New Zealand is...

…beautiful/breathtaking/crisp/chilly/sunny/warm/rainy/picturesque/full of sheep and happy people/hilly/green/grassy/mountainous/snowy/adventureous/windy/wonderful.

New Zealand was absolutely incredible and I don’t know how to explain it all. This blog is going to, again, be slightly different. It’ll start day by day and then finish with different experiences and other events that I missed. Also, again please look at pictures on Facebook to see the whole experience (pictures really don’t do it justice but they help)!

One rainy September morning, a lonely shoop (singular sheep) stood watching the road from its paddock. The road, like all roads in New Zealand, was quiet and clear of traffic but very windy. Behind the sheep sat the hilly mountains covered in trees that looked like blankets on the hills. Close by, the lonely shoop’s fellow sheep, next to them a paddock of cows, and in the distance reindeer were roaming. This one September morning, however, was different. In the early morning as the shoop stood chomping on the grass, it saw three Spaceships zooming by. In these Spaceships sat eleven American Uni students on their spring break from Australia. The following recounts the tale of their adventure (from a first person point of view).

Day 1(Sunday, September 25^th)

Sleeping at Christchurch Airport

Jetstar only has one flight from Sydney to Christchurch a day, and it lands at 12.50am. We couldn’t pick the Spaceships up until 9am, so we slept in the airport; another experience to cross off the bucket list. We were all so excited though and not in the most comfortable sleeping situations that it was more of a nap than an actual sleep. Just before 9am, three of us got on a shuttle and headed to the Spaceship station. It was COLD! We could see our breaths, it was raining and when we arrived at the Spaceship station we found out that they had forgotten about daylight savings. Finally though, we got our Spaceships; big orange Toyota mini-vans. We got Jay, Qui Gon-Jinn and Ophiuchus. From there we drove to pick the rest of the gang up from the airport and started our adventure.

First stop was food. It was weird driving around Christchurch, not only because we were on the “wrong” side of the road, but also because the city centre was still closed off from the earthquake. We had a GPS, but because we couldn’t get through the city, we drove around for a while before pulling into a gas station to figure out a game plan for finding a grocery store. We had all pulling up in a line at the pumps and were talking about what to do when we noticed a guy taking pictures of us. We starting making smiley faces and putting thumbs up, because we thought we must look so funny – three Spaceships pulled up together. Turns out, the guy was the owner of the Spaceship company!

At the grocery store we got A LOT of peanut butter and jelly, BANANAS (only $1.99/kg!!!!!!!!), some fleece gloves and pasta. Then it was time to hit the road for real and head to Nelson – a 5 hour drive North. Driving in New Zealand was one of the most beautiful experiences I’ve ever had. The landscape is breathtaking and ever changing.  Every turn we made revealed another stunning view; sometimes hilly and sometimes oceany. We drove making occasional stops; our first big one was to see seals. We were driving on a road that seemed as if it was etched into a cliff; one side the cliff went up high, on the other it dropped down low. We pulled over on one side of the road where there was enough space for all three Spaceships and discovered seals! So many seals – huge ones and little baby ones. We were able to get so close – one person even touched one! The babies were so cute and friendly. We were on a schedule though and had to move on. Our next stop was to see the sunset. It was so bright and you could see it setting behind the mountains. It was beautiful.

Our first dinner

Finally, we made it to Nelson. It was already dark and we needed a place to eat, so we pulled into a Countdown (Woolies) car park and set up our first dinner in the Spaceships. Everything is very organized like puzzle pieces – everything had a specific place. We pulled out the little side plate and set up the burner on it. After starting to boil the water we set up the tables and chairs and we were ready. With a very nutritious dinner of ramen noodles we came to our next challenge; where to sleep for the night. It was already pretty late and one campsite we found wanted to charge us over $200 to sleep there. So we roamed around before we found a nice little dirt road in between two paddocks where we set up camp. With eleven of us, four people slept in tents which we put in between the Spaceships and the rest of us set up the Spaceships for sleeping. The back seat turned around and there was a three-piece mattress that we made into a bed. We huddled under the covers with as many layers as we cold and went to sleep for the first night in New Zealand.

Day 2 (Monday, September 26^th)

Nelson

The next morning we packed up the cars and headed back the central Nelson. It was a really cute little town with crocheted trees and bikes all throughout the city. It was a beautiful sunny day and we were about to head out to Abel Tasman National Park, but first we stopped to ask where the best place within Abel Tasman would be. While some of us were in the information centre (they have them in almost every town in New Zealand – they provided us with so much invaluable information!) other people went to a touristy New Zealand shop across the street. That was where we got our New Zealand beanies. The day before was really cold and we were cold at night too so we needed hats so most of us got matching hats (to which we later got a comment from a German guy asking why we were all wearing the same hats). Clad with our matching hats we drove from Nelson to Abel Tasman.

Low tide

Parking in a lot where we found some Spaceship cousins and packing some sandwiches we set out on a hike through the mountains. Little did we know that it would turn into a tropical looking beach! New Zealand reminded me of so many different places; Colorado, Switzerland, Italy and then Hawaii-like beach places. It was amazing to see such bright sand and brilliant blue water after walking through what felt like a rainforest. We started off walking on the path through the trees, but once we found an opening headed down to the sand. I would really call it a beach because the water was really far away because it was low tide – the area between low tide and high tide is huge! It’s crazy to think that the tide can change so dramatically in one day. We saw waterfalls, caves, shells and took hundreds of pictures!  We got back on the path and walked some more until we found an entrance for Apple Tree Bay where we stopped for lunch.

Abel Tasman National Park

Like our matching hats?

On the way back to the vans, everything still looked so amazingly beautiful, and even though I knew I’d probably taken the exact same picture on the way there, I had to take more pictures because the view was so incredible. When we got back we just sat in awe over how perfect our hike had been – the weather was great (sunny with blue skies) and the views were jaw dropping. After some stretches we decided to find a campsite before it was too dark. We drove around for a while before ending up at McKee Memorial Reserve which was right on the water and had a PLAYGROUND!!! All being mature college student, we had WAY too much fun in the playground. We had another delicious camp dinner and after setting the vans up for sleeping we sat on the rocky beach around a campfire – the perfect ending to a great first real day in New Zealand.

This is how we "shower"

*NOTE: we had our first “shower” at the campsite. And by shower, I mean we put our heads under a faucet and washed our hair. It was cold.

Day 3 (Tuesday, September 27^th)

"Flag dresses"

Once we got back to Nelson, the fun began. The whole reason we were in Nelson was because of the Italy vs. USA rugby world cup game. As we drove into Nelson we saw flags waving out car windows – many of which were US flags. We stopped back by the tourist centre where we saw a bunch of guys fully clad in American flag outfits, and the funny thing was that not one of them was even from the US! We walked around Nelson and got some last minute accessories for the game and picked up our Kiwi hitchhiker (he knew one of the guys from our crew and we just met up with him there, but he DID hitchhike all the way to Nelson from Wellington!). Finally with the whole New Zealand crew together we taught our Kiwi hitchhiker about tailgating and found the perfect spot to part the vans during the game…in a parking lot with a tractor. It couldn’t have been more perfect!

Could this be any more perfect?!

We set up the cars for dinner and took a lot of pictures with the tractor. The four of us girls changed into “flag dresses” and took pictures by the tractor. It was just too perfect and made for some perfect pictures (see Facebook for them all). We took a really great shot of all us that would look perfect on a calendar for July (very patriotic for July 4^th). After clowning around for a while, taking some more pictures and tailgating for a while it was time for the big game. Walking to the stadium was so funny. We were all decked out in red, white and blue and I felt so bad for anyone not wearing US colours passing by us. We were all excited and having a good time and full of American spirit.

Showing our red, white and blue!

Once we got to the stadium, our excitement just boiled over. We were at a rugby world cup game, watching our own country! We had really good seats too (might have been because we had to splurge a little because we were too late getting the cheap seats…). Everyone was supporting the US or Italy (obviously), but the funny thing was that they were mostly all Kiwis! They had just picked sides. A group of ladies sitting behind us were rooting for Italy because they had visited 10 years ago and a brother and sister close to us were each cheering for a different teams (probably to add some competition between them).

Another reason we were so excited for this game was because it was supposed to be a good match-up. The week before we had watched Australia beat the US 67-5. No jokes. It was a major butt-whooping and there was a chance the US could win this game. It didn’t happen but it was still a really exciting game with a final score of 27-10 (check). It was really fun because the whole crowd interacted with us – we were blatantly American. I think that it was fun for them because a lot of the crowd was Kiwi and picked their teams for their own personal reasons, but we stood there tall and proud singing the national anthem, rooting for our country. The first half was a good back and forth but Italy just took over in the second half. Although we’ve all learnt a lot about rugby since we’ve been in Australia, there’s still so many rules and calls that we didn’t understand. Nevertheless it was a great experience and we had so much fun! I am very jealous of the people that traveled throughout New Zealand following all the games. Going to more world cup games, of any sport, is definitely something I want to carry on doing.

Although it would have been fun to stay in Nelson after the game, we had a really early start the next morning so we headed back to make camp at the Spaceships.

Day 4(Wednesday, September 28^th)

12.45am…barely into day 4 we get nicely awoken by the Department of Conservation. Apparently they’re not on the same page as the police department. Even though before we had set up camp we asked the police if we were allowed to camp where we had parked and had gotten the OK, the DOC said no. So, we had to get up and we moved back to where we’d slept the last time we were in Nelson.

The long and winding road...

4.30am…awake again to head to Fox Glacier! It would have been amazing to see the landscape and the surroundings of where we were driving but we had to start before daylight to make it on time as it was a good 6-7hour drive. But once the sun did come up it was beautiful! It’s hard to really describe the landscape and the way it looked as the sun was coming up. We never really saw a proper sunrise but the colour of the clouds was amazing. The clouds were pretty low and were only about half way up the hills, with the top (more than just the peaks) clearly visible. It looked almost like one of those traditional Chinese landscape paintings of hills and clouds (if that makes sense. The roads were so windy that it was actually really fun to drive – there were a couple of times where it was a little sketchy because there were such sharp corners but it was a very scenic drive all in all.

Fox Glacier - but where's the glacier?

During the drive, our resident Kiwi taught us about this game, “the game of life”. Once you’re in it, you’re in it forever, or until you take out a full page ad in the New York Times saying that you are no longer in the “game of life”. What happens is that every time you say the word m.i.n.e. you have to do 10 push-ups. By the time we go to the glacier, everyone in our car had racked up a fair number of push-ups and we eventually got everyone on board with it. It’s hard! But it’s so funny. Unless we were driving, as soon as someone said the word they had to drop and push out their 10 right there and then. People gave us weird looks.

Still no glacier...?

Finally, it was time for our hike. We were given huge thick socks and heavy clunky hiking boots. We grabbed big blue rain jackets and cramp-ons and then we were off. In the bus on the way to the glacier we saw where the glacier had been 100 years ago and 50 years ago and how it had receded. Our guide told us that it was just the natural cycle of the glacier and that although the current one is constantly changing side; growing and receding, it’s just its natural cycle.

Strapping on the cramp-ons

We walked for a while on the rock next to the glacier until it was time to strap on the cramp-ons and start on the actual glacier. We grabbed a glacier stick (a wood pole with a spike in the end) and stepped onto the ice. The ice looked dirty in parts because of the rocks, but other places it looked white and sometimes blue. Walking on the ice was so much fun. At one point we were even able to walk down into a crevasse which was so cool – it started really wide and got down so small that we couldn’t even fit down it. The ice was really blue there because of the reflection from the sun (the ice captures all the colours of light and only reflects back blue). We took some cheesy touristy pictures at the top and before we knew it, it was time to head back down.

One good looking group on a glacier

Push ups on the glacier

Again, like at Abel Tasman National Park, it was so beautiful and interesting that I took a lot of pictures on the way up, and even though they probably looked exactly the same, I couldn’t help but take more pictures on the way back down. It had stopped raining but the clouds were still over the mountains, but it made them seem even higher and more ominous. I think that if the sun was shining it would have looked completely different but I wasn’t complaining – it was still gorgeous. On the way back down, there were a LOT of push-ups.
*Although glacier water is delicious, if it's all you drink for 10 days you will get dehydrated as it does not have any vitamins or minerals*

Queenstown

We were still on a pretty tight schedule so as soon as we got down; it was straight back into the cars for us. Next stop Queenstown. On the way, we stopped at a gas station where I’m pretty sure every single one of us had to do push-ups. When we arrived in Queenstown, we stopped at a park right outside in Frankton. It was right on the water and we had the most beautiful view of Queenstown all lit up.

Day 5 (Thursday, September 29^th)

Driving to Milford Sound

Another early morning, but filled with exciting activities. We drove from Queenstown through Te Anau (te-anoo) to Milford Sound, supposedly one of the most beautiful places in New Zealand. We left early enough that we would have plenty of times to drive slowly through the pass which we had been told could be pretty scary. We had perfect weather though, sunny blue skies with no threats of avalanches. Because we were so lucky with the weather we were able to drive at normal speeds and because of the extra time we had, we had many opportunities to stop and take pictures.

There's that good looking group again!

There were so many opportunities to stop and take pictures and the landscape was beautiful. Another perfect sunny day allowed us to see all the mountains. It reminded me a lot of Wengen; blue skies, sun and snow covered mountains. It was beautiful. The air was also so fresh and crisp that it was nice to just open the window, close your eyes and breathe in the air. We stopped at one area on the side of the road to take pictures and all of a sudden a kea flew onto the roof. We’d hear that you have to be careful with keas because they will try and get into the car. It landed on the lead car, and someone in the last car held out his sandwich and the kea flew right over! People then took turns putting bread in their mouths and letting the kea take it from them! When we were getting back into the car we saw a sign saying “do not feed the keas”. Oups.

'Not' feeding the kea

Wow?

When we got to Milford Sound (in Fiordland National Park), it was instantly beautiful. We had some time to eat lunch, take pictures and take our second “shower” of the week. It was way colder than our other shower as the tap water was straight ice melt! After a couple of seconds though our scalps went numb and it wasn’t so bad. For the first time since arriving, we changed into jeans and looked somewhat respectable as we headed to the boat for our cruise.

Milford Sound is a fiord (a long, narrow, deep inlet of the sea between high cliffs typically formed by submerged glaciated valleys) and the only way to see it is by boat or helicopter. We took a boat and made a big loop around. The mountains started at the water and rose up high into the clouds. Although it was a beautiful day, there were some clouds; but they made the peaks look like Mount Olympus, huge in the sky. The mountains were reflected perfectly in the water and the boat brought us right to the edge of the mountain. There were waterfalls all over the place, many of which you could follow from the peak of the mountain all the way down to the water. Twice, the boat brought us right up underneath a waterfall, so close that we had to go inside or else we’d get soaked.

It was cold and windy out on the deck though so we went inside for a while where they had tea and coffee. It was nice to really be warm and we could still see the scenic outside. There was a guy commenting and explaining what we were seeing. At one point he said there were seals, so I jumped up and went to see them. There weren’t any babies this time, they were all really big. After coming back and settling down inside, he said there were penguins. So up I jumped and went to look for them. I couldn’t see them when I got out there but someone said they were on the right hand side. I couldn’t see them so I just took a picture hoping that I would be able to see them when I blew up the picture. My friend told me that they were actually on the other side. It was an easy mistake though – the penguins were TINY! Apparently they’re pretty rare and they were hard to see.

Randy at Te Anau

Once we were back on land, we headed back to Te Anau for dinner and the glowworm cave tour. In Te Anau we had plenty of time to hang out and have dinner. As we were eating a dog came up and started hanging around, he named him Randy. The water again was crystal clear and reflected the sun off the mountains. It was beautiful. We also found a park where, again, we had way to much fun in. There was a wheel which you could hold on to and spin around and around. It was a lot of fun but soon it was time to get the boat to the glowworm caves.

We had to take a boat across the lake to the entrance of the glowworm cave. Te Ana-au means ‘cave with a current of swirling water’ in Maori. There is a whole story and “according to Maori legend [Lake Te Anau] was created by an unfairful wife’s deception. The Maori chief Te Horo discovered a sacred spring and asked his wife not to reveal its existence. However, when he departed on a journey, she showed it to her lover. As soon as the lover’s face was reflected in the water, a raging torrent burst out, drowning the village and forming Lake Te Anau” (Glowworm Caves Visitor Information). It was only in 1948 that these lost caves of legend were rediscovered.

Once we got to the cave entrance we split into groups as the caves are very narrow and only one group of people can pass by at a time. We were the second group to go and our guide loved us. I’m not exaggerating – one of our friends went on a tour the next day and when the guide (same guy) learnt that they were also from Wollongong, he said that we had been his best group since he’d been working there. We laughed more this trip than I think many of us had before and we were just having fun. We walked through the caves, passing a waterfall, seeing their one (and only) stalagmite (it was tiny), and started to see little glowworms. They looked like tiny glowing LED lights with auras around them. They were all perfectly spaced apart. Finally we reached a landing where we got on the boat, were told to be absolutely silent and all the lights were switched off. It was kind of disconcerting as literally could not see a thing for a while. The boat would also bump against the wall every now and then which was also unsettling just because you had no idea that it was coming. Eventually we reached the grotto where the glowworms were most abundant. It was so cool looking; there were patches of darkness where there were little green lights lighting up the area. It’s hard to describe but it was almost magical. When we got to the end of the grotto, our guide told us that since we were being such a great group that he’d show us something they don’t usually show people. The grotto is the furthest point in the cave that you can go without needing scuba gear and he showed us that if you were to get approved to dive in the cave, where the entrance was. Eventually we had to head back, where we sipped on Milo and watched magnified videos of the glowworms while we waited for the other groups to finish their tours. Then it was back to Queenstown for the night.

Day 6 (Friday, September 30^th)

Queenstown

Finally we had a lie in! At least some of us did – four of the boys woke up bright and early to go bungy jumping at the Nevis – one of the highest bungy jumps in the world at 134m! We slept in, took our time packing up and headed to Maccas to wash up, change and send e-mails telling family members that we were all doing OK. When we met back up with the boys they had such big grins on their faces from bungy jumping! Once we were all back together we went to hang out in Queenstown for the afternoon. Our original plan was to visit the Blue Pools in Mount Aspiring which looked amazing but they were a three hour drive away which would have meant a six hour round trip journey so we just went back to hang out in Queenstown.

Bye Jay

Good thing we headed to Queenstown instead of Mount Aspiring because Jay broke down (it had a broken drive shaft). So we hung walked around Queenstown which is such a cool town while we waited to get a new Spaceship and for Jay to be towed away. Jay was replaced with Kay. Good thing we had insurance on the vans too! The people driving in Jay had to take all their stuff out and transfer it to Kay and then push it across the parking lot to the tow truck. We were very lucky that Jay broke down in Queenstown too because they had a Spaceship station right there so it was a quick fix.

Eating our Ferg Burgers

We had such a nice day just hanging out in Queenstown which is a really nice ski village in a sense. It just felt like a small town but every now and then you would see people walking through with skis and snowboards even though there was no snow on the ground. They said they rarely receive snow in the town, it sticks to the mountain. A friend of mine had told us to check out Ferg Burger which was in Queenstown. It was a really small restaurant with hardly any sitting space but so many people lining up for it. I had the cockadoodle doo; grilled chicken breast on a roll with sundried tomato puree, lettuce, onion and aioli. It was maybe the best burger I’ve ever had.

The mountains look like they should be in a painting

When we were walking around we saw a park right on the water so we went back there to eat our burgers and hang out for a while. There was also a candy store that gave out free fudge samples! They were good sized samples and they had so many delicious flavours (I may have gotten cut off). It was just so chill sitting in the park with a bunch of friends. A couple were singing and playing the guitar and there were people all around just having a good time like us.

Honestly...who wouldn't want to be friends with us?!

We ended the day at Ministry of Sports, a sports bar where we watched the Samoa vs. South Africa rugby world cup game. When we walked in, a guy sitting by the stairs said “is that guy wearing a DU sweatshirt?”. Two people from our group go to DU and sure enough, they recognized two guys from their school. They were studying at Griffith in Gold Coast and were spending their spring break in Queenstown. Sometimes we live in a really small world. South Africa beat Samoa and we headed back to our park to sleep.

Day 7(Saturday, October 1^st)

Today was our one real free day. We had no plans; nowhere to go, nothing to do, the day was entirely up to us. Some of us decided to go mountain biking while the others went on a hike. Mountain biking was so much fun!! We rented bikes from a shop (one of the guys that worked there graduated from CU), got a half day gondola pass and headed up the mountain.

Check out that view behind!

We started off on green…and us girls never made it any further. But it was still so much fun and the amount that we improved from the first run was pretty significant. We all started off together but the boys were so much faster and so much more fearless that they ended up having to wait for us a lot. The turns were really sharp and windy and we didn’t have full on pads so if we fell it might not have been pretty. But the scenery was beautiful and we were happy to take our time, enjoy the view while also having a great time riding down the mountain. Our Kiwi was the only one that got injured – a tiny little cut that bled a lot and looked a lot worse than it actually was. So I could that as a success.

Ahuriri Bridge DOC campsite

After riding for a couple of hours we started to get hungry. So, we went to Ferg Burger…again. It was just so good that we couldn’t leave without going one more time. We returned the bikes, shopped around a little but then it was time to head out of Queenstown for our last day. Our next destination was Lake Tekapo but there weren’t any campsites around it, so we stopped at a DOC campsite about an hour away where we skipped stones, ate our last big dinner (Jessie and I cooked over a pound of pasta) and sat around a bonfire. We played a game called “hot seat” where one person is on the hot seat and you go around the circle, each person asking questions. It’s nice that although we learnt a lot about each other being stuck cars together for a week that there is still plenty to learn about others.

Day 8 (Sunday, October 2^nd)

Lake Tekapo

Our last day was not very eventful. We had to have the Spaceships back at the Station in Christchurch by 4pm. That meant getting there, getting everything out of the vans, cleaning them out and dropping people off at the airport. We only made a quick pit stop at Lake Tekapo. It was absolutely beautiful with the most amazing coloured water I’ve ever seen. It looked like liquid turquoise. A couple was getting married and it definitely made a beautiful backdrop.

Moses 'parting' the Blue Sea

If we had, had more time we could have gone for a hike around the lake. It’s definitely something I want to do whenever I get a chance to go back but just stopping there and looking at it was a great experience. One really funny thing that happened was with our friend who’s last name is Moses. During the rugby game, he said “I’m Moses and I part the Blue Sea”. He meant to say the red sea but for some reason blue came out his mouth. So while we were at Lake Tekapo he found a stick and ‘parted’ the Blue Sea. The funniest part of it was that he had to ask how to part it!

Our car with our mustaches 

Before long it was back in the cars for our final drive of the trip. Once we got into Christchurch we stopped outside the airport to arrange all our belongings and clean out the vans. It felt like our stuff doubled because the vans had gotten so disorganized with all the moving around to set up for dinner, then for sleeping and back for driving again. We dropped people off at the airport, returned the Spaceships then went back to the airport for a long 14 hour wait for our flight and our first real shower of the trip! So yes, we only had one shower the entire time we were in New Zealand and it happened on our last day, at the airport. I think that’s a sign of a good trip. We hung out at the airport looking through pictures then sleep on the airport floor again.

Day 9 (Monday, October 3^rd)

Our flight was at 6.30am and because of the time difference we got back to Sydney at 7.30am. Once back in Wollongong, my room looked like my pack had thrown up all my belongings onto my floor and I was too tired to do anything about it. After a nice long 4 hour nap, it was time to go through pictures.

Our Spaceships

Life on a Spaceship

A very full Spaceship

As I mentioned earlier - the Spaceships were very organized with their different compartments. Everything had a place to go. When we first loaded them up, we put all our bags on top of the fold up mattress. This was fine for driving, but whenever we stopped for dinner or to sleep we had to rearrange everything!

State of the art stove

For dinner, we had to take all the pots and pans out from a compartment that was under the mattress. To make it more convenient we had to swivel the chair around but then it was easy. To do all this, however, we had to move most of our bags around so that we could lift the mattress up enough. We would get out the little side arm that would support the stove and there it was! The tub that fit all the plates and cutlery was also conveniently, a wash tub.


For sleeping, we had to move EVERYTHING out of the back to make room for the mattress. First the chair had to be swiveled round, then two poles came out that a board was put on. This was where our feet went so it wasn't that sturdy but it did it's job! We put a lot of the food in the compartment with the stoves and cutlery and then put all our bags in the front seat. From there we could lay the three-piece mattress out, put the sheet on and lay the comforter over it. Once that was all made, there were curtains that covered all the windows so the sun wouldn't shine in and so people couldn't see us sleeping!

This could also be the reason we got some weird looks!

The best part about the Spaceships, besides being convenient for everything we needed, was people's faces when they saw three Spaceships driving in a line. In Queenstown there were a lot of other Spaceships so we didn't get that many looks. But other times we would be driving through a small town or all parked in a row and you could just see people looking at us passing with amusement on their faces. It made us laugh every time. 

Funny Quotes of the Trip

"I can't believe they woke us up before the hut thing is open" - after getting woken up before the coffee stand at the airport.

"I don't like lima beans. They taste like pillows" - you learn a lot about people being stuck in the same car for a while.

"Shoop. If sheep is plus, is one a shoop?" - how the word shoop came about.

"Hey! US supporters, when we win, we are all rushing the field" - at this point it was pretty obvious that the US was going to lose to Italy in the rugby game.

"What's your name and what do you do?" - Italian supporter
"My name's Moses, and I part the Blue Sea" - Moses
"What do you do on your day off?" - Italian supporter
"Beat Italy" - Moses (no explanation needed).

"Haasta la vista, baby!" - driving on Haast pass.

"Do you burp some up too?" - I'll just leave it at that.

"So do you get single meatball then?" - when you don't get a double meatball sub at Subway.

"It's not you...it's your music" - we listened to a lot of iPods on this trip, some iPods were preferred over others.

"Why are you all wearing the same hat?" - a German guy at McKee Memorial Reserve asking about our New Zealand hats.

"I've eaten enough sheep poo to last me a lifetime" - R n' R employee talking about sheep poo (chocolate covered raisins.

*NOTE: Since coming back from New Zealand, it’s hard not to think about it with a smile on our faces. We have all gone through pictures over and over again reliving the memories of our trip. It was truly one of the greatest trips I’ve ever been on. It also felt very rewarding as it was something that we planned and executed all by ourselves. I’ve grown up a lot being in Australia and this trip is evidence of it.

This trip was possibly maybe one of the most amazing experiences of my life and one that I will remember with a smile on my face for the rest of my life. I also have plenty of pictures that I can replay the trip as many times as I want. I hope that everyone is able to experience a trip like this at least once in their lives.