South Island Part 2

From Wanaka, we continued to Queenstown. The city is known for its activities like bungee jumping, skydiving, jet boating, parasailing, swing, etc. I opted for 2 slightly more relaxed activities. On the first evening, I went to an ice bar with 4 other girls, where it's 0 degrees and everything is made of ice, so it's really cold. But it was really funny 😊 After that, the whole bus group went on a pub crawl with a 90s party included :D

The next day, the first activity was with Stefanie. First, we walked up the summit of a mountain together - although I took it a bit more leisurely than Stefanie :D Once we reached the summit, we went to the starting point of our tour - a zip line tour. It was really fun, we went down 6 different zip lines, one of which was the steepest in the world! Some people even tried hanging upside down, and I let myself "fall" backwards blindfolded once. (I had to have a bit of adrenaline, since bungee jumping or something like that wasn't for me)

The second day was also filled with an activity. One that I had been looking forward to the whole time 😊 A 2.5-hour horse ride in Glenorchy, where a part of the Lord of the Rings movies was filmed. At first, I was a bit "desperate" because the entire shuttle was full of Asians. But there was also a German on my ride and "only" 3 Asians, none of whom could speak English and none of them could ride. But besides that, the ride was really great! The scenery was simply amazing, and riding through it on a horse was a unique experience. I had a great conversation with the other German, and eventually, we were allowed to ride on our own for a bit and canter around while our guide "watched over" the Asians. My horse was really sweet and speedy. After the ride, I walked around Queenstown, treated myself to 2 huge delicious ice cream scoops, sat by the beach, and went for a swim. Then I went to a garden with beautiful views of the lake. That was truly my favorite day in New Zealand, simply because it was relaxing and beautiful 😊

Then it was already time to leave Queenstown and go to Milford Sound - with a nice muscle soreness in my butt. Perfect timing for the 600km bus ride :D Milford Sound is the fjordland in New Zealand with incredible landscapes, especially when it rains, because suddenly 100 waterfalls come down the mountains. So, we were really lucky that it rained in the morning but stopped when we were there. We had plenty of waterfalls but also some sun and blue sky. We took a boat for 2 hours through the sounds. Really impressive and somewhat mystical in that weather! We arrived in Invercargill late in the evening, and for the first time since I started traveling, a whole room was waiting for me all to myself! That's almost luxury when you're traveling.

From Invercargill, we drove through the Catlins to Dunedin. The Catlins is also a really beautiful area on the coast with lots of beautiful places. I spent the day with another German, Ramona, and we got along really well! We saw seals (again), visited 2 lighthouses, went to a surf beach... All in all, it was a really nice day.

The next day in Dunedin, the weather was bad, so I just took a quick walk through the city and did some shopping :D I'm sure it's a very nice city in good weather 😊 Especially for partying, as it is a student city. From Dunedin, we went back to Queenstown for one last night. I met up with Stefanie again to have burgers - at Fergburger 😊 That's the most popular/best burger joint in New Zealand. You have to wait in line for 45 minutes to get your burger! But it was definitely worth it. I've never had such a good burger before! Then we sat together for a while and played 😊

From Queenstown, I went to my second-to-last stop in New Zealand - Lake Tekapo, where I had my most beautiful evening/night. First, I left around 5am to hike up Mount John and enjoy the view of Lake Tekapo. After I came back, I sat down with Jan, another German from my room, in the living room and played music. He's traveling through New Zealand with a small guitar and has been learning to play for 2 months, and he's also in a band in Germany, and the hostel had a guitar too. So, we played and sang until 11pm 😊 It was really fun again. After that, we did something typical for Lake Tekapo - stargazing. In New Zealand, the night sky is just completely different from back home in Germany, and with less light pollution in Lake Tekapo, it's especially good for stargazing. So, we went to the lake, lay down there, and looked at the stars. We saw so many shooting stars, the Milky Way, and even Jupiter 😊 It was really cool!

As a result, I was flat on the next day, with a nice cold, a bit of a fever, so I mainly stayed in bed, or went out to the hammock and played the guitar by the lake for a bit 😊

Yesterday, unfortunately, it was even worse. After a big storm hit the South Island, it rained all day, so after I arrived in Christchurch from Lake Tekapo, I just stayed in bed.

And today is also a complete bed day, as the weather is still terrible and I'm still quite weak 😊 So, I won't see much of Christchurch, but there's not much to see here anyway :D

In two days, I will continue to Singapore and Kuala Lumpur, which means I have to leave New Zealand behind. I can't quite believe that it's already been exactly 3 months since I left on November 21st. But now it's time for me to slowly say goodbye to the traveling life and prepare to return to everyday life. The journey was definitely the best thing I've ever done! So many wonderful places, so many incredible people I've met, friendships that go beyond traveling. Australia and New Zealand were both really beautiful destinations. I don't know which one I like better, as they are completely different, but I would probably say New Zealand. I really loved the South Island with all its lakes and mountains!