On Tuesday, April 22nd my group won the final quiz night and came in second overall. On Saturday we all had a going away potluck and, finally, on Wednesday we all said our final goodbyes.
On Thursday, May 1st I took a flight to Queenstown and met up with John Paul for a road trip around the South Island. After leaving town in our rental "BB" (named for the loud unnecessary BEEP every time we reversed) our first stop was the Clay Cliffs - sharp pinnacles of clay carved out by rivers over the millennium.
After that we headed to Lake Benmore for our first night of camping and sorted out "cardis" - our car version of the food store "Tardis" in Milford Sound. The next day we headed off past Lake Pukaki to Mt Cook where JP decided to wade into a lake with actual glaciers in it.
We headed back out from there to Lake Tekapo and waded out into the water there as well before camping out for another night.
The next morning we went to Mt John then stopped in Geraldine for some cheese on the way into Christchurch.
After a day resting in Christchurch at our friend Henry's place we headed for Akaroa to swim with the dolphins.
Tuesday we stopped at Castle hill on our way back over to the West Coast.
On Wednesday we went to the Punakaiki Pancake rocks and then continued all the way up to Nelson.
Late that evening we finally made our way into Kahurangi National Park and camped out in Cobb Valley.
On Thursday we ran into Adam and Sarah (Milford Sound) who joined us to Golden Bay and Wharerangi Beach.
That night we all camped out and stopped in at Mussel Inn for quiz night. This quiz night was a bit different because you could get points for getting the wrong answer if it was funny or different. We got the funniest answer for the first heart transplant by putting Frankenstein.
On Friday we went for lunch at the Moutere Inn - New Zealand's oldest pub. That night I parted ways with the crew and caught the interislander to Wellington.
