I went to New Zealand in December of 2002 on my return trip from Australia. New Zealand is divided between two islands, originally named North and South Island. Rumor had it the South Island was far superior to the North Island, so I did my best to investigate this rumor. From my findings the rumor is true. I landed in Auckland, the largest city with a million kiwis, also on the North Island. I flew immediately to Christchurch in the South, after paying a hefty fee to get my overweight luggage on the plane. I took a 6 day tour of the South Island. I left Christchurch, after meeting my friend Heather, and ventured out on to the Canterbury Plain. As the name suggests, it was quite plain, but once we got further away from Christchurch the mountains began to rise and it was splendid. Our first night was spent in a lakeside resort on Lake Ohua. Scenic vistas were found everywhere, including our free lasagna dinner on the terrace. Next morning, we made our way to the most ideally set city on earth. Queenstown is nestled on Lake Wakatipu and is known as the adventure capital of the world but Ill get to that in a minute. After rising at 5:30 AM we left for Milford Sound on the far southwest coast. The drive was incredible, I have honestly never seen such spectacular views in my life. Everywhere snow capped mountains and waterfalls dropping gracefully hundreds of feet. We stopped several times along the way and even drank from a stream that was so clean. We get to Milford Sound and I think nothing could get better than the drive...oh but it does. Milfoud Sound is so beautiful it should be illegal. We boared a cruise ship and cruised up and down the sound. 400 happy people left Milford Sound that day. So we head back to Queenstown for the night and next day. Unfortunately I was not able to do everything I wanted, I only did the jet boat because my fundage was quite low. But the jet boat went right through Isenguard on Lord of the Rings and I was quite happy. After jet boating, I wandered the streets and found some kiwis, birds not people or fruit and road a ski lift to the top of one of the mountains. Quite content we left Queenstown for Fox Glacier, which was a dirty hole in the ground and thats all that needs to be said for that. Eventually finding my way back to Christchurch and then Auckland. In Auckland, I had a 22 hour layover, so I thought why not see the city. I boarded a bus and went into the city just as it started to rain. It rained for the next 8 hours as I walked the loathsome streets of Auckland, which is really too bad because it had potential to be a great city.
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