It’s June 10th and it’s been way too long since
our last update. While traveling the South Island of New Zealand we ran into
another problem with internet service. This time we were capped on the amount
of data with a limit of 50 Megs per usage. That made it quite difficult to try
to upload photos, check emails and talk to family. We decided to upload a few pictures at a
time. Hopefully, we will be able to post the finished product in a couple of
days.
We left Paihia (Pie-here) on May 26th and headed
to Auckland for one night before catching a flight to Christchurch. We were
traveling with Josh’s parents for one more week and were excited to explore
some of the South Island with them.
We got a place in Christchurch and based ourselves out of
there for the next week. We were in shock at the amount of destruction
Christchurch had faced during two earthquakes.
One earthquake occurred in September 2010 and a more destructive one in
February 2011.
There were three earthquakes during the week we stayed in
Christchurch and we actually felt two of them. That was a little scary!
Much of the downtown area was destroyed and it looked like a
set from an end of the world movie. There were constant sounds of buildings
being torn down. It was quite depressing and you couldn’t help but feel bad for
all of the people that were affected by this horrendous natural disaster. They are doing their best to make the most of the situation by
developing a “Re-Start” area with container stores.
We managed to do as much as we could in Christchurch given
their current situation. The next few days were spent making daily road trips
to the following towns:
New Brighton Beach
Kaikoura
Little River and
Akaroa
We stumbled upon a wonderful bakery in Akoroa but were
confused by their slogan. Who knew that baking at “Sparrow’s Fart” would result
in such delicious tasting pastries?
Hanmer Springs
We jammed as many places as we could into one week but it
was time to say goodbye to Josh’s parents on June 3rd. Although it was sad to see them leave we were
blessed to spend that time with them.
Bye mom and dad thanks for everything!
We had known that we would meet up with Josh’s parents in
New Zealand since the beginning of our trip so we had that thought in our
minds. Now that they were gone we had
the reality of being truly on our own for the next 13 months with no plans to
meet up with anyone else along the way.
It’s a scary feeling but this certainly won’t be the last time that we
step out of our comfort zone on this journey.
With that being said, we rented a car for the remainder of
our trip and hit the open road once again!
We decided to head to the northeast side of the island and
cut across to the west, ending our trip in the southwest part of the island. We
would end in Queenstown before heading back to Christchurch to catch our flight
out.
Our stops included:
The Waipara Valley
Where the wine flows like beer!
Marlborough
Region/Blenheim
Marlborough is New Zealand’s premier wine producing region
and Blenheim is right in amongst it.
Nelson
We hiked 14kms in the Abel Tasman National Park
Throughout New Zealand we noticed McDonald’s signs for “The
Atlanta Pork McRib”. It was a throwback to the 1996 Olympics but Leanne was in
Atlanta during the Olympics and can’t recall one person that ate that thing!
Cool sights while driving!
Franz Josef
While we were hiking through the national park we saw a sign
for Peter’s Pool.The name threw us off a little bit. It was just a small trail amongst many but it ended up being
one of the highlights of the road trip. Just look at this beautiful picture!
Fox Glacier /Lake
Matheson
More cool sights while driving!
Wanaka
Gibbston
Of course, Josh had to stop for a cold one at this “swanky”
saloon before we sampled a few more wine selections.
Queenstown
After 9 days on the road we made it to our final New Zealand
destination – Queenstown!
Queenstown is known as the adrenaline capital of the world.
Our adrenaline adventure of choice was The Canyon Swing. This is “The World’s Highest Cliff Jump” at
109 meters high with a 60-meter freefall and 200-meter swing. We started with a
tandem jump and we liked it so much that we each did a solo jump. For our solo
jumps we chose to do one of the scariest jump options of being suspended upside
down over the canyon and then being released. We forgot to mention that Josh
has a fear of heights in our “About Us” section. Talk about taking your fear
head on! If it weren’t for time and money we probably would have kept jumping.
It was frightening but surprisingly addicting! We were not able to get pictures
of our solo jumps because the pictures cost too much money but here are a couple of pictures of our tandem jump.
The remainder of our time in Queenstown was spent hiking and
strolling around the town.
Although we didn’t get a chance to ski, this town would be a
great destination if you want to ski during North America’s summer months.
We have truly appreciated our travels throughout New Zealand.
From the north to the south, this country has so much to offer. However, we are ready to put away our winter
clothes for a few months and experience some warm weather. Indonesia, here we
come!!!!
As always, thanks for following!
Cheers,
Leanne & Josh
