Road Trip!

We decided again that a road trip would be the best way to see all of the South Island in the little time we had left. So we rented a car yet again (we made sure it was not manual this time) and we found ourselves driving around in a Toyota Sprinter we came to call Bubba.

On the eve of our departure we were approached in our hostel's lounge by a friendly Canadian girl named Hanah. I know, Hanah Montana, ridiculous! Anyway, she asked us if she could come with us to Invercargill and of course, Canadians unite!

After a very long drive and several emergency pee stops, we finally made it to Invercargill where we checked in at a hostel called Sparky's. It was a cozy little place with a sadly unfinished jacuzzi in the backyard. We had an early night as we planned to go to Bluff (the southern most town in New Zealand). However, in the morning Hanah came down with some kind of horrible, tropical death storm of an illness. We had to take her to a clinic first thing where she had many blood tests and other invasive procedures. It ended up to be food poisoning from a dented can of peas and carrots, so no more vegetables for us! (I'm sure all the parents out there are loving this!) Once we knew she was okay and safe we hit the road for Wanaka; an absolutely beautiful drive.

After driving by about fifteen wineries, each one more enticing looking than the last, we arrived quite late in Wanaka and so made ourselves dinner and enjoyed the gorgeous view of the lake and mountains before turning in.

Above photo is what the elevator in our hostel looked like.

Montana kindly took the wheel for the supposedly long car ride back to Dunedin while I slept the entire drive. Thankfully the drive didn't take nearly as long as expected and we were greeted by a glorious rain storm! Needless to say my hair exploded and gained about 15 pounds of pure curls. We checked back in to our favourite room at our favourite hostel, grabbed some Subway and settled down for a night of American Idol.