I have never seen such diverse topography! Every 30kms, the scenery changes drastically & I’m always in awe. There were several points where we’d look to the right and see the greenest hills/mtns with sheep pastures, and then we’d look to the left and see the prettiest water I’ve ever seen! *Neither words or pictures could ever explain/capture how pretty this place really is..even with overcast skies!
Here are some of the highlights from this weekend’s traveling & stops:
- After driving over many curvy-mountainside-roads with steep hills, I think we’re getting used to the whole driving on the left side of the road gig! *Although, we all agree that it’s a whole lot scarier being a passenger..haha
- Remember that time they had guard-rails?? Oh wait...
- We spent quite a few hours in the car, so we brought out the music and had a little jam session! (I mean, if we’re gonna live together for 8 weeks, we’re going to get to know each other really well, haha)… “Shake It Off”
- After seeing cows in the same pin as sheep, Alex H asked, “What would happen if a cow mated with a sheep?” Me: “Well..you’d get a Bull Sheep!” (Ah.Ha.Haaa..Thank you, thank you, thank you very much. I’ll be here for 8 wks…..oh goodness, lol)
- Also, public toilet stations come in handy ;)
- This was our first stop and our first viewing of the NZ Pacific!
- The rocky shore was so cool, and we saw this seaweed-ish looking stuff that felt like rubber!
- The water was freezing! But someone’s dog, Rusty, didn’t think anything of it
- This stop had a 900km mountainside path out to a lighthouse where we could see the ‘Nuggets’ (Huge boulders out off the coastline)
- The panoramic views of this little peninsula were AMAZING! Blue-green waters, white rocky ledges sticking out from the bright, green, grassy hills..ahhhh J
- We also met some elderly folks who said that their relatives used to run the lighthouse..so neat!
- *THERE ARE NO WORDS OR PICTURES TO EXPLAIN IT!
- We stopped through the town of Owaka to grab a wee bit to eat at the Catlins’ Café. Ironically, we all got burgers..haha, silly Americans! (*Hold the mayo & beets!)
- We met a guy and gal from Canada who have been traveling around the North & South islands for 6 weeks. It was nice chatting with them
- These falls were placed in beautiful rainforest-like setting! Spooner climbed up the falls after an adventurous elderly man..looked cool but scary!
- This was a little lake that had a cute boardwalk to walk over.
- My favorite part about this spot was finding a legit swinging vine along the path! I felt like Tarzan,Lol!
- Some guy had been to the North American Niagra Falls and came back and named this tiny little waterfall after it (humorously).
- *We found a beam that went over the flowing water to other rocks. Of course I enjoyed that!
- This is the most southern point of NZ’s South Island
- There was a cool sign that showed how far we were from the Equator and South Pole
- It’s crazy to think that we were looking out towards Antarctica!
- It was great watching the waves crash up against the ledges
- I also noticed what looked like a man’s face in the side of the cliff!
- Beautiful sights!
- Unfortunately, we did not see any seals or penguins while we were here, but it was still amazing! The rocky coast and surroundings were well worth the stop!
- So, none of us had ever stayed in a hostel before..haha. We were up for the adventure!
- It actually was not bad a t all, and Sparky was very nice! He loved talking about cars. He had an old Model A that was from Michigan that he showed us.
- The room we stayed in had 3 sets of bunkbeds. Luckily, we were the only 3 that night.
- There was a hot tub, but let’s just say we did NOT get in it..little sketchy
- Sparky had a world map that had pins on it from everyone who had stayed there. I was the only one so far originally from Georgia, Spooner was the only one from Iowa, and Alex H was the only one from Illinois. I thought that the map was a cool idea!
Suspended Bridge
- We found an old suspended bridge that we walked out on. We could feel the bridge sway every now and then..eek
- These caves were so cool! In a really random location, there was a cliff entrance at the bottom of a green hill. It was pitch black in there! Without our phones, we couldn’t see a thing! We went in a good ways until the ceiling got really low. Then, we turned back!
- Te Anau was a city in the South Fiordland National Park. There was a lake with a long trail called the Kepler Track.
- The whole track takes about 7 hours to walk around, so we did the one-hour route through the rain forest.
- It was so pretty and neat to think about how we were walking through a NZ rain forest!
- The greenery was amazing and the trees were so tall. I found one tree that looked like it had eyes and a mouth, so of course I called it my ENT friend (LOTR).