What an adventure our 3 days off in New Zealand have been. We left for the Auckland airport at about 5:00am on Thursday morning to catch our 8am flight. Everything was going smoothly until I approached the JetStar ticket counter, only to discover that I had purchased a flight from Auckland to Queenstown on January 29 instead of 26. Fabulous.
After about an hour of panic and discussion with the JetStar service attendant, she gracefully agreed to let me purchase another ticket on the flight. For a meager $400. However, using my suave demeanor and dashing good looks, as I often do, I was able to convince the attendant to drop the 280 service charge and lower the ticket down to $180. So, major crisis somewhat averted, we boarded the plane to head to the south island and adventure capital of New Zealand, Queenstown.
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| I felt like Frodo |
The descent into the town feels a little bit like the introduction of a Man vs. Wild episode. With all of the mountains surrounding us, I was pretty sure we were never going to land, but simply be thrown out of the plane left to parachute our way to the city. However, we finally touched down in one of the most stunning landscapes I have ever been in. You can immediately understand why Peter Jackson picked this particular area in this particular country to provide the massive and impressive landscapes for the Lord of the Rings movies.
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| Kind of a ridiculous place to land a plane |
After settling in to our hostel, which was really very nice, the adventures began with a gondola ride up to the top of one of the mountains. Once at the top we participated in some luge cart rides down part of the mountain, which at times convinced me I was going to flip over the edge. That afternoon we settled in a "Cowboys" bar in town and got a little slice of the New Zealand perception of Nashville, cattle skin chairs and giant stuffed grizzlies. I guess in some respects it is not too far off. We got some dinner at a place close by and settled in to the hostel for the night to avoid the rain that had come later in the day.
Day 2 in Queenstown held a few different things for our group. While most of the guys went off to do the 340ft Nevis Bungy jump, I stayed back and did some shopping and exploring (because I am not insane). Even people in Queenstown talk about how crazy someone has to be to do this bungy. Nevertheless, they all made it back in the early afternoon and we all had a massive lunch at FergBurger. After lunch we explored around the gardens and saw more of the ridiculous scenery around the lakes and harbors of Queenstown. Unfortunately we never had time to go take the cruise in to the Fiordland where all of the glaciers are. That night we joined in the Kiwi Pub Crawl to get a feel for the Queenstown night life. This included a bar where everything was made of ice, including seats and glasses. Not exactly my cup of tea, but it was a really fun experience nonetheless.
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| Reel, Andrew and I were a little chilly |
The next morning we left early to ride with a hired driver in a van across the south island into Christchurch. The drive was beautiful, taking us through several more mountain ranges and over some massive glacier lakes. The water from these lakes is an entirely different icy blue than any I had ever seen. Six hours later, we arrived at the Christchurch airport. With no set accommodations and a flight out at 6:40 the next morning, we had made the decision to just stay the night in the international terminal to avoid paying for a room we would only be in for a few hours anyway. Once we stored our luggage in the airport, we headed in to downtown Christchurch. Or at least what we could get to.
Christchurch was devastated last year by two large earthquakes in February and September, and has still yet to make much ground in the way of recovery. The city still experiences small after shocks almost daily (one happened about an hour before we arrived). Because of this, the insurance companies will not release any rebuilding funds, so hardly any repair is taking place. The city center is completely fenced off and patrolled by national guardsmen. The damage is clearly evident by some tall buildings that appear to be leaning and houses that have been partially caved in and evacuated. It was an eerie scene to explore, as hardly anyone was even walking near the area. It almost gave the impression of being in a fallout area.
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| This house's foundation had shifted so that it began to sag in the middle |
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| This building was definitely leaning a degree or two |
The night in the airport was interesting. Considering how I was sleeping, on top of my bag covered by a raincoat on the floor, I really did get some decent sleep. After finally making it to our 4:40am checkin time, we went and laid down on the couches at the gate for an hour and a half before the flight boarded. More spotty sleep followed on the 1.5 hour flight back to Auckland, where we spent another day stuck in an airport. We arrived just after 8am and our flight back to Sydney was not until 3:55. Then it got delayed. So we finally found a restaurant that let us kind of hole up in the corner and sleep/work until our flight finally boarded. See you back in Wesley College in Sydney!
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| Comfy, guys? |
