“What a treat, buddy”

New Zealand-Part 1

For just a minute, close your eyes and imagine the most beautiful place you’ve ever seen. Now imagine the most relaxing and peaceful place you’ve ever been. Now combine the both and imagine an entire country full of that (except possibly even better), and that’s New Zealand. Literally from the second I landed to the second the plane took off I was completely mesmerized with the scenery around me.  I’ve done A LOT of wonderful things in my life and have been extremely lucky with travelling the world, but travelling through New Zealand for ten days with an amazing group of people was really something. Words really can’t do this trip justice, but to say I had the time of my life is an understatement. Or, in the words of some Canadian friends I made, “what a treat, buddy.”

Day 1: Driving Day
Our first day was a driving day, as we flew into Christchurch and were making our way to Queenstown, which is on the opposite end of the South Island. Despite the fact that I left Sydney at 6:30 pm and didn’t arrive into Christchurch until 4:30 am and had no bed to sleep in at the hostel, I couldn’t close my eyes during the bus trip. Most of the drive was through countryside consisting of beautiful fields with sheep and cows back dropped by mountains. One of our pit stops was at Lake Tekapo, which is honestly the most beautiful lake I’ve ever seen. The lake itself is surrounded by the Southern Alps and the water was the pure turquoise.

 

Our next pit stop was at Morlea Farm, a family owned sheep farm, where we learned what a sheep is for (supposedly there are about 30 million sheep and 5 million people), watched a sheep shearing and a  sheep dog demonstration, and were served an authentic New Zealand BBQ! Not only was the food delicious—lamb, burgers, sausage, potatoes, pasta salad, and apple crumble—but the farm/house was absolutely beautiful as well. They had the food set up as a buffet style and the tables were set up on the porch and in the back yard, which was surrounded by fields and mountains.

 

Day 2: Milford Sound

Our second day began with another beautiful bus trip through the Southern Alps from Queenstown to Milford Sound, which is a fjord on the western coast of the Southern Island. We did a boat cruise through the Sound…again, absolutely breathtaking.  You are literally surrounded by mountains/cliffs that rise STRAIGHT out of the water and are covered in rainforests and waterfalls. Although this cruise was supposed to be relaxing and magical, I took the extreme route (although somewhat unintentionally). As we started exiting the sound and getting more towards the open water, the captain warned us that it’s going to get pretty choppy and you could get wet if you were standing out front, which is where I was. I figured it would just be some sprays and I’ve been on choppy waters, right? I was wrong. There were about 5 of us that had decided to stay up at the front and within minutes we were completely drenched. On one of the first waves, when we didn’t realize we should be holding on, our feet actually left the boat by like 4 inches and one of the other guys even fell over! Once we were already soaked, though, we figured why not stay out there, so for the next 30 minutes or so we just stood at the front of the boat titanic style getting dominated by waves and holding on for dear life! On our way back into the sound, we drove through a waterfall and got to stand underneath that as well! So even though the water was freezing, I thought I was going overboard a few times, and it was not the relaxing cruise I expected, I think it gave my “extreme adventures” trip a great start!

 

Day 3: Te Anau (Easter!)

On day 3 we did the glow worm caves in Te Anau. Yes, worms. Who wants to look at worms, right? Especially who wants to go through a cave full of worms? It sounds gross, but it was one of the most amazing things I’ve ever seen. The tour starts out with you walking through the caves, where you see a few glow worms here and there. Once you get deeper in, though, you hop on a boat and all of the lights they installed in the caves are turned off. The cave is absolutely pitch black, so the guide has to pull the boat through the water by ropes or chains that they’ve installed on the ceilings of the caves. Everyone remains absolutely silent and above and all around you are thousands and thousands of tiny blue glowing worms. It’s as if you’re looking at the night sky, but instead of it being wayyy far above you, it’s just a few feet away from you. It was really, truly magical. Cameras weren’t allowed in so that the light doesn’t ruin the experience, but this is what it looks like.  

Day 4: Queenstown

This was the only day of our trip that was left completely open for us to do as we pleased. Of course I chose skydiving, as many people say Queenstown is one of the best places in the world to do it. And I can see why, as Queenstown is absolutely stunning. The town sits on Lake Wakatipu and is also surrounded by mountains, such as The Remarkables (featured in the Lord of the Rings…although really all of NZ is LOTR), so when you’re all you can see for miles and miles is mountains and the lake. My dive started at 8:30am, and they drive you outside of Queenstown and around Lake Wakatipu into the mountains. They sort the planes based on weight/photographers and call your name when you’re up. You’re diver suits you up in a full body suit, hat, goggles, and harness, then you’re off to the plane! I ended up with 4 other guys from my tour group and one other kiwi. There were also 4 photographers with us, so 16 people were crammed in this tiny little plane. Honestly, you kind of feel like you’re going to war with all that gear on and being crammed in there. As we were flying up, the views just kept getting better and better. Once we got pretty high I was thinking, “oh man…that door is going to open any minute now!” but then my diver pointed to a gage on his wrist and said “we’re a little less than half way up!” That was when I had my “oh sh*t...what the heck am i doing” moment. Luckily my diver had done over 11,000 jumps, so I really wasn’t too worried. Once we got to 12,000 feet, the door swung open and the first guy was out within seconds. That was when my guy started scooting me towards the door, threw my feet out of the plane and pushed my head back on his shoulder. I glanced back at my friends left in the plane and one second I was looking at faces, the next I was flipping through the air and seeing mountains, then lake, then sky, then plane, then lake and mountains again. The first 5 seconds were absolutely insane. My heart stopped and I think I forgot to breathe, but it was such a rush. By far the absolute coolest thing I have ever done in my life. Although the rest of the free fall is a bit of a blur (they said a lot of people don’t remember their first jump), I wouldn’t even be able to put into words the experience if I did remember clearly. I do know that I screamed a lot, I could feel my cheeks flapping in the wind, it was too hard to move my arms to make my Wisconsin "W" symbol with my hands, and my mouth got really dry! Other than thatt, all I can say is that at least once in every person’s life should you jump out of a plane! I know that I’ll definitely be doing it again, and from higher!!

 

 

(Rest of the trip coming soon)