New Zealand: Part 3 (last part!)

Day 7: Thursday, September 27
This morning was BAD. Dana and I didn’t get back till past 1:30 in the morning the previous night and we had to be up at the horrendous hour of 6:30 am! I was pretty groggy, but luckily we were doing a ton of driving that day, so I slept for several more hours on the bus. (Scotty had an amazing “sleepy mix” which literally made everyone conk out - the music was soooo mellow.) We had several stops along the way at (try to guess) LAKES, and this one beautiful waterfall called Thunder Creek Falls. The best thing about all these stops and little places where we would go for lunch was that Scotty literally knew everyone and he would tell us the best places to go or the best things to eat or drink. By the time we pulled into Fox Glacier town around 1:30 in the afternoon, I was feeling rested and ready to go! Which was a good thing, because I then experienced the most intense hike of my life.

Fox Glacier is one of only three glaciers in the world that can be found directly nestled up against a rainforest. Also, it is very rare in that the glacier ice is actually advancing down the mountain! To get to it, we had to take a steep climb through the mountainous rainforest. The views were unbelievable the whole way up but it was important to concentrate on the path ahead because there were so many rocks and we had to walk across all these little rivers and stuff! Also, there were more than 500 steps, but they weren’t just normal steps; most of them all were completely different sizes, so some were like half the height of my leg, which makes it a little difficult to just step up them. Haha. There were definitely some points in the hike where everyone was breathing reallllly hard; I wasn’t expecting it to be quite so intense! But that made it all the more satisfying when we finally hit the glacier after about an hour and a half. It was crazy because we’d been sweating and had to take off all our layers, and then all of a sudden it got really cold. Then we got special ice picks (really just sticks with a little metal thing at the end to shove into the ice - kind of fun!) and CRAMPONS (such a funny name), which are these spikes that you strap onto the bottom of your boots so you can grip the ice better when you are walking on it. And then it was onto the glacier! This was definitely a huge highlight of the trip for me. The views, again, were just indescribably beautiful and it just felt like we were on a completely different world! I was very glad for the guides because if we hadn’t been led around, I would have become lost in about one minute since everywhere you looked there were just walls of ice. We spent a while exploring on the glacier and learning about its history and topography, and then had to make the hike all the way back through the rainforest. (but it’s much easier to go down steps than up them, I think.) By the time we got back I was totally exhausted but so exhilarated - it felt great to actually do strenuous exercise and be on this incredibly cool site at the same time!

That evening was really quiet and calm - a peaceful way to spend our last evening together! *sniff* By this point in the tour I’d become good friends with Erin and Lisa, from Australia, Mark, Chris, and Jamie, from England, Nicole, from Canada, Michael and Lars, from Sweden, and Julia, from Finland. We all hung out basically all the time and it was amazing how close we got in just a few days. After dinner that night, Scotty and Te led us on a little tour of the forest nearby to look at glow worms. It was of course nearly pitch black and even when our eyes adjusted to the light it was still pretty scary. We all linked hands and went in single file through the forest, and Scotty kept jumping out and random points and scaring people, so everyone was screaming and laughing and it was just the BEST. :) It totally felt like a sleep away camp or something! Plus, we got a very intellectual lesson on glow worms. (which are actually maggots, by the way.) Then, we went back to our little lodge and played puzzle games till about midnight, which just seemed so quaint and old fashioned and fun. I felt so relaxed and satisfied with life…

Day 8: Friday, September 28
I was so sad that today was the last day of the tour! It was a much more relaxed day than any of the others. The entire time was basically spent driving back to Christchurch with some scenic stops thrown in. Our first (and probably my favorite scenic stop of the whole trip) was Lake Matheson. This is a lake where, when it is still and the skies are clear (both of which were true for us, yay!), you can see a PERFECT reflection of the sky and Southern Alps in. It was absolutely stunning. I felt like I was looking at a postcard but it was my own photos! Then we had a fairly long stop at the adorable town of Hokitika for lunch. For a NZ town in the middle of nowhere, this one was huge, at about 4000 people. It is a bustling town because of its workings with greenstone, which other places is just known as jade. Greenstone doesn’t even have to be mined for in NZ; it apparently just shows up in lakes and on the ground. Crazy. We visited a jade factory there and got to see jade being worked on in their workshop there, which was awesome. I treated myself and bought this beautiful greenstone necklace which I will now wear all the time to remind myself of New Zealand. :) There was also a beach in this town, which was great - we got lunch to go and sat out looking at the waves. I also visited a wildlife information center because I DESPERATELY wanted to see a kiwi. After all, it is the national bird of NZ and kind of like seeing a koala or kangaroo in Australia - you just have to. So I got to see some really crazy eels (totally creepy, because I peered into this tank and just thought I was looking at some wood branches, and then they MOVED), and then went into this really dark area where they house the kiwis. It’s funny that they have all these souvenirs with smiling kiwis and stuff, because like the platypus in Australia, the kiwi is basically a nocturnal animal that is really shy and tries to avoid humans if it can help it. It took me ages for my eyes to adjust to the light enough to actually be able to see it moving around! Then it reminded me a little of an echnida, actually (the crazy little waddling mammal that I saw in Taronga Zoo), because it just waddled around in circle for a while. Too bad I couldn’t take pictures, but at least I can say I saw one.

By the time we arrived back in Christchurch in the late afternoon, I was seriously SO sad. Scotty played the Greenday song that’s like “I hope you had the time of your life”, and that was the TJ graduation song that always makes me cry and I was like AAAHHH STOP. I definitely didn’t want the tour to end! Some of the tour was continuing on to the North Island for the next week and I just wanted to go with them instead of coming back to Australia…haha. I was really genuinely sad to say goodbye to Scotty and Te because they had both been so amazing over the past week. Luckily, I didn’t have to say goodbye to everyone else just yet, since we all went out for dinner (at this REALLY good Indian place) and then out for the night! We went to SHOOTERS (yaaaay) but since it was really early, there was basically no one there, so we just chilled at this table and watched all the awesome music videos playing (I narrated them for everyone’s benefit), and played this great hand slapping on the table game that Scotty taught us. (It is the best game ever but I will not bother to explain it here.)

THEN, because my friend Erin (who is from Melbourne) and I desperately wanted to, we decided to go this KARAOKE BAR down the street. Unfortunately, it was closed for this private function. It turns out it was the owner’s son’s 21st birthday party, and he personally came down and was like sure, you guys can come in, whatever! So that basically made my night, especially when we found the perfect song to sing: WHY DOES LOVE DO THIS TO ME. It was just the perfect end to the tour because we’d been listening to it every day and we were obsessed with this song. :) And I got to sing karaoke at an actual karaoke bar! SO MUCH FUN. After that Dana and I went with the guys to another bar (all the other girls went home) and just sat and watched them as they were ridiculously funny and sang and danced. I seriously miss those guys so much - they were really easy to get along with and also hilarious. It was so sad to say goodbye to everyone at the end of the night!!!

Day 9: Saturday, September 29
It was really just kind of a downer to get up this morning because I knew the rest of the tour had left for the North Island and I didn’t want to leave New Zealand! But two of our closest friends on the tour, Nicole and Chris, were leaving around the same time as us, so we got to tour Christchurch with them some more all day. When we’d been in Christchurch the previous Saturday, we totally didn’t get to the best part - the botanic gardens! Now I haven’t really seen the botanic gardens in Sydney in bloom yet, so I will reserve judgment, but the gardens in Christchurch were absolutely gorgeous. Flowers everywhere in bloom…I love spring! And then we went to the Arts Centre, which is this amazing area of town that used to be a college, but has been converted into studios, shops, and little theaters. You can literally go into one of the many studios and watch artists working on their pieces and browse the other works they’ve made. There was also a fudge factory that was HEAVENLY. And because it was the weekend, they had (what else?) an AWESOME open air market with all sorts of jewelry and soaps and ethnic food. Seriously, I can’t even believe how spoiled I am getting by these. When I get home, I am like not going to want food if I can’t see it being prepared right in front of me at an adorable little stall. So that was a really enjoyable way to spend the day - very relaxed, which was not exactly like all the other days on the tour…haha.

Anyway, we left Christchurch in the mid afternoon (I successfully was able to spend every last cent of my NZ money on fudge and muffins…haha!) and got back to Sydney by the evening. Leaving New Zealand has really made me think about leaving Australia. My mom has officially worked out my flights home (thank you mommy!) and I am now getting home a full week before Thanksgiving, on November 15! So I will be so excited to come home, but I can’t help but think that if I was so sad just leaving New Zealand, how will I be when I leave Sydney? Every day I grow more and more attached to this place and this area of the world in general. I feel so lucky every day that I get to be having these kinds of truly eye-opening experiences.

Well, it’s actually back to class tomorrow (for two whole days, before I leave for Tasmania on Thursday! Whee!), so I’d better get to bed…no more entries for a little while, you guys get a break from my ramblings! :)

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