Where to begin...

Oh my.

Where to begin.

 I've become quite the adventurer. I've traveled all over the Southern Island of New Zealand and tromped about Sydney, all with Kristin. I'm honestly not even sure where to begin talking about everything, so I guess I'll just start with New Zealand and let a

few (very very few) of the 900-odd pictures I took between the two places do the talking.

When we arrived in Christchurch, New Zealand around midnight on the 23rd of October. I had gone to class that morning and turned in several papers early, so I was quite a crazy mess until we got on the train to go to the Brisbane airport to fly to New Zealand.

Christchurch is adorable. I don't really think you're supposed to use words like adorable to describe a city, but it definitely was. We stayed at Base Christchurch, a decent hostel with (score!) a Women Only section of the dormitory. Best of all is the view out the front doors of the city: we were about (give or take) a 30 second walk to the city square with the Christchurch Cathedral and giant games of chess and little booths peddling all kinds of stuff that I absolutely don't need but could be quite easily convinced to buy.

We had breakfast at a little cafe, met with our tour group, and then were sent back out into the city to find Halloween costumes. (Which ended up being soccer player jerseys from on of those little booths in the city square). Kristin and I got on the bus, who we later learned was named Roxy. (Not sure why people name cars in the first place, but nevertheless)

We drove out of the city, and since it was night when we arrived, Kristin and I got our first view of the New Zealand landscape. Breathtaking doesn't even begin to describe. I felt like for the first time in months I could take a deep breath, and everywhere you looked there were hills and valleys and snowy mountains dotted with small farms sheep- lots and lots of sheep. (this is okay though, b/c in my vast experience, sheep are nicer than people.)

It was at this point, between meeting up with our group and a lunch stop, we were introduced to our theme song for the week, the New Zealand classic hit, Slice of Heaven. The group leaders, Chelsea and Scotty would play this every morning when we were on the bus traveling to the next location. I'm very upset that I can't buy this song on iTunes, however, so if anyone has a alternative way of downloading songs, LET ME KNOW! It's a great song, trust me.

We stopped at Castle Hill for lunch, an area with large boulders and rock formations seemingly tossed throughout the landscape. This is also the area where some scenes from Prince Caspian or Lord of the Rings were shot. If you're a dork like me, you'll definitely know what I'm talking about.

After lunch and more driving (a theme in the week's adventures) we came to our stop for the night, Flock Hill Station. It's a working sheep station a few hours outside Christchurch, and I know what you're thinking but hey, stay with me here, because it was actually pretty sweet. The photo credit for the sheep goes to Kristin, by the way, b/c my camera card was wiped out later in the trip. Thankfully I'd put a lot of my pictures up on Photobucket!

The sheepdogs were pretty neat. They would round up the sheep really systematically, and responded to all kinds of different whistles: whistles to sit, stay, crouch down, chase, bark, come, etc. Roxy got stuck in the mud, which was a team building activity, (I chose to stand back and photograph most of the even for posterity's sake) and we were given demonstrations on how they shear sheep and the different types of wool, as well as a tour around the property.

Afterwards was free time, we all wandered around drinking tea, getting to know each other, taking photographs of the mountains, the station, and the river, writing in journals, etc. It was incredibly relaxing and a great way to start the trip. Oh! I also had my first taste of pavlova that evening at dinner. May I just say that this will be a staple dessert for the rest of my life?

The next morning we got back on the bus and, naturally, listened to Slice of Heaven on our way to Fox Glacier. Neither KB or I knew the words at this point, so we sang the background vocals of "nah nah nah" wholeheartedly.

We stopped for a while at Hokitika, a seaside town where I got a pair of jade rings for Carin and I and a few postcards to send. I have this terrible knack for buying way too many postcards, but I figure a lot of postcards will be good for my failing memory in 40 or 50 years.

The next spot of the trip might very well have been my favorite.

Fox Glacier in the Souther Alps is an incredibly unique place. The runoff of the glacier is the start of Fox River- and is one of the only places in the world where you can actually pinpoint the beginning of a river. It also is one of the only places where a glacier meets a lush rainforest. I was stripped down to my tanktop to walk through the rainforest, only to bundle up with coats and sweatshirts just a few minutes later when we reached the ice of the glacier.

We didn't need to bring water bottles either: the glacier water was so pure and icy that we all just drank it straight out of one of hundreds of trickling waterfalls.

It was one of the best experiences that I've had this entire semester. When we were in the town of Fox Glacier (that has 200 residents at its busiest time of year), we waited until it was dark and then walked with some of the members of the group and our leaders into the forest where we got to see hundreds of glow worms all along the trees and the walls of the path. When everyone started discussing aliens and chupacabras, I marched right on out of there.

Kristin and I later met up again in the Fox Glacier Pub, where we shared a drink and discussed Rugby with a local guy, whose name I never caught, despite talking to him for over an hour. It was so simple and fun, it is one of my strongest memories from the whole trip. When he gave us a few bucks to choose new music on the jukebox, I had no choice but to pick Sweet Home Alabama. It's not QUITE home, but it's pretty close to it.

The next morning when we left Fox Glacier, we headed to the amazing sigh of Lake Matheson. The water is so still here that you could perfectly see the reflections of the mountains in it. Stunning. On our way into Queenstown, we also stopped at Thundercreek Falls. 

Queenstown was unbelievable, and I would return in  a heartbeat to explore all the places I didn't get to before, and get to do all the millions of things I didn't get to do. At the top of the list is skydive, by the way. I'm not sure where to begin, so I guess I'll just narrate between pictures. 

Here we have Kristin and myself with our tour group at Minus 5, a bar completely made out of ice. There were couches made out of ice, the bar was made of ice, the sculptures of rugby players and whatnot were made out of ice. Even the cups were made out of ice, and when you finished your vodka-based cocktail (as anything BUT vodka would freeze) you simply smashed your ice glass. It was pretty neat, and we all had a blast singing and dancing to -what else- Dave Dobbyn's Slice of Heaven. Oh, they also played Thriller in honour of it being Halloween and all. 

After Minus 5, we all scurried across the way to warm up in a bar where they performed something called a Flaming George. I'm not a pub type of person really, so this may be pretty normal, but the whole scenario flipped me out completely. The bartender lined up 15 or so shot glasses, filled them with Bailey's, covered them in lemons, and doused the whole mess plus a 2 foot radius with vodka. He poured so much on that it was dripping on the floor. Naturally, the next step would be to light the whole thing on fire. This is what it looked like. 

The next day- prepare yourself for the dork in me...- the Lord of the Rings horse ride in Glenorchy! It was pretty neat, getting to see absolutely stunning landscape, and so easy to see why so many films- all three Lord of the Rings, Chronicles of Narnia, Lovely Bones, etc. would use that exact location. 

What made this particular experience even more fun was that Kristin and I were also accompanied by a few people from out tour group- the Crazy Koreans and Birgit, our German friend. The Crazys, as we called them, were two Koreans guys, probably around 21 or 22 that (supposedly) didn't speak a ton of English and always happened to be doing the same activities as we did. They had quite the penchant for disobeying tour guide's rules, whether it was letting their horses wander in Glenorchy or letting go of the safety chain protecting us against a 300 ft. fall at Fox Glacier. They were hysterical though, and it was fun watching them have a ball with each other and amble around New Zealand goofing off, albeit silently. 

Our other big activity in Queenstown was the Shotover Jet, which was a crazy fast boat that would zip between the canyon walls and spray us with water, and then stop really suddenly and talk for a few minutes, then off we'd zoom again. 

Next time we visit we're DEFINITELY skydiving. It was odd because never in our lives had KB or I had the desire to skydive, but 10 minutes in New Zealand will change that for anyone, and if it's not skydiving, its bungee jumping. 

Ok, I think I'm going to stop there, and continue the rest of my journey in another post. This will include a little more Queenstown, Milford Sound, Te Anu, Omarama (and the Haunted Hotel story), and our return to Christchurch, and Sydney. 

Phew.