New Zealand Alpine Adventure

It's been a while, but it's time for an update. July 1-8, Paul and I are romping through the land of Lord of the Rings, New Zealand! We are so excited about our little vacation before returning to the US. So, on to the post!

July 1- Arrived in Christchurch really late due to some terrible, terrible flight things from US and from Sydney. Paul had to wait for me in the airport, but then we drove to Arthur's Pass.


Night mountains

July 2- After a very long night, we had a fabulous time exploring Arthur's Pass, one of the greatest scenic routes in the country. It was completely gorgeous. One of the most amazing things about this country is that every place looks like an amazing. It's almost an overload!


Arthur's Pass

We also got to do a beautiful hike to the Devil's Punchbowl and met the infamous kea. Keas are cheeky little parrot birds who hang out at car parks to mess up cars. They are hilarious in that they are unfazed by anything...even if you try to make them get off your car door while it eats the rubber lining.


Devil's Punchbowl


Dangerous keas

Later, we went to Castle Hill, where they filmed the final battle scene for The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe. We got to play around there for a while in the snow. Paul absolutely loved getting to see big snow. After a beautiful day, we went back to our accommodation.


Our reenactment of the Lion, Witch and the Wardrobe

July 3- Although New Zealand is infamous for having finicky weather, we have been quite fortunate with having sunny, clear skies. Save on this day. But, we were lucky because we essentially just traveled from Arthur's Pass to Franz Josef glacier. It's also incredible that this country is so remote and that you can be completely alone without actually having to try. It's amazing.

We did a couple of hikes and then got to Franz Josef glacier at around 4:30, in time to see the sunset. We then headed off for the "glacier hot pools". Pretty much, it was justa bunch of jacuzzis, but it all felt amazing.

July 4- Happy July 4th! We were a little sad to miss one of the major holidays back home, but also really excited because today, we got to climb a glacier! After doing a hike down near a lake, we picniked next to a crystal clear river. We were taking our time before the long hike before we realized...we're at the wrong glacier! We were supposed to go hiking on Fox glacier! It was 30 minutes away but our guides were really nice about the whole thing.

So, we did a heli-hike, which means that we took a helicopter to a good ways up the glacier, put some clampons and then walked all over the glacier. It seemed very odd for there to be a glacier in the middle of a temperate rainforest. But it has made a home there and Fox glacier moves about 1 meter a day, which is quite fast for such a mammoth thing. It was so beautiful and such a unique experience, we were quite excited about the whole thing.


Happy 4th of July! That's what our sign says...I am a wonderful artist.

After the heli-hike, we traveled to Wanaka.

July 5- We got to spend this day seeing Milford Sound. We took a scenic flight from Wanaka to Milford Sound with our trusty pilot Tom. It was gorgeous and I even got to fly the plane. You never get to see snow covered mountains and glaciers in an untouched landscape ever!


On the flight

Once in Milford Sound, we took a cruise and got to see the beautiful waterfalls. You can tell why Peter Jackson chose New Zealand to film his movies because it was just an impeccable landscape. We got to see dolphins and seals too!

We returned via plane again and saw the Sutherland Falls. Afterward, we went to Wanaka and went to A Puzzling World, which is a place just full of puzzles and mazes. We did the Great Maze, which was super fun but challenging as well.

July 6- Another fun day in Wanaka. We went skiing today! It was Paul's first time and I haven't been skiing in a very long time. We did a couple of lessons and enjoyed the bunny slope :). Also, Paul fell...twice. He's okay, I just like to mention it :). We like to learn things together so this was a lot fun for the both of us. Later we went to the hot tub for a relaxing moment after a long day of skiing.

We have so much more planned, but I felt like I needed to update with the things we have done. It's a beautiful, beautiful vacation and we are so lucky to be here!

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