So I was forced to leave my humble abode at 172 on November 17th and forced to say goodbye to the lovely people that have become my dear friends. Alex and I caught a taxi running out the door through the rain (of course its raining as goodbyes always seem more fitting in the rain) to the airport because our goodbyes took too long to catch the bus costing us a $50 taxi. With the great expense, it was still worth it because parting was too hard to do too quickly. The last night we stayed up all night long and went down the beach to share our last sunrise together ever. We also had a "yearbook signing party" in which the girls got t-shirts that said "I <3 Coogee" on then and everyone signed around it; the guys just made little notebooks. It was a good way to remember everyone and have a little piece of Coogee to keep with us as we head our separate ways. Also, the guys in my house went kangaroo hunting and came back with 5 kangaroos and cleaned and cut the meat on our table. However, they promised they would make me some before the time expired because you can't leave Australia without trying kangaroo. And yes, even though I am a vegetarian, the entire time in Australia I craved meat and would be 2 seconds from eating it on numerous occasion. Therefore, I gathered the courage to try it and actually had two bites on my last night in 172. It tasted like a steak to me and I actually quite enjoyed it. Read on to find out how this fared for the next few weeks…..
But as (NZ 9 or 11) mentioned, Alex and I got the airport sad and somber flew to New Zealand. As mentioned before, I lost my wallet which included my driver's license and upon arriving in New Zealand all the car rental companies said that I could not use a fax from the Virginia DMV with a copy of my driver's license and all my information so we were stuck in the airport with no way of going anywhere. As we sat in the airport tired and discouraged, I looked over and saw a sign for a car company that caters to a younger crowd like ourselves that said we accepted 18+ and over- the only company in Australia that does this. Regaining hope, we called the company, Jucy Rentals, and they told us that they had a car that would be ready the next afternoon. We found a hostel, slept 15 hours, and then picked up our very crappy looking car with the words "Jucy 'El Cheapo'" written on the side of the car. We began our completely unplanned road trip driving while doing research of things to do as we went along. We started in Christchurch and headed to Mount Cook for the first night. We stopped at Lake Tekapo on the way which was the most serene lake I've ever been to. The water was a murky, in a good way, light blue and the sky and mountain tops filled the background. We stopped, took pictures in beautiful flower meadows, and skipped rocks on the lake. We then continued on to Mount Cook where we witnessed one of the prettiest sunsets I've ever seen in my life. To explain in the best words I can find to describe the beauty: the sun beamed off of a wheat-like grass field and illuminated it to literally glow gold with dark silhouettes of the mountains in the background; the sun filled the sky with a pink color so rich that opposite the side of the sunset, the snow-covered mountain tops gleamed pink and the clouds above also shared this glorious pink shade. Unfortunately, my camera was completely dead of battery and I was only able to get one picture. However, Alex did have her camera and captured as much of it as she could so I will get those pictures from her and hopefully be able to show them to you in person very soon! As we drove through the night, we arrived at Mount Cook and decided to sleep right away. Unbeknownst to us, we had parked literally right in front of the mountain allowing us to wake up to quite the scenic sight. Although the night sleep was very cold, we endured and drudged up the energy to hike up a path for three hours crossing over swinging bridges that lead to stunning views of Mount Cook. We then traveled up another cliff to view glaciers on a lake that was obviously very, very cold. At this point, I declared quite easily that New Zealand was by far the most beautiful place I have EVER been. And although I made this same statement about Tasmania, I retracted that statement upon seeing the sights I saw that day.
From there we headed to Queenstown which is the biggest city on the south island. Very rarely did Alex get service in New Zealand and I never got any at all so upon arrival we decided to call a guy from our house to see where in New Zealand he was at the time. Little did we know, that he was in Queenstown and in a hostel only five minutes away from where we had parked our car in the city. We met up with him for dinner and had showers in his hostel. In the hostel lobby we also ran into another girl from our house who we didn't even know was going to New Zealand and six other Americans who we met through study abroad. We explored the city and left for Milford Sound. Basically we took a little cruise boat that made its way through the fjords which were covered with huge waterfalls that we actually put our boat over and soaked us. No words or pictures can explain the sites but it was unbelievably beautiful. I really can't say more than that because my vocabulary isn't developed enough to have words for the majestic feel of this place. We then drove to Te Anau, a very small town with one little pub and one gas station. We got there pretty late and decided to enter the pub for coffee and tea and some live music. As we are sitting there enjoying our hot drinks, in walk another one of our housemates, Karen (I went with her to Tasmania), and her brother with whom she was traveling with. We knew they were in New Zealand but had no idea of their whereabouts. We were elated and stunned at the chances especially with the amount of people we had already run in to in Queenstown. We were forced to say our goodbyes again at the end of the night but it was nice seeing a friendly face in such a random location.
After this wonderful reunion surprise, we got in our car which we named CHEAPOlita, and traveled the distance to Franz Joseph, a huge glacier that has been there for "millions and millions of years." Although we decided to forgo the expensive glacial climb, we walked down to it and stood at its base ending up being grateful of our decision since it ended up raining and ice and rain seem way too dangerous.
Our next stop was Nelson which had the Abel Tasman National Park. The first day we arrived there, we just napped on the beach only to wake up to an extra 500 meters of sand due to the low tide. We saw over 100 starfish just sitting the shallow water on the sand. The next day we wanted to see these splendid beaches that we had heard about but when we asked the information center how to reach them with just one day left in the town, they said the only way was to take a $72 ferry. We asked if there were ANY other ways and were told that it was 11.6 km to the nearest beach. Very unsure, I said we could just walk a little down the rainforesty path and just experience that but Alex was convinced that we could walk to the beach. Deciding to see how far I thought we could make it, we walked and walked until we ended up 11.6 km in at the closest beach. Amazed at our walking distance, we relaxed on the beach and rested our feet. Unfortunately, on the last few nights in Coogee at 172, I stubbed my toe reallllllyyyy badly and with the 11.6 km of walking, it began to become painful. I wrapped my toe in my blueberry granola bar wrapper to keep it from rubbing against my shoe. Then on the way back to our car, I stubbed my toe on a stump and boy did it hurt. Then later on, I ran into a branch that ended up breaking off in my leg right near my knee and bled after having to pull it from my skin. Upon arriving at the car after a total of 6 hours and 23.2 km, I took off my sock to reveal two bleeding big toes and a bleeding knee. Wow, am I a good walker or what?
We concluded the trip back in the Christchurch and flew back to Sydney on the 25th only after having taken over 1000 pictures each. I spent the next week in Sydney staying with a few friends and enjoy the last few days with a few other housemates who were still in Sydney. Because I was relatively homeless, I had no internet and could not update my blog so this is all coming in really late. I promise to write one or two more blogs telling of my last few weeks traveling up the east coast in a campervan and then I will be home at last on the 17th. I hope you all had a fabulous Thanksgiving and again a Happy Birthday to my beloved Father Carlson on December 2. I wished I could have shared in the festivities.
(I will add more photos to this when I get the chance but as for now, I'm using internet cafe and don't have the photos on this computer. Check back soon, maybe even later today!)
(I will add more photos to this when I get the chance but as for now, I'm using internet cafe and don't have the photos on this computer. Check back soon, maybe even later today!)
