Hi guys! I went on a weekend trip to the Fiordland National Park on the West Coast of New Zealand. Dunedin is on the eastern side, so it’s about a five-and-a-half-hour drive through sheep, cattle, fields, and rolling hills up to huge mountains. The entire drive is incredibly picturesque. I went with my friend Elsa and her flat mate Zara. We left early Saturday morning after I had an interview with an accounting firm. It was pouring rain the entire time, which made driving on the winding road a little trickier. We weren’t worried about the weather or how long it would take, and we made a ton of stops in little towns and for any signs we saw.
Our first stop was in this town called Gore, which is the brown trout fishing capital of the world. We stopped at a daffodil flower contest and hundreds of flowers, which were gorgeous and smelled incredible. There wasn’t much else to Gore besides the giant fish statue, flower festivals, and an alpaca farm, but it was a cute place to drive through.
We drove for another hour or two and ended up in Te Anua, which was the town where we stayed the night. It’s another little town in the middle of nowhere, but we picked up lunch, checked into our hotel room, and decided to do a little more sightseeing towards Milford Sound, which is at the very end of the Fiordland. We stopped at Mirror Lakes, but the rain made it hard to see the reflections of the mountains. We saw Mistletoe Lake and did a hike around it, where everything was covered in moss, before we stopped at the tunnel that stands as the entrance to Milford Sound. We met a Kea, which is the only type of parrot native to New Zealand. They’re known for being very friendly, but they also like to try and peel rubber off your car. One tried to hitch a ride from us and sat on the side mirror for a while as we drove home.
The next day, we made the full drive to Milford Sound, where Elsa and I took a boat tour around the mountains and fjords. We learned about the history behind the naming of the mountains, the formation, and the difference in currents as you near the entrance to the open water. Part of the X-Men Origins movie was filmed by the waterfall and in the mountains. Unfortunately, our weekend took a turn on the drive back, where a sheep got loose from its pen on the side of the road and ran in front of the car ahead of us. They slammed on their brakes, which caused Zara to have to swerve to avoid them, but we still hit their car. Luckily, no one was hurt, but their car was totaled, and ours had some significant damage to the wheel and possibly the undercarriage of the car. This was a learning experience for us to deal with the police, insurance, and getting a tow truck in another country, which may not sound difficult, but there was a learning curve. After a couple of hours dealing with everything, we got a tow truck to take the car back to Dunedin, where Elsa and Zara (the two who actually own the car) are trying to figure out how bad the damage is and if the car is salvageable. All in all, no one was hurt, which was the most important part, and it was an experience for us to be independent in a foreign country and handle a crisis. It wasn’t the end anyone was expecting, and there are still some details that need to be worked out, but it was a memorable weekend. Until next time!
DU Abroad 