Janessa's Adventures Abroad: February 2013

Wednesday, 27 February 2013

No Pants, No Problem! South Island Trip Part 3

The last two days have definitely been an adventure to say the least. Yesterday we got up and went to get briefed about our kayaking trip! I was really nervous. I have never gone kayaking before because I’ve always been too scared of flipping over and drowning. So when we were talking about what to do if we flip over, I got really scared and was reconsidering my choice to go kayaking. But I did it anyways. We drug our kayak out to the water and me and Brook hopped in our kayak. It was a little rough at first but then we got the hang of it. It was so fun! I was glad I did it but I don’t know how keen I am to do it again. We kayaked for hours and I’m so sore! To pass the time we sang just about every song we know. We made it all the way through 99 Bottles Of Beer On The Wall for the first time in both of our lives. About half way through I got bored and started singing in different voices. Hahaha, it was pretty great. We stopped for lunch and then went on a little further. When we stopped the second time, half of us walked the rest of the way to our camp and the others kayaked some more. I was so tired and my shoulders were so sore so I decided to walk. We were totally in the wild, in the middle of nowhere. It was absolutely beautiful though. The path took us up a hill so we got a great view of the bay. The water in the park is so blue! It is so beautiful. When we got to our hut we claimed our beds for our group and then went looking for the rest of our bags. The kayak company said they would shuttle our bags to our hut and they would be there when we got there. However, apparently our bags had gotten sent to the wrong place. So we had to wait another hour for our stuff to get there. But it all worked out. The hut we stayed in had two rooms and a kitchen type place. The rooms had like a giant bunk bed with 6 sleeping mats on the top and 6 on the bottom. We took up almost a whole room by ourselves but a nice couple ended up sharing it with us. Once the other girls made it to the hut we all had dinner and then drank milo on the beach while we watched the sunset. It was so much fun! We all sat around and talked and told funny stories. Then we all went to bed. I was terrified that I was going to be attacked by bugs the whole night so I didn’t sleep very well. It also got really hot in our room which made it hard for me to sleep, too. So morning came way too quickly but we all got up and got ready for our day of hiking. First we hiked to a place called Cleopatra’s pool. It’s a fresh water pool with lots of smooth rocks and a natural water slide. The water was freezing but it felt good after hiking for an hour. It was so much fun going down the slide, too! It’s carved into the rocks by the water and it’s covered in moss so it’s soft and smooth. It was awesome! Then we hiked for another 45 minutes or so to a beach and had lunch. Then we hiked for another two hours. At one point we came to a really high suspension bridge and it was so scary to cross. I waited and went across last and I closed my eyes the whole time. But I made it! When we finally made it to the end of the hike we were all so exhausted and hot. It came out on a beach so we all jumped in the water. I can’t even describe how beautiful the beach was. The water was nice and cool and clear and the sand was white. It was so great. We sat there for a while and then we took a water taxi back to our hostel right outside the park. We all just showered (the best shower of my life!), James made us a delicious dinner, and now we are watching The Hunger Games and just hanging out. We’re all super sore and tired so we’ll probably fall asleep really early as well. I’m also sorry if there are a ton of spelling or grammar errors in this post… Hahaha, I feel so hardcore though! I did so many things that I never thought I would ever do in my life. It’s been so crazy and so fun!

Our room!

Pretending to be hobbits hiding from the Ringwraiths.

Sea Kayaking!

Beautiful Abel Tasman National Park :)

Somehow I made it across this scary as suspension bridge! My eyes were closed the whole time!

I love the beach :)

Sunday, 24 February 2013

No Pants, No Problem! South Island Trip Part 2...

So we left Queenstown early Friday morning and made our way to Franz Josef. We got settled in our hostel and then headed over to the main office for our hiking tour of the Franz Josef glacier. First of all, they say glacier funny. They pronounce it like glay-see-er. Weird right? Second of all, we got some really awesome hiking boots that made us all look super attractive. Hahaha, so we headed out to the glacier. We walked through a temperate rainforest first for a little bit which was pretty cool. Then we walked through the valley by the glacier. It was so pretty! There were waterfalls and really sweet rocks everywhere. We got to a certain point that was pretty close to the glacier and it was all roped off. At first, we were all confused because we thought that was the end of the hike and if it was the end, then that was a lame hike. But then they lifted up the rope and we all trekked through the danger zone right up to the glacier. It was sweet! We heard some ice break off of the glacier where it was melting and it echoed through the little ice cave it was forming. It was so loud but when we looked, it was only a few soft ball sized pieces. Crazy! Then we took a break and some of us went up and licked the glacier (don’t worry, we cleaned it off with some water first). It was pretty cool and so pretty. We took tons of pictures! Then with our wristband from our hike, we got free entry into the glacier hot pools. It felt so good! The pools are full of heated glacier water so it doesn’t smell like sulfur which is awesome. There were 3 pools with different temperatures so we started with the coolest and made our way up to the warmest. The whole place is just right in the middle of the forest so it feels really relaxing and tropical. It was so cool. On Saturday we did some more driving (surprise, surprise!). We stopped in this little town and did some shopping and got lunch. It was so cute! Then after a few more hours of driving we made it to the pancake rocks. We went to our hostel first and got settled in. So we were expecting a normal hostel that we had rented out all the beds in but when we got there the lady said we had to park and hike up to our lodge. Hahaha, so we start trekking through the forest and it was only a few minute walk but it felt like we were in the middle of nowhere. Our lodge was adorable though! It was this cute little cabin and in the lounge there was a record player and a ton of records so of course I spent most of the night going through them. It was awesome! We went out and saw the pancake rocks for a little bit, too. It’s hard to describe them but they kind of look like a stack of pancakes and when the tide is in, the water shoot us kind of like a geyser. It was pretty cool. We went down to the beach for awhile, too. It was cool because the sand was just a lot of really small, smooth rocks. So of course we all filled our pockets with them. Haha, they were so cool! Today we drove about an hour out to the church building for a little branch in the next city. We basically took over Sacrament Meeting. I contributed by playing the piano for the hymns and for our musical number. We sang Nearer My God to Thee and I made up an accompaniment part. I hope it sounded ok! Then they had a whole luncheon for us and we got to know some of the members. It was so fun. Then we drove out to our hostel right outside of Abel Tasman National Park. We are spending the night here and then tomorrow we are embarking on an adventure, completely outside of my comfort zone, in the park. Hopefully I make it back alive!