Its been a while since our last blog entry and we've been pretty busy! We spent the last few days of Australia on the coast near Brisbane which was really quiet and chilled out. We looked at all our pictures from Australia and realised how fun its been here!
On our final night before our flight we had our first couchsurfing experience. Couchsurfing as basically a community that let people stay at their house for free in return for good stories etc. Anyway, the only place that accepted our request in Brisbane were a bunch of students. Keen on experiencing the much missed student lifestyle, we accepted the invite. However, when we arrived, the house, nicknamed 'the forest', only insulted every forest we'd ever been. There were about 10 people who lived in the house permanantly and another 10 couchsurfers, all wasted on drugs and booze. To cut a long story short, we were both freaked out and after about 2 hours sleep (inbetween the heavy drum and bass till 4am and the wierd psychadelic funk at 6am) we left without saying bye! We laughed all the way down the street at how surreal the experience was, knowing that it would only do us good to go into something like that and come out the other end alive! Although it was the end of an awesome time in Australia, we were really excited about New Zealand. We hadn't heard one bad thing about 'the newest country in the world', and we were ready to check it out!
We arrived in Aukland on the 5th, and we were exhausted! We had booked a hostel online and hoped it would be half decent. When we arrived, we were over the moon to see huge rooms with comfy beds and a really quiet atmosphere. We had a hot shower and treat ourselves to an Indian which made us reminisce about our first adventure. We spoke to the waiter for a while about where he was from, and felt like real weathered travellers being able to talk about someone elses country and tell them about places they should visit.
After an awesome sleep, we headed back to the airport for our flight to Christchurch and the beginning of our travels of the south island. We had another couchsurf booked, and we prayed it wouldn't be another 'surreal experience'.
After catching the bus from the airport to the city, we headed to an address where we'd have our second couchsurfing experience. Verna's house was a pleasant change. It was close to the hills and had a country house feel to it, yet it was only 5 minutes from Christchurch city centre. We were made to feel welcome by Verna immediately, and felt surprisingly comfortable in a strangers home. We talked for hours about everything, including our travels, their travels, dancing, and all thats in between. We spent all afternoon planning our route with the help of Verna's travel books and experience. Verna had lived in NZ all her life, so we got some great tips about where to go and what to do. Later that evening, Verna's partner, Ian, arrived home and was equally friendly and had a whole load more must sees around NZ for us.
We spent the next day shopping in the city for thermals as the weather was the coldest we'd experienced so far! We also took a trip to the local park which was right behind Verna's house, and reminded us of Autumn in England, although the colours were so much more vibrant.
We left Verna's the following day after a refreshing break, feeling relaxed and ready to take on a new counrty. We rented a little car for two weeks to travel around at our own pace, and we were soon on our way to our first destination, Governors Bay. This spot was meant to be a quick one just for photos as it was raining quite heavily, but even in the rain, the bay looked awesome. We both agreed that the landscape was far from anywhere we'd been before, and we knew we were going to really like NZ, The only drawback being the temprature, something which we were to soon experience to the extreme!
After leaving Governors Bay, we headed to Lake Tekapo. The roads were fine until the rain began to bounce of the car, making visibility poor. As it we drove higher, it became much colder, and as the bouncing rain stopped, we realised it had began to snow. A blizzard soon whipped up, and we found ourselves driving through 5 inch snow in a tiny Diahatsu, an extreme sport for any adrenaline junky!
We arrived at a carpark near Lake Tekapo at around 10pm, and decided we'd be fine to sleep in the back of the car. We soon realised why eskimos build igloo's instead of cars. We had all our clothes on and were tucked inside our sleeping bags, but the heat disappeared faster than the money from our bank accounts! We woke up every 2 hours or so shivering, and had to drive around to get the heaters working. After doing this 3 times, it started to get light, and as we stepped outside the car, we soon forgot about how cold it was, and were overwhelmed with the breathtaking views of Lake Tekapo. Every piece of land surrounding the lake was white, and it felt like christmas. The last time we were in a place full of snow was when we were skiing just before christmas last year, and for the first time Sara and I said how much we missed home and how it reminded us of our families. After taking photos of every angle, we soon realised there wasn't much point. The photos didn't do the panoramic views any justice (nothing to do with the photographer!) and we decided to just stand in the cold and take a mental image of such a beautiful place. It felt slightly magical, as if we were going to stumble upon santas grotto at any point. But we didn't (still no presents this year :-P)
We decided it would be a good idea to stay at a hostel tonight, until we completely thaw. So were going to get some fush & chups and get some well deserved sleep!

Merry Christmas,

Mary and Jesus x
P.S. Pics are coming v soon, we promise, they're ready, the computer just wasn't ready for us!

written by  Kav & Sara on April 6, 2009 from Christchurch, New Zealand
from the travel blog: Round the world trip!!
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