pretty sure you make some money but obviously not a lot
basically, it wasnt like a spoiled kid teen tour
It was me and like 5 other kids, all like 15-17, living in a house on Lake Wakatipu in Queenstown.
It was amazing. the place was nothing special, place to sleep and eat and hang around. But NZ is just epic. The wall facing the lake was all windows, so you just look out over this BEAUTIFUL lake and queenstown is on the other side (short drive). behind the house, opposite of the lake, was the Remarkable mountains, and remarkable they are.
So basically, we would go to the mountain and ski/board. the leaders of the trip (3 or 4 i think) would go off on their own and hike and skin up the mountain and ski all the BC they want.
We also took some side trips out to some untouched parts of NZ and we also went bungy jumping, luging (so much fun), paragliding, and skydiving (although my parents didnt let me).
Then, for the last week, I went down the the southern most park of NZ to a little village called Papatuwai (seperate trip but same programs. they make it so that their trips all interconnect on a weekly schedule so one week i can be in NZ and the next i can be in Fuji and not like come midway into a trip.). Papatuwai has a population of about 20 people, and two of those 20 are Mary and Fergus, who are the coolest and nicest older people ever. They have this awesome little house with a guest house for backpackers and what not. It's right on the ocean, views looking out onto the beach. Papatuwai, btw, is know for some of the biggest waves in surfing, they can see the waves and the surfers right outside of their house but its season so they arent there very often. so a while ago, farmers, while burning land to clear it, accidentally burned down a yellow eyed penguin habitat and so now they are endangered, and Fergus is working, almost by himself, to protect and keep watch over these penguins.
So what we did was we went around, helped build a little shack where he could keep supplies, we sat on a cliff on the coast and watched and counted the penguins as they came in from the ocean (you kind of have to hide because if they see or hear you, they will get scared and run back into the ocean and probably end up dying), we set traps to possoms and ferrets dont eat the penguin eggs, and basically explored and hiked around some incredible places where few people have ever gone. That part of NZ actually has rainforest, so we actually did this little thing where each person went out alone (went out like 5 minutes apart) and followed a trail through the rain forest alone and then came out on the amazing beach and walked on the beach back to the house.
shit, it was an awesome trip. If you, or anyone else, has question, please ask. i like talking about it, makes me kinda relive it.
here are some pics.
view from the deck of the house overlooking lake wakatipu and queenstown
view from our driveway of the Remarkables at sunset
view from the big hill behind queenstown in the first picture
lake wakatipu
One of the little trips we took to a place literally called Paradise. There is no one around here for miles, just a dirt road that leads up to the glacier that supplied the water to lake wakatipu (i think they filmed some car commercials here)
another little trip
view from the living room in Papatuwai
the personal hike through the rain forest
and the beach that we ended up on
here is the shed we built
and the view while watching the penguins
