Looking from the bottom to the top:
Looking down from the top (you can't even see part of it, because it's so steep!):
We headed out of town, but while we were driving we saw a sign for a “cheese factory” and decided to check it out. It turned out to be a very worthwhile stop, because we enjoyed the cheese and bought some to have with our dinner later that night. The shopkeeper was also really friendly and offered us some suggestions on places to stop along our drive. We had heard from SEVERAL different people that the drive up to Christchurch is supposed to be incredibly boring (I’m not exactly sure why), so this man gave us a detour to go around the boring part.
His first suggestion was to stop at “Shag Point,” where you can see shag birds, seals and sometimes penguins.
Again, we didn’t have much luck with the penguins, but there was a huge bird colony and we also saw about 25 seals! Plus, the coastline was beautiful as well, so we were really happy with our stop! It was really cold and windy out though, so we didn’t stay too long.
Those are seals on the rocks:
Next, we drove along to the Moeraki Boulders, which are these rocks on the beach that naturally formed into perfect spheres and half-spheres.
We were expecting them to be larger than they were, but it was still pretty interesting to see. You are supposed to come at low tide, but we just went when we could - so the water level was kind of high and was coming up around some of the boulders. We waited for the waves to go out and then ran to jump on the boulders. 
It was a very pretty beach. We also ate lunch at the café there, so again, this was a good stop!We continued on and at the cheese man’s suggestion, drove inland to a town called Geraldine. There, we went to a jam/jelly shop and had some free tastings! It was starting to get late and we wanted to get back on the road, so we didn’t stay in the town for too long. But we were definitely glad that we chose the “Inland Scenic Route” because it turned out to be a very pretty drive, especially with the sun beginning to set.
By the time we arrived at our hostel in Christchurch, it was raining. Then, it began to hail! It was really coming down and the hail was about the size of Skittles. We had to get our luggage out of the car, and it kind of hurt to get pelted with the hail drops. We ate our delicious cheese (a cheddar-style brie) with crackers, and then we all took showers before dinner. We made pasta for dinner, but everyone was still pretty full from all the cheese and crackers. After we got all of our suitcases packed and ready for the plane, we got to bed.
We had to wake up at 4:30 AM to give us time to get ready, drive to the airport, return the rental car and get checked in. We also made ourselves some Cadbury hot chocolate before we left! It was POURING rain when we had to walk from the car park to the terminal and we got completely drenched. We were all exhausted by the time we got back to Empire Apartments. This was SUCH a fun trip though! We saw some absolutely beautiful scenery and had a great time. It was fast paced and we did a lot of driving (we drove 2100 km!), but since the drives were so beautiful, we didn’t mind at all. To anyone who has only a short time to visit New Zealand, I would definitely recommend going to the South Island. The landscape is just so diverse and incredibly gorgeous.We pulled over on the side of the road to take this picture EXACTLY when the odometer said 2000 kilometers!
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