Mom and Deanne Visit!

I apologize for not writing in a lonnnng time! Let me start where I left off…

In the first weekend of the month, we had an IFSA event. We went to the Taieri Plains to jetboat, white water raft, and swim. The entire day was a blast! It was a team based competition day, kind of reminded me of survivor. We were running in the bush, swimming down rapids and jumping off cliffs… insane! Then we hurried back and got ready for another Rugby game. Now that the entire student population is back, it was a blast. The entire stands were packed with students decked out in face paint and blue and gold.

My mom and sister were supposed to arrive on Tuesday, but they were delayed a day in the states, so they arrived on Wednesday morning. I went to the airport to meet them and I was able to walk right up to their gate (much less security than the states). We left right from the airport for our road trip!

We drove to Lake Te Anau up to Milford Sounds and did a 2 hour boat cruise. It was beautiful! We saw epic waterfalls and mountains (you have to check out my pictures). On the following day, we drove up to Queenstown. Queenstown is the adventure capital of NZ. You can do anything from jet boating to skiing to bungy jumping to sky diving, etc. etc. etc. It was a cute little touristy town. We went on a 5 hour wine tour to 4 different wineries in Central Otago. It was a great time! At night, we planned to go out in Queenstown, but somehow found ourselves in bed at 8 p.m. haha. The following day we woke up to bungy jumping! Deanne and I decided on the bridge jump, which is over a river. It is the first bungy jump in the world! It was crazy- much different than sky diving. The ground was just coming up, I wasn’t sure if I was going to stop---ah! Then we drove up to Lake Wanaka for lunch.

We were headed for a 4.5 hr drive up the west coast to Franz Josef. Well after 6 hours, we realized that mapquest was incorrect and it was actually an 8 hour drive! We also didn’t know that the west coast had very few towns with very few gas stations. When we realized our gas light wasn’t lying, we stopped at a farm and asked for gas. We had about an hour left to our destination, but after a half hour, the sun set and we our friendly little gas light was back! We finally reached a town... but the gas station was closed. We made a decision and found a motel for the night. After getting in our room, I insisted we go to the pub for some drinks. It turned out to be one of our favorite parts of the road trip! We met some crazy locals and had a blast!

The following morning, we drove to our original destination, Franz Josef, and went on a half day glacier climb. It was cool to actually be on a real glacier! Then we continued our drive up the west coast. It was a beautiful drive through rain forests and coastal roads. We arrived in Punakaiki, which is famous for its pancake rocks. It was a cute little town in the middle of the rain forest, with no gas station or food store and only one pub! We watched the sunset over the pancake rocks (they actually look like stacks of pancakes). Then, we made a tasty spaghetti dinner and drank the wine that we bought on one of the tours. We had our own cabin for the night, which was adorable!

The following day was my 21^st birthday! We traveled across the country to get to Hanmer Springs. The drive was once again, epic, and we walked across a long swing bridge and stopped many times to take pictures. Once we arrived at Hanmer Springs, we indulged in a spa day. We had a half hour private steam room, a half hour massage, and a half hour facial, and then we relaxed in the hot pools. It was quite a treat! We went out for a nice dinner and I enjoyed my first “legal drink” (although I have been legal for 2 months in NZ) haha. It was a fantastic birthday! (thanks for all the birthday wishes from home!!)

The following morning we drove down to Christchurch and went shopping. We left Christchurch, stopped at the Moeraki Boulders (it is a beach with these huge spherical rocks). We went out for Italian food in Dunedin and ended the night back at my flat. We were exhausted! The road trip was great, we drove over 1300 miles, but saw the whole island! It was full of good laughs, scary drives, and epic scenery.

Since Mom only had a day left in Dunedin, we booked it full! We went on the Cadybury Chocolate Factory tour, the Speights Brewery tour (the beer of southern New Zealand), and out to the Bog for St. Patricks Day!

Deanne and I dropped my Mom off at the airport the next afternoon and then we went to the Gutbuster race up Baldwin Street (the steepest street in the world). We did a walk/jog up it (and we were sore for 2 days). We spent the next fews days hanging around Dunedin and then we went back to Queenstown on Friday. We went with a group of students from Dunedin. We had the chance to experience the nightlife in Queenstown, which was you guessed it, amazing!

The next day we shopped around Queenstown and Deanne was scheduled to go sky diving! We drove out to the place, she got in her jump suit and was about to jump in the plane when they cancelled it because of severe winds. Bummer!

I just dropped Deanne off at the airport and I am in the process of putting my life back in order and catching up in school. It was great to have visitors and see some of my family : )Alright, now that I bored you to death- Take care! Also, pictures will be up in 2 days when I finally get e-mail in my flat (sorry for the slow response to emails and everything, etc.)- we are still waiting on internet-