Our adventure in New Zealand started in Auckland on the very north tip of New Zealand. Auckland seemed like an incredibly wealthy city because there were many massive oceanfront houses and exotic cars. We spotted a Mclaren 12c, Lamborghnis, Ferraris and even a BMW i8. I was very impressed with the food as everything was all organic and healthy. Our apartment that we rented through Airbnb was quite spacious and about 200m from the ocean. Basically all that we did while we were in Auckland was catch up on school, although we toured an aquarium, went sailing, and saw a movie.
After spending a week in Auckland we picked up a camper van that we we spent 17 days in. When we arrived at the camper pickup site the manager showed us how to work everything. Interestingly, it was a pretty cool set up, all of the seats, which folded into beds, were really soft and it seemed at first that there would be plenty of space.
We started off with a two hour drive to Mata Mata, which is home to Hobbiton, where Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit were filmed. Normally in movie sets the set designers build the set out of temporary materials and then destroy it when they are done filming. However, in the case of the Lord of the Rings films there was a 1.5 second clip of a local mountain range that made it in by mistake (it was supposed to be edited out). A few locals recongnized the mountain range and showed up on the property wanting a tour. So the first tour of the set site began in a van with about four people. After they were finished filming Lord of the Rings, the set was destroyed. Wanting to film The Hobbit at the same location, Peter Jackson came back a few years later, but since where he had filmed before was private land, the owner announced, "Sure, you can build on my land, but you have to build the set out of permanent materials and transfer the rights to me so that I can give tours." Peter Jackson agreed and built the set out of permanent materials so now there is a massive tour company giving tours.
After touring the hobbit holes we drove to Rotorua, which was one of my favorite places in New Zealand. Here we rode luges, toured cultural villages, and went mountain biking. Crazily, the luges didn't have a fence on the sides so if you went off the track you were a goner; however, the
luges were really fun and the tracks were awesome. You could go crazy fast. The cultural village was facinating, we were able to see the houses that the Maori people used to live in, the games they used to play, and the dances they used to preform. We then had a massive buffet style dinner that was similar to Thanksgiving dinner, there was stuffing, turkey, pudding, cranberry sauce, lamb and much more. In Rotorua we were even able to dig our own hot tub. Digging a hole on the beach was really fascinating because Rotorua is volcanically active and so the hole would fill up with hot water like a hot tub. We also did a canyon tour on zip lines.
On our last day we went mountain biking, this was one of my favorite parts of all New Zealand. The mountain bike park was huge and filled with massive redwood trees. Biking has different levels just like a ski hill, this park had trails for all different levels of riders but the highest we went was an intermediate, which was plenty high for us. The scenery was absolutely beautiful as there were snow-capped mountains everywhere. The bikes in New Zealand are slightly different than in the US as the back brake is on the left-hand side instead of the right. Despite this, I only went head over handlebars once. After Rotorua we headed to Lake Taupo. Here we stayed at a free campground on the lake, it was also really awesome because there was a free city-wide wifi. We hadn't had wifi for about a week and it was really great to catch up. The next day we went to Tongariro to hike the Trans-Alpine Crossing. This trek was among the top ten one day treks in the entire world. We had to hike through snow and mud. It was really enjoyable; however, since we are following the sun we didn't bring that many warm clothes and as we were hiking through snow we were all really really cold. Awesomely this is a satelite picture of the 12mi trek.
After Tongariro we went to Wellington, the capital of New Zealand. Here we went to the Weta Caves, where Peter Jackson works on his films. We saw many of the original props from Lord of the Rings and many other films. We also learned how they make many of their props. We also went to many Gallipoli exhibits. At the bottom of this post I'm including a paper that I wrote for a school assignment about Gallipoli.
South Island
After the North island we took a 3 hour fairy to the tip of the South Island. We then drove the camper across really steep roads to a great campsite which was right on a lake. After doing some school and spending the night here we drove to Abel Tasman National Park where we took a boat out to the park and then hiked back. The hike was really cool because it was in a jungle/rainforest and there was also a really awesome beach. Sadly we then drove to Christchurch where we dropped our beloved camper off. Staying in an old jail house that was recently converted into a hostel was really a neat experience. We spent one night in this unique hostel and then took the Trans-Alpine train to Greymouth where we picked up a rental car and drove to a tiny little town called Hokatika where we did a lot of school. In Hokatika you can find jade in the river mouths so there are many jade shops. We were even able to carve our own jade which was really fun. When our two days in Hokatika were up we then drove to Franz-Josef Glacier.
(The Tranz-Alpine train)
In Franz-Josef we stayed in a really big jungle house. It was in the middle of the rainforest and had 5 bedrooms. We also went to a kiwi breeding lab where we saw a NZ kiwi for the first time. The next day we took a helicopter up onto the glacier. This was my favorite part of Franz-Josef and was awesome as I had never been in a helicopter before.
After staying for two nights in Franz-Josef Glacier we drove to Queenstown, the adrenaline capital of the world. Obviously, Queenstown was my favorite part of New Zealand, we did so many crazy things here including riding in a jet boat, bungy jumping, mountain biking, and canyoning. Canyoning is basically where you almost freeze yourself to death, jump off of waterfalls, and go down really fast rivers. Despite how cold the water was it was really fun. The scariest part was probably when the guide pushed me down a 20ft waterfall and I couldn't see what was beneath me.
The next day we did some school and then went rafting. The rafting was designed for a family and so they were only grade 1 and 2 rapids but it was still fun.
That night we went on a jet boat ride. JET BOATS ARE SO COOL. They can do 360's, ride on 3in of water (they weigh about 3 tons), and are really fast. The one that we rode in had 2 V8 engines.
The next day we went mountain biking. The mountain biking was not as scenic as Rotorua, but it was way more intense. It was all down-hill so we would ride a gondola up and ride down.
We also went hang gliding, we had to schedule it 3 times before the wind conditions were right, but when we got up there it was so much fun. The "driver" made it swoop and dive but always as we were about to hit the ground we leveled out. Finally, on our last day we went bungee jumping. Jumping was insane. I really didn't even think about it when the supervisor counted to 3. I didn't even look down, I just jumped, I thought that I was going to be torn apart while I was falling, and right as I was about to hit the water, the cord caught me. This was probably the craziest thing that I have ever done.
Afterwards, we then drove to Milford Sound, this was a giant fjord. It is one of the few places in the world that has black coral, which is usually only found in very deep places. Interestingly, for some odd reason, the black coral is actually white. We also saw seals, penguins, and some people saw a whale. Also in Milford Sound are birds called keas (pronounced key), these are big parrots, who will land on your car and try to eat your food. We never had one land on our car but we saw some people with them on their cars.
After Milford sound we drove to Fairlie where we were going to spend a week working on a farm. This was a blast, we got to de-tail lambs, bassicaly we would pick them up and the farmer and his son would give them a vaccine and use a gas scissor to chop their tails off (they burned them off with the gas).
We also did a lot of weeding and had to get up every morning to feed the animals. I got to feed calves, sheep, a baby lamb, and pigs.
We also got to drive their Polaris which was really fun.
I ended up really enjoying the farm and learned a lot in the process. The next day we drove to Christchurch where we flew to Australia. All in all, I really liked New Zealand, it is very green and has many rainforests. One of my favorite parts was that basically no matter where you were, there were always mountains. Someday I would like to go back to New Zealand.
MY GALOPILLI PAPER:
World War One was an incredibly bloody war in which many lives were lost in a struggle between life and death. The war started because the Archduke of Austria-Hungary was assassinated by Bosnian terrorists believed to be supported by Serbia. This led Austria-Hungary to declare war on Serbia, which was defended by Russia. Meanwhile, tension was brewing because Germany was afraid as they were surrounded on all sides by countries with powerful armies and because they greedily wanted more land. Germany's thinking was that France had many powerful forts bordering Germany, but tiny Belgium only had three forts and they were of an old and weak design. Therefore if they could conquer Belgium then they could go through the border of France and Belgium, since it had no forts, and get to Paris that way. Therefore, Germany attacked Belgium, quickly overcoming their three measly forts.
Since Great Britain was allies with Belgium they declared war on Germany, however, they were not an immediate threat as they had to get through the English Channel and march quite a distance. The moment Germany broke through Belgium, Russia also declared war on Germany and attacked from the east side. This meant that Germany also declared war on Russia and had to send at least half of it's military over to fight Russia, which greatly slowed their progress on the eastern front. Since Serbia was protected by Russia, Austria-Hungary joined Germany in attacking Russia. Europe was rapidly dividing into the Allies, which included France, Great Britain, and Russia, and there were also the Central Powers, which consisted of Germany and Austria-Hungary. These were the main events that led up to the brutal beginning of World War One.
Turkey sided with Germany and this was the catalyst that pulled the Australia and New Zealand Army Corps (ANZACS) into the catastrophic war. Both Australia and New Zealand were colonies of Britain, therefore if Britain went to war it was their duty to help out. Turkey was closest to Australia and New Zealand so naturally these two nations went off to fight the Turks. Britain also sent some of their troops to help deal with the Turks. These three forces made it to Gallipoli, off the coast of Turkey, in April of 1915 and were ready to begin the bloody battle.
In Gallipoli the fighting was horrendous, there were barbed wire fences, and if a soldier dared to venture out of his trench he was dead meat. There were machine guns everywhere. The Turk's snipers really took their toll on the ANZACS as they were constantly picking their men off. There were very few doctors and so dead men were lying around everywhere unburied. Many soldiers complained in their journals that the stench was almost unbearable. Eventually a truce was called because of the smell and both sides were permitted several hours to bury their dead men in No Man's Land. After thousands of ANZACS had died, they were finally forced to retreat because they had so few men that they could not hold off the Turkish attacks anymore. The battle of Gallipoli was a total massacre with tens of thousands dying on both sides, the terrain was inhospitable, and the entire battle was a massive bloodbath.
Before traveling to New Zealand, I had no idea that New Zealand or Australia were involved in WWI let alone the effect on New Zealand that had catastrophic consequences with 10% of it's population being lost. The percentage of New Zealand's men that were lost in the war, compared to the population of people in New Zealand at that time was greater than any other nation who fought in the battle of Gallipoli. In New Zealand there are many exhibits dedicated to the battle of Gallipoli. Peter Jackson himself has donated and made many statues honoring these men as it was also a personal event for him, as his British grandfather fought at Gallipoli and later moved his family to New Zealand because he was so impressed with the New Zealanders who fought at this battle . It is truly disheartening how many loved ones were lost during the battle of Gallipoli. New Zealand certainly played it's part in WWI and typically doesn't get the recognition that it deserves as it seems the effects of this war were felt the most by this nation and it was devastating to them how many men were lost. Learning about this battle as part of WWI and seeing the Gallipoli exhibits at both the Anzac Memorial and the TePapa Museum in Wellington has truly impacted my understanding of New Zealands part in WWI.
Great to see your pictures. Miss you all a lot. Merry Christmas.
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