finally updating

I feel torn between updating this blog and exploring.. and as you can tell exploring always seems to win.. but here I am attempting to update you on what has happened in the past few weeks. It feels like an impossible task as so much has happened.. I will start with our trip to Punakaiki and work my way to the last few days the earth quake and life here at Lincoln.

off to Fox Glacier

We arrived in Fox Glacier late afternoon on Thursday .. the weather kind of ruined our plans for the day ...  apparently it was to windy to skydive! So instead we packed a picnic dinner, rented bikes and headed off to see the fox glacier 4 km up (literally up) the road. 

Fox Glacier

next stop Queenstown

Queenstown is a beautiful city, located down the road from the Remarkables, famous ski hills here in New Zealand, the city is the hub of extreme sports. The city is located right on Lake Wakatipu with a beautiful beach, a series of pedestrian streets, and unique architecture throughout the city.

We stayed two nights at a lovely hostel which looked out over the city, the lake and the mountains and was full of sweet people. While we stayed in Queenstown we explored the city, the parks and the waterfront from within the city. We also took a gondola ride up one of the mountains where we had an incredible view and took a ride on the luge. 

Queenstown from the gondola

looking out over Lake Wakatipu from the beach in Queenstown

the luge .. once is never enough ! 

Te Anau to Milford Sound and back again

One day I hope to maybe treck on foot from Te Anau to Milford Sound, if it is anything like the drive there (minus the mass amounts of rain ) it would be an absolutely beautiful hike. Mid morning we hoped on another bus - same bus line but this time with a driver who talked and joked for pretty well the whole 3 hours it took to drive 120 km road through farm fields, rolling hills, sheep pastures, more sheep pastures, by lakes, in and around mountains, by hundreds of waterfalls and through the rainforest. Along the way we stopped at a few ‘tourist destinations’ but they were nothing less than incredible. My favorite was the Chasm - a twenty minute walk in the pouring rain though the rainforest with some pretty sweet views of the river quickly flowing down from the mountains. Our bus driver kindly dropped us off at pretty well the door step of our hostel where we spent the next two nights. Again our hostel had an incredible view of the mountains. The first night we stayed there you could see many streams of water flowing down the side of the mountain due to the sheer mass of rain coming down. By the next morning however only one or two of these waterfalls were left as the rain had stopped and the sun was shinning. It was a perfect day for an cruise, so on a two and a half hour cruise we went though the fiord out to the Tasmen Sea.  I don’t even know how to describe it ..  I felt so tiny as we went though the mountains soaring high above our heads .. these pictures could never capture the beauty of what we saw and experienced that day... 

After two days of exploring Milford Sound we hoped on another bus and headed back through Te Anau and eventually Queenstown..

me and the mountains

the rainforest

the river outside of our hostel, Milford Lodge

pedestrian crossing 

Alison, Emily, Me 

on the cruise though the fiord

if only I were a glow worm..

Te Anau is a beautiful yet touristy town, our backpackers hostel is right on the lake with a sweet view over the lake and into the mountains. We stayed the past two nights at the hostel there. Our first night there we took a cruise across the lake to see the glow worm caves.. it was worth every penny we spent. The sun was just setting as we went over and the beauty of God’s creation was evident. Upon arriving on the far end of the lake we received a history lesson on glow worms before hiking into the cave for a bit. We then got on smaller boat and in the pitch blackness of the caves we could see millions of little blue glow worms on the top of the cave. It was absolutely incredible. The boat ride back was equally as beautiful, it was freezing cold on the top deck but the clouds and mountains looked black against the redish, yellow glowing sky. The next morning we found a cafe for breakfast and then went on a hike around the one side of the lake again the view was breathtaking.

looking out over lake Te Anau from the boat

looking out over lake Te Anau on our walk

the backpackers adventure begins

After packing everything we needed for two and a half weeks into backpacks we got on the bus early thursday morning in Ashburton and headed to Dunedin and spent the afternoon and evening seeing the city and arranging some travel plans for the next few days.  On Friday we set off with our packs to see the Dunedin Botanical Gardens and what is claimed to be the “steepest street in the the world”.  We then hoped on a bus and went to Te Anau .. finally heading into the mountains. 

Chinese New Year: we joined the parade just to cross the street

Dunedin Botanical Gardens - Alison, Me, Emily

flowers at the Dunedin Botanical Gardens

“the steepest street in the world” its steeper 

than this picture could ever show..

don’t stop just ‘give way’

a slow but lovely start

We arrived in Christchurch early on monday evening and headed into town on the shuttle we had booked. After settling into our quaint hostel in Christchurch and taking a long awaited shower, Alison and I wondered around town and found some dinner and then made our way back to the hostel to finally sleep. The next morning Alison’s family friend Karen picked us up and we made our way to her and her husband John’s lovely farmhouse outside of the town of Ashburton. On the way we made our way through Lincoln and saw a bit of the small town where I will be staying as well as made some other stops and did some sightseeing along the way. We stayed at Karen and John’s for two nights, hung out on their farm, went to see Sharplin falls,  learned some new words, meet some locals, tried some new food and caught up on sleep attempting to get over jet-lag. 

Emily, Alison and Karen (left to right) in front of Sharplin falls

on the farm: me and one of cocky’s feather (Karen and John’s peacock)