The End

Soo, probably no one will read this post, but I feel like I should do it anyways. It's 2 months overdue, but the end of the semester was a little hectic with one last trip, finals, goodbyes, and packing. Since being back, almost everyday I think of my trip and how I just want to go back, so I figured that if I didn't finish my blog, it wouldn't really be over. That's clearly not true, and as with journals, I feel like I started it and then never finished it, but I am determined to finish this one! So here is one last post about my final trip in NZ.

Sarah and I left during our week long study break (because who studies for finals? a lot of people, actually....) the day before it was supposed to snow. We sadly missed the snow in Christchurch (what is it with me and missing snow?! It snows in Salem when I am not there, it snows in Christchurch when I'm not there-- two places it rarely snows. Boo....) but luckily we made it out of ChCh in time for our trip. After some issues with the car rental company, we were on our way from Christchurch to the glaciers. We got to Franz Josef that night, had some food and checked into our hostel and promptly went to bed. The next morning we checked out and went to the skydiving place only to find out they had cancelled the day's skydives due to weather. We were less than pleased because we were on a very tight schedule to get back to ChCh in a timely fashion. We booked for the next day at 8 am and went back to the hostel for a day of movies and wine. Not how we'd planned to spend the day, but still fun!

The next morning we went to the skydiving place to check in for our 8 am skydives, and they told us they were cancelling it and would put us down for the 10:30 skydives. Again, we were less than pleased. We wasted some time and then FINALLY after much anticipation checked in for our skydives. We skydived from 19,000 ft. (highest tandem skydive in the world! Go big or go home, right?) and it was the most terrifying and incredible experience I think I have ever had. Ever.

We then drove from Franz Josef to Queenstown where I was going to bungy jump. On the way, Sarah hit a bird and cracked our windscreen. It was this rather large blue bird that caused quite a lot of damage and lucky for us, we were forced to purchase insurance. Needless to say, we were not happy about paying for insurance (it nearly doubled the price of the car rental) but since we had it, we didn't have to pay to get the windscreen fixed. I think there is an obvious lesson learned there. We made it to Queenstown that night and had some delicious Mexican food (one of the things I missed quite a bit while in NZ) went out for a bit and went to bed since I was booked for the earliest bungy jump.

The next day I bungy jumped from 134 m, which was scary in it's own way. The people who were in my group were all terrified, but I was super calm (because I had, you know, skydived from 19,000ft the day before...) but when my turn came to jump it was almost a little scarier than the skydive because when you are skydiving, the instructor strapped to your back pushes you out of the plane whether you are ready or not, but with bungy jumping you have to fling yourself off a ledge into the air. I did a beautiful swan dive for the first 4 seconds, then flailed like a dying fish for the last bit. A very fun experience indeed.

Next stop was Invercargill/Bluff/Slope Point. It was very cold in the south... Very cold. Bluff was interesting, not much there, but still cool and we had dinner at an Irish Pub in Invercargill before driving to Slope Point for accommodations (of which there were none) so we were instructed to stay at Curio Bay. We nearly missed the town driving through and there was only one place to stay and the lady was NOT happy that we were knocking on her door at 7:30 pm for the night. Oh well, it was a pretty nice place. The next morning we were up early and we went and saw a petrified forest and we went to Slope Point (the southmost point of NZ) where we got caught in a rainstorm in the middle of a farm of sheep and then sprinted back to the car. It was good to see but there's really nothing there but a sign....

We drove to Tekapo where we wanted to go stargazing at the Mt. John observatory. It was probably one of the coolest things I did while in NZ. We saw so many shooting stars, tons of constellations, and got to see Saturn & it's moons through a telescope. Not to mention hot chocolate. We dressed so warmly, seriously I have never worn so many layers in my life. It was so cool and we both really enjoyed it.

The next day we drove to Mt. Cook where we did a couple short hikes for good viewpoints before heading back to Chch. It was such a good trip and a great way to finish out the semester. We went back and studied for finals, had a few more memorable nights, and said our goodbyes.

Being back in the States has been fun, but I miss it every day. I feel like culture shock has been more of an issue on this side than when I first got to NZ. I had an amazing time and met some amazing people and I won't ever forget my experience. I've had a good summer but I am gearing up to start the new semester, which I am really looking forward to. Over and out, I think this might be the last blog post maybe ever? We'll see. I've been told journaling is good so maybe I'll attempt that; I'll add it to the ridiculously long list of goals I've got going. The end!