Just after classes ended and before exams began, we took our last road trip in the South Island.
Our adventures began Thursday afternoon with classic hiccup that continues to occur seemingly every trip. Since we were planning on leaving the flat early Friday morning, my plan was to get the car Thursday afternoon. So I booked an airport shuttle for just after my 4pm class that day (the last class of the year, too, might I add). The pickup window was a half hour and it was a lovely day, so I sat outside on the picnic benches waiting for the shuttle.
4:15pm. This is weird. Usually I am one of the first ones picked up. Maybe this driver is just doing a different route or something.
4:20pm. Alright, any day now would be great.
4:30pm. I did book the shuttle, right?
4:35pm. I had to have booked the shuttle... They are just running late...right? Or did I book it for the wrong day? Or for the wrong time?
By 4:40pm I finally decided to run upstairs and check the email. I scrolled through and discovered my error. October 9th. 17:00 - 17:30. Shoot! I was scheduled to pick up the rental car just after 5pm. The rental car place closes at 6pm and with a 30-minute drive to the airport, things were not looking too good. Frantically, I called the rental car place to see if they could help me out. Luckily, they have an after-hours pickup option available. The only thing I needed to do was electronically sign a form. Perfect. Except now the clock was reaching 5pm, when the shuttle was supposed to take me to the airport. So with Hira's help, I signed into my email on her computer while she kept watch for the shuttle from the balcony. Just before 5pm, the email finally arrived. CRISIS AVERTED. Signed and sent off to the rental car company, I headed downstairs to wait for the shuttle. No more than 10 minutes later, I saw it coming down Leith Street. Since our flat is hidden by trees and a hedge of bushes, I tried to walk out of the gate to get the driver's attention. Well he didn't see me, and continued on down the street trying to find the correct address. He flipped a U-turn and headed my way. I stepped out to the street and began to wave. His pace remained constant. I stepped out even further and continued waving. Nothing. By this point, I swear to you I was about in front of the shuttle. Finally, as I am nearly parallel to the driver's window he sees me. He checks off my name and we are on the way. I get a call just as I sit down. It was the rental car employee I had spoken to earlier. He was calling to make sure I got the necessary details to open the lock box at the airport that would contain the car keys. Thank goodness he explained it all to me because I was starting to wonder how this was going to play out.
I arrived at the airport right at 6pm and head directly for the rental car garage. I always feel weird getting off the shuttle and just walking away. Most people have luggage to grab or some still need to pay. But I have 0 bags and I've paid...soooo away I went. I made it to the garage just as an employee was leaving. He helped me with the lock box and before departing, I questioned about the GPS that we paid for. "Unfortunately that's not available, I'm sorry. You will be refunded for it though" Humph, oh well. Wouldn't be the first time we had to spend a weekend navigating without one.
Later that night, Hira and I decided to drive to Nicols Falls to see glow worms. Surprisingly, it's only a 10 minute drive! They are right in Dunedin! Our friend Alyssa and her flat mates had attempted this trip about a week before. She keeps a blog, just as we do, and we read about her experience at the Falls. Within her blog she posted how it got too dark and scary, so they ended up turning around before even seeing the glow worms. Glow worms will not glow (or at least not as well) when there is a lot of light and/or noise. So I could understand how creepy that could get. Her post did not deter us one bit, though! We parked just by the gate (after a few turn arounds, obviously), switched on our flashlights, and headed into the darkness. After 10 minutes of trudging uphill and through patches of mud, we began to wonder if we were going in the right direction. I then remember looking up the rock wall to my left and seeing some faint little lights. "Oh my god, Hira, look! Turn off your flashlight!" She wanders over and we look up the wall to see specks of light scattered along it. We walked even further to see even more. They were so tiny, yet they shown so brightly. It was like stars! Crazy to believe this was only 10 minutes away from our flat! Why is took us this long to get over there is beyond me. But we made it, and it was so worth it. And it was one of those moments we had to just experience. We couldn't relive the moment by capturing photos, we had to take it all in and let our minds take a mental picture. It was kind of a nice feeling. Every trip we go on, we all take hundreds of photos. I always wonder what it would be like if I just experienced instead of captured. But an experience like this, living in New Zealand, studying and exploring in this beautiful country, comes once in a lifetime. I want to relive as much of it as I can. While I did state originally that this blog was for you all to keep up with my life abroad, as I reach the end of my journey, this blog is becoming more for myself as well. I will be able to look back at this years from now and remember all the little details, details that probably wouldn't have stuck with me otherwise.
Anyways, back on to our trip. Hira, Sheryl and I left early Friday morning to begin our final South Island journey. Sheryl had never been to Moeraki to see the boulders so we figured we'd stop on the way. It was literally on our way to Lake Tekapo, so why not?! It would help break up the drive too. One hour later, we arrived at the boulders. We didn't even think to check the tide, but luckily for us, we arrived when the tide was low. I was worried our spontaneity was going to ruin it for us and the boulders would be under the waves, but no such luck. Being 8am, we were the only ones on the beach, which made it that much better. Sheryl got her touristy photos on the boulders, Hira was her photographer and I walked around scavenging for beautiful shells and rocks. The way sun hung in the sky made it look like we were there at sunset. The further down the beach we walked, we saw these white things just sitting on the beach. At first, my thought was ice. That was the closest thing they resembled in my mind. But the closer we walked, we realized they were just big pieces of sea foam. When we finally decided to turn back towards the car, another family had joined us on the beach. They got our attention and asked us to take a photo of them. It turned into quite the ordeal. They all had to climb onto a boulder, then the sun was behind them, so I had to move to the other side and take another picture of them. They were a cute little family and I was happy to help them out!
We were back on the road again and continued through this beautiful country. Our next stop was a few hours away in a town called Oamaru, where there apparently is a blue penguin colony. We parked just before the visitors center opened up so we wondered around the parking lot. Eventually we sat down on the steps in front of the building until a woman came out and asked if we were here to try and see penguins. We all nodded and she pointed towards the fence, "You can head down through the fence if you would like. Let me know if you have any questions!" Sheryl, Hira and I headed through the opening and towards the water. We walked down a slab of concrete jetting out into the water. Neither one of us knew where exactly to look for the penguins, so our eyes searched everywhere. I moved towards the edge of the concrete and looked down towards the rocks to see a well-camouflaged seal basking in the morning sun. I excitedly whispered to get Sheryl and Hira's attention. "Guys, look! Look down here! A seal!" We all stared in excitement, thankful to see at least one kind of animal. Further down the dock was 3 more seals and a bunch of birds. Birds that were NOT penguins. Just most seagulls. Oh well, we tried. Guess we just weren't meant to see them. Walking around the visitors center, I figured out why. Apparently an hour before dusk is the prime time to see penguins....not 10am. We hopped back into the car and headed towards our next stop.
Hira always said that this country is just full of surprises. There is always something extraordinary hiding behind every corner. Sure enough, she was right. We turn the bend and we are greeted by the most stunning lake I think I've ever seen - Lake Pukaki. The sun was hitting it just right. It was crystal blue in color with violet snow capped mountains shaded the background. I nearly couldn't believe my eyes. Yeah, it you could say it was another one of those holy crap! I'm in New Zealand! kind of moments. More than 3 months in to my journey and I still get that feeling. We found a spot to pull off, but went against the grain by not going to the visitors center. We found a little dirt road a little ways down and did some off roading in our Nissan, which we named Alejandro. Let me explain. The make of the car is a Nissan Tiida Latio. When Hira and I saw that on the car, we both thought Latio said Latino. So we obviously had to pick a Latin name. Going through a list, Alejandro just stuck out. It reminded us of the Lady Gaga song, Alejandro, which we were hoping to blast in the car at some point. Anyways, when Alejandro could not go any further, we got out and climbed over all kinds of rocks to reach the shore line. It was even warm enough to ditch the jacket and sport some short sleeves! And just like usual, we spent our time just admiring the beauty around us. I skipped rocks over the water while Sheryl and Hira just threw rocks into the water. Skipping rocks is not a talent they possess. Sheryl didn't seem to mind our laid back way of travel, which was awesome. Seemingly every time Hira and I find a lake when we travel, we just sit on its shores and take it all in. Talk about relaxing :)
Our hostel was in Lake Tekapo and not much further from Lake Pukaki. Strangely enough, our hostel was named the Tailor-Made Backpackers Lodge and Lake Tekapo was located in the Mackenzie Region of New Zealand. Weird, huh? Too bad they can't spell Makenzie correctly ;) We grabbed some food at a little cafe in town, as well as some pasta to cook for dinner at the grocery store before heading to check into our hostel. We were hoping to find a place to stay on the lake, but they were all booked. We figured we could always drive to the lake if we really wanted to. Ah, the freedom of having a car. We arrived at our hostel to check in. We got a tour of the cute little place and were taken to our rooms. I went into the kitchen to unload our food into the fridge. When I passed the front desk, the woman asked me if we were all ok with possibly having a guy stay in the 4th bed in our hostel. "Oh yeah, that is totally fine!" But I was really thinking Yeah, as long as he doesn't snore.
Our plan for the rest of the night was to make dinner and then head to the lake to watch the sunset and then to star gaze. Hira told me that you can see the Milky Way from Lake Tekapo. How insane is that?! It is also part of a dark sky reserve, which I didn't even know existed. This area is apparently a gold-rated dark sky reserve due to the quality of the almost light-pollution-free skies of the Mackenzie Basin - aka the perfect star gazing environment.The dark sky reserve Aoraki Mt Cook National Park and the villages of Lake Tekapo, neighboring town of Twizel and Mt Cook. The 4,300 sq km (1,660 sq mi) area is bounded by a spectacular alpine landscape with the Southern Alps in the west, and the Two Thumb Range in the east. Sounds amazing right?! Well it was. What part of New Zealand hasn't been amazing though?? Honestly. I passed the time by skipping rocks (of course). We watched the sun disappear behind us, the sky turn to black, and the stars come out twinkling one by one (according to Hira). I swear she saw way more stars before Sheryl and I did. But as the night progressed, we all laid on rocks and stared at the wonderous night sky. The Milky Way was like a cluster of stars that appeared hazy like a cloud. Stunning. We even saw 5 shooting stars that night! I think I've seen a total of 5 shooting stars in my life before then, so that's crazy! A massive cloud began to roll in towards the end of our night. Land of the Long White Cloud? More like Land of the Long Cloud That Needs to Move Out of the Way! But we still had two more nights in this place. Both of which we would be star gazing. No doubt whatsoever! |
The next morning, we were greeted by the perfect day for hiking the Hooker Valley Track at Aoraki Mt Cook. Aoraki is the Maori name for Mt Cook. And no, we did not hike the tallest mountain in New Zealand, we just did an easy trek right below it that lead to glacier lakes. No big deal right? We had a decently long drive ahead of us, but we were going towards mountains! Psh, fine by me! The mountains make me feel at home! On our drive out there, we blasted a Britney Spears CD Sheryl found in the hostel. 90s music forever!! We also ran into a sheep crossing! Hira and I had come across a cattle crossing on our Slope Point road trip, but no sheep crossings. Guess it's part of the New Zealand experience eh? I mean sheep do outnumber people substantially in this country. I think it was bound to happen! Sheryl was more excited than ever because she absolutely loves sheep. The hundreds of sheep ran across the road as we all snapped photos and videos. They looked kind of terrified, but all I wanted to do was get out and pet them! So cute!
We arrived at the base of the Hooker Valley Track with the beauty and warm weather awaiting us. I began the trek with a sweatshirt, but not soon after I stripped down to a t shirt. I even got a sunburn that day. Kind of forgot to take into account the whole lack of ozone layer thing here. Whoops. But it was still a stunning track that I didn't want to end! We went over beautiful rivers and suspended bridges while surrounded (literally) by snow capped mountains. There was a point where no matter what direction you looked. there were mountains. Sheryl took advantage of her selfie stick she purchased the day before until it was lost into the cloudy river waters. We had taken a break on the rocks of the river and all of the sudden, I hear a kerplunk! At first I thought it was her phone that took the plunge, thankful to discover it was only part of the selfie stick that held the phone to it. We didn't even make it 24 hours with it. Humph, oh well. It was fun while it lasted.
Again, we had one of those moments where you just come around the corner and BOOM! Hooker Glacier Lake. At first, the lake was like glass. There was no wind or anything. We went down to the shore and ate some snacks and just relaxed like we always do at lakes. I skipped rocks of course, but with a little more incentive this time. Down a little ways were some teenage boys trying to skip rocks and, to be honest, were failing quite miserably. So I took the chance to show them how to throw like a girl ;) Eventually the wind picked up and started to bring some of the small pieces of ice close to the shore. So yes, I held a chunk of ice that came from the Hooker Glacier in New Zealand! We even went and climbed these giant rocks by the mouth of the river to get a whole other view of the lake.
And on our drive home, Lake Pukaki was looking more stunning than ever. Like that doesn't even look real to me...and I was there!
The evening brought about a new roommate (AND YES, HE SNORES!!!!!!!!!!!), another pasta dinner, Where's Wally (aka Where's Waldo in the States), and an attempt to complete a 1,000-piece puzzle as we waited for darkness to consume the sky for more star gazing. We completed the entire border of the puzzle, which seemed like quite the feat at the time. But when Hira took a picture of our "accomplishment", it wasn't as impressive as we thought. Oh well.
We decided to star gaze at the Church of the Good Shepherd, which was only minutes away from our hostel. We stripped the blankets from our beds (not sure if that was acceptable or not, whoops) and drove to the church. We arrived a little sooner than planned, so we waited in the car until around 9:30pm. We were the only ones in the parking lot at first, but as the night drew on, more tourists arrived. We grabbed our blankets and found the perfect spot on the grass next to the church. The three of us wrapped up in our blankets like burritos as we stared up at the night sky. There were a lot of people taking pictures with their fancy cameras that could capture the stars. So again we had one of those moments where we just experienced. And just like the night before, it was incredible. We saw even more shooting stars too!
The next day brought about a drive up to St. John's Observatory, which is part of the University of Canterbury. Apparently you could hike up to it too. But after all the hiking from the day before, as well as the development of a bunion on the outside of my foot from my hiking shoes (I'm officially an old lady, I know. But it's not that gross I swear!), we decided Alejandro could take us up to the Observatory. It was pretty crowded. The little cafe at the top was full of people, as well as the tables outside. We walked around and admired the 360 degree views before heading off.
Our next adventure was supposed to be an easy walk not too far from the observatory. We found where it was supposed to start, but a clear trail was non existent, so we decided to try and find another walk that was a little more obvious. We found one luckily, but it wasn't quite what we were expecting. We walked for about 20 minutes on a tiny trail that led us around thorn bushes and bugs that liked to swoop on us frequently. At that point, we decided we had had enough, and turned back around towards Alejandro. We headed back into the Lake Tekapo Village for some lunch. We found a table near the lake and attracted lots of attention from the birds, especially after Sheryl decided to throw a piece of her burger at them. That's when I also discovered that Hira doesn't really like birds. I sat there enjoying the show and a mince and cheese pie. After all that chaos had settled, we headed down to the lake shore. We had some time to kill before the church service at the Church of the Good Shepherd was over. Bet you couldn't guess what I did?! Duh, I skipped rocks! Hira soaked up the sun on a large rock while Sheryl made a small rock wall, which eventually came crumbling down and she resorted to throwing rocks into the lake again. From where we were, it looked as though we would be able to just walk to the Church of the Good Shepherd. We headed that way only to discover we would have to cross over a small section of the lake. Nope. Back to Alejandro we went.
We arrived at the church and did our tourist thing - took all kinds of pictures. We were even allowed inside the church, which was beautiful. We snapped some pictures inside, which apparently you aren't allowed to do. Sheryl got in trouble with the lady inside after snapping one too many photos. She explained to us why taking photos is prohibited, and it totally makes sense. She mentioned how it was bothersome to people who would come to pray at the church. So folks, this is a rare glimpse of the inside of the Church of the Good Shepherd. Enjoy.
There was also a sheep dog statue just outside of the church. The statue was commissioned by the people of Mackenzie Country in recognition of the indispensable role of the sheepdog in their livelihoods.
A relaxing afternoon followed, along with dinner spent at the hostel. We had planned to do one more night of star gazing before we departed back for Dunedin the next day. This time, we decided to get away from the crowd that the church attracted and find our own spot. We drove about as close as we could to the lake in the park area where we had eaten lunch earlier that day. We found a few picnic tables to lay on and considered it sufficient. This night was clear yet again, but significantly windier, which also meant colder. We were wrapped like burritos again, but the wind still permeated the fabric and chilled us all. Every time a gust would blow, we would moan in discomfort. But even still, we searched for shooting stars and laughed at nearly everything. Sheryl really opened up on this trip, which was great to see. She has been fairly shy and quiet around the flat, but she has gotten a little sassier recently. This trip with Hira and I allowed her to really show us her personality, and even a little of her sass. I am so glad she got to join us on this adventure!
Our night was made shorter than the previous because of the wind, as well as we planned on watching the sunrise from this spot in the morning before heading out of town. We called it quits, blasted the heat on the way back, and attempted to enjoy a decent nights sleep over the snoring of our roommate.
The morning rolled around and we were in the car, ready to leave the hostel by 6:35am. Perfect timing for the sunrise that was at 6:42am. We found our spot and reminisced from the night before while we waited for the sun to peak over the mountains surrounding Lake Tekapo. What a great final memory of this beautiful place!
Since I didn't have to return the car until the evening, and since we made such good time back, we decided to drive up to Signal Hill and see what it looked like in the day time. We had gone one night, quite a while ago. It was super windy and too cold to really enjoy it. I wanted to go with my dad as well when he was here, but we just never got around to it. So finally I would be able to go to Signal Hill and overlook the city I've been residing in for the past 4 months. Incredible right?! Gosh I love this place :)
Thanks for being patient with me. Now that school is over and exams are done, I've had some time to finally catch up on this post! I can't thank you all enough for keeping up with my adventures since I've been here! I will see a lot of you sooner rather than later. You all are the reason I will keep coming home :)
Thanks for reading and I will write soon! Next stop, North Island!!!