New Zealand and the End of my Adventures

Hello all!
These past couple of weeks I spent traveling around New Zealand. Let me start off by saying that it is one of the most amazing and beautiful countries I have visited and I had an absolutely fantastic time.
The first week I spent visiting Di Di, Matt, Maddie, and Jess in Wellington, which for those of you who don't know is the capital of NZ and sits at the very bottom of the north island. It was so great to see Di and Matt and to meet the girls and have a chance to get to know them and spend time playing with them. It was also really nice to get away from the college scene for a bit and spend a little family time with my NZ family. Di and Matt's house is beautiful- its in a Wellington suburb and sits up high on a hill so the view from the house of the hills is spectacular. I got to meet a good deal of Di's family, including her sister, brother-in-law, nieces, etc, which was great because I have never had the chance to meet the family in the past. We also had a chance to stop by Morag's, so it was really great to see her and meet her husband as well. (Side note: I totally spotted a Grammy afghan at Morag's!) Later on in my visit I got to meet Matt's parents also- they were moving back to NZ from LA and we all went to the airport to surprise them! Di took me all around Wellington and the surrounding suburbs to show me the beautiful coastline, hills, and city views. A couple of days during the week, Di and Matt both had to work and the girls were at school, so I had the opportunity to roam about Wellington by myself and do a little exploring. I checked out Cuba St, which is this great artsy area with lots of cute cafes and vintage shops (Marissa's heaven). I checked out the "Beehive" and the other government buildings, rode the old cable car, walked through Te Papa museum, met Matt for a sushi lunch, and shopped around. It was surprisingly nice to take a day to explore a city alone- you can go at your own pace, see what you want to see, and really take the time to absorb and reflect on your surroundings. While in Wellington I also had the chance to spend a night at Adam's friend Jeremy's apartment. We spent the night going over to one of Jeremy's friend's places for dinner and a few drinks, and it was really nice have the time to meet Jeremy and some time with him. My visit in Wellington flew by and before I knew it, it was time to say my goodbyes to Di, Matt and the girls and head off to Christchurch to begin my tour of the south island!
I arrived in Christchurch late in the afternoon on Friday, Dec 4th. By the time I got to my backpackers it was dinner time, so I dropped my bags off and headed out to do another solo city exploration. I walked around the city center for a bit, popped into a few shops, and stopped at a sushi restaurant for dinner. After a couple of hours, I made my way back to the backpacker, spent a little time catching up on emails, and then headed to bed early to get a good rest for the start of my tour the following day. Saturday, the Connections tour bus picked me up right outside Base backpackers, and after giving us a few minutes to go grab lunch for the day, we loaded up the bus and went on our way. As soon as I loaded the bus I could tell that it was going to be a great journey. Most people on my tour bus had started their tours up in Auckland and so had already gotten to know one another, but everyone was so immediately friendly and happy to meet me that I instantly felt like one of the gang.
We set out for our first night’s destination: Flock Hill Station. After being on the road for a couple of hours, we stopped at Castle Hill Station for a quick picnic lunch, then continued our journey to Flock Hill Station. When we got there, we all settled into our rooms, I roomed with Ally, Melanie and Shanra, who I ended up rooming with for the rest of the trip and the four of us became great friends. After getting a few minutes to settle in, we headed out to see the sheep, learn all about the wool industry and sheep shearing process, and even got to watch the sheep dogs work and herd the sheep. It was so interesting and I was amazed by how smart the dogs were and how they understood all of the different meanings of the various whistle calls, and how automatically responsive the sheep were to them. That night we were served a delicious traditional kiwi lamb feast, although it was a little strange eating the poor sheep that I had just been playing with earlier that day.
The next day we loaded back onto the bus and headed out through Arthur’s Pass on to the Otira Gorge, which was beautiful with waterfalls surrounding the roads. We stopped in Hokitika (where Adam went to the wildfoods festival!) to check out the Jade Factory and watch the jade carvers at work, and then continued on our way to Fox Glacier, where we’d spend our second night. Once at Fox Glacier, we had an option to hike up onto the glacier and do a glacier walk. Of course I couldn’t miss this opportunity, so off I went with a group of others, hiking up about 850 steps through the temperate rainforest to the glacier. Once on the glacier, we had to wear these things on our feet called cramp-ons, which were basically attachable metal spikes for the bottom of our sneakers, so that we wouldn’t slip on the ice. The walk was absolutely incredible and it truly was breathtaking, but it was SUCH a drastic temperature difference to go from sweating up those stairs to freezing on the ice. After the glacier walk, we all just hung out and relaxed back at the lodge for the rest of the night.
Monday we were back on the road, headed for the adventure capital of the world- Queenstown! On the way we stopped at Thunder Creek Falls, Lake Wanaka and Lake Hawea for some stunning views, before reaching Queenstown in the late afternoon. The first night in Queenstown we all went out for a group dinner at Lonsestar, and all decided to dress really wacky, and then met up at ‘Minus 5 Degrees’, the ice bar in town! This was my first time in an ice bar and it was a really neat, unique experience. After the ice bar we all went out on the town to a few more bars, before heading back to our accommodation. Tuesday we had the entire day to enjoy Queenstown and do any of the countless adventure sports that they offer in town. Mel, Shan, Ally and I enjoyed the only sleep in of the entire week, and then slowly got up and headed over to Fergburger for lunch, which is a really well known and absolutely delicious Queenstown burger joint. I am sad to report that I was the weakest link and couldn’t even eat half of my enormous burger, but it was still delicious nonetheless. After lunch, we walked around the streets and shopped around a bit, before I headed over to Aj Hackett to meet up for my bungee jump! I did the Nevis bungee jump, which is 134 meters (approx. 440 ft), which is the second tallest in the world (second to Hong Kong—I’ll get to that one eventually don’t you worry) and it was AMAZING. I was nervous earlier in the day before my jump, but honestly once I got out onto the platform all of my nervousness was replaced with pure excitement and I couldn’t wait to plunge myself off. It was so much fun and so worth it and I highly suggest it to anyone to has even the slightest interest in jumping. I enjoyed it even more than skydiving. Tuesday night my roommates and I went out to Thai, and then just hung low for the night.
Wednesday morning we were back on the bus, this time heading toward the Milford Sound. On the way we stopped at Mirror Lake (HEY OSU!), Te Anau, and a few other small scenic towns, before getting to the dock where we boarded the Milford Wanderer Overnight Cruise. We cruised around for a while, saw some fantastic waterfalls, and then anchored in a spot in the middle of the water for the night. Once anchored, a group of us went out in kayaks and explored around for a while which was a really fun experience and the views were absolutely breathtaking, and then got back onto the boat for a fun night of dinner and games.
Thursday morning we pulled up the anchor and cruised around for a while now, and saw some of the most stunning and picturesque sights of the entire trip, as well as some wildlife (seals and dolphins!), and then headed back to the dock late morning. We drove most of the day toward Lake Ohau for our last night’s stay, and on the way stopped at some more beautiful little towns. We also stopped at this shop called ‘Jones’s’, which was a huge fresh fruit shop where they sold delicious fresh fruit, dried fruit, and fresh fruit ice cream. We got to Lake Ohau in the late afternoon, and relaxed for a while before eating dinner and then spending the remainder of the night unwinding in the hot tubs.
Friday we concluded our journey by heading back up to Christchurch, stopping on the way to observe Mt Cook, Lake Pukaki, the Church of the Good Shepard, and the Canterbury Plains. Luckily many of us on the tour were spending an extra night in Christchurch at Base Hostel, so a group of us were able to coordinate it so that we were in a room together. We went out to dinner at Wagamama, and then almost everyone from the tour who was still in Christchurch met up in the center city square after dinner and we all went out together to a couple of bars. It was a fantastic trip and I met tons of great people and made lifelong memories and I am so happy I decided to do the tour by myself and have such a unique life experience.
Saturday I flew back to Australia for my last couple of days living on the Gold Coast. Saturday night Steph and I made dinner, talked for hours and I caught up on all that I had missed while in New Zealand, and then we just stayed in and watched ‘Up’ (thanks Julie!!!!!). Sunday I unpacked and then began re-packing to return to the states, and then Sunday night a group of us went out to the casino in Surfer’s for Bethany’s 21st birthday celebration. The next couple of days I spent hanging out with friends, soaking up some last sun, exercising, packing, studying/taking finals, using the last of my student credits at the salon in Market Square, and saying my final farewells to Bond Uni and all of my friends. Studying abroad in Australia has been such a great experience. I truly feel like I have grown so much as a person, especially in my independence and openness to new and slightly intimidating experiences. The time has gone by so quickly and I am sad to say goodbye to such an amazing country and incredible time in my life, but I am so happy I was given the opportunity to do this, and I am really looking forward to seeing my friends and family at home and spending the holiday season with them. I love you all. Thanks for reading my blog. Hope you enjoyed hearing about my adventures down under!

Love forever,
Arlyn