A Tour of the South Island

It has been a little over 2 months since I arrived in New Zealand, and time is flying by!  I recently had a break from classes and a visit from my brother.  He arrived in New Zealand around mid March and was traveling around the North Island and the northern part of the south island before coming to see me in Christchurch in the beginning of April.  We decided to take a "tour of the south island" and visit some of the amazing cities and beautiful scenery of the lower half of the South Island.  Before heading out, my brother joined me at one of the weekly meetings of my host club, the one I happened to be presented at!  Needless to say he felt very welcomed by my host counselor and all of the Papanui club Rotarians (my brother and i are in the front, Josh another rotary scholar on the far left, then Jill and Allan Bain my host family).

 

Our adventure first started in Dunedin, which is a eastern coastal town with a proud Scottish heritage.  Dunedin also is home to the world's steepest hill on Baldwin Street, and of course we had to walk to the top!

Next we traveled to west coast to stay in Te Anau, a city located next to many hiking trails of the South Island.  We tramped (hiked) along the Kepler Track which is one of the New Zealand Great Walks  which allowed me my first experience with the dramatic and varied landscape of this country.  Tramping is an recreational activity involving hiking over rough country carrying all the required food and equipment and is an important part of New Zealand culture. We climbed up and walked across mountains and I can safely say that I have never seen such amazing views of nature:

After our 4 day tramping adventure, we decided to visit Queenstown which is located in the south-west part of the south island.  This is a resort town built around an inlet on Lake Wakatipu and has magnificent views of nearby mountains.  We also decided to be daring and do the world's first permanent commercial bungee at the Kawarau Bridge Bungee.  It was a exhilarating experience i will not soon forget.

The last stop of our journey took us to Lake Tekapo, one of the largest lakes in New Zealand with the bluest water I have ever seen.  This color comes the "rock flour" in the water created by a glacier moving across the land's surface.  The milky quality of the water with the beaming sunlight from above cause the brilliant blue color.

Unfortunately our adventure had to come to an end, but has gotten me excited for more travels around this magnificent country.  I really enjoyed tramping in the outdoors and want to do more of it soon, hopefully in northern parts of New Zealand.  I am also excited for an upcoming Rotary district conference that will take place at Mount Cook on May 8-10.  Other ambassadorial scholars and myself will be presenting at the conference, which should be fun.  I'll update after the conference with more info soon!