Touring the South Island (Finally!) Part 1
Trip Start
Jan 12, 2008
1
9
15
Trip End
May 10, 2008
Punakaiki,
New Zealand
Thursday, March 13, 2008
I picked Stacie up at the Christchurch airport at 8:00 in the morning Friday, March 1. I was so excited to see someone from home! (got a bit teary-eyed, not gonna lie). We spent the day in Christchurch, letting her jetlag wear off. I took her to the botanical gardens and then to Sumner Beach where she saw the ocean for THE FIRST TIME!!! She was so excited. This was my first time to Sumner Beach. It has an awesome rock formation with caves that've been washed out by the water that you can walk through. A small lighthouse sits on top where a romantic married couple were taking pictures by
"too American like"
. That night we hit the hay early; we had a big day of driving planned for the next day!
Saturday: Our adventure started as soon as we jumped in our car--on opposite sides, stearing wheel on the right. Note: I made it a point to purchase extra insurance. :) We should've plastered an American flag sticker right next to our "Backpacker Rental" sticker on the bumper. It would've went along with all the screaming we did in the first three blocks of driving. We didn't even get out of the parking garage and the car was making funny noises. Great, did we get a crappy car? No, it took us a block to figure out that our hand brake was on. Awesome--this is going to be an interesting trip. It doesn't stop there though. After we figure the "funny noise" out, we take our first right onto another street. Stacie is navigating and reminding me to stay on the left side of the road when I turn, got that down...BUT all of the sudden a car is coming at us in our lane!!! So I crank the car into the first place I can turn into and we take a deep breath. I'm thinking "Idiot!"--I turned onto a one way! So I pull out into the street, vowing to be more careful, only to realize that it actually wasn't a one way, it was the other car that was in the WRONG LANE
Arthur's Pass
. haha, stupid tourists... We're on our way. We just needed to get out of the city and the driving would be simple. It ended up raining all day. Was not a very pleasant start to the trip. We drove 4 hours to the west coast through the mountains. These mountains were so amazing, much different from any I've seen before. They shot up into the sky with at such a steep slant, that you would come around one mountain and another would be right next to your car. It wasn't like the mountains in Colorado for example, where you're just gradually getting to them and all of the sudden you realize you're halfway up. These ones just towered above you. (Remember Lord of the Rings? Reminder, it was all filmed in NZ)
We made our way up to Punakaki, a small town next to the sea where we walked out to the "Pancake Rocks". These huge rock formations are limestone that's been weathered for over 100,000 years and now look like stacks of pancakes.
That night we stayed in a backpackers hostel in the small town of Greymouth. It's only $20-$30 to stay in hostels in New Zealand so that was our means of accomodation for the entire trip. For those that aren't familiar with hostel situations, most offer 6-8 person dorm rooms. You can also pay more to get your own room or shared with just one other. Most hostels have a communal kitchen and lounge. Our room was a four-person room, with one bed being a double. Stacie and I shared the double bed and we were joined by a Polish man who was on vacation for a month and a younger English bloke who was hilarious! Had great conversation with both.
To be continued...
