By Nora_Wolcott
In the spirit of being the most relaxed country I’ve ever visited, NZ’s University system allows us two full weeks of Fall Break (not Spring break, as I’ve repeatedly and incorrectly called it). Given this opportunity, I seized the moment and bought a round trip ticket to Christchurch in the South Island, and with some of my closest international student friends embarked on an ambitious South Island tour. The trip took us from Christchurch down through Queenstown, to Fiordland on the Southern-most tip, and back up to Christchurch to return to Auckland. As I am typing this I am sitting at the Christchurch Airport gate, and am having quite a bit of trouble finding a way to summarize such a comprehensive trip in a few paragraphs. I’ll have to settle for giving each day an overview, so here goes:
Day 1: We flew into Christchurch late Good Friday afternoon, and my first impression was that what people had described to me as a “city” was more like a large town, fairly spread out and connected by highways. My second impression was that it was a good 10 degrees colder than Auckland, and I would discover that as we moved farther south it got as low as 30 degrees below Auckland temperatures. That night we ate fantastic Indian food in town, and explored the low key bar scene before settling down in our AirBnb.
Day 2: The first real day of our trip was spent at Kaikoura, a peninsula North of Christchurch famous for the sperm whale pods that frequent its waters. After a nerve wracking 3 hour drive up from Christchurch we hopped on a whale tour ship, on which we had 3 sperm whale sightings, along with several fur seals, albatrosses, and a large pod of Dusky and Hector dolphins. It was a gorgeous sunny day, and I almost didn’t mind all the tourists throwing up on our boat. For someone who loves marine life as much as me this was possibly the best day of our trip.
Day 3: This was our first real tramping day, as we set out to hike the mountains of Akaroa, a secluded French town just an hour East of Christchurch. It was another perfect day, and after a good 7 hours of climbing we managed to scale Stony Bay Peak, and were rewarded with encompassing views of Banks Peninsula. The climb left us sore and worn out, but the sense of accomplishment reaching the top after hours clambering over boulders was priceless.
Day 4: This day was spent driving the first leg of our trip down to Queenstown, stopping at Lake Tekapo and the Omarama Clay Cliffs. Tekapo was our first taste of the white-blue glacial lakes in NZ, surrounded by pink and purple lupins. It was a stunning relaxing stop, perfect to rest our sore legs. Omarama was far more dramatic than I expected, taking us down a dirt road an hour into the mountains where the cliffs stretched into the sky, giving the impression you were standing at the bottom of the Grand Canyon. We spent the night on a farm in a renovated school bus, definitely our favorite accommodation of the trip.
Day 5: I woke up on our fifth day fighting off nausea from nerves, because this was the day I would do the Nevis Bungee Jump, a 9 second free-fall off a cable car suspended 400 feet in the air. The highest in NZ, and second highest in the world, I had decided that if I wanted to cross bungee jumping off my bucket list once I wanted to do it right. It was absolutely as terrifying as I expected, somehow I hadn’t fully conceptualized what free falling face-first into a ravine would feel like, but the adrenaline rush was completely worth it.
Day 6: On this day we headed into Milford Sound, called by many the most beautiful part of New Zealand. I can understand why, as the mountains were green and striking, wound with waterfalls and taller than any we had seen thus far. It was a fairly rainy day, which stood to reason as it rains 60% of the year in Milford. Though our hikes were foggy they were still gorgeous, and the fog combined with the moss dripping from the trees gave the impression of being inside a Grimm’s fairytale.
Day 7: We had spent the night in Te Anau, and so didn’t have a long drive back to Milford that morning for our second day of Fiordland tramping. It was a slightly sunnier day, and we were able to enjoy clear views of the waterfalls gorged from the rain. We attempted some flatter, less ambitious tramping, and were rewarded with expansive views of the Sounds from along the black sand beaches lining the water. We spent the night back in Queenstown, where we danced until 4am with a group of Swedes we had met at our hostel.
Day 7: Our last day in Queenstown was unfortunately dreary, after a sunny brunch a storm rolled in from the Pacific and it didn’t stop pouring all day. With my dreams of mountain biking and kayaking washed away, we spent the day exploring the city under our umbrellas, and actually ended up having quite a nice day wandering around this vibrant town (again, not quite a city). It was a great way to refresh our hiking palates and prepare for the next day.
Day 8: This was the day we completed our most ambitious hike, summiting Roy’s Peak. This was a shorter climb than Akaroa, only 6 hours, however unlike Akaroa it was relentlessly steep the whole way, ending in a near-vertical climb to the peak. With burning legs and lungs we hoisted ourselves to the top of the mountain, and celebrated with a picnic overlooking maybe the most stunning view of our entire trip. This was another close contender for my favorite part of our trip, as the sense of accomplishment overlooking all the mountains below us was incomparable.
Day 9: For the final destination on our tour we headed down back up to Aoraki/Mt Cook National Park, home of the tallest mountain in NZ. Unfortunately this mountain is un-climbable, at least without serious mountaineering equipment and several days of professional level climbing. We settled for the glacier tracks that weave their way through the park, and were not disappointed. The mountains were the most spectacular of our trip, and as a girl who comes from a fairly flat place, I was not disappointed with the views.
Day 10: I spent our last day in Mt Cook battling a cold that had been brewing for the past couple days, and opted out of our more intense group hiking plans for a quiet morning reading by the glacial Lake Pukaki. It was actually quite a nice way to round out our trip, and by the time we made it back to Christchurch I was feeling much more prepared to tackle my upcoming week of classes.
This has been a whirlwind 10 days, and hopefully in the future I’ll be able to look back on this blog to remember exactly how it all happened. My first real independent, large-scale trip in NZ has prepared me for the trips I am planning on taking in Fiji and Australia, and I couldn’t be more excited to become more of a traveller. However, with all these trips coming up, it’ll be hard to top this one.