New Zealand

Right now I am blogging from the base of the Franz Josef Glacier in New Zealand! 7 others along with myself are in the middle of an 11 day trip that we planned ourselves. The travel agent helped a bit (booking of flights, a couple of events), but we pretty much did the most of it ourselves by looking through guidebooks and brochures and then booking on the company's website. We have rented two wicked campers (old vans that have been converted into campers that sleep 3, with a stove and sink) and a mid size car. It fits us all comfortably (if you don't mind sleeping in a car a couple nights). So far, I have been on a cruise in the Akoroa harbor (where I saw dolphins and seals), on a gondola over Christchurch and a tram through it (it is a very beautiful city), and have explored a cave with glowworms in Greymouth (my favorite so far). Right now my mates are going up the glacier, but I had to stay back because I hurt my back awhile ago- but no worries, I was just doing it as a precation. I still got to see the glacier, just not hike on it. I wanted to be sure that I could do the rest of the stuff on the trip. Tomorrow we head down to Queenstown for a couple days to sky dive, bungy jump, and whitewater raft. Then we go down to Milford Sound for an overnight cruise, where we can take kayaks out into the sound. Then back to Queenstown for a canyon swing bungy, followed by a drive to Dunedin, a scottish town, for a couple tours and the finish of our trip. It is amazing here, the people are absolutely great, and the scenery is more amazing than anything you could imagine.
For incoming students, when planning trips, do as much as you can before you come. People will jump in with you if your trip is cool, plus you can get your plane tickets when you get here and it will be much cheaper (they went up for us almost $30-60 a day). We planned our own trip, but a lot of people took one through the travel agent- it all depends on how much adventure you are looking for. It has been a little crazy, but we have handled it all fine and it makes it that much more fun to be doing it for yourself. Do a lot of preplanning, and print out city maps. I really like the wicked campers, but there are other brands out there. The wickeds are just good because you can ding them up with no cost.
The trip is costly, in total a little over $2000- but so worth it!
To give people an idea, the plane ticket was about $500-600, the campers at $70 a day. The car was about $35 a day, but it was the cheapest I could find with a lot of searching. Add in insurance, and all the events you want to do, and it adds up- but the experience is the best I have ever had.
Gotta go~
Shea