Category: New Zealand

The rain held off for a bit as we trekked up to the glacier which was nice. We were warned that it would be a tough hike – but compared to my 7 hour hike the day before… it was nothing! For the first 10-15 minutes, you need to keep walking since the area is a no-stopping zone. Rocks fall down frequently and without warning, so it’s dangerous to hang around. All the Aussies were frozen solid, all the Canadians were in t-shirts – it was pretty funny! As a special treat, (because we hiked so much faster than other groups) we got to go to an ice cave! It was so cool!

All those little dots are people – gives an idea of scale!

The stairs we walked up were carved out of the ice by the various glacier guides. Our guide, Avalon, was from northern BC and was happy to have other Canadians in her group since she was starting to get homesick.

These cliffs reminded me of the “cliffs of insanity” from the Princess Bride!

This was advertised to us by our tour guide as an all day hike. He neglected to mention it was to the top of a mountain. I’ve done a lot of hiking, almost every weekend in the summer in fact, but this was up uP UP – for 4 hours! Once we made it to the top, we had lunch for an hour or so, and then about 3 hours back down. We passed landslides and hopped across rocks to get across rivers where they were rebuilding the bridges. All the supplies are dropped down by helicopter to preserve the land, plus there’s no way any vehicles would be able to get up there. The scenery at the top is easily one of the most beautiful views I’ve ever seen. Waterfalls, flat-lands and mountains – amazing. It was even worth all those suspension bridges!

New Zealand invented bungee jumping, which is why most people wanted their first bungee to be here. I am a staying-on-the-ground kinda girl, so I just watched, but it was fun to see my friends do it! Below is a photo from the Kawurau Bridge looking out at the clear blue water, and the guys that are in charge of pulling in the people that have just jumped doing what they do between jumps – tanning! haha!

Another stunning view from my room in Queenstown! Although I have to say, it was one of my favourite places in NZ because it was just SO beautiful.

The gondola up to the Skyline restaurant was pretty scary for someone afraid of heights, it’s quite the angle… but the view from the skydeck was worth it! I also took the gondola up a second time and hiked down with a friend. We didn’t realize it was going to take us 40 mins away from the actual town once we made it to the bottom… but it was a great hike!

This was so pretty, everyone gave their cameras to the people on that side of the bus to take photos for them.

This was in Lord of the Rings… I can’t remember which part, but points for anyone that does!

Also – another beautiful lake, but I can’t remember the name of this one either…

Our tour guide warned us that the keas will steal your food…. my friend didn’t realize keas knew cake was carried in brown bags. It even hid under the car to eat it!

I actually flew into Christchurch from Australia, my tour started the next morning as we hopped on the bus and started for Lake Tekapo (which is where I started my NZ blog posts), but I officially spent my first afternoon in NZ in the beautiful city of Christchurch. Upon arrival, I immediately felt at home. New Zealand’s culture is so friendly and similar to Canadian culture, it was great to talk with the kiwis and feel like I belonged there.

I had a nice chat with the cab driver about life in NZ and the earthquake aftershocks on the way to my hotel and then went exploring in Cathedral Square. I was fortunate enough to see the Cathedral in its entirety before the earthquake hit just after my departure. The town was still recovering from the earthquake that caused so much damage in Sept 2010, it’s sad to look back and know now that they had no idea what was coming to them in just a few months.

The bike sign made me laugh, I love info graphics. The type on this bar and the gallery were also really cool.

It was really weird to see Christmas stuff everywhere. It was so warm – the start of their summer, and knowing that it was winter at home, seeing Christmas stuff here was pretty out of place for me!

Night life in Christchurch was pretty cool too – there was this one alleyway in particular that had couches and outdoor fireplaces and Christmas lights everywhere.

The scenery was the most spectacular as we drove farther and farther south to Milford Sound. We were headed for an overnight cruise on a fishing boat. On the way we saw the chasm and filled our water bottles with glacier water from a stream, and watched keas destroy cars while we waited for our turn in Homer Pass.

Keas are (the world’s only) alpine parrots that are extremely intelligent (about the same as an average human toddler apparently). They know how to pull the weather stripping from the windshield of cars, they will fly at you and steal your food. We were told they herd sheep off cliffs to kill them. The keas would sit on top the buses and rip off whatever they could from the top. We watched several vans speed up and then come to a screeching halt trying to dislodge the hitchhikers.

We watched small waterfalls travel down the cliffs and finally it was our turn to go through Homer Pass (the tunnel drilled through the base of a mountain).

We reached the boat, put our small bags in the tiny accommodations and were greeted by the crew with fresh mushroom soup. It was pretty cold and rainy so it was veray nice. We were able to go kayaking and on speed boat tours of the area to learn about the environment. A seal joined our speedboat tour, jumping around us in the water and checking us out!

It rained overnight (which it does 355 days a year there) which made the waterfalls even more impressive. We even got to see the rare yellow crested fiordland penguins! I tried to get some photos but they’re quick little things!

(pronounced “oh-how”)

The view from our room was stunning, as I’d end up finding through much of my trip. We were in a lodge that was on this mountain in the middle of nowhere with a beautiful view of Lake Ohau.

The southern alps are pretty incredible to travel through, from when you first see them in the distance, to driving through them (after a while though, you really do wish for a straight road of any distance).

I couldn’t stop saying “wow” when I first saw this lake. Tekapo is the bluest lake I’ve ever seen. The entire area was covered in purple and pink flowers, the sun was shining and it couldn’t have been prettier.

I also loved this live edge bench that was right in front of the lake, what a view.

Oh and there was also a family of baby bunnies playing in the sun – yeah, that’s right, bunnies. Gorgeous scenery + cute overload = brain ‘splody.