Whanganui Glass

On Saturday Trina and I headed out to Whanganui to try our hand at glass art, and make paperweights. I was looking forward to it, but not really feeling anything emotional until we got to the studio. When I saw that it was open and people could watch us, I got a little nervous! Luckily there were no other students so Trina and I just had each other to look stupid for. 

Showing us how it's done 

After a quick demonstration, it was our turn! I decided to do a two color design with random bubbles in it. It was hard to keep the glass centered on the stick, but the instructor was encouraging, and I think it turned out pretty well. It ended up being almost the size of a softball, so I think it will be good at keeping papers from escaping in the wind. :P 

Shaping the core... 

um... this looks good.

Almost done! 

Other than art and the river, Whanganui doesn't have much, but it was a great place to spend a Saturday. Our paperweights had to cool overnight so they are going to send them to us this week! 

Dunedin

Dunedin... The city I wanted to love but....

Dunedin Train Station

In all fairness though I think that was more an issue with me than the city. When I arrived in Dunedin I was tired from early buses and late nights making travel plans, and was starting to hit the end of the "honeymoon" period for this trip. Luckily when I got to town the iSite wasn't too busy, and rather than make an effort to put together everything myself, I let them do it. They will probably never see this blog but I just have to say that they were awesome! I felt like a huge weight had been lifted off my shoulders when I walked out of their office.

The Octagon

When I got back to the hostel a girl in my room invited me to go watch rugby with some friends, and even though I was tired I knew it would probably be my only chance, so I went. The tickets were WAY cheaper than I expected ($15 to sit in the end zone... is that what it is called? Whatever.) and also much more mellow than I anticipated. Rugby is supposed to be the most popular sport in New Zealand so I expected a rowdy mess of fans, but most people were pretty relaxed and the staff was pretty strict about behavior.  

Highlanders vs Hurricanes 

Saturday I went to Larnach Castle. It is the "only castle in NZ." The tour was pretty interesting but it doesn't have as long of a history as castles in Europe so its story wasn't quite as thrilling. A lot of it was pretty sad, since it seemed the family that built it had a number of relationship problems. The gardens were beautiful though, and there were some interesting piece of furniture and what not on display (it reminded me a bit of Downton Abbey hahaha). In the afternoon I went to the Chinese garden but it was... underwhelming.

Larnach Castle

Sunday afternoon I got my rental car and drove out the peninsula to the Royal Albatross Center. It is the only mainland albatross colony in the world apparently! The tour guide was a little... odd, but informative, and we did get to see a number of the albatross babies in their nests and the juveniles flying around. They fly SOOOO fast!

I went to bed so tired I really didn't want to get up the next day but I was glad I did. I headed out to see the Moeraki Boulders. I didn't time the tides right at all and unfortunately ended up there just before high tide. I did get to see the boulders but only briefly, and I got completely soaked and covered in kelp. Yuck.

Moeraki Boulders

Before returning the rental car I decided to walk up Baldwin St. - The steepest street in the world. It is really really steep but its also short, so the walk up wasn't as hard as I anticipated. The walk down however was more of a workout, though I didn't realize it till the next day. I woke up and my thighs and butt muscles hurt! ha ha.

House on Baldwin St. 

My last day in Dunedin I spent doing pretty much nothing, though I did go to the Settlers Museum. It was an interesting place to spend an hour...

I left Dunedin in a 5:30am airport shuttle, which made me sad I had to get up so early (another hit for my opinion of Dunedin haha) and caught the 6:50 flight to Wellington. Now lets see what I can find to fill my return visit to the windy city....

Invercargill

When people ask where you are going, and you say Invercargill, they usually ask “what is in Invercargill?” The honest answer is not much. However that ended up being part of its charm, and making it the perfect place to stop over after a week in the massively touristy Queenstown.

Invercargill is the southernmost city in New Zealand, and just happens to be home to the World’s Fastest Indian. (Well, Burt Munro is from about 20k north of here) The bike was purchased by E. Hayes and is now housed with a nice collection of other antique motorcycles and cars in a hardware store… not a display room owned and neighboring a hardware store… IN the hardware store. You walk in the door and wonder if this place is really where you are supposed to be, but it is! Sprinkled throughout the store are bikes and display cases with antiques all related to mechanics and metal machining. (One of the antique Chevys they have was actually purchased in Washington!)

Invercargill is also home to a pretty nice FREE art and history museum. They have a couple of halls with changing exhibits as well as Maori art, housewares and clothing from the Victorian period, and a tuatara breeding program! Henry (their oldest) is 115 years old!

There was also a history trail that you could walk or drive around town and the surrounding area. I did the town parts of it and it was cool to see the historical architecture and parks. It was actually more what I had imagined Christchurch would be…

Invercargill is definitely not a place you need to spend a lot of time visiting but I am glad I made a stop over here.

Next stop Dunedin!

Shotover Canyon Swing

If you knew me when I was in elementary school, you probably wouldn't have guessed I would try something like this...

A few years ago I was watching Japanese TV and they did a segment about a giant swing in New Zealand. It looked terrifying but I really wanted to try it. I was on the fence about weather or not to do it, but after talking to a guy at the hostel who had the day before, I walked down to their office and swiped my credit card. Once you have paid... no turning back!

Over the last couple of days I flipped flopped between being nervous (Is this really gunna be safe!? What was I thinking!?) and excited (This is gunna be such a rush! It will be awesome! It will look so cool!)

I woke up the day of the jump super excited to get in the van and GO!

After signing the "if you die that sucks..." paperwork, I was so excited to get in the van and GO!

After arriving, strapping in to our harnesses, and taping our cameras to our hands I was so excited to GO! I even volunteered to go first!

I went out on the platform, got hooked into all the ropes for the swing, they leaned me out over the edge for the photo, I smiled and felt a little nervous... then they told me to look down... I could not would not... but they made me... and I froze.... I was so ready to STOP!

I took a few deep breaths, and stepped off... I was terrified but SO exciting and SUCH a rush. 60m free fall and 200meter swing... The transition between fall and swing was so smooth I could barely tell it even happened!

Some how managed to take a selfy while falling into the swing hahaha

After the swing stoped they pulled me back up and asked, "how was it?" "GREAT!!" "Do you want to do it again?" "Uh... YES!!!"

They gave me crap for doing "the same thing" twice but the first time I closed my eyes and prayed I wouldn't die as I stepped/fell off... The second time with eyes (pretty much) open I walk/ran off. So I would say it 1) wasn't the exact same thing and 2) I over came some fear and enjoyed the jump more! But them trying to give me shit and pressure me into jumping backwards or doing a flip could have been done without...

Anyway I am SO glad I tried this and challenged myself to face something new and a little scary.

Queenstown and Milford Sound

Queenstown... what to say about Queenstown! I had heard that it was a party city, and MAN they were not kidding! I avoided it for the most part but saw the potential for crazy within the first night! Everything in New Zealand tends to close early (or at least that has been my experience so far). Shops will say "Hours: 3pm - late" with late usually meaning like 8 or 10pm hahah. After arriving at 7:30pm by bus I had dinner, and came back to the hostel around 9. That's when I got a call from my new friend (A Chilean I met in Fox Glacier) that they were headed out if I wanted to join them. I was tired and declined, but got another whiff of the Queenstown party when one of the people from my shared room rolled in at 5am carrying the familiar smell of bar.

I chose a hostel outside of town (just 1km) so I was able to avoid a lot of the crazy at night, and had a pretty relaxed first 3 days. It was a 4 person room and made friends to go hiking with even met 3 different people from Washington! Small world!




On Tuesday I went to Milford Sound on a coach-cruse tour with Denisse (girl from Chile) and Marcus (a Swedish guy from the hostel). I had waffled on weather to go (cause its like a 5 hour drive!) but I am SO glad I did.

Riding on the bus was great because I got to enjoy the views without having to focus on driving, and the bus driver maintained a pretty low-key but funny commentary along the way. He had so much interesting information about the geology and history of the area, it made the trip that much more fun! (Milford and Doubtful Sounds aren't actually sounds at all! They are fiords! hu...) We made about 6 scenic stops along the way before finally arriving at the Milford Sound terminal for our 90min cruise.

Mirror Lakes, Fiordland National Park

Cruising the Milford Sound

It is hard to express how impressive the scenery was, and equally hard to do it justice in a photograph, but I hope they give you an idea of what it was like. 

Today is my last day in Queenstown. Many people have said you haven't really done Queenstown until you jump off something... SO I am going to give it a go! But that will have to wait for the next blog entry! Stay tuned! haha.

Fox Glacier

 

After Arthur’s Pass I caught a bus to Fox Glacier. The entire town is pretty much 1 block, with a couple restaurants on each end, a few hotels off the side street, and the glacier guides building in the middle. I went for a walk around the town my first night, and it quite literally took me 10 min. Ha ha.

My purpose in coming here was to hike the glacier. There are two famous glaciers in this area with guided walks; Franz Josef and Fox Glacier. Franz Josef can only be accessed by helicopter right now, so I decided to do the much cheaper Fox Glacier. The company provided us with any equipment we didn’t already have (crampons, rain pants, boots etc) and we headed out! The glacier is in a rather unique location, right on the edge of a rainforest, and is quite close to the coast (the guide said about 25km).

Although it was very impressive I find it hard to write much about this outing. The weather was bad, but not so bad I didn’t have fun. The guide was good, but not so great as to be memorable… and of the 12 people in our group only 3 of them had personalities. I would say it is definitely worth the trip over and the cost of the tour, but not something I feel I need to do again soon.

Looking  back at where we have been

 

Starting to rain!

Goofing around during lunch break

Next step, Queenstown. I haven't really done any research or booking of anything except the hostel, so I guess we will see what I can find!

Arthur's Pass

Wondering if the sunny weather report was wrong...

On Monday, under the cover of muggy clouds, I left for my next adventures in Arthur's Pass. Luckily the weather opened up and I was greeted with blue skies as I reached the base of the pass. The drive was pleasant, and not very stressful considering it is a narrow 2 lane highway. I stopped a couple of time along the way to enjoy the view.

I stopped at Castle Hill where there are a million boulders on the hill side and a nice walk that lets you explore them. Just when I was wondering if it was a good place to climb, I saw a couple walking up the trail with a fall pad. I talked to a couple other climbers who said it was a very popular place for people to boulder. (I saw a Japanese guy fall from half way up a nice sized rock, and apparently hurt himself slightly cause he was pissed at his girlfriend for her placement of the pad... Yikes!)

I arrived in Arthur's Pass Village around 2:00pm and decided to take advantage of the fantastic weather and do a short hike. I settled on Temple Basin, because it was advertised as having nice views. That is certainly did have! It was also fairly steep and mostly loose gravel. More than once I had to climb up the hillside. I got about 3/4 of the way to the end (you could see the ski club at the end of the trail) and decided to turn back, because I KNEW the way down would be hard on my knees. It was, and in many spots felt like I was walking on marbles. More than once I almost slipped!  

View from the top

My full day in A.P. I decided to do two shorter hikes to save my knee for glacier walking later this week. I found a 3-4hr hike on the Dept. of Conservation website which sounded nice. It was really nice... but I think their estimated time must have been how long it takes a blind one legged midget to hike the track... It took me 30 min to get to the end of the trail, and I thought maybe I went to the wrong place. I checked my map and I had done exactly what was on the map. (Later looking at a different brochure put out by the DOC it said the trail takes 1.5hrs return...) The upside was the weather was amazing, I had the entire place to myself, and I was able to tan in peace. Ha ha.

Interesting moss and root patterns

Tramping around the rocks up the river

In the afternoon I had plans to go on a short hike with a Japanese girl I met at the hostel. She and I took a short walk out to a nice waterfall, but decided we wanted a little more exercise so we went BACK to the same track I did in the morning. We found a big flat rock and took a nap! Before heading back I decided I had to put my feet in the water, especially since we met some swimmers coming back from the waterfall. HOLY cow it was cold! Your feet would probably go numb if you left them in there too long!

There are so many different hikes to do here, you could probably stay for weeks and never repeat the same path, but this was only a short stop for me. Next up is Fox Glacier!

 

Christchurch

After Picton my next stop was Christchurch. I was very fortunate to stay with a friend's roommate's cousin, who ended up being amazing, and a fast friend.

Broken branches in the park after the storm

My first two days in Christchurch, a massive rainstorm rolled through town and flooded parts of the city, as well as knocked over some trees, and according to local news sources cut power to over 3500 homes. Apparently it was the worst flooding/rainstorm in 100 years!? Man I picked a great time to come visit...

Luckily my new friend didn't lose power, and she has awesome wifi (haha) so I spent the two days of rain booking my busses and lodging for the rest of my trip on the South Island. I was also invited by a former-JET friend to her J-Kaiwa class, and had a really good time meeting other people who had lived in Japan, and testing out my declining Japanese skills.

Botanic Garden

Finally on my 3rd day the sun came out and I was able to explore during my remaining days. It was really interesting to see how obvious the aftermath of the earthquake was all over town, even 3 years later. Many shops lay vacant, some with goods still visible in the windows, others with signs telling you where they have relocated. There were also a number of buildings that have been torn down, leaving empty lots and their shadow on neighboring buildings.

Re:START Mall

The Re:START Mall, where they have used shipping containers to create a funky high end shopping area & open plaza, was a great place to people watch, and a bright colorful distraction in the midst of all the remaining rubble.

A few blocks away I also visited Cathedral Square, which is a shadow of its former self but still worth the visit. The building is all fenced off and, as far as I could tell, left mostly as it was after the earthquake aside from some support structures built around the collapsing front. (a lot of brick buildings seemed to have supports to keep their brick walls from collapsing any further...)

Cathedral Square

Christchurch Cathedral

Vacant lot, with shadow of previous building...

One of the unexpected highlights of my time in Christchurch was Cerock dancing. My friend invited me to join her for her dance classes that she attends once a week, and I was a little nervous (since I have never really danced). I became A LOT nervous when we got there, but it ended up being really fun, and the instructors said I was a natural and had amazing posture for a total newbie. (I don't know if they were telling the truth or not, but I am going to choose to believe them! haha)

Botanic Garden



Canterbury Museum

Avon River

Christchurch is definitely a worthwhile stop on a trip through the South Island, but I don't think its a place that warrants a long stop over.

Next stop - Arthur's Pass National Park for some hiking! Pray for sunshine!