Final Thoughts After my Trip

My Trip to New Zealand was a very new experience for me. Although I have traveled on my own before, this experience was different because everything on the trip itinerary was decided by me. Since it was my first time in New Zealand, I didn't force myself into as many activities as possible but I just tried to walk around and see what I could see by going around and exploring. It was very relaxing to just go walking around with no agenda, and do spontaneous things when they seemed very interesting. It was nice to travel alone, and I'm very happy to have experienced it. I know that it would not have been possible without the help and funding from all of my Parents, and so I thank you guys very very very very much!!! :) All in all, my trip was great, and I'm thankful to God that everything happened without a hitch or any serious problems during my trip. All these experiences will be something I will cherish all my life, and I'm glad to have reconnected with old friends.

I know that I am very blessed to be able to experience these things and I thank Mommy for her idea to let me go on this trip and experience something that I have never done before. :D

Queenstown with Raf

When we got to Queenstown, we stayed at the 33 Lomond Lodge Hotel. It was a beautiful room with a lakeview window.

While we were in Queenstown, we took some time walking around and just enjoying the scenery. The whole city seemed much nicer now that I was with friends.

On one night, we went to this place called Below 5 Ice Bar. It was a bar that was made completely out of ice. All of the chairs, seats, tables, and even the glasses were made from ice!

 In the picture below you'll see the temperature inside the room was -7.6 degrees Celsius.

The next day, I went Paragliding. To get there I had to take a gondola up to the top of a mountain, and then walk up to the very peak of the mountain.

Here are some pictures of when I was flying.

Invercargill

After Queenstown, I took a 2 hour bus down to the very end of New Zealand to meet Raf. In Invercargill, there isn't much to do so I just rested while waiting for Raf to get his leave. Raf works at Noel Leeming, one of the bigger electronics stores in New Zealand. He works as a salesman, but here is a picture of him taking out the garbage.

 On one of the days that I was there, Amber and her mom, Val, drove me around to Bluff which is the Southern Coastline of New Zealand. It has many beaches, but the sand is very different from what is in Boracay. Instead of white sand, it is black sand and very rocky. The waves here are very strong, and it's dangerous to swim so I just took pictures.

While I was in Invercargill, I stayed at Raf's house. Every night, Amber's mom would cook us dinner. On  our last night in Invercargill, she prepared roasted lamb with mint gravy for us.

On Sunday, Amber's mom drove us all the way back to Queenstown and dropped us off at our hotel.

Queenstown

When I stayed in Queenstown by myself, I stayed in Sir Cedric's Tahuna Pod Hostel. A hostel is a bit like a dorm room. You share a room with a number of other people, and there's a lounge and a kitchen that you can use freely. But because I stayed in a "Pod Hostel", everybody had their own Pod. It was like a having your own private room with a reading light and your own charging plugs.

Here is a picture of what my "room" looked like:

It was just a small bed and a shelf that acted like a bedside table.

I walked around the city and I found a small sweet-shop that sells homemade fudge, and is only available in Queenstown.

Queenstown is right next to Lake Wakatipu which I had to drive by when I rode a bus down to Invercargill to visit Raf. Queenstown is also surrounded by mountains called the Remarkables. Here are some pictures of it.

The next morning I took a bus to Invercargill, the southern most city of New Zealand.