There and Back Again: South Island Study Break Trip

In the middle of October, fresh out of lectures but not yet ready to face the reality of exams, Alexis and I took off for a week to explore the South Island, which had been our home for so many weeks already.

Dunedin

Our first stop was Dunedin, where we connected with Alice, one of the NZ staff members from our study abroad group. We walked around the town a bit, since there was a street art fair going on, and lots of murals were going up.

In the evening we headed to the beach and ran across the sand, eager to see some penguins! We had to be careful around the massive sea lions that were lounging around, but they seemed pretty content to lie there without bothering us. As we were walking across the beach, we saw a yellow-eyed penguin amble past. This was a fortunate surprise! Usually penguins are very shy and won't come to the beach if they see you. To encourage more to come, we climbed up to the penguin blinds: little huts with slit windows we could watch through without bothering the penguins. We saw some little blue penguins zipping around in the waves, but no one else came up on the beach. But here are some pictures, courtesy of the internet.

The next day we visited the museum, mainly playing in the kids' section, until it was time for First Flight, the releasing of the butterflies in the Butterfly Jungle! It was so much fun! There were butterflies everywhere! They landed on my face and head, and I carried some around on my hands. They were so bright and cheerful. It was just lovely.

After that we explored the rest of the museum. There was a big section on Maori history and culture, and a huge exhibit on the animals of New Zealand, from plesiosaurs to penguins. Alexis was giddy at all the fossils! It was a great stop, and I wish I could have spent more time there, but we had to rush quickly off to the Cadbury factory for our tour! At the factory we got to see the basic steps in making chocolate, as well as taste-test a bit of it ourselves. It would have been cool to see the machinery working, but it was the weekend, so our tour was a bit more limited. After that, we rushed to the bus and made it just in the nick of time (with Alice's help) to take off for the next part of our adventure.

Milford Sound (Piopiotahi)

After a night in Queenstown we bused out to Milford Sound. It was a bit drizzly, which was concerning as we planned on freedom camping the first night. Even through the drizzle, though, the views were highly impressive. Upon arrival we didn't waste any time, but straight away walked up the road in search of a suitable place to camp. It was quite a struggle, but eventually we found a flat, relatively open place in the woods, set up our tent, and settled in for the night.

The next morning dawned bright and beautiful. We started our day with a morning cruise up Milford Sound, which is actually a fiord (since it was carved out by glaciers). The views were just stunning. You could follow the little trickle of a waterfall straight up the sheer cliffs to the snowline. The trees clung to the rock sides only thanks to the adhesion of lichen. Everywhere there were little rainbows and soaring snowy peaks. It was simply gorgeous.

As we turned around at the Tasman Sea and headed back, some bottlenose dolphins came to play in our wake. We also surprised a fiordland crested penguin! The dolphins stuck around for quite a while, playfully diving over and under one another in the foamy water.

The weather was lovely, so we spent the rest of our time there walking short hikes and enjoying the views.

Queenstown

In Queenstown we had to pass on the bungee jumping, but we did go ziplining by the Kawarau Bridge, which was lots of fun. Then we wandered the town a little bit and ended up at the Kiwi birdlife park, where we got to see some frisky kiwis and a variety of other birds including kea, weka, and New Zealand falcon. We also saw a conservation show, kiwi feeding, and tuatara.

Fox Glacier

My last stop was Fox Glacier, where I did a bit of hiking through the rain forest up to Glacier View, caught a helicopter ride over both Fox and Franz Joseph glaciers, and biked up to Lake Matheson. I was fortunate to have nice weather almost the whole time, so I really got to enjoy the hikes and the views.