Over winter break, I went on the adventure of a lifetime to New Zealand and Australia along with seven other students from Winona State University. In the past I had traveled with family and on high school trips, but I had never been with only one person I knew and for 27 days.
Let me start out by saying that being on a plane for 14 or 15 hours is not fun. I imagine that no one likes to be on a plane that long, but those really comfy beds/couches in first class looked pretty great. Of course, I could be bitter because instead of four rows from the front of the plane I was four rows from the back. Anyway, we finally landed in Christchurch, New Zealand after 30 hours of traveling.
On day one we explored Christchurch. A few years ago, Christchurch suffered from a devastating earthquake and the whole city is still under construction. After the tragedy the people came together through art, which is on buildings everywhere. Besides the art, they also had by far one of the best parks. Now I know what you’re thinking: what 20-year-old goes to a foreign country and goes to a park? But let me explain. It was an awesome park with a zipline, a ridiculously tall swirly slide, three trampolines in the ground that you could jump between, a ropes course and a waterpark. So in other words, it was awesome. After tapping into my inner five-year-old, our group went out for our first group meeting before going back to the hostel and promptly passing out at 8 p.m.
Next we traveled to Akaroa. With the recent earthquake in New Zealand our group was unable to actually swim with the dolphins in Akaroa; however, we were able get up close and personal with surrounding wildlife with a boat ride around the bay. While seeing the small dolphins was amazing, the view of the surrounding area was truly spectacular.
We went sea kayaking/paddle-boarding in Picton and went cliff-jumping at a place outside of the town called Pelorous Bridge where they filmed part of The Hobbit.
In Nelson we went skydiving. I had always wanted to go, because why not jump 16,000 feet out of a perfectly functioning plane? I only panicked slightly when one person from our group got pushed out of the plane before the door was closed and the plane flew higher. The thing about skydiving is that the people you are attached to are jumping whether you want to or not.
In Queenstown I went bungee-jumping. While I was excited to go skydiving, with bungee-jumping I was terrified. But after literally making the leap I am so glad I did. The adrenaline from making myself jump off a ledge is a feeling I will never forget.
In Australia we went to Sydney and visited the zoo, aquarium, opera house and explored the city.
In Byron Bay, I learned to surf. It was surprisingly easier to stand up than I thought it would be. However, getting back out to where there were good waves was hard and I may or may not have swallowed a lot of salt water. I also went scuba diving and saw huge pufferfish, sea turtles and a shark.
My trip to New Zealand and Australia was amazing and I cannot wait to continue to travel around the world and maybe go back one day.