One Week to Go!

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Hey everyone,

Been a few days so I have a bit of catch up to do!

I didn't want to spend too much time on the computers at Mt. Cook, so I didn't do an update from there. But boy, I have to tell you, the place was amazing. Picture yourself in a little town with a permanent population of 150 people in the winter, and surrounding you are 4 huge mountains so close you feel you can touch them, and 3 of the 4 are covered in snow still. It was SO beautiful. If I had time, I would have stayed there another day to take in all the scenery, go on a few more hikes into the snow, and continue relaxing. But I only had one day, so I still made use of it and went to Kea Point to check out Mt. Cook. The village isn't right next to the mountain, so you have to hike a bit to get a good picture of it. This is the tallest mountain of the Southern Alps, almost 4 km high. It truly was amazing! You'll see what I mean from the pictures.

Yesterday around lunchtime my bus arrived to bring me up to Christchurch. This is my last city before going back to Auckland to see my family for one more week. Last night after I arrived I grabbed dinner and relaxed a bit more. Not really knowing the town, I just walked around in a few shops and picked up a few things.

This morning the first stop was the Visitor Information Centre. I found out what were the best things to do when you only have a day and a half in the city. So I took a shuttle over to the International Antarctic Centre. It was so neat. This is the main centre for New Zealand, USA, and Italy when sending people down to Antarctica. They do their training here, get the supplies ready, and its where the planes take off from. They are sending a plane down within the next few days, which is an attempt they have never tried before being in winter still. Due to global warming (they think) the temperature has gotten warmer for this time of the year so they are doing a test! I also took a ride in a Hagglund which is the vehicles they use down there on the snow. They have built a course to show us all what kind of terrain is situated on Antarctica, so this included lots of steep hills haha. Also saw a penguin feeding - quite neat!

Then I jumped on a City Bus and went out to the gondola. This one was just for viewing the city. It was a gorgeous day to do it, but it was a bit hazy so I don't think the pictures will turn out well. The last thing I just did was take the Christchurch Tramway around the city. They have a few historic trams that take you on a guided tour of all the key points of the city.

I'm not too sure what I'll be doing in the morning tomorrow, but I have to be back at the hostel by 1pm to catch a bus over to the airport to fly back up North. I then have 7 more days in Auckland, and then its off to home!

I never thought staying in hostels would be so fun. Everyone is always positive minded and willing to make new friends. And Christchurch finally figured out what us travelers want... mixing males and females traveling alone in the dorms! The other hostels have avoided that by keeping gender specific rooms for the most part, but this is a change... and a good one in fact! haha.

Hope all is well, see you all soon!

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