After the Kepler Track, I hopped on the Stray bus to do the Milford Sound trip. It was absolutely pouring in the morning when we got picked up. The bus drive up to Milford Sound was not very scenic for us because it was raining so hard. Driving up to the tunnel that takes you through the mountains overlooking Milford Sound, we saw amazing waterfalls. They were all over the place. These waterfalls are only around during and right after the rains in Milford Sound because the mountains are so steep that the water falls immediately to the sea. It does [View Full Entry]

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After the Doubtful Sound cruise I met up with a couple more friends to do the Kepler Track. The Kepler Track is a 3-4 day hike near Te Anau. The Kepler Track is also one the New Zealand's "Great Walks". New Zealand has classified 9 of its most popular trails as Great Walks. The trails are well maintained and people stay in group huts to minimize the overall impact to the environment. The huts also allow the hikes to be accessable to more people since you do not have to have your own tent or stove. You only need your own [View Full Entry]

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I had to head from Queenstown to Manapouri because that is where the Doubtful Sound cruise departs. I did not quite make it to Manapouri as planned since I missed the 6:30 AM bus out of Queenstown (late night, funny story). I had to find a public bus and make my way to Manapouri to meet up with a couple of friends because we had booked the Doubtful Sound cruise for the next morning. Both Doubtful Sound and Milford Sound are actually fjords formed by glaciers. Fjords are formed by glaciers as the glacier carves it's way downhill to the sea. [View Full Entry]

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So I am WAY behind in these updates, but here is one that I was hoping would be worth the wait to have the text for... So Queenstown is known as the adventure capital of New Zealand. They are known for having the first commercial bungy jump in the world. Also the people (company) that set up the first bungy site have expanded and now jump from three different locations. I had already decided that I would do a bungy jump here in Queenstwn because I have always wanted to do a real bungy jump. A while back my family took [View Full Entry]

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After enjoying the day on the mountain at Franz Joseph Glacier, we drove south passing the Fox Glacier. The two glaciers are pretty close together and both are very touristy, if that is a word. Near Fox Glacier is Lake Matheson. Lake Matheson is known for its reflections. The dark color causes very vivid reflections as you can see in the pictures. The drive down the coast continues to be beautiful with views of the Tasman Sea from up on the road above. Wanaka is a big ski town in the winter time and a nice relaxed town in the summer. [View Full Entry]

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There are loads of sights to see while heading down the west coast of the South Island from Abel Tasman National Park to the famous Franz Joseph and Fox Glaciers. One of the first stops that we made was at Lake Rotoroa. I hiked a very short hike near the scenic mountain lake. Here I had my first encounter with the dreaded sand flies. I have heard many stories about the sand flies that pester everyone along the west coast of the South Island and I had been told that the sand flies begin to be pests in Abel Tasman. They [View Full Entry]

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It rained again the day after the Tongariro Crossing, but I was heading to Wellington. Wellington is not a bad place to run into rain, I guess, since we could still walk around town and enjoy the nightlife. I went to Te Papa, New Zealand's big museum, and the Parliament building. There was also some pretty good nightlife in town since we were there on the weekend. I crossed the ferry to the South Island in the rain and was excited to get to Abel Tasman National Park. Abel Tasman is located on the northwest corner of the South Island. As [View Full Entry]

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This is the most famous (and I'm guessing most popular) one-day hike in New Zealand. I got up bright and early on the 12th to take the bus from Taupo to Tongariro National Park to do the famous Tongariro Crossing. However, when I got on the bus, we were told that the weather was lousy and that the company had cancelled the hike for the day. I decided to stay another day at the National Park and try the hike the next day, as the weather forecast was favorable. It rained most of the day anyway and the peaks of the [View Full Entry]

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I got back on the Stray bus after spending a couple of days in Rotorua, and went down to Taupo. The weather was pretty good when we got into town and there did not seem like there was much going on around town that afternoon. I decided to go and try an activity that Taupo is famous (maybe infamous) for. I decided to do a SKYDIVE! Yep. Taupo has the cheapest skydiving in New Zealand (although skydiving is not a cheap thing to do), so a lot of people do a skydive in Taupo. I booked it through the bus with [View Full Entry]

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I had heard a lot of good things about this trip and the region from a friend that I met in Fiji a few weeks ago. We had met up again a couple of times back in Auckland, and I decided that if I had the time, I would go see the East Cape. Basically the trip goes east from Rotorua to the East Cape (furthest point east in NZ) and then continues down through Gisborne before heading back to Rotorua. The first day we headed to Maraehako Bay. It was a nice hostel that was right on the beach. Leo [View Full Entry]

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