New Zealand ( Day 0 - 3)

G'day Mate,
   
         (Day 0, Monday) After surf camp it was hurry home pack up another bag and head off to New Zealand! The beginning of the trip was spent 3 of my house mates, Austin, Ryan and Pete. We took the 2.5 hour train ride into Sydney to catch our 19:45 flight to Christchurch.  the train that takes you to the terminal mad expensive so we all split a cab. Along the way we learned that our cab driver was had visited New York City during September 11th. He was actually up in the towers on the 10th, less than 24 hours before the attack. It was interesting to hear about his first hand experience.
          At the airport everything went peachy! Sitting waiting for the airplane was a great feeling, we had no plans, and no reservations of any sort  for the first 3 days in NZ and I couldn't wait to see where we ended up. On the plane I got to talking to the lady sitting next to me. She was working on cataloging all the plants of NZ and she suggested we head to Arthurs Pass. We got in at 1am and after dealing with a few minor hick ups at customs we were able to try and find a place to sleep in the airport . To our delight there was an area with about 50 other people                                                              
sleeping all over the place in some very very interesting positions. We had a lovely spot
 in the middle of room. Sleeping was hit and miss with all the activity going on but
 it was a great experience.
         (Day 1, Tuesday) At 5am Employees came around to wake us up so the airport wouldn't appear like a homeless shelter to the newly arriving passengers. This was good though it gave us a good jump on the day. We worked the phonebooks calling all around town trying to find the cheapest car rental, Apex Car Rental was the winner. We got picked up from the airport and got ourselves a dashing little white Nissan car named Sunny.  The car rental lady, named Steph, was nice enough to give us a map and show us where to exchange money and stock up on food, then..... we were off to the Mountains! 
         The first 45 mins of the drive were west from Christchurch across the very flat Canterbury Plains, the largest in NZ.  Driving throughout this area we saw hundreds of thousands if not millions of sheep.....everywhere! Slowly we entered into the foot hills and then broke through the clouds into some spectacular Mountains. We found an amazing lake and ventured on a stone road around it to a nice spot  for some lunch. You guessed it... lunch was PB&J!

                        (Top 10 spots I've eaten lunch)

        From here we drove for another 40 mins down the road a found a place called Castle Hill. We stopped for a hike and climbed around on the rocks giving us great views from every direction. Then it was back in the car for another hour or so. As the mountains became bigger we passed more lakes and ski fields. Eventually we made into Arthurs Pass and started to look for a place to sleep. We came across a sign that said "Klondike Corner (free camping)" We took that road and kept going until we came across a huge river bed that was more than a mile wide spanning between two mountain ranges.  Dinner was some cold meat pies and a side of PB&J. We headed down the road about 2 mins to a bar in the Bealey Hotel for a drink and to play some pool. The Bealey hotel was the only building for about 20 mins in either direction. The hotel got started back in 1865 as a river crossing. The owners family would load up customers cars onto a wagon and have the horses pull them across the flowing Waimakariri River (which served as our bed for that night). We talked with the bartender and planned out a hike to do the fallowing day. We headed back to   camp and decided to sleep out under the stars in the dry river bed. The river bed was very rocky and a little windy so we made some stone walls and cleared some spots just rocky enough to sleep on. I was really hoping to see some amazing stars but instead we were blessed with a full moon lighting up the mountains and valley perfectly! No flash lights were needed that light at all. Without any tents, warm cloths, or even sleeping bags it was no surprise we only lasted about 3 hours before having to go sleep in Sunny. Lets just say i've had more comfortable sleeping arrangements than sharing a small car with 4 guys.

                         (View from the Bar)                                       ( My bed/ rock wall for the night)


        (Day 2, Wednesday)  We had breakfast and headed out for our hike. We picked up a short cut on the side of the road the bartender told us about to save some time.  It was very steep with no traversing, it was a tuff climb but we gained a good amount of vertical very quickly. The summit we hiked to is actually in the picture above on the right.  On our way up we met a nice German girl who told us about a cave on our way back into Christchurch that we had to check out. The climb was very cool, we would hike through various landscapes changing very quickly. There were thick forests, desert like areas, tall grass lands, marshes, and just bare rock. The view from here was very cool overlooking the river bed, campsite, and the view of glaciers off in the distance.

          We had dinner (more of the same) and then ventured deeper into Arthurs Pass to take a look around town. It was a very small town indeed there wasn't even a gas station just a single gas pump, standing alone. We found a pub and decided to go have a drink and play some more pool to pass the night. To our delight it was trivia night at the pub! All benefits went to benefit the most famous local bird the Kiwi!!! There was a good amount of local trivia involved so needless to say we got our American rear ends handed to us. We were also the youngest team by a few decades so that didnt help much. We had a great time mingling with the locals of a small town nestled in the mountain of New Zealand, that was for sure! Then it was back in the car for some sleep. This night we took sunny up on one of the banks of the river and slept there, not one of us were willing to try sleeping outside again.
      (Day 3, Thursday)   Today we headed back into Christchurch but not before stopping at the cave suggested to us by the German. We had no idea what we were getting into and it turned out to be one of the highlights of the trip! It was a short hike down a ravine to the creek that lead to the cave.  The water was incredibly cold as all the water comes from glacial melt! We entered into the cave and proceeded into water up to our chest. I began to question spending over 30 mins in a dark cave chest high in freezing cold water, but to my delight we rose up out of the deep water into about knee high for the rest of the trek. Our lights were pretty poor but the caverns were still spectacular. I particularly like having to climb up mini waterfalls along the way and the smooth lime stone walls and floor. Getting out of the cave was pretty neat. There was about a 4 meter high waterfall we had to navigate to get out then squeeze between about a 2 foot gap between the floor and celling. Exiting the cave we were greeted by a stunning view of mountains in every directions. Then it was back to the car and back to Christchurch. We returned the car and walked to the hostel that our tour would be picking us up at for the next 10 days.
       These three days were very fun and some of the best of the trip. There is something incredibly enjoyable about heading somewhere with no plan; taking any turn you want and just having a blast every moment.
       - Evan