Awestruck by the South Island's Awesome Beauty

The last time I wrote, I jokingly criticized my friends' meager recommendations of the minimum amount of time one should devote to adequately see New Zealand. Well, they did get one thing right-- hands down, I 100% agree with their advice to spend most of my time on the south island. I mean OH MY GOD is it beautiful!

Before, while meandering through the north island's undulating grassy hills flecked with sheep and cattle and pristine lakes and streams, I was undoubtedly impressed. The grass is much greener, the sun much brighter, and the water more blue than any similar "bushy" area I've ever visited. (By the way, I don't know what the American equivalent for the word "bush" is. In both New Zealand and Australia, it's anywhere you can go "tramping" or hiking, but it's a beautiful mix of forresty trees and jungly ferns that really can only be described as bush, which I love.) Still, a part of me felt like I could be anywhere on the 5 freeway from about the California valley up through to Vancouver.

Arriving in Nelson in the south island, I still felt like I could be in a more beautiful version of Cali, especially since many pine trees and redwoods have replaced New Zealand's native forests. Perhaps that's why even though I was deliriously happy to meditate in the valley, tramp through the forest, splash in the bay and stroll along the beach, it was difficult to believe that I'm actually on the other side of the world.

However, ever since I jumped on the Magic Bus last Saturday the 30th to explore the south island, every doubt of my current whereabouts has completely vanished. So have my previous notions of what constitutes "natural beauty." This beauty is truly from another world; no wonder it's the site of Lord of the Rings. Then again, I don't understand why every movie isn't made here. Every glance out of my window frames a postcard-ready protrait. I find myself laughing at my memories of the "beautiful" images of Sierra Club calendars; they seem blase compared to the most boring highway here. This scenery has redefined my usage of the word "picturesque." My bus friends and I laughed about the undescribable beauty of the scenery this very morning, since we all independently arrived at the same conclusion, that "it's like the most beautiful part of my home country, multiplied by 10."

In fact, I"ve been reading a funny travel book about New Zealand for the past week, A Land of Two Haves by Joe Bennett, in which he makes this same point in my favorite passage:

"To get some idea of the place, take the English Lake District, heighten the mountains, file their edges, fold them more tightly, cover most of them with snow, iron that snow, enlarge the lakes, intensify the brightness of the light by a factor of ten, banish all drizzle and shoot fourteen out of every fifteen people." (p. 120)

Since the Magic Bus is quite international, I'm finding that while NZ's prettier than everyone's home country, it's indescribably magnificent in every language as well. The other day while driving by a particularly striking lake, the Dutch guy beside me said "prachtig," to which the Dutch girl in front of him responded "meer prachtig." What followed sounded like a ping-pong game of funny-sounding words being tossed back and forth, till I actually laughed out loud at them. They both jerked their heads to look at me questioningly, and I explained that I wasn't trying to be rude by laughing at their language, but that they were doing what I had been doing all day-- using every adjective in their language to try and describe the breath-taking beauty. To play along with their game, I exclaimed "es maravilloso! impresionante! magnifico!", to which some English blokes around us chirped in "it's lovely! brilliant! superb!" etc. We all laughed, and I found out the Dutch guy next to me spoke Spanish too, so we ended up conversing for the drive to our next city.

Strangely enough, I've spoken quite a bit of Spanish during the past week since I left my Argentinian and Chilean friends in Nelson. Saturday the 30th, while driving along the craggy west coast with its jutting rocks and crashing waves, I happened to befriend a 37 year-old Spanish math teacher named Eneko, who was almost as attractive as the scenery. :) We took pictures for each other at the famous Pancake Rocks of Punakaiki, then ended up staying in the same room at our Noahs Ark Backpacker Hostel in Greymouth. I decided to do my customary New-City-Cassie-Adventure, consisting of going for a long run while taking pictures and doing errands. I made it through the bush all the way to the top of the King Park Walkway with excellent views of the city, again feeling like a superwoman for having no fear of tramping alone. :) Afterwards at the supermarket I literally bumped into Eneko while shopping for the same cheesy pasta dinner ingredients, so we decided to cook together. It turned out to be a fun night, since we met an Argentinian couple and went out for drinks and dancing! The next day an English girl on our bus congratulated me for befriending such a good-looking guy, haha. Our friendship was completely plutonic, but I do hope to visit him in San Sebastian some day when I hike El Camino de Santiago in Norther Spain... especially since it happens to be one of the few Spanish cities I didn't visit when I lived in Madrid from 2004-2005.

Sunday the 31st we drove to Franz Josef Glacier after a beautiful bus ride. Upon arrival, I left with a group of about 20 people to hike on the glacier! It was amazing! Apparently that area normally has 240 days per year of rain, since it's technically located in a rainforest which is why the glacier has a chance to form due to the heavy rain and snowfall. However, we were incredibly lucky to have perfect conditions of a hot, sunny day. They gave us boots and rainjackets, and we hiked for 30 minutes on rocks until we got to the giant, light blue, surprisingly dirty hunk of ice wedged between two steep triangular mountains. It felt really paradoxical to be sweating from the heat but cooled by the ice... almost like standing in front of an open freezer on a hot summer day. :)

The hike through dirty slush, icy staircases and razor-blade-sharp ice caves was fun but strenuous, and after a well-deserved hot tub, I completely crashed that night. The next day was February 1st, and our bus drove through ridiculously pristine lakes that mirrored the surrounding mountains on the way to Queenstown, bungee jump capitol of the world. By the time we arrived at my Southern Laughter Hostel at 5pm, I had completely exhausted all descriptor adjectives for "pretty" from my vocabulary, and was content to just gaze out the window with a dumbfounded grin on my face. I decided at the last minute that evening to go to Milford Sound the following day, a $150 excursion south to Te Anau and onward to the Fiordland National Park, based soley on the excellent weather. Although it's out of my budget, I decided that when/if I come back to NZ, the weather will never again be as good, so now was the time!

Milford Sound is hailed by many as the most dramatic and beautiful thing to do in New Zealand, and I have to agree that I'm ELATED that I did it-- it was by far the best thing that I've done so far here. It's not actually a sound, but a fiord-- defined as "a long, narrow inlet with steep sides, created in a valley carved by glacial activity." That being said, I really didn't know what to expect. The two-hour drive was beautiful enough in itself, as we hugged a crystal blue lake leaving Queenstown to find glowing green hills, followed by a rainforested area, and then the hugest craggy mountains, rocks and glaciers right next to the road that I have ever seen. The whole bus was noisy with people snapping pictures, but it was almost problemmatic because every sight was post-card worthy, every view was better than the last. It was an outdoor wonderland!

Right when I couldn't imagine how the actual Milford Sound could be any more beautiful than the bus drive, we arrived. Not having known what a fiord was, I was astounded by the sight before me-- a gigantic deep blue lake, enclosed by vertical mountains jutting thousands of feet into the sky. We boarded a boat and go out to explore the wildlife, waterfalls and rock formations, and I almost peed my pants I was so excited when within the first ten minutes a team of nearly 20 dolphins came to swim alongside the boat! I was so surprised, because my hostel had told me before that it was really rare to see them, but there they were. It was truly a magical day.

On the bus ride home, I reflected again on all of the beauty I had seen and continued to see, and decided that I have to return to New Zealand within the next ten years-- ideally with a partner-- to do all the tramps that I missed, or want to do again. There's so much to see north of Auckland, the Coromandal range, the Tongariro Crossing (since the weather was bad the day I did it), Abel Tasman, Mount Cook, and Steward Island... plus all of the tracks and national parks in-between. I figure it could take me between 3-6 months if I visit again, but if I bought a van and camped the whole way, it could be done as cheaply as this portion of my trip. Honestly I think I'm going through separation anxiety having to leave NZ five days from now, so I'm resorting to day-dreaming about coming back... but at least I'm really happy that I've had a beautiful first trip here! And during the next few days, I'll get to see even more beauty-- and, most excitingly, I'm going to swim with dolphins my last day!!! Wish me luck! ;)