Lately I've been really busy doing lots of assignments and lab reports. It turned out that there was a break in the flow coincidentally last weekend. My flatmate and her boyfriend are both pilots and Xander wanted to practice, so Laura and I got a private 4 person airplane ride to Queenstown. We left on Thursday afternoon into some fine weather, and got back on Sunday. The view out the plane windows was just fantastic - central Otago is breathtaking! Then we got to the mountains, and they were really spectacular. There are all these bright blue lakes and rocky-ish type mountains... which are really impressive to the Americans. Its awesome, they're like "Wow check out the SNOW on the MOUNTAINS!" At the same time, I'm thinking how lame NZ snow is, but its still fantastic. The area near Queenstown was used in a few major LOTR scenes, and its pretty recognizable. How random is it to go somewhere and feel like you've been there before? Except for the part where they edited out the entire town, etc.
On Friday, we had a nice relaxing day - I walked around Lake Wakatipu and picked the exact location of where my wedding pictures will be (the photo with the bridge over the water!) . Laura and I went jetboating on the Shotover river which was really moving from high rainfalls previously. We also went up the gondola and were able to see the entire town and mountains from above- we hit it right at sunset, which was great. We then Luged partway down the mountain, which was great fun.
On Saturday, Laura and I went on a trip to Milford Sound with a little tour van. It was worth it for the drive there alone. Along the way we stopped for numerous lookouts and scenic photo spots. We also saw Lake Te Anau (2nd largest in NZ, the largest being Taupo -I've also been there, 3rd is Lake Tekapu - been there as well!). Along the way we stopped at a bird sanctuary with some really rare birds. In NZ there are no native mammals, so the birds expanded their ecological niche and so there a lot of fat birds who don't fly with no natural predators. The scenery is like nothing else - so spectacular! Milford Sound is one of fifteen fjords on the west coast that are all protected in Fjordland National Park, and it is arguably the most accessible and photogenic. We got onto the boat, and there were just ~10 of us on this huge boat! The boat went up and down the entire fjord. Its something else to see mountains plunge right into the water. There are also many waterfalls because it is always raining on the west coast. (although we had perfect weather)
Saturday night, we went to town in Queenstown. Its a party place, but don't worry I used my rugby skills to ensure I could fight off any kind of attack. (haha) Also, Krystle's boyfriend is 6 foot 3 and he's protective of his friends. But it was mostly me.
On Sunday, we all flew home, and I thanked Xander for his excellent flying by throwing up in the plane. Classy.
Pictures are being nasty and not uploading. Will try again later
1 comment:
Speaking of Canadian snow, I was in Canmore for May long and there was snow not only high in the mountains. . . but everywhere on Monday morning. Anyways, it would be pretty sweet to see some other mountains. I flew over the Alps once, but that's it.
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