A Country of Extreme Things

So I guess at some point I got on the ball, because I have traveled and seen much of this AMAZING South Island!! Since the last update, I have hooked up with a travel company called The Kiwi Experience which has provided the transportation to all the places I've wished to go on this journey. It is a fantastic idea because they provide the transportation and assist in booking accommodations & activities, but you decide on how long you want to spend in each location/town and where you want to go! There has been some slight disregard to the whole "budget travel" thing in the past week, as I have participated in 3 activities offered by the beautiful host towns of Franz Josef and Queenstown.

Thirty minutes after arriving in Franz Josef, I hopped on a helicopter with 4 others and took a scenic ride up to the top of the Franz Josef Glacier - one of the largest of New Zealand's 3000+ glaciers. Once we came to a skid-ice landing, we strapped on some crampons (yea, I know) and started hiking up the glacier (sounds more sophisticated if you pronounce it like the English folk that were on the trek... glass-i-ah). It was an UNREAL experience...haven't really ever done something like that in my life, so the opportunity to do so was much appreciated. We climbed up & down ice chunks, through tunnels, between skinny crevices that made me rethink the chocolate bar I had earlier that day, and underneath overhanging ice pieces that resembled small buildings rather than ice. Of course, my smooth self did wipe out a few times, including falling out head first of a ice tunnel we were crawling through, but it was great fun!!! And it was even more enjoyable because no one in our group was injured at the end of the day. On the helicopter ride back, we had two surprises - one was that our ride back was almost perfectly timed with the sunset, so the ride was out of this world!! Secondly, our pilot, who was referred to by our glacier guides as "the mad one" and "oh no, not him again," provided us with quite a few dips, spins, and cutaways near the mountainside, leaving us all slightly green but incredibly giddy and thankful.

Second was a quad bike (4-wheeler) ride through the basin, river, and nearby rainforest at the base of the glacier. For 1 1/2 hours, we splashed through mud puddles, hopped over jumps, and raced each other through the beautiful backdrop of the Franz Josef Glacier. It took a little while to get the hang of using the thumb only throttle - after I went over bumps, my hard landing seemed to cause my whole body to jolt forward, in turn forcing me to inadvertently push the accelerator even more...and you can only imagine how that next jump went. However, riding through the rainforest was SOOOOO much fun!! And the mud puddles of course...a buddy that's been traveling the same route as me through the South Island went quad biking as well, thus giving me a target to aim for as a splashed through the 2-foot deep puddles! Great fun that left me wishing we had one more hour, as I was finally starting to get the feel for the bike towards the end! Hoping to do it again in the future, but dragging a few of yous along with me.

Two days ago, my biking buddy, two other backpackers we met from Ireland, a gal from California, and myself all took a cruise of the Milford Sound fjord - and was it GORGEOUS!!!! The scenery itself was gorgeous, but I met a couple on the cruise that was from Charlottesville, Virginia (of ALL PLACES!!!) that were just delightful and lovely people. We had a fabulous conversation that covered many different topics, but it was just lovely to see how in love they were after 30+ years of marriage and how much they were loving the moment they were in!!! It reminded me of the scene in "What About Bob" where he is eating dinner with the family and cannot stop commenting on how wonderful the food is - that was them....every 3 seconds was "isn't this just beautiful," "look at how gorgeous that is," and "isn't this amazing." HOW REFRESHING!!!! I think sometimes it's easy to get caught up on the superfluous aspects of travel and trips (cost, accommodation, means of transport, etc) that we forget to just sit back, take it in, and ENJOY!! At some point, we just had to put the cameras away and hang ourselves over the top deck to get the fresh air and best views!! So to the couple on the boat- THANK YOU!!!

Yesterday was a fantastic day, as two fellow backpackers and I headed on a 1.5 hour hike up a lovely mountain that eventually took us to the top of the Queenstown Gondola, which overlooks all of Queenstown and the Lake Wakatipu basin. HOW BEAUTIFUL - the weather, the sights, the hike itself, the company, and the feeling of hiking back at sea level. At the top of the Gondola, you can do a little street luge down the top third of the mountain...c'mon, how can you resist - it was nearly impossible for me to not smile on the way down! What fun!! It was definitely a memorable day, and one of the best I've had since being in New Zealand.

Today, since the weather was BEAUTIFUL, I decided what better way to enjoy the weather by flying in it!! Therefore, at around noon, I ran off the side of a mountain, sat back, and enjoyed looking out onto the diverse lands of this Southern Island. Paragliding is a FANTASTIC way to fully enjoy seeing the area around you. My instructor and I took of from topmost point of the best ski/snowboard mountain around (Coronet's Peak), ran off the side, sat back, and enjoyed the 25-minute descent. Of course, we did have a little fun doing huge switchback swings and spirals (which are cause you to circle at ridiculous speeds, ps) on the way down. Though I have not viewed them yet, I did get a few pictures of the ride, which I hope to post in the near future - please don't let the running nose and frozen face have any effect on your judgment of my enjoyment of the ride...it was A-MAZING, just extremely cold.

The girls I went hiking with the other day and I will reunite one last time for dinner before we all head our separate ways. Good fun to be had! Lots of love to them, to you all, and to everyone!!!