Top Ten Invercargill

Since I havent had time to write very much Im gonna sum up my last two weeks in Invercargill with a list of awesome things I’ve done:

1. Kayaking trip: One of our classes while we are here is an outdoor adventures class. Our first section was learning how to white water kayak. We took a three day trip to a river nearby and kayaked everyday on the river. It seems that it would be super easy to stay afloat going down measly rapids…but…its not. Plus once you get flipped you are stuck in the kayak until someone in you group comes to save you…while you’re going down rapids. Scary scary scary. It actually was a pretty good experience and I learned a lot, but kayaking is NOT my new favorite hobby.

2. Queenspark: Best part about Invercargill-there’s a huge park in the dead center of it. I mean huge. We go there as a group all the time and play ultimate Frisbee and touch rugby. Its perfect, convientent and awesome

3. Mags: Mags is Tress’s and my homestay mom. She’s an older widow, but it one of the most amazing ladies I have ever met. She cooks us the BEST meals I’ve ever eaten every night and she’s so wonderful!

4. Rugby: Its everywhere. I love it. Tressa and I got on a touch team our first week here so every Thursday night we get to go play with some of the locals. Its not super intense but its so much fun

5.Trip to Curio Bay: Tressa and I and our good friend Rusty decided one day to take a trip out to Curio Bay which is like an hour and a half away. Im not gonna say how we got there because my mom might freak….but lets just say our thumbs were important for the trip. It definitely made things interesting We also stopped by the southern most tip of New Zealand.

6. Surfing: Its my new addiction. Best thing I've ever done in my life. Im not very good yet....but its still so awesome.


7. Winning a car!!!: Since when do I win things? Well....my luck has changed:) 5 of the people in my group entered in a competition for our school oreintation week. The task-keep your elbow on the car as long as possible. Easy peasy. The competition went from 5pm-8am when they were going to draw names for whoever was still on the car. Only 3 other students entered with us. What a joke. Our strategy? Pay off the other people. All 5 of us BYU geniuses chipped in 60 bucks and bribbed the students to bag out. Us Americans know how to play the game...So now we have a car to take trips on the weekends and whenever we dont have class. Were gonna sell it when we leave so hopefully we can make back what we spent on gas. I love my life:)

8. Zipline: We found this sweet park near our house that has a zipline! Lets just say I’ve almost peed my pants multiple times.
9. Blue man suit: So one of our friends here has a straight up alien suit. Our new favorite thing is to go to queenspark and just mess with people. A couple of us are all thinking of buying different colored suits so we can all go crazy together. They are kinda expensive….but ive decided you cannot put a price on the ability to do outrageous things and not have anyone know who you are. This suit will come in handy.

10. Bungee Jumping: Holy freak. Words cannot describe how amazing it was! Our group took a trip to Queenstown last weekend and group of us went together off the fourth tallest bungee jump in the world!!! I have a sweet video of my jump that ill put on facebook when I get the chance. Mom you might not wanna watch it....just remember I lived!!! This picture was taken before I jumped....

Day 12, 13 and 14 –Greymouth, The Glaciers, and Cromwell

The rest of our trip was basically just traveling from one place to the next. In Greymouth we stayed on a beautiful beach. Our whole group watched the sunset together.

It was here that we were introduced the Satan’s best friend….sandflies. Let me just put it in perspective for you. First off, they are the worst thing that happened to this earth. Sandflies make mosquitoes look like ice cream on a hot day. Not only do they eat you alive ALL over your body and make you itch like crazy, it hurts sooooo bad when they bite! The best part of it all…they aren’t afraid of insect repellent. So whatever you do, they will find you and they will bite you.

After we left Greymouth we drove through the Haas pass. We stopped and hiked to a gigantic glacier and it was awesome! The river that came our of the glacier had huge ice chunks in it.

Cromwell was a dead town. There honestly is nothing to say about it minus the fact that we slept there.

Day 10 and 11-Christchurch

I think Christchurch was one of my favorite towns because of the huge park that was in the center of the city. On Sunday afternoon our whole group went and explored the park. We found these awesome swings that are like teeter totters and spent about 30 minutes on them

Then we went and checked out the botanical gardens. The flowers were so beautiful.

The day before our adventures in the park our group explored the city. Tressa and I found this huge poster that had the countdown to the rugby world cup and almost freaked. We took tons of pictures by it and went crazy cause we were so happy. We miss rugby so much!!:(

Day 7 and 8-Wellington

Wellington is the capital of New Zealand and was an awesome city. It was our last stop on the North Island. There wasn’t much to do so one night sp we spent a night on the town and had dinner in the city. My friends and I chose a delicious Asian restaurant that was cheap but some of the best food we’ve had here. My best friend here named Tressa is OBSESSED with food. She was drooling over this meal for days. Here it is at night:

While we were walking down the streets we saw a street vendor selling bracelets and doing hair braids so I got these:

The next day we took the ferry that left from Wellington and took us to Picton. It was bad windy and freezing, but we still had lots of fun.

Day 9-Picton

After we got off the ferry we drove less that 2 miles to our holday park. We stayed right on the water and it was beautiful. The town was like population 1000. Two of my friends and I decided to go for a night walk up in this forest near the beach and explored around the town.

We only stayed one night in Picton then drove to Kaikora. This park was right on the beach as well so we got to spend the whole day exploring the rocks and hiking on the coastline.

Day 6- Tangariro Crossing

After our caving experience we drove to Tangariro crossing and happily found out we were staying in cabins, which means BEDS! Everyone was so excited to not have to sleep on the ground for a night, which was super nice.

Our main event here was to climb the mountain called Tangariro Crossing….also known as Mt. Doom from Lord of The Rings. This was one of my highlights of the trip.

It is a 12-mile hike roundtrip, but you can choose to summit, which takes an extra two hours. The reason it takes so long is because it doesn’t have a trail...you have to go straight up the mountain. 45-degree status. We didn’t realize that we would be stepping in loose gravel either so it would be on our hands and knees the whole way. I vow never to go on another stair stepper again after the hike. It was cloudy when we got to the summit so we couldn’t see in the crater but it still felt good to be there.

By the end of the day we were utterly pooped but it was a great experience!

Day 5-Waitomo

While in Waitomo we went caving! New Zealand is nationally known for their glow worm caves and we got to go see them on inner tubes.

Day 1 and 2-Rotorua

I made it to New Zealand! Im way behind on my blogging and Im trying to catch up as fast as possible but were busy all the time! Im just gonna go ahead and write about all the cities we visited when I get the chance.

On the first day we got off the plane and hopped in our 3 wonderful 12 passenger vans (they were red white and blueJ) and drove to Rotorua. We stayed at these places called holiday parks that are throughout New Zealand. They are like campgrounds on crack. Kitchens, showers, hairdryers, TV, swimming pools, and best of all FLUSHABLE toilets. In Rotorua we were right on this huge lake. It was beautiful.

This is a picture of our campground with all the tents set up:

The second day we all got money and got to spend it on something crazy to do. I chose sledging. It’s like rafting but the only thing separating you from the deathly, scary rapids is a piece of plastic. It was awesome. They told you the number one rule was to never let go of your sledge. I let go. Oops. Not my fault I tipped over in terrifying rapids and couldn’t control my self. It was survival instincts.

Well, guess what? I lived. Thank goodness. I would do it again in a heartbeat.

After sledging our whole group went to an authentic Maori dinner. They performed all the different tribal chants called the Haka and showed off their half naked manly bodies. I enjoyed itJ

There was a huge dinner feast that was delicious. I was smart for picking New Zealand to do a study abroad. They go big or go home with their food. You never leave anywhere without being full.

Day 3 and 4-Hamilton

On our third day we woke up and drove to Hamilton. On our way we stopped at a beach at the base of Mt. Monganui.

We walked out on this peninsula to cliff jump into the ocean but it was covered with jellyfish…so we decided to go body surfing instead. Guess we didn’t think that if the jellyfish were off the cliffs they wouldn’t be near the shore. False. At one point I was about to take a wave and I look over and there is this massive deathly killer jellyfish a couple inches from me. I peed a little. But it’s ok mom…I’m aliveJ
After the beach we drove the rest of the way to Hamilton and went to the temple and did baptisms for the dead. The temple is amazing

On Sunday we went to the single adult ward in town. It’s nice to know there are meat markets all around the world. Right after church we drove to Waitomo where we stayed the night. This holiday park was way sweet because we were in the middle of nowhere and they had pet deer in the pastures next to our campground! In California deer are the most annoying animals because they are everywhere. I laughed pretty hard. They are kinda scary though….

Day 3 and 4-Hamilton

On our third day we woke up and drove to Hamilton. On our way we stopped at a beach at the base of Mt. Monganui.

We walked out on this peninsula to cliff jump into the ocean but it was covered with jellyfish…so we decided to go body surfing instead. Guess we didn’t think that if the jellyfish were off the cliffs they wouldn’t be near the shore. False. At one point I was about to take a wave and I look over and there is this massive deathly killer jellyfish a couple inches from me. I peed a little. But it’s ok mom…I’m aliveJ
After the beach we drove the rest of the way to Hamilton and went to the temple and did baptisms for the dead. The temple is amazing



On Sunday we went to the single adult ward in town. It’s nice to know there are meat markets all around the world. Right after church we drove to Waitomo where we stayed the night. This holiday park was way sweet because we were in the middle of nowhere and they had pet deer in the pastures next to our campground! In California deer are the most annoying animals because they are everywhere. I laughed pretty hard. They are kinda scary though….