The Journey Begins: Sydney to Auckland to Queenstown

I worked most of the day Monday and Tuesday leading up to my midterm and departure for break, and barely slept in studying for a Finance midterm which I took Wednesday morning. After the test, I took a little nap, and then got to organizing a few things for my journey. My journey was going to be with a family friend, Kevin, and we had on our docket to visit parts of New Zealand, portions of Northeast Australia and to end in Sydney, from where I was going on another journey to Melbourne. You know, as if I hadn’t seen enough or spent enough money by that point. I’ve decided the easiest way to document my journey would be to divide the posts into the individual destinations, which is what I will do. I ran by the bar on campus, had a few drinks, and went to bed fairly early as I needed to catch an early morning train.

Equipped with a couple peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, a big bag of necessary items, and a backpack, I departed from campus at 10:00am on Thursday April 10^th. I basically ran the uphill 15 minute walk to the train, as fast as you can run while dragging luggage, because as usual I was a little behind and had to catch the train to Sydney. I found a companion at the train station, a kid I had met a few times and was also going to New Zealand. Only a few minutes later I switched over to the Sydney train and arrived at the airport around 3:00pm. After munching on my sandwiches I purchased some duty free alcohol, a $24 bottle of rum which I later found at the liquor store for $57. The flight from Sydney to Auckland was easy compared to the long journey from Chicago to Sydney, and I had the wonderful in-flight entertainment of “Mr. Woodcock.”

Auckland is the largest city in New Zealand, houses a third of the overall population and is in the North Island. When I arrived at the airport I realized that I didn’t remember which hotel I was suppose to meet Kevin at, as he flew direct from Los Angeles to Auckland. I went to find a shuttle outside and asked the man if he knew of the Hilton or Hyatt, and he said he could take me to either. Laughing I said that I was hoping there was only one of the two downtown but unfortunately there was both. He ended up being a nice guy and took me to the Hilton, where on the way I realized it could have even been the Westin. Ironically, after using the phone at a Kevin-less Hilton, I found him stationed at the Westin. Both hotels were beautiful and positioned in the harbor on a real up and coming part of Auckland. The America’s Cup sailing competition had been there year’s prior and forced revitalization in the area. The Hilton was part of a larger complex which was made to look like a giant ship on the water. The Westin, where we were staying, was also on the water and less than a year old. Our room overlooked the water and the city. I arrived late, around 11pm because of the two hour time change, but was able to drag a jetlagged Kevin out of bed to explore Auckland a bit. It was kind of a small version of Sydney, and surprisingly a very cool place.

We headed out early again the following morning as our trek would then head to Queenstown, a town at the lower end of the South Island of New Zealand. Queenstown is about as far south as you can go in the world, besides a location in South America and obviously Antarctica. Upon arrival we were greeted with beautiful mountain ranges and a town with a perfect setting on a lake. We stayed about five minutes outside of town, and could either walk or take a free shuttle. After settling in we headed into town, took a look around and ate at a restaurant called Ferberger upon recommendation from a friend who had been there previously. It’s a “gourmet burger” and they have a few locations throughout New Zealand. From there we went on the gondola, which transported us from the bottom of the mountain to the top, in small containers. It was an amazing view all the way to the top, as the weather was fairly mild in the mid 60’s, a good temperature for that time of year, and a beautiful day. At the top, we took a look around and decided on paragliding. Basically, you jump off of the mountain as opposed to riding the gondola back down. It was a fun time, as you are in the air for about ten minutes, and eventually spin for about a minute as you make your final descent. From there we hung around town and had some dinner back at the resort.

The next morning we woke up early to head back to the airport and take a six-seater plane! It was by far the smallest plane I’d ever been on, but ended up being a very easy and scenic flight. This was opposed to the eight hour round trip bus ride we could have taken. Our destination was Milford Sound, a fjord which is caused by the movement of glaciers from sea to mountains. It was extremely beautiful, and with the cruise through the fjord, and the plane ride over the mountains, the views were breathtaking. The best part may have been that we got back to Queenstown before the bus even arrived at Milford Sound, and it was cheaper to fly. We later found out the catch is that the plane only flies about once every few days because of random weather conditions so if it hadn’t had been a beautiful day we would have not been able to go. We hung around Queenstown the rest of the afternoon and visited a very cool wine store. It was called “Wine Tastes”, and throughout the store they had bottles of wine and they gave you a credit card which you could put into any of the bottles and get a taste. So, it was our own little wine tour. From there we had some amazing lamb, which was the first time I had ate lamb and since New Zealand is the best place to get lamb, it was reallllly good. The next morning we headed an hour north to Christchurch.