Life's been pretty adventurous since finishing University and I've been traveling since the day my exams finished. Now, nearly 7 weeks later I finally have another chance to update my blog. Welcome to the biggest trip of the break so far: the South Island Road Trip!
Dannii arrived in NZ less than a week before this trip. She struggled a little with the jet lag, but she was fighting fit in time for this adventure and ready to see NZ! Good on ya, Dannii ;-)
We traveled over 25 days, starting in Queenstown, traveling south to Te Anau and Milford Sound before backtracking on ourselves and firing up the west coast. After reaching Nelson we drove to Kaikoura. Finally we made our way back north to Picton and then took the ferry to Wellington.
27/11/2014 - 01/12/2014 Queenstown
Me and Dannii were up at 4am to catch our flight. It was two hours from Auckland to Queenstown and we were able to watch the sun rising up over the country. Better yet we flew with Air New Zealand and so we watched the new safety video made for the Hobbit film! I'm sure I don't need to say this but it was a highlight of the trip!
On the decent the plane navigated the many mountains surrounding Queenstown. Flying between the snowy path was stunning!
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| Coming in to land |
The had the nicest pancakes for breakfast *drooling* and spent the day walking around the town and lake.
The next day we climbed Queenstown Hill to get an overview of the city. It was also a good training exercise for Dannii before the longer treks to come.
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| The Basket of Dreams on Queenstown Hill |
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| Photobomb! |
After this we met up with a fellow Tongariro survivor, Dave, and his English friend. We battled with the wind and played a bit of Frisbee Golf!
On the 29th Nov we jumped in the Cable Cars (or Gondolas). It was really nice here with more stunning views of Queenstown. We also used it as a starting point for the Ben Lomond track, where we got even more spectacular views.
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| From near the top of Ben Lomond |
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| The view looking away from Queenstown on Ben Lomond |
Before descending via the cable cars we had a chance to ride the luges. It was basically felt like a downhill Mario Kart track- or a childhood dream realised! I would say I enjoyed it too much, but how could it be too much? :-D
Our last day in Queenstown was spent rounding up a crew for the trip. Each member of the team was selected for their specific set of skills which were required for the trip. Pauline and Adele both joined us on this day :-D. Pauline arrived in the morning and with her we took a gentle cruise on Lake Wakatipu. We followed this with round 2 of Frisbee golf before meeting Adele in the evening outside of Fergburger. Oh Fergburger, I could write pages and pages about this place. I could write poems and sonnets, tales and lyrics but I will only miss it too much. They are world famous for a reason and on our last day in Queenstown we found out why! *more drooling*
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| Heaven! |
The next morning (1st Dec) we picked up the motor that would help us on our 2000km journey, a Ford Focus which later picked up the name "Flick". We began with a venture South-West to Te Anau. Will we be traveling alone? Will the weather show us NZ at it's best? Will we save the world from approaching danger?
Find out in "Part II: What's that Sound?"
Kia Ora
Ben
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