Speed updating, afterparty edition

Someone requested a line from Ketonen and Myllyrinne: “Kulkuseni kilahtaa, kil kil”. Since its almost christmas and all.

UUUkei! I think I last left you at Mt. Cook, and its been a while. Since that a lot has been going on, and I dont know if I can remember it all, but lets try. First of all we have made our way back to Picton and are ready to take a ferry to the North Island today. And the last week or so has gone so fast.

From Mt. Cook we drove to Queenstown, but on our way a chemical truck had drove off from the street and the whole road was closed for a long time. We spent our time in a small city waiting for the road to open, eating and visiting souvenir shops… lame, but fun enough. In that town, name of which escapes my mind right now, I had the worst milk shake ever! 4$ for two sips, still makes me angry. We finally made our way to Queenstown, which was much much smaller than I thought it would be. We checked ourselves into a YHA lodge, which was really comfy. Since none of us had the money to jump a bungee or do anything else extreme we spent the monrning just strolling around town, visiting some shops and buying some souvenirs. Fun enough.

From QT we made our way to our southern most location: Te Anau. Te Anau was a small town by the lake, just what we needed. We found a nice hostel to sleep in, little did we know, the next day would be one of the best Ive had here. We woke up around 5am, and started to make our way to Milford Sound, our cruise would be leaving 9am, with breakfast included. Milford was easily one of the most beautiful places Ive ever seen! The cruise went around the sound all the way to open sea, with awesome views, waterfalls and stuff. We just had to be on the deck, even though it was really cold. At one point I said to Eero “If I get a cold because of this, is well worth it”. And what do you know, I got a cold, surprise.

We spent another night in Te Anau after the cruise. Watched some movies, including the ever legendary Anchorman and The Monster, which was awesome. In the morning we started to make our way to Wanaka, which was a beautiful little town. In Wanaka we stayed in a camping site, me and Eero sleeping in a tent, Aino in our car. It was a comfy night, and the weather didnt get too bad. From Wanaka we had a long drive to Franz Josef Glacier, the scenery was supposed to be awesome, but we didnt see anything because it was pouring all day. Winding roads, uphills, downhills and all that. We slowly made our way to the sea, and to the rainforest region. Even though it was raining, I think we all loved it. The hostel we stayed in Franz Josef was the best Ive been in NZ, like being in someones house, free soup in the evening by the fireplace. We were sure it would rain the next day also, but the clouds lifted for a small while in the morning and revealed the beautiful mountains, we also got a chance to see the glacier itself during the morning, we couldnt have hoped for more.

The next day, we werent really sure what our destination would be. First we made our way to Greymouth, which lived up to its name, being gray! Everything to do the would have cost us money, and since all of us are more or less broke we decided to drive to Punakaiki, to see the pancake rocks. Decision was, once again, a good one, things happened and we ended up staying in a cabin for 15$ each, cheap is all I can say about that. The place was by the lake, so I did some walking on the beach during the evening.

We have made our way to yesterday. We decided to make our way to north island a day earlier than first planned. So, yesterday we had a long day behind the wheel, driving all the way from Punakaiki to Picton. But before starting our journey, we did some caving, which any of us had never done before. It was more than awesome! Even though it was bit of a tourist attraction we needed head lamps and the whole shebang. The cave we were in, was a pretty small one so we made our way all the way to the end of the cave.

In Picton we booked into the same hostel we had used before, the Atlantis Backpackers. It was time to celebrate the end of the southern island. Me and Eero bought some beer, Aino some red wine. After a while there were two men overboard, but it was well worth it. Once our beers ran out, we decided to head to a bar. The only place open was an irish bar. I officially hate irish bars right now, but you have to try everything once, right? Funny enough, one of the highlights of our trip happened in that very bar. The was an acoustic guitar, and the locals (since we were on irish soil) demanded us to sing something traditional. After a small brainstorm the only thing both of us knew was Tahroja Paperilla by Eppu Normaali. So, we were the first finnish guys to sing a finnish song in New Zealand in an irish bar.

My time is running out, so Ill sign out. Stay tuned, see you soon!

Speed updating

Here we go again. Just a small update from our road trip. After the last update we made our way back to Picton in a lousy weather. We stayed on a hostel with pool table, pool, big screen telly and a huge movie library. So we spent our rainy day watching Shrek 3 and Blood Diamond and had a good night sleep. Aino was due to arrive around 11am so in the morning we watched Mr. Brooks to kill some time. All 3 movies mentioned above were at least good, so great choices.

We went to meet Aino at the Ferry terminal and from there made our way to car rental office. We got a legendary Nissan Sunny and hit the road. Everyone got some driving done during the first day which was good. Our only proper stop was in Kaikoura where we did some grocerie shopping and just were in awe of the incredible views. Overall the views toward Mt. Cook just keep on getting better and better. On Sunday we ended up in a camp ground just a little south from Christchurch. Our next destination was Lake Tekapo where we drove on Monday via a beautiful scenic road. Tekapo was awesome and the views just kept on getting better. A lady at an information center told us there would be few free camping zones. The first one we checked was a ghost town, but despite the obvious horror movie cliches we started setting up our tent. We were almost done when few strange looking guys with a shotgun arrived from the woods. It was time we took our leave. Too much is too much. The second camp ground turned out to be wonderful. It was by a small lake and we were able to make a live fire there. Had some beers and some sausages. Awesome evening!

Today we drove to Mt. Cook Village and did some looking around, booked ourselves into a hostel and went for a 3 hour trek. It was pouring all the time, but still the place was beautiful. After the trek me and Eero decided to try the free sauna here. The “sauna” was patchetic, we werent allowed to throw water on the rocks etc. BS. It wasnt all that bad. Tomorrow we’re heading to Queenstown and who knows what is waiting for us there. Stay tuned!