Well, the first leg of our New Zealand journey has come to an end. Today, we are leaving Wellington for Christchurch. During our stay in Wellington we visited the Te Papa Museum. The Te Papa Museum is the national museum of New Zealand. It is home to many different artifacts and exhibits that show New Zealand’s rich history. The best part of the museum was seeing the colossal squid they had on display. Fisherman in Antarctic waters found the squid attached to their line in 2007 and donated the squid to the museum.
On day two of our Wellington adventure we visited the New Zealand parliament chambers. Parliament and government buildings were spread across three different buildings that had all been refurbished and connected together over the years. It was pretty cool to learn about New Zealand’s form of government and to see where policy making takes place. We also visited the U.S. Embassy; however, we weren’t allowed in… or to take pictures. Even though we didn’t get to go in, we did find a Notre Dame fan all the way in New Zealand. The guard behind the window motioned to my Notre Dame cap and gave me the thumbs up. After that we just enjoyed the city and had fun by the harbor.
Monday, we flew into Christchurch from Wellington. Upon arriving at the airport we were greeted by Brother John O’Shea, a Christian Brother that our John had been put in contact with. Brother John was such a nice man and he greatly enhanced our trip to Christchurch. He collected us from the airport and we went to the International Antarctic Centre. There we learned all about the animal life and scientific research that is going on in Christchurch. We got to see rescued penguins up close at their habitat there and even got to ride in an arctic vehicle called a Haggland. The Haggland is a specially designed vehicle to be able to traverse steep hills and gain traction on any terrain. It was pretty neat driving up and over huge, steep mounds of earth on the track.
After finishing at the Antarctic Centre Br. John picked us up and took us up to the top of a mountain for us to gaze upon the city from. That was pretty cool; however, I thought on several occasions that Br. John might not be the best driver for navigating the narrow mountain roads. Luckily, we survived. Afterwards, Br. John dropped us off at our hostel and we said goodbye. I think it is safe to say that Christchurch would have been much less interesting without his help and guidance.
Thursday, we took a bus from Christchurch to Dunedin. In Dunedin we stayed at the “Hogwartz” backpackers. I guess they were going for some Harry Potter theme, but lets hope that J.K. Rowling’s copyright litigators don’t find out about this place. We did know about the Harry Potter Theme, but what we didn’t know was that the backpackers was at the top of the steepest street in the world. It was quite a hike up the hill with all of our gear.
After settling into the hostel we headed to Cadbury world to take a tour of the famous chocolate factory. The tour was really really cool. We saw how they made their chocolates and even got to sample many different types that we don’t have in America. We were also lucky enough to see them manufacturing the Easter eggs; however, the Cadbury eggs here are much larger and ornate then the ones we eat at home.
Afterwards, we walked down to the local university to experience what college life is like in New Zealand. The University of Otago reminded me of a lot of state schools in the United States where old, ornate looking buildings meet 60’s/70’s architecture and then late 20th century glass structures. After touring the campus we went to our tour of Speights Brewery. It was the best thing we have done so far on this trip. We got to learn all about the history of beer and how they make it in New Zealand. Our tour guide was really funny and had a wealth of knowledge about not only his company’s beer, but about beer around the world. Also, as a side note, we learned that the cable cars in San Francisco came from the city of Dunedin. Where they not only one of the first cities to use cable cars, but the first to invent a cable car that could turn corners. Oh the things you learn while on a brewery tour. At the end of the tour we got to sample all the different types of beer they had on tap, and even operate the tap ourselves. I would like to point out that beer direct from the brewery tastes much better than any thing you can get out of a bottle or can.
Wednesday, we left Dunedin for Queenstown… the adventure capital of the southern hemisphere. After the 4.5 hour bus trip we found or hostel and then proceeded to take a Gondola trip to the top of a mountain to see the landscape. Queenstown is in the mountains so it is quite a bit colder here/there is some snow. The best part of the Gondola trip was the luge car track at the top. We raced down the track in little carts that had what was essentially bicycle handle bars on them It was a lot of fun. After that we had dinner and went back to the hostel. However, the most exciting part of the day came later that evening. As I was watching T.V. in the lounge, Queenstown and all of the south island experienced one of the strongest earthquakes in decades. It was pretty exciting. Apparently they evacuated the opera house in Sydney for fear of a tsunami; however, the tsunami only ended up being about 20cm in height.
Today we were supposed to go Skydiving; however, the fog didn’t clear in time and we pushed it back to Saturday morning. Hopefully it will be clear enough to go then.
That’s all for now. Sorry there are no pictures. The bandwidth here won't allow pictures to upload in a timely fashion
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