New Zealand re-done

Milford Sound

Milford Sound

Anna Grant

Native Kea Parrot

Glacier Waterfalls on the Road to Milford Sound

The Mirror Lakes on the Road to Milford Sound

Native to NZ diving duck

The Mirror Lakes

The Mirror lakes and mountians behind them.

One of the many glacier fed waterfalls on the road to Milford Sound

Line Dancing in Antarctica

Completed my last day of work... or so I thought....

Pot room on my last day.

Me at the Mirror Lakes, and that is my free bungy teeshirt

Right Before Jumping Kawara

Kawara Bridge Jump

My Feet at the dunking at the bottom

After the jump!

Kawara Jump

Ledge Swing

Swing

Swing

Me jumping off the Ledge Bungy

Ledge Bungy

Swing

Ledge Bungy

Ledge Swing

Ledge Bungy. That black dot is me!

Hey Everybody!

So I am actually now on a computer that I can spend some time on! Not much mind you, but more than when I posted yesterday!

I am currently sitting in an internet cafe in Dunedin, ready to jump off to Watati tomorrow.

So overview of leaving Antarctica to now...

Like I said in my earlier post I was on the test flight off of the ice in a 747 passenger plane. It was cool becuase we had windows and I was able to take some really neat pictures of Antarctica in the air. We also had refreshments, like coffee and crackers, which you don't get on a military flight. It was bad becuase we had to wait an extra 2 hours out on the ice in the cold while they took pictures and figured out how to load our luggage. Usually they pack all the bags on a pallet, wrapped in plastic wrap, so it looks like a huge cube. This works on military planes becuase you just open up the whole back and drive it on. It doesn't work on a passenger plane becuase there is a little tiny door to the hold. It was quite amusing to watch them trying to figure out what to do. All of us on the ice were saying we should create a fireman line and just load it that way, one at a time, but it took them about an hour to come to the same conclusion. Gotta love buracracy (which I did not spell right). Anyway so we did eventually get on the plane and were packed in pretty tight for the first hour, for pictures and just to see how many people they could squeeze on, but they we could move and spread out a little (there were a few empty rows left just in case). So decent flight.

Once we got to Christchurch I got settled in my room and then went out to see a little of the Christchurch nightlife. Unfortunately I couldn't stay out too late becuase I had a 8 am bus the next morning to Dunedin!

I arrived in Dunedin and luckily was able to book in a backpackers, which has become my base of operation so far, Central Backpackers, best place ever! After I had eaten dinner and wandered around a little that day I was ready for bed. However, I decided to try to figure out what bus I could take to Fairfield the next morning, in order to get where I thought I needed to be at Noon to meet the couple I was wwoofing with. I figured there would be one early in the morning, but there wasn't!! The only bus that would get me there by noon was at 11 pm that night! And it was already 10:30! So I packed my stuff really really fast and ran to the bus stop and figured i would just stay in the bus station in Fairfield. It took me, the driver, and the guy teaching the driver the route about 5 minutes (halfway to Fairfield) to realize that Anna, the lady I was wwoofing with, must have meant the Dunedin train station. But by that time it was too late! They couldn't turn around, becuase they had a charter to pick up. Apparently in NZ you can charter a city bus to pick up from a party or something, instead of multiple taxis. They couldn't just take me straight back to Dunedin either becuase then they would have to explain the milage on the bus. So they left me in Green Island, and the teacher driver said he would get his own car and come back to get me! So it is one in the morning and I am sitting at a bus station! It was quite entertaining actually. Luckily people are really nice in NZ and Peter, the driver, did come back and get me and then take me to my hostel! And I made it to the train station for my 12 pick up the next day!

So I have had my adventure for the trip!

After that I went to Anna and Allan Grant's to WWOOf! It was really fun. I was there five days and did alot of little chores around thier house and garden. I even got to dethistle a pasture for their sheep! Yay!! The coolest thing was that I could spend my mornings in Dunedin wandering around and go back by 3 to do my work for the day, since both Allan and Anna work. Anna even took me on her tramping trip on Tuesday! Which was really fun, but kinda sad too, because all these older ladies and gents (50-80!) were totally showing me up. I was always one of the last people to the stopping points. It was kinda funny. Anna also took me orienteering. Which I had never done before. Basically they set up check points all along a treck and you have to find them following a map. It is a sort of race because they time you. Anna and I were 12!, which was exciting for me.

So my first wwoofing gig went really well and I got to meet some really lovely people. My next WWOOFing wasn't for a few days so I went off to Queenstown! It was a lovely bus ride through some really spectacular scenery. I was really lucky when I got there that I found a place to stay. All of the BBH backpackers were full, but Nomads, which is a chain of hostels still had some beds! It was a really nice hostel. Most of the rooms were 6-8 people but they had thier own bathrooms and showers! I did have to switch rooms every night, which got really annoying as I had to pack up and store my luggage from 10-2 every day, before I could get into my new room. Anyway Queenstown is really beautiful. It is a town right on a huge lake surrounded by mountians. But it is really expensive, as it is mainly a tourist town. My first night there I signed up for a Pub crawl through the Hostel. Basically they take you around and show you some of the night life. With this one we got free admission to Minus 5, which is a ice box basically. They even have ice glasses to give you drinks in. It wasn't that cold to me, but it was pretty fun.

I had decided when I was still on the ice that I would do one bungy jump and a Milford sound tour. So I booked the Kuwara bridge, which is the original bungy. It is a jump from a bridge over the Kuwara river and they can dunk you!! I totally had them dunk me to my knees! (I was upside down) It was a blast. I was a little freaked right at the top so I didn't jump off, I just kinda leaned forward, but it was so much fun! It was so much fun that I decided to do another one. I went up the Gondala, which goes up to the top of one of the mountians, and I did the ledge swing. Basically the ledge is 400m above queenstown, but the swing and bungy are only about 40m or so. So I did the swing, which was a little terrifying, because you have to pull the rope to make you drop yourself! After I did that I kinda talked myself into doing the bungy. I was quite proud i could do that one, because you have to run off a ledge. It isn't a stand on the edge and jump, it is a run and jump!!!!!! So I did three bungies instead of 1. But it was totally worth it.

I did the Milford Sound Tour on Sunday and it was a full day, 8:00am till 9:30 pm. The tour I booked included the bus trip from Queenstown to the sound and back. I was going to try to get myself to the sound, but the bus only goes to the sound not back! I have no idea why! The sound is really quite beautiful, but the road to get to the sound was amazing! I really want to go back and do the Milford treck, which is a three day walk that goes out to the sound! The sound isn't really a sound it is actually a fjord and they made quite sure to tell us that a few (a lot) times so I am telling you!

Anyway so that was my adventure in NZ, I am off tomorrow for my second WWOOFing gig and it should be quite fun! So I will update probably in a week or so!