Day 15… Queenstown to Christchurch

Another long day on the bus… it was a 9 hour trip with quick bathroom breaks every couple of hours. We drove through snow-capped mountains though. I mean seriously... you never can see enough or get sick of the views in New Zealand. It's all stunning!

I'm addicted to the sight and taste of glacier water. It's indescribable.

Kelsey and I explored Christchurch some more and visited their Botanical Gardens. I could have stayed in the gardens for days. It was so gorgeous.

This flower bed was huge and reminded me of my mom because it displayed about 20 different purple flowers. She and Kelsey both love purple.

Kelsey and I "splurged" on a nice hotel for our last night. We stayed in little backpacker hostels the entire holiday and were quite ready for private shower and sleeping quarters. It was such a fun room with lots of high-tech gadgets. We took showers in a circular shower stall. We had a fire crackling on our flat screen television. We woke up to the gradual rising of the sun... the light above the bed gradually turned on and the alarm music increased in volume over a 5-min period of time. If that doesn't wake you, the television turns itself on to the hotel's complimentary "Good morning" station 10 minutes after the alarm time starts. It was a crazy experience and the perfect end to our holiday.

Day 16 was our 6:20am (yikes!) flight to Auckland, a shuttle bus ride home, and a blessed homecoming to my fantastic family. I missed them!

Day 14... Queenstown/Gibbston Valley/Arrowtown

Today was a kind of bum around the town day as 1. we were sore from our day of skiing adventures and 2. the weather was yuck. We rented a car with our friend James and drove out to Gibbston Valley. NZ is known for its dairy, so we visited the best cheesery. Our sample tray was fabulous!

On the way back to Queenstown, we visited Arrowtown. Several Lord of the Rings scenes were filmed here... including my favorite when Arwen carries Frodo across the river on horseback (in The Fellowship of the Ring). She turns, looks at the enemy, and says "If you want him, come and claim him." James and I took a picture in front of that river to commemorate the occasion.

This sign is all over NZ. I love how environmentally friendly they are.

Day 13... Queenstown

I went skiing once when I was about eight years old. All I remember is doing lots of slow runs on the bunny slope and the fun rope lift uphill. Then my Dad took me for one run on the easy slope. I remember flying downhill, not knowing how to stop, crossing my skis and sitting down. It was terrifying, and I didn't like that feeling of being out of control.

Fast forward to today… Kelsey and I went skiing. I had a fantastic lesson in the morning. My ski instructor was awesome, and I really enjoyed the bunny slope. Kelsey and I met for lunch at the lodge (she did the level of lessons that start with the chair lift runs… superwoman.) Then I decided to go on an easy chair lift run with her. It was exactly like I remember. I flew downhill, leaned forward (not backward like you’re supposed to), and ended up doing some impressive vertical splits as my legs flew over my head.

So I think skiing is not my thing. I would like to try it again, but wow. Quite the experience. Kelsey and I walked around town and ate really nice pizza. I really like this wall I saw in Starbucks.

Day 12… Invercargill to Queenstown (Milford Sound)

Today we took a boat tour around the Milford Sound. Much of the Lord of the Rings films were filmed here. It was raining the whole time but still stunning as you can imagine. We got to see several waterfalls that only appear when it rains and a few hours afterward. The whole trip was breathtaking. Mountains rise from the water next to you. It's another one of those times when a camera can't capture it... sorry. This waterfall was HUGE, but it looks tiny in a picture.


We saw yellow-eyed penguins and more seals. Part of the boat tour was a trip to an underwater observatory. To make a long explanation short, we saw plants, coral, and other animals at 10meters that are supposed to only grow 50-60 meters below the water surface. This is a picture of the very rare black coral and an eleven-armed starfish.


We ate Fergburger for dinner and walked along the lake before going to bed.

Day 11… Dunedin to Invercargill

Today was a ridiculously long day on the van. We switched drivers in Dunedin. Our new driver really likes to stop at every nature sight. We stopped at least once an hour. This made a 3 hour drive a 12-hour day on the van. I saw lots of cool nature things but honestly got a bit numb after a while.




The majority of the trees below are growing on this water algae plant thing. I was a horrible person and zoned out in the middle of his speech. It was super neat to watch our driver gently push a tree and see the roots shift below the water.



We saw fossilized trees...

and a sea leopard...

This is going to be a locket... I'm excited.

Needless to say, Kelsey and I were a bit tired and stir-crazy from the day, so we got pizza from Domino’s (NOT the same as American Domino’s by the way) and watched License to Wed on television before bed. It was a nice way to redeem the night.

Day 10… Queenstown to Dunedin

I had a bit of a shock this morning when I realized that instead of the 50+ person charter bus we were traveling on, we would do the Bottom Bus pass on a charter van. The only other passenger was a lady named Anna from Italy. She is so sweet although I don’t feel like I had an opportunity to talk with her.

I got a raspberry milkshake at this little cafe in nowhere. It might have been the best milkshake of my life, or I may just have really intense cravings for Chick-fil-A milkshakes. Guess we'll never know.

Our driver grew up and went to university in Dunedin, so it was fun to tour the city with a true local.
We walked up Baldwin Street, the steepest street in the world.


It was a day of record-breaking things because we also visited the Clyde Dam. It is the biggest concrete structure in NZ… woohoo! It was so exciting that we decided to stay in the van and take a photograph from there... hence the green tint.

Day 9… Wanaka to Queenstown

Today we stopped at a beautiful waterfall on the way to Queenstown. One of my favorite things about the bus is that the driver stops at all the hidden sights worth seeing.
It’s nice to not worry about directions, gas, getting lost, etc. and have the expertise of a local Kiwi.

We also stopped to view the perfect mirror reflection of Mt. Cook and the Southern Alps on Lake Matheson.

We were definitely feeling sore from the ice hike and tree climbing adventures. Instead of doing the hour and a half hour hike around the lake, we walked about 30 minutes to the lake and sat in admiration for an hour. That of course led to a photo shoot.



We arrived in Queenstown before lunch. I immediately loved the youthful energy and busyness of Queenstown. Kelsey and I had a quick pizza lunch then rented kayaks to explore Lake Wakatipu.

Then Simon, Kelsey, Brittany, and I made french toast at the hostel for dinner. I LOVE eating breakfast for dinner, so that taste of home was great. After a quick nap, we went downtown for a last bus hooray. We planned on leaving fairly early but ended up dancing with everyone for over four hours. It was sad to see everyone going separate ways, but I think Kelsey and I will enjoy the Bottom Bus pass.

Day 8… Franz Josep to Wanaka

New life goal: stand in as many bodies of water as I can. It's cold and sometimes silly but fun too!We had a semi-long day on the bus today and got to Wanaka about 3:30pm. After dropping our bags in our room, Brittany, Kelsey, and I went exploring around the town.

Wanaka is one of my favorite towns… it’s average size with a lot of energy and character. We ran into Simon and another guy from the bus at a local coffee shop (gotta have my coffee fix). Simon wanted to climb the trees that line Lake Wanaka. Climbing trees is one of my favorite things to do, so off we went. We got so high!



We went back to the hostel for their $5 dinner deal, climbed some more trees, looked at the stars, and went to bed fairly early. Another great day.

Day 7… Franz Josep

Today was the full day glacier hike, which was an indescribable experience. We rented clothing, boots, and crampons from the hiking shop.

I literally cannot explain how incredible the hike was… a once in a lifetime experience for sure. The glacier is 12 kilometers tall. It looks pretty small until you look at the red dot at the bottom of the glacier... that's a person.

Here are a couple of pictures to try and demonstrate the scale of how massive this glacier was. Look at how small the people are at the top left of this one...

... or the top right of this one...

Our guide was pretty adventurous and took us into several ice caves and canyons. You can tell he has posed for one or two pictures similar to this one before.

Check out some pictures because words aren’t working…




This would have been my mom's favorite spot because it's a small space really high (sarcastic)

Some more pics...




This bird is the famous NZ parrot--a Kea. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kea] They are very curious, intelligent birds but are considered a pest to tourists because they will pry the rubber parts off cars and fly off with light-weight objects.

Our hiking team...

From the bottom... From the top...

Included in our hiking pass was admission to the local hot pools and spa. They had three hot pools… 36, 38, and 40 degrees Celsius. Talk about the perfect way to relax after climbing a glacier for eight plus hours. There were no signs (like in America) about the dangers of staying in a hot tub for more than 20 minutes, so I enjoyed it without guilt until I was quite wrinkly. It was glorious. Please save the lectures because it was 3 degrees Celsius outside this morning.
We ended the day with dinner then headed to a local bar for dancing and pool. The neat thing about traveling with a bus full of people is that there is always something to do and someone to hang out with. I met a woman from Poland named Patricia. She’s so much fun and a great dancer. Kelsey, Brittany, Patricia, and I have been roommates for the last few hostels, and we all have a lot of fun together.