Sunday, August 12

Sunday, August 12

The cell phone alarm was set for 8:00 but I woke up around 7:45 and went outside to see the most beautiful morning. The mountains were visible and it was so nice! Breakfast time and although we'd bought a huge bag of oats at the store the night before we had leftover Chinese that needed to be eaten.

After breakfast we drove down to the the lake and the Church of the Good Shepherd before driving out to the Mount John Observatory. It was such an AWESOME weather day...so bright and clear. However, we could start to see the clouds coming in over the Mount Cook area and we weren't sure if our helicopter tour would still be a go (although Josh had called them earlier and everything was fine).

After having mochachinos to drink and taking in the view from the Astro Cafe (the two mountain shots below), we needed to hit the road toward Mount Cook. Our helicopter tour was leaving out of Glentanner which was about an hour's drive away.

As we drove toward Glentanner, we passed Lake Pukaki seen below on this fantastic day:

When we reached Glentanner, they told us that the winds had changed and the flight we were booked on to fly over Mount Cook to view the Franz and Fox glaciers wasn't operating. We could still fly around and view the area and make a snow landing on one of the mountains.

We decided we should take the shorter helicopter ride ($100 less per person than the tour we'd originally booked). There really wasn't much of a safety briefing and this helicopter ride was a lot less work than putting on all the gear for the heli-hike we took at the Franz glacier.

We took our photo with the passes they gave us for like 5 seconds before taking them away. I really don't think they were necessary as our tour only consisted of us and one other girl. We hopped onto the helicopter and although it's hard to view in the video below, I was really afraid and I didn't really enjoy the ride due to the whole fear of flying thing. Of course, the views were AWESOME but flying does make me nervous especially when we were flying so close to the side of the mountain!

When we landed on the snow covered mountain, I was relieved. We got out of the helicopter and did a bit of walking around in the deep, deep snow. Apparently, you are supposed to stay on the tracks that the helicopter pilot makes in the snow but I missed that part of the instructions because I went off the trail to take some photos.

After the helicopter tour we went on a hike to try to view Mount Cook, however, while the sun came out for a solid 15 minutes on the hike, by the time we reached the Mount Cook viewing spot it was snowing lightly and as we began our walk back it really started snowing big flakes. It was really cool yet kind of intimidating to be out in nature like that.

After our hike, we stopped into the Visitors Centre for a bit before getting on the road to Queenstown. We ate some snacks as we drove along. We knew we'd have to cross over Lindis Pass in order to reach Queenstown and we hoped to be able to do that during the daylight as that was one road we hadn't driven on our first South Island trip and we didn't know what it was like. The drive typically takes 3 1/2 to 4 hours and we left the Mount Cook area around 3pm.

The Lindis Pass, although there were signs posted for Ice/Grit was not too bad. However, there isn't a lot out in rural New Zealand so by the time we made it across the Pass, we were ready to find the nearest toilets or we were going to burst! We found a small town with public toliets and just as we pulled into the parking lot, the car died. The car must have needed a break too! No worries though as the car started right back up and didn't give us any other trouble on the trip.

Back on the road as we watched a pretty sunset over Lake Dunstan. The last hour of the drive was in the dark...and then, in the rain. Finally, we made it into Queenstown. We were hungry and I had planned for us to eat dinner at Speight's Ale House which fortunately was on the main road as we came into town.

We found some parking and headed off to eat. When we got into the restaurant/bar, it looked really crowded with people sitting very close to each other at smooshed tables (very European style). I approached the waiter at the counter and said, "I heard to ask for something called the Vault Room." Now, I'd read online to ask for this room but I had no idea what or where it was.

The guy asked me how many people we had and I said 4 and then he proceeded to show us into a room right off his counter area that had a table and chairs for six and the roof of the room was vaulted. It was our very own private dining area with room to spread out. We felt like VIPS until ordering and receiving our food took 45 minutes!

However, once the food arrived, it tasted soooo good! I had soup and salad, Josh's mom had black cherry chicken, Josh's dad had fish and chips and Josh had pork chops with veggies. It was a great meal in a great environment. Too bad about the wait (granted it was Saturday night and we were hungry going into the restaurant).

After the great dinner, we stopped in at a grocery store to pick up dessert (two different Sara Lee pies!), snacks and drinks. We were staying in another holiday home but this place was not going to be as big as the last place we'd stayed. This home had 2 bedrooms and 1 bathroom but SPECTACULAR views. It was also ridiculously cheap for being just outside of Queenstown in peak season. When I saw the price on this place (after looking at other places that cost $300-$400 per night) I had to book it.

The name of the holiday home was McKerrow Magic and it is located in Sunshine Bay which is a 5 minute drive from Queenstown. Although I had directions to the house (which turned out to be correct~we were just incapable of following them correctly) we got lost and Josh's dad went into a hotel to get further directions and a map. We soon found the proper street but we had difficulty finding the proper address on the mailbox. Eventually, I found the right place using the flashlight on the cell phone to help me out.

We unloaded our gear and settled into our new place. We were going to be staying here for two nights. Josh's dad started us a fire in the potbelly stove and we broke out one of the pies for dessert. We popped in a DVD and hung out for the rest of the night. When we went to bed, Josh and I saw that the green shade over the skylight could be pulled back to view the stars while laying in bed. How cool is that?!?!