Jeff Lawson (![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} bovineone) wrote,@ 2007-04-10 02:00:00 |
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New Zealand and back
Well, I'm back from my 2-week trip to New Zealand to visit Greg and Amy and celebrate their wedding. I traveled with Decibel, Heidi, Snax, and Doppler on the flights. Nugget and Monica met us there to join us for part of the time, before they split off to visit some of the other sights on New Zealand's north island. Our travels were exclusively on the south island.
I've uploaded my photos to two places. My gallery on my personal server has the complete set of over 400 photos, but I've also decided to try uploading a much smaller subset to Flickr.
Arrive at Christchurch airport about 9am. meet amy and greg at airport. greg and doppler take their car directly to car rental. Rest of us take city bus with amy to car rental, and meet with greg and doppler. Pick up 2 rental cars. Nugget and Monica had already arrived in Christchurch the previous night and meet us at the car rental.
drive cars to Greg's house.
have dinner at brew/pub restaurant. greg and amy announce wedding is still on, but scheduled for tomorrow.
snax, decibel, and heidi sleep over at greg's house. doppler, me, nugget, and monica rent room at local hotel.
check out of hotel, meet all at greg's house. decibel and heidi are late and still waking up.
half of us go out to a bakery to find breakfast and lunch for the rest and bring back to greg's house.
Start driving around 10am. Buy few more food supplies at store. Stop for brief lunch at the cheese factory. Arrive at Le Bon's Bay Backpackers around 1pm. Check into rooms/cabins.
Wedding at about 3pm. heidi and decibel a little late, still dressing.
Big dinner at Backpackers; Fried Grouper fish, pumpkin salad, broccoli. Apple cobbler, ice cream, and Wedding cake.
Breakfast at Backpackers at 8am; bread and weta-bix.
Drive to city for dolphin adventure at 9am. Get into wet suit and take boat into bay. Unfortunately, no dolphins want to play. Return back to shore, take warm showers.
Eat lunch in city (beef sandwich). Souvenir shopping in city of Akaroa.
Dinner at Backpackers (lamb)
Morning, drive to Mount Cook area, arrive at YHA (Youth Hostel Association). Nugget has already arrived and had been talking with a japanese guy.
Prepared Pasta for dinner in the kitchen of the YHA.
Morning at Mount Cook. Nugget and Monica depart independently to go back to North Island.
Take long hike to Hooker Creek area. Decibel and Heidi decide to wake up later and do not join. At the end of the trail, we see the iceberg's terminal lake, and other teenagers swimming in the cold water. After Hooker Creek, return to YHA and meet Decibel and Heidi. Have lunch together.
Doppler and Greg return immediately to take a steep hike together.
Take nap. After nap, go with Snax, Decibel, and Heidi to hike to Blue Lake and view of Fox Glacier.
Prepared vegetable stew for dinner.
Morning Mount Cook, depart and drive to Wanaka. Lunch at Subway.
Unexpectedly depressing accommodations in Wanaka. Musty smelling, old accommodations, linens and dishes must be rented at extra expense. Linens are dirty-looking and worn.
Walk downtown Wanaka and view the hundreds of ecological photos in the art display.
Dinner at a local fish-and-chips restaurant.
Morning at Wanaka, grab breakfast at a local bakery. Meat pies and apple pastry. Drive to Queenstown. Check in at event office, have lunch at Subway. Meet back at event office at 1:15.
Go river jetboating. Very exciting with extremely tight clearances to walls of canyon.
Go whitewater rafting on river Shotover with Snax, Decibel, and Heidi. (Greg, Amy, and Doppler go river rafting on the Kawarau river). Rafting guide was from San Francisco and knew many interesting pieces of local trivia. During rafting, Decibel, Snax, and me voluntarily jumped into the river to go over the rapids in just bodysuits. Decibel got separated in the water and had to be picked up by the other rafting party. Snax had difficulties being pulled back into the raft and we had to paddle to shore in order to pick her up.
Gift shopping in downtown Queenstown. Dinner at fish restaurant. Drive back to Wanaka.
Canyoning at Nige Stream. This involves putting on a wet suit and using climbing ropes and carabiner clips to abseil down the rocky canyons that are still actively being carved by the flowing stream. This was definitely the most exciting and physically involving activity that we did on the entire trip.
drive to town of Franz Joseph. Check into Glowworm Lodge.
pizza. walk trail to see glow worms in the dark with Amy with flashlight.
In the morning, take a helicopter to the Franz Josef glacier and walk on top of the ice. Lots of amazing photos of the glacier and ice formations.
Drive to Hokitika, on the beaches of the west coast. Stay at Bird Song lodge. See the glow-worms dell at night.
Drive into the city of Hokitika and see live Kiwis and some other interesting New Zealand fish and animals.
See pancake rocks, Weka birds.
Drive to Arthur's Pass, and stay at Mountain House. The lodging was a great standalone cottage, with its own kitchen, living room, two bathrooms, and three bedrooms.
Before leaving Arthur's Pass, go on the Devils Punchbowl Falls trail and Bridal Veil Track.
Drive back to city of Christchurch. Meet Greg and Amy at Dux de Lux. Dinner at "Joyful" chinese food. Check into Salerno hotel--a very fancy and expensive room. Very few other hotels had availability, due to the Easter weekend holidays.
Attend the local arts and crafts market/festival at the downtown Christchurch city center.
Stay again at the Salerno hotel.
Wake up, meet at Greg's house. Have group lunch at Hell's Pizza, a very clever evil-themed gourmet pizzeria.
Our flight leaves Christchurch around 2pm, with layovers in Auckland, then Los Angeles, before landing in Austin at 7pm -- just "5 hours" later!
Well, I'm back from my 2-week trip to New Zealand to visit Greg and Amy and celebrate their wedding. I traveled with Decibel, Heidi, Snax, and Doppler on the flights. Nugget and Monica met us there to join us for part of the time, before they split off to visit some of the other sights on New Zealand's north island. Our travels were exclusively on the south island.
I've uploaded my photos to two places. My gallery on my personal server has the complete set of over 400 photos, but I've also decided to try uploading a much smaller subset to Flickr.
Monday, March 26
Arrive at Christchurch airport about 9am. meet amy and greg at airport. greg and doppler take their car directly to car rental. Rest of us take city bus with amy to car rental, and meet with greg and doppler. Pick up 2 rental cars. Nugget and Monica had already arrived in Christchurch the previous night and meet us at the car rental.
drive cars to Greg's house.
have dinner at brew/pub restaurant. greg and amy announce wedding is still on, but scheduled for tomorrow.
snax, decibel, and heidi sleep over at greg's house. doppler, me, nugget, and monica rent room at local hotel.
Tuesday, March 27
check out of hotel, meet all at greg's house. decibel and heidi are late and still waking up.
half of us go out to a bakery to find breakfast and lunch for the rest and bring back to greg's house.
Start driving around 10am. Buy few more food supplies at store. Stop for brief lunch at the cheese factory. Arrive at Le Bon's Bay Backpackers around 1pm. Check into rooms/cabins.
Wedding at about 3pm. heidi and decibel a little late, still dressing.
Big dinner at Backpackers; Fried Grouper fish, pumpkin salad, broccoli. Apple cobbler, ice cream, and Wedding cake.
Wednesday, March 28
Breakfast at Backpackers at 8am; bread and weta-bix.
Drive to city for dolphin adventure at 9am. Get into wet suit and take boat into bay. Unfortunately, no dolphins want to play. Return back to shore, take warm showers.
Eat lunch in city (beef sandwich). Souvenir shopping in city of Akaroa.
Dinner at Backpackers (lamb)
Thursday, March 29
Morning, drive to Mount Cook area, arrive at YHA (Youth Hostel Association). Nugget has already arrived and had been talking with a japanese guy.
Prepared Pasta for dinner in the kitchen of the YHA.
Friday, March 30
Morning at Mount Cook. Nugget and Monica depart independently to go back to North Island.
Take long hike to Hooker Creek area. Decibel and Heidi decide to wake up later and do not join. At the end of the trail, we see the iceberg's terminal lake, and other teenagers swimming in the cold water. After Hooker Creek, return to YHA and meet Decibel and Heidi. Have lunch together.
Doppler and Greg return immediately to take a steep hike together.
Take nap. After nap, go with Snax, Decibel, and Heidi to hike to Blue Lake and view of Fox Glacier.
Prepared vegetable stew for dinner.
Saturday, March 31
Morning Mount Cook, depart and drive to Wanaka. Lunch at Subway.
Unexpectedly depressing accommodations in Wanaka. Musty smelling, old accommodations, linens and dishes must be rented at extra expense. Linens are dirty-looking and worn.
Walk downtown Wanaka and view the hundreds of ecological photos in the art display.
Dinner at a local fish-and-chips restaurant.
Sunday, April 1
Morning at Wanaka, grab breakfast at a local bakery. Meat pies and apple pastry. Drive to Queenstown. Check in at event office, have lunch at Subway. Meet back at event office at 1:15.
Go river jetboating. Very exciting with extremely tight clearances to walls of canyon.
Go whitewater rafting on river Shotover with Snax, Decibel, and Heidi. (Greg, Amy, and Doppler go river rafting on the Kawarau river). Rafting guide was from San Francisco and knew many interesting pieces of local trivia. During rafting, Decibel, Snax, and me voluntarily jumped into the river to go over the rapids in just bodysuits. Decibel got separated in the water and had to be picked up by the other rafting party. Snax had difficulties being pulled back into the raft and we had to paddle to shore in order to pick her up.
Gift shopping in downtown Queenstown. Dinner at fish restaurant. Drive back to Wanaka.
Monday, April 2
Canyoning at Nige Stream. This involves putting on a wet suit and using climbing ropes and carabiner clips to abseil down the rocky canyons that are still actively being carved by the flowing stream. This was definitely the most exciting and physically involving activity that we did on the entire trip.
Tuesday, April 3
drive to town of Franz Joseph. Check into Glowworm Lodge.
pizza. walk trail to see glow worms in the dark with Amy with flashlight.
Wednesday, April 4
In the morning, take a helicopter to the Franz Josef glacier and walk on top of the ice. Lots of amazing photos of the glacier and ice formations.
Drive to Hokitika, on the beaches of the west coast. Stay at Bird Song lodge. See the glow-worms dell at night.
Thursday, April 5
Drive into the city of Hokitika and see live Kiwis and some other interesting New Zealand fish and animals.
See pancake rocks, Weka birds.
Drive to Arthur's Pass, and stay at Mountain House. The lodging was a great standalone cottage, with its own kitchen, living room, two bathrooms, and three bedrooms.
Friday, April 6
Before leaving Arthur's Pass, go on the Devils Punchbowl Falls trail and Bridal Veil Track.
Drive back to city of Christchurch. Meet Greg and Amy at Dux de Lux. Dinner at "Joyful" chinese food. Check into Salerno hotel--a very fancy and expensive room. Very few other hotels had availability, due to the Easter weekend holidays.
Saturday, April 7
Attend the local arts and crafts market/festival at the downtown Christchurch city center.
Stay again at the Salerno hotel.
Sunday, April 8
Wake up, meet at Greg's house. Have group lunch at Hell's Pizza, a very clever evil-themed gourmet pizzeria.
Our flight leaves Christchurch around 2pm, with layovers in Auckland, then Los Angeles, before landing in Austin at 7pm -- just "5 hours" later!
