The South Island
For my last free weekend in New Zealand I went with seven other people to the southern parts of the South Island. New Zealand isn't too big (about the area of Colorado) but it is long and thin so it can still be long distances to places. We ended up flying to Christchurch, New Zealand's third largest city after Auckland and Wellington, on Thursday night. Christchurch is about midway down the eastern coast of the south island. We stayed at a popular hostel called base backpacker's for the night.
That night in Christchurch we went to a bar called The Holy Grail. It was located pretty close to our hostel and also near the Cathedral that Christchurch is famous for. We grabbed a huge booth and had a good time eating bar food and getting drinks. This is me, Adam and Doug.
The next day we grabbed our rental cars and began our journey to Queenstown where we were spending most of the weekend. About half way between the two there are two large glaciers called Fox and Franz Josef. We had already booked a glacier climb on Franz Josef to break up the drive a little bit and allow us to see some interesting places. I took this picture because this is the rainforest that we walked through to get to the glacier. It's a pretty remarkable change in scenery.
This is Franz Josef. That's our guide cutting some steps in the ice for our group. The climb was a lot of fun and we got to explore the ice for about three hours. Frans Josef is a particularly interesting glacier not just because it borders a rainforest, but also because it is one of the fastest moving in the world. Parts of the glacier move up to 6 meters in a day. During the summer the steps melt so quickly the guides have to recut them twice a day.
This is just a cool picture of me with my ice talons on. All of us like to think we're pretty good photographers now that we've taken so many pictures on all our trips. As you can see the weather was pretty good for climbing, and everyone was wearing shorts.
After we were finished on the glacier we drove the rest of the way to Queenstown. Queenstown is a really cool touristy mountain town that reminds me slightly of Jackson, Wyoming or Steamboat Springs, Colorado. The major difference is it isn't a ski town; it is one of the adventure capitals of the world. My best proof of that is that Queenstown is the birthplace of bungy jumping. This bridge, Kawarau Bridge, is the original bungy site. It doesn't look that tall in this picture because the part of the river you see is upstream from where you actually fall, but I assure you it is about a 150 foot drop and plenty terrifying.
But when you are at the bridge where the sport was invented you pretty much have to jump. This is me dangling from the bridge by what is pretty much a bundled group of koosh strands (I have a section of the cord; you can look at it someday). It was the second scariest thing I have done in my life aside from rolling my car, but it was an amazing experience. Doug and I jumped here at the original bungy site, and a few of our friends jumped from a suspended gondola that is higher up that I think until recently was the tallest bungy in the world.
So after the big jump on Saturday morning we went Canyoning in the afternoon. It was a really cool way to explore the mountains and rivers near Queenstown. This is the eight of us in our goofy canyoning outfits. This is the most you'll see of it because the trip would have been to hard on a camera to bring one. The canyoning consisted of zip lines, abseils, small climbs, jumping of waterfalls, sliding down natural rock slides in the river, and swimming small rapids. We decided it was a lot like caving, but we liked canyoning more.
That night half of the group and I drove four hours to Milford Sound. We stayed at a hostel near the sound so we could tour it the next morning. The area is pretty remote and the hostel was the only lodging for about 90 miles. The place ran on a generator and all the lights went out at eleven. We arrived pretty late and weren't ready to go to bed at eleven so we stayed up playing games in the lounge by flashlight. The next morning we walked down to the sound and got on a boat to tour the fjord. Milford Sound is one of the most spectacular places in the world, and many people go to New Zealand just to visit this place. I believe this is another place that was used in filming The Lord of the Rings. The rock faces rise almost completely vertical from the water.
You are probably thinking that it was a bit of bad luck that we went on such a rainy day, but that's not really true. First of all Milford is the second rainiest place on earth according to data; it rains for extended periods well over 200 days a year. The other reason it wasn't bad luck is that the rain creates all these waterfalls. We saw over 1000 waterfalls of varying sizes while we were there, but only three are considered permanent because almost all of them dry up within three hours of the rain stopping. There is no soil in the area just granite for the most part so whenever it rains all the water rushes down the walls into the ocean. On most days there is a layer of fresh water on top of the salt water between ten and twenty feet in depth.
After touring the sound we returned to Queenstown for our last night. We went out for dinner and then to a few bars. The most unique bar we went to was this place call minus 5. The bar is always kept between minus five and minus ten degrees Celsius because it is entirely made of ice. The seats, the sculptures, the walls, the bar, and even the glasses you drink from are all made of ice. It was quite an experience to go there; luckily they provide you with a nice big coat and gloves.
On the way back to Christchurch the next morning we took a different route. This is a view of Mt. Cook from a lookout over this long narrow lake. The lake stretches almost to the base of the mountain. Mt. Cook is New Zealand's tallest peak situated in the heart of the Southern Alps.
When we returned to Christchurch we had just a little bit of time to explore in the daylight since we had arrived after dark earlier in the weekend. This is the famous Cathedral. The whole town is extremely British in look and style. The joke goes that Christchurch is more English than England. After this we raced to the airport and flew home. After that I sadly had to write a few papers and study for final exams on Wednesday. Wednesday night everyone went out one last time in Wellington and we hopped the plane to Sydney the next morning.
That night in Christchurch we went to a bar called The Holy Grail. It was located pretty close to our hostel and also near the Cathedral that Christchurch is famous for. We grabbed a huge booth and had a good time eating bar food and getting drinks. This is me, Adam and Doug.
The next day we grabbed our rental cars and began our journey to Queenstown where we were spending most of the weekend. About half way between the two there are two large glaciers called Fox and Franz Josef. We had already booked a glacier climb on Franz Josef to break up the drive a little bit and allow us to see some interesting places. I took this picture because this is the rainforest that we walked through to get to the glacier. It's a pretty remarkable change in scenery.
This is Franz Josef. That's our guide cutting some steps in the ice for our group. The climb was a lot of fun and we got to explore the ice for about three hours. Frans Josef is a particularly interesting glacier not just because it borders a rainforest, but also because it is one of the fastest moving in the world. Parts of the glacier move up to 6 meters in a day. During the summer the steps melt so quickly the guides have to recut them twice a day.
This is just a cool picture of me with my ice talons on. All of us like to think we're pretty good photographers now that we've taken so many pictures on all our trips. As you can see the weather was pretty good for climbing, and everyone was wearing shorts.
After we were finished on the glacier we drove the rest of the way to Queenstown. Queenstown is a really cool touristy mountain town that reminds me slightly of Jackson, Wyoming or Steamboat Springs, Colorado. The major difference is it isn't a ski town; it is one of the adventure capitals of the world. My best proof of that is that Queenstown is the birthplace of bungy jumping. This bridge, Kawarau Bridge, is the original bungy site. It doesn't look that tall in this picture because the part of the river you see is upstream from where you actually fall, but I assure you it is about a 150 foot drop and plenty terrifying.
But when you are at the bridge where the sport was invented you pretty much have to jump. This is me dangling from the bridge by what is pretty much a bundled group of koosh strands (I have a section of the cord; you can look at it someday). It was the second scariest thing I have done in my life aside from rolling my car, but it was an amazing experience. Doug and I jumped here at the original bungy site, and a few of our friends jumped from a suspended gondola that is higher up that I think until recently was the tallest bungy in the world.
So after the big jump on Saturday morning we went Canyoning in the afternoon. It was a really cool way to explore the mountains and rivers near Queenstown. This is the eight of us in our goofy canyoning outfits. This is the most you'll see of it because the trip would have been to hard on a camera to bring one. The canyoning consisted of zip lines, abseils, small climbs, jumping of waterfalls, sliding down natural rock slides in the river, and swimming small rapids. We decided it was a lot like caving, but we liked canyoning more.
That night half of the group and I drove four hours to Milford Sound. We stayed at a hostel near the sound so we could tour it the next morning. The area is pretty remote and the hostel was the only lodging for about 90 miles. The place ran on a generator and all the lights went out at eleven. We arrived pretty late and weren't ready to go to bed at eleven so we stayed up playing games in the lounge by flashlight. The next morning we walked down to the sound and got on a boat to tour the fjord. Milford Sound is one of the most spectacular places in the world, and many people go to New Zealand just to visit this place. I believe this is another place that was used in filming The Lord of the Rings. The rock faces rise almost completely vertical from the water.
You are probably thinking that it was a bit of bad luck that we went on such a rainy day, but that's not really true. First of all Milford is the second rainiest place on earth according to data; it rains for extended periods well over 200 days a year. The other reason it wasn't bad luck is that the rain creates all these waterfalls. We saw over 1000 waterfalls of varying sizes while we were there, but only three are considered permanent because almost all of them dry up within three hours of the rain stopping. There is no soil in the area just granite for the most part so whenever it rains all the water rushes down the walls into the ocean. On most days there is a layer of fresh water on top of the salt water between ten and twenty feet in depth.
After touring the sound we returned to Queenstown for our last night. We went out for dinner and then to a few bars. The most unique bar we went to was this place call minus 5. The bar is always kept between minus five and minus ten degrees Celsius because it is entirely made of ice. The seats, the sculptures, the walls, the bar, and even the glasses you drink from are all made of ice. It was quite an experience to go there; luckily they provide you with a nice big coat and gloves.
On the way back to Christchurch the next morning we took a different route. This is a view of Mt. Cook from a lookout over this long narrow lake. The lake stretches almost to the base of the mountain. Mt. Cook is New Zealand's tallest peak situated in the heart of the Southern Alps.
When we returned to Christchurch we had just a little bit of time to explore in the daylight since we had arrived after dark earlier in the weekend. This is the famous Cathedral. The whole town is extremely British in look and style. The joke goes that Christchurch is more English than England. After this we raced to the airport and flew home. After that I sadly had to write a few papers and study for final exams on Wednesday. Wednesday night everyone went out one last time in Wellington and we hopped the plane to Sydney the next morning.
posted by Patrick at 10:13 PM
1 Comments:
Two coments in one day! I am really on a roll on this whole checking out your blog thing. There's really not much more for me to say because I know you have an amazing time on the south island trip. Have a great time surfing next weekend! (And don't get as beat up as I did!)
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