Adventure Capital of the World

We arrived in Queenstown late afternoon on Wednesday the 19th.  After checking in to our hotel (which was a bit rinky dink but who cares...it was cheap) we decided we were going to walk around Wanaka Lake to town.  The view from the hotel was lovely...sadly a tree blocked my view haha. But it was easy to get out and around it, with a picnic table outside for sitting and taking in the views.  Right below our hotel were bus stops (quite convenient for the rest of the trip) and a little lake path.  Once we got down to the path we noticed a dock.  Andrew was set on jumping in the lake at some point on our trip. I told him he was crazy. He then decided he was going to stick his feet in to the water...that's when he decided he was crazy as well. It was freezing...of course. So after staring at the water and the mountains, watching all the ducks bob up and down...we decided to keep on going in to town.

The walk was a lot longer then we though...4km long...which is about 2.5 miles. But hey, it was beautiful out and we needed to walk after such a long drive! We walked through the Queenstown Botanical Gardens, in to town under a big arch that Rotary had made as a memorial for something...I think a war...anyways...there were lots of people sitting out on the beach area near the water. Listening to music, slacklining between trees...it was a site to see :) 

We went in to the downtown area to have a look around.  First we did a bit of shopping. It's quite hard figuring out what to bring back people...but even harder, to figure out what to get people for Christmas! Andrew and I were under the impression that we did a draw name gift exchange for Christmas here and that that was it...so we each bought for the person we drew and thought nothing else of it...come to find out...you still buy for everyone for Christmas day...the draw names was just for a family lunch. Oops.  So about half our time in Queenstown felt like we were looking for gifts haha.  

After going in a few shops we noticed the movie theater! So we decided to buy tickets for the 7:30 showing of The Hobbit :) Movies sure are expensive here...I think it was $15 or $16 per person? Ridiculous. So we bought the tickets then went and had some dinner at a bar/restaurant right next to the theater.  I was oddly craving pasta.  I think it was because of going past all the wineries that made me think of Italy...

Then we went and saw the movie...I won't spoil anything, but it was fantastic :) So cool to see the scenes shot in places that now looked so familiar :) After the movie we got a cab back to the hotel...most expensive cab ever...$17 for about 2.5 miles of driving.  Stupid. So we decided to learn the bus route for the next day haha.

The next morning (Thursday) we woke up early around 8 to go get some breakfast at the hotel.  They had a rinky dink buffet...but hey...it was included so we ate it. Thursday was the day for the gondola and luge :) So we figured out the buses and headed in to town.  Once in town, we walked over to where the Skyline Gondola starts off.  We headed up the gondola over the tall trees to the top of the mountain.  It was so breathtaking from up there.  There is a restaurant situated on the top of the mountain that has a cafe, restaurant and a gift shop.  On the way up we also passed the bungee jumping.  We decided to give that pass...sketch! 

We went in to the Skyline building to take a look at the views off the mountain side.  It was stunning (as you could imagine from the photos).  We wandered around, snapping photos and then decided to go for the ride on the luge.  The ride to the luge started with a helmet and a chair lift. The helmets sucked. We went up the lift to the top and learned how to operate the little luge thingys. Pretty easy.  Then we went off on our first ride down of 5.  Soooo much fun! It was a bit hard to go fast though...people kept getting in our way and not pullling off to the side. A bit of a pain. But it was still a blast :) 

After the luge it was bout 11am or so.  We decided to go have a custard square in the cafe and then go back down the gondola in to town.  We weren't sure what to do because it was still early and we hadn't really planned anything else...so we decided, lets go see if the Shotover Jet has anything available.  It was a beautiful day...and Saturday, the day we planned to go, was 'supposed to rain' (just like every day is supposed to rain here) so we figured, hey, why not.  

So we found a place that sold tickets to the jet, went in and talked with them...and it turned out they had an open trip just minutes away! So we booked our tickets and off we went to meet the bus and go to the Shotover River :)  Once at the river we suited up in our lifevests and got on the speedboat.  Man that thing had some umph! It can hydroplane in water as low as 5 mm! Insane...and the 360 spins?!?!$@#! I about pee'ed my pants. It was SO MUCH FUN! Basically...you get on this little speedboat with a bunch of people, and this guy takes you up and down this cliffy river...super fast...and makes you think your going to hit all the cliffs.  Then, once your in the open a bit, he takes the boat and does a ninja fast 360 degree spin! You get quite wet.  So awesome and so worth the $130 bucks haha.

So after the boat ride we went and grabbed our free photo (check it out over there) and went back in to town to shop some more for Christmas presents.  We shopped for what felt like ages...got super tired...and decided to take our tired selves back to the hotel for a nap.  

When we woke up we decided to go back in to town to visit the Minus 5 Ice Bar. Probably the coolest bar in the world. Literally ;) Bahaha. Anywho...they supplied us with big furry coats, ugly ugg boots, and gloves and shuffled us in to the big cooler of a bar.  The bar was surrounded by ice...ice block walls, ice sculptures, ice shevling for the drinks...SO COOL! Our entry came with a 'free drink' so I got the peachy something and other and Andrew got a 'Yummy Yeti".  Heehee.

After cooling off, taking lots of pictures, and not being able to feel my fingers anymore, we decided to head on out.  The guy at the counter gave us a little coupon for a buy one get one at the bar next store called the Boiler Room (or something similar) so we went over there to have a drink.  After that, we decided it was getting a bit late, and we had to get up SUPER early the next morning for our Milford Sound trip, so we headed back to the hotel and in to bed. 

Amazing day...and couldn't WAIT for tomorrow :P

Polo and Cold Pills

So after a long weekend my head cold has ALLLLMOST gone :) It's down to just a stuffy nose on one side, which I can handle haha.  This weekend was a polo tournament that Ashley (Andrew's sister), Garth (Andrew's Dad) and Doada (their groom from Mongolia) were playing in. The tournament started on Friday and ended today (Sunday).

The first day was nice and warm, and though I hid in the shade all day to avoid this hot sun, I still managed to get a bit sun burnt on my chest. New Zealand has some of the strongest levels of UV radiation in the world...so you get burnt QUICK. I tried laying down on a couch while in the shade...switching sides every once in a while to help clear my nose.  Didn't work very well...I still felt "rubbish" as they say here and tried my best not to cough all over everyone...gross.


The first day was a long one.  It was fun...but I'm going to have to say being at polo from 11am to 8pm while sick was a lonnnnnggggg day.  The next day, Saturday, was a bit better for me sickness wise but the weather wasn't that great.  Andrew and I decided to stay in that morning so that I could get some sleep and get some work done and talk to my parents at noon our time.  That was the first time I was able to talk to my dad since I've been here! Felt good to hear my parents voices.


After the morning we got to polo late, and watched two games.  Andrew actually commentated for two games, and I jumped in and kept time and score for one.  The weather took a turn for the worse as the day went on and by the time the games ended, I was ready to get on out of there.  We headed back with everyone to get ready for their barbecue that was going on that night.  They roasted a big lamb (sad face) but I sucked it up and ate it...and it wasn't bad haha.  The point of the night was to hang out around the bonfire and drink in to the wee hours, but it was just not that kind of night for us.  As I mentioned, it started to get cold and got even more cold later as the 'southerly' had come through (like a cold front) and it was absolutely freezing out! Andrew and I were way too cold..and the polo crowd that Andrew remembered from the old days had been replaced with a whole bunch of young college age kids.  It was...strange. We just felt a bit too old for it.  So the night ended early and we headed home to get ready for the next and final day of polo.

Today was a good one.  It was a gorgeous day and I loved taking in the sun rays! Even if I was lathered in sunscreen (haha).  Andrew's stepmother, Amanda, brought along her grandchildren...Ashton, Tamara, and Miller.  They are so cute.  In the picture, you see Andrew with the kids, trying to sell drinks up and down the field.  Andrew's pulling a grumpy face because he didn't want to go do it haha.  But I'm sure the cute kids made it a bit more fun ;)

Today Andrew did more commentating and I took the time and scoring down again.  He does such a good job :) Today he was throwing in some cheeky phrases and accidentally dropped the F bomb at one point (by accident)..I laughhheeeddd! I don't think anyone noticed. It was just thrown in there...quite randomly actually...and sounded more like a fumble of speech rather than a curse word haha. He felt pretty embarrassed.  At the end of the day, Ashley's team, The Canterbury Concrete Cutters, won the tournament. Yayyy! She did a fantastic job :) And won feed for her horse haha.

After it ended we packed everything up and went home for showers and I opened up my computer...doing a bit of work and trying to get this stinking blog caught up (as you may have noted I faked some of the dates to make it all flow haha).  Andrew went out and helped put the horses up and then had to help his dad bale up the hay.  He came home a MESSSSS...heehee.

This next week should be pretty relaxed.  No plans for tomorrow yet.  We want to go see the Hobbit sometime but Ashley said she has tickets for us that only work in Christchurch...so not sure what to do with that since an hours a long way to drive just for a movie...

This Wednesday we leave for 3 nights in Queenstown.  Verrryyyy excited about that!  I'll post about it as soon as I can :) Until next time... ;)

A Peek in to Andrew's Past

Tuesday Andrew decided to take me in to Geraldine...the town where he went to our equivalence of High School.  It's a good 30 minutes or so away, which seemed pretty crazy considering he had to bus all that way to school. For here though (in the South Island), everything is quite spread out and towns are very small. So I guess it makes sense.

We started with a tour of his school.  Everything was set up sort of like schools in summery areas of the States where its got things located in different buildings and you walk to each...They had a sweet ropes course in the back of the school in the trees haha.  After the tour, and Andrew describing all the details of every building (haha), we went in to town to have lunch.  We went to a little cafe and I got to try all sorts of NZ goodies!  I had a bacon and egg pie, a custard square, a custard croissant, lolly cake and Andrew's favorite, Primo chocolate milk.

After lunch we went around the shops in search of Christmas presents and happened to run in to Andrew's Nanny (Grandma).  We had a chat with her and her and then went on our way to Talbot Forest.  Its a little forest right next to town that Andrew said his track team used to run up and down through.  The forest was situated on a hill with lots of tall and fat trees all over it.  The tree's wind and bend like a fairy tale.  Absolutely beautiful.  I feel like I'm going through the secret garden :) Some of the tree's were very tall...and some very wide...like the one in my picture.  I wanted to hug them all (haha). They were so amazing...

And the birds sound absolutely beautiful here.  Andrew was excited for me to hear the Magpies.  I can see why :) I'll try to snap a picture of one and post it at some point.  I snapped a few pictures of birds...including this one right here (can't remember what it is...Andrew could tell you) and a HUGE pigeon. Biggest bird ever.  It looked like a vulture!

After our little walk through the forest we we popped out somewhere along a road and walked back to the car.  Andrew took me on a drive past some hills that had cute houses along it...including this one...a real life hobbit house! Made me super excited...

We got back to the house pretty early, around 3pm, just in time to Skype my mom :) The rest of the day I got some work in and Andrew went out and rode horses with his dad.  Then later in the early evening Andrew decided I needed to learn how to ride...He picked a horse named Zeta for me.  We got in to the round pen and with a bit of Andrew's help I was up on the horse.  At the start it was a disaster.  I was able to get her going a  bit, but I had to kick and kick and kick and the second I stopped and put my feet down, Zeta stopped.  Fail.  We tried to get her in to a canter but she just would NOT go! Andrew had to run around and chase her and clap and yell and she STILL wouldn't go.  He thought I was stupid. Then he tried. Same problem ;) Haha. Eventually she started to understand what we wanted, and I was able to get in the groove.  After about 30 minutes or so I was SO tired! After so much work, and barely even getting to go on her...I decided maybe I'll just stop and try another day haha.  Andrew said I did fine...that Zeta was being difficult.  I hope that's true...

Tomorrow we get up early for Ashley's graduation celebrations in Christchurch.  Should be fun!

Traveling to Hobbit Land

Early Friday morning, at 5am, Andrew and I set off for our LONG plane ride to New Zealand.  Super excited, but definitely tired.  The trip was about 6 hours to San Francsico, leaving at 7am and arriving around 10am.  Then a long layover in San Fran with a departure at 7:30pm to Auckland.  The flight was scheduled to take 13.5 hours and land in the morning at 5:30am or so.  Then we fly an hour or so in to Christchurch arriving at 9:30am.

The 6 hour plane ride from Raleigh to San Fran was a doozy.  Made me dread the 13.5 hour flight ahead...We landed at around 9:50am in San Fran with some issues getting in to the gate...they actually parked too far and had to use a pulley to get us in place (or something like that).  After arriving Andrew and I found the BART train (after a bit of confusion) and headed downtown to walk around and meet my cousin Ken for lunch.  Our flight to Auckland didn't leave till 7:30pm, so we had a bit of time to explore.

This was my first time in San Fran :) We got off the train at the Embarcadero Station right near the pier.  We did a bit of looking around through a market and then decided we were going to try to find Chinatown so we cut on to Broadway St.  After passing about 7 strip clubs and feeling super awkward we started to see some things that seem more 'Chinatown' so we decided to cut down and see everything.  I'm pretty sure we were 1 or two blocks too short and missed it all, because what we went through wasn't too impressive.  Did see some neat buildings and the Church of Scientology though ;)


Our lunch reservation was at 12:45pm at Michael Mina...oh how lovely (and expensive) it was! Absolutely fabulous lunch.  I started with a salad and then went on to fish and chips and a fancy smores dessert.  Andrew had tuna then trout and then some fruity melon dessert.  We took pictures...


We had a great time getting to know my cousin Ken a lot better (who I haven't seen in probably 15 years or more) and chatting about all sorts of things.  Then around 3pm we left and headed back towards the train.  We were really worried about rush hour traffic so we headed back around 4 towards the airport.  After getting there we realized we WAY overcompensated on time.  The airport was EMPTY.  We had no line through security and got right to our gate within like 20 minutes.  Walking place to place took the most time. Better safe then sorry!


We boarded the plane and started exploring all the free movies.  They had some good ones!   So Andrew and I decided we would start with a movie.  We both watched the newest Bourne movie. Quite good.  Dinner came after that and we took a little sleeping pill with it to help us get through the overnight flight.  Worked well because we konked right out and slept almost the whole flight, waking up with just enough time to watch one more movie :) GREAT flight!

We arrived in Auckland on time...verrryyy early in the morning.  Andrew got his polo boots sent through the biolab because they were gross and muddy so after getting those back we walked to the domestic terminal.  You have to walk outside to get to it OR take a tram...we picked walking (after sitting for so long!).  On the way we spotted an air stream selling coffee! Had to snap a picture for mom ;)

Off to Christchurch we went, checking out the gorgeous views from the plane along the way.  All the mountains peeked up above the clouds...it was awesome! Andrew pointed out all of the sites along the way and knew basically all of the mountains (impressive).  It was definitely a scenic flight!  The clounds covered for a lot but in most places they would open up.  We were on the wrong side of the plane though.  The Southern Alps were on the opposite side :( but maybe we'll get that view on the way home.



Around 9:30am we landed in Christchurch.  Andrew's sister Ashley picked us up and we headed off to watch his family play polo...not a bad start to the trip! His family has a farm where they raise horses for polo and sell them.  They also have some cow and sheep and a cute doggy named Diesel.  Christchurch is about an hour or so from where Andrew's family lives in Ashburton.  The polo match was somewhere inbetween.  Andrew got to ride a horse again for the first time in quite a while! He was nervous but did just fine ;) I forgot to take pictures of the polo match but we'll be watching more throughout the trip so I'll get some up at one point or another.  Got to try my first Speights (their beer of the south island) and a Ginger Beer (like a thick gingerale) and my first NZ sausage! Not bad so far!! The Speights was ehh, but Garth (Andrews dad) said its because it had been sitting out for weeks at that field so he had me try one at the house once we were back...definitely better haha.

Oh and P.S. Driving on the wrong side of the road is definitely strange...not sure if I'll ever get in on the right side of the car haha.  More to come later!