SWEET AS.....New Zealand April 4-11, 2010 (Week 8)

 G'Day from NEW ZEALAND!

Week 8 was spent in the South Island of New Zealand…a GORGEOUS place!! I planned to travel around with Kiki, Elle and Colleen. However, everyone we know from the states basically spent Spring Break in New Zealand some way! About 14 of us left on Sunday April 4 at about 1pm on a train to the Brisbane International Airport. The train felt like it lasted forever, but it was really only an hour. When we got to the airport and checked in, my bag was luckily only 18.9 kg (the limit is 20kg)! We got settled, had some dinner and waiting for our flight. None of us were sure how long the flight was but I think it was 7 hours because we got to Christchurch, NZ at 11:30pm (which is 2 hours ahead of Brisbane where we left from at 6pm). Whatever, we took a cab to Base Hostel, in Cathedral Square. It was late and we were exhausted but the 4 of us were in the room called the ‘Sanctuary’ a girls-only hostel room which was kind of cute, beds were comfortable even though I couldn’t really sleep.

Monday morning we woke up bright and early and caught a 7am bus to Queenstown where we would be staying the rest of the week. It was such a bad bus ride! 7 hours, but I was so exhausted all I wanted to do was sleep and I couldn’t no matter how hard I tried!! Elle and I were sitting together, listening to our ipods and admiring the incredible scenery. It went from city-like, to mountains, to rivers that were ice blue! It was also kind of frustrating because although gorgeous, I lost cell phone service during that time and couldn’t talk to Steve or my parents!

When we finally got to Queenstown we checked into our hostel, Deco Backpackers. It was quite a little hike up a hill but had the most incredible view ever! We had a private room for the four of us, with 2 bunk beds. It was cozy but we were happy to be together without any random strangers. The owner, who checked us in, told us that we had to do 3 things while in NZ: Skydive, Shotover Jet and ‘Meet foreign men”… we were a little sketched out by him, but made do. That night we went for dinner and brews in town at a pub on the warf. It’s was pretty cool. After that we just bar hopped for a little- nowhere too intense our first night after long traveling.

We also had to wake up pretty early on Tuesday because we were SKYDIVING at 10am!!!! Elle, Collen and I left our hostel wearing our legging, sneakers and sweatshirts ready to go at 10. We went to the NZone office and met all of the other people going with us. They brought all of us to the drop zone by 10:30am and even then I can’t say I was too nervous. See, before I left the states to come to Australia I talked myself into skydiving and even though my parents didn’t believe I’d do it- they went along with it. I was so convinced that even at the drop zone when I was in a jump suit and meeting my tandem instructor Greg it still didn’t hit me! I was so excited and nervous I’m sure but all I could do was laugh though out the whole plane ride up! Greg had held me back, Elle got in first with her tandem guy and her camera guy. Then Colleen with her tandem and camera men, and then Greg and I got in with my camera lady. This meant I was jumping first- EEK! So up we went and when we got above the mountains Greg showed me his arm band that said 1,500 feet- YIKES! So high up already and still another 11,000 feet to go!!! When we got to 13,050 feet the window/door went up and my camera lady was outside the plane holding on, filming me. I sat on the edge, out of the plane but attached to Greg while we both held on, he rocked back and forth 3 times and before I knew it I was free falling head first towards the ground!!!! It was a 45 second free fall, the most insane rush I have ever felt!! Your stomach doesn’t drop or anything, you just kind of blackout- it’s CRAAZZYY!! Then Greg pulled the parachute string, it opened (THANK GOD!) and we jolted up a bit. It was SO cold up there but it felt good too. The next 5 minutes were peaceful and amazing, floating over an incredible view of ice blue water and mountains and as we got closer I could even see the farms and sheep! We had a very smooth landing, I pulled my feet up to a sitting position and as we hit the ground I stood right up and the men pulled our parachute off. It was the greatest feeling in the whole world to have jumped out of a plane and landed safely back on the ground!! I waited for Elle and Colleen, we took a few more pictures and all hugged. We then walked off completely not feeling like we’d actually just accomplished a skydive! We paid for our pictures and video and went back to town to meet up with Kiki.

The rest of the day we were on cloud 9, I couldn’t even really tell you what we did besides walk around. I know we went back kind of early to shower and get ready for the big night. This was a good night mostly, except Elle and I couldn’t seem to feel any of the alcohol we drank! Haha. We went to dinner at World Bar, and just split appetizers. From there we went to the Minus 5* Ice Bar. It was pretty cool! I had always wanted to go to one, and we put on parkas and boots and went in. The drinks were delicious- I had Absolute Pears which is my favorite and we got to take tons of pictures with the ice sculptures. I even bit into my glass- it was made of ice! So funny! The bartender there told us at the end that he gives shooters for hooters, too bad he told all of these girls at the end of our visit- he could have gotten lucky and we could have gotten drunk! (only kidding) From there we met up with Marni and Rachel at the bar next door called Frasers. There was a bar crawl that night called ‘Epic Bar Crawl’ that for only 10 dollars got you into 5 bars and got you free shots at the door at each one plus discounted drinks ($5 spirits all night). We took this offer and had ourselves a grand old time! It was so weird but at that first bar a girl walked in and we both legitimately stared at eachother like we knew eachother- turns out she was a USY friend of Berko’s and we were like OMG PICTURE! Haha small world! We also met these boys who go to Williams in MA and one goes to Virgina Tech, but they were pretty cool and knew a lot about Boston- so of course we all hit it off! The night ended at World Bar when Elle and I ventured off from everyone to find out that the only late night food place opened was “Day and Night” (a 7/11 kind of convenience store) and Fergburger. We chose the chips option but there is more about Fergburger later.

Kiki and I had been talking about going on a wine tour for so long, and on Wednesday we got our chance! We went on Appalachian’s Central Otago Wine Tour. They picked us up at noon, and it was Kiki, myself and two older woman plus our tour guide. It was really nice! We went to 4 different vineyards, all of which had different kinds of wine to offer. We tried about 6 different wines at each cellar door, and one vineyard we got to try just pressed grape juice- so yummy! At that same vineyard we saw the presses and machines that make the wine, along with what the grapes look like after pressing. There was one particular red wine here that I loved called the Mathilde and I wish I could send it home to my dad, but unfortunately that is impossible with all of my luggage! When we got to the end of the tour we saw the river that Lord of the Rings was filmed on, just outside the last and prettiest cellar door. It was quite cool, the AJ Hackett bungee bridge is over that same river too. When we got back we were really needing a nap but skipped out on that to go dinner with the girls and get our party on since everyone else was meeting up in Queenstown that night.

We started at this bar next to everyone else’s hostel, where I grabbed my friend Tommy. See, at Buffalo Club it was “Ringa Wednesday” and they “WANTED: Red Head Ringas…” the reward was a $50 bar tab! Of course we brought ringa Tommy, and ended up getting beer and shots at the bar with him for a bit. It was pretty funny. We met back up with everyone later on and even I was dancing with the girls, we were going wild..it was just a lot of fun!  We even ran into our friends from the night before on our bar crawl and they went to World Bar with us. We had a late night that night that ended in Kiki and I eating Fergburgers! They are the greatest burgers ever. We got them with Brie cheese and wasabi inside the meat. Very good. They are world famous and everyone told us we had to go there- definitely a good choice.

Luckily we got to sleep in a bit on Thursday, Colleen went on the shotover jet with everyone else who had just gotten to Queenstown while Elle, Kiki and I went for a short little hike/walk in the Botanical Gardens and park. It was so pretty! There were flowers and trees everywhere and the hill overlooked the lake and mountains. We had a picnic lunch there before going back to meet up with the crew. We did some shopping and relaxing in town for the afternoon before Elle and I decided to get our cartilages pierced! I was kind of nervous because I had never gotten a piercing with a needle- but it was ok, pretty painful but I toughed it out! We looked cool at least- haha. That night we didn’t really plan to go out too late but did! We started the night at Winnies eating a delicious meal that only cost us each $15! We had great pizza and pasta and enjoyed some cider and beers with it! We were told by the waiter that we should stick around because the live band coming later that night was supposed to be really good- so we stayed and someone gave us 2 for 1 coupons that got us a ton of free drinks. The band was awesome and we had a great time! We ventured to World Bar for a bit drinking Long Island Iced Teas out of tea pots and dancing our butts off. We then went to Buffalo Club before heading home for the night for an early wake up the next day.

Friday morning bright and early the BBQ Bus picked us up at 7am to go to Fiorland National Park and Milford Sound. This was probably one of the coolest days. Funniest part was the bus picked up a kid in a Manitou sweatshirt, of course we had mutual Jewish friends and just had a good laugh over it. The bus ride total was 4 hours, but we stopped often along the way. We had 2 rest stops but in between got to stop about 3 times for short 15 min-45 minute hikes along places like Mirror Lakes and other Fiorland National Park spots. At one point the tour guide told us that we were EXACTLY in the spot between the Equator and the South Pole! SO COOL! We also stopped at one spot that had a crystal blue stream surrounded by mountains, that was where our tour guide cooked the BBQ for lunch. It was pretty yummy- kebabs and pasta salad! Even the orange juice was good and I hate orange juice! We took incredible and artsy pics this day… loved every second of it. My camera is AMAZING!! Finally we got to a tunnel that has a traffic light that only goes green every 15 minutes- we had to wait a bit so we got out and took some pictures with a huge chunk of ice/snow, pretty sweet seeing as I miss the snow a little bit. We eventually got to Milford Sound in time for the cruise around it. It was peaceful and pretty nice- though windy. It rained a little while we were out there but the waterfalls and rocks and open Tasmanian Sea were awesome sights! We even saw the cutest seal name Sylvester! The cruise took us South through the sound into the Tasmanian Sea and back North through the sound. Our bus ride back we slept through most of it, stopping once and grabbing some food and running to the restroom…but other than that after 14 hours of a day trip sightseeing the South Island we ate McDonalds for dinner and decided to stay in for the night. We met the guys and 1 girl staying across the hall from us at our hostel- they are all in the air force stationed in Japan currently. However, they went to Colorado State which is where Colleen goes- so we got to talking to them, pretty neat the kind of people you meet at hostels- some sketchy ones but some nice ones with great stories to tell.

For our last full day in Queenstown we checked out of the hostel at 10am but were allowed to keep our luggage there all day. We spent the morning/afternoon drinking our first Starbucks coffees of the trip and laying in the grass by a garden/park. I actually managed to take an amazing nap in the sun! aturday (gardens, fergburger, bus to Christchurch)

After a quick ‘nap’ in our cozy amazing hotel room we woke up at 4am for a 4:45 taxi to the airport. Only to get to the airport that early and find out we didn’t actually need to be at an international terminal since we had a connecting flight in Auckland. Needless to say, we could have slept another hour. We went through security and everything, got some juice and stuff and slept a bit more in the airport before boarding our flight at 7am. It was a quick flight, even though Elle and I were next to eachother and both passed out the entire time..but when we landed in Auckland we had to run to the international terminal, check through customs and security and then when we got to the gate we had about 5 minutes till boarding time. Luckily we all spent our last 10 New Zealand dollars on croissants and coffee before grabbing that plane! Kiki and I tried to watch movies for that flight but failed to do so, as I slept off and on through most of it. Landing in Australia was like coming home, it was great to be back even though we missed our great break in New Zealand. We also had another long hour train ride from Brizzy to Helensdale Station, but took a $40 cab ride from the station back home. It was a decent day out but we went food shopping and got settled back in before passing out very early to catch up on sleep.

New Zealand was an incredible place. Absolutely gorgeous and peaceful, the Kiwis are so nice and everything worked out perfectly for our spring break. Now, it’s crunch time with a lot of work this upcoming week!

Xoxo hugs & kisses

Missing you all, but I’ll be back before you know it…as this time here is FLYING by!
A lot to look forward to for this summer, it's going to be big- get ready!