So let me start from where I left off. Skydiving and river boarding were on Easter Sunday, which meant places couldn't sell alcohol unless it was with your meal. But somehow Barnaby convinced the hotel bar to stay open for us, hmm I wonder why and we just hungout downstairs for the night. The next day was another free day in Queenstown so a few of us walked around and bought gifts for some people back at home. That night we went to the best pizza place in town, Winnie's where we had buffalo chicken on top of our pizza. That was a new experience. Next we went to Cowboys, which is where all of those hick looking pictures are from on facebook. They had deer heads, bull head, etc. hanging on the wall; the bar stools were saddles; the bar taps were revolvers; and they even had a mechanical bull to ride! We stayed there for a bit then we had the option to go to an ice bar or to another club where we would all end up. I ended up at the club cause I didn't want to pay for 30 minutes at an ice bar. The next day we had to leave the beautiful Queenstown! It was so sad.
We then headed to Fox Glaciers where you could go on a glacier climb. I just hungout in the small little town with a small group until everyone got back. We then headed to our hotel in Franz Josef for the night. We stayed at the Rainforest hotel where there were supposedly hot springs that we could get into. In reality there were just 3 different hot tubs. They were 36, 38, and 40 degrees Celsius. The 36 degree one felt more like a warm pool and the 40 degree one was an actual hot tub. But they actually looked like pools, they were big and there was a little boardwalk in between them and going around them. There were also trees growing around them so it was very peaceful. We stayed in their for a little bit then headed off to dinner at the hotel. After dinner the bar had a rock, paper, scissors competition. That was entertaining to watch.
The next day we headed out to Christchurch, our last full day. On our way we stopped in Hokitika, which was another little town that had a Jade factory. It had Maori and Pounamu. I guess those are types of jade? I wasn't really paying attention. We then were off to some rock formation. These rocks were scenes in Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers and Narnia. We couldn't climb on them but there are some nice pictures of them on facebook. Our final stop was Christchurch. Those of us who were leaving the group the next day were still able to eat dinner with everyone and hangout with them. Then Sam, Sara, and I headed to our hostel down the road.
The next morning we walked into the city to look at the destruction from the Earthquake. There was some broken and/or fallen buildings outside the city center, but most of it was in the middle because the epicenter was in there. We probably walked 2-3 miles there and back. As we were walking we had to find the main road that led in because everything else was fenced off with the military there. The New Zealand military had been sent in to help control what was going on. We finally found a road and headed towards the center. During our walk we found 2 demolitions going on, one was of an office building, the other was of the cathedral that most people have seen on the news. What was a bit eerie was there was a statue of Mary outside one of the windows of the cathedral that had been left undisturbed. We then walked back to our hostel and headed to the airport. And that was our trip to New Zealand. Everyone was sad to leave, but it was the best trip ever!
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