Queenstown and The Fjiordlands

From Franz Josef we drove about six hours to Queenstown. It was an exceptionally rainy day - apparently even for New Zealand standards - making what could have been a very scenic drive a very frustrating drive over a stormy mountain pass. We celebrated on the far side of the mountains by stopping at a fruit stand and gorging on - at least I gorged on - tons of fruit. I think we bought something like 15 lbs of fruit in various forms: leather, jam, whole fruit, chocolate covered, candied, etc.

We found a hostel and met up with Adam, Tamara, and Conner again. They were equally bummed about the weather, so we went to the bars. Determined to do something 'crazy' we paid a somewhat ridiculous amount of money to go to an ice bar. Everything, including the 'glasses,' were made of ice. Probably the best part was that they provided parkas, gloves, and booties. Though "we didn't HAVE to wear the booties," we (at least Adam and I) were pretty excited about them.

After a quick 134 meter bunjy jump in the morning, Nicole and I hit the road for the Fjiordlands National Park via Te Anau. Dad, you'll be pleased to know that we did some Rings sightseeing along the way and even ate at a restaurant that the actors frequented.

The park was, as just about everything else we've seen on the south island, unbelievable. As expected, it was absolutely pouring down rain when we got there. We pushed through the weather and made the best of a 3 kilometer day hike that ended in with a snowy mountain top. Even with the crappy weather, we could see some of the mountains peeking through the clouds and the forests were beautiful.

After the hike we drove into Milford Sound and camped at a hostel. This morning we woke up and took a boat tour around the sound. We were hoping to do some more kayaking, but ended up being pleased with the tour - the sound was really crowded with boats and it was nice to be able to just relax and enjoy the scenery. During the cruise we got to see penguins hopping around the rocks and a few seals sunbathing. The penguins were pretty funny - incredibly agile considering how they have to waddle around and jump from boulder to boulder.

Unlike yesterday, the weather was immaculate and we were able to do some more day hiking around the area after the boat ride. Tonight we're staying in Te Anau and from here heading east via the southern scenic route. Hope everyone is well. Thanks, again, for your posts! It's great to hear from you.

Nicole Says: Soemthing else cool about the fiordlands was seeing and hearing multiple avalanches on one of our hikes. It is spring here and had been raining a lot and warmed up. . . which caused bothe the avalanches and the flooded out path (that is why Andrew was carrying me) you can see in some of the pictures above we were in a valley surrouned by snow covered mountains. Probably about five times we heard the surprisingly loud sound of the avalnaches and looked up to see the cascading snow. You can also see above where we were forced to stop due to a mound of snow and rocks covering the path from a previos avalanch.