Lots to talk about and so little time! Without further ado, the highlights from the last week:
Franz Josef Glacier - The Franz Josef glacier is a massive glacier located on the west coast. They have various tours you can take on the glacier, including a helicopter that will drop you off where you can spend the day hiking. I opted for the 8 hour guided tour where you strap crampons to your feet and spend the day climbing over snow/ice, narrow valleys and even some ice tunnels! They had a big rock avalanche a couple months ago which destroyed one of the paths up, but the valley is quite wide so there was still plenty of room.
While in Franz Josef, I met quite a few people on the same route as me, a couple of which had a car! Various groups of us spent the next week or so traveling around until our paths brought us separate ways. It was great having a group of people to travel around with for a change!
Wanaka - The drive down from Franz Josef to Wanaka was beautiful. This starts off going along the coast before pulling into Haast pass through the mountains and along some lakes and rivers. There were great views of mountains, including the towering Mt Cook. It seemed like every 15 minutes we would come around a corner and see majestic view that we would just have to stop and take pictures from.
Wanaka itself is a gorgeous little town. It sits right on the lake and the weather was perfect when we got in. We knew after an hour that we just had to spend another night here. They have a cute little movie theater in town that just has a single screen with couch seating and even an old car you can sit on the side. Wanaka is one of the top places in skydive in NZ, and with the gorgeous weather I decided it was time to make the jump and booked a trip for the next day. Unfortunately due to heavy winds, the jump kept getting delayed until they finally rescheduled for the next day. The sky wasn't quite as clear but it was still amazing. It's crazy falling out of a plane and how disoriented your brain is when you first barrel out. Definitely something everyone should experience once.
Also in Wanaka we spent lots of time lounging on the beach and swimming in the quite cold water. They also had a museum called Puzzling World with a life size 3-d maze that takes about an hour to complete along with all kinds of optical illusions inside including a room that has a slanted floor and makes for all sorts of interesting experiences. Having a couple drinks in there would be quite entertaining :).
Queenstown - With time running out, I only spent one night in Queenstown. While a small city, this place is hopping with activity. A thriving night life and every type of adventure sports you could want, skydiving, bungee you name it. After seeing a jet boat earlier in the trip, I decided I had to do this in Queenstown. A jet boat is a super manuaverable boat that is propelled by a stream of water and designed for navigating shallow waters, it needs only 4-5 inches of clearance! Our driver was taking us up down a narrow riverbed and taking us within a foot of towering rock cliffs and doing 360 spins at will.
Milford Sound - Milford Sound is one of the highlights of New Zealand. Despite it's name this is technically a Fiordland which was carved out by glaciers millions of years ago. I took a quick cruise through the sound and got to marvel at all the tower rock cliffs and spectaular water. This place gets about 90 feet of rain per year over with about 200 rainy days a year. For me- it was a beautiful day with the sun shining and had been for a couple days before. This had the unfortunate side effect of drying out a lot of the waterfalls that feed off the cliff. I'd love to come back here and do the 3-day trek and see all the terrain on my own. Unfortunately the track books up months in advance!
Well that's all for now! It's hard to believe that I've only got a week left here. The current plan is to head through Dunedin, Mt Cook, Christchurch and Kaikoura. A tight itinerary but there is still so much I want to see here!
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