NEW ZEALAND

All right folks! I'm back from a country that is a combination of Jurassic Park, European Alps and a beach resort. There's so much to tell, so many stories that it's hard to know where to begin. I guess I'll start from the beginning! Duh.

We took off from sunny Sydney last Tuesday with my Dutch and Canadian friends Renato & Gordon and landed safely to Christchurch around midnight after a comfortable 3-hour flight. Christchurch is the largest city in the Southern island and needless to say, the airfare was very affordable - only around 130 € return. What can I say about that town then…well, it was interesting to experience A.) the extremely cold and rainy weather and B.) the fact that only prostitutes were hovering around the streets after midnight. For the same reason we figured the name is a bit misrepresenting. How would "Satanslair" sound?

We had one full day to explore the city and in all honesty, there was not that much to see. However, there is an "Antarctic Centre" near the airport, which certainly is worth visiting. You learn a lot about that dry and cold continent, see penguins and experience a simulated Antarctic storm. I mean, for a Finn and a Canadian it is mind boggling to experience temperatures below -15! Of course we had to go. You can also catch a ride with a (Swedish) "Hägglund" all-terrain vehicle specifically designed for Antarctic surfaces. It's a bumpy ride.

The actual road trip began on a beautiful Thursday morning. Although it was still cold, driving through the "garden city" with all the trees glowing red and yellow was gorgeous. Just like Finland in October. By the way, the car we rented (although crappy) cost around 25 dollars per day. Now THAT'S cheap. Anyways, we quickly made our way through Arthur's Pass which runs "coast to coast" from Christchurch to Greymouth (or Hokitika) between the mountains. The scenery was once again unbelievable. Snowy mountaintops, crystal clear rivers, valleys and a lot of sheep too. Apparently there are four million people and 40 million sheep on the island. Also, after watching the Lord of the Rings trilogy, the landscape is surprisingly familiar…

Hokitika, although promoted for some odd reason by our airport shuttle bus driver, was more like a ghost town. Therefore I will only mention that it was here in this village where I decided to book my bungee jump and our glacier walk. I also got my ass kicked in chess by a Dutch guy. Yes, we were bored.

From Hokitika we made our way to another village, namely Franz Josef (glacier). It was even smaller than Hokitika but far more touristic and lively. We had booked a glacier walk for that day and so glacier it was! After a four-hour hike on top of a huge heap of ice and snow, it was very enjoyable to relax in a hot pool - sort of an outdoor spa if you will.

After Franz Josef and a scenic drive in the Jurassic forests we finally got to our "main" destination: Queenstown. The population of QT is just a bit above 10 000, but it is often referred to as the "adrenaline-rush capital" of the world - with a good reason! The guys opted out from the bungee jump and decided to go jet boating instead, but I went to the AJ Hackett Bungy Centre near our hostel the following morning and signed up for the highwire jump. The jumping spot is located about 40 minutes north of Queenstown between mountains and approximately 134 meters above the Nevis River. You jump into the canyon from a "Bungy Pod" that is hanging in the middle. This was something I have wanted to try for a long time and rest assured, it was well worth the price (~100 €). The freefall is one of the longest in the world (although only a few seconds) and the speed while going down was just unbelievable. I will try and post a video of the jump in here - for now you can check it out from Facebook if you're in it.

After returning to the city and while waiting for the guys to come back from their jet boat ride, I decided to take a walk in the picturesque "Queenstown Gardens". It was a nice autumn day even though it was raining. This was also probably the southernmost point I will ever travel to in my life. Suddenly, I saw an ICE HOCKEY rink on the other side of the park. Needless to say, I had to go check it out. It turned out to be a nice spot so I rented skates and a stick and went playing some 3 on 3 with the locals. The level over there is not particularly good but it was fun anyways.

Leaving Queenstown was sad. There was so much to do and not enough time to do anything. We headed northeast towards Mt. Cook, the highest peak of the Southern Hemisphere, through Lindi's Pass only to find ourselves in a real southern snowstorm - driving a crappy car without any winter tires. We were wondering why just about every car driving past was flashing their lights but the reason became painfully obvious after a road maintenance truck stopped us telling the road was closed due to the hazardous weather conditions. Awesome. Two hours for nothing. So, change of plans. Back towards Queenstown, southeast through several small villages and finally up to the east coast conveniently between Dunedin and Christchurch. We spent a night in a place called Oamaru and drove back to Christchurch the following day to return the car and catch the returning flight to Sydney.

Kind of tough to get back to normal routines after a trip like this and I got a bit sick on the way back too but no worries; it's probably not the swine flu. Thankfully it is a lot warmer here in Sydney as well. It was also nice to get a free dinner by Darling Harbor right after unpacking - thanks Alex! One thing is for sure: I need to get back to New Zealand sooner or later. It is a beautiful place in every meaning of the word.

The next four weeks will be extremely tough as all the assignments and exams are piling up. After that, I will start mentally preparing myself for Vanuatu ;) Sorry for the delay…it might become a habit for the next few months. Take care, keep in touch and check out the pics from NZ! It will be worth your while. I'm off to watch the Lord of the Rings…