I’m no longer a student abroad, I’m now a vacationer. I’ve traded in my backpack, boots, and school books for my suitcase, hiking boots, and guide book. It’s weird no longer “living” in New Zealand. I can’t exactly say I live here anymore, as I no longer have an address here. I would also say I’ve traded in my friends for my parents, as my Mom and Dad arrived last Monday to join me in this beautiful country, but to say I’ve traded my friends in just sounds wrong, and is just incorrect as I truly feel that the friendships I’ve made here will be carried with me wherever I go (especially if I go travel in Europe, as keeping these friendships means free accommodation!).

The first stop I’ve made as a Vacationer was to Queenstown on the South Island. This charming lake side town is a bustling center for extreme thrills such as skydiving, jetboating, and the ever famous, bungee jump. Coming to Queenstown, one truly does have to go Bungee jumping, as the first ever commercial bungee jump site is located just 20 minutes away at the Kawarau Bridge. This was indeed where I bungeed, swan diving 43 m off a bridge to be caught by onto a harness and a rope. Although it might not have been the tallest bungee jump in Queenstown, it still gave the stomach dropping sensation, and now I can claim that I jumped off of the first ever bungee jump in the world!

Other highlights of Queenstown included a 2 hour hike up Queenstown Hill, where at the top one is met by fantastic views of the surrounding mountains, the basket of dreams sculpture, an
d a small pond that is curiously located on top with no water outlet. We also took a lovely lake walk down by the waterfront where we were met by Martin for a final evening of strolling the town, going out to dinner, and final goodbyes.

The true marvel of this area though is not in the town at all, it is the national park that is located about 3 hours west of the town, home to Milford Sound, one of New Zealand’s most visited yet magnificent locations. To get to this massive ocean inlet, one must first drive a treacherous pass to Te Anau, a small lakeside town that boasts a few good restaurants, some shops, and some spectacular cafes (namely the Sandfly Café where we had breakfast both mornings of our stay. From Te Anau, one follows the single road into Fiordland National Park, where massive snowcapped mountains frame crystal clear rivers and rare wildlife. The first of our rare (yet common to one particular place) species citing was the ever so obtrusive kea bird. These birds hang out outside the Hosmer tunnel, a one way pass through a thick mountain range to the other side, and attempt to break into people’s cars. They pry at the windows trying to get in, and if that does not work they peck on top of the car, trying to rip off anything that gets them closer to the inside. We actually watched one Kea bird rip the rubber strip off someone else’s rental car, ouch!The second of our rare species spotting’s occurred while cruising Milford Sound. We benefited from cruising the smallest of the boats, being close to the water and wildlife as we took in awe dropping mountain scenes, waterfalls, and fur seal colonies, but most spectacular of all we actually we able to spot a couple of Milford Sound’s most incredible creatures, the rare Fiordland Crested Penguin. When I think of Penguins, snow, ice caps, and flocks of birds come to mind, but seeing these creatures in the wild was nothing like that! The penguins in this park were out on a 60 degree day, swimming in the salty, freshwater layered inlet and waddling up on shore to their nests in the forest; no snow involved.

Our day in the park was lovely, minus the disappointment of bland, old sandwiches from the “café” by the sounds. But the lack of good tasting food was shortly made up for by the intake of more incredible scenery on the drive back from our cruise. We stopped mainly for three short walks, though other pull-offs were necessary to document all the exquisite sites fully. We walked first to a river overpass where the water drops oddly through a series of uniquely shaped rock holes and shapes, then took a short bush walk through the native forest to a small lake and back, and then finally ended our trip to Fiordland national park with another lake walk which “looped” on a trail to a small lake, through the woods, then back to the main road, where one then had to walk along the highway about a km back to the carpark.

Moving on from Te Anau, our next destination was the glaciers of New Zealand’s South Island, a few hours north of the lovely town of Wanaka where we stopped to have lunch at a small organics shop and café, and past another windy mountain pass where several waterfall stops in Mt. Aspiring national park caught our attention.