I'm on a Glacier??

Hey All! I just got back from my week long backpacking trip in New Zealand. Are you ready for this blog? Sit back and relax cause it's gonna be a long one..

So it started out on April 15th. Our flight was at night and it was an adventure just getting there. We missed our bus stop because we were talking so much. So we get off at the next stop and just decide to go to another train station. We got there and it looked closed so we started freakin out. We found another way in and had to run down the stairs to make the train. But we made it...good start to our trip. There were no problems on the way over...we had the most hilarious flight attendant who was crackin jokes the whole time. And the flight wasn't full at all so we had an extra seat between us, which was nice. It was around midnight when we got there so we caught a shuttle to our hostel and went straight to bed since we had to catch a bus at 7:15 the next morning, which with the time difference was like 5 o'clock Australia time.

The next morning while walking to the where the bus was picking us up this Kiwi started talking to me telling me she went to SDSU for her bachelor degree (I was wearing my SDSU sweatshirt) She was up from the night before so it was an interesting conversation to say the least. Before she started talking to us her and her friend were making a dance routine on top of a bench at like 6:30 in the morning. She was very nice and helpful though and helped us find out bus. Oh by the way we flew into CHristchurch, which is on the South Island, which is the cold island. Let's remember that I'm from SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA, and I've just spent the last couple of months in Australia, and this was like the first time I was wearing regular shoes. So we catch our bus from Christchurch to Greymouth which is across the skinny country (thinking about it now I think the south island is a lot like California, size wise) The drive over was absolutely beautiful though I had a hard time staying awake to appreciate it all. I hit my head on the window three times while sleeping. We drove through places where Lord of the Rings and the CHronicles of Narnia were filmed, which was cool even though I haven't seen either of them. So we get dropped off in Greymouth, which is where we were staying for the night. We were traveling through a company called Stray, but there were no accomodations in Barrytown where all the other travelers were staying. Anyways we check into our Hostel, which are really nice over here compared to Australia. They were usually huge old building/houses, with really cool architecture. So it's Easter Sunday and everything in town is closed and it's raining so we signed up for a tour up the west coast to these "pancake rocks." The tour was amazing. It stopped raining which made the trip a lot more enjoyable. We stopped at two places to hike. One was called the truman track and was like a rainforest and was absolutely beautiful and it ended at the beach where there were huge waves. Then we went to the pancake rocks at Punataki or something like that. These were rocks that looked like a stack of pancakes. You probably won't really understand it until you look at pictures, which will be loaded right after this monster blog. After the tour we went back to the hostel and then off to have a traditional easter dinner, which of course is a $5 all you can eat sausage dinner. We are pathetic i know. We spent the rest of the night playing Suduko because once again we had an early wake up call.

So now it's 4/17 and we are waiting to finally be picked up by the Stray bus, but that never happened. THey forgot us in Greymouth, because the lady who scheduled us forgot to make a note to tell the driver. Wonderful. There was another guy with us waiting and he paid for the taxi ride to meet up with the bus. So we FINALLY meet up with Stray in Hokitika. We spent an hour or so in town which main attraction was a greenstone factory. I bought a really cute jade heart necklace. So next we are off to Franz Josef, but we stop at this weird little museum which main attraction was oppsosum. I tried a possum pie, which I wouldn't recommend but really I had to try it. So we continue our drive to Franz Josef stopping at lookout points along the way. This is probably the most beautiful place I've ever been. You are always surrounded by green, mountains, waterfalls and sheep. And it really doesn't get old. We finally get to Franz Josef which is a town next to the Franz Josef glacier. We book our tour for the next day, and have another quiet night.

4/18. Another early wake up call. We honestly didn't sleep past 8 this whole trip. So ya we went on a glacier hike...no big deal...I climb glaciers all the time. Actually it was the most amazing thing ever. We actually we on and surrounded by a GLACIER!! THe whole time we were on it, we were like "Is this real? I'm on a glacier??" I probably was the best looking person on the glacier..we were told we would get overtrousers and to not wear jeans because they don't dry and there was a good chance it was going to rain. So i decided to wear my khaki bermuda shorts. Well because we were going on the half day hike we don't get over trousers..so please envision my outfit. Tank top, long sleeve shirt, t-shirt, NorthFace jacket, rain jacket, bermuda shorts, two pairs of green wool socks and hiking boots. Hot huh? I looked like a tool!!! But anyways we were climbing a glacier. We walked up stairs that they carve out every morning, with a group of about 10 with a leader, who hacked out the stairs as we went along, and tightened the ropes used to make sure we don't fall into the crevices. So it was pretty scary, but then to add to it, we were passing these people who were ice climbing and this guy comes out of this revine-y thing and right after he does and is standing next to Tara and I, part of the glacier collapse, pretty much right where he was inside. I honestly thought the whole thing was coming down cause it was like 10 feet from me. We look back at him in awe because honestly he probably almost died and he has the biggest grin on his face, not even phased by the whole thing. The two guides looked at each other like "Well that could have been bad!" And then our guide used it as an educational lesson saying how unpredictable the glacier is and how it is always moving. Oh perfect!!! So we were scared shitless, but we trekked on. The glacier was just the most amazing thing ever. It was bright blue and the view from the end of our hike was absoltuely amazing. The pictures really doesn't do it justice, because we were honestly just surrounded by glacier. We also had to walk over this shaddy looking bridge which was thick enough to put one foot in front of the other. But nevertheless we made it back safe and sound. One of the craziest thing is we saw a few of our neighbors on the GLACIER. I mean it isn't everyday that you see people you know on a glacier. So after the glacier we left for Haast. Just a recommendation..DON'T GO THERE. I think we just stopped there because the drive was too long to go to Queenstown and we had stuff to do on the way from Franz Josef to Haast. The town consisted of our hostel, a motel, a fish and chip shop and a supermarket. Stray had the hostel to ourselves which was nice though. I slept on the top bunk which allowed me to have about 2 feet from my head to the ceiling while i was laying down. And I fell off of it...not when i was sleeping though..while i was trying to get off of it. I did a full spin in the air and tried to land without killing myself, which I managed to do. It was probably the funniest thing ever. I was upset that no one saw it though, Tara just saw me land but we still had a good laugh about it.

4/19
Are you still following me?? I hope this makes sense..I feel like this is the longest thing ever. Maybe you should take a break..get something to drink. Lay down for a bit.

So we left Haast and traveled through Haast Pass. We stopped at a few places, one being a beautiful waterfall and a few lakes. Once again, this place is beautiful. Then we stopped at Wanaka, which wasn't that big of a town, but at this point was like the New York of New Zealand. We got some lunch and ate it right next to the lake. Oh can I tell you all something that really makes me mad..you have to pay for Ketchup at most places. You have to pay for little packets of KETCHUP. Is there a tomato shortage?? Are you kidding me??? Anyways..Wanaka was beautiful. Back on the road again, where we stopped for people to sky dive and bungy jump, neither of which i did..but I'm going SKY DIVING on Thursday in Sydney. I'm so excited!!! Bungy jumping doesn't really interest me, because 1. I would have to jump off myself while with sky diving I really have no choice because when my guide jumps I'm going with him because we are attached, and 2. it just doesn't look fun to be snapped like a rubberband, with the spinal cord doing god knows what. So we finally got to Queenstown, which is said to be the adventure capital of the world. It also happened to be the American student capital of the world the weekend we were there, because pretty much every American studying in Australia was in New Zealand because it was "spring break." This was kind of annoying because we didn't come to NZ to hang out with Americans and they are actualyl starting to get annoying.

4/20
We woke up early AGAIN to book an adventure for the day. White water rafting was booked so we decided to go jetboating instead. This turned out to be tons of fun. We were in this cool jetboat, which seemed to fly along the lake/river, doing crazy turns and 360 spins, all while surrounded by beautiful scenery. After we finished almost crashing into canyons and what not, we walked around the town drying off, and doing a bit of shopping. Next we went to the top of one of the mountains up a gondola that pretty much went straight up. It was REALLY scary but definely worth it. The view up there was unreal. Then we took another chair lift even further up the mountain and luged down it on these crazy carts, flying down these race tracks. It was probably the second best part of the trip. It was so much fun and we got to wear ridiculous looking helmets, which was even better. I'm pretty sure I almost killed a few asian men and children, they are even worse at driving little luge cars. :) That night we had a great sushi dinner, which was a nice break from pasta and PB&J. We splurged, because we deserved it. That night we hung out with the other people staying in our hostel. It is always fun because you meet people from all over. We played cards with a few English guys, a guy from Holland, a Kiwi, Candians, and a girl who I'm assuming was from France. The kiwi was absoltuely obsessed with LA, who thought was a whole separate place from California. He also asked if you could walk the whole coast of California, in like one day. I think he was more obsessed with celebrities.

4/21
The next day we woke up...you guessed it! EARLY!! We got a bus from Queenstown to Christchurch at 730. We stopped a bunch of places, which of course were beauttiful. We finally got to Christchurch around 330. And right when we got off the bus we saw our roommmates who were driving around New Zealand. It was hilarious, but also very helpful because we had no place to stay, so we hung out with them all day and then went to the airport around 11 that night. We slept in the airport because we had a flight the next morning at 7:15 and it just didn't seem worth it to sleep in a hostel. I had a pretty easy time sleeping but then agian I could sleep on a park bench. We got onto a plane half asleep and got back to our apartment around 11.

New Zealand was absolutely amazing. I had a lot of fun, but it's nice to be back in Australia in shorts and tank top.

Sorry the details were kinda shaddy at the end but this was the longest blog probably in all of blog history. I'll add more details when I think of them. And will post pictures right after I post this.

I love and miss you all!!!

New Zealand Word of the Day:
Sweet As...I have no idea what this really means but they say it all the time. I always wondered was it was as sweet as...a pie? an apple? candy?