KTMusings

It's been quite a process (and has taken me several months!) to go through the 4,000+ pictures we took between our two cameras on this trip. I think I've managed to come up with a reasonable number to post (approximately 500 in each album), so if you're interested in seeing more than what I have in the daily blog posts below, check out the following slideshows: New Zealand - North Island (days 1-12): http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=0AZuWzNq3YsWbio New Zealand - South Island (days 13-20): http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=0AZuWzNq3YsWbkw And to take a look at my day-by-day recap, start here and follow the links: http://kellytmiller.blogspot.com/2011/03/new-zealand-itinerary.html

We woke up to more gorgeous views over Lake Tekapo, before starting literally the longest day of our lives. We had about a two hour drive into Christchurch (where we were supposed to spend our last two nights, but had a change of plans due to their major earthquake before our departure). As we were driving to return our rental car, we heard on the radio that the city had just registered a 4.1 earthquake ... which none of us felt. Here's us after we returned Bruce: As the rental car guy drove us to the airport, Ryan used the phrase "sweet as" - I don't remember what he said, but we thought it was way funnier than the driver did. Once at the airport, Ryan made Dana put her sling on to gain sympathy from the lady checking us in for the flight. It worked - she checked all our bags for free and got us 4 seats in a row so Dana wouldn't get jostled around on the flight. Ryan shows off his leg room: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hpp-o0RftRs We flew Christchurch to Auck...

Well, our last full day in NZ was a relaxing one. Ryan heard there was a golf course up the road, so he rented clubs from our hotel and we drove out to MacKenzie Golf Club. The course itself left something to be desired, but we enjoyed the sunshine and the views. Ryan's video recap of the course: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1brInmH5HKs On our drive back into town we drove up to the Mt John Observatory for some pretty spectacular views. Lake Tekapo: Looking back toward town: Videos of the view: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=39-atJequz0 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u-u04gg2LR8 Here's the lake from back by our hotel: After lunch we walked over to the Church of the Good Shepard and couldn't stop taking pictures. The view of the lake from inside (through the window over the altar): Breathtaking. We had a quiet last night (believe it or not, a town of 300 people has little nightlife) - we borrowed a movie from the hotel owners and spent time getting all of our belong...

We left Te Anau the next morning and had more gorgeous weather for our drive: And, we finally got to see what we'd all been waiting for - a herd crossing! These were cows (instead of all the sheep we'd been seeing around), but fun to see. Once we realized how close to Queenstown we had to drive, we decided to make a stop there - Dana sat by the lake while Ryan and I ran to get a Fergburger - yum! After that brief detour we continued to head north - see the color of this lake? All the lakes in this region were a cloudy, light turquoise color from the "rock flour" - small particles of rock coming down from the mountains. Here's Lake Pukaki: Mt Cook: We then arrived at Lake Tekapo and our lodging for our last two nights. We stayed at the Lake Tekapo Scenic Resort ... which wasn't really a resort, more like a motel ... but we did have the penthouse suite, which gave us lots of room to spread out! And check out this gorgeous view from our living room: Here...

We got up bright and early the next day to get on the road to Milford Sound. We read that if you left Te Anau by 8am you'd beat the crowds, so we did, and didn't make any stops on the way up there. So here's the view from our car as we made the drive: To get out there, we had to drive through the Homer Tunnel - a 1km tunnel that goes straight through a mountain. There are traffic lights at each end that switch direction every 15 minutes. Ryan took a video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wUOVUbVGfFY We arrived in Milford Sound and had beat all the bus and tour traffic and had the place to ourselves for a bit. How gorgeous is this? Hiking around in the sound: We had lots of stops planned on the way back to Te Anau - the first was at The Chasm, an unbelieveably cool river and water fall that had cut through parts of the rock. There is no way to describe it and it was hard to get pictures, but you can sort of see that the water has eaten away at parts of the rock: We then dr...

We woke up to another beautiful day in Queenstown. We had the day to explore before we drove down to Te Anau for the night. Here's the view from breakfast in the morning, looking out on Lake Wakatipu, and a video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GtXnxTceWKY The girls at breakfast: Great little downtown, with pretty fall colors and the Remarkable Mountains in the distance. On our way up to the gondolas (which we didn't end up going on), we saw this little crepe stand ... can you see why we stopped for lunch? (hint, check out the sign ...) I had crepes with Nutella, bananas, and coconut - delish! Ryan passed on the crepes in favor of checking out an infamous burger joint in town. I ended up being incredibly jealous of his Fergburger (he was nice enough to give me a bite). The Bohlens, chilling in Queenstown. Out on the lake - the tour boat and a jet boat: Fall colors and "The Remarks". After a leisurely day of souvenier shopping and lunch, we headed to Te Anau for...

The day after the glacier hike we woke up to perfectly gorgeous weather :) We piled Dana into the car with a sling and pillows and we were off to Queenstown! We went back to the scene of the crime ... Franz Josef glacier - a good view of how far we had to hike just to get to the ice: Waterfalls on the surrounding mountains: Video of the glacier in the sunlight: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9G_tSTRBu2c From Franz Josef, we went to check out the Fox Glacier. Gorgeous, eh? Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PTGgQE7kn4I Our next stop was Lake Matheson. Dana stopped in the restroom before we walked around the lake and I couldn't resist taking this picture :) We also stuck her empty sleeve in her jacket pocket ... she was a good sport. A view of Mt Cook (and Mt Tasman) over the pasture: It took us about an hour to hike around the lake, starting with this bridge. Pretty cool reflection in the lake. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j8oxeCZHrN8 Sisters, sisters ... Once we got...