Milford Sound

Another early morning (what else is new :) ). We met James by 7 and hit the road. One of the must see sights of New Zealand is the fjord lands national park. It's in the south west corner of the country. We had to drive about 4 hours to get there (yes we've been doing a lot of driving but it is totally worth it! I feel like I'm seeing so much of the country!). I road with Erika and her cousin and a girl named Britney from our group. We stopped along the way for a few short hikes that were only 10 to 20 minutes. We saw the chasm and a few other beautiful spots. We also stopped by a LOTR site where they filmed the final battle outside of Gondor. There were these gorgeous reflective ponds and big open grass fields that met up with the towering mountains. It was amazing!

Even though I was super tired I didn't want to sleep in the car because I want to see everything!! We arrived at the sound and getting out of the car was like walking into a painting. Giant mountains rose straight up out of crystal blue water. It was specular! Erika booked us a two hour boat ride through the fjords and out to the Tasman sea. This was not any normal tourist boat mind you! It was a pirate ship boat! Ok so maybe it wasn't a pirate ship but it had sails just like they have and a 4 level deck. I have never been on a boat like that before.

We sailed in and out of the fjord until we arrived at the open sea. So what is a fjord? Well it was the British that named the area Milford Sound but only because A they didn't know better and B the real word for this specific land formation didn't exist in English at the time. A fjord is when glaciers carve through the landscape creating deep valleys and tall mountains. The word comes from the Scandinavian part of the world since these types of land forms are more common there.

We saw beautiful breathtaking waterfalls and some more sea lions. The mountains we sailed next to towered above us, some of them more than a mile high with another 1,000 feet below the water. Because the mountains and the water create a narrow canyon the wind speed can get up to 200km per hour (about 100 mph) but thankfully they weren't that strong for us. You definitely got blown around though and we ended up spending some of the time inside just to get a break from the strong winds. I'm glad that we has such good weather because I ended up staying outside on deck for most of the trip.

On the return journey we stopped in a town for dinner and hit the road again. We didn't get home until almost 10 but it was totally worth it! We only saw a small part of the national park today. I wish we had more time to spend there!

Church History

Do you have any idea how wonderful it felt to sleep in this morning? I didn't get out of the tent until almost 10. We took turns taking showers and then I found a chair out in the yard and sat down. The best part about having the blog app is that I can blog wherever and whenever without worrying about the Internet. I can just post it once I get online access. It felt so good to just chill out in their back yard, listening to the bird and feeling the breeze and sun dry my wet hair.

About an hour before church James took us to look at the city again. So Christchurch is (was) the second largest city in the NZ. The inner city was a mess! Construction warning signs with the bright orange cones and detours all over the place. We saw huge piles of rubble and buildings split in half. The famous church whose steeple tumbled off during the quake is held up by giant steel supports to keep the building from falling over before they are ready to either rebuild or fix up. There's a huge fence around it to keep people from going inside. It was really quite shocking to see so much damage 2 years later.

So our roommate Camilla is from Christchurch and her father is a bishop of one of the wards. Funny enough it was her ward that we ended up visiting without knowing beforehand. Her mum even gave a talk. Small world. In relief society we talked about building on a firm foundation and everyone laughed and joked about that not being the case for Christchurch.

After church we had a mini fireside while we waited for dinner. Erika had asked James if he would give us a fireside about the history of the church in NZ. It was amazing to listen to him talk about the early New Zealand pioneers and their faith and courage. Some even migrated to the states and helped to establish some of the Mormon settlements in Utah. The European Kiwis were the first to accept but then the missionaries started learning the Maori language and that brought the Maoris to the church in the hundreds.

The coolest thing that I learned is that there were missionaries from all different Christian faiths that came to preach to the Maori people and this began to cause contention because of all of the different sects. The Maori chiefs gathered together to discuss what they should do. They were confused because if Christianity was the right path then there should be only one Christian church. One of the chiefs decided to fast and pray about it and he came back to the meeting three days later with a prophecy. He said that the true church had not yet come to the Maori people but that they would know the right church when they see it because their missionaries will travel in pairs, they will learn and teach the gospel in the Maori language, and they would come from the east. How cool is that? The translation of the Book of Mormon was also a really neat story. It was the coolest fireside!

Afterwards we had the most delicious meal: chicken and lamb with salad and bread. For dessert they made us waffles with ice cream. We spent the rest of the evening sharing pictures and our adventures with the family. Before bed we had family prayer and scripture study with them. It was so neat. Tomorrow will be another early day as we drive down to Queenstown.

Queenstown

I'm sitting right now on the porch of our 4 story hostel enjoying the cool night air with an excellent view of Queenstown, the surrounding mountains, and a gorgeous teal blue lake. Man this is the life!

We drove for about 6 hours today. It was another early start but we left by 7 instead of 6:30 which made a big difference. The car ride itself was pretty uneventful. While people slept (I was in the van during this trip) Brooke and I (a girl from the program) took tons of pictures of the scenery. It was one of the most incredible drives I have ever been on (which is saying something since I've been on quite a few).
The landscape would open up into huge vistas with rolling hills, mountains, and then more mountains in the background. The water was such an incredible blue color that would catch your eye as you drove up one hill and down another. We dodged in and out of the misty mountains (not the same ones from the movie but they were giant mountains covered with a misty fog) and through plains and forests.

The weirdest part for me is that I keep expecting to see wildlife. You know like deer or elk or antelope along the way but there's none of that here. Just sheep. Lots and lots of sheep. And of course the occasional cow. Basically the only native animals to New Zealand are birds and bugs. Funny huh?

We got into Queenstown around 3 and checked into our hostel. Now this is a new experience for me. I have only ever stayed in hotels and the like but when you are traveling through most European countries hostel is the way to go. NZ has adopted many pakeha (European) traditions including this one. For those of you who have never had the pleasure allow me to enlighten you :).

A hostel is similar to a dorm room with communal bathrooms and a kitchen. There is a giant common area on the first floor (which is the floor above the ground or main floor- we would view it as the second floor). Depending on the room you can have up to 8 people in one space with 4 sets of bunk beds. We're not quite that packed in with 4 in one room and 5 in the other. Erika and her cousin have one to themselves as well. The weird part is that everyone loves to mingle and there are girls and guys running all over the place. Our hostile seems pretty popular among people our age, which is weird because it's like I'm having the experience I would have in any other university dorm besides BYU. Ok so not that drastic but pretty close. They are playing a drinking game in the common room right now and I can't believe I'm missing out :).

Our hostile also provides us with free breakfast and dinner based on a first come first serve basis. So after getting our feel of the town we headed back to grab some dinner. It was rice with a choice of spicy or non spicy chile on top (I tasted both and they were both equally spicy). We sat down by some guys who ended up being from Germany. They were on holiday and had just arrived as well. Their English was really good. Once they found out that we were Americans they told us about the American exchange students who came over one time and got completely wasted. Hopefully our brief encounter was enough to connivence them that not all Americans are like that. We also made friends with a guy from Israel with a very thick accent.

After dinner we walked around the town and enjoyed the beautiful water. We even saw a magic show that turned out to be pretty lame in my opinion. But we are here! And we'll be here for the next 4 days. It's interesting though because you can tell by the setup that this part of NZ is dominated by the pakeha (the white people). Tomorrow is Milford's sound and it will be awesome!

Welcome to the South Island!

Alarms went off around 5:15am and we slowly started stirring. I was the first one to bed around 9 last night but I still felt exhausted. At least it was only another day in the car so I could fall asleep whenever. Everything was packed and ready to go by 6:30. The family we stayed with had laid out breakfast for us and then they had left a bunch of snacks and giant water bottles for us to take as well. They were so very kind to open up their home like that. I really hope that's what my house is like when I grow up :).

It was only a half hour drive to where we had to catch the ferry. I thought of you dad when we drove up! It was the biggest ferry I have ever seen! It was more like a mini cruse liner! Huge freight cars and trucks were being loaded in while we waited our turn to board. Because of the loads they were running behind schedule but I didn't complain because we got an extra hour of sleep in the car while we waited. We woke up just in time to start the car (we were riding with Erika again) and board. Lucky for us they packed us in towards the front so we were able to leave pretty quickly once we got to the South Island.

It was a perfect day for a 3 hour ferry! We waved good bye to the city (I can't wait to explore Wellington on our way back) and immediately were taken aback by the scenery that was in front of us. Giant green mountains surrounded us on all sides and with the sharp contrast of the blue green water it was a sight to behold! We wanted to stay up top for the whole 3 hours so that we wouldn't miss anything but pretty soon we were hitting more open sea and the wind and sea spray brought us inside. Our mini cruse ship was equipped with a cafe, two movie rooms with plasma tvs (the rooms were surrounded by glass on all sides so you could still see out through the windows to the outside), and lots of comfy places to sit. We went into the movie room for a bit and watched some of over the hedge and nim's island. Surprise surprise I fell asleep... And I woke up to James telling us to go up on deck and watch us make our way through cook's straight.

It was the most perfect day with hardly any clouds! The high mountain walls rose up like a sea of green with a house dotted here and there (if I ever become a millionaire I know where I am building my summer home!). The sea was so calm and barely rippled as we made our way trough the water. With so many people up on deck I had the chance to make a few new friends. It is surprising to me how many kiwis have never been to the South Island. Most of the ysa we hang out with have never travelled there and some of the kiwis I chatted with on the boat were going over for the first time.

Our boat made it I to port about 45 minutes later. It was kind of funny because the port was nothing more than a small town with a few giant unloading cranes. After about 20 minutes we were on the road again heading down to Christchurch. It was so strange because it felt like the moment we left the coast we were back in Utah with giant mountains in the background and brown grass covered hills. Oh and sheep lots and lots of sheep!!
You would almost feel like the brown was not going to end and then random pockets would reveal the blue-green sea water just letting us know that it was still present. At one point we found ourselves winding through the curves of a road with the sea to the left and giant cliffs to the right that had changed from brown back to their tropical green.

James made a stop along this particular road and told us to look down. There we discovered a whole group of seal mums with their pups just sunning themselves on some rocks! It was incredible! There was a little footpath down where you could get a closer look and so some of us took it just to see better. There was this group of pups playing with each other in a small protected inlet. They were so funny to watch as they tumbled and chased each other all over the place. We were busy taking pictures of them playing when I just happened to look down and see a little head staring at us from under the rock we were standing on. Upon further discovery we realized that our rock was a mother's den and that she was inside nursing her pup when the baby heard us above them and wanted to check it out. It was the cutest thing. We backed away of course and we found another rock with no previous inhabitants to continue watching the seals play. It was so very cool!!

Our trip continued without much else that happened. Except for a random stop a gas station for the bathroom when some very attractive boys pulled up in their truck and boat alongside us. One of them hopped out and approached me saying that they had been out diving and that they had an extra crayfish to give away if we wanted. We said yes and i got a plastic bag to put it in. They thought they would scare me by telling me its alive but i had no problem picking it up and sticking it in the bag :) We made it to Christchurch and we're staying until Monday morning with some of James' family. As you can probably see he knows everyone some by relation and others well just because. We have a pretty nice setup with some girls sleeping in the house and others in tents out back (that's where I am). After dropping off our stuff James had us pile back in the car and he drove us around town.

Some of you might already know this but a few years ago Christchurch had a series of terrible earthquakes that nearly destroyed the town. The house where we are staying has a huge crack down one wall and the patio out back is all cracked. Even though it has been a few years the roads are still terrible and very bumpy. As we drove around you can still see damage all over the place with houses hanging off of cliffs and giant rubbish bins (the size of train cars) lining the streets. We stopped for some dinner just us girls and James. Erika's cousin flew in be with us during our trip and so Erika went to go get her. We had a super interesting experience as we stopped for food. James pulled up we got out to get some food. When we got back two guys had pulled up next to him and like he usually does he was making friends. We didn't have to look at the guys to know they were drunk all we had to so was listen to them say how hot they thought we were in loud voices. You have to be pretty drunk to think a bunch of girls without makeup on, who haven't properly showered, and who have been stuck in a car for two days are attractive. James told the guys not to waste their time since we were Mormons and then he drove us away.

We stopped at a pier along the coast and it was beautiful. For most of our trip today I seriously felt like we'd been driving through middle earth all day because of the overcast sky and also the smoke covering the mountains from a wildfire down south. The overcast sky made the ocean a beautiful dark grey green color. Just like James does he made friends with some of the fishermen along the pier and they let us hold some of the crabs and little sharks they had caught. We also met up with the missionaries by chance and one of them was from the states. He had been out for a year and a half and kept saying that he hasn't seen so many Americans in once place at one time in so long.

We got home at sunset and got ready for bed. We'll be going to church here at 1 tomorrow (thankfully we can sleep in) and I hope we go to our roommate Camilla's ward since she is from Christchurch. We'll just have to wait and see. Well sleep is calling!!

Let the Adventure Begin!

Pros:
- We made it to Wellington!
- Sara and I got to ride in Erika's car because the van was full of girls and stuff. I love riding with Erika (our director) for so many reasons. One of them being that she is super passionate about life and she's constantly looking for her next adventure. She loves the outdoors and her field of expertise is in multicultural education. We had some great conversations about teaching and helping English language learners. It was awesome! She is a great resource to have because that is something that I am really interested in.
- We had perfect weather for our drive down and no car problems.
- We got to drive through gorgeous countryside with green hills, streams, and lots of sheep (more sheep live here than people)
- We are spending the night with some of James' family (he's our guide) and they had a full meal prepared for us as well as enough beds spread throughout the house (mostly on couches and blow up beds) for all of us to be comfortable. They also offered us their showers and their Internet. These people are so amazingly kind.
- Today ended a lot better than it began :)

Cons:
- Woke up at 4:45... Super tired... It was not my fault that we stayed up so late last night. We couldn't exactly control when we left. It was great to spend time with the ysa but going to bed at 1 when you're waking up about 3ish hours later... No bueno.
- Because Sara and I were in the car with Erika we had to take turns sleeping so to make sure that Erika stayed awake. For some weird reason I couldn't fall asleep in the car. Maybe because I was excited about our trip and I didn't want to miss a single thing.
- Sara and I didn't get the memo of how we were supposed to pack. We shared one big suitcase with all of our stuff for our two week trip. When James picked us up he asked us why we had packed so much stuff and if we could take it out of the big suitcase and fit it in our backpacks but our packs were already full of other necessities. So once we got to his family's house he got out a few backpacks for us and asked us to transfer our stuff over so that it would be easier to transport. It's not like I packed that much stuff... Whatever it all worked out and James was only doing it to make things easier for us. I just wasn't in the most cooperative mood because I was so very tired and yes a bit grumpy.
- I was supposed to meet up with some family friends today but there were a few minor changes to our travel itinerary and I had to reschedule with them for our trip home. We'll have more time to actually see Wellington on the way back so it works out but I felt bad for changing the plans on them last minute. But the changes were out of my hands so that's that.
- Just to make things complete it's that time of month...

South Island Prep!

Thursday. Today consisted of finishing the last of our homework and packing for the south island. Thankfully we had the day off for that preparation because we had a lot to take care of. We also had a friend named Shannon who is moving to Brisbane Australia while we are on our trip. She's been our in for all of the ysa activities so it will be sad to see her go but we're trying to work out a way that we can come visit her while we are in Australia. She invited us to a ysa dinner with a bunch of friends. It was fun to met new people and enjoy some good food.

We didn't get home until super late... in fact I haven't gone to bed yet... it's about 12:30am and we're being picked up at 5:30am to start our adventure to the south island. We will be gone for 15 days visiting Wellington, Christchurch, and Queenstown. We'll be driving the whole time which the groups from the past haven't done before. It will definitely be an adventure.

Just FYI. Because we'll be on the road I can't guantee frequent internet access... especially since the internet is expensive and you are only allowed so much per usage. So I'll try to update as often as I can. Here's for the adventure!

Waitangi Day!

Wednesday was national day or Waitangi day for the Kiwis. This was a super interesting day to be a part of for many reasons. So for starters- a little background. This day actually celebrates the treaty of Waitangi which is when the British and several Maori chiefs signed a treaty of peace. There were two copies of the treaty- one in English and the other in Maori. To make a long story short the English version and the Maori version didn't quite match up... the Maori thought that they would be sharing the land with the English and the English thought that the Maori were giving governance of the land to the King. All in all this celebration is really nothing more than an excuse for a day off. Many people (most of them of Maori descent) are actually very against this day and there are groups that gather together to protest the celebration of this holiday every year. They feel that the Maoris were deceived in the treaty and they demand justice all these years later. Besides a few people saying happy Waitangi day and the fact that everyone had the day off there was nothing that separated this day from all the others.

We were lucky enough to be invited by a ward to come up to their ward BBQ. It was at the same beach that we went to our first Monday in NZ- Milford beach. The weather was perfect- nice and hot with not a cloud in the sky. I had the chance to jump in and play volleyball with some of the ward members before we ate. Afterwards it was the perfect chance to swim and enjoy the beach. Most of the girls just hung out under the shade of a nearby tree because they didn't want to get sun burned (the sun really is a lot stronger here). I had a good time just enjoying the water and soaking up the rays. Watching the water brought back flashbacks of playing at the beach with my siblings when we visit our grandparents in Florida. I guess we'll just have to plan a family trip here sometime so they can experience it :).

That evening we started working on our laundry because our big trip to the south island is on Friday. We also watched the Avengers and ate ice cream with Camilla. Yum :)