Hokitika

This weekend we had our last trip of all and we went to the west coast to the little town of Hokitika. The drive over there was so beautiful and full of moutainsa and braided rivers. We arrived there late afternoon to check into the backpackers and explore the town. There were some really great shops and I got myself some more yarn and a really cool walet. After having a delicious dinner we went back to the backpackers to change to get ready for the bonfire. The boys headed down to the beach to dig a pit and build a fire and, to my surpirse, they actualy did it, and the fire was pretty good! We spent the evening on the beack taking pictures, watching the sunset and realxing with music around the fire. I headed back in fairly early to shower and head to bed as I had an early wake up call on Saturday, 5:30am! On Saturday 18 of us piled on to our bus at 6am to head to Franz Josef for kayaking and sky diving. We started off the morning with a three hour kayak around Lake Mapourika. It was so beautiful and defintely a good work out! After that we all had some lunch and did some shopping where I finally found the last few gifts I needed! I was the only one who did not sky dive (I want to someday just not right now) so instead I walked to the glacier and back which ended up being about a 13 kilometer walk (roughly 8 miles) all together. It was so beautiful though!! When I got back from my walk there was still about two hours until the others got back from sky diving so I decided to have some dinner and just read my book until they returned. I ate dinner at a resturant by myself for the first time and it wasn't as lonely as I thought it was going to be and the dinner was delicious. Once everybody returned we hoped back on the bus to return to Hokitika for the evening. When we got back almost everyone went out but I was exhausted so I just got into my PJs and hung out with two of the girls in my room before we went to bed. When we got up the next morning we got some breakfast, I bought myself a jade kiwi for my charm bracelet (I couldnt find a ring I liked) and then studied for exam in a coffee shop until the bus arrived to bring us back to Lincoln. On our way back we stopped at the Hokitika Gorge where we corssed a swinging bridge and the boys all jumped off the rocks into the river (probably about a 10 meter jump). We also stopped at Castle Rocks about three quarters of the way back for some quick pictures, it was really cool! We arrived back in Lincoln just in time for dinner and spent the rest of the evening relaxing in the lounge. This morning we had our exam and now it's time for the super bowl and our farewell dinner.

Pictures to come!!

Comments

  1. UnknownFebruary 3, 2014 at 7:17 AM

    So glad you got to see the glaciers, and am surprised you were the only one who ventured off to see them! Funny how the only souvenir you knew you wanted was the hardest to find :) Hope your exam went well and you had a nice farewell dinner-I can't believe it!! Brace yourself for the cold........see you SOON XO Mom

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Rain and Flowers

Image
Today we started off by visiting the local weekend market in Christchurch. This market was huge and has pretty much anything you could want. A bunch of us got mini donuts for breakfast and they were amazing! After wandering for a while it started to rain and we seeker shelter under an unoccupied tent and watched the people who walked by. We also purchased souvenirs and got more tea! While waiting for it to be time to head into the city we sat on a field and listend to live music. Once we headed into the city we went to the Canterbury museum and botanical garden, which is one of the top ten gardens in the world. It was so beautiful and we took so many amazing pictures. There was a pretty cool street art exhibit at the museum too. For lunch we went to the boat docks and had toasties on the river. For those who don't know, a toastie is basically a grilled cheese and you can add other things. Then we headed back to the garden to continue our picture contest and wander on the trails. On
Read more

Livestock Auction & International Antarctic Center

Image
On Tuesday we went on two trips, a livestock auction and the International Antarctic Center. We went to the auction first which was actually pretty cool. One of the men working the auction talked to us about how it all works, how the animals are sorted and things like that. There were so many sheep and we did get to see them being auctioned off but that wasn't as exciting as the cattle auctioning. The sheep auctions were just done with the sheep in their pens and the caller standing on a platform just over the pen with the buyers in front of the pen and then they would walk over a few steps to the next pen and contine as such. For the cattle auctions which ever cattle (or set of cattle) were being auctioned came out into a ring and the bidders were sitting in auditorium style seats looking down at the cattle. While the cattle were in the ring therewas a man in there to make sure they went in and out. Once the bidding was done the cattle left through one gate and it started all over
Read more

Days One and Two

Image
After a long one and a half days of travel all most of us wanted to do was sleep but it was barely noon here so we had to stay awake until bed time! The first thing we did was went on a little scenic tour of Christchurch with our bus driver, Robbie, who is the biggest hoot! Then we went to the mall where we all came to realize how expensive simple items such as shampoo and sunscreen are on an island. Then we cam back to the university and had dinner and did a scavenger hunt. Then we all conked out until the next morning. The following day we had our first class which was more of a spew of information about what was coming up and showing us where the computer lab is. After lunch we all went into town to go to the bank and have a look around. When we came back we all went out onto the rugby field and proceeded to play soccer, nap, read books and get sunburned. We have all now realized how very important sunscreen is here. After dinner we all went to the local pub and had (for most of us
Read more