New Zealand At Its Finest

Realized yesterday that I probably should start researching what I want to do in NZ, as there is a very limited amount of time to fit everything in - so, I spent 3 hours in the information centre and emerged triumphant with 55kg of brochures under one arm and a Magic pass under the other. Now, though the pass may sound mysterious and cooler than any other pass out there, this is not necessarily the case. However, for the amount of money I have to spend, the pass is in fact MAGICAL! I am now the proud holder of a number and passcode that will allow me to travel freely to Franz Josef & Fox Glaciers, Queenstown, Dunedin, and back to Christchurch - quite a fun little circuit that will allow me to see and do everything I hoped (or at least found out about yesterday) to do.

Today I took the Trans-Alpine train from Christchurch to a small little West Coasty town called Greymouth - a cute little place with an old western-style downtown, fully equipped with some horse posts (posts where people used to tie up their horses - sorry, I do not know the technical name for them, so I take the Maori approach to naming things and call it like it is) in front of the local pub. Apparently, this train trip is on the "to-do" list for all visitors of Kiwi country - many people on the train were making the trip, only to take the same train back to Christchurch after it reached Greymouth. Now, I understand why - it was GORGEOUS! Snow-capped mountains, green farmland, lake country, forest country, SHEEPIES EVERYWHERE - within 3 km I saw more sheep than there were residents of the town where we were heading!!! Never really seen sheep run...so that was pretty amusing for me - I am not sure this is normal, as I have already admitted my lack of sheep knowledge, but are they supposed to kick up their back legs like rabbits when they advance forward? Regardless, it was amusing. Anyways, the absolutely beautiful scenery came at us from all directions throughout the entire trip... except when I happened to run out onto the one "smoking/picture-taking platform" to try to capture the moment. Somehow, my sheer presence caused the beautiful landscape to shy away, leaving me with landfills and marshes. Seriously, I would run out and in the 3 seconds it took for my camera to open, the 2000mt snow-capped mountain would disappear behind heaps of compost piles and forestry.... OR, I would run out and as my camera was waking up, I would hear "Ladies and gents, we are now entering the Kuwai tunnel, the longest tunnel of our journey at about 7.3km in length, or approximately 5 miles" from our very informative conductor. Nonetheless, while I was indoors and seated, I felt as though I was literally taking a ride through (and this is only for the LOTR dorks like myself and fam) Middle Earth. Basically, if you have ever wanted to know what New Zealand looks like, have a movie marathon and re-watch the LOTR series (and I am not just saying that because I have no pictures of the landscape).

So after a brilliant train ride and hours of aimless wandering around a not-so-big town, my plans include heading to Franz Josef Glacier tomorrow to do some hiking and glacier climbing :) Love you mom and dad - I'll be safe. Then, hopefully, on towards Fox Glacier to do an 8-hour circuit hike that will, with the grace of good weather, produces amazing panoramic views of the glaciers and surrounding area :) Big excitement!! Cheers and much love.