Conquering the South Island Part 2

My South Island adventure was far too epic to fit into one post. So here is part two:

Thursday morning started with a bang. Literally, a man was banging on the window telling us that if we didn't move in five minutes he was going to fine us $100. Perhaps we should have made sure there were no No Camping signs before we parked there. So we moved to a park near the town and ate breakfast. Then we headed towards back into Queenstown and spent the day chilling out and having fun. We ate the most delicious burger from FergBurger and then headed to Milford Sound.

Our drive to the Fiordlands did not disappoint -- with it's views of lakes and the mountains called The Remarkables (for the record, they live up to their name). Our destination was Milford Sound and in order to get there we had to go through this crazy tunnel that was literally carved inside of a mountain. There were no lights and it was a really small space. So freaking cool! The other side of the tunnel was extraordinary, of course. Wouldn't expect anything less. Once we arrived at our campsite, I had Cathy cut my hair in the back of our camper van and then we all went to sleep.

We woke up early Friday morning so that we could take a water tour of Milford Sound. It was absolutely beautiful. We got free coffee and muffins and sat outside to see all of the mountains, waterfalls, and seals that we wanted. Completely astounding. And even more exciting, we were ON A BOAT, don't you ever forget. I mean, ANYTHING IS POSSIBLE. At one point, we even got to go into a waterfall.

After our water tour, we got into the camper van and headed towards Te Anau. On the way out of Milford Sound, we stopped at a bunch of really awesome sights. There was the Chasm, which was this really cool walkway to this waterfall that had carved out these awesome rocks. Hard to explain, but it was legit. Then we went back through the crazy lightless tunnel. Next was the Mirror Lakes, which were so clear and still that they reflect the mountains around them like a mirror. Really really pretty. What was super cool about these was that when a duck went underwater you could see everything that it was doing. Crazy. Then, we stopped at Dunn Lake where we skipped rocks and sang and laughed and just had an all-around great time. Basically, we just spent a lot of time being too legit to quit.

Once we got to Te Anau, we stopped and got food and gas and then just spent some time enjoying the town. There was this really cool used bookstore where I got Into The Wild and immediately started reading it. Really good book, in case you're wondering. Then we headed to Invercargill. The drive was absolutely beautiful. Especially with the sunset on the way. I mean it literally looked unreal. I hate how much I overuse these words, but I have no other way to describe these sights.

Once we arrived in Invercargill, we sketchily parked our camper van outside of McDonalds (or, more appropriately, SketchDonalds) and ate dinner. Shona, Cathy, and I decided to check out and walk around the town while Courtney went to find us a camping spot. After a while, Courtney came and picked us up and we parked our camper van on the beach for the night certain that we would be kicked out in the middle of the night.

Saturday morning came without any police coming and making us move, which was a win in itself. But then we opened the curtains to see the beach. What a beautiful place to wake up to! After spending sometime soaking in the beach, we drove into Invercargill and had breakfast near Queen's Park. This is where I stopped for a moment to call Brooke and wish her a Happy Birthday. Great conversation. Then we decided to check out Queen's Park. It was a really pretty park and was so cute. So we walked around for a little bit, playing with the ducks and picking flowers. Then we headed to Bluff, the southernmost part of New Zealand.

The day turned to be quite rainy and gross and, to be honest, we all kind of just wanted to chill. So we went to find a camper van site to park and stumbled upon the greatest accommodations. We pulled into what looked like somebody's front yard. It looked this way because it was. And, instead of paying to park there for the night, we were told about WWOOFing. WWOOFing stands for Worldwide Workers On Organic Farms. And basically, you work for a certain amount of hours in order to have free food and accommodation. So, we agreed to work the next day for four hours in order to use the kitchen and park our camper van.

This place was super cute! And it was really nice to finally be in a house after being in a camper van so long. It was so spacious. We spent the first night laughing and talking around the kitchen table for hours and hours. The next day (Sunday), we slept in for the first time in a long time but were woken up by a neighborhood dispute. There was yelling and profanities and policemen called. Totally legit. After a while of sitting and listening, we decided to go inside and cook some breakfast.

After breakfast, we were assigned our WWOOFing duties. Courtney and I cleaned the inside of the house while Shona and Cathy pulled up some potatoes outside. It was such a fun experience. Who would've thought cleaning would be so fun. I cleaned the floors, put the laundry out on the line, cleaned out the refrigerator (which was really gross by the way), and all sorts of other little stuff. Soon, we were finished. And I got to take a long hot shower. It was amazing. After that, Andrew (the guy who owned the place) cooked us a delicious dinner of fish, potatoes, and tomatoes. Then we all sat around and talked until we were too tired and then went to sleep.

Monday morning we woke up and started to head towards Dunedin. It was a nice drive filled with a comfortable silence, reading, and writing. We all have experienced life so fully the past couple days, it was nice to just reflect on it all. Once in Dunedin, we walked around for a bit but soon decided that we were going to come back on a weekend. So we headed towards the Peninsula where we were overlooking a lake and the lights of the city and ate dinner, told scary stories, and laughed a lot. It was a pretty chill day overall.

We left our campsite early on Tuesday and headed to the beach to eat breakfast. It was such an awesome place to sit and eat. After sitting for a while, we headed towards Lake Tekapo. On the way, we stopped to see the Moeraki Boulders. These boulders are the only round boulders in the world. They were super sweet. We stopped for a while and picked up these awesome seashell type thingys that literally sparkle. Crazy.

After spending a good while marveling at the boulders and the sea shells, we ate lunch at a cafe and then headed to Lake Tekapo. The drive was amazing, as always. Once we got to Lake Tekapo we went to the I-site and found a Resort called Peppers. Needless to say, I was excited. Either way, once we left there we saw how awesome this place was. There were all these sweet mountains in the background and the lake was the prettiest blue I've ever seen. This is because it is glacial water. Man, it blew my mind. As we were driving through the town we saw signs for ice skating and immediately knew what we were going to do with our last day.

The ice skating rink was outside amidst these beautiful mountains. They were playing some really good music and so we all just headed out and skated for a couple hours. It was so fun. And the perfect ending to our trip. And, of course, I was the only one who fell. Fail. After realizing we were freezing, we went inside and warmed up before heading back to our camper van and eating dinner overlooking the lake. Great ending.

The next morning (Wednesday)we woke up and ate right on Lake Tekapo, soaking in our last few hours of the trip. Then we headed for Christchurch. Once we got back home, we went straight into the city to see all of the damage that the earthquake had done. You see we hadn't been allowed into the city when we were last here so it was crazy to see. They definitely had cleaned up a lot, but there was still a whole lot of damage. There is even an entire road that is completely impassable because of it. We attempted to get pictures, but you can't see the damage all that well in them. It's a good thing there weren't more people out when the earthquake hit.

Since being back I've taken some days by myself and headed to Sumner and New Brighton Beach. These two places are the greatest places to read, reflect, relax, journal, listen to music, whatever. And at night there's been a lot of hanging out, laughing, chilling, playing hat games on the reg. You know, the usual. There was something completely out of the norm, though, I got attacked by an orange juice bottle. It literally exploded in my face and the cap hit me in the eye. Scariest thing ever. Oh, and we baked a cake for Sarah's birthday. And the next day Courtney, Shona, and I made fudge. (I'm using the fact that I helped very loosely seeing as the extent of my helping was helping to pay for the baking products).

Either way, this month long break has been amazing. Seriously. This has been the best month of my life, and I'm not just saying that. Sadly, classes are starting back and we're having to settle back into the normal routine of things. I guess I can't complain about it too much, though. I mean, I'm in New Zealand. There's not much I can be upset about. This place is perfect!