Flying Solo North and Central New Zealand

Ok, so following Shannon's departure I had a few extra days to get back down to Dunedin from the Northern part of the South Island so I decided to do a bit of extra sightseeing on my own to some places that I've heard a lot of things about but haven't quite seen yet.

I started by driving 2 hours from Nelson down to Buller Gorge and visited New Zealand's longest swingbridge.

I walked around the park there for a bit on a beautiful afternoon. I stayed in a hostel that night known as the Lazy Cow! LOVED IT! :) I woke up the next morning for another adventure! Before I left the States I was given a National Geographic that had an excerpt on New Zealand. One of the things in the magazine that looked really interesting was this "cave rafting". I was intrigued. Well I noticed that the place that did this sort of thing was going to be on my drive down the West Coast so I hooked it up!! Basically, you arrive and are given a wetsuit, a helmet with a light, and an intertube. You start by taking this little train back into the Paparoa National park and walk across the river, up 120 steps and enter this enormous cave! It was absolutely amazing!! The limestone formations and things you can see in there were beautiful and b/c New Zealand is AWESOME, we don't have any bats here!

So you walk through this cave for about an hour until you reach some water where you sit back in your tube, make a train with the others in your group, turn off your lights and you are in complete darkness!! You literally cannot see your hand if you put it in front of your face and they say within 2 hours you can start hallucinating and going mad!! So you lean back in your tube, paddle your way back a bit and on the ceiling of the cave is what is known as "glowworms" and they look like a million tiny stars lining the ceiling.

Eventually you exit the cave and it spits you into the river where you ride down maybe a little under a mile in grade 1/2 rapids in an intertube! Hilarious and so fun!!

Following the cave rafting I drove down to Punakaiki which is a big attraction in New Zealand for it's Pancake Rocks. These are again limestone formations that line the beach and are quite spectacular.

I slept at a hostel right on the beach and had a beautiful sunset!

The next morning I woke up, drove to Arthur's Pass National Park which is in Central New Zealand and enjoyed a 4 hour hike that nearly killed my legs as you basically walk straight up for 2 hours! I enjoyed lunch at the top and had some amazing views!

Leaving Arthur's pass you come across something known as Castle Hill. Again, limestone formations but these sit smack in the middle of the country and farmland and you really can't appreciate how large they are until you are up close!

And finally, on the drive home that evening just an hour outside of Dunedin I stopped at the Moeraki Boulders. I'm amazed I hadn't been here yet to see them as they are so close but anyway, it made for some great pictures on a beautiful beach!

I'm back in Dunedin now and back to work! The plan is to get some work done for a bit and then maybe consider another hike in a few weeks and I'm also getting my scuba certification in May so lots to look forward to!

Hope everyone is well back home!

love,
lex