Posted March 11 at 7:38pm local time.

It’s honestly hard to find time to write when your always on the go. I’ve written some in the car, but I have always been that kid who would rather just look out the window – even driving places I’ve been a million times – instead of reading a book or napping. New Zealand is a place where even those always crack open a book the moment they hop in the car will be impelled by the sheer beauty to instead devour the landscape flowing past. Because of this I spend most of our driving times looking out the window. This leads to smaller windows of opportunity to write and subsequently long posts in order to catch up. This post still won’t bring you entirely up-to-date, but it’s long enough as it is – even being just a surface-level overview.

Wednesday, March 5, we drove from Rotorua to Wellington, stopping to see the Army Museum in Waiouru and to have dinner with the Smith family in Palmerston North, again being blessed by the hospitality we’ve been shown by Christian families in New Zealand. We pulled into the Downtown Backpackers in Wellington a little after midnight.

Thursday morning we trekked to the cable car station where we were pulled up the mountain to the botanical gardens and great views of the city and harbor. We took the path through the gardens that gradually led down hill towards where we started. I wasn’t immensely impressed with the touted rose garden section, but they did have a huge variety of roses bursting with color. We ate lunch on the lawn behind the governments buildings before we headed in for a tour. Right after heading through the metal detectors the guard told me that there would be an explosion in a moment. I would have been really puzzled if I hadn’t seen the robotic bomb removal vehicle outside next to the “Military Exercise” sign when we were eating lunch. I hurried over to the window in time to hear an explosion and see cardboard shrapnel fly out from around the corner where the tethered robot was operating. The actual tour wasn’t quite as exciting, but we did see the Beehive, Parliament Building, and the National Library while learning more about how the New Zealand government and its unicameral legislature works. We made our way through as much of the expansive Te Papa Museum as we could before we walked around the harbor to the Fisherman’s Table for dinner while we watched the sun set.

We made good use of the extra day given us this year by those folks who invented the leap year and on Friday paid a visit to the National Maritime Museum before finishing off Te Papa. After Te Papa had been conquered we explored the town some before heading off to have dinner with a family my brother knew about through a friend who had gone over to New Zealand to play rugby for a summer. They lived high up on a hill with a commanding view of the city and harbor. We could even watch the rugby game on the big screen at the stadium down below through binoculars. We didn’t stay too late because we needed our rest before catching the early ferry to the south island the next morning.

On Saturday we drove our car into the belly of the ferry, put on our parking break, and went up on deck to enjoy the smooth crossing to Picton. After landing and lunch at a local bakery we used the rest of the afternoon driving down the east coast of the south island to Christchurch, stopping along the way to see a large New Zealand Fur Seal colony. We unloaded at the Base Backpackers in downtown Christchurch literally across the street from the Christchurch Cathedral. Despite the drizzle we struck out in search of dinner.

We had walked a number of blocks before I saw it. Its sign glowed warmly through the bleak drizzle, beckoning me. I jaywalked – ran, really – across the street and walked through the open door. The moment I walked and glanced about I knew I had found the closest thing to Chipotle in all of New Zealand. It was all so familiar: the meat choices, the salsas, the extras. The buffet restaurant recommended to us by the friendly man on the street paled in comparison to the burrito assembly line in front of me. I hurried out to collect my family and explain my discovery. My family, knowing my love for Chipotle, couldn’t refuse me and we all went in to order what was, in my unbiased opinion, some of the best food we had all trip. After devouring my burrito I talked to the man behind the counter and told him that it was right on par with Chipotle back in the States. He thanked me for my high compliment and said he and his wife were one of the two couples that owned the 2-year-old business. He had spent some time in Central America and the others had all lived in California for some time where they fell in love with a small burrito chain in San Francisco. They modeled their restaurant, dubbed The Burrito Company, after that small chain and Chipotle. I was pained to learn that I wouldn’t find another franchise of The Burrito Company anywhere else. It was especially painful because we would soon be leaving the city, with no plans to return this trip. But I was full of burrito, so I was happy.

On Sunday we attended the Reformed Church of Bishopdale, the largest Reformed Church we‘ve attended so far this trip. After the service we had lunch at someone’s home along with a number of other families from the church. We then headed to another family’s home before attending the evening service. After the evening service we went by the grocery to buy things for dinner before heading back to Base.

On Monday we loaded up and went to the International Antarctic Centre on our way out of Christchurch. At the Centre we learned a lot about Antarctica and the stations countries have on the cold continent. We also bundled up and made our way into the Antarctic Experience room where they keep it at a nice 8 degrees Celsius between “storms” where the wind chill plunges to -18 degrees Celsius. John, who unwisely chose to wear shorts that day, didn’t survive the entirely of the storm. We ate dinner in Geraldine on our way to our motel in Fairlie.

Tuesday we drove to Mt. Cook, stopping at the beautifully blue Lake Tekapo and Lake Pukaki. We did a short hike at Mt. Cook, making it past the large swinging bridge before turning back because of our time constraints. I accidentally test the durability of my D300 when the shutter motion shook the camera enough to make it fall from the rock I had stupidly put it on to take a self-timed photo of the family. It slipped off and fell a few feet onto the rocks below. Thankfully only the plastic LCD screen cover broke and there were only a few scratches on the body, but I could have done without testing for myself what Nikon’s engineers have already tested. We finished our day with a drive to Arrowtown and dinner at the small Thai restaurant there.

On Wednesday we drove the short distance to Queenstown where we first inquired at the i-Site for recommendations. The lady at the counter was extremely unhelpful by never giving us her opinion on anything. David and I instead received helpful advice from the guy at the A.J. Hackett bungee jumping counter across the street. Following his advice we chose to take the Kawarau Jetboating trip which started on the lake and went a ways up two of the rivers that feed the large lake where Queenstown is located. It wasn’t as exciting as the video footage would lead you to believe, but riding the waves in the harbor, zigzagging through the narrow parts of the river, and being whipped around in almost a 360 degree spin was still loads of fun. After the hour-long adventure we drove out just past Arrowtown to the historic Kawarau Bridge, the site of the first commercial bungee jumping twenty years ago. David and I were the last two jumps of the day and it was awesome! My mom said she couldn’t believe she was going to watch us bungee jump, but she did along with the rest of the family. After the exhilarating plunge we headed back to the Holiday Park and ate a good home-made dinner.

We drove to Milford sound on Thursday, taking an afternoon boat out through the fjord and back again. It wasn’t raining that day, so we didn’t see nearly as many waterfalls as we would have had it been raining, but it was still gorgeous. When we got to the end of the sound a group of dolphins joined us and swam just off the bow until our boat turned around. We ate dinner at the overpriced café before heading back up the mountain, through the tunnel, and back down following the valley enjoying the sunset the whole way. It was close to nine by the time we pulled into Te Anau and checked into our hotel. We were really in the mood for some ice cream, though, so we drove around the corner to the grocery store. My mom, Catharine, and John ran up to the door, but the lady working there had just turned off the automatic door. I walked up after David parked to see them waiting outside the door wondering what to do. Apparently the lady told them through the door that it was closed, but I walked up and just pushed the doors open and we slipped in. We grabbed some ice cream just in time to be the last people to check out. Victory never tasted so sweet!

Friday we drove back to Queenstown where my mom and John took the gondola up the hill to do more luging while the rest of the family was picked up to go hang gliding. We got close to the top of the hill when they guides stopped the van to check the wind. Regretfully the wind was blowing the wrong way so they had to cancel the flights. We bummed around the town some until the lugers got back and then drove over the scenic pass to Wanaka. The Albert Town Lodge where we were staying had a huge kitchen, so we made our own dinner again that night.

Saturday we attended the huge A&P show (Agricultural & Pastoral) in Wanaka which is basically a New Zealand county fair. We saw award-winning livestock, a plethora of flashy vendors, and tasted over a dozen different lamb roasts from the chefs competing at the Glammies. That afternoon we conquered the local Mt. Iron and came back down with an appetite we satisfied with more home cooking.

Sunday we attended a small Baptist church where we almost doubled their congregation. We left after the fellowship tea and took our time driving to Fox Glacier. At one point on the drive we stopped at a long one-way bridge because there was traffic coming across from the other direction. One-lane bridges are very common in New Zealand, but this one was one of the longest we had seen yet. All of a sudden the third car in line, a Mercedes right in front of us, bolted out and started to speed across. He didn’t even make it to the passing bay, instead meeting a camper van head-on. They each halted and a stale-mate for a minute, then the Mercedes carefully, and poorly with many corrections, backed up to let the van and the train of traffic that had built up behind it finish crossing, much to our amusement. We broke up the driving with numerous scenic stops, including taking one longer tramping trail through the forest and out to a strip of secluded beach surrounded by high cliffs. We ended that night in Fox Village which is at the foot of Fox Glacier.