Hello Everyone!
I know this post is a long time coming, but even though I have been back for over 2 months, I thought I should put an ending to this story. I left you off just as we were flying to the South Island of New Zealand. The south island is essentially BC on an island. We departed Auckland and about 2 hours later we arrived in Christchurch.
Christchurch is an interesting city; it has a small town feel but it is most likely the largest city on the southern island. However, that is not saying much considering the population of Toronto is significantly larger than the population of the entire South Island. We did not do a whole lot in Christchurch, well, mostly because there was not a whole lot to do in Christchurch.
We stayed one night in Christchurch but left promptly the next morning for Arthur’s Pass. Arthur’s Pass is a tiny little town residing in a pass between two giant mountains. It also happens to be the pathway from the East Coast (Christchurch) to the West Coast (Greymouth).
We stayed in a little hostel for one night in Arthur’s Pass. It was not overly interesting but we ran into an interesting person. A man named Wil Wright was sharing the room with us. Wil is an armourer for movies. Most notably, he was the armourer “28 Weeks Later” and a few other action flicks. He had a lot to say about the up and coming great movies (Golden Compass, etc), some of which he had a role in.
The next day we headed for Franz Josef Glacier where we had an appointment with the Fox Glacier. The glacier was AMAZING! We were outfitted with t-shirts and pants but, yet, we were walking on ice with crampons! We took a four hour hike on the glacier lead by our guide who is an ex-Everest Sherpa.
After we left the Glaciers we headed for a city called Wanaka, no not Wanka. In the great city of Wanaka, there was a place called Puzzle World. Most people would brush this off as a kids attraction but it was far from it. Inside the large complex is a giant maze. Inside that maze were four coloured towers. The objective of the maze was to make it to all four towers and then find the exit. Meghan, Eric, and I turned it into a bit of a competition. Of Course I won, otherwise of would never have included this in the blog. It believe it took us nearly an hour and a half of navigation to complete the maze. However, I finished nearly 20 minutes before Eric did and that was followed by Meghan nearly 15 minutes later.
We left Wanaka and headed for Mt. Cook. Mt. Cook is a small town located at the base of the largest mountain in New Zealand. We did a bit of hiking, but mostly relaxing. At this point we are nearing the end of our adventure with only a few days before we make our final journey home. We eventually make our way back to Christchurch and then eventually back to Auckland.
It was from Auckland that was said our final goodbyes to the Southern Hemisphere. At 10:30 AM on December 12th we boarded our plane to make the final journey back home.
It was a great adventure of which I will never forget.
Thank you for reading and hopefully I will have the opportunity to do something like this again.
Jon