Milford Sound!

Mom and I's second day in Queenstown was spent driving 5 hours west to Milford Sound! I was sooo happy Mom got to go for a drive in the South Island, because it is truly absolutely incredible.  I believe the best way to really see New Zealand is by driving.  One minute you'll be surrounded by towering mountains and the next through rolling fields of green.

 On the road!

 The great thing about driving is that you can stop along the way to marvel at the beautiful sights!

 This was taken along the drive from Queenstown to Milford Sound.

 Giant scary tunnel carved through a glacier, no big deal. 

It's just as intimidating as it looks

 But, once you got through the tunnel and go a few miles down a very windy road, you reach the absolutely sunning Milford Sound!

 Mom and I took a cruise through the sound.  The morning started out very foggy and cloudy, and we were unable to see most of the glaciers.  However, half way through the cruise they started to lift and revealed massive and gorgeous glaciers!

Helicopters are a popular form of transportation.  The roads are very narrow and windy, and they close often because of dangerous conditions.

Possibly the best part of Milford Sound...we saw PENGUINS!!!

And because no trip can happen without some quirks, on our way to Milford Sound Mom forgot her zoom lens on the side of the road.  Milford Sound is a little sketchy when you first get there.  Only because it is truly the middle of no where, and different sections of the road have gates in case they need to close the roads due to extreme conditions.  It's also pretty dark, because you are surrounded by giant hovering glaciers and mountains.  By the time we realize we forgot the lens on the side of the road, it was almost completely dark.  So we had to fill up the tank of our car at some verrrry old creepy gas station and we were off.  We then got to the creepy tunnel:

Notice the tiny opening in the giant glacier.

When you approach the tunnel, there is a light that tells you when you can go through.  Its a one lane tunnel so they let each side go through at once.  And you typically wait 5 minutes before you can go. HOWEVER. The light stops working at 8:00pm.  We didn't even know if we were allowed to go through the tunnel but we did anyway.  It was possibly one of the most stressful and frightening parts of the trip thus far.  Anyway, we trekked 45 minutes away from Milford Sound to the last place we had the zoom lens and saw nothing there.  I did, however, spot this creepy note from afar that was left for us:

Well, the next day on our way back to Queenstown we stopped at the YHA Backpackers in Te Anau and no one was there to give us back the lens.  We did leave our email and phone number.  Fingers crossed we are able to get it back! 

Horse Trek in Glenorchy

Well, Mom got here and we started our adventure with no time to waste! The day after she arrived in Wellington we got right on a plane and flew to the bottom of the South Island to Queenstown.  The following day we drove to Glenorchy for a horse trek!

Behind us is Lake Wakatipu, in Queenstown.

When the horse trek started, the clouds were completely covering the mountains.  As the trek went on though, we saw the clouds rise and reveal these incredible mountains!

Above are the "Misty Mountains" used in the Lord of the Rings movies.

Later that day we rode a Gondola up a mountain overlooking Queenstown.  The view is absolutely stunning!

The last time I was in Queenstown all the mountains were snowcapped and it was below freezing out.  Now most of the snow is gone off the mountains and it gets to be around 75 degrees!

Happy Birthday Dad!!!!

Happy brithday Dad!!! It's now your birthday in both America and New Zealand still. Since I can't text you or call, I thought blog was the next best thing! Wish you could be here in beautiful New Zealand to celebrate it. I miss you can't wait to see you! Hope you have a great day, I love you!

Volcanic Activities!

Colleen and I's final stop on our last shebang was to Wai o Tapu Geothermal Wonderland.  This was one of my absolute favorite places in New Zealand.  Rotorua sees a lot of volcanic activity so just driving down the road you can see bubbling water or random steam rising from the ground.  And it's rather smelly because of all the sulphur...

Smells aside the geothermal activity was incredible.  It was like nothing I've ever seen, and the uniqueness of it almost made it look fake! 

 ^ The above picture is called the "Artist's Pallet".  Earthquakes tilted the spring, causing mineral water to flow over the sinter encrusted flat.  It's called the Artist's Pallet because mineral deposits streak the surface and are distributed by the direction of the wind.  The cloudy yellow/green water is acid-sulphate.  The orange is Antimony/Arsenic.  Green/Yellow is sulphur/Arsenic.

Yay steam! (It was actually really smelly steam). 

 ^ The above pictures is of the "Champagne Pool".  This came about from a 700 year old explosion crater formed by a hydro-thermal eruption.  

This was one of the coolest lakes.  It looks fake! (I swear it's not).

And because Colleen and I cannot take any trips without some quirk, this entire Shire and Geothermal day was done with 0 hours and 0 minutes of sleep.  We stay in hostels, and while you do get to meet awesome people, there are some of those special people who you just will never forget because they snore so loud you feel your eardrums will burst and the whole room smells like gross breath.  I decided to try and sleep in the car, but for some reason someone from inside the hostel from inside a room kept shining a flashlight at me in the car.  It was very strange and scary so i ended up leaving the car in a hurry and at 2am officially locked the keys in the car.  I decided I'd deal with it in the morning and try and sleep in a chair in the hostel.  Unfortunately, I did not even sleep for a minute.  Needless to say, the next night I decided to pay extra to stay in a single room.  Totally worth it.  And the locked keys in the car only threw us 3 hours and $65 off (that is cheap for NZ).  

Although unfortunately this was the last trip for Colleen and I, in almost exactly a week Mom will be here and our adventure will begin!