We saw the Pancake rocks in Punakaiki, some really interesting rock formations. That took about 20 minutes and then we drove about 2 hours to Greymouth. Here Boris, Zach, Travis and I would tour the Monteith’s Brewery. It was amazing. We were able to sample the seven different kinds of beer they offered and learn how the plant is run by only 9 employees. Monteith’s is one of the better tasting beers here in NZ. Travis drove to the Glaciers were we would camp on the side of the road for that evening.
DAY EIGHT: GLACIERS!!!!!! We woke up around 8 and headed over to the town were the Fox glacier was located. I wanted to rent our own equipment and climb the glacier by ourselves, but the other dudes thought it might be too dangerous… lame. We got a guided tour for about $85. We arrived a little late for the 9:15 tour so we had to wait for the 1:30pm tour. We found a nice lake to walk around and the dudes ran ahead. I did half the walk by myself. It was a good time to think and play my harmonica. The weather has been absolutely fantastic this whole trip. Blue skies on days we need to hike and rain on the days we drive or in the night. My body has become acclimated to the weather too; I’ve been wearing sandals for most of the days. The snow capped mountains reflected off the lake. It was gorgeous. We went to Fox glacier next and met up with some other friends. After an hour and a half hike we finally reached the glacier, put on the show spikes and started walking. I didn’t take any pictures, but I did a lot of filming. I left the picture taking up to the 5 other guys that were with me. The glacier was awesome once we reached it. We saw some big creveses and some ice caves. It was a cool place, literally. After the hike we camped with the three Canadians that night.
DAY NINE: To Queenstown! We began our six to seven hour drive around 9am. We drove about four hours to Wanaka and stopped for lunch. It was a nice little town that reminded me of Colorado and a place where mom would like to go. It had small shops and was surrounded by mountains and a lake. I got some curry and the guys grabbed some burgers. At Queenstown we met up with Garrett, Caitlyn, Morgan, Jenna, Anthony, Adam and Matt. I switched groups and stayed with them the rest of the night. The dudes got a hostel and I slept in the car again that night. While hanging with Garrett and them, I decided to join them on their overnight cruise of Milford Sound the next day. I called and reserved my spot. $140 later and I was going to be very pleased with my decision. The girls made some phenomenal pizza and we had a nice dinner. We went to sleep early, around 11pm.
DAY TEN: I woke up in the car around 8am. Got some free breakfast from Garrett’s hostel, the Black Sheep, and we left by 9:30. It was a seven hour drive to Milford Sound and our overnight cruise left at 4:30pm. I sat up front in Garrett’s Wicked van, the girls slept in the back. The drive from here would begin to leave me speechless or give me screams of joy. Milford is frickin’ sick! The mountains and waterfalls cascading down the mountains, the trees and jungles so thickly outlining the earth’s floor, the snow that covered the tops of the mountain which melted into the water… It was breathtaking and this was just the drive to the cruise. We pulled off at this one look out and all I could hear was the Jurassic Park theme song in my head and being sung by everyone; mountains, trees and waterfalls- gorgeous.
THE CRUISE: We got on the boat by 4:30 and we started our cruise. This would end up being one of the greatest nights since I’ve been here. We got a nice tour of the Milford Sound, a fantastic dinner, the chance to kayak the Sound, swim, drink, and meet some great people. It was so frickin’ cool. Dinner was a pumpkin and kumara (NZ sweet potato) soup, pork roast with apple sauce, gravy, sweet potatoes, homemade French fries, steamed veggies, and two salads, a green and pasta. It was so delicious. And for dessert we had an apple pie with ice cream and caramel topping. The kayaking was great.
The mountain faces were covered in waterfalls. The beauty of this place will leave anyone speechless. Matt and I were able to jump off the top of the boat a few times, first we dove in, then I did a front flip in and lastly we did a double canon ball into the Milford sound. It was so sweet. The water was a bit cold, but nothing I haven’t dealt with before. (I did all this jumping and swimming while wearing my Speedo). That evening we all sat down an talked. We had the opportunity to meet Tom from Switzerland, and Dick from Great Britain. These guys were really cool. Tom was studying an MBA in Australia and came over to visit for 2 weeks. He enjoyed the fact I hadn’t showered in a few days and that I hadn’t eaten well in the same amount of time. He thought that to be funny. It was great talking to Tom and he joined us in playing spoons. The game had Caitlyn, Morgan, Tom, Matt, Garrett, Jenna and I. It was awesome.. It was a nice evening on the water. I slept in the same quarters as Anthony, Matt and Adam. I was nice to finally sleep in a bed. I slept “sound”ly that night.
DAY ELEVEN: Waking up on the boat as we began to move. We were headed towards the Tasman Sea to see the rest of the Sound. It had rained most of the night and the waterfalls were more prevalent and some were larger. I wrapped my camcorder in a trash bag and headed out onto the deck. It was raining and the sea was getting rougher. Breakfast was eggs, sausage, ham, seasoned tomatoes, and granola with yogurt. It was great. I had done a ton of filming the day before and looked forward to seeing how my “water-proofing” would work. It went well. I left my lens exposed and got some good footage of the water and the falls. Garrett enjoyed this weather, he said “This is how the sea is supposed to be…” We all talked like old sea dogs. I agree, The sea is supposed to be powerful and scare the crap outta people. We turned back once we reached the end and headed toward the dock. A few of us had tickets to stop off at the underwater observatory, the deepest in the world. It was like looking at an aquarium, except it was the ocean. The fish species were quite cool and it was interesting being down that deep.
(About 20 meters) It was also cool knowing I can dive that deep in one breath! We began the drive back to Queenstown. I met up with Zach and Travis. Boris had left that morning. I grabbed a Fergburger, it was one of the best burgers I ever had. I had the Southern Swine, which contained “Prime NZ beef, American streaky bacon, lettuce, tomato, red onion, avocado, aioli and tomato relish,” a beautiful piece of food. We drove back to Te Anau that night... My day had a ton of driving in it. In Te Anau Zach and I grabbed a pizza. The town pretty much shut down at 9pm. We found a nice place to camp. On the way to the camp site we saw a ton of sheep in this one pen. We saw that no one was around and decided to have some fun. We jumped the fence and with my camera, we began chasing the sheep. It was an amazing site. The sheep ran in groups and it was incredible. There were so many of them. We stepped in tons of sheep crap and had to wash up after the chase. It was pretty sweet. Travis slept in the car and we had the tent again. It rained most of the night. We heard dinosaurs. (Travis thinks it was Elk making the noise, but I know better).
DAY TWELVE: I drove today to Milford Sound so the boys could enjoy the view. They had a day cruise and I would journal during the 2.5 hours they were out seeing Milford. The rain cleared up for them. I’m glad they could get nice weather. We drove back thru the Homer tunnel. There was a huge waterfall which was supplied from the
glacier on top of the mountain.
We decided to hike it and I wanted to be
under the falls. Melting snow was the reason for this waterfall... I grabbed my suit and began to hike. It turned out to be further than it looked. A full 45 minute hike with NO PATH! It was like hiking up mount doom again, just not as long. The water was pretty cold, but definitely worth the hike. (In the picture you can see me in the bottom right corner). We drove back to Te Anau and tried to reach the Canadians. I decided to drive, and drive, and drive. I drove for a few hours and we reached Milford, 30 minutes outside of Dunedin. We camped at a whale fossil lookout.
DAY THIRTEEN: The lookout was beautiful in the morning. We decided to drive to Nugget point before we’d head to Dunedin. On the way there we met up with the Canadians. The point was really cool. We saw a few seals at the bottom of the cliffs. We drove to Dunedin after. We grabbed some lunch. We were having a tour of the Speight’s brewery at 4. It was more like a museum with a lot of interactive pictures, video, and wax figures. We met up with Gina’s sister. (Gina goes to AUT). Moniek showed us around the town. After a late night, I headed back to the car to sleep. I was a pretty fun night. In the picture you can see me dropping some nuggets off at nugget point...
