1/30/18 – 2/5/18
(excerpts taken straight from my journal I kept during my 2017-2018 au pair experience)
3-9-18
Tuesday January 30th I left for New Zealand. My friend Jarrod gave me a ride to the airport that morning, so he picked me up around 3:30AM. I landed in Queenstown at around 11:00AM and met up with Megan! We go our rental car and headed straight to our first stop: Franz Josef. We stayed at the first hostel we could find, “Chateau Franz”. We headed to the grocery store to get food and beer for our trip. That night, we just made dinner, had a few beers, and played cards at the hostel. We got up the next morning to go hike up the glacier, but it was so foggy that we skipped the hike and just kept driving to our next destination: Abel Tasman.
We stayed at a hostel called “The Barn”, which was right in the national park. It was pretty cold and cloudy, so the views weren’t that great. We went to a little brick oven pizza shop right down the road (literally the only place within miles) for dinner, and then headed back to the hostel to shower and have a few beers. We met a young German guy (who we found out was one of our roommates) who was extremely funny. The next morning, we go up to go kayaking, only to realize that it was pouring, and that the area we were staying in was flooded. We decided to just keep driving to avoid getting caught in the flood.
We decided to head to a small town called Picton. Along the way, we stopped in a little gold mining town and stopped at a store. We continued driving through fields and mountains until we got to Picton. We found a cute little hostel called “Sequoia Lodge” and luckily they had two beds in a room. We made dinner and sat outside with a few beers. We met a group of guys from England and ended up playing drinking games for hours. The next morning, we got up and it was finally sunny out. We drove down to the port and booked a kayak. It was a double kayak, so the person in the back had to steer with foot pedals. We had about three hours out on the water (and luckily it only rained for about five minutes). Once we got back to shore, the guy who lent us the kayak let us shower and change in the employee bathroom (because we had nowhere else to go).
We headed back to the hostel to pick up the three people that we met who were going in the same direction as us. We headed off to Christchurch, which was about four hours away. We dropped one guy off about halfway, and then continued on, through the rain. Once we got to Christchurch, we stopped at another grocery store to get food for the night. We dropped off our “hitchhiking” friends at their hostel (who actually asked if they could join us on our ride back to Queenstown the next day) and then headed to our hostel “Jailhouse Accommodation”. It was an old jail converted into a hostel. We made dinner and called it an early night because we were so tired from all of the driving we had been doing. The next morning, we got up and explored the city a little. We saw the actual Christ Church that was sadly destroyed in the 2011 earthquake. We also stopped at a little market and bought wool socks that were made right there in New Zealand just a few days before! It was pretty cold out at the time, so I put them on right away. We headed back to pick up our “hitchhikers” and headed down to Queenstown.
On our way down, we stopped at Lake Tekapo and Lake Pukaki. Both had the most amazing views of mountains with snowcaps, and the bluest water I’ve ever seen. Once we made it to Queenstown, we parted ways with our Austrian friends Nicole and Christoph, and headed to our hostel, “Adventure Q2”
It was honestly the nicest hostel I’ve ever stayed in. The bunkbeds were built into the walls so they didn’t move when you climbed up them, they made the beds for you, they gave you two pillows and a towel for the shower, each bed had its own shelves, light, outlets, and a curtain. The hostel even did your laundry for you! (if you paid for it). Megan and I dropped off our stuff and headed down to the kitchen to make dinner. We started pregaming and showered and go ready to go out.
We bar hopped for quite a while and then ended up staying at one place (where we met up with our “hitchhiker” friends again). That’s when Megan and I met a few people and decided to go back to their air bnb to keep the night going. When we got there, we found out it was a bachelor party and there were about 14 guys staying in the air bnb (lets just say it wasn’t the cleanest place we’ve seen). A few of us ended up staying up all night and watched the sunrise over a lake from the huge window in the house. Megan had to order us a taxi through an email because neither of us had service and Uber apparently isn’t a thing there… We got back to the hostel around 7:30AM and slept until noon.
We finally got up and went to get food. The famous “Fergburger” had an extrememly long line, so we went to “Devil Burger” instead. After we ate, we walked around the town and lake a little before we headed back to the hostel. While we were making dinner, we decided to stay in that night and just watch Netflix. However, when we got back to the room, we heard loud music and had no idea what we were in for. We had two new American roommates who were getting ready to go out. Their names were Kyle and Ben and it didn’t take much for them to convince us to go out. Megan and I got ready in about 15 minutes and we were out the door. We had a really fun night with them, but didn’t stay out too late because the next morning I was bungee jumping.
We got to the Kawarau Bridge at AJ Hackett at around 9:00AM. I don’t think I was fully awake yet because I wasn’t nervous at all. Finally, it was my turn to go. They strapped me in and I stood on the edge. I looked down at the rushing blue water and froze. It finally hit me that I was crazy for signing up for this. I asked the guys who were working, if they could push me, but they said that they legally couldn’t. So I looked out at the bridge across the way, took one last breath, and jumped (well, more like fell). It felt like I was falling forever, and I don’t even remember the moment when I started going back up. The next thing I knew, I was being pulled down to a raft and unharnessed. The walk back up the hill was the hardest part of the whole thing. I was relieved that I had done it and full of adrenaline all at the same time. We headed back to the hostel and got ready because the Superbowl was on at noon.
Kyle and Ben missed their bus for a tour, so they headed to the bar with us. They were from California so they weren’t really Pats fans, and neither was anyone else in New Zealand apparently… I got some pretty hard stares when I walked into the first bar. After the first quarter, we decided to try another bar to try to find seating. During the game, I actually met another Pat’s fan who was from Peabody! Such a small world! Unfortunately, the Pat’s didn’t win, but I still had a great time watching it in another country.
My flight was that night, so I packed up my stuff, said goodbye to Megan and our new friends, and set off to the airport. The car rental place was closed, so I had to drop the keys off and then walk and navigate myself to the airport, which was about a 15 minute walk. I landed at the about 10:30PM, and Jarrod picked me up. The next day, I just relaxed and unpacked.