We woke up to pouring rain. It slightly threw off our plans to spend the afternoon on the beach, but was worse for everyone trying to get to Milford Sound for the next week or so- the rain caused a bunch of rock and tree avalanches and closed the road. We were really lucky we saw it when we did!
Apples, our guide for this trip, expressed us down to Invercargill which is a good sized city that is the furthest south. We went to the museum and got to see tuataras, creatures that are left over from dinosaur times. They have an invisible 3rd eye in the middle of their heads and will hibernate in winter and breathe once an hour. The museum has a breeding pair, Mildred and Henry who are 94 years old and just had a clutch of 11 babies. Invercargill was also home to Burt Munro, the man who built the World's Fastest Indian (a motorcycle he took to the States and set all sorts of records with). The bike itself is on display in the department store in town.
7 of us made the trip down to Stuart Island, the third island of New Zealand and the last port of call before Antarctica. The ferry took about an hour and was pretty rough- I slept the whole way and woke up feeling fine- much improved over my last ocean going experience!
7 of us made the trip down to Stuart Island, the third island of New Zealand and the last port of call before Antarctica. The ferry took about an hour and was pretty rough- I slept the whole way and woke up feeling fine- much improved over my last ocean going experience!
Our hostel was very cute. It centered around a kitchen/dining area and living room with a big fireplace. They also offered free Internet which was amazing and we all took advantage of it. There was one German couple and 2 guys from West Oz and we all hung out and chatted the whole night. We wanted to go looking for kiwis at night, but there was thunder and lightening and we figured the kiwis were probably staying inside too.
The morning was a bit exciting- the guys heard the ferry wasn't running and we all wondered what was going to happen if we were stranded on the island and the bus left us. Luckily the weather continued to improve and we were told the ferry would depart on schedule.
It rained off and on but we got to explore a fair bit of the area. There were a couple of nice lookouts and a lot of forest to walk through. Nicki, Laura, Tif and I found a few amazing beaches- the water was so clear we couldn't resist going for a paddle. It was actually freezing. Typical. We got a delicious pub lunch- blue cod is a specialty of the area and it was awesome.
We successfully got the ferry back and made it up to Queenstown for a couple more big nights and a long journey back to Christchurch where the last few of us had to say goodbye. Tiffany and I got 1.5 hrs of sleep before catching a shuttle to the airport at 3:30am for our flight to Melbourne. Saying goodbye to Stray and New Zealand was really sad- neither of us wanted to leave at all.
It rained off and on but we got to explore a fair bit of the area. There were a couple of nice lookouts and a lot of forest to walk through. Nicki, Laura, Tif and I found a few amazing beaches- the water was so clear we couldn't resist going for a paddle. It was actually freezing. Typical. We got a delicious pub lunch- blue cod is a specialty of the area and it was awesome.
We successfully got the ferry back and made it up to Queenstown for a couple more big nights and a long journey back to Christchurch where the last few of us had to say goodbye. Tiffany and I got 1.5 hrs of sleep before catching a shuttle to the airport at 3:30am for our flight to Melbourne. Saying goodbye to Stray and New Zealand was really sad- neither of us wanted to leave at all.
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