Over six months ago, my mom and I had just booked our
flights to visit my sister, Kelli in New Zealand at the end of her study abroad
semester. My mom was so nervous she felt like she was going to throw up. Kelli
was exhausted from helping us with the logistics of where and when. And I was
so excited, expletives were just pouring out of my mouth. Fast forward to
November 8, Election Day, a crazy day for several reasons, one being that we were embarking on our trip to New Zealand! After I rocked the
vote, I met up with my mom at the airport and took her on a mini adventure in
San Francisco. We rode the iconic cable car, wandered
through Ghirardelli Square, saw the Golden Gate Bridge, and even met up with
Owen for In-N-Out burgers. The last treat of the night was taking my mom to the
airport in a Tesla, which she loved/was afraid of.
After spending 13 hours on a plane with over a hundred other
people, something odd happens. People don’t give a crap. I saw a man with a
candy wrapper stuck to his butt, a woman brushing her teeth in her seat, and a
guy with a window seat who tried to leap
over his two snoozing seatmates to get out. He ended up smacking them both in
the face and waking them up, but what a move. My mom bet me ten bucks that I
wouldn’t skip around the entire plane. I said what the hell. No one even noticed. By the end of the flight, the plane was
totally trashed: there was a thin layer of debris covering every surface.
Our first taste of New Zealand was exploring downtown Auckland
on the North Island. About 60% of our thoughts involved shock that they drive
on the left side of the road. We hopped on one more plane, a short ride to
Dunedin, where Kelli lives. They gave me a hunk of cheese bigger than anything
I ever let myself eat in one sitting. I was liking New Zealand already.
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| Relaxing in downtown Auckland |
After a quick reunion with Kelli we headed over to the
rental car counter to pick up our wheels for the next two weeks. We were still
giggling and catching up with each other and didn’t listen to half of what the
rental car lady told us. No matter, Kelli had driven loads in NZ already, and
for my mom and I, it’s like riding a bike, right? We drove through rolling,
green hills dotted with sheep and farms and I was in love. We made it to
Dunedin just in time to drive up to a place called Signal Hill, only a few
miles from Kelli’s flat, to see the sunset over her city.
We spent our first two days exploring Dunedin and the areas
around it. In the city itself, we played the part of convincing locals,
wandering around the halls of her university, shopping at the farmer’s market,
strolling through the Botanical Gardens, and downing Tim Tam slams, hot
chocolate that you drink through a Tim Tam cookie. In the areas surrounding
Dunedin we went full on tourist and saw some amazing natural wonders. I even
drove for the first time! All went well, except when I was frazzled, I’d turn the windshield
wipers on instead of the blinker, making me even more frazzled (since
everything is opposite, the windshield wipers are on the right side of the
steering wheel, blinker on the left).
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| Baldwin Street in Dunedin, world's steepest residential street: 35% grade |
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| Tunnel Beach, named after this tunnel I was obsessed with |
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| Nugget Point, see the rocks or ‘nuggets’ in the water? |
Sunday morning, I convinced
myself I could run up Signal Hill. Signal Hill, the long, winding, hilly road
we drove up to get to an overlook of the entire
city. I turned around in defeat maybe a mile from the top, thighs and lungs
burning. Nothing like an early morning workout to start our first road trip!
After a few hours of driving we made it to Lake Tekapo and I promptly started
going on a photo frenzy. The blooming lupins, the blue water, it was a
photographer’s dream. We pulled ourselves away from the lake to drive to Mount
Cook, the highest mountain in New Zealand, which can be viewed from a one way
in, one way out road. The drive did not disappoint. The clouds cleared at times
throughout the drive and on our hike for spectacular
views of the iconic snow-capped peak.
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| Moeraki Boulders, thought to be over 56 million years old! |
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| Lake Tekapo |
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| We named our car Chad, after Chad from the Bachelorette because he loved food (roadkill) |
The next few days were spent getting very cozy with Chad and
hiking out to two of New Zealand’s most accessible glaciers. At Fox Glacier, we
arrived on one of the least accessible days…It was pouring and all these
waterfalls and streams started popping up. We were so wet afterwards that we just stripped down right in the
parking lot. Kelli showed up at our hostel that night wearing only a towel from
the waist down! The next day Chad faithfully got us to Christchurch, where we spent
the night in jail and saw the rebuilding efforts from the 2011 earthquake. We
broke up the long drive from Christchurch to Dunedin with a stop in Oamaru, a
coastal town known to have rare yellow-eyed penguins. We hunkered down in a
viewing hide along with 10 or so others for an hour and a half, constantly
scanning the beach for activity. When we were finally ready to give up, someone
murmured they had seen a penguin. Mass chaos ensued for the next ten seconds- I
couldn't find the penguin. Finally I realized the penguin looked like
a tiny white toothpick! We eventually got a better view and I saw, for certain,
my first penguin in the wild.
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| Blue Pools |
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| The silver lining to exploring the glaciers in the rain |
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| Jail converted into a hostel...very realistic |
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| Art demo in Christchurch, referring to the rebuild |
We had a relaxing day in Dunedin before we were off on another road trip. First stop: Queenstown, to run a half
marathon! The day before the race we wandered around the tourist shops downtown. One store was selling NZ
air for $25. Have we tourists really gotten that stupid? The morning of the
race I tried to calm Kelli’s nerves as she embarked on her very first half. I don't think she knew exactly what she was going up against...only a few days before the race, she asked me how far a 10K was, and when I replied 6.2 miles she confidently said, I could do that. Anyway, my
goal for the half was to pay attention to the scenery, since I usually get so
caught up in running I never look around. It was hard not to be amazed, with
the Remarkables mountain range in sight the entire race and gorgeous views of
Lake Wakatipu. I even heard a yodeler and had a race volunteer stick out his
butt for me to slap! Not bad for my first race abroad. Once my mom and I
collected Kelli after she finished, we all treated ourselves to burgers as big
as our heads from a restaurant called Fergburger. Finishing my burger was
almost as hard as running the half!
After stopping for directions we finally found our ‘hotel’
for the night way out in farm country, which we realized was actually someone’s
house. We arrived four and a half hours before we said we were going to, so
naturally the place was locked and no one was home. So we camped out in their
parking lot for awhile until we realized how creepy we were being and went to
the nearby town instead. When we finally did go back for the night, I loved the
place. It was a gorgeous spot to relax post-race. The next few days were jam
packed with various athletic pursuits: biking in Wanaka on Sunday, hiking Roy’s
Peak on Monday, and kayaking in Milford Sound on Tuesday. We even saw a
fiordland crested penguin swimming in the water while we were kayaking! Along
the way we stopped at a bra fence, stopped at a shoe fence, and saw hundreds of
sheep being herded which was surprisingly cool.
Back in Dunedin for our last day in NZ, we ended with a
bang. Mom and I drove out to the peninsula to try to see penguins one last
time, and the trip wasn’t complete without us getting lost. I missed a turn,
mom couldn’t read the tiny map we had. Finally we made it out to the penguin
refuge and spent a few hours wandering around covered trenches and viewing
hides, hoping to see some yellow-eyed penguins. We got extremely lucky: three
converged on the beach and then waddled down a path into the woods, passing
pretty close by us. At one point, soaking wet during a steady downpour, I asked
my mom if she was cold. Her response: I wouldn’t care if I was naked right now,
I’m so happy we’re seeing penguins. Ha!
We left on Thanksgiving morning and celebrated with a meal
of fast food in the airport. Strangely enough, I also got home on Thanksgiving morning.
I call it the space-time continuum, and I’m still very confused by it. Back
here in California I’ve been in full-on holiday mode. Owen and I chopped down
our Christmas tree, decorated it, and I’ve spent several hours admiring our
work while writing this blog post. As much as it sucks that our New Zealand trip is over, coming back to California (and Owen) ain't so bad.
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