I know that this is super late but I have
been sick and busy with classes. This post is about about my super amazing and awesome Spring Break Trip
to New Zealand.
Day 1
-We flew into
Auckland through JetStar
-We
ate at Wendy’s that night. Australia
has an ice cream chain called Wendy's but not the hamburger chain.
Day 2
-We took our
first Naked Bus trip to Hahei
- We were
welcomed at Tatahi Lodge
-That night it
rained and stormed super super hard. I
feel like NZ has some very rough tropical weather at times
Day 3
-
We were driven to Hot Water
Beach by one of the lovely owners of Tatahi Lodge. At Hot Water Beach we dug our own hot
tub with the shovel we borrowed from the lodge. You can only do this during low
tide. The water can be super hot. Here I tested out my new super cool
underwater camera. It passed the
underwater test.
Chilling in our hot tub hole.
Day 4
-
We woke up early and went on a
Cathedral Cove Kayaking Tour. I was
scared at first because I had never been kayaking before and was about to go in the ocean. I loved it. We kayaked in double kayaks. Caroline was my partner. Our kayak’s steering
broke on our way back to shore so our guide helped us catch up with Brittany
and Kate. Then we created a sail with a tarp the guide had in his pack and sailed in. On our
sailing trip we saw a penguin.
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Then we barely made the Naked
Bus and made our way to Hamilton for the night.
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Hamilton was small and
boring. We stayed in one of our most
expensive hostels and it was not nice at all.
These did not keep us dry.
Amazing kayaking team.
Our sail
Cathedral Cove
Penguin.
Day 5
-
We left early on the Nakedbus in the morning to
go to Waitomo to tour the Ruakari cave and the Waitomo Caves. The
Ruakari Cave had a cool stairwell and a lot of big stalagmites and stalactites. If you damaged the cave you could be fined $10,000. This scared us a bit and made us cautious. Our guide had
a bad sense of humor that scared the children and had us walk through pitch
black darkness. Even though our guide
was not cool, it was a pretty cool experience.
We then took a tour of the Waitomo Glowworm Caves. We had a great guide for this one. I cannot believe how the guides are the ones who
pull the boat through the cave. The
glowworms made the cave super gorgeous.
I am sad we were not allowed to take pictures.
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We then left Waitomo for
Rotorua. Once arriving to Rotorua the
bus driver thankfully drove us to the Four Canoes Hotel/ Hostel because it was
pouring down rain and a 15 minute walk away.
We were so excited when we go to our room to learn that we did not have
bunk beds and 3 twin size beds and one double.
We, also, to Caroline’s delight had a chair.
Day 6
-
Melissa, Kate, Audrie, Chloe,
and Sam arrived in Rotorua to meet up with us.
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We all went and on a tour to
Hobbiton or the set of the Hobbit, the addition to the Lord of the Rings Trilogy. The other movies were shot here too, but the sets were torn down after each movie. We saw both the 60 and 90
scale Hobbit Holes. We learned that vegetables are grown
and kept daily on set. Everything is so
miniature and small. We got to go inside
of one of the Hobbit Holes. At the end
of the tour we got to enjoy a drink at the Green Dragon.
Throwing up what we know underneath the party tree.
Green Dragon!
Drinking my drink inside the green dragon.
Day 7
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Early in the morning we headed
to Taupo.
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Our hostel Taupo Urban Retreat
was pretty awesome. The Hostel hooked us up with $30 sailing cruise, a $69 transfer to
Tongariro National Park, and a $5 chili con carne dinner.
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That afternoon we went on our
Barbary Sailing Maori Rock Carving Cruise.
Sailing was not as smooth as I expected.
We had to press our feet hard against the rails so as to not to fall
overboard because the boat would dip far down towards the ocean as the sails blew in the wind. We bounced over 2 meter waves. When near the carvings we got into some
double waves where the boat rocked from side to side. I was a bit scared, but it was pretty
fun. I highly recommend taking this cruise.
Day 8
-
The next day we woke up at 5 AM
to see if the weather was going to allow us to go to Tongariro National
Park. The weather was good enough for
the trip to go on. I did not expect to
get to go because many companies I called before leaving New Zealand still considered it the winter season and were not taking people to the park.
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This hike was one of the
scariest things I have ever done. Thankfully
Melissa helped me through it. We
saw beautiful amazing sights. Below is
an overview of what I felt 19.4km Alpine Crossing Hike was like.
o
The Car Park to Soda Springs-
relatively easy like it says except for this patch where you have to climb up
rocks.
o
Soda Springs to South Crater-
It’s a difficult long trek like the map said.
It, also, can be the cause of a lot of wheezing if you have a cold/
bronchitis.
o
South Crater to Red Crater-
This is rated difficult and is very scary.
It was very windy, you were on the side of a cliff, and the ground was a
bit lose and not solid. It said you may
have to crawl so I took this precaution and did a few times.
o
Red Crater to Emerald Lakes/
Blue Lake- It said it was easy but it was the scariest part. You were going down a steep hill of lose rock
and ash. I tried sliding down on my
butt, but then it got to rocky. This
nice Israeli lady let me borrow one her walking sticks.
o
Blue Lake to Ketetahi Hut- It
said that this one was easy too. There
were some possible life or death situation.
We had to cross over patches of snow where if you fell wrong you would
go tumbling down the mountain. I of
course fell a couple of times but thankfully did not go tumbling down the mountain.
o
Ketetahi Hut to Car Park- This
one was actually easy like it said. It
was very long though especially when you have a new blister on the bottom of
your toe the size of your toe and are going straight down hill.
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After the long hike, we stayed
up till 2AM at the Taupo Urban Retreat to wait for our night bus in to
Wellington. Taupo Urban Retreat was nice
enough to let us shower for free.
Blue Lake
Mount Doom
The scary hill to go down.
Emerald Pools
Day 9
-
We arrived in Wellington in
barely enough time to catch our ferry to the South Island. The ferry was actually pretty efficient and
quick. Once we arrived to the South Island we got off the ferry and we transported on bus to our luggage. Then another bus took us to where other bus pickups were.
Here we caught our next NakedBus to Nelson.
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Nelson was a pretty nice
place. I got to finally wash my molding
clothes at the backpackers. Most of the activities we did
they ended up soaked or damp. I had
never gotten them to fully dry. That
night we split two humongous pizzas..
Day 10
-
In the morning we caught the
bus to head to Fox Glacier. It was a
long ride.
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The bus driver stopped at a
Jade factory. I got a Paua shell
embedded in a fern charm necklace. I
felt this represented NZ really well. I,
also, got some cool painted rocks done by an artisan in the factory.
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On our way to Fox Glacier we
learned that there had been a landslide and the bus would not be running to
Queenstown the next day. I liked Naked
Bus until they left us hanging after the landslide. At first I was mad that they did not just
take back roads and go around. There
actually are not any.
Day 11
-
We did the Fox Trot Fox Glacier
hike in the morning. Fox Glacier is the only glacier in the New Zealand that
you can access without having to take a helicopter ride. This was super
cool. I cannot believe how far the
glacier has moved throughout the years.
It has moved a lot just since 2008.
The rocks where the glacier has moved is prone to many rock slides. Our guide, Kat, pointed out that rocks with
red lichen have not moved in two years.
The tour supplied us with jackets, backpacks, boots, and crampons. Right before going down to the glacier we put
our crampons on the bottom of our boots.
You had to step high and straight down to get the crampons to stick well
into the ice. We got to see a mula hole
in the glacier, walk in-between walls of ice, and eat a bit of the glacier.
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Since the road was still closed
and it was not looking like we were going to get to go home. We took a shuttle to Lake Matheson. It was
really pretty but a bit hazy. We had met
someone in Nelson who went when it wasn’t hazy.
There pictures looked like they came from a postcard. It is best to go at sunset or sunrise.
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When getting back to the hostel
after the lake, I learned that MaMaw died.
This was not a shock, but a bit harder than expected. I did not find out till a few
hours later because my cell phone did not have reception on the glacier.
What our the girl we met picture looked like.
I just thought these cows were cute.
Day 12
-
Today we took an $86 dollar
Intercity Bus/ Atomic Shuttle trip to Christchurch. We decided to cut our losses and miss
Queenstown. We had a flight out of
Christchurch in a couple of days.
-
On the way to Christchurch we
stopped at a place where we got to see a Kiwi.
The price was discounted because we were on the bus. The kiwi was about the size of a watermelon
and ran around really fast. He was so
funny looking and cool.
-
We, also, stopped at the
Bushman’s Café which was this very country bumpkin café. It had a very interesting sense of humor and
decorations.
- We, also, went through Arthur's Pass which was gorgeous. We stopped at this one place and saw a Kea bird which is native to NZ.
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We finally made it to
Christchurch to settle in to Kiwi Backpackers.
We played heads up, a game we learned about in Taupo, and met a lot of
cool people.
1 of 10 in New Zealand
Kiwi
Kea Bird
Day 13
-
Today we switched hostels after
a long walk to Around the World Backpackers.
We went the wrong way for about 10 minutes. On the walk we saw a lot of earthquake
damage.
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After taking another 45 minute
walk to find a McDonald’s, we went to the Christchurch Museum. This museum was free and filled with many interesting exhibits. My favorite exhibits were the mummy exhibit,
earthquake exhibit, penguin types exhibit, and the Arctic Exhibit.
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We returned to the hostel for
free pizza. At this hostel we made a lot
of friends too. Many were workers who
came to Christchurch to work to repair the city from the earthquake damage.
Day 14
-
This morning we left for the
airport early so that I would be able to Skype during MaMaw’s funeral. I am very glad I got to do this. I am very thankful for my friends for leaving over
an hour early and supporting me. The
group even got me a card. My second family helped me a lot through this.
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We arrived in Auckland, ate a
bite to eat, and took the Nakedbus to the Bay of Islands.
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That afternoon we booked a tour
of the islands for the next morning and received a free ferry pass to Russell
where we ate at a pretty cool pub. I
sort of wish though we would have ate on the Pahia side. the Pahia side has more restaurants and shops.
Day 15
-
We went on a boat tour of the Bay
of Islands. We saw many cool sights
including various islands, The Hole in the Rock, and New Zealand Fur Seals.
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After our tour we grabbed some
take-a-way and ate out on the beach.
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Then we boarded our last bus
and went back to Auckland to meet up with Sara, Shauni, Marcus, and James.
Hole in Rock
NZ Fur Seal
Day 16
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Today we just shopped before
our flight back to Australia.
Websites from the Places I Enjoyed Staying and the Activities I
Recommend Doing
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nakedbus.com/nz/bus