Hey All!
It’s been a few days since we’ve been able to say hi. Wifi and cell service wasn’t exactly a thing in the foothills of the Southern Alps! Keith and I are currently relaxing in our Queenstown hotel room sipping on Grande Americanos. We would have liked to try some Kiwi coffee, but Kiwis must get up late because the earliest I’ve seen a coffee shop open was 7:30am, so Starbucks it was. The first thing I noticed about NZ Starbucks coffee, no Holiday cup. Kinda bummed about that! Ha. As you may remember from the
Cusco blogs, Starbucks renamed Keith “Kate.” The Kiwi Starbucks went ahead and renamed him “Kim.” Haha. I think we may need to travel around the world just to see what Keith’s Starbucks name is.
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| Meet My Husband Kim |
I am sure you all clicked this link to hear about what we’ve been doing, so I’ll get to that. We left the North Island on Saturday the 17
th, which was Friday the 16
thfor all of you in America. We landed in Christchurch late afternoon and enjoyed a nice dinner and a walk around the
Botanic Gardens before meeting our tour group the next morning. If you have ever been on a tour before, you’ve probably wondered who you will be stuck with for the next week or two. Keith and I have always been really lucky and have met some wonderful people. This trip was no different. The 8 of us connected instantly and it’s been nothing but laughter for 4 days! Our guides are just as wonderful. Ruby cooks us the best meals and James is a trooper for being the brunt of our jokes.
The first day we drove from Queenstown to Franz Josef, stopping to hike the
Devils Punchbowl trail in Arthurs Pass. It was a long drive, but we spent the 6 hours getting to know each other before snoozing off at the
Rainforest Retreat.
The next day we woke with a plan to Heli_Hike Franz Josef Glacier. Unfortunately the weather wasn’t cooperating so all flights were grounded. We ended up earning our dinner, hiking through the temperate rainforest and up to
Alex Knob to get some incredible views of the ice. As much as I wanted to ride in a helicopter, the hike was absolutely amazing and I’m glad we did it. We were all pretty hungry after the hike so our guides dropped us off at
Curly Tree so that we could try a Kiwi delicacy, whitebait. Lets just say none of us were that hungry! Haha. We did try a bite though. I can still see the eyes. Ug. We continued to make our way south to our
Makarora Lodgings, which reminds so much of
Sorensens back home. The quant little cabins with no WiFi or TV are the perfect place to detach from the stresses of the world.
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| Lunch... yum yum |
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| Our cute little Cabin |
The next day the weather seemed to take a turn for the worst so taking a scenic flight to a Siberia Hut was out of the cards. We ended up driving up the west coast to Jackson Bay in search of better weather.
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| Trying to take a picture while being swarmed by sandflies! |
It was a good thing we were all well rested after the previous days active hiatus. We woke to snow capped mountains, beautiful weather and day full of activities around Mt. Aspiring National park. We hiked along the Wilkin River, met our jet boat for an exciting speedy adventure, biked along the gorgeous Hawea River Trail and saw NZ from the sky on a scenic flight.
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| Bus Ride Stop Views |
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| Hike to jetboat views |
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| Hike to jet boat views |
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| It's Jetboat Time! |
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| Jetboat Views |
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| Hawea River Trail |
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| James and I taking a bike ride break! |
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| Keith and I taking a bike ride break |
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| I often hear about these little planes on the news...... |
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| Got to love the photo bomb! |
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| Sky Views |
It’s time for me to stop typing and get out there to enjoy the Queenstown. Today’s plans include some adventure in the adventure capital and a NZ Thanksgiving dinner at
Rata.
Thanks for reading,
JenniferMarie
Bonus footage.... Kiwi James showing us how to eat a Tim Tam..... or 3 with Hot Chocolate.
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