New Zealand

Adventures in a Spaceship

Where to begin? New Zealand is….lush, green, full of sheep, amazingly beautiful, COLD, snowy, picturesque, adventurous, crisp, a good place to wear a mustache, full of hobbits, curvy, extreme driving, home to Flight of the Conchords, nature cruises and glow worm caves, abundant in rocks to throw, tropical looking… overall one of the coolest places I have ever been and the perfect place to cruise in a Spaceship.

Life in a spaceship is not quite what you would expect it to be. First of all, our spaceships were mini vans. They seat 4 and sleep 2…or 3 if it is cold and you don’t mind snuggling. They were equipped with a mattress, pillows and blankets along with all you need to do camping-style cooking (a stove, pots, plates, bowls and silverware). We ate mostly peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, apples, muesli bars, top ramen and occasionally pasta. We drove A LOT. I wouldn’t have done it any other way though, because the scenery was so amazing and if we hadn’t driven we would have missed most of it. The spaceships became our home away from home away from home away from home. (for those of you who are a little slower: home 1 = Stockton, 2= Santa Barbara 3 = Australia and 4 = Spaceship) Driving on the other side of the road was an adventure...some of the steep, windy mountain roads were a bit wild, but we survived!

7-yr-old boy t-shirts

Day 1: Leaving Sydney

We took a train to Sydney and then walked for about 20-30 minutes to avoid paying extra train fares to go all the way to the airport. There were 9 of us from Wollongong, 5 guys and 4 girls (including myself). Sonya and I realized that we are pretty much 7-year-old boys when we noticed that she was wearing a hulk t-shirt and I was wearing the ninja-turtles. Instantly decided that we would be friends forever. At the airport we met up with Zack and Bill who are studying in Sydney. Our flight left pretty late and we ended up getting into New Zealand around 2 am. We slept in the airport because we could not pick up our spaceships until the next day. Needless to say it was less than comfortable, but we were all pretty excited so we didn’t mind too much.

Day 2: Christchurch to Nelson

Christchurch Rubble

The airport security woke us up around 6 am and made us get off the floor. The edge of excitement dulled a little, as we were all sleep-deprived and cranky. There was a hold up in picking up the spaceships because apparently the company forgot that it was daylight savings, but eventually we got them and took off! Driving through Christchurch was an eye opener, they recently had an earthquake and things were in shambles. We drove all the way to Nelson that day and cooked dinner in a grocery store parking lot. After a little drama and arguing (to be expected with 11 people) we ended up camping on the side of the road in a park.

“Freedom Camping” or camping on the side of the road is technically legal in New Zealand, but different cities seemed to have their own rules so it was a bit of a guessing game in knowing where we should sleep.

Day 3: Abel Tasman National Park

Abel Tasman National Park

We drove up to the park for the day and did some hiking. It was so beautiful! I found it strange that everything looked tropical, but it was cold! I think if it had been warm I would have stayed forever. The hike we went on was sweet, we switched off between following the trail and romping around on the beach and through caves. We found lots of opportunities to take cheesy tourist photos and had a picnic lunch on our own private beach. There were even some foot races and some frisbee thrown in. After our hike we found a campsite for the night. I think this was the only night we actually paid to camp, it cost about 6 bucks each. The campsite was pretty cool, it was right on a bay and also right next to a playground! So perfect! We had our first “shower,” which consisted of washing our hair in an outdoor water faucet and baby wipes. Whatever gets the job done! That night we built a big bonfire on the edge of the water. It was cool except that the tide kept sneaking up and putting our fire out. Luckily we had a boyscout with us who was good at restarting it. (I told him about how I tried to be a boyscout, but I don’t think he was impressed).

P.S. I feel like I should mention that I am watching Lord of the Rings while I write this. In case you didn’t know, it was filmed in New Zealand!

Day 4: RUGBY WORLD CUP BABYYYYY

Drove back to Nelson and hung out for the day before going to see the USA play Italy in the Rugby World Cup. We also picked up Zack’s friend Baden, a kiwi local who traveled around with us for the rest of the trip. We cruised around town for a while, charged cameras in McDonald’s etc. then spent the afternoon tailgating before the game. (Baden was really excited to tailgate American style, apparently other countries don’t have that tradition). Anyway, the game was super cool! The stadium was a lot smaller than I expected it to be, but it ended being alright because we were really close to the field. We had some funny banter with the Italian fans around us and of course were all decked out in ridiculous American outfits. We found a place really close to the game to camp that night, but ended up getting kicked out around midnight, just after we had all fallen asleep. The security guard that kicked us out said it was because of the world cup that we couldn’t stay there, so we went back to the park where we camped the first night.

Day 5: Fox Glacier

Getting kicked out at midnight was brutal considering we had to wake up at 4 am the next morning! Luckily, I was not elected to do the morning driving and slept more in the back seat. We had to drive a lot this day and rotated drivers so that everyone had a chance to nap and so no one was too sleepy when they were driving (see Mom, we were safe!). Have I mentioned that it was REALLY COLD in New Zealand? I had to buy gloves and two beanies when we got there because I am a big baby and HATE being cold. When we woke up Wednesday morning it was only 4 degree Celsius. AHH! One night I slept in 3 pairs of leggings/sweats, 4 long sleeve layer, thick socks, gloves and a beanie…and I was still cold! After that Sonya and I recruited one of the boys to sleep in our spaceship so that we could use his body heat.

Fearless explorers

Cold

And speaking of cold, we hiked on a glacier! It was amazingly beautiful. We went with a guide so they hooked us up with boots and crampons and jackets and all that. One of the guides in our group was from San Francisco and said he had another girl from Stockton in the group he had taken that morning, small world! I had thought that I might not be that interested in the glacier hike since we hiked them in Alaska, but I was wrong! I was so glad we went because it was completely different. We got to walk down into a crevasse and drink glacial water.  That night we drove some more (for a change) and camped next to a lake just outside of Queenstown. This spot was my favorite and was our 5^th home for the next 3 nights.

Fun Fact: If you were to drink only pure glacial water for about 10 days you would become fully dehydrated because it does not contain any essential vitamins or minerals.

Day 6: Milford Sound and Glow Worm caves

Milford Sound Reflections

Milford Sound Rainbow

Surprise…more driving! It’s a good thing we were in the fun spaceship (it was Sonya, Zack, Baden and me) because I am not so good with long car rides. We played lots of games, got to know really random facts about each other, had endless sing alongs, and laughed till our bellies hurt.  We drove to Milford Sound and went on a nature cruise. We got there early enough to have a picnic lunch in the parking lot and have another “shower” in the bathroom sink. This one was easily my least favorite “shower” because the water was freezing. Literally. It was glacial water. My head went numb, which is not a pleasant feeling! True to form, I lost my ticket for the cruise and Zack and I almost missed the boat completely when we went back to look for it. Fortunately, they held it for us and we ran on just in time. Like everything else in NZ, Milford Sound was beautiful! There were countless waterfalls, snow covered mountains and rainbows. We even saw a couple of penguins! It is hard to describe how epic it was…you will have to trust the photos.

The whole crew!

After the two hour tour, we drove a little more and had a picnic dinner complete with handstands, rock throwing, a quick dip in the water, and another playground. By this time we were all pretty silly from driving and adventuring for so long and everything seemed funny. We took a smaller boat across the bay to the Glow Worm Caves. We went into the caves as a group with one tour guide. We got lucky and got a cool guide because we definitely were a rowdy crew. Not naming names, but somebody kept farting while we were in the caves and even the guide had to walk away a couple of times. It’s hard to escape a stinky fart when you are in a cave! The glow worms were kind of what you would expect: little glowy dots on the ceiling. The caves themselves were really cool though, it sort of reminded me of the one s in the Goonies. We must not have been too bad of a group, because some of our friends from Wollongong were on a different trip and ended up having the same guide the next day. He told them that we were the most fun group he had taken in the whole time he had been working there! (Who knows, maybe he just hasn’t worked there long…)  That night we went back to our spot by the Lake outside of Queenstown and had a lovely sleep.

Day 7: Queenstown

Soccer

Ferg Burger Picnic

Finally got to sleep in! 4 of the boys got up early to go bungee jumping and the rest of us were lazy and slept. We went to a near  by McDonald’s and had a warm “shower” in the sink and charged cameras and all that again. The boys were back by lunchtime (all of them said bungee jumping was the coolest thing that they had ever done!) and then we all went into Queenstown to explore. Unfortunately, one of the spaceships broke down right as we got into town. While the others dealt with that, I borrowed a soccer ball from some other travelers and we got a pick up game of soccer going. It was really fun, felt so good to run around after so much driving. We split up in the afternoon and a few of us snuck into a hostel for a real shower…it felt so nice so be completely clean all at once! When we met back up we got dinner from Ferg Burger, which was easily the best tasting burger I have ever had. It was about the size of my face! We ate our burgers in the park and then went to a bar to watch Rugby. Overall, it was a pretty laid back day. Was a nice change of pace.

Day 8: Mountain Biking

Queenstown Mountain Biking

We had an extra half-day in Queenstown so most of us decided to go mountain biking! (a few opted for hiking instead). IT WAS SO FUN! I especially liked it because we got a pass for the gondola, so we got to hitch a ride all the way up to the top of the mountain and then rode down. So much easier that way! The boys went slow and waited for Sonya and me on the first run, but after that everyone took off and went at their own pace. Sonya and I may have been a bit slower, but I think we did pretty well considering it was a first time for both of us. The only one who ended up getting hurt was Baden and it turned out to be a disappointingly small cut for how much blood it produced. We snuck back into the hostel for some post-mountain biking showers and ate at Ferg Burger again. We spent about an hour or so being tourists and looking through shops then hit the road again. We drove most of the way to Lake Tekapo that night and ended up camping on the side of the road near a river bed. It was by far the creepiest place we camped. We were completely on our own in the middle of nowhere. We built another camp fire and all sat around it talking for a long time. There was one outhouse toilet and towards the end of the night the door swung open in the wind and made a loud noise. Of course, it totally freaked us all out and we were searching around with flashlights making sure no one was sneakin’ up on us. It’s funny now but at the time it was pretty scary! Sonya wouldn’t turn out the lights until all three of us were safely in our spaceship and the doors were locked.

Day 9: Lake Tekapo

Lake Tekapo

The fun Spaceship crew

Drove back to Christchurch and stopped at Lake Tekapo on the way to take some pictures. Clearest blue water I have ever seen. It was more of an icy color blue than a tropical one and so pretty with the snowy mountains behind it. As a last day joke, our spaceship (being the fun spaceship of course) wore mustaches at the lake. I thought it was really funny and it made all the pictures pretty goofy! Sonya’s mustache was the funniest, it made her look like an old man!! When we got back to Christchurch we had to empty and clean out all the spaceships and gather our stuff. We hung out in the airport for a reallllllllly long time (or so it felt). Our flight was at 6 am the next day so we slept in the airport again. We spent a couple of hours playing cards, looking through pictures and watching rugby, then found our same spot from the first night and slept for a couple of hours.

Mustache shenanigans

Day 10: Back to OZ

It was very funny/cool to be able to say we were coming “home” to Australia. The trip home was uneventful, slept the whole plane ride. Customs took forever but otherwise it was smooth sailing. It was a little disappointing to come back to reality and have to start studying for tests and writing papers. I thought that I would be sick of living in a van and being constantly surrounded by people, but I honestly didn’t want to leave. We had a ridiculously good time! We have tons of funny quotes, amazing photos, ridiculous stories and endless fun memories. The Spaceship vacay was a success!!

Side Note: There really are more sheep than people in New Zealand. The first day there I decided that if multiple sheep are called sheep then why shouldn’t a single sheep actually be called a shoop? Anyway, it stuck. We made a lot of “shoop” jokes.

There are tons more stories that I would love to share, but this is already long enough as it is!