The Beautiful South Island.
We went on to the inter-islander ferry where we traveled from Wellington (A city in the northern island) all the way to Picton (a city in the southern island). We stayed there for a couple of days.
Our next stop was Kaikōura. Kaikōura is a costal town known for its wildlife, its sperm whale population and for the New Zealand fur seals.
We decided to go for a walk in the trails of Kaikōura, and we were very lucky because we saw a lot of New Zealand fur seals, including one seal that flopped around the boardwalk.
The trail was very beautiful. There were so many beautiful places with some big rocks that you could climb so you could get a beautiful view of the ocean. It was also really nice to smell the sea while you were walking. It was a really enjoyable walk.
Next, we went sea kayaking. My Mom and I were in one kayak and my brother and Dad in another. When we were on the tour we saw some more fur seals and two penguins. I ended up getting very cold because it was windy, and wet so I didn't really like it all that much but I would still do it again.
Then, we left Kaikōura it was really fun I enjoyed it much more then I expected. I would recommend going there.
After that, we drove to Christchurch. Christchurch is a city in New Zealand known for its English heritage and old buildings. Sadly, it is also known for the very destructive earthquakes it had. We went to the earthquake museum, called Quake City, to learn more about it. The city of Christchurch is still recovering from the earthquakes.
We went to the Canterberry museum. The museum had a lot of cool exhibits like the Arctic , the Maoris (who were the first people to live in New Zealand), Dinosaurs and more. We went to this huge playground that had 20 foot slides, a zipline, trampolines, and slides that went under a hill. It was very enjoyable.
Next up, we went to another sheep farm called Sheer-vue. Unlike the first farm that only had 3 sheep this one had 3050 sheep , five Alpacas , four dogs, a cat, and a pig.
When we first got there we got a tour of the farm and saw the dogs round up the sheep it was really cool. My brother also was able to chop up some sweet beets and we fed them to their Alpacas and some of the sheep.
We then made our way to a smaller town ski town called Queenstown.Queenstown is known for its cool adventure spots. We decided to go on a helicopter tour! It was my whole family's except my Dad's. We flew up to of the top a snow capped mountain. The view was amazing! You could see all of Queenstown. It was an amazing experience I would totally go again.
We also went on something called a Hydro Shark. The Hydro Shark is a shark shaped water vehicle that jump up to 18 feet, dive 5 feet deep, and go up to 80km!! It was so much fun.
We went to Frans Josef. There we went to a National Wildlife Centre where we saw Kiwis not to be confused with the fruit. Kiwis are a bird and are about 14 to 18 inches tall. They have four main predators they are cats, dogs, possums and stoats ( a small weasel like animal). Kiwis are also an endangered species.
Another thing we learned while we were at the Wildlife Centre is about invasive species. For those of you that don't know what those are they are animals or plants that were brought over from another country. The Wildlife Centre was very interesting.
Finally, our last spot on the southern island was Punakaiki. We went to see the pancake rocks and the blowholes. A blowhole is when water comes and crashes up on rocks that sends steam up and it blasts out of a hole on the top of the rock then more steam builds at the bottom the it repeats.
Then, we went back onto the ferry and left to go back to the North island.
See ya,
Sam <3
Bye New Zealand. It was fun. Getting ready to fly back to Canada during COVID.
