South island tour (english)

English version of the South island :) For images check out the french post ;)

 

Hello my friends! Finally a new post on my blog! J

During the October holidays I went on a South island tour with a group of 40 AFS student (+ a kiwi!). We travelled by bus around the south island for 10 days! It was an amazing trip! I loved it!

It started in Christchurch and we visited shops made out of containers because of the major damage caused by the earth quake that destructed a lot of buldings…

Then we spend a night in Twizel where the girls learned Maori songs and the boys performed the Haka.

The next stop was in Milford sound! To get there is only one way, through a very scary tunnel… There we went on a boat overnight. We had some water activities in the afternoon: kayak, small boat tour, swimming… I was one of those crazy one that jumped in the cold water of the sound!

The next day it was rainy but it wasn’t so bad because with the rain the many waterfall of the sound are even more impressive! I was standing in front of the boat when it went really close to a water fall and I got really wet! We got back to the shore and drove to Queenstown!!!

In Queenstown we had a free day where we were able to do all those extremes sports that the town offers: bungy jump, canyon swing... For me the ice skating was enough! In the evening we had to sort our dinner our self. I went with a group of friend to the Indian restaurant.

Then we had to leave the fun of Queenstown to go to Wanaka. On the way we did a jet boat tour! It was scary… But fun!  There as an evening activity we went to the movie to see “Looper”. The theatre was a bit special because there wasn’t any traditional theatre seat, but instead couches! And even a car where you could sit and watch the movie! 

After Wanaka we headed off to Franz Joseph. We did a small walk to see the glacier. It was really pretty. In the evening we were able to cook our dinner our self. Three of my friends and I cooked a freestyle version of a Swiss meal (pasta + mince + apples) It turned out alright!

The next day we had a long long drive all the way up to Motueka! It took us 8-9 hours (included the stops). We stopped in Greymouth to visit a green stone factory. It was interesting. We also went to see the pancakes rocks! It was really nice and those rocks are impressive! We spend two nights in Motueka. The day after we were supposed to go for a kayak tour and a walk in the Abel Tasman Park… but the weather was too bad and we went for a water taxi tour instead. It was fun! And in the afternoon we watched the Lord of the Ring. The last night in Motueka, we had a fashion show, but not any fashion show! It was the “dude as ladies” fashion show! All the girls teamed up and each group had to dress up one (poor) boy in a girl! This evening was hilarious!

Then we drove to Kaikoura. On the way we stopped at a very special place…. a river where baby seals where swimming! They were so cute! Kaikoura was our last night before going back to Christchurch airport the day after…. So in the evening we had a cocktail party. There were some prices given out and we gave our “buddy present” (each of us had a “buddy” we had to look for on the bus to make sure everyone was on board). We also received a group photo that was taken a couple of days earlier. We made everyone sign it! It was nice to have something to remember everyone!  Then we were allowed to have a party the whole night if we wanted as long as we didn’t wake up the whole holiday park! Most of us went to sleep at two.

The next morning we headed off to Christchurch, our last drive all together! It was really sad to leave everyone…but we will try to catch up really soon! And we left with a whole lot of new friends and memories of ten awesome days!