Well My 2 week Holiday was a great time. I spent a little over a week on the south Island and made it as far south as Queenstown. I really liked my time there the scenery was outstanding.
After my night in Picton I headed south on a bus to Christchurch. The damage to the city from the earthquake was not near as bad as I thought it would have been. I saw a couple of buildings that had the sides had fallen off and a lot of collapsed chimneys. I think most of the damage isn’t really visible it is more to the water and sewage systems. I tried to get out of the city the next day by hitch hiking. It took me 2 hours to where I could actually stick my thumb out and even then it wasn’t a very good spot. I didn’t give it much of a chance but I was sick of taking busses. That night I got my dad to rent me a car for a few days. It was a tiny little thing but it got me around with pretty good fuel efficiency.
That second morning in Christchurch I picked up the car and along with a new found friend from Norway drove to Queenstown. Queenstown is such a beautiful city, but aside from the scenery you wouldn’t know you were in New Zealand. I think I met one Kiwi the whole time I was there. Everyone there was European. Most of the people were there for the adventure activities, Skiing, Bungy jumping, sky diving, rafting, and jet boats… I think that’s about it, but I think that I’m missing something. I opted for snowboarding, mostly because the sky diving was really expensive.
After Skiing for the day I headed to the Rangitata to get my rafting fix. It is a really great section of river. The float starts out with 20 min of flat water, followed by a small set of class 3 rapids. After that it quickly escalates, there is one class 5 rapid called Rooster tail. It is about a 3m drop with a large wave at the bottom. There is about 200m of flat water after that during which the rafts pull over to scout what is coming up, the pinch. The pinch on the Rangitata is about 200 meters long and consists of about 7 class 5 rapids one right after the next. I had a great time on the first day and they invited me back the next day for free. The second day I was sure we were going to flip because on our raft we only had me and one of the experienced guides, guided by one of their rookies who was taking that section of the river for the first time ever. The kid did a great job though and only made one small mistake that didn’t make any real difference in the end. I was really impressed with the operation there, they feed you two small meals and have some accommodation there that is comparable to the best hostels I have stayed at. I could have stayed for weeks but I had to get back to Christchurch to return the car.
I booked a train at 7:00AM to Picton for after I returned the car. I woke up early and headed to return the car but could not find the rental agency for about 20 minutes I then called a cab which took 15 minutes to get there. The cab cost $30 and took another 20 minutes to get to the train station. I got to the station as a train was pulling into the station and I thought, great I made it, but as it turned out I missed my train by about 5 minutes. There was no way to rebook because I booked the ticket with a bus company that books discounted tickets. There were no more busses or anything for the day so yet again I was stuck in Christchurch. I needed to get back to the north island so I looked at plane fares and it ended up being cheaper in the long run to fly anyway so I booked for the next day.
I was quite surprised that there was no security for domestic New Zealand flights, almost like flying ERA out of Kodiak. The flight was smooth quick and comfortable. We landed in Rotorua without issue. I spent one night there and came back by bus to Whakatane the next day. I have been resting up and planning lessons here in Whakatane for the last few days and start teaching again tomorrow.
Wow that was a long post. I am sure it would be easier to post more often with less typing, maybe I’ll try that. Pictures tomorrow. My camera is charging.
Did the coffee care package make it there?
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