New Zealand!

As promised, this one is all about New Zealand!!

PS. This is going to be extremely looooooong^^

My mom makes fun of me everytime I go on vacation, becuase I always come home claiming that someday I will live there. And, as expected, I came home from New Zealand saying the same thing.

HOWEVER, because of NZ, I'm cancelling that statement for all other places. It was definitely the prettiest place I have ever seen and the whole country is vastly different depending on what part you are in. I'm pretty sure after I leave Korea, New Zealand will be my next place of residence, thanks to their working holiday program.

We went to NZ in August, so while it was the middle of extremely hot summer here in Korea, it was winter in NZ. The weather was so nice.

After a minor no-seats-left-on-the-bus-to-the-airport scalaffle, we made it to the airport. Of course we then found out that we booked tickets on a ridiculously cheap airline that made you pay for all bags(which could only be like 30 pounds), made you pay for any food or WATER on the plane, had no in flight entertainment, and made us recheck our bags in Malaysia. It's about 16 hours of flying time to NZ from Korea....:( After all that, I was beyond happy to finally arrive in Christchurch, NZ!

The next day we started our roadtrip. After a full year of not driving, it felt so good to drive again. Though it did take a while to get used to driving on the opposite side of the street. The turn signal and windshield wipers were also switched. As a result, my windshield stayed very clean, and people rarely knew when I was going to turn...

With the car!

The first day we headed from Christchurch on the east coast to Punakaiki on the West coast. On our way, we stopped and played in the huge rock formations at Castle Hill. 

Castle Hill

That night we stayed in a cabin that was in the rainforest, and 5 minutes from the beach!

The beach at sunrise

 The next day we walked around the Pancake rocks. Then headed down the coast to Franz Josef.

Pancake Rocks

Day 3 was spent on the Franz Josef Glacier. I rode in a helicopter for the first time, and it dropped us off in the middle of the glacier! We strapped on our spiky crampons and hiked around. They took us to look at a waterfall, crawl around in ice caves and we even went bum sliding! The Helihike was definitely my favorite part of the trip. 

Lake Matheson (down the road from Franz Josef) at sunset.

  The next day was my BIRTHDAY! Hmm...what should we do?

How about SKYDIVING in Wanaka? It was awesome. There's nothing like jumping out of a plane and plummeting towards the earth :) Actually, it was surprisingly serene.

Lake Wanaka at sunset.

Sheep in the road!!!

The next day we headed down to Milford Sound for a cruise. Apparently it's really a fjord, not a sound. It was really cool. To get the full experience, it seemed obvious that we should spend the whole cruise on the deck. So we did :) Unfortunetly, it was pouring and extremely cold and windy for most of the trip.  We also (without warning) went almost directly underneath a waterfall. As a result, I got to spend the 2 hour bus ride back to the hotel soaking wet.

I thought I was going to have to settle for this one :(

From Milford, we headed down south through the Catlins. We had only one mission that day: Find a penguin. After many hours of stopping at random beaches, when all seemed lost, we found PENGUINS. Real ones. !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Aren't they cute!!

The southern-most point of NZ (Pretty much Antarctica^^)

Random shack in the middle of nowhere.

Heading up. Doing good^^

We continued on to Dunedin on the East side of NZ. As the sun set, we made our way up the "Steepest Street in the World!" It was legitmately steep.

View from the top

Al....mo...st.......Th...ereeeeeeee

The next day we explored Queenstown, Glenorchy and Paradise. We were enjoying it so much, that we forgot to move the car out of the spot when the time limit was up...oops. Melissa then got her first ticket. Luckily the fine was only like $15. ha.

The view from our hostel in Queenstown.

Looking down onto the city. I kind of wish I lived in this house.

Glenorchy. Many commercials and movies are shot in this tiny tiny town.

The following day I said goodbye to the South Island, and flew up north.

That night we went to a Maori Cultural show in Rotorua. It was terrifying. Lots of screaming and scary eyes.

The next day was Lord of the Rings day! We drove out to Matamata to visit the Hobbiton Set!! Because they are currently filming the hobbit, they rebuilt the entire set. Unfortunetly they made us all sign a confidentiality agreement, so I can't post any of my photos. But it was AWESOME. I got to walk the path to the shire, see the party tree and sit on Frodo's front step.

Afterwards, they treated us to a sheep-shearing.....not so fun. Poor little sheep. And we got to feed them!

That afternoon we went Zorbing. Essentially they put some water in the giant ball, and you literally take a running jump to get inside. Then they seal you in there and push you down the hill. It was so fun.

 

To end the day we went to Wai-O-Tapu Thermal Wonderland. Ridiculous name, but very interesting. It was essentially a (very)mini Yellowstone. 

Sooooo smelly!

Then we went on Lord of the Rings Tour #2 while we were in Wellington. This one took us to many locations around the area. Unfortunetly, all the sets have been completely wiped out, so there wasn't really a lot to see. Our guide was an extra in the movie, so it was interesting to hear his stories, though he was a little on the crazy side. He REALLY liked re-enactment pictures.

Here is an example.

Our trip ended with a gorgeous drive through wine region in Blenheim. There were wineries everywhere.

It was a really great trip. Everyone needs to go there (and take me with them^^)