Goodbye Sydney, Hello NEW ZEALAND!

Friday, May 1st was mine and Rob's last day of work for our respective companies. We spent most of the work week packing and moving loads of stuff over to our friend's house in Parramatta-a suburb of Sydney-because she and her fiance were nice enough to let us crash with them for a couple of nights and also let us leave our bags in their garage while we travel.

The week of packing and moving was pure torture for me as I began to realize the amount of junk I've accumulated over the past year, but we finally got it moved to Parramatta and left for work Friday morning completely packed and ready for our trip to New Zealand.

For lunch on my last day, the Gift Team all went out for a goodbye lunch and then around 3pm they presented me with this enormous farewell card with pictures in it that they'd all signed and written sweet messages in. It was really cute, but then I had to carry the thing with me through NZ which was not fun!

I left work at 3:45 and met Rob at the airport where we boarded our flight to Christchurch which is on the South Island of NZ. We arrived around midnight and checked into Hotel SO for a few hours of sleep.

The next morning (kind of) at 3:30am we woke up to shower and then start our 2.5 hour drive to Kaikoura to join our whale watching tour boat at 7:15am. Unfortunately, even though the sound device said there was a whale right below our boat, he never actually surfaced so we didn't see any on our tour but the views of the mountains from the boat were amazing and we got some good pictures.

On the boat

Beautiful scenery

Listening to the whale

Expert Whale Watcher

The only wildlife (besides birds) that we saw on the tour was this seal once we got back on land

After the tour (and standing in line for our 80% refund), we explored Kaikoura on our own and found a seal colony where there were 20+ seals just hanging out on the rocks and the land. I thought, "How cute!" and immediately darted over towards one for a photo op only to be scared out of my mind by his barking and charging towards me! Luckily, they don't move too fast on land but I was still terrified.

I ran towards this one and Rob caught my reaction on camera when the seal started barking at me. Yikes! I was trying to quickly change directions.

Oh sure, they LOOK cute!

This is as close as I would get!



Listen to the seal's bark!

After we left the not-so-friendly seal colony we stopped at a little road side stand for some grilled seafood. Kaikoura is known for their crayfish so we had some crayfish fritters...

After lunch we made our way to the Kaikoura Winery for a wine tasting. Of course we had to purchase a bottle of Savingion Blac since that is one of New Zealand's many claims to fame (the climate in the Marlbourough Region provides the perfect environment for the grapes to produce the world's best sav blanc.)
After the winery we left Kaikoura and took the scenic drive to Queenstown. It was about an 8 hour drive but luckily there was some incredible scenery to look at. (Who am I kidding, I slept almost the whole ride and Rob woke me up when we passed something pretty).

Picture from the car

We pulled off next to Lake Tekapo just before the sun went down. It was breathtaking!

This is Mount Cook behind Lake Tekapo. Look at the reflection in the water

We continued the drive on to Queenstown which was a really lively, funky city. There were lots of tourist attractions but we were too tired and it was too late for us to do much that night. We ate dinner at Lone Star (not THAT Lone Star) and then tried to find a place to crash for the night. We found Base Hostel and slept from about 11pm until 5am and then it was time to drive again!

From Queenstown we began our journey to Milford Sound. This drive is supposed to be one of the most beautiful drives in the world and it didn't disappoint us! We stopped for breakfast in Te Anu along the way and waited for daylight so that we would be able to see what we drove past! Here is some of what we saw:

This is Homer's Tunnel. A long, dark, scary tunnel through the mountain on the way to Milford Sound. It's one-way traffic so there is a 15minute stop light on both ends of the tunnel.

And here we are in Milford Sound:

Milford Sound

We were actually supposed to be on a boat cruise at this point but either the time changed or Rob's watch died or both, so we ended up having to take a later cruise. We walked around trying to kill a couple of hours.
Finally on our boat! Cruising through the sound (which is not actually a "sound" but a "fiord". I don't know the difference).

On the boat with my glass of vino

Another boat just like ours cruising through the fiord.

View from the toilet

This is Aska. Our Japanese hitchhiker friend who needed a lift from Milford Sound to Queenstown. We gave her a ride a ride after the cruise.

The cruise was incredible and the mountains/waterfalls were unlike anything I'd ever seen before. Once it was over, we loaded up with Aska in the back seat and headed back to Queenstown.

Back in Queenstown Rob had the first kiwi sighting. Unfortunately, we never saw a real one.

Queenstown

Drinks at Minus 5. A bar where EVERYTHING is made of ice. The bar, the walls, the glasses, the seats...everything.

Another kiwi sighting

Once we'd had dinner, drinks and had done a bit of shopping in Queenstown we headed back to where we started: Christchurch. We got there around 3:30am and crashed for the night and then woke up to explore the city a little bit. We walked around Cathedral Square, had breakfast at a bagel shop and then took the Skyline Gondola to take in some views of the city.Cathedral Square

Going up in the gondola


View from the top

Back on the ground. The Avon River

Avon River

Lunch at Coyotes

After lunch we drove ourselves to the airport and boarded our plane back to Sydney. We lugged our stuff back to Parramatta and zonked out immediately. We needed to rest up for our flight the next day to Byron Bay...