Aotearoa 5 - Flyer

Jan. 23, 2007: Arrival in Auckland - Queenstown

"Welcome to the land of the long, white cloud!"
- That's what the pilot said to us when we were within sight of the North Island. It's called that because the first Maoris to see the islands saw either a long, white cloud (signaling land), or snow on the mountains that they took to be a cloud. Looking out the plane window, I could see the city of Auckland, lots of water, and the rolling hills of the North Island (used in Hobbiton in LOTR).

One of our first sights upon arrival in the Auckland airport was this sign:



This quote is now one of my favorites, because it just captures how I feel about flying or traveling in general. I always get excited when I go to an airport or train station, even if I'm not the one traveling (but especially if I am the one traveling). I just loved it that this was one of my first impressions of New Zealand.

If you ever go to New Zealand, make sure you have confirmation of return tickets before you go through customs. The lady clearing me was a little cranky that I didn't have a receipt or something, even though I had the confirmation number. She just told me to have it with me next time.

We checked in for our domestic flight to Queenstown, our first stop, then walked outside to the domestic terminal. It was a gorgeous, clear day, the first day in a long while that we were able to wear tank tops.

Kiwis (New Zealanders) are well known for their friendliness and hospitality, and we found that to be true through the whole trip.

I slept through pretty much the whole flight to Queenstown (on the South Island), and woke up just in time to see a big, beautiful, blue lake and mountains before we touched down.

Queenstown is a touristy area on the shores of Lake Wakatipu. In the Queenstown airport, we got our rental car (driving on the left side of the road!) and drove to our first accommodation - Top 10, which turned out to be really good to us. Kind of like KOA, but we stayed in the little cabins at each stop on the way. Nice, soft mattresses, cheap prices, and discounts on lots of stuff! :)

One thing that impressed me the whole trip was how gorgeous the water was. It was all clean, all clear, all turquoise blue....you could drink it straight, although not knowing what kind of animals are upstream, it's probably safer to boil it or treat it. We saw tons of rivers all over the islands, and they all looked good enough to drink, winding through fields and forests and mountains....sigh. I loved it!



And you can walk around barefoot! :)



Still the first day we were there, we drove from Queenstown to Glenorchy, which is supposed to be one of the most beautiful drives in the world. It goes along the shores of Lake Wakatipu. Notice the clarity of the water!



Lake Wakatipu is in the shape of a giant "S" - looks kind of like a sleeping giant from the air. The legend is that a princess was captured by a giant, and her father promised that whoever rescued her could marry her. The man who was in love with her waited until the giant was asleep to go and get her, but he couldn't cut her chains. Finally she was so distraught that she cried and her tears melted the chains.
Later he went back to kill the giant. While the giant was sleeping (again) he set fire underneath the giant, and he was so fat that he burned a huge hole in the ground, which later filled with snow and turned into the lake. They say that only the giant's heart was left after the fire.
Funny fact: the lake regularly rises and falls (every 6 minutes...?), like a heartbeat, but no one really knows why.





That night, the first night we were in New Zealand, was one of my favorite. It was the night when the sky was clearest and the stars were most visible. There are two things about the Southern Hemisphere that I've wanted to see more than just about anything: one was seeing the direction the water spins when it goes down the drain (what's that called again? _____ affect?) and the other was seeing the constellations in the southern sky.

AMAZING. I saw the Southern Cross and Orion (upside down), and that first night was so clear I could also see the Milky Way and of course thousands of other stars and constellations that I didn't recognize. I LOVED it!!! I lay out on the trampoline under the stars for a while, just soaking it in.....would've stayed longer if it hadn't been so cold. :)