Ok, I hope you’re all ready to read a freakin novel about my adventures on the beautiful South Island of New Zealand. We had a GREAT time there, and our days were jam-packed with adventurous and fun things. As Brandon said, it was like we had Christmas every day. But really, every day was better than Christmas. Haha. So here goes…
Monday 31 Jan
We woke up super early and hopped on a flight to Queenstown. It was all 16 girls, Dr. Jacobs and his wife Linda, and our good friend James Ah Mu who lives in south Auckland and helps out with driving us around and such. He is a champion. He’s helped out with the BYU groups since we started coming 14 years ago. Pretty much an amazing guy. For those of you who are from Torrance, he’s basically the Bob Allen of Auckland. He’s the man. Haha.
Anyway, once we got to Queenstown, we were met by James’ friend Johnny Whiu and 2 HUGE vans (one seated 13 and the other seated 11) and we piled in and drove to our hostel in Queenstown. We had 2 rooms in the hostel—8 bunk beds in each, and we shared 2 bathrooms with the whole floor. Pretty insane. But we grew to love it. Haha. Once we got settled in to our hostel, we quickly headed back to the vans and drove out to the Shotover Jet base, about 25 minutes away. We got to take a ride on the Shotover Jet, and it was seriously AMAZING! If you ever go to Queenstown, I highly recommend that you take a ride.
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| Whitney and Me getting pumped up |
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| Notice my lovely face in the back right |
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| there's our lovely boat! |
After shotover, we went to a little town called Arrowtown. There is an old Chinese settlement there that we walked around and looked at for a bit, and also a little street with some cute shops—lots of candy, and lots of jewelry. It was a lot of fun!
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| Me in an old Chinese house |
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| My cottage! |
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| Me and Nicole |
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| It was truly remarkable--and had free fudge samples too :) |
For dinner, a few of us went to a pizza place called “Fat Badger’s Stoned and Baked Pizza.” It was seriously, so delicious. We got the “Scratchin Badger” pizza and it was loaded with some crazy toppings—bacon, pepperoni, spinach, onions, olives, and feta cheese on top of it all. Pretty much delicious.
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| Notice how high the badger looks |
After dinner, we took a long drive through Glenorchy—the filming location for Lord of the Rings. It was gorgeous! The only downside was that it was FULL of sand flies, and they love to bite you. So we all went away from that evening covered in bites. Luckily they don’t itch like mozzy bites do. Definitely a plus.
Tuesday 1 Feb
We woke up super early (well, I was so excited for the day, I really didn’t sleep much at all) and 8 of us made our way up the street to the skydiving shop. When we got there, we filled out all the paperwork, and hopped in a van that took us out to the skydive base—about 20 minutes away. I wasn’t nervous to skydive, just unbelievable excited. One we got there, we skydive suited up and got some safety instructions from our instructors. Remember—the bigger the banana, the better the skydive. That was the catchphrase for the day because we were supposed to keep our body in a banana shape once jumping out of the plane. You can bet we repeated that line a million times. Haha.
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| Signing our lives away... Janet was NERVOUS! |
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| That's our plane! |
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| Janet and Me in our super flattering suits |
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| Getting all strapped up |
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"The bigger the banana,
the better the skydive!" |
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| In the plane... |
After getting our safety talk, we hopped on to the tiniest, most ghetto plane I’ve ever seen and got situated with our instructors and camera men on the plane. The whole way up, my instructor, Chris, kept asking me if I was nervous and trying to make sure I was feeling ok. But really, I didn’t need him to comfort me—I was too excited to be scared! He strapped himself on my back nice and tight and gave me my lovely hat and goggles to put on. Once it was our turn, we scooted to the edge of the plane where the door was open. I dangled over the edge in my banana formation and he pushed off and we went plummeting to the ground. Best. Feeling. Ever. After 30 seconds of amazing free fall, Chris pulled the canopy and we floated around for about 5 minutes. It was seriously gorgeous. We could see the lake, the mountains, and the whole city. It was an amazing feeling! Chris welcomed me to his “office” and told me he gets to do 140 jumps every month. I decided I want to be a skydiving instructor. Haha. It was really the most incredible thing I’ve ever done, and I highly recommend it to EVERYONE. I would do it every day if I could. Too bad it’s so dang expensive…
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| Loving life! |
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| that's me floating down! |
After we got back from skydiving, we got some lunch and met up with the rest of the group. We drove about 2 hours out to Wanaka where we went to a place called “Puzzling World.” It was a pretty cool place, full of illusions and mazes and stuff to mess with your brain. Nicole and I went in the maze and it took us 37 minutes to find the 4 towers and get out—we were only ones in our group to make it all the way through! I was determined to win.
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| Isn't this puzzling? |
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| I'm finally taller than Whitney! |
For dinner, we all went to Ferg Burger and had the most incredible burgers I’ve ever had in my life—and that’s really saying something. Dr. Jacobs told us we should split them between two of us, but I assured him that I could eat a whole one, and being the competitive Bergen that I am, I ate an ENTIRE Ferg. It was very delicious, and I felt like I might die by the end. But I also proved Dr. J wrong, so that was pretty cool. Haha.
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| Before |
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| They were so yum! |
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| During... |
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| After. What a G |
Tuesday night I didn’t get much sleep either, but this time it wasn’t because I was excited. I was definitely terrified out of my mind.
Wednesday 2 Feb
We woke up early and drove out to Kawarau Bridge—the “pioneer” bungy spot where AJ Hackett first invented bungy jumping. It was raining, and all 16 of us were feeling a little uneasy about jumping off a 43 meter high bridge. But we got all set up and walked out to the middle of the bridge. I ended up being second in line—something I wasn’t super excited about. After Nancy jumped, the sat me down, tied my feet together and hooked me up to some super thick bungy ropes. Then I shuffled my way out to the edge of the bridge and after the tiniest bit of hesitation, did a perfect swan dive off the bridge and down to the river below.
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| There I go! |
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| What a feeling!!! |
Turns out, bungy jumping isn’t scary at all! It was actually really fun! I would do it again in a heartbeat, but yet again—I don’t have that kind of money. Haha. After I got back up to the observation deck, I watched the rest of the girls take their turns—some tandem, some solo. I couldn’t believe that all 16 of us did it! We are the first BYU group to have all 16 of us be that awesome. Haha.
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| All 16 of us in our free t-shirts! |
After we got back to the hostel, Nicole and I went on a walk by the lake and through the forest. It was seriously beautiful! I could hardly take it all in.
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| Me! |
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| Nicole and me! |
After our walk, we met up with the group again and took the gondola up the mountain to the Skyline Luge. The luge is a lot like the Alpine Slide, and we had a great time on it.
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| Well aren't we just adorable? |
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| View from the top of the Luge |
That evening, we decided to try the food at the bar downstairs from our hostel because here, you only have to be 18 to get in to the bars. We felt pretty awesome. Haha. The food was really good though—definitely worth it.
Thursday 3 Feb
Thursday morning, it was raining hard again. We piled into the vans and drove out to Milford Sound (about 4 hours away). There, we took a gorgeous nature cruise and looked at some amazing mountains in the fiordlands. On the way home, it was raining even harder, so we got the special privilege of seeing the thousands of waterfalls that appear in the mountains when it rains. It was like nothing I’ve ever seen before. I couldn’t believe how beautiful it was!
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| gorgeous view from our nature cruise |
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| A beautiful waterfall we saw |
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| sitting on the boat :) |
Thursday evening we all bonded and told stories for a few hours—always a fun time with these girls. I love them!
Friday 4 Feb
Friday was Nicole’s 21st birthday, so we HAD to do something special. 8 people in our group decided to go on a horseback tour of the Lord of the Rings filming locations, so the remaining 8 of us rented mountain bikes and packed sandwiches and went on a beautiful bikeride around the lake. We rode about 3 hours and found a secluded beach to eat lunch at. It was amazing! After we ate and took endless amounts of pictures, we rode back, stopping a few times to enjoy the beauty of the lake. It ended up being a 6 hour bikeride—we were SORE the next day. But it was gorgeous, and totally worth it!
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| we look like a gang |
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| just hangin out at a secluded beach. no big deal |
After our bikeride, we let Nicole decide what she wanted to do. So a few of us went with her to get sushi. And get this—I actually really liked it! I was very proud of myself. I must be growing up. Haha. It was fun though!
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| Me and the Birthday Girl! |
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| Gettin ready to take my first bite of sushi... |
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| YUM! |
After sushi (which was just an appetizer because we split 2 rolls between 5 of us), we went back for round 2 of Ferg Burger (we had to… it was our last night in Queenstown!). It was just as delicious the second time around!
Later that night, a few of us went down to the bar to dance for a little bit to celebrate Nicole’s 21st—but don’t worry, we didn’t have any drinks.
Saturday 5 Feb
We checked out of the hostel early in the morning and drove 7 hours out to Christchurch where we checked into a motel that was a million times nicer than our hostel. We dropped our stuff off there and went over to a market that happens on Saturdays in Christchurch where I found a lot of cute stuff.
That evening, we got to go to the park for a really cool concert in the park to celebrate Waitangi Day (similar to our 4th of July). It was a way cool concert full of the most random selection of music. They started out classical, played some Mozart and Beethoven. Then they played a song from the Nutcracker and had some famous ballroom dancers perform. After that, they had a classical version of “The Final Countdown,” which made my day. Then they did a rap about rugby, a medley of songs from “South Pacific,” and they ended it all with the Christchurch City Choir singing “Bohemian Rhapsody” with choreographed fireworks. It was pretty much the coolest concert ever. I absolutely loved it!
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| Nicole, me and Nancy--it was a bit chilly... |
Sunday 6 Feb
Happy 24th anniversary to my Mom and Dad! I’m glad they love each other J
We got to go to a ward in Christchurch, where I met a lot of really awesome people and we had a great testimony meeting. After church, we made taco salad for all of us—including Dr. J, Linda, Johnny, and James. Johnny and James (who are both kiwis and rarely have Mexican food because it is really uncommon here) told us that they were going to write in their journals about how that meal was the best they’d ever had. Haha! It was just simple taco salad! But it was way good.
After our lunch, Nicole and I went to the YSA Fast Breaker and socialized with some cool people from the stake down there. They were super nice and welcoming.
That evening, we all gathered and did the characteristic Tim-Tam Slam with milo instead of hot chocolate. A lot of the girls had never done it before, so it was a lot of fun.
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| Me, Nicole, Neeley, and Diana |
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| Well don't I just look so attractive... |
Once it got dark, we went for a walk to cool off—it was a very hot day and we were all dying so the evening breeze felt really nice.
Monday 7 Feb
Monday we went to a little French village called Akaroa. It was really cute and they had about a million things I wanted to buy—but I was good and didn’t buy them.
After that, we came back to Christchurch and walked around the museum and the arts centre which had some pretty cool things (including a fudge shop that gave out some delicious samples).
That night, we decided to save money on dinner and we all made copious amounts of spaghetti. We overestimated how much spaghetti we would need to feed 16 of us and after all of us had seconds and thirds, we STILL had a ton left over.
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| Me, Katie, and Kara holding the leftover spaghetti... |
Then, James gave us a really cool FHE lesson about the history of the church in New Zealand—he used to work for CES and was over all the seminaries and institutes on the South Island. He really knows his stuff! Then we played some games and all of us watched “Chocolat” together. It was a lot of fun!
Tuesday 8 Feb
The sun was finally out on Tuesday, so we all went to the beach and spent the whole day there. It was beautiful! And I got nice and tan again. It was a very fun and relaxing day.
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| Me and Nicole (I'm kind of a hunchback here...gross) |
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| So BEAUTIFUL! |
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| Nicole and I were very excited to be at the beach. |
After we got home, we all ate leftover spaghetti (and still didn’t finish it all off) and watched “Freedom Writers”—the perfect teacher movie. Such a great movie! I forgot how amazing it was.
Wednesday 9 Feb
After checking out of our motel, we went to Cathedral Square and the Botanic Gardens of Christchurch and walked around for a few hours. It is really beautiful there. I loved seeing all the flowers and everything! And I also bought a really cute alphabet book called “A is for All Black” that is full of iconic New Zealand things for each letter of the alphabet. Can’t wait to use it in my classroom!
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| Nicole and me in the cathedral |
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| Me in a tree |
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| Nicole and me being silly for once... |
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the BEAUTIFUL begonias in the conservatory
at the Botanic Garden |
For a late lunch, we all went to Denny’s, because we’d heard that Denny’s in NZ is much better than at home. And we heard right. It was delicious! But the most exciting part about it was that they had REAL KETCHUP! I miss real ketchup. I probably used half a bottle on my burger and fries. It was so delicious. I even wrote about that in my journal. Haha. I was super excited.
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| DENNY'S!!! |
After lunch, we got on a plane and flew back to Auckland. It was really an amazing 10 days and the South Island is so gorgeous. I wish I could go back, and I definitely plan to at some point in my life. It’s too beautiful to pass up.
Hope you enjoyed my story—I know it was excessively long, but my days were pregnant with adventure, I couldn’t leave anything out!
Love you all and miss you heaps! Hope you’re doing well J
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