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Published: September 3rd 2011
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Hello!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I have just arrived back in Wellington after 14 days of traveling around the South Island for my first and only Spring Break, which was amazing. The crew for the break included:
Miss Molly O'neil - one of my good friends from Charleston who is studying in Christchurch
Emma Lynch - one of my neighbors in Wellington
Lindsey Lynch - Emma's older sister who was visiting
Keara O'Neil - one of my flatmates
and making her first appearance in over 30 years the very own MAMA SCUDS
Day 1: Saturday August 20
Me, Emma, Keara, and Lindsey left Wellington Saturday evening and flew too Christchurch to spend the night before our mighty adventure begin. We landed around 9:30pm and were standing outside the University of Canterbury half an hour later where I was reunited with Molly. While studying here has been such an experience and has yet to have a downside it was still awesome to be with a familiar person. We spent Saturday night in Molly's flat where all her room mates were gone except one. Dominic, her room mate from Samoa, who does not speak much english decided that listening to heavy death metal music
all night was a good idea. Needless to say the five of us did not get much shut eye and were ready to get out of there the minute we woke up the following morning.
Day 2: Sunday August 21
9am we had our rental car (roaring meg) all packed up and gases up ready to venture on our 6 hour trip to Queenstown. The drive was unbelievably stunning none of us could take our eyes off the scenery. Around one we came to Lake Tekapo , which had the bluest water I have ever seen in my life coupled with the backdrop of snowcapped mountains. It was here that we all learned about Molly's unusually small bladder, which causes her to have to pee every 30-45 Mins. With no bathrooms around her and I managed to find a nice rock along the lakeside out of view from all the other people for here to pop a squat. We spent a little time at the lake and then continued our journey through massive mountains and valleys before reaching Queenstown right before dark. We choose to stay at the Bungi Backpackers which was a very fun hostel right outside of
the center of town.
Day 3: Monday August 22
8am Molly, Keara, Emma, and I are the only ones awake as we quickly get dressed and eat breakfast so that we do not miss our bus to the AJ Hackett Bungy Jump. Queenstown is where Bungy Jumping was created off a small bridge 40m above a river. Today, Queenstown is home to the 3rd highest Bungy in the world, and my motto here in New Zealand has been "go big or go home." Arriving at the 134M (440FT) jump a little after ten I was geared up in a harness and given a quick talk by the crew working. We were all then transferred to a small pod suspended over a canyon, in s small basket. In the pod we are placed in weight order from heaviest to lightest to jump and hooked into the bungy. At my turn I waddled to the edge of the plank, looked down, and before I knew it I was diving head first towards the ground. The feeling of falling is indescribable but one of the greatest ones I have ever had. It only took 8 seconds but I wouldn't trade those 8
seconds for anything in the world.
After Bungy we headed to the hostel grabbed a quick lunch and then Molly and I took roaring Meg over to the Queenstown airport to pick up the sixth and final member of our Crew. Seeing Mom in Queenstown was unreal, I did not actually think she would do it but sometimes all some people need is a push (Thank you Hillary for that). While Mom did look tired from the flight she told me to just keep her moving and she would be fine, so what better to do then a 3 Hour hike up an almost vertical slope near dusk to keep her moving. The views at the top of the gondola skyline were beautiful. It looked right out over the whole city, lake, and the remarkables plus we were there towards sunset. On the way back down we only had a few falls from the troll but every one managed to survive, and Molly only went to pee once the whole time.
However upon reaching the bottom every was was very hungry so we decided to eat at Ferdburgers (the most famous Burger joint in New Zealand). There were many choices
of burgers to select from but I went with the original, whereas mom went for the BUN-laden. The burgers were the size of my face and we housed them
Day 4 Tuesday August 23
Mom and I started our morning off with a nice cup of coffee and some yummy goodies from Ferdburgers Bakery (which was just as good as their burgers). Molly and the crew meet up with us later in the morning and we walked around the lake the is in the middle of Queenstown, since it was a clear day it was the perfect start. We decided to do a hike that day that brought us up over looking all the mountains and valleys coming into Queenstown. This hike was a little less steep then the day before so there was no tripping and falling by troll. When we reached the outlook we noticed that we could actually summit the mountain, it just required hiking up through almost knee deep snow to the top. Of course all of us being the trampers that we are in our blue jeans and sneakers we didn't think twice and headed straight up to the top. Molly and I did
not want to take the track that was clearly labeled and probably safer so we made our own route which everyone in the group followed. Reaching the top and looking out to snow covered mountains as far as the eye can see was worth soaking our sneakers and jeans in snow.
The return trip down was a little harder then up and required a few penguin butt slides and some waddling down the track, but we all made it down safely. That afternoon we took to the lovely wine tasting that New Zealand has to offer. Instead of freezing our butts off at a vineyard in the winter, we enjoyed the many wonderful wines New Zealand has to offer in the warmth and comfort of an indoor wine tasting studio. While many of us were actually enjoying the wine and mixing it with the different cheeses and dips that we orderer, Troll did not move off the couch the moment the cheese platter came and dominated most of it. Following wine tasting Mom took me and Molly out to a nice dinner to celebrate my 20th birthday which was so much fun.
Day 5 August 24
Our last day
in Queenstown before moving on and venturing up the coast started like most morning coffee and croissant. However, instead of staying in Queenstown for the day we decided to go to Arrowtown which is 20 mins outside of Queenstown. The town itself was small but very cute. Of course no day went without a tramp so we wondered on over to the Isite and asked the happy little asian women at the desk for a nice 2-3 hour tramp. She took out a map and showed us Sawpit Gully tramp which she said was a great tramp with spectacular views, we were sold. Little did we know we would be fearing for our lives 45 mins later. As I turned up the trail head for Sawpit gully the track was steep and covered in snow and ice, I thought it is probably just this part so we continued on. Twenty minutes later we found ourselves on the side of a cliff on a track that only fit one foot across. Mom was cling to the wall and trying not to look down and we were all inching little by little slowing around a massive mountain. I honestly thought at one
point that we were all going to die. After an hour of panic we finally descended into
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