Adventure Weekend!

Saturday March 10 to Sunday March 11^th my abroad program, IFSA–Butler, planned an ‘adventure weekend’ for us. It was a completely pre-paid in our tuition so it felt like it was a free weekend of fun things!

Sadly we all had to get up super early on Saturday Morning. We had to be downtown at the IFSA office by 7:45 or something like that, that seems ridiculous to a bunch of lazy college students. But we all muscled through the early wake up and showed up, though some of us were admittedly a little late. Then we walked over to the Bluebridge Cook Strait Ferry terminal and checked in for our voyage!

After about an hour long wait, we boarded the ferry and excitedly waited on the front deck to cruise off! After we started moving the wind was a bit too much for most people but Dani, Tess and I stayed on the deck for the whole three-hour journey, seeing some amazing views as well as a few dolphin visits. We had a great time on the deck and were kind of numbed to the cold after a while. Here are some of the best views of the trip, though these pictures barely do them justice.

After we arrived in Picton on the ferry we walked to the train station in town, had some subway sandwiches for lunch and then boarded the train for a 1 and a half or 2 hour trip down the east coast of the South Island. On the train there was an observation car, which had open sides so you could get really great views and pictures of the beautiful coastline and mountains. The train ride ended in Kaikoura, which is a whole range of mountains and coastline. Here are some great pictures from that leg of the trip.

With a short snack and rest behind us we got on a bus and headed to the Kaikoura whale watching vessels. We boarded one high-speed catamaran and headed out into the semi-rough seas. We ended up seeing THREE different whales. It was great! And even with all of the SEA semester seasickness behind me, I will admit that I started feeling pretty sick after a while on the rolling seas off the sheltered coastline. Here are some whales!!

 After the whale watching we headed back to shore and were led to our hostel for the night, The Dusky Lodge. It was a pretty big hostel and housed all 30 or so of us easily.  I was in a room with Dani, Tess, Molly and two girls who go to the different Massey Universities in NZ on the North Island. One Massey is in Wellington and the other is in Palmerston North, just a ways north of Wellington, maybe an hour by bus. One of the girls wasn’t feeling great and went almost directly to sleep, but the other girl Sam hung out with us and we all became really great friends! She’s easily as goofy as the rest of us so it worked out well. We got a big fish and chips dinner and walked down the road to get some ice cream later in the night. The next morning we got up had some toast and tea for breakfast and boarded a bus to drive us back up the coast to Picton. Along the way we stopped at the St. Clair Family Estate Winery and had a small wine tasting and lunch. It was a fantastic lunch of cheese and fruit and dips and breads, and the wine was great! I bought a bottle and kept it for when my Mom and sister were coming to visit.

Next we re-boarded the bus and headed up to Picton just in time to board the Ferry back to Wellington. The ferry was just as fun the second time around and we saw more dolphins! It was a really fun trip, though too quick. I’m certainly glad that I’ll be headed back to the South Island with my family when they come!