Kiwi's and Sheep!

Fact: There are more sheep in New Zealand than Human.

Fact: New Zealand is Hands Down the most beautiful place I have ever been to in my life!


So we flew from Melbourne into Christchurch on the 23rd of September. We landed at 11:30pm so we didn’t do much that night. We were all starving from the flight because they didn’t feed us and so we just ended up going to KFC around the corner from our hostel. After eating and walking around the square we finally retired to our room and all fell asleep. The next day was early… We got up at 8:30 to pick up or car and head out. After picking up or beautiful White Nissan Sunny, we headed off to explore Christchurch. After a minor map snafu and remembering to drive on the left side of the road, we headed out to the beach. We stopped at pegasus bay and got out… The water was and icy blue and the sounds of the crashing waves was absolutely amazing. Only the even better part was you could be standing on the beach and then turn around to see snow covered mountains. I had never seen anything like that before and I had now idea of the views that were yet to come…

At around noon we decided it was time to get on our way to Queenstown. Claire drove us out of the city and towards our destination… We stopped in a town called Geraldine to where we found this amazing diner and had some pretty awesome Fish and Chips (fries) They had all homemade sauces and the food was absolutely delicious! After stuffing our faces, we were back on our way, only this time I was at the helm of the ship, which we have named Aeowin (SP?) to fit in with our tour of New Zealand/Lord of the rings Middle Earth. Heading farther east, we only got closer and closer to the ominous mountains, which looked absolutely breath taking. The clouds were floating around the tops of them while the snow blew in the wind. I couldn’t wait to get closer. As we were driving, the road we were on had two glacial lakes. As we topped over a hill the view we had was more than words can describe. The water was an icy pale blue and was just so pristine and gorgeous. Then, rising up from the coast of the water were the snowy mountains that fed them. We found a place to park and ventured down some rocks to the water. The wind was blowing heavily off the lake, but just such pure fresh smelling air that I didn’t mind. Once we got to the water and we had completed the ritual tourist pictures we all decided to drink the water… It just looked so clean we couldn’t resist. After getting over the shock of how cold the water was to the touch we each scooped up a handful and drank. As I had suspected, it was absolutely delicious.. Again, just as crisp and clean as the air! We finally pulled ourselves away to head to the next lake. It was just as, if not more beautiful than the first. After passing by that one, we made our way into the mountains. The path through wasn’t too bad… just a few curves here and there and some fairly steep climbs, but it stayed flat most of the time.

We continued to drive or 6 hour drive and when we were about an hour outside of Queenstown we stumbled upon this fresh fruit place with Cider, food and Sweets, so naturally we pulled over and went in. We hadn’t even eaten dinner yet, but after looking around, we new we had to get this custard cake, so Claire and I split it. It was literally one of the best things I have ever eaten. Both of the crusts were drenched in butter and coconut. Then inbetween was the most beautiful whipped vanilla custard you have ever tasted… I think we could have eaten about fifty more… but we refrained. We finally forced ourselves to leave and made it down the road to Queenstown. We checked into our amazing hostel, which truly is one of the best I’ve seen… We even have our own bathroom, so that’s nice, and then headed out to dinner. After eating some pizza we all came back to chill out here and sleep before our big adventure day tomorrow. Queenstown is the Adventure capital of the Southern hemisphere apparently, so we are adventuring… I’m not going as far as Claire… she is going skydiving with Casey and me and Cat are going ziplining… If you know me at all, I’m not really an adrenaline junky. :) Anyway, we are spending two nights here so we are going to try and do as much as possible. Along side our adventure, we are balancing out with the dorkieness of the group and hitting up a couple of Lord of the Rings sites they used for filming in this area. Once we are done here, we will be heading up the West Coast towards Franz Josef Glacier, which should be a site to see and I am so excited for it.

Driving seemed like a breeze, both in a way, that driving a long haul drive on the left side of the road was actually no big deal, and also, that even though it was a long drive, the scenery was so dramatic and always changing, we were just always awestruck!

I’m just trying to write a day at a time and I’ll post when I can, but if it all ends up one big post in the end, I apologise.

On a side note, New Zealanders are called Kiwi’s and there slogan is “it’s the Kiwi way” but I have yet to find out why they are called Kiwi’s. So, If anyone has any info on this please share it.

I’ll just keep documenting my holiday, trying to write down as much as I can at a time… Until next time, no worries!