After travelling to New Zealand and trying to sleep at the airport there, I arrived back in Sydney where I found myself kind of depressed after an amazing time in New Zealand. At first I was going to try go to a different hostel, such as around Bondi, but by the time I got to the Central, I was pretty tired and just decided to stay the the Railway Square YHA where I have stayed before. I took a few hour nap before making my way to Darling Harbour which is probably one of my favorite places in Sydney. On the way there I walked by the Sydney Entertainment Centre which happened to be showing Keith Urban with Lady Antabellum that night. So I asked if there were any tickets left and they were like yes, but in the back. But they said if I waited, there would be some more tickets released. I waited half an hour and it turns out it was front row tickets, so I bought a ticket and an hour later the show started. It was quite fun being able to go to the front row and getting so close the the artists.
Lady Antabellum
Keith Urban about 3 feet away
End of the Concert
The next day was a bit wet so I got a pass that allows me into things such as the Centerpoint tower, Manly Oceanworld, and the Sydney Aquarium and Wildlife World. I did the latter two that day and will do the rest the next time I am in Sydney. The next day I just relaxed a bit and actually did a free walking tour of the city through YHA which was cool getting to know a bit more a bit of the city and making some new friends along the way. Later that night there was a free fireworks show at Darling Harbour which was decent and happens weekly during the Summer and sometimes during the fall.
Darling Harbour
After that, it was basically a train ride back to Bathurst for 4 days of Uni before an Easter break of 5 days.
After staying two nights at a friends place, I was driven to the airport on a beautiful early Sunday morning. From there I flew on Jetstar to Christchurch where I had some family picking me up. He immediatly recognized my face and we went off to see some other family that don't live to far from Christchurch. It was really good finally being able to see them rather than just emailing between them. So we stayed there for a few hours and then went off to Waimate which is a little town in the middle of Christchurch and Dunedin (each are 3 hours away though). The person I stayed with was really good friends with my Uncle and was really into electronics and things such as radio communications, so that was really cool to see all that equipment.
Due to limited time, I stayed there for only a night, before heading taking the bus to Dunedin. Dunedin was first settled by some Scottish people, so a lot of the building are the type you would find in Scotland. There is even an old water fountain there that was donated by Queen Victoria in 1872. So this place has been around for quite a while.
Train station in Dunedin
After doing a bit of exploring in town I did a tour of the Cadbury Chocolate factory which was good and meant a lot of free chocolate. Once that was done I had an hour or so before taking a tour with Elm Wildlife Tours which was cool because you got to see things such a fur seals, big seals like the one below, as well as penguins, albatross (Birds that only fly in the wind), and various other birds and animals.
Two Penguins that just came from the ocean
After spending two nights in Dunedin I took the bus to Queenstown which is the adventure capital of the world and probably one of the most beautiful places in the world as well. Queenstown for me, is a mix of Vancouver, because of the lake and the mountains, and Whistler because of the small town feel that it gave me. While in Queenstown I did things such as Skydiving, Ziplining, racing around the luge track, and going to the incredible Milford Sound. I also met a group of dutch people that were staying in the same room as me at the hostel and they also knew some other dutch people staying in another hostel which was quite fun.
The trip to Milford Sound was fairly long at 13 hours total, but it was well worth the wait because of some of the amazing sights along the way and at Milford Sound. The pictures really don't do it justice, because when I was at Milford Sound it almost felt like it was surreal.
On the way to Milford Sound
Milford Sound
Milford Sound
Milford Sound. The pictures don't do it justice
Waterfall on one of the Mountains in Milford Sound
Mitre Peak
The next day I went Skydiving with NZone which was a really cool experience and something that I could not just pass up. The whole experience is about 3 hours long as you go through the paperwork, get driven to the site, wait a bit before your turn, get suited up, and then go skydiving! It takes about 15-20 minutes to get up to altitude of 15,000 feet and then before you know it, its your turn and its quite the rush falling at 200km/h for about 60 seconds before the parachute comes out and you glide down for 5 minutes or so.
Going up in the plane!
Heading down!
Quite the view!
Video of me Skydiving!
The next day I got a combo pass at one of the local shops to go up the Skyline Gondola, 6 laps around their luge track and a pass to go ziplining with Ziptrek.
Me at the top of the Gondola
The Remarkable Mountain Range in the background.
Just a little ways away from Vancouver!
Amazing Sunset over Queenstown! Nice way to finish my time in Queenstown
Video of me Zip-lining upside down!
While in Queenstown I also had the famous Fergburger which for $10NZD was definitely the best burger I have ever had at that price. So good in fact, I actually had 3 in my time there. On the last night in Queenstown me and the other dutch people there went to town for the night and didn't get back till 5 or so, and I had to be up at 6:30 for my 8 hour bus ride to Franz Josef. Good night for sure, and at least the bus was comfortable. Only problem is that New Zealand is so nice, so you really don't want to sleep on the bus with the beautiful surrounding passing you by.
In Franz Josef I did a glacier climb on the Franz Josef Glacier which is 12km long and moves at a rate of 5m per day. It was just a half day tour, and we spent about an hour or so on the glacier walking through crevasses and over the ice. It was quite a cool experience, and they give you basically all the equipment you need such as rain coat, overpants, touque and gloves, hiking shoes and crampons for the ice. If your in the area I would recommend that you go for a least a half day and if you can a full day.
The Franz Josef Glacier, you only see about 4km of it here.
Hiking through the ice
Sun setting in the town of Franz Josef with the Dutch flag
The next day I went off to Greymouth which was well, pretty grey, but it was alright. Met some other Canadians in the YHA hostel there, all from different provinces and watched Lord of the Rings into the night. The next day I had the TranzScenic train booked from Greymouth to Christchurch which went through some amazing scenery, and with the sunset and fall colours it really made it spectacular.
Near the entrance of the Greymouth Harbor
Found this kind of a cool shot on the train
View from the train
The picture does not do the picture justice
Sunsetting over the NZ alps.
After the train I took the shuttle to the Christchurch airport where I slept overnight as I had an early flight to catch back to Sydney.
Absolutely amazing morning as we took off from Christchurch
Overall I am extremely happy I went to New Zealand, and this is just shows you a small part of New Zealand. Ten days was not near enough, so I hope to come back sometime and explore the north and south island quite a bit more. If you get the chance, this is one place you won't regret going!
Its been a little while since I posted here, as I have been pretty busy trying to get assignments done before the break, and then I had the break which meant I didn't have to much time on the internet. So over the next few posts I will be caught up again.
In the weeks leading up to the break after Katoomba I mainly just hung around campus procrastinating over doing homework and hanging out with friends. On one of the weekends we had Laundry Luau which was a nice event just bringing everyone together from the Diggings residence. We had some great weather, and had a great atmosphere.
A few days later there was an event set up by Vodafone on the famous Mt Panorama Race Track (Well known for the Bathurst 1000 in October) which brought over an actual F1 car and another V8 Supercar and let the driver of each switch with the other. The F1 car did a lap time of 1:48 and averaged over 210km/h of speed. It was cool being able to see this as I will unfortunately I won't be here for the Bathurst 1000 in the October.
A few more days later we had 80's prom at the university where I was voted to become the 80's Prom King for 2011, which was fun. After that we were basically done for the semester and I was able to get a ride back to Sydney with a roommates parents and stayed there for two nights in Sydney which was great. Which leads me to my next post in which I go to New Zealand!
