New Zealand South Island

For exploring the South Island of New Zealand, we rented a camper van. The van was tight quarters. It was fine, but I really didn’t like unmaking and making my bed every single morning and night. My dad liked the van, though, because he could park on the side of the road and take a nap in the back.

New Zealand felt very comfortable because culturally it didn’t feel very different. Therefore, this post will have more about what we saw rather than how it made me feel.

Lake Tekapo and Lake Pukaki

Lake Tekapo had brilliant blue water that glittered under the sun’s rays. It also had a little stone church that stood at the edge of the lake. We didn’t do much at this lake other than walk around a bit, take photos and eat at a Japanese restaurant. We camped at Lake Pukaki. When you are driving up to this lake, there are fields and fields of valentine colored lupine flowers. It was a beautiful sight.

Dansey’s Pass

Dansey’s Pass was beautiful. Tan, fuzzy hills stretched across the land for miles. The sun shone through the valley and into little streams. Sheep were scattered like paint that had been flicked onto the hills. We stopped at a campground near Dansey’s Pass that I thought was awesome. It had a good playground with a super bouncy trampoline. The grounds also had an awesome but terrifying rope swing. The swing’s rope attached to a very high tree branch and at the other end of the rope there was a flat piece of wood to sit on. That part of the swing dangled 15 feet above the cold river that ran around the camp. I sat down on the piece of wood and walked off the platform. I screamed; I dropped ten feet and then swung out, high above the river! It was great fun! The host also had pans for finding gold in the river. We tried once but got nothing but a bunch of bug bites.

Queenstown

I really liked Queenstown. I loved walking around on the boardwalks where the crashing waves hit the sides of the boats. There is a mountain by Queenstown that you can take a gondola up and ride down the mountain on a luge, which is like a sit-down scooter. The luge was so fun! Queenstown also had a very good restaurant named Public, which I highly recommend. Queenstown was very nice.

Milford Sound

Milford Sound was incredible! We took a two-hour cruise. Once, our ship pulled up so close to a waterfall that we were under it! We went out of the sound and into the sea. It was a pretty day; the sky was clear and the wind was whistling. We also saw seals; they were so cute! The rolling green mountains tumbled into the sound. Planes also circled the mountains and dove down towards the water. It was a great day.

Castle Rocks

I really liked the Castle Rocks. It felt peaceful. I wish I could’ve stayed longer. In fact, I would probably even like to own the Castle Rocks. It was a bright green grass hill that was covered in smooth round rocks of all shapes and sizes. Some looked like enormous eggs, some looked like the perfect rock climbing rock and others looked like anything you could possibly imagine. I loved crawling on top of the rocks, and looking out over the bright green grass that covered the ground as far as the horizon. I liked feeling the wind tussle my hair back and forth, and the sun shining down on my face. At the end of our time at the Castle Rocks I laid down flat on my back and stared up at the clear blue sky.

Unique Animals

We went to the glow worm caves. We stepped into the boat in the pitch black. The seat was cold in the dark. I shivered. Our boat pushed off the dock, and we went deeper into the cave. Then, all of a sudden, we went into a corridor of the cave that was lit by tiny blue lights. Holes in the cave? No, glow worms! Bright, tiny lights were scattered all over the dark walls. Like a perfect, clear night sky. It was so quiet that my breathing echoed in the cave. My mouth hung open. I was stunned by the beauty. The twinkling lights passed above me as the boat crept along. It was a very special experience. The second unique creature experience were eels. At one campground, we were told that we could go down to the stream and feed eels. We debated what to feed them:

“They mostly use their nose to find food. We should try something smelly.”

“We have some cheese.”

“No, they probably like something meaty.”

“We have some tortellini.”

“That will do,” I said. I clutched the bag of tortellini and we clomped down to the stream. Along the stream there was a little dock and on it we found long sticks with hooks at the end. The tortellinis were a hit. Eels as long as my arm’s length, with bright blue eyes, swam up and chomped down on the tortellini that we had waiting for them in the water, and then swam off. It was so much fun.

The South Island was great, but I was excited to see friends in the North Island along with seeing beautiful scenery!

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