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!