Milford sound and around

Last few weeks in New Zealand, time to check off some tourist destinations I have been avoiding my whole time here. The top of my list was Milford Sound - a must see destination in NZ. So, not being able to find people who could come with me (ok, I did decide to go the day before...) I set of on my own. 

Only having weekends for travel due to my internship being prolonged I couldn't travel for too long which meant I would be spending most of the 3 days I dedicated to this trip on a bus. No worries though, long journeys mean lots of chances to meet new people and everyone likes that, right?

Upon reaching the first bus stop I was not regretting setting off on this incredibly long ride. We had our lunch brake at Lake Tekapo, which was the nicest I have seen it yet. With the mountains lightly dusted with snow and the pastel yellow and red trees surrounding it, it was simply postcard pretty.

After admiring the views from the bus window and engaging in some light conversation with a new bus buddy for the rest of the ride I arrived in Queenstown when it was already getting dark. Was very glad with the hostel I booked for my stay. Since I chose to stay in an all girls dorm I had the luxury of having a bathroom in the room and all shower toiletries provided. This pink walled girly room even had a large vanity mirror and a hair straightener! However, I was disappointed to not find anyone there when I arrived. No worries, went to get a bite to eat at the famous Fergburger where I met 2 travelling girls one of which is now staying with me in Chch (What are the chances right?) , gotta love bonding over food and travel :)

The next day was my Milford Sound trip. We made several scenic stops in Fiordland National Park where I fell in love with it all over again. Had many great photo opportunities which is good because as soon as I reached Milford Sound my camera ran out of battery... Not exactly what you want, when you've travelled so far, but what can you do. Luckily I had made another acquaintance on the ride down who offered to email me some photos (really hoping she will). Not that it was the best weather for them as it was a bit cloudy and rainy as we ventured through the clouds with the boat. However, the benefit of that was that due to the rain, many temporary waterfalls were forming on the mountains which was stunning to see. And a couple large waterfalls made this experience unforgettable. Maybe some day I will return to see it in the sunshine as well :)

That evening I met up with a couple girls I met on this trip and we went out to a few bars including an Ice bar which I had booked in advance as I caught a cheap deal (score!). In the bar it was -8 degrees so they provided you with winter coats and gloves with improved grip as you had to drink your cocktail from an ice glass (which you got to smash once you were done with your drink!). It was a small place, but filled with awesome ice sculptures including an ice air hockey table you could play on.

In the morning, I set back to Christchurch meeting another awesome traveller on the bus :) With loads more travel ahead of me as I spend my last days here and then set off to the US, UK and Lithuania for the summer. Was a great warm up for the days ahead.

Walking on the hills

Since I've been going all around the South Island, but not actually exploring the areas close by, I spend the last few days going on day trips near Christchurch. The first was last Monday to Porters Pass and the second yesterday to the Port Hills.

Lyttelton harbour 

After weeks of rain and gloomy weather, it has been great to get out of the house and enjoy nature. It's supposed to be autumn here, but when the sun comes out I could be fooled into believing it's spring. Hoping for more sunny days as it's my last month here and I want to make the most of it :)

Yes they are.

Dancy song

I haven't done a song post for a while so thought it would be a good way to get into writing here again. This song is another that makes me want to get up and dance (gotta love those). I enjoy both the original and a remix version so if you like it I suggest you listen to to whichever I end up not posting as well. Enjoy!

Planning the future?

Who knows what the future will bring. I don't want to have it all figured out because setting and following a strict path stops you from wandering off it and finding amazing discoveries in unexpected places and limits what you experience. I want to be open and take in life as it comes. Not that goals shouldn't be set, but just have to be open to new possibilities so that when good opportunities come calling you don't say 'sorry, wrong number, I'm following a plan'... I want to find something that I am passionate about and work towards it, but not shut myself to all that life has to offer away from that because there is so much to learn and you never know how random wisdom gained will help you on any life project be it that one or ones to come.

Welcome Flat

A week ago I ventured to the West Coast with 22 enthusiastic trampers to do the Copland track and stay at the welcome flat hut with it's very own natural hot pools. This involved driving for 7 hours and then walking 20km each way and I enjoyed every moment of this lengthy adventure.

We knew this would be an eventful trip after the drive up included one of our drivers/organisers getting pulled over by the police for forgetting to turn lights on. We were fortunate that instead of a fine he got a suggestion of where to go for hiking (Travel advice by your friendly neighbourhood policeman). 

This happened when we stopped in this small town to grab a quick bite to eat or a drink. We ended up going to this pub since it was past 10pm and not much was open. There we somehow got roped into singing Karaoke much to the excitement of the locals. After singing our third song it was time to leave, I imagine they would have probably had us singing all night if that wasn't the case. But we followed our last songs advice and walked with our boots onward.

We got to our campsite at 1am noisily set up our tents (got asked the next day if we heard the rude people come in the middle of the night and being very loud...oops). Had an early wake-up call by a couple of very loud birds (still need to find out what they're called...).

The walk was great, many sights all appearing as the foggy clouds retreated opening up the wonderful views. Had to stop every few minutes for photos or to listen to (and speak with) the birds. Didn't even need princess powers to call them over, there were plenty, Tui, Fantails, Weka... Some followed us to eat up the bugs from the disturbed soil that resulted from us treading the path.

Had to cross some memorable footbridges on this track, nothing better to cross a very high wobbly bridge above river rapids to get that adrenalin pumping (booth for it being kinda scary when you look down and being so incredibly beautiful when you look to the sides).

After a long walk, we finally reached the hut...and hot pools! Was great, we all sat in one (the first arrivals had tested to find that the others were too hot or cold and settled in the one that was just right). We were there for 2-3 hours before coming back to the hut where the others had started preparing an amazing dinner for all :) Yum, yum.

The next day was a bit different. The benefit of going back the same way is that you can safely leave the camera alone and just enjoy the views without the urge to take photos (kinda regret not getting any of the birds though...). We also stayed in a bigger group instead of splitting up as the day before. This was nice as it gave a chance to talk to more people all of which on this trip were awesome and I hope to see on future trips.

We got greeted at the car park with the soundtrack of pitch perfect played by the people who had walked the track faster. I'm sure I wasn't the only one with songs from that CD in my head the whole ride back :P 

Field Work at Tongariro National Park

After a 3 month break from field work I got back in the game by going to an amazing place up in North Island (first time there yay!). Since I decided to write my professional placement report on the Heather beetle which is released in Tongariro National park I had the opportunity to go there and help out with some work checking release sites.

The day could have started better. After 2 days of rain Christchurch was flooding and so transport issues were arising everywhere. My plane got delayed by 2 hours (why did I get up so early...), but free wifi at the airport consoled me and soon I was off to Palmston North where a colleague was waiting to pick me up and embark on our glorious adventure. 

So we then had to hike for 40 minutes through dense bush to get to one of the sites (a DOC release site, what were they thinking?..) had to cross a river and not wanting to get my boots wet ended up walking bare footed. Talk about a real hobbit experience with the volcano from the film just behind me :D Didn't last too long, had to put my boots back on after stepping on some thistles, not the most pleasant of plants to step on... Luckily this was the last site of the day and a warm motel room was waiting for me after this long, rainy day.

Look at all that dead heather. Oh and the steaming
 volcano casually in the background...

Visited many more sites the second day, and it was great to see for myself how the agent was acting, how much damage to the heather was being done. Really got me more excited about my work, amazing what effect getting out of the office can have on me :)

Kayaking in Akaroa

Way overdue post as I did this in January, but it's a great weekend worth remembering so had to get around to writing about it. So, after a failed attempt to kayak a few weeks prior (was too windy so they wouldn't rent us kayaks) we decided to rent kayaks from the university club and bring them to Akaroa ourselves. This proved to be a great idea as we then had the freedom to paddle as long as we wanted and go to different areas of Banks Peninsula.

The first day we decided to go to Pigeon bay as the waves were quite high in other areas and not even the guys wanted to attempt 5 meter high ones. After demonstrating the latest in kayak fashion which the boys executed very entertainingly we got going. We paddled to some caves one of which was quite a tight squeeze, but cool to go through as it was completely dark at times despite not being all that long. There was an extra challenge for me to go through caves and climb rocks as I was wearing flip-flops (the ultimate comfort shoe for such expeditions). I believe I completely broke them on this trip :P Visited a couple more caves where you could kayak in before heading to the end of the fiord and turning back.

We stayed at a campsite right by the water and had quite the near miss at dinner. So we were boiling our pasta on a gas cooker which looked like a hotplate unlike most of the gas cookers we typically used on trips. It wasn't functioning well in the beginning, but we finally managed to get it going and cooked our pasta. Just as we had finished, took the pot off and turned of the cooker it exploded. Yes, we were all sitting just a meter away and no, none of us got hurt. But we were really lucky as we found a large metal piece of it about 10 meters away the next morning (imagine if that had flown at one of us!) Instead we were completely unharmed apart from the ringing in our ears from the loud bang. Glad to have finished the day without any casualties we went to bed anxiously awaiting the next morning.

The next day we drove to Akaroa wanting to see a cave just outside the bay. However, we were quite tired and let the guys go the distance while we relaxed about half way. Just as we decided to start heading back the wind changed and the water became unsettled. For those who don't know I have a fear of small unstable ships so this wasn't exactly a walk in the park for me. I did freak out slightly as the waves got bigger and started pouring into our kayak and so we decided to head to the shore a bit closer to us instead of going all the way back. Luckily the guys saw us on their way back and then drove the car over to us while we waited. They had gone all the way out to the cave and seen penguins, but also mentioned that the waves were extremely high so I was quite glad for not have tried to go out that far. Was quite happy to be back on stable ground.

All in all a weekend well spent with some great people some of which are leaving NZ soon, but who I'll hopefully get a chance to visit back in Europe :)