First stop was Auckland, and what an amazing first stop it was... OK, so i may have treated it like a mini holiday but i was soo excited to be around the other side of the world, i wanted to start my trip in style!. we stayed in a 4/5 start hotel (i cant remember which it was) and it was fantastic! and after 24 hours on two planes the luxury of a comfy bed and a nice hot shower was just irresistible. We spent the first two days exploring Auckland and doing all the tourist type things like venturing up the sky tower, gambling a couple of dollars at the casino, visiting art galleries and museum and generally spending too much money.
After doing all the touristy stuff we found this amazing bar on the harbour front with those egg chairs which hang from the ceiling, this quickly became our favourite spot!
Our final day in Auckland we spent at the Big day Out festival which The Vaccines and My Chemical Romance were playing at, which was awesome... it was here that i experienced my first bit of NZ rain.
From Auckland we caught a flight to Christchurch where we would be staying for two nights in this amazing hostel that not long ago was home to a load of convicts, yes that's right, we were staying in a renovated prison which Cooley still had most of its original features.
Christchurch was a funny place to visit because even after a year on the effects of the earthquake a still completely full on. They have the 'Red zone' which is the main centre of the town and it is completely fenced off as they slowly try to recover from the devastating effects. We walked around the entire Red Zone and there was a very eerie feeling you get because it was so quiet, it was like a post apocalyptic town. You couldn't help but feel a twinge of sadness because you could Tell that this dead city was once a thriving cool place to be.
We met up with a friend from back home in Cambridge and we went to a few bars and had a few drinks for Scotty's birthday, which turned out to be a pretty cool night even though the nightlife was lacking somewhat. Its quite a strange feeling seeing people you know from back home on the other side of the world, but also quite a comforting one.
After an enlightening few days in CH CH me and Scott said our goodbyes to our friend and got into our hire car with one destination in mind... Queenstown!
However before hitting QT we decided to use the hire car to our advantage and visit some natural wonders in New Zealand including Mount Cook and Lake Tekapo.
Lake Tekapo is the most Blue i have ever seen any lake/sea/river. it was simply amazing, i stood in awe for a while, it was visually stunning.
This picture doesn't do it justice.
Next was Mt Cook. this was amazing, filled with glaciers and ice burgs which you could watch and sunbathe in front of as it was searingly hot this day. We took one of the walks to Hooker Lake which was well worth the achy legs under the persistent sun.
We attempted to sleep in the car here one night, we managed it but it was fucking freezing and we left the next night unplanned and headed to Lake Wanaka to stay in a cosy Hostel.
Convinced i wouldn't see anything more beautiful than what i ad already seen, i was proven wrong when we got to Lake Wanaka. easily the most beautiful place i have seen so far, Its just a small town and it was full of teenagers enjoying the lake on the last day before they had to go back to school, you could tell it was a real holiday town.
From Wanaka we Made it to Queenstown.... but that's another story for another time.
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