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Published: August 30th 2010
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New Zealand - Aug.6th - 20th, 2010 On Aug. 6th we left our Melbourne hostel in the early afternoon, spent most of the day at the airport in Sydney, and then went to bed in Christchurch, NZ. We arrived in the early morning hours, pleasantly surprised that our dorm was upgraded to a private ensuite because of a booking error. We happened to get there on the night of a big rugby game, which the whole town was watching. We went out that night, met a guy at a bar and somehow ended up at a very eccentric art party. We stayed only because the alcohol was free, they had hors d'oeuvres, interesting paintings and a nude art installation. It turned out to be one of the weirdest nights of the trip yet with some of the most memorable characters. After that we quickly set about finding the best way to leave and explore New Zealand as there is nothing really to see or do in the city of Christchurch.
Being that we are here in the winter, their low season, we found that we could rent a camper for $30 CAD per day. Since hostels alone cost more
South Island Highways
Like driving in a postcard everywhere you go per night, we opted to rent one for 10 days, and drive it from the south to north island. So began our adventure of New Zealand. We had a small kitchen, even smaller washroom/shower, and a table which turned into our bed for the night. We could go anywhere we wanted, stop anytime we please and stay as long as we want... a nice change from the tours and buses we got used to. We left Christchurch on a miserable, wet day, and the rain did not let up until late that night. We drove to the Banks Peninsula, and after seeing absolutely nothing, were lucky to get out of there as the roads were being closed due to heavy flooding and landslides. We slept in Pleasant Point that night and woke up to a beautiful blue sky, the first we had seen in a while. This weather kept up for 3 days, and we used it to tour the southern part of the south island. Lake Wanaka, Lake Tekapo, Queenstown and Milford Sound were all on our itinery, with the latter being the most spectacular of all. We splurged and took a cruise through the sound, and were not
Winter in August
Lake Tekapo, South Island disappointed. Along with some of the most spectacular scenery we’ve yet to see, there were seals, penguins and even dolphins. Being that it was calving season we were lucky enough to see a baby dolphin, something that Andrea had wanted to see since we began this trip.
The 5th day of our tour we went to the west coast of the south island to see two glaciers which were highly recommended. These as well were amazing, as you could literally walk up to the face of the ice. By then however, the weather was beginning to take a turn for the worst. It did not rain but it was cloudy all day. On day six it began to rain, and pretty much did so until we left New Zealand. The drive up the west coast, which is supposed to be one of the most scenic in the world, turned out to be pretty gloomy. Our one stop that day at the Pancake Rocks was brief but we still managed to get thoughrly soaked.
We took the ferry across the Cook Straight on day 7, arriving in Wellington in the early evening. Again, another big city with not that
Lunch
A hawk feasts on some roadkill much to do, so a few hours later we were making our way north to Tongariro National Park, where we were hoping to do some hiking on one of the three volcanoes in the area. As usual, the weather had other plans, and our hiking was limited to a few hour trek to some waterfalls. Later we found out that we were at the base of one of the volcanoes and had no idea because it was too cloudy to see it. We were lucky enough to get a few hours of sunshine in our next destination of Rotorua, and we used it to go see some of the hot springs which are all over the area. Even that was short lived, as by the early afternoon it was pouring on us again. We got to Auckland in the rain and spent our last two days in NZ relaxing in a big hostel right in the downtown core. By this time we were both tired and happy to be sleeping in a normal bunk bed for the first time in 10 nights.
New Zealand is a must see and one of the most beautiful countries we have visited to
Land of Sheep
Despite having a human population of around 4 million, there are over 50 million sheep in New Zealand date. Before arriving we had grand plans to do some extreme sports such as paragliding and perhaps even try zorbing, unfortunately this is not in the cards for a budget traveler. All the extreme sports that New Zealand is known for are super expensive ($NZ 290 for 10 min of paragliding) and definitely are not catered to the broke backpacker. And so our tour of NZ ended with no zorbing experience, next is a 18 hour flight to Lima, Peru.
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