Wellington and South Island (Pre-RV)

I just got back to Hamilton from a two-week "study break." Not sure if that's supposed to be a break for studying or a break from studying, but I take it you can guess how I decided to interpret my time off from school =)

I started off the trip with an 8-hour night bus ride from Hamilton City to Wellington with two Norwegian guys and a Dane. The bus ride was pretty rough, especially since I have a hard time falling asleep on planes and busses. This was the longest bus ride I've ever taken. Before this one it was a seemingly short 4-hour ride from New York City to Baltimore. When we finally got to Wellington, the bus driver was describing to my travel mates where our hostel was, and after speaking to them, he came up to me and asked me if I needed any directions. I had to hold in my laughter when I confirmed to him that I (the brown girl) was with the three Scandinavians. We must have looked like an odd assortment.

View from the top of Mount Victoria

It was Easter Sunday when we arrived in Wellington, so most of the shops were closed for the day. In New Zealand, only small shops and restaurants are allowed to operate on certain holidays, so we opted for a short hike up Mount Victoria.

Stumbled upon a LOTR filming location on the way down... not quite sure what part of the movie I was walking through, but it was still neat.

The Mac's Brewbar

After our hike, we were all a bit thirsty for a beer, especially knowing that the Mac's Brewery was in Wellington. We were hoping that it would be open despite the holiday restrictions and were pleasantly surprised that it was. We were each able to get a couple of pints of cold beer on the condition that alcohol would only be served to patrons intending to dine.

We spent one night at the X-Base Backpackers hostel in Wellington, and caught the Interislander Ferry to the South Island. The ferry was huge, more like a cruise ship in my opinion. The trip was four hours long and the view was beautiful to say the least.

Our first stop in the Marlborough region of the South Island was a wine tour! Highlight Winetours picked us up directly from the ferry and we began tasting wines and five different wineries. I'm not usually one for white wines, but this region of New Zealand is famous for their whites, especially the Sauvignon Blanc, which made me want to cook.

Cloudy Bay Winery

Kaikoura

 We spent one night in the Koanui backpackers hostel in Blenheim before jumping on another bus to Christchurch. Most of the drive was along the West coastline, which was very beautiful. On the way we stopped in Kaikoura for a moment and got to take in the beach scenery there. Our bus driver was really nice and funny in a cute way. As we were driving through the Canterbury Plains, he told us a story about a truck accident that let a bunch of white swine loose, and how the pigs began to interbreed with the wild hogs, so this area now has wild pigs showing the white features of the ones that got loose. The driver was very excited about this story.

We arrived in Christchurch at about 7pm and it was my friend Kristian's birthday, so we celebrated by taking him out to dinner at a Chinese restaurant, and then went to the only open bar in the town, which was a very snazzy looking pop-up bar. Many of the streets were closed because of the devastation from the 2011 earthquake, so lots of things seemed to be in a temporary state. The next day was rainy, so we didn't get to see much of Christchurch before we were off to the next stop, but not before hitting up a closeout sale at the Roxy and Quicksilver store. $65 spent on 3 pair of pants and a shirt, not to shabby! There was another earthquake just hours after we left Christchurch, talk about good timing.