After which, I went to explore the hostel and found myself in the common TV/lounge room where a few of my fellow hostel mates where watching, The Dark Knight Rises. I ended up staying and watching the entire thing…After the movie I wandered out of the hostel and to the city I-site center to book a bus to take me to the town of Bluff for the next day.

Day 14: April 8th – Bluff, NZ

My bus to Bluff picked me up right outside my hostel at 10am. The driver of the bus was nice and drove me to exactly where I wanted to go, all the way down Highway 1 the southernmost mainland point on New Zealand, Stirling Point. At Stirling Point is the Stirling Point Signpost, which points to major cities and destinations in the world including: New York, Tokyo, Wellington, London, Sydney, the Equator, South Pole, Cape Reinga (New Zealand), and more.

After getting the necessary pictures of the signpost, I went on a hike around and to the top of Bluff Hill. The hike was on the coast and provided stunning lookouts, one of which looks directly at Stewart Island; sadly it was a bit of an overcast day so the clouds covered most of Stewart Island but it was slightly visible.

Day 15 – April 9th – TEAN Dundedin!

Bye-bye Invercargill, hello Dunedin!
I arrived in Dunedin and met up with my friend, a fellow NZ TEAN’er, Taylor, who I stayed with for the duration of my time in Dunedin. After we met up, he took me to his flat where I met his flat mates and then later in the evening we went to a local burger joint – Velvet Burger for dinner. I happened to arrive on a Tuesday, and Tuesdays at Velvet Burger are always busy because they have a two-for-one deal when you say a ‘password’ as you order your food. On that specific Tuesday, the password was “Velvet Comfort”.

Day 16 – April 10th – Exhaustion takeover and Cadbury delight!

Exhaustion has hit! It was the first time on the entire trip that I was actually able to sleep in for a bit – so I took advantage of it!

Later on in the afternoon Taylor and I walked around and explored the city of Dunedin. He showed me the central ‘octagon’ and we stopped to see the Dunedin Railway Station and the Cadbury Factory. The tour of the Cadbury factory was a bit expensive, so we just checked out the main area and the gift shop, where I managed to grab a good deal on some of the chocolate.

Day 17 – April 11th – Dunedin Hotspots!

Another day exploring the city of Dunedin. I woke up and spent a good portion of my morning exploring the Dunedin Botanic Gardens, after which I made my way to see the ‘steepest street in the world’, Baldwin Street. I couldn’t believe it, but I shouldn’t have been surprised to discover that there was a tourist shop specific for Baldwin Street. Looking at the street was tiring enough, there was no way I was going to walk up the street – I saw a few people doing just that and they were struggling enough with both their hands! The street is only partially blacktopped because it is so steep that it is impossible to asphalt the upper portion as it runs down before it can dry.

After dinner, myself, Taylor and one of his flatmates, John went on a tour of the Speight’s Brewery where we learned the history about the brewery and had the pleasure of tasting the six different Speight’s products (five different beers, and one cider). After the tour, Taylor and I went to a restaurant in town to meet up with a bunch of other NZ TEAN’ers for a small reunion and catch up.

Day 18 – April 12th – Penguins and Sea lions

I traveled with Taylor and his flatmates, John and Roslyn, to the Otago Peninsula to visit Sandfly Bay. We spent a huge portion of the afternoon exploring the area, playing on the sand dunes, and enjoying the beach. As the day got later, we went to a lookout hut on the bay and waited until we saw some of the rare yellow-eyed penguins coming in from the ocean.

While waiting for the penguins we saw a pack of sea lions sun bathing and a few playing in the water nearby. Gradually as the tide came further and further in, some yellow-eyed penguins made their way on to the land; overall we saw 7 penguins. As we made our way back to the other side of the bay we stumbled upon a baby sea lion making his way into the water and a bigger one further up on land. Sadly, the larger one further on the land appeared to be hurt as we were able to move to a reasonably close distance without disturbing the creature.

 

Day 19 – April 13th – Tunnel Beach

My last day in Dunedin 😦
Spent my last day in Dunedin visiting the incredible Tunnel Beach! Ever since I saw some of the NZ TEAN’ers photos from Tunnel Beach in the beginning of the semester I knew that it would have to become one of the places I needed to see in New Zealand. The place is crazy beautiful!

After our Tunnel Beach visit, we headed back to the city where I grabbed my things and made my way to the bus station to catch the bus to the airport for my flight back to the North Island.

Although my flights and buses were all on a time crunch, everything worked out extremely well in my favor! I boarded my flight on time in Dunedin and landed early in Auckland giving me plenty of time to catch my 9 pm bus back down to Palmy.

Day 20 – April 14th – There is this thing called school…

I arrived back at Massey University in Palmy around 5:30 am. Yay overnight travel!   What an awesome adventure throughout the South Island! Filled with amazing memories, hilarious stories, incredible experiences, great reunions, and a bunch of new friends! All of this will make saying goodbye to this place that much harder in the end, but definitely worth it.

For now, back it’s textbooks and off to plan the next adventure…but first:

SLEEP!!!!

---

If you’ve made it this far through reading this, than serious pat on the back and a huge congratulations! Thank you so much for sticking with me and reading all about my adventure!

‘Til next time!   – Brad