The South Island
On 25th June 2017 by HelenWe departed early in the morning on Friday to make the three hour ferry trip from Wellington to the South Island. I think we were all a little apprehensive as the ferry had been cancelled for a few days to due to extreme weather but thankfully it was smooth sailing!
Once off the ferry we headed straight for a vineyard as you do for an optional wine tasting. I didn’t do this but it was very obvious who had attended on the bus. Who knew everyone was such lightweights?! We continued our drive further down the coast with a brief stop in Nelson which seems a pretty nice waterfront city. We then continued down the coast to our stop for the night in Kaiteriteri, we stayed at a new hostel called Adventure Inn. It was probably one of the best hostels I’ve stayed in. Run by a guy named Greg it’s pretty much a home stay at the moment but in the summer after completion it’s going to be roughly 120 beds. There’s a massive cinema room with every film you could imagine and free popcorn, there’s a 45 inch plasma TV which was put to good use watching the rugby in the lounge area, there’s also pool tables and if you ask really nicely you even get home made cookies! The hostel sits right on the beach front and about 700m from Abel Tasman National Park. I would 100% recommend everyone stay at this hostel it’s great! Also it’s the best hostel pillows I have ever had (and small things like that matter after a while).
We continued our journey the following morning to Westport, how do I describe Westport…it looks like a town Wild West America forgot and reportedly has a very high number of meth users so please come to your own conclusion. The hostel we stayed in was pretty nice but I’ve stayed in better on this trip. The evening was spent in the pub watching the rugby. Activities offered here were surfing, again I didn’t go but people said it was a good morning.
On our way out of Westport we went for a walk to see a seal colony off the coast which was a good way to start the day, before we headed further down the west coast to Mahniapua to the Lake Mahniapua Pub for our evening. The pub was great and is a real legendary place with Kiwi passengers. We got a roast dinner in the evening and cooked breakfast in the morning, our entertainment was an ABC (Anything But Clothes) party in the evening. We had people dressing in tin foil, cardboard, balloons, flags, you name it, it was there. The coach trip in the morning to Franz Joseph was very very quiet with a lot of the bus feeling pretty sorry for itself.
Next stop was Franz Jospeh and what an awesome place it is. Here there’s Franz Joseph glacier which you can Helihike if you want to and skydive over. Sadly both were too expensive for me as I was saving my money for Queenstown but everyone who did it said it was unreal! I did the 4 hour hike to the foot of the glacier and it has to be one of the most gorgeous walks I have done. There were waterfalls, rivers, streams, very diverse landscape and because it was such a nice day you could see all the snow on the mountains and the glacier looked perfectly white. The walk was long but it was nice to do something which didn’t involve reliving my teenage/uni years of being the last one to leave the bar every night.
Franz Joseph was a 7:30am departure…way too early but we had a nice drive down to Lake Wanaka. The scenery on this drive was some of the best I have every experienced, waterfalls, lakes, snow capped mountains, just so impressive. I’m really falling in love with this country.
Wanaka town is so cute just on the waterfront, it’s packed with bars and restaurants. There’s an old school cinema with sofas, dentist chairs, psychologist chairs to sit in. You can even get hot cookies in the interval – old school or what?! We found a good ale house to have dinner in which our driver recommended. The food was good but no gluten free beer (what’s a girl got to do to get a drink this side of the world!?). We then went to the hostel bar to play some pool before another early night.
The final part of the trip Queenstown. The drive was pretty cushty at two hours. We made stops at puzzle world (not going to lie it was a little bit childish and pointless stop in my opinion) and then we went to a popular fruit store before going to our first bungee stop – I didn’t fancy this but a few of the others in the group did so we watched them. We arrived in Queenstown mid afternoon and OMG I fell head over heels in love. A busy, beautiful ski town surrounded by snow capped mountains and a beautiful lake. The first night we had a bar crawl which was fun but I had an early night as the next morning was Milford Sound.
Milford Sound has been on my bucket list for years and I have to be honest I was a little disappointed. The drive as always was beautiful we stopped at breath taking mountain ranges and mirror lakes, we saw the famous Kea birds, but the actual Sound was a bit average. I’m not sure if that’s because it was freezing or the weather wasn’t great but I felt it was a little oversold. I don’t regret going but I’m not sure I’d go again!
The following day… BUNGY time! For me this is one of the main reasons for coming to New Zealand. I have always wanted to bungy as it looks so incredible but more than that it was about tackling my anxiety, pushing myself and proving to myself I can do anything I put my mind to. Also a few comments have been made to me over the years and recently about how I’m either ‘boring’, ‘safe’, ‘too scared of life to live it’. I guess some would say it’s an accurate description but I needed to do that to know I can do what everyone else can do and live life without complete fear! Now I’m not going to lie in my head I’d planned a much more elegant jump than it ended up being. I choose a night jump at The Ledge which sits 400m above Queenstown. You’re legs are free in the harness so you can run and jump but turns out that’s a little bit harder than you’d think. MJ was the bungy instructor who FINALLY got me to jump after 24 minutes of fear, but there was no way I wasn’t not going no matter how long it took. I can only describe it as the worst and best thing I have ever done all at once. For 2 hours I remembered nothing and was in complete shock but after that I was buzzing! I’m so freaking proud of myself!! I’d definitely do another one! The view was amazing and the city just sparkled in the night.
I’ve got a few days left in Queenstown before my trip comes to an end! Honestly this has been the most unforgettable experience ever. I’ve met incredible people and made amazing friends. New Zealand has a very special place in my heart and I cannot wait to get back here!
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