South Island Adventures Continued

Its amazing how much the temperature can change when you go to the mountains. We went from primarily shorts and t-shirt whether to bundling up in polypro and sweaters. We definitely had some gorgeous warm days in Arthur’s Pass but the nights were a temperature shocker, that’s for sure. It probably wasn’t even that bad considering the northeast at home, but im pretty acclimated to this climate now. :)

The mountains are stunning. I can’t imagine what they look like further south (Milford Sound area) but I hope I get the chance to go down there someday. I’m thinking that the footage from Lord of the Rings doesn’t do them justice.

We stayed at a student education center for the week, basically in the middle of nowhere, it was awesome. Literally surrounded on all sides by forest and mountains. I kept forgetting where I was and when I walked outside and saw a gigantic mountain, I pretty much had a heart attack. The views from the tops of a few hills were ridiculous. A hike I did up to the top of Lydon’s Saddle was beyond beautiful. We didn’t really know what to expect or how long it would take. The view was unbelievable and totally worth accidentally missing dinner for. Of course I forgot my camera, so I guess ill have to get pictures from other people again! The next morning I got up for the sunrise at the top of a different hill, SO GORGEOUS. The light that was cast on the clouds and mountains behind was spectacular. There was a valley where you could see the light come through and illuminate the mountains. So cool!

We spent the week learning about alpine ecology. We went on a ‘hike’, more of a walk, through the Otira Valley in Arthur’s Pass and worked on a few projects there. Absolutely stunning views. I definitely took a ton of pictures. On our way back to the center we stopped at a café that had the best hot chocolate EVER. It came in a huge glass mug and had layers. The bottom was coated in chocolate syrup with hot cocoa, the next layer was a creamy white layer of something and the top was more hot cocoa. And, if that weren’t enough, there was cocoa powder and caramel syrup on top. SO good.

We also went to a ‘luxury’ lodge to talk about ecotourism with the owner, but we basically got a short lecture, amazing scones and a cool walk around the forest where we ripped out Douglas fir trees. EcoQuest basically went on a rampage. 30 people, 1 hour, 10,000 fir trees gone. Booya. It was awesome and we all felt accomplished. The lodge was beautiful, like amazing. I recommend anyone coming to NZ to stay there. I wish we could have for the week. Oh! I almost forgot, they also have merino sheep there that they harvest wool from. We got to see a bunch huge rams which were really cool, they had huge twirly horns. We got to touch the wool and it was so unbelievably soft, now I know why it is so expensive.

We left Craggieburn Friday morning and drove to the west coast and up to Nelson. We made a cool lunch stop where we saw ‘pancake’ rocks (basically a bunch of layers in the rocks). They were cool and it was beautiful there too. Once we arrived in Nelson, each of the weekend groups dispersed to find our respective accommodations. It was really cool that everyone stayed in Nelson that night, it was awesome to go out with everyone, especially since there was a bday in the group. The hostel we stayed in was the best one yet. It was really nice, had free internet and laundry and he gave us our own rooms, instead of being split up and with random people like we thought we would be. Sweet deal.

That night we went out to a few bars and had a ton of fun. Im going to miss everyone when EcoQuest ends. :( I really like our group, everyone meshes well which is great.

The next morning was unbelievable. We went sky diving over Abel Tasman National Park. AHH!!! That morning was a bit hectic and we ended up being late to the sky diving place, but luckily it didn’t seem to be a big deal. But yeah, SKY DIVING!! As in I voluntarily jumped out of a plane. Actually, more like fell out attached to someone. I decided to go all out and get a video and pictures done. It was expensive but how many times am I going to get the chance/have the money to go sky diving? Much less in New Zealand. Im so glad I got them, they are really cool! The absolute best part was the 10-15 seconds of freefall, INTENSE. Falling at 120 mph. We kind of fell out and twisted backwards, so for a second or two I was falling backwards to the ground and facing the plane, it was wild. I highly recommend doing it if you ever have the chance/desire.

One of our EcoQuest instructors came with us, Liz., which was totally awesome. She did a high ropes course with some of us last weekend which was really fun. She’s afraid of heights, so her doing either of the two activities is pretty awesome, esp sky diving. She loved it though! The landscape was gorgeous and the plane ride over before the jump was cool. That was the smallest plane I have ever been in, as well as the closest I have ever been to people on a plane. There were 8 of us shoved in there, sitting on the floor without room to stand up or anything. Tiny!

I can’t really even explain the feeling of it, it doesn’t feel like you’re falling like you would imagine. More like floating, with a lot of wind involved. But you do feel completely out of control which is awesome and obviously slightly unnerving, but it’s all good.

Our plans for the rest of the weekend changed drastically. We literally went with it and decided to see what happened. Let me tell you, always go with the flow, awesome things happen for sure. We drove to Takaka and stayed at a DoC campsite in Abel Tasman. We had a really good night there and the next morning we decided to go on a walk to a cave, Harwoods Hole. Little did I know that this so called ‘hole’ was literally a giant pit in the ground. Like HUGE. Apparently it’s the largest cave in the southern hemisphere. You couldn’t see the bottom from any vantage point we could get too. Oh and there weren’t any bars or fencing to keep you from falling in. It was intense.

From there we decided to drive and see where we ended up. We stopped at a winery and met this awesome guy originally from Napa Valley. We talked to him for awhile, did some tastings and he recommended that we stay in Mapoua for the night. He suggested a brewery with the best Mexican food in NZ and a pizza place that has live music Sunday nights. We figured why not and went to a campsite that was right next to the beach! Awesome.

We went to the brewery first and, as it turns out, was closing. BUT they decided to serve us a drink anyways. We were sad about not getting to eat Mexican food, but right then, one of the owners came out and asked if we wanted food. She made us all burritos even though they were technically closed. SO GOOD. I miss Mexican food, that’s for sure. The two owners were also from California, we happened to meet a lot of Americans (or previous Americans) this weekend.

From there we decided to go to the pizza place that had live music and ended up getting a pizza to split. There was a singer/songwriter and she was really good. Great voice. It’s funny how much of an awesome night we had by just going with the flow, it was great. :)

Monday we went back to Nelson for the day since the weather turned sour. We ended up seeing Alice in 3D which was cool. Not a bad movie, but a couple things could have been changed or edited out. And the 3D wasn’t even comparable to Avatar, at all. It was a fun movie though and Jonny Depp is always awesome.

We also went to the Grape Escape, another winery, and the lady there gave us all sorts of tastings and free food. It was awesome. They had amazing dipping oils and dressings. So good! There was also this ice cream shop in Nelson called penguino, so obviously I had to go in. It turned out to be gelato and was really really yummy. Cheap too. After that we headed to Nelson Lakes National Park, first to Lake Rotoiti, and camped there. For some reason this whole weekend we lucked out on not paying or only partially paying for our campsites. Good thing since I spent a ridiculous amount of money on other things. The lake was gorgeous, mountains surrounding it on all sides. I went on a nice hike the next day for a couple hours. I love the forests here, so beautiful! Later that day we headed to the other lake, Lake Rotoroa. The only thing wrong with these lakes, and all of NZ biota in general, are sand flies. GAH! So bad at Nelson Lakes, but also at most beaches. They are basically mosquitoes that are always out. At least mosquitoes don’t really come out till dusk. I have so many bug bites; my feet look like I have chicken pox.

The next day we made our journey back to Nelson to meet up with everyone. It was a great weekend, very chill which was perfect.

We are now back at The Quest which is SO WEIRD! Donna is here though which makes it better (admissions head at UNH). I really wish we were still in the south island but it’s also good to be back I suppose. Lots of work coming our way though, booooo. Sorry for the length of this blog, the rest should be much shorter from here on out. I can’t believe there is only 5 weeks left. AH! Crazyness, it’s flying by.


Arthur's Pass


Sunrise in Craggieburn


Sunset in Abel Tasman


Harwoods Hole


In the plane!!




AHHHH!!


So awesome!



Fun Fact
A kiwi can be a fruit, bird or person. Be careful to differentiate when speaking.