I couldn't be more excited about my week-long trip to New Zealand before heading home for the holidays! It was my first time traveling solo, and I was a bit anxious, but it would be a great experience and I couldn't wait. I flew into Auckland, the capital, located in North Island, which holds about half of New Zealand's 4 million in population. It was a nice city, but it was a city city, and I found myself looking forward to my 2-day getaway in South Island's Queenstown.
Queenstown was made popular by its scenery filmed in Lord of the Rings. And trust me, it really is that beautiful. As soon as I stepped off the plane, the view took my breath away. The only other time I have experienced such natural beauty and serenity was in Interlaken, Switzerland. You can see a lot of my pictures in the slide show to the left. I discovered that traveling by yourself means you have no one else to take pictures of or with you, so I am definitely not lacking in my pictures of New Zealand scenery =)
I packed my 2-day trip full. Like Interlaken, Queenstown is known for its scenery as well as its outdoor adventure thrills. You can do just about anything you want, and it took me a while to narrow my choices, but I finally decided on mountain biking, whitewater rafting, jetboating, horse-back riding, and bungee jumping. Yes, bungee jumping. My hostel's host, Anne, helped me book everything, and I was set to go.
Biking through the Queenstown Gardens, in the forests, and around Lake Wakatipu was an extraordinarily peaceful excursion. As I stopped to take pictures, I sat on the bench overlooking the water and took in the silence and serenity. Really and truly, no worries mate. My afternoon trek through the town was exactly what I needed to kick-start my adventure.
And it was also a reality shock, as I forgot to put on sunscreen. You don't forget to put on sunscreen in Australia and New Zealand - there is sort of an O-zone hole down here. Needless to say, I was painfully crispy for the remainder of my trip, but I didn't forget my sunscreen the next day.My next day's adventure started out with a morning's worth of jetboating and whitewater rafting. The weather in New Zealand gets a bit warmer than Australia during the day, and a bit cooler than Australia during the night. Thus, it was quite chilly that morning. Jetboating is a neat experience - each boat weighs 3 tons, holds about 20 people, travels on the surface of the water at a max speed of 80 km/hr, and, while speeding, spins 360 degrees without tipping over. Quite a ride. Next, we rafted, but first we had to take a "nice little bus ride" to the top of Skipper's canyon down which we were rafting. It was an interesting choice phrase by our tour guide, as the bus ride was neither nice nor little. Our chaueffer Jarred, the recent "Czech republic driving champion," helped us wind our 45 minute way along the 4 meter wide gravel road built 140 years ago but only expected to last 100 years. I didn't have my camera, but trust me, it was scary. At one point, I looked out the bus window and couldn't see the road, only the valley 300 meters below. They said only one rafting bus had ever fallen off - I shouldn't have asked. But, we made it, and we rafted through the mica-ridden valleys that had once been subject to miners.
That afternoon, I jumped off a 45 meter-high bridge, and landed in the river below. I was attached to a bungee rope though, so I'm ok =) Needless to say, I was quite nervous, but I finally jumped. My jumping buddy, Ju, was much braver than I. He went first, and climbed back up a million stairs afterwards to film me jumping.
The next day, I went on a horseback adventure through the hills filmed in Lord of the Rings. My horse, Tigger, definitely had a bit of bounce in him, and I had fun trotting through the valleys. That afternoon, I took a skybox up a really tall mountain with Andrew and Kat, whom I had met out the previous night. We all luged (like bobsledding, but without ice) down the mountain, several times. Quite fun :)That was all in 2 days. I was quite exhausted, and spent the next day in Auckland resting before heading home for Christmas. New Zealand is a beautiful place, and I would definitely love the chance to return one day.
It was my last weekend in Australia before heading to New Zealand and then home for the holidays, and I wanted to take a trip. So we rented a car and headed west down the Great Ocean Road. Similar to the Pacific Coastal Highway on the western U.S. coast, Australia's Great Ocean Road is a popular weekend adventure for tourists and locals alike, and includes many fun stops along the southern coast before the grand finale stop of Port Campbell National Park, home of the Twelve Apostles.
And we were off again. Driving on the curvy 2-lane road was quite fun, and we stopped every so often if we came across a worthwhile look-out point. I found a sign along the way that was a good reminder to the tourists. Once we made it to the Twelve Apostles, I discovered there were actually only eight still standing due to erosion, but this fact didn't take away from the beauty of the natural site. I also learned that the so-called "London Bridge" had eroded and fallen down as well, but when I asked if the famous song was written as a commemoration, I was told the two were unrelated. 
