New Zealand part 2

That night we took a flight to Christchurch in the South Island of New Zealand. We had trouble finding our Airbnb (private room rental) place and almost went into the wrong house oops.

Our very nice host

The next day the landlord told us we had to leave because our host we were with wasn't supposed to do that. She let us stay one more night. Anyway that evening we went to church and had a blast with a special band that was there. The next day we went hiking with our host Min on a beautiful mountain top overlooking a aqua blue green lake.

Then we headed downtown Christchurch and checked out their shopping area made out of shipping containers, because they had some big earthquakes.

There was a botanical garden nearby that we walked through. There were rose bushes and a tropical plants greenhouse, tropical flower greenhouse and a cactus plants room.

After this we went to their Earthquake museum that happened four years ago for Christchurch in New Zealand. There are many empty spaces in the city where you can see them still rebuilding. We are went to Sumner beach which has a cave that we climbed and went through.

That night we slept at our host's friends house. The next day we drove another rental car to Mount Cook where there were amazing views of beautiful mountains.

We hiked and saw glaciers and icebergs from the lookout views. And this was the first night Becky ever slept in a dorm room (but only 4 beds). The next day we hiked through mountains and bridges to the main glacier and streams.

Beautiful suspension bridges

Ice bergs and gravel covered glacier (bigger then it looks)

After dinner we went for a shorter hike to a closer glacier near the edge of the cliff.

Tons of ice under the gravel

The next morning we drove to Akaroa back near Christchurch and had lunch at a pebbly Beach and a really nice scenic drive. There was a sheep on the side of the road on the mountain we passed by.


The valley had villages and sharp windy roads with no railings just like most of New Zealand...scary.

When we arrived at the small town in the valley, we went for ice cream, swimming and dinner near the harbour.

Aaron drove back fast because we were late to return our rental car, but then we got lost, got a speeding ticket from a "not-very-gracious" officer, and were almost late for our flight! We flew back to Auckland and stayed at the same hostel, Oaklands Lodge. In our last days in New Zealand we did some planning and got haircuts. We tried to walk the big bridge in Auckland but there was no access. So we walked downtown and went to the Volvo Ocean Race Village where sailing teams are on a huge race all around the world. At the village there were interactive presentations and small videos about the race and the dangers involved, and the teams were repairing their boats.

The official deal...and official photoshop

There was also stuff downtown for the Cricket world cup. On Sunday we went to the same Life Church, and then hiked the nearby Mount Eden for one final view of the city before heading to Australia!