Day 3 in New Zealand: Gorgeous Queenstown

This is the third installment of Steven and my adventures in New Zealand! If you missed it, check out our first day in Christchurch, and our second day at Fox Glacier. Enjoy!

After our glacier hike, the second leg of our road trip was a drive from Fox Glacier to Queenstown.

This was a beautiful 4 hour drive that was surprisingly, 4 hours! After our Christchurch-to-Fox debacle, we had thought Google was inaccurate and untrustworthy. Sorry, Google. We will not doubt you again.

It was about 6 PM when we got into Queenstown. We were tired and hungry from the early day.

But Queenstown slapped us in the face with some pretty awesome natural beauty.

Are your eyeballs ready? Cuz I'm about to pass that gorgeous-scenery-slap-in-the-face onto you.

Ready?

BOOM!

Hands down my favourite sunset. I <3 you, Lake Wakatipu!

Proof I was there. And hungry. See that face? That's a "sure-I'll-smile-for-your-camera-but-I'm-friggin-hungry-and-at-the-end-of-my-patience-can-we-leave-yet" face.

So Steven shoved that face in some Thai deliciousness.

The next day, we explored some more of Queenstown's sights.

We hit up Vudu Cafe for one of the best breakfasts I've ever had: Moroccan Beans with Poached Eggs and Toast.

They messed up Steven's eggs (overcooked... *face palm*. Seriously, what restaurant can't cook eggs?!), but I really enjoyed my food.

Queenstown had rained that morning, but thankfully it stopped by mid-morning. The clouds slowly began to lift, and we could see the gondola station at the top of the mountains. So guess what we did?

Yup. I hate heights. Especially when suspended on shaky-looking wires in tiny little metal boxes.

 The view from the top was stunning.

We even got to see this brave soul dive fearlessly off a feeble platform while harnessed only by a thin tether.

Crazy. But I guess this is the town of crazy.

To top off our day, we pretended to be 12 year-olds and took a couple rides each on the Luge.

We even bought the commemorative photos, but I won't post them here because they are far too dorky.

Day 2 in New Zealand: Fox Glacier Township

This is the second installment to Steven and my adventures in New Zealand! If you missed the first, you can find it here. Cheers!

When Steven and I had planned our road trip to New Zealand, we were prepared for hours of driving a day. It would be worth the effort to have all the adventure we were planning on having.

Our first adventure would be hiking around Fox Glacier, the most accessible of New Zealand's 3000-some glaciers. This was supposed to be an easy drive: 5 hours from Christchurch to Fox Glacier Township through Arthur's Pass.

The drive was actually more like an agonizing 6 hrs plus. I was considering murdering Steven and dumping his corpse in the mountains.

Just kidding... Maybe.

We took a rest-and-stretch stop at a random lake about an hour or so out of Christchurch. Up in the mountains it was significantly chillier than the sunshine led you to believe.

We also stopped at Arthur's Pass for some gas and grub. I got 2 oranges for $3 NZD! Outrageous but I thought the vitamins would do well to heal my cold.

Some unique warnings...

Then, there was that magic moment when, after driving for hours through mountains and farms, you hit the coast and endless horizon:

By the time we got to Fox Glacier Township, the sun had just set. We were both really afraid of driving in the dark, so we were racing the sun to get there.

We had a quick dinner (btw, most delicious soup I've ever had; it was roasted tomato!), and went to bed.

The guy at our motel had told us to check out Lake Matheson, just 5 min down the road, before we went on our glacier hike at 8:30 AM. The sun was set to rise around 7:30, so we had a quick breakfast and made our way there.

So. Worth. It.

Steven and I signed up for a "Fox-Trot" half day hike around the glacier. You walk up the terminal face of the glacier and explore whatever area of it you can.

The company we went with, Fox Glacier Guiding, got us fully outfitted.

Boots, socks, wind/water proof jacket, waterproof backpacks, and crampons.

Crampons are sharp little pointy things that allow you to kick your enemies off glaciers and frolic with triumph. RAWR.

There was about a 20-30 minute walk from the car park to the glacier itself.

Those bits of white are the glacier there, covered in rock and silt.

Once you got on the glacier, it was incredible to think that it extended back another 30 miles up into the mountains.

It was really dirty up there.

"Glaciers are like conveyor belts for mountain rocks," our guides explained. "They carry them from the mountain tops to the bottom as they melt."

I just thought Foxie needed a good ol' shower and scrub. That dirty ol' glacier girl.

That's right.

"Sandy DOMINATED the mighty Fox Glacier."

One of our Heart Challenges is to dominate everything I do. What can I say. It comes naturally.

We're back!

Just a quick post now that Steven and I are back in Sydney.

Last week, we took a trip to the South Island of New Zealand. We road-tripped from Christchurch to Queenstown, kayaked in Milford Sound, and plenty of other cool stuff.

I'll have a New Zealand post up as soon as I get time!