Mid-Semester Break 2k16
(aka SPRING BREAK)
WOW. I don’t know how many times I’ve said this word
in the past week, but if you saw the landscapes, animals and incredible nature
I saw, you would’ve said it too.
In order to limit time and space and to not go off on
a tangent (even though you know I probably will anyway) I’m going to change
things up a bit. This post will be more
like a BuzzFeed article than my typical journal-style blog posts with a few
photos and captions. Get ready for lots
of unbelievable pictures, clever captions, plenty of advice if YOU ever take a
trip like this, and of course, a few weird back stories. (no judgment, please).
*keep in
mind, these are all my very honest opinions about what I experienced in the
beautiful South Island of New Zealand.
Your experiences or opinions may be very different, feel free to use
this as entertainment rather than solid advice.
Although my friends and I will attest that these tips are pretty useful,
especially if you’re clueless about a lot of things like we were ;)*
Pre-NZ
Canberra and Sydney were perfect visits on the way to
New Zealand.
Canberra: dinner at a pub, a few bars at night (sort of a
college town atmosphere in the “Civic”), gorgeous view of the city and the
parliament houses from Mount Ainslie, visits to ANZAC War Memorial and National
Museum (one of my favorite parts!), the Questacon science museum (sort of like the
Magic House in STL), walking by the lake on the path with all the countries’
flags (my other favorite place), and drinking the BEST milkshake I’ve ever
tasted at Pastissez Milkshakes in Manuka (apparently it’s pronounced Monica.
Weird.) It was chocolate with espresso, had a caramel drizzle, and came with a
huge smore that had a BROWNIE inside the marshmallow! Heavenly. |
| Pretty cool seeing this hundred-year-old YMCA flag in the WWII section of the museum. |
Sydney: I’m so glad we made a stop there for 2 days, and one
of the best parts was seeing Jenna, Emmi, Sarah & Juliette!!! It was such a
nice taste of home and catch up with some of my FAVORITE people. Can't wait til we all visit each other again.
Things I was glad people recommended to me:
o
Buy an Opal Card
(their public transportation pass) because it’s free to buy and prices are
always way cheaper on the card (just like in Brisbane!) They also have “Sunday
Funday” on the buses where you only have to spend $2.50 on rides and then your
transportation is free for the rest of the day! Best of all, I can use it again
when I go back to Newcastle and Sydney!
o
Take a ferry
through the harbor. We got a much better
view of the Opera House, the Harbor Bridge, and lots of beautiful houses in the
hills along the water.
o
Take a walking tour of the city, and it was wonderful!
It took about 2 and a half hours as we walked from the old City Hall up
George Street all the way to the harbor and the Rocks. It was free but we all tipped our tour guide
at the end. (That’s actually the only
wage the workers get for this full time job, and our guide Lisa was so
fantastic!) We got to hear all the honest details about what to do, what not to
do, good places and attractions to spend our money, and a lot of really
interesting stories and facts about the city.
I definitely learned a lot more (and it was actually exciting, not
boring at all!) than I would have if we had taken a more expensive and crowded
boat tour or had just walked around on our own.
§ This was one of our favorite stories, if you’re interested! It's about how 2 men painted NO WAR in red paint on side of the opera house, were charged $150,000 to get the paint off, and they sold thousands of mini opera house replicas on which they had painted NO WAR to pay the fine.
1. Kaikoura
Tip: Find Ohau Falls and see the seal colony. Wear
waterproof shoes or boots and make sure you have your camera!
Best moment: Being about a foot away from the cutest baby seal ever, and then
watching the adolescent seals waddle up the hill to their mom.
2. Nelson Lakes
Tip: Stay at one of the camp sites right on the lake. (& make sure you have plenty of gas in the car and for the stove! Not much around here & what is there doesn’t stay open late)
Best moment: Driving up to the campsite right at sunset after our first day of lots
of windy roads and being awestruck by the gorgeous lake hidden in the middle of
the national park. (pictured are the giant eels we saw once we walked out on the boardwalk)
3. Franz Josef Glacier
Tip: Would
not recommend booking the walking tour because you could do almost the same
thing on your own for free. We did pay
for the glacier pools which were essentially glorified hot tubs, but we really
warmed up and got our first clean shower in the locker rooms.
Best moment: Taking the hour walk to see the glacier. The part of the glacier we
saw was only a small fraction (if you wanted to see all the ice and snow you’d
take about a $300+ helicopter ride! Maybe another day…) but it was beautiful
and unlike anything I’ve seen. The whole
landscape was so cool, with rocks of all different sizes and colors, surrounded
by trees, surrounded by mountains, and then the big chunk of ice on one of the
mountains that lead to the glacier.
4. Wanaka
Tip: The
best thing about being in a campervan (and having a Department of Conversation
campsite pass) was that we could change our plans whenever we wanted to. We only chose Wanaka because it was about
halfway between Franz Josef and Milford Sound, and it was one of our favorite
places for sure. |
| Let's play a game of how many different views of the lake can we see. |
Best moment: Seeing 2 sheep from part way up the mountain and then meeting them at the very top! Hiking up a mountain next to an absolutely gorgeous lake and seeing wild sheep was probably the most New Zealand thing to ever happen to us.
5. Milford Sound
Tip: Keep
in mind that you will be spending more money here than most places. It’s very
secluded and most of the tours are about the same price, so just pick what you
think you’ll like most. Also apparently
Milford gets twice as much rain as the Amazon each year, so expect at least a
drizzle while you’re there.
Best moment: Dunking my water bottle straight into the water next to my kayak and
drinking pure glacier water.
6. Queenstown & bungy jumping
Tip: If
you are considering bungy jumping, but aren’t sure about it, go Tandem with a
friend. Another friend recommended me to
do this, and it made me much less afraid.
Either way, you’re doing an extreme sport, but it’s very safe and the
crew is fantastic, and it’s over so
fast! Definitely worth the time and
terror.
Best moment: When we walked up to the desk to check in for our bungy, the girl at
the counter’s name was JoJo, and I knew I’d be okay! Also, Haley filmed and took photos of us
before, during and after our jump, and Siobhan’s reaction right after we popped
out of the freezing cold water was priceless.
Queenstown was a really cool city, although very
touristy and small. I enjoyed all the
adventure and tourism juxtaposed with the relaxing lake and nice views. Definitely worth a visit, especially since
lots of popular spots are near there. PS go to Fergburger. It’s delicious. And
by far the biggest meal you’ll get for your buck in New Zealand.
So if you want to take your own trip there some day, or just want to learn about all the weird things in New Zealand.
GENERAL TIPS / THINGS WE LEARNED
Pack warm
clothes.
Lots of layers. Gloves and hat are vital if you’ll be
doing a lot of hiking. Rain coats are
lifesavers. And hiking boots are
honestly so worth it (even if they’ll be sitting in your closet for the rest of
the semester)
o
Because hiking
boots are SO annoying to fit in your suitcase, clip or tie them (another
example of how carabineers save lives)
o
Also remember to
have a couple tshirts and shorts for the airplane or if you get a warm day (or
just when your warm clothes are too smelly to bear and you want to wear clean
clothes while driving the van)
Always buy
an extra can of gas for the stove.
You don’t want to wake up all excited about making oatmeal
and tea and then realize you have no way to power the stove. (Good thing New
Zealanders are super nice and gave us one of their extra cans so we didn’t go
hungry!)
Flashlights
are a must.
We liked hanging our headlamp from the backdoor of the
van for extra light when cooking. And newsflash, going to use the questionably
gross toilet in the middle of the night while holding your iPhone to use the
flashlight is not fun or practical.
Use a car
charger for your phones as much as
possible.
There’s a good chance you won’t have any power at the
camp sites (we didn’t get to plug in the van once all week)
· Make sure at least one person has a New Zealand SIM
card with data. Unless you are very confident in where you’re going and want to
be unplugged for a week! (that’s always nice too)
· If you don’t have a SIM card, get a GPS. Not something to cheap out on. It’s worth it, especially
when you’re driving somewhere you’ve never been before, the nearest town is
hours away, and you don’t have cell service. (this happened a lot)
o
If you need to
charge your phone but the GPS is dying, take
pictures of the GPS screen on your phone and put the GPS away unless you
get lost and need it.
o
You can also star/favorite your destinations on
Google Maps and screenshot all your directions before you start driving, but we
didn’t trust ourselves to use this tactic all week.
Gas stations
(aka petrol stations!) are NOT always
24 hours. Ridiculously stupid, but
all too true.
In fact, many of them close at 6pm. Plan accordingly…
we learned this the hard way.
Allow extra
time.
We actually didn’t get hopelessly lost at all, but it
took us a long time to get places.
Driving 100km (don’t be freaked out, it’s only about 60-70mph) is the
fastest we were ever allowed to go, and we didn’t go over that at all because
we didn’t want to be the obnoxious tourists who get pulled over for speeding
and try to get off the hook with the excuse that “we’re tourists and we didn’t
know.”
· Driving on the left side of the road is NOT THAT
BAD. Mostly because you keep telling
yourself “Stay on the left, stay on the left!” and “No turn on red!” The most difficult thing for me was actually
getting used to switching on my blinkers on the RIGHT side of the steering
wheel. For awhile, we all kept clicking
the windshield wipers because they were on the left side where we are used to
the blinkers being situated.
· The hardest part of driving is getting used to the
roads. Roads in New Zealand (especially the South Island) are very windy and
curvy. And these are highways (aka motorways)
which would be at least 65mph in America, fairly straight, and have at least 3
lanes on each side of the median. In NZ,
the highways are usually only 2 lanes TOTAL, often there are no medians at all,
and it takes a lot longer to get from Point A to Point B than what you would
anticipate on an American highway.
o
When New
Zealanders use blinkers- if they use them at all- they don’t do it early enough
before the turn. On the other hand, if you’re the one turning, people will
always swerve right around you. They
NEVER stop and wait for you to turn like we would in the States. If you’re very aware of it and keep your
distance, you’ll get used to it.
o
On the curvy
roads, I kept saying I felt like I was playing Mario Kart (think DK’s Jungle
Parkway on N64 or that autumn leaf one on Wii) as I was driving… sometimes we
literally drove around hairpin turns, up and down the sides of mountains.
Me, Siobhan and Haley stopped by the stunning turquoise Wairau river
with our even-more-stunning camper van, our favorite girl, Stef.
Once you get
comfortable with driving in all that, you truly feel like you can conquer anything.
So we had an awesome, packed week with our lovely van and she only almost broke down on us once when had to change the oil (and by change I mean we bought a can of oil and a nice man helped us in the gas station parking lot). Cooking out of the back of the van and sleeping on a wooden board bunk bed thing was a LOT more fun than it sounds, and I feel so lucky we all had that experience together!
And no trip is complete without some fun pit stops at the beginning and the end. So...
BIG thank you’s to Phil, Max and Aimee for being
wonderful friends and letting me stay with you all. Visit Brisbane any time (or
the STL or South Carolina!) J
Be Excellent
and look for adventure everywhere.
xoxo Jo Jo
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