The Robserver: 09/10/13

Hi friends,

Its been a while since my last post due to my two week mid-semester break. My friend Lucian and I traveled down to the South Island. We visited several big cities and smaller towns. Let see, to start of the break on the 25^th we left to attend an All Blacks game vs. Australia! (All Blacks won). It was an incredible atmosphere, full of people in black clothing chanting for the All Blacks. Seeing the Haka live was insane! The next morning we left to catch the Interislander Ferry across to the South Island. It was a three-hour trip across the bay and we could not have caught it on a more beautiful day. The sun was shining; the ocean was calm and clear, and best of all it was hot out for the first time in a long time. It’s just turning into spring here in NZ. Once we arrived in Picton, we immediately took a bus down to Christchurch where we stayed at one of my flat mates houses for the night. We were well looked after, had a great meal and a good nights rest. Then early the next morning we caught another 8 hour bus to Queenstown. The scenery as we passed was crazy. We made several stops along the way. Lake Tekapo, Lake Pukaki, Mt. Cook were absolutely stunning. God blessed us with perfect weather throughout the trip. We stayed in Queenstown for seven days. Queenstown is your typical ski-town of NZ it actually reminded me a lot of Vail. Snowboarders and skiers would come back into town at night and walk about as the sun set over Lake Wakatipu and the stunning Remarkables Mtns. just on the other end of the lake. During the seven days we wandered around town, ate world famous Fergburger twice (3^th best burger joint in the world), took the gondola up the mountain and took some pictures, Luged down the mountain, traveled to Wanaka for a night and visited Puzzling world and Kayaking in the lake, and last but not least, visited Milford Sound. I honestly think that Milford sound, whether in good weather or not, is possibly one of the most beautiful places on earth. The drive took 5 hours to get there, but certainly was not boring. We would be travelling down massive valleys carved out by a prehistoric glacier long gone. As we drove to our left and our right were massive and very steep mountains sticking up like razor sharp teeth into the clouds above. You could not see the top due to cloud cover, but what was more amazing was that as we drove gigantic waterfalls were pouring out of what seemed to be the clouds but actually the tip tops of the covered mountainside. It was truly the most realistic picture I have for Rivendell if it were real. At the end of the bus ride my neck hurt from looking up so much and we had not even gone to the cruse in the fjord yet. It was also stunning being out on the water next to all the waterfalls, and massive mtns. …..What a day. When we got back we had a couple more days to hike and wander about town. Then we left on the 31^st of Aug. to visit Dunedin. We visited the Cadbury chocolate factory and several old cathedrals around town. I ate so much chocolate I got a little sick hahaha. But after one full day we flew back to Wellington.

Here is our route:

A. Wellington, B. Picton, C. Christchurch, D- F- H. Queenstown (3 times left and returned), E. Wanaka, G. Milford Sound, I. Dunedin

I think we did it right. We took busses down and saw NZ for what it was, and flew back up to rest and relax back in our flats for a couple more days before school. I can now say that I have spent more than a week just backpacking around NZ. It was absolutely awesome. God is good.

School starts today, so pray that I finish my second part of the year strong. I really miss all of you and miss being home with familiar people and close friends. It’s weird that Wheaton has started and I am not there. I am loving it here but am certainly excited to finish Wheaton with all my good friends.

Robs

Here are some pictures from the trip: