So I've just returned from my three week break, which was spent taking a road trip all over the country. I won't go into all the details of all the stuff we did because I'll be writing a couple of shorter entries about specific places we went in the coming weeks seeing as how I was not able to update from the road over the past three weeks. However a brief list of things we did ran across giant sand dunes, went scuba diving and snorkeling, climbed a glacier, repelled down 80m below ground into a large cave, jumped off of cliffs and slid down waterfalls, swam with dolphins, saw a pod of orca whales, saw some amazingly beautiful beaches, went on numerous hikes all over the country, crammed five people into a 2wd station wagon filled to the brim with backpacks and suitcases, and had an all around amazing time. The pictures in this entry are from the glacier hike (and the drive up to the Franz Josef glacier) we did the weekend before we departed on the three week trip. I unfortunately lost my camera on this trip so these are the last of the pictures I have that I personally took. Luckily three other people on the trip had cameras so I'll be snagging their photos in the coming week and will be posting some of those pictures in the coming entries.
The trip was quite epic. A lot of crappy food, snacks, and lollies (candy) were eaten. I drove most of the time on the trip (because I liked driving and no one else seemed to jump at the task and because I can't really sleep a jam packed car, but everyone else seemed to be able to). There were numerous nights where we would be driving until past 1 a.m. searching for places to stay. Our trip consisted of a mixture of sleeping at campsites, a few random locations, and hostels. It was a good blend of order and chaos. A lot of the trip was planned, but everything was planned about a day or two before it was actually scheduled to happen. It was definitely an interesting mix, I am usually a person who likes to have everything planned, but I surprisingly found it quite easy to let things unfold as they would and go with the flow. That's not to say everything went smoothly. Cramming five people into a small car that required a remarkable amount of space management to merely pack the trunk and have the door close can get on anyone's nerves. Long nights of driving, searching for places to stay, and not showering for days at a time tends to already building tensions. With that being said we all got along great and aside from a few tense moments, the whole trip was a blast and everyone had fun being around each other.
One of the things that stuck out with me throughout traveling all across NZ is how daunting the landscape really is. When you're standing in front of the huge cliffs, mountains, caves, glaciers, etc. it really makes you feel quite small and insignificant in the grand scheme of things. It's interesting how coming to one of the smaller countries of the world was what could make me feel like a small fish in a big ocean. It really seems like don't get the same type of landscape grandeur in the states that you see our here. Throughout the trip we had a nice mix of staying in towns, cities, rural areas and going to both tourist destinations and a lot of places off the beaten path. Even though I always enjoyed the less populated destinations more than the ones packed with tourists, there was always a sense of relief I felt when coming up to a town after a long night of driving on dark, windy roads. Overall it was just amazing to get out of the bubble of the University and to just go wherever we felt like.
So even though I'm saving a lot of the details of the trip for smaller entries when I have specific photos to share I do have a few to share. So I got pulled over by a cop for the second time in my life here in NZ. First thing for you all to know is that speed limits here are ridiculous. Many of the roads are hardly developed and are, more often than not, quite windy up and down mountain passes. Now the speed limit for such roads is almost always 100 km/h which is a little over 60 mph. Now that's not a fast speed when you're going on a relatively straight freeway, but on NZ roads you'd have to be crazy to whip around those turns at that speed (although kiwis are pretty crazy drivers sometimes so maybe they're just used to it). Another important side note is that NZ police officers oftentimes set up random road blocks where they have officers administering breathalyzer tests to all cars coming through. So I had been subject to a couple of these before because of the amount of driving we did at night (the first of which was a bit confusing b/c the breathalyzers here look like audio recorders and I was unsure of what was going on). Anyway so it was a rainy night and I was driving along the road which I'm pretty sure was 100 km/h but the signs are often few and far between so I was not positive, but I was driving at a safe and comfortable speed regardless. So then I saw the lights light up behind me and, while normally whenever you see those lights you get that feeling in the pit of your stomach like you've done something wrong, but for some odd reason I didn't get it this time. The officer came over and took my license and administered a breathalyzer test (which I'm sure is pretty standard for whenever someone gets stopped by a cop since they have all those random road blocks set up). Anyway I hadn't had anything to drink all day so I was fine. At this point I'm still somewhat confused as to why I was pulled over because I was pretty sure I was under the speed limit and had not done anything reckless. So after seeing that I was completely sober the officer told me that I was free to go, but to stay pulled over so that he can pull in front of me so that he "doesn't have to follow me at that speed for the rest of the way". I literally got pulled over because I was driving too slow (by kiwi standards). I've never felt like such an old person in my life. Needless to say I got a fair amount of crap from my fellow road trippers about that for the rest of the trip. So anyway, that's my story demonstrating how NZ's speed limits are ridiculous and almost arbitrary in nature.
The other good story I have is on the flight back to Christchurch from Auckland. We were running a little late in the morning and were cutting it close to arriving to the airport on time for our 10 a.m. flight. At this point in the trip there were only three of us left so we decide to run in and check our bags and then I would go return the rental car. So we run in and check our bags around 9:30 and I go to return the car, the problem is the Apex car rental return location is not anywhere near the building that has 4 other rental car companies. Plus, no one seems to know where this Apex office is. Finally I get directions to the office and we decide that my two friends will board the 10 a.m. flight and I'll try my best to make it, but if I miss it I'll just book a later flight, no problem. So I arrive at the car rental office at around 9:50 so at this point it's clear that I won't be making the flight. I drop the car off and don't see a shuttle anywhere in site so I start walking in the rain back to the domestic terminal to sort out the flight issues. However, what I failed to realize is that it's a security breach to check in a bag on a flight and then not actually show up for that flight. So as I'm making the 15-20 minute walk back to the terminal in the rain the plane is actually sitting in the runway trying to either track me down to get me on the plane or find my bag to get it off the plane. I get to the terminal and go over to the help desk and explain the situation and the employee suddenly just goes "oh you're the last passenger?!? you've got to go the gate right now!" so I was sprinted through the airport by multiple employees to get to the plane so that it could take off. I sprint through the security and down the loading hall onto the plane where approximately 100 passengers start giving me the slow clap while all looking like they're just as soon inflict some serious harm to me. So I (that stupid American college kid) delayed an entire flight for about a half hour because I check my bag and then failed to board the plane. Oh and of course my seat is almost all the way in the back of the plane, so I have to walk right by everyone on that plane. It never works out that you have the front row seat in those situations, you always need to have the opportunity to make eye contact with every passenger on that plane. While a bit mortified about the situation all the airport employees were very nice about it and one flight attendant even came over and told me about the time she similarly had delayed an entire 747 of passengers so I really shouldn't feel too bad. It was interesting to say the least, because even though people must have been quite irritated with me the two strangers I sat next to were very good humored about the whole thing. If that situation were to happen in America I can't imagine the kind of hate I would've felt entering that plane. I was very relieved to be dealing with a plane full of kiwis and not Americans at that point.
So anyway, those are just two of the very many good stories I've got from this road trip. Some stories, will probably only be truly funny to myself and a few others, but in the coming entries hopefully I'll have a few more stories and I'll be posting a lot more pictures of specific places we went to along the way and then I can take more time to describe the more interesting experiences in greater detail.
I'm done for three weeks and it feels quite great. I finished up last week by handing in a paper on Wednesday and taking a test on Thursday, both of which I think went well. However, I won't know what I actually got on any of my assignments until after the break is over so I'm choosing to not worry about anything academic related for a few weeks. I suppose I could start on some of the papers and projects I have to do after break (and I actually do have to do a short online assignment during break for one of my classes), but I'm going to put most of it off until after break and just enjoy the time off. After all that's what study abroad is for, right? I kicked off my break but going out for drinks with some friends and just chilling out for a few days. I literally slept and laid around for most of Friday, which was quite nice (even if I did feel a little worthless towards the end).
On Saturday I woke up early to go into the city to book some things for the break. I'm traveling around the North and South Islands, doing a smattering of fun activities with four friends whom I haven't had a chance to spend a whole lot of time with yet, so it'll be fun to break away from the people I hang out with everyday for a few weeks. Not that I dislike them or anything, I just like varying the people I spend time with and getting to know new people better. What better way to meet new people than to spend weeks crammed up in tents, hostels, and cars with them? Anyway we went and rented a car and booked some accommodations and activities on Saturday morning. After doing that we hopped in the car, went back to campus and packed our bags for an overnight trip to Akaroa, which is about an hour and a half outside of Christchurch (all the pictures in this entry are from Akaroa by the way). We had booked time to swim with dolphins and were cutting it close on time seeing as how we didn't have a concrete idea of how to get there, but we made it with a bit of time to spare which was good. We suited up in uncomfortable wetsuits that smelled of mildew and got on a boat and went out into the ocean searching for some Hector's dolphins (which I've learned are one of the most endangered species of dolphins in the world). It was a really cool experience to travel along the coastline of New Zealand and then get to go out in the wander and have pods of dolphins swim around you.
After swimming with dolphin's we went and checked into our hostel, which was a funky little pink building, and went to acquire some bottles of wine and beer. After eating a deliciously deep fried dinner at a local fish & chips place we went and sat out on the docks and just hung out for a few hours talking, drinking, joking, and skipping rocks. It was a really fun laid back time. Akaroa was a nice contrast to Christchurch. It has the vibe of a really small beach town, that gets pretty quiet once the sun goes down. We walked back to the hostel to drop off a few things and then went to a bar around the corner. Whereas the average age of the Christchurch bar population is around 20, I'd say this bar was pushing around 40. It was complete with a really corny DJ ("DJ Steve" specifically) who played some pretty good "bad music". It actually turned out to be a really really fun night, there was a mini-bachelor party that was going on at the bar which was interesting to say the least and it was just a really quirky scene altogether.
The next day, after going to bed at quite the late hour, we woke up early once again. We grabbed some coffee and quick breakfast and headed down to the docks to meet up with a guy who charters a fishing boat and takes people out to do deep sea fishing. It was the five of us along with a group of six or so 30-something guys. We ended up spending most of the day out on the water and just hanging out, fishing, and talking with kiwis. I caught a couple of fish (and one tenacious shark who was about 3 feet or so big). I'm not much of a fisherman, but it was still a lot of fun and a great way to kick off break with something new and different. We came back after a day on the sea and packed up our stuff and hit the road.
I ended up driving back (for the first time in New Zealand). It was a bit stressful being on the other side of the road especially since the drive back featured lots of hills, narrow roads, and very windy turns. However, I ended up getting used to it pretty quickly and I'll definitely be good to go when I drive on the rest of the trip. Speaking of the rest of the trip we're going to Fox Glacier tomorrow which is about a 6.5 hour drive. We'll be staying at a hostel tomorrow in a nearby town and then going on an organized hike around the glacier on Tuesday. Then we'll come back to Christchurch for another night before heading out on the long portion of our journey to Abel Tasman, Queenstown, the North Island, and various other spots. I'll have more pictures and updates on the break when I return. I'm not sure when my next update will be seeing as how my internet availability might be somewhat sporadic in the coming weeks, but I'll get to it when I get a chance.
The trip was quite epic. A lot of crappy food, snacks, and lollies (candy) were eaten. I drove most of the time on the trip (because I liked driving and no one else seemed to jump at the task and because I can't really sleep a jam packed car, but everyone else seemed to be able to). There were numerous nights where we would be driving until past 1 a.m. searching for places to stay. Our trip consisted of a mixture of sleeping at campsites, a few random locations, and hostels. It was a good blend of order and chaos. A lot of the trip was planned, but everything was planned about a day or two before it was actually scheduled to happen. It was definitely an interesting mix, I am usually a person who likes to have everything planned, but I surprisingly found it quite easy to let things unfold as they would and go with the flow. That's not to say everything went smoothly. Cramming five people into a small car that required a remarkable amount of space management to merely pack the trunk and have the door close can get on anyone's nerves. Long nights of driving, searching for places to stay, and not showering for days at a time tends to already building tensions. With that being said we all got along great and aside from a few tense moments, the whole trip was a blast and everyone had fun being around each other.
One of the things that stuck out with me throughout traveling all across NZ is how daunting the landscape really is. When you're standing in front of the huge cliffs, mountains, caves, glaciers, etc. it really makes you feel quite small and insignificant in the grand scheme of things. It's interesting how coming to one of the smaller countries of the world was what could make me feel like a small fish in a big ocean. It really seems like don't get the same type of landscape grandeur in the states that you see our here. Throughout the trip we had a nice mix of staying in towns, cities, rural areas and going to both tourist destinations and a lot of places off the beaten path. Even though I always enjoyed the less populated destinations more than the ones packed with tourists, there was always a sense of relief I felt when coming up to a town after a long night of driving on dark, windy roads. Overall it was just amazing to get out of the bubble of the University and to just go wherever we felt like.
So even though I'm saving a lot of the details of the trip for smaller entries when I have specific photos to share I do have a few to share. So I got pulled over by a cop for the second time in my life here in NZ. First thing for you all to know is that speed limits here are ridiculous. Many of the roads are hardly developed and are, more often than not, quite windy up and down mountain passes. Now the speed limit for such roads is almost always 100 km/h which is a little over 60 mph. Now that's not a fast speed when you're going on a relatively straight freeway, but on NZ roads you'd have to be crazy to whip around those turns at that speed (although kiwis are pretty crazy drivers sometimes so maybe they're just used to it). Another important side note is that NZ police officers oftentimes set up random road blocks where they have officers administering breathalyzer tests to all cars coming through. So I had been subject to a couple of these before because of the amount of driving we did at night (the first of which was a bit confusing b/c the breathalyzers here look like audio recorders and I was unsure of what was going on). Anyway so it was a rainy night and I was driving along the road which I'm pretty sure was 100 km/h but the signs are often few and far between so I was not positive, but I was driving at a safe and comfortable speed regardless. So then I saw the lights light up behind me and, while normally whenever you see those lights you get that feeling in the pit of your stomach like you've done something wrong, but for some odd reason I didn't get it this time. The officer came over and took my license and administered a breathalyzer test (which I'm sure is pretty standard for whenever someone gets stopped by a cop since they have all those random road blocks set up). Anyway I hadn't had anything to drink all day so I was fine. At this point I'm still somewhat confused as to why I was pulled over because I was pretty sure I was under the speed limit and had not done anything reckless. So after seeing that I was completely sober the officer told me that I was free to go, but to stay pulled over so that he can pull in front of me so that he "doesn't have to follow me at that speed for the rest of the way". I literally got pulled over because I was driving too slow (by kiwi standards). I've never felt like such an old person in my life. Needless to say I got a fair amount of crap from my fellow road trippers about that for the rest of the trip. So anyway, that's my story demonstrating how NZ's speed limits are ridiculous and almost arbitrary in nature.
The other good story I have is on the flight back to Christchurch from Auckland. We were running a little late in the morning and were cutting it close to arriving to the airport on time for our 10 a.m. flight. At this point in the trip there were only three of us left so we decide to run in and check our bags and then I would go return the rental car. So we run in and check our bags around 9:30 and I go to return the car, the problem is the Apex car rental return location is not anywhere near the building that has 4 other rental car companies. Plus, no one seems to know where this Apex office is. Finally I get directions to the office and we decide that my two friends will board the 10 a.m. flight and I'll try my best to make it, but if I miss it I'll just book a later flight, no problem. So I arrive at the car rental office at around 9:50 so at this point it's clear that I won't be making the flight. I drop the car off and don't see a shuttle anywhere in site so I start walking in the rain back to the domestic terminal to sort out the flight issues. However, what I failed to realize is that it's a security breach to check in a bag on a flight and then not actually show up for that flight. So as I'm making the 15-20 minute walk back to the terminal in the rain the plane is actually sitting in the runway trying to either track me down to get me on the plane or find my bag to get it off the plane. I get to the terminal and go over to the help desk and explain the situation and the employee suddenly just goes "oh you're the last passenger?!? you've got to go the gate right now!" so I was sprinted through the airport by multiple employees to get to the plane so that it could take off. I sprint through the security and down the loading hall onto the plane where approximately 100 passengers start giving me the slow clap while all looking like they're just as soon inflict some serious harm to me. So I (that stupid American college kid) delayed an entire flight for about a half hour because I check my bag and then failed to board the plane. Oh and of course my seat is almost all the way in the back of the plane, so I have to walk right by everyone on that plane. It never works out that you have the front row seat in those situations, you always need to have the opportunity to make eye contact with every passenger on that plane. While a bit mortified about the situation all the airport employees were very nice about it and one flight attendant even came over and told me about the time she similarly had delayed an entire 747 of passengers so I really shouldn't feel too bad. It was interesting to say the least, because even though people must have been quite irritated with me the two strangers I sat next to were very good humored about the whole thing. If that situation were to happen in America I can't imagine the kind of hate I would've felt entering that plane. I was very relieved to be dealing with a plane full of kiwis and not Americans at that point.
So anyway, those are just two of the very many good stories I've got from this road trip. Some stories, will probably only be truly funny to myself and a few others, but in the coming entries hopefully I'll have a few more stories and I'll be posting a lot more pictures of specific places we went to along the way and then I can take more time to describe the more interesting experiences in greater detail.
