Palmerston North to Lake Tekapo

After a good three months it was finally time to leave Palmerston North for good. Luckily I planned my trip to Taupo to get me back to my little flat in time to pack up and properly clean the place. I didn't plan for a last night out that ended after 4 in the morning with slight police involvement and statue climbing... This meant my well planned cleaning and packing day was spent sleeping and nursing an impressive and well earned hang over. Somehow I managed to pack (throw everything into my bag) and clean (sort of) and get out only half an hour late. For some reason the reception staff paid me my deposit back without even checking the room, apparently I look clean...

My first aim was to get all the way down to Queenstown on the South island so that I could finally try snowboarding. The first step of this was a coach down to visit Wellington again, a city which is a lot more appealing with more people and some sunshine. It was only a flying visit so not much to report. I was only here thanks to my need to save money hence taking the ferry to the south island rather than a plane. In the end the ferry was a great choice as the crossing between the islands is a really picturesque trip through the narrow channels of the Marlbourough Sounds. 

On the South side of the Cook Strait it was onto another coach for the next leg of the trip to Christchurch. my minimal preparation for my arrival here had at least picked a route to walk from the bus stop to the hostel I was going to stay at. What I hadn't planned for was the fact that the city centre of Christchurch is still partially abandoned and without power. The bus had arrived after dark and it turns out city centres with no lights and lots of boarded up or smashed windows feels like a zombie film waiting to happen. Luckily I avoided any earthquake zombies and made it to the hostel with only minimal police interference.

The next morning I was off on another coach finally bound for Queenstown. Unfortunately this is not how it worked out and halfway through the journey the bus stopped at the tiny village of Tekapo and we were told it was going no further. Apparently the snow between here (where I am writing this blog out of extreme boredom) and Queenstown is too much for the coach. Luckily there was a big hill to climb here with amazing views of the surrounding area and the brilliant turquoise lake. Be sure to full size the last picture to see just how isolated this area is! This stop has made a mess of plans but I am staying positive that tomorrow I will actually make it to Queenstown. In the mean time I will leave you to marvel at the fact that this blog is the first "live" one I have managed!

Taupo

To fill in the gap from the last blog I have spent about 3 months working on a project titled "Statistical inference of Malagasy settlement history via molecular coalescence simulations". If you want to know more about that then God help you. Anyway after spending so much time in Palmerston North I felt like I should see some more of the North island before I left. I settled on going up to great lake Taupo in the centre of the island.

The place is supposed to be really beautiful... unfortunately the weather was not on my side and all the time I was there it was completely overcast, windy and rainy. This meant that there were not the fantastic views of the mountains across the lake that Taupo usually boasts.  Luckily the scenery was really a secondary reason for visiting Taupo. The main reason was to scare the crap out of myself in various different ways. The first was a 47 meter bungy jump. Notice the completely fake smile in the picture and the fact that I had rolled my sleeves up. The bungy is advertised as a water touch jump and I didn't want to get my jumper too wet.

They do say that they can't guarantee a water touch for everyone. The next picture is the one from the bottom of my jump; judge for yourself whether I "touched" the water...

So thanks to that I spent the rest of the day soaked pretty much from head to toe. I bought the bungy as part of a package deal that also included a ride in a helicopter and a jet boat ride and a sky dive. Unfortunately the bad weather struck again and my sky dive was cancelled. This was really annoying for me, though I am sure my mum was happier to know that I didn't do it. The other activities slightly made up for the lack of skydiving as they were far more interesting than I had anticipated. They gave us 2 different views of the Huka falls, New Zealand's most visited natural attraction.

So this will be pretty much the last entry for the North Island, I head south tomorrow hopefully to see some snow.