We drove to Te Anau since Simon and Beata wanted to go to the cave there to see glowworms. I wanted to do adventure caving but my plan to go to Greymouth or Waitomo were vetoed. The cave in Te Anau does not have adventure caving at all.  Since Hendrik and I were staying a few days longer than the others we decided to go to Greymouth later instead. While they were off at the caves Hendrik and I found a campsite and relaxed there since Te Anau is a tiny town with nothing to do. After the others joined us again we decided to go play mini golf. We walked to it but no one was attending the stall. There was a number which I called and was told that they were closed. Basically the people working the mini-golf were too lazy to actually work it. I was very disappointed because I love mini golf and it took a while for me to convince the others to actually go with me. So we walked up and down the city about 8 times, which is basically only one block and went into some souvenir stores. I bought an umbrella since mine had been blown apart. Then we went to the only nice pub in the whole town and played pool and got served by a guy with a mullet.  It was so unremarkable that I don’t even have any pictures from this day.

A picture from Queenstown which I love.

We were back in town by 7:30 the next day and the boys were off to book their tour and Beata and I went to the tourist office to se what we wanted to do.  I knew I wanted to do the Shotover Canyon Swing since it looked unique.  I had already bungee jumped and been white water rafting and wanted to do something new. I had never seen anything like it, so I knew I wanted to try it.  Beata wanted to try bungee jumping but since everything was so incredibly overpriced in Queenstown she decided to only do one thing and that was also the Canyon Swing since she could bungee jump elsewhere for cheaper.

Me hugging the Queenstown Kiwi

So we paid an exorbitant amount and got ready for our jump.  They weighed us and drew pictures on our hands to symbolize our weight instead of having a number and being embarrassed.  My picture was of a decapitated stick figure falling into a canyon with blood pouring from the neck which made me feel very secure.  Beata’s was a snail, so apparently light people (since she is half my size) got cheery pictures, and I was jealous.  They took us by bus basically back towards the campsite and then to the location of the swing.  We had to walk to the platform and along the way were garden gnomes with little sayings, it was cute.
We put on our harnesses and when it was our turn we got to choose which style we were going to jump since there were many different ways.  I chose the “pin drop” which meant that I was just supposed to step off the platform and fall straight down feet first.  I had a very hard time forcing myself to step off the edge to plummet down since it is so unnatural to hop into a canyon.  The attendants refused to push me and kept making jokes which was good because it was stress relieving.  I finally jumped and it was over way too soon, I hardly knew what happened.  It was way worse just standing on the platform.
I wanted to do my second jump upside down where you would hang upside down and they would cut you loose and you’d fall but when I came up to the platform for my second jump I was told I was doing the “Chair of Death.”  I asked whether I could chose my own method of jumping and they said, ‘no’ and brought out the chair which was three plastic chairs stacked on top of each other and I was seat-belted to them.
“Won’t I look ridiculous with a plastic chair dangling from my ass down there?” I asked the attendant.
“Yes, I don’t know why you chose the death chair.”  I was supposed to lean back in the chair and topple over backwards.  Again, I couldn’t do it on my own and had a bit of help to tilt me over the edge and I did a back flip off the platform with a chair seat-belted to my bum.  I enjoyed the second jump more since I knew falling wasn’t too bad and it was cool to flip.

Then we went to Ferg Burgers and I don’t usually write about food but this is the best burger place ever and I had an amazing tofu burger, so when we met up with the boys and learned they went to McDonald’s I couldn’t help but make fun of them, but they didn’t care because they were too busy gloating because they thought they were superman after doing the Nevis bungee jump.

Beata Canyon Swinging

Coincidentally, they were white water rafting just when Beata was doing her Canyon Swing.  I had taken pictures of some of the rafts but since we thought they were rafting in the afternoon I didn’t pay too much attention to them, so I had every raft photographed but theirs because I was taking pictures of Beata just when their raft was going by and they still hold a grudge.

It was someone’s bright idea (not mine) to go on a hike in the morning for the view of the glaciers and the ocean all in one. The hike was steep and seemed steeper hung-over, and when I finally dragged myself to the top I was greeted by swarms of sand flies. I’m sure the view would have been amazing but all we saw were clouds. We didn’t have any repellent so we spend a few minutes slapping ourselves and then hiked down again. We were not sad to leave the glacier region as it had left us very disappointed.

Simon was always way ahead of the rest of us and took pictures of the stragglers

We found a pretty beach to have lunch on but the minute we sat down we were swarmed with sand flies. They are like mosquitoes but their bite stays for much longer and it itches like crazy. We ate as fast as possible to minimize the sand flies’ feasting, but they would bite any showing skin and our ankles suffered. Back in the car it was also full of sand flies so I made it into a sport to kill them. At least they stopped bothering to eat on us in the car but fluttered around the windows so it was easy to shoo them out or squash them.

Haast Pass waterfall

We drove through Haast pass and stopped at many waterfalls, it was pretty but it had nothing on Arthur’s Pass. I enjoyed the blue pools the most and wished it was warmer so we could have swam in them, since they had the most stunning blue color. We made it to Queenstown in the evening and Simon and Hendrik were disappointed to find out that the bungee/ rafting combo left at 8:00 AM and all the booking offices were closed, so they were worried they wouldn’t be able to do what they had wanted again, and therefore they were very anxious to get up early and hope to still be able to go.

The pictures don't do justice to the Blue Pools

In the morning, in Arthur’s Pass, Beata and I went on a hike to Bridal Veil Falls, since it was less steep and looked prettier on the picture on the information sign.The boys went to Devil’s Punchbowl.Our track led us up and down and we saw a bunch of small waterfalls along the way and after a while when we thought we had walled too long we ended up on the road.

Most interesting thing I saw on the hike

We were a bit disappointed that we had done the track and hadn’t seen a remarkable waterfall and decided to take the road back to Arthur’s Pass since it would be easier which it was.Once we met back up in the parking lot the boys were very satisfied with their waterfall, so we had probably chosen for the wrong one.In the parking lot and all around Arthur’s pass were a lot of mountain parrots or Keas, and these big birds aren’t afraid of people and sometimes got uncomfortably close, especially when there was food involved.They also liked to chew the rubber around car windows.

flying Kea (Yes, we chased one around to make it fly to get a picture)

The second half of the pass was also very pretty, and we were in Glacier country in no time.As we drove along the windy road without seeing a mountain in sight we wondered how exactly could there be a glacier here.Our plan was to book a tour for Franz Joseph since you cannot walk on it alone because it is too dangerous, and then go to Fox Glacier since you are allowed to walk on it a little bit without a guide.

Arthur’s Pass

We quickly checked ourselves into a cabin at Top 10, and went to the info center.We were very excited since I had never been on a glacier which I remember.I asked the lady to give us some information about the Fox walking trek to which she almost laughed.After she realized we were serious she said that everything is flooded and that Fox is closed and all but 3 walking treks in the whole region were also closed.That was a blow we weren’t expecting and Simon was particularly upset since he was set of seeing the sunrise from Fox.Nevertheless, it was okay since since we could still go on Franz.We asked about a tour.She said the tours were all booked for the next two days.Time-wise we could not afford to chill out in Glacier country for two days and in 1 minute our glacier dreams were shattered.

As soon as we left we decided to get a bottle of Tequila for the night, but before we could drown our disappointments in alcohol we went to at least look at Franz Josef.The glacier itself is pretty far away from the viewing area, so when we saw it, it was rather disappointing as well.Simon couldn’t stand it and decided to walk to the glacier, but there were streams to cross and I didn’t feel like it and I think the others didn’t feel like it either, so Simon went on his own and we had a photo shoot “in front” of the glacier and showed how miserable we were.

Simon took longer than we expected because the walk to the glacier was longer than he had expected and he still couldn’t get to the base of it because there is a raging stream around it.We decided to go to the town of Fox which lies underneath Mr. Cook and do the Lake Matheson Walk. It is famous for its reflecting views of Mt. Cook, but since Mt. Cook was totally covered by clouds we didn’t see a spec of it and the walk was pretty dull.

We managed to have a nice dinner back in Franz Josef at the backpackers’ pub and then had the next quest of finding a liquor store.I asked the lady at the supermarket as we bought breakfast food and a lemon and she sent me to the Franz Josef Hotel.We found it, and it was very posh, but I went in anyway even though I felt like it was the wrong place and asked the hostess.She sent me further down the road to their other branch.Funny how it ended up being right next to the Top 10 we were staying at and was even marked as bottle shop on our map.The boys stayed outside pretending to be mechanics as they listened to the new rumbling noise the rental had started to make, because a broken car was what we needed now.

Beata and I went into the pub/bottle shop and it smelled like stale beer and unwashed people.There was no one behind the bar so I ventured out by the pokies machines where it was mullet heaven and every machine was occupied.At least everyone concentrated too hard to pay attention to me.I went out back and peeped outside to see if there was a server there and all I saw was a group of what looked like retired biker dudes, so I booked it back to the main bar where Beata was and we continued to wait there.Eventually a large butch woman appeared and we got our tequila and ran.

And the rest is history…

It was an early 6:30 start for us the following morning. It was cloudy and while watching National Treasure on the ferry it began to rain. As we approached Picton we passed by the Marlborough Sounds, but it was too cold and rainy to stay outside for long so we couldn’t enjoy the view. We were disappointed since it was supposed to be beautiful and the ferry was like a cruise through the sounds but we didn’t get anything out of it. We had to decide what to do and looked at a brochure map, and the distances were unreal. Places that did not seem that far away the map said 5 hour drive. I couldn’t believe it, but we were in a bit of a panic since we’d have to cut out something from our trip.

Marlborough Sounds

When we arrived to Picton and stopped by the info center, we were given a better map with more believable travel times, so we were a bit relieved but not by much since it was still longer than we expected. Since the weather was so bad and Picton looked like a shabby town we decided to book it to Arthur’s Pass. It was drizzling and cloudy the whole way to Springfield, the beginning of the pass and as we reached the top of the first mountain ridge the sky opened and the sun shown and suddenly Arthur’s Pass was gorgeous and our moods had instantly lifted.  The countryside reminded me of Scotland, and New Zealand is called the Southern Scotland and there are also many Scottish immigrants.

Arthur's Pass

We stayed in a cabin in Arthur’s Pass which also had a Jacuzzi so before a makeshift Thanksgiving dinner without turkey or pumpkin pie went to the Jacuzzi. I couldn’t stay too long because of sand flies which swarmed and bit. They are something like mosquitoes but at least they don’t bite as much but when they do the bites stay for a long time. That was our first encounter with sand flies and unfortunately it wasn’t nearly the last.

Arthur's Pass