After Dunedin we headed over to Queenstown, where Kevin, my Dad and myself enjoyed a great day of skiing. It was strange to be going for a ski in the middle of summer! Down in Queenstown there wasn’t any snow, but as we drove up the mountain it steadily increased. The view from the top was absolutely incredible, as we were on this snow-capped peak looking down at a green valley below us.
The next day we made a quick stop at the Kewarau Bridge, also known as the world’s first bungy jumping site. Kevin and myself geared up and scared my parents and Jill half to death as we did a tandem jump off this terrifying structure. We were relatively calm and collected right up until the last second when we were standing on the platform and there was nothing but open air between us and the river below. It was so much fun to jump with Kevin, but we wish Peter had been there too!
Here's an action shot of the jump:
From Queenstown we headed over to the wee town of Franz Josef, which exists only because of the tourists who come to visit the Franz Josef Glacier. We were in fact a part of that tourist flock, and went on a guided tour of the Glacier. The only way to actually climb on to the Glacier itself is with a professional guide, as Glaciers can be a dangerous thing if you don’t know what you are doing. It felt pretty hard core, since the climb on Franz Josef required cramp-ons, these metal spiky things that attached to the bottom of your shoes. The Glacier experience was beautiful and unlike any hike I’ve been on before.
Here are some photos from the hike. A group shot of all of us on the glacier, Kevin and my Dad climbing through a tunnel on the glacier, and the whole glacier itself from a distance.
After the Glacier we made our way up the South Island to an eventual stop in Picton (or if you are my Mom “Ping-ton”, New Zealand town names seemed to be a struggle, even if they were in plain English…) where we hopped on the ferry that took us across to Wellington on the North Island. Wellington is the capital of New Zealand, but it is by no means a huge city. Compared to the quaint little South Island it felt big, but for a capital it is tiny. We went on a tour of the Beehive, the Parliament Building, and it made me realize I have never even had a tour of my own country’s national buildings! The tour of Parliament displayed how different this country is from the U.S. in that we felt that we were given access to areas of government that we could only dream of seeing back in Washington.
Here are a couple pictures from the ferry ride. One of Mom, Jill and Kev playing cards, and another of the beautiful view from the ferry.
The next stop on the trip was Hawkes Bay, where we met up with Werner, my Kiwi host from last semester, and had dinner with his family. Now, just to make things confusing, Werner and his family are not actually native New Zealanders, they are South African, so we enjoyed a lovely traditional South African meal in the middle of New Zealand! It was a delicious lamb with rice and vegetables, followed by brownies for dessert made by Werner (who I know will read this and appreciate the shout out). On our day in Hawkes Bay we toured various wineries, which I really enjoyed because I am actually of age here in New Zealand so I was allowed to partake in the tasting!
Here's a picture of Werner displaying his enthusiasm for the wine tasting:
Next on the list was Rotorua, where we enjoyed a touristy/actually relatively authentic Maori dinner. Our dinner was cooked in the traditional geo-thermal way in this underground, hot volcanic type thing (I’m sure it has a proper name, but it escapes me). We enjoyed watching the Pohiri, the Maori welcome ceremony that was originally used to determine the intent of the visiting tribe. We had to elect a “chief” to represent our group, and they went up on stage and everything to receive the peace offerings from the local Maori chief. Once it was established that we too came in peace we enjoyed a show complete with the haka, a war dance performed before battle, which is also infamously performed by the All Blacks before each match.
We eventually made our way up to Auckland, where my family and Jill departed for America and I made my way back down to the South Island. I think we were all finished living out of our suitcases, but I was certainly not ready to say good-bye. I’m so fortunate to have family and friends who were able and willing to travel half way around the world to see me. Thanks Mom, Dad, Jill, and Kevin for a fantastic time, and Peter you were very missed!
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