There's been a slight change of plans..

So I've spent the last couple of weeks moving from Queenstown, to Christchurch (being stopped by countless sheep traffic jams), to Kaikoura, to Wellington.  In Wellington I stayed with some relatives, and we all hid from the extreme wind - I made it across the Cook Strait with 5m swells (the Strait between the North and South Islands) - the day before the ferry was cancelled due to large swells, and the three days after I made it to Wellington the swells grew from 5m to 14m!!  Luckily I didn't get stuck in Picton (the town on the South Island where you catch the ferry) waiting for the waves to settle because there is absolutely nothing to do there.  Instead, I got to relax in Wellington.  We did manage to make it out to go see Te Papa museum, do a little driving tour, and go by Geoff's old house to see how the whole front fence had been blown over by the wind.  Ana and I went up to Mount Victoria to try to get a good overview of the city.  We were out of the car for maybe 3 minutes - the fastest Mount Vic tour she's ever given - before being blown back into the car.

I am now back in Piha (west of Auckland on the coast) at Susan's beach house, preparing my bags and getting ready to leave New Zealand on Tuesday.

Here is the change though - instead of going to Australia, I am coming HOME!!  Just for one week, but it will be an amazing week.

At the end of that week I will be jetting off to SPAIN with Maarika for a sisterly trip, before heading over to Estonia for a couple of weeks (where Maarika will stay for most of the summer) and then London for a few days on my way home.  The first half of my gap year traveling adventure is coming to an end, but there will be loads more to see and do once I hit Europe, including enjoying the heat of the Spanish sunshine!

Cruising down to New Zealand's Third Island

(Pictures are up for 'Northern Adventures' and 'Dressing Up in the South')

On our way to Queenstown from Makarora, we stopped at the Kawarau Gorge - the original A.J. Hackett Bungy site! This bungy jump off the bridge is only 43m. Only one guy however, decided to do it. Everyone else was saving their money for the Nevis Bungy Jump..143m!!
Once in Queenstown we had a few days to relax. I did not do the bungy jump, but instead splurged and did my laundry - how nice it is to have clean laundry when living out of a bag! Most of the people I was travelling with were leaving QUeenstown to go to Christchurch, but since I was not worried about time, I decided to head down south to do the bottom southern loop of New Zealand.

We started off our few days in the very south by driving along "one of the most scenically amazing drives in the world" from Queenstown to Milford Sound. In the afternoon we took a boat cruise in Milford Sound. It was spectacular! That evening was spent in Tuatpere - "Sausage capital of NZ." There was absolutely nothing to do there, so everyone from the bus brought out their skydive, bungy jump and canyon swing DVDs so we could watch them and laugh about how scared we were.

Our next stop was Stewart Island - New Zealand's 3rd Island. It seems to be known for it's rainy weather, but somehow we were lucky enough to have a beautiful afternoon there. The boat ride over however, was not so smooth. It felt like we were on a mini rollercoaster for the whole hour across to the island! After arriving and dropping off our stuff we decided to rent scooters and go explore the 26km of road that there was there. We found many beautiful beaches and cool look-out points. It would definitely be a very nice place to be in the summer. We spent quite a while on one beach climbing rocks and watching a seal play and 'surf' in the waves. We spent the evening playing cards, comparing different games from different countries. We had Canadian, Dutch, and British rules to learn.

After Stewart Island, I jumped off the bus and spent some time exploring Dunedin on my own. Well, at least for the beginning.. I ended u running into many people I'd met on my journey south and ended up hanging out with them. I went to the Baldwin Street (the world's steepest residential street) and walked up it, the museum, and took part in a royal albatross/penguin/sea lion/seal tour which turned out to be really fun.

I ended up taking an Intercity bus back to Queenstown, where I spent the next few days. I ended up spending most of my time there with two other Canadians. I have barely met anyone from Canada while travelling (although everyone else seems to meet them everywhere!), until I reached my hostel in Queenstown. I was surrounded. I even met two people who live less than 5 minutes from home!

Dressing Up in the South

Next stop - Barrytown!! Poulation: 40
Barrytown is a place that seems to exist mainly to host (for one night) Stray buses that are heading south. Pretty much, there is nothing to do there. We walked along the beach for a bit to look for greenstone, but then headed back to the hostel to prepare for our costume party! Since we only stop here because it is a midpoint between our Abel Tasman and Franz Josef, Stray tours decided that it would be the perfect place to have everyone on the bus bond by dressing up and looking silly. Our theme was 'weird and wonderful.' It seemed to be much easier for guys to come up with fun costumes - they could borrow girls clothes (as one guy did - a bra, dress, makeup, even heels!). There was a costume box, but looking through it, we realized there wasn't really anything fun for a girl to dress up as. Following someone's suggestion, Meryl and I blindly grabbed about 4 items of clothing each, took them back to our room, and came up with outfits out of what we'd grabbed..I have never looked so manly in my life!
We threw on plaid, lumberjack-looking button up vests with jean shorts, drew on black uni-brows, side burns, and funny looking moustaches, and threw our hair up into messy buns. It was quite hideous, but great fun! We then gave ourselves names - Frank and Tyler - and spoke with southern lumberjack-type accents for the whole evening. Although there doesn't seem to be much to do in the small village of Barrytown, we managed to have a great time altogether. It helped people on the bus get to know one another because everyone was acting so silly that there was no possible way to embarrass yourself, seeing as we were all doing it.
After a fun night of dancing around in funny costumes, we woke the next morning and headed over to Franz Josef. In Franz Josef, I took part in the full day Franz Josef glacier hike - it was really cool, but involved a lot of standing around waiting for our guide to chop away ice every 10m (his chopping didn't seem to make much of a difference, but he said he was slowly making new paths so I guess we'll see). During the hike we were walking through small crevices and climbing up and out of them. (Thank you Maarika for the quick-dry pants!) We got soaked in certain areas where the ice was melting against us, but it was really cool - you just had to ignore the freezing cold ice all around you. When doing the tour you are provided with cramp-ons, a huge, red fanny pack (or should I say bum pack in this part of the world!), a big blue waterproof jacket, and if you want, waterproof trousers...it is quite the look! Especially when the guide asked you to tuck your socks into your pants so they don't get caught in the cramp-ons...Franz Josef was fun because we also got to stay there for two nights, meaning we didn't have to re-pack our bags right away. From there we headed to Makarora, again, another small town with not much to do (especially in the rain), but sing karaoke with the other buses that are also stopped there. So that is exactly what we did. Emma and I sang 'Gimme Gimme Gimme' by Abba. Don't worry, you didn't miss much!