May 16, 2007
We had a pretty relaxing day today although it started off disappointingly enough. We put our bathing suits on and went downstairs where Helen led us out to the hot tub….which was broken. Ugh. The swimming pool is unheated (and really dirty) so we had no recourse. Seriously, I know that we cashed in points to stay here and it is the off season, but fix your stuff or offer me a free breakfast or a bottle of wine for the fact that not all of your amenities are available. I thought this place was supposed to be high class. A letter of complaint to the hotel’s parent company will be forthcoming.
We went back to the room to get ready to go into town. We didn’t make it into town until noon, parking where we had the night before since it was out of the city center so there was no 30 minute parking time limit. I got a phone call from Jo at UCOL regarding my second contract as we were parking the car, so I had Josh walk ahead (he was going to check the times that Spiderman 3 was playing at the cinema) while I spoke to her. I caught back up with Josh after the phone call (running along the wharf’s boardwalk) and we noted the movie times for the evening shows.
Next, we walked around thinking we’d like to get more chips and dips from Sombreros. The only thing was they didn’t open until 5:30. We were getting hungry so we went to the food court for a third time. Man, you should have seen the line at McDonald’s….ridiculous. I guess it’s to be expected seeing as it’s the only McDonald’s in about a 200 km radius. So, Josh and I ate at the Indian restaurant he had the day before. Josh had lamb curry and I had chicken curry. Good stuff.
We browsed in the Queenstown shops and soon enough, it was time to drive out of the city center to Hush Day Spa for our first ever couples massage and pedicures. We arrived about ten minutes early (“as we were” like I’d been instructed over the phone the day before) and filled out some forms. Josh’s back had started hurting him last night and today but he didn’t mention it on the form.
We were shown to a changing room where we undressed and put on robes and slippers before heading to the Relax Room. Well, we didn’t have time to relax there and have a fruit juice that was listed on a menu in the room because as soon as we had sat down in the Relax Room, a girl told us to get up and follow her into a room at the end of the hall….we must have taken too long making jokes in the changing room.
The room was large, candlelit, and had new agey music on in the background. Two massage tables were placed in the room (they appeared to be more like mechanical hospital beds than the wooden transportable massage tables I’m used to). In addition to the massage tables, there was also a large Jacuzzi tub in the room. Josh had his masseur and I had mine, Chemise…or something like that.
Josh and I have had massages before, jut never together and never for an hour at a time. Count me out for a couples massage in the future. All I could hear over the otherwise relaxing music was the creak, creak, creak of Josh’s mechanical massage bed as his girl massaged him down with hot oil. Not so relaxing for me as I’m really sensitive to aggravating noises!
We both got the hot oil massage (the oil was never heated in previous massages) and a hot towel placed on our backs too which we both liked. In the end, however, I just didn’t feel like my girl did a good job. I mean, the pressure was fine and after the massage was over I think I felt zonky relaxed, but I guess it just wasn’t the best massage I’ve had and that was what I was expecting since I was paying for it and the other massages I had were really good and really inexpensive through the apartment in Fayetteville.
When the massages were over, they told Josh and I to stay in the room as long as we like. We laid there quietly for awhile and then we started making lots of jokes. We crack a lot of jokes under normal circumstances but the combination of being in a warm room after all your muscles are relaxed made us both feel a bit delirious which only added to the hilarity of the jokes we were making. Back to the Relax Room and onto the pedicures. Well, actually, I had to pee so by the time I was back from that Josh was already out of the Relax Room and in his chair to get a pedicure.
Note to self: Having expectations based on prior experience can set you up for disappointment. This refers to the fact that I thought the pedicure chairs would both vibrate and heat up based on the pedicure chairs I’ve sat in back in the States. These chairs did neither…bummer.
Josh and I did finally get our juice here and some chocolate hearts to eat. Like my massage, I didn’t think my girl gave the best pedicure either. I picked Must Be Lust as my polish color…it’s a pretty darker pink color…love it. Then, I was floored when my girl asked if I had open toe shoes with me…Uh no, it’s autumn in New Zealand. She proceeded to tell me that I could either walk barefoot to the car or buy a pair of their sandals for $15 since the polish wouldn’t completely dry for another 15 minutes or so.
WHAT THE HECK?!?! Don’t ya’ll have any cheapy throw away flip flops like in the States? Geez, even the crummy salons back home have that. Or, if you don’t have those, why don’t you tell clients to bring open toe shoes not to “come as they are.” UGH!
So, I wasn’t impressed with the place but Josh on the other hand was floating on cloud nine and couldn’t stop raving about how great his massage was and all that jazz. At least 50% of the team was pleased. We paid and left to go back into town so Josh could mail a package home.
We parked in 15 minute parking in front of the Post Office and we took care of all of our business in about 17 minutes. Luckily for us we escaped without another parking ticket.
We spent the next hour or so in Patagonia’s (a chocolate café) because Josh had noticed earlier in the week that they offered free WiFi there. I bought a hot chocolate and Josh had an ice cream. There were no available electrical outlets (somehow I think that’s intentional on their part) so we used the internet for about an hour before the battery died.
Leaving town we went to the Fresh Choice grocery store and bought a few things for snacks. Then, it was back to the room where we made use of the spa bath tub since the hot tub outside was broken. Then, onto bed to rest up for a driving day tomorrow.
Wednesday, June 6, 2007
Tuesday, June 5, 2007
Tuesday, May 15
May 15, 2007 
For morning tea, I had Josh call the front desk because we had no milk. They quickly delivered some in a nice saucer. I made us our drinks and we sat on the balcony. It was a beautiful day and the leaves on the birch trees right in front of us were bright yellow. We are experiencing full on fall down here.
We went into town around 11:30 and had lunch at the food court. We parked in our usual 30 minute parking space. I went to the McCafe and ordered a slice of quiche and a mochachino while Josh ordered some cheese and mushroom curry from an Indian place.
After lunch, we were off to do the gondola to the top of a mountain for the view of Queenstown and the Remarkables. On our drive to the gondola, I called and booked us in for a couples massage and pedicures at Hush massage the next day. We were set for 3 pm massages. I was finally cashing in the “gift card” that Josh had given me for graduation last year. It took me a year to use it and get a massage!
Parking at the gondola (like Queenstown as a whole) was difficult but I saw a sign that said Public Parking, so Josh and I turned in there to park. One area said not to park there because it was for the school employees, however, straight ahead there were some parking spots marked by faded white lines. We parked the car and we were off.
Josh stood F-O-R-E-V-E-R reading the sign about all the combination packages you can get to gondola/luge/have dinner/watch a haka. I was like, let’s get up the mountain already. We purchased tickets for the gondola ride as well as three luge rides each. The slogan for the luge ride is “Once is never enough.” Then, after having our picture taken as in the Christchurch gondola, I remembered that I don’t like heights or gondolas.
This gondola appeared to be much steeper than the Christchurch gondola. We kept going up and we were glad it was such a sunny, clear day because the view was spectacular of both the mountains and the lake. When we made it to the top we went to an observation deck.
Here’s the deal on the Remarkable Mountains according to me. The Remarkables were a mountain range that I had looked forward to viewing even while I was in the States. I thought, with a name like Remarkable, they have to be pretty awesome. But really, they were like the Organ Mountains in Las Cruces, New Mexico. Cool but not amazing. Maybe it’s because they didn’t have much snow on them at the time? Anyway, I walked away from my Remarkable experience thinking that they have a better name than look…but, that’s just me.
After taking photos and looking at the view we were off to luge. Now, this isn’t a luge on ice like in the Olympics. The “luge” you ride doesn’t even look like a luge. BUT, it is so much fun!!! First, you leave the observation area and walk down a steep hill to an area where you pick a helmet out of a bin based on the size of your head: small, medium or large. Then, you go round to catch a small ski lift to the top of the hill that you will be lugging down. Josh and I have never been on a true ski lift (I’ve only used a T-bar type lift once in Alaska) so this was a new experience. You put your feet on the proper spot marked by painted on shoe prints on the ground, wait for the chair to come up you, sit down and pull the bar down over your lap. We managed to do that without any trouble.
Up the ski lift and then you have to disembark from the lift. This required moving quickly or the chair would hit you. We did this okay but not as well as getting on the lift.
The first time you luge, you have to take the scenic track. The staff show you how to operate your luge…which is really more like a low rider version of a kid’s hotwheels type ride…pull back for the breaks and let up and forward to go. Just don’t push your handlebars too far forward or you’ll go flying out of your luge. All I could think about was how I’d flown over the handlebars off my bike in Paris last year.
We did the scenic track and I laughed and screamed the whole way down. If that was the scenic track, I couldn’t imagine what the advanced track would be like. We queued up again, took the lift up, and I took Josh’s picture before hopping into the luges to take the advanced track down. The wind was really making us chilly by this point so our hands were getting frozen going down the hill holding the handlebars. It was fun again but I actually thought the scenic route was the better track. The advanced track just seemed to have steeper hills to go down…it didn’t seem as long of a ride either.
Two rides in, we were cold. So we walked up the steep sidewalk back to the observation building and I grabbed a coffee from the café. Josh and I nabbed the best seats in the house after waiting for a waiter to clear the table. Great view and we were warming up nicely. We hope to be able to go tubing down the mountains in ski season when Josh’s parents come to visit in August. Ski season officially opens in early June so by August, there should be a good bit of snow on the hills.
After we warmed up, we went back for our final luge of the day. We decided to take the scenic route and we had a staff member take our photo together before we went down the hill. I love the luge! It’s safe fun…I’m not into the bungy, sky diving, hang gliding, extreme sports that Queenstown is known for. I’ll take the luge, thanks. Josh liked it but not as much as I did.
We left after looking around the observation deck a final time. The ride down the gondola was fine as I was still hyped up about the luge. When we reached the bottom, the gondola staff tried to sell us the same picture portfolio as they sell in Christchurch. Surprisingly, it was $5 less here…this is surprising because Queenstown is the number one tourist destination in New Zealand and everything here is geared towards cash money. Another good couple picture of us that we passed on as it wasn’t worth the price. As it would turn out, it was a good thing we passed on that purchase too.
When we reached the parking lot, I found a piece of paper on the windshield and it was a ticket for parking in a space marked with yellow dashed lines. The fine was $60. So, from having such a great experience we went immediately into a bad experience.
I couldn’t believe it! Where were the yellow lines?!?! They were marked along where the front of the car was located. What the heck?!? Were those there when we parked? Who could see that? And besides that, there were faded white lines that indicated that this was a parking space.
Apparently, we were not the only people to make the assumption that we were parked in legitimate parking spots. Several cars next to us in a row had also received tickets. There was no signage indicating that this was a no parking zone…only those blasted dashed yellow lines.
According to the ticket, we could stop into certain Queenstown locations to pay our fine. Josh just wanted to pay the fine and forget that this had ever happened so off we went to the nearest spot. We asked the lady about the parking situation in that area and she was like, yeah, they know that’s a problem for people but the police think that if you’re driving in New Zealand than you should be familiar with the New Zealand driving regulations and you’re not supposed to park anywhere with dashed yellow lines.
Josh indicated that the city is sending mixed messages when there are faded white lines indicating that this is a parking space. Blah, blah. This lady was basically saying that the city knew it was a problem they just wanted to take your money. Josh said that as a tourist town you would think they’d try to make tourists happy and she was like yeah, the tourists just pay the fee and leave…the city doesn’t care.
So, we paid the fee and left. Queenstown…not the best place for a multitude of reasons. Mainly because it’s a money grubbing snobby uptown sort of place. Josh and I frequently commented that QUEENSTOWN IS NOT NEW ZEALAND. For one, you hardly meet any native Kiwis, it’s a very multi-national small town. And second, everywhere has a tip jar…for no reason. If you want to experience the real New Zealand…get out of Queenstown! However, all this said, it is still the place that'd we'd return to with Josh's parents because it truly is a base for the South Island.
That business take care of, we had to return to the hotel to get ready for a Rotary presentation scheduled for tonight. Josh had spoken to Chris, a Rotarian in the club about a change of venue for the club’s meeting this night. We were supposed to meet Chris at the wharf at 5:30.
We worried about parking (which was completely understandable given our previous situation) and ended up parking on the main road that headed out of Queenstown to Glenorchy. Josh and I double checked we were not surrounded by obscured yellow dashed lines (we’ve learned our lesson for the rest of our stay in New Zealand) and even confirmed with the hotel receptionist at the hotel by the parking space that where we had parked was, in fact, a legitimate spot…she said it was.
We were off to the wharf where a large group of people had assembled in front of a steam boat. Josh and I were wearing our USA/NZ friendship pins but no one approached us for awhile…we also stood out as Josh was carrying the laptop for our presentation. About 10 minutes into standing outside in the cold, Chris rang Josh on the cell phone and we met up through the crowd of people.
As it turned out, we totally lucked out and were able to ride an authentic, original 1911 steamboat, the T.S.S. Earnshaw, across the lake to Walter Peak to have dinner. The Rotary club’s normal venue is the casino restaurant in town. We lucked out because our steamboat ride and dinner experience typically costs tourists $100 per person as it is operated by the tourism company Real Journeys. Since one of the Real Journeys higher ups, Tracey, is a Rotarian we got to go on the trip for free.
The boat ride over was one of the most incredible experience I’ve had. Josh and I started out sitting upstairs with some Rotarians, however, after the ship left the dock I went downstairs to find the toilet. Exiting the toilet, I took a walk around the lower deck. It was amazing!
The air was blowing my hair back as I walked forward in the same direction as the boat was moving. There was nothing blocking the wind coming through the open windows which also exposed the ever increasing darkness in the sky as the sun set behind banks of clouds. The lights of Queenstown shrank into the distance the further along we sailed. I had to go grab Josh to tell him that he had to experience this.
Josh and I walked around and even walked through the open area where they throw coal into the oven to power the ship. Note to self: heeled shoes (even low heeled practical shoes like those I was wearing) should not be worn if going through the boiler room area). Yes, my heel slipped through one of the metal bars but quick hands saved me from what would have been a disastrous fall.
Josh and I went back upstairs to finish the ride over to Walter Peak. We disembarked and followed the crowd into a restaurant. We were shunted off into two groups: the Rotary group and tourists. We went with the Rotarians this time.
The presentation was not normal for us as there was neither a screen nor a projector for the laptop we were toting around. After the first round of wine was served along with the soup, Josh and I went up to the front of the room to speak to the 60 person Rotary club. Given the circumstances, we gave them the abridged version of our speech (Josh wisely had printed of a copy of the slides for reference in situations such as these). Someone at the head table was taking our picture while we spoke…but not with our camera (we’re going to try to get copies). Unfortunately, we didn’t teach this group how to Call the Hogs out of respect for the tourists in the next room over trying to enjoy a nice meal that they’d paid big bucks for. Presentation done, Josh and I ate our dinner which was served buffet style in the main room.
After dessert and coffee most people went out to a shed area outside to watch a sheep dog herd sheep. After that, the man giving the presentation sheared a sheep. Show over, we went back to the ship for the ride back to Queenstown. The tourist group (by and large they were over 50) gathered around a piano at the front of the ship to sing songs and dance. Josh and I talked to a couple in the Rotary club who had been to visit Silver Dollar City in Branson in 1992 because the guy works in tour buses in Queenstown. I got really excited at the fact that someone in New Zealand knew about Silver Dollar City!
Once we made it back to Queenstown, we said our goodbyes and walked back to the car. As we walked back, I’m not even joking about this, I noticed something else on the car windshield where the parking ticket had been located earlier. You’ve got to be kidding me!
When we got close enough to see what was on the windshield, we saw that someone had placed a single pink rose blossom there. That is so strange. Was it amends over the parking ticket? Was it a random act of kindness? We will never know….but, I love roses!
We returned to the hotel where it was so cozy to have had turn down service again and the bed already warmed up for us. Josh had noted that the workers were downstairs watching tv so he decided to stay upstairs (I was warm up here so there was no way I was going to go down to the cold lounge) and he read a book while I read a magazine.
We went to sleep with plans to get up in the morning and take advantage of the outdoor hot tub with the mountain and river view.
For morning tea, I had Josh call the front desk because we had no milk. They quickly delivered some in a nice saucer. I made us our drinks and we sat on the balcony. It was a beautiful day and the leaves on the birch trees right in front of us were bright yellow. We are experiencing full on fall down here. We went into town around 11:30 and had lunch at the food court. We parked in our usual 30 minute parking space. I went to the McCafe and ordered a slice of quiche and a mochachino while Josh ordered some cheese and mushroom curry from an Indian place.
After lunch, we were off to do the gondola to the top of a mountain for the view of Queenstown and the Remarkables. On our drive to the gondola, I called and booked us in for a couples massage and pedicures at Hush massage the next day. We were set for 3 pm massages. I was finally cashing in the “gift card” that Josh had given me for graduation last year. It took me a year to use it and get a massage!
Parking at the gondola (like Queenstown as a whole) was difficult but I saw a sign that said Public Parking, so Josh and I turned in there to park. One area said not to park there because it was for the school employees, however, straight ahead there were some parking spots marked by faded white lines. We parked the car and we were off.
Josh stood F-O-R-E-V-E-R reading the sign about all the combination packages you can get to gondola/luge/have dinner/watch a haka. I was like, let’s get up the mountain already. We purchased tickets for the gondola ride as well as three luge rides each. The slogan for the luge ride is “Once is never enough.” Then, after having our picture taken as in the Christchurch gondola, I remembered that I don’t like heights or gondolas.
This gondola appeared to be much steeper than the Christchurch gondola. We kept going up and we were glad it was such a sunny, clear day because the view was spectacular of both the mountains and the lake. When we made it to the top we went to an observation deck.
Here’s the deal on the Remarkable Mountains according to me. The Remarkables were a mountain range that I had looked forward to viewing even while I was in the States. I thought, with a name like Remarkable, they have to be pretty awesome. But really, they were like the Organ Mountains in Las Cruces, New Mexico. Cool but not amazing. Maybe it’s because they didn’t have much snow on them at the time? Anyway, I walked away from my Remarkable experience thinking that they have a better name than look…but, that’s just me.After taking photos and looking at the view we were off to luge. Now, this isn’t a luge on ice like in the Olympics. The “luge” you ride doesn’t even look like a luge. BUT, it is so much fun!!! First, you leave the observation area and walk down a steep hill to an area where you pick a helmet out of a bin based on the size of your head: small, medium or large. Then, you go round to catch a small ski lift to the top of the hill that you will be lugging down. Josh and I have never been on a true ski lift (I’ve only used a T-bar type lift once in Alaska) so this was a new experience. You put your feet on the proper spot marked by painted on shoe prints on the ground, wait for the chair to come up you, sit down and pull the bar down over your lap. We managed to do that without any trouble.
Up the ski lift and then you have to disembark from the lift. This required moving quickly or the chair would hit you. We did this okay but not as well as getting on the lift.
The first time you luge, you have to take the scenic track. The staff show you how to operate your luge…which is really more like a low rider version of a kid’s hotwheels type ride…pull back for the breaks and let up and forward to go. Just don’t push your handlebars too far forward or you’ll go flying out of your luge. All I could think about was how I’d flown over the handlebars off my bike in Paris last year.
We did the scenic track and I laughed and screamed the whole way down. If that was the scenic track, I couldn’t imagine what the advanced track would be like. We queued up again, took the lift up, and I took Josh’s picture before hopping into the luges to take the advanced track down. The wind was really making us chilly by this point so our hands were getting frozen going down the hill holding the handlebars. It was fun again but I actually thought the scenic route was the better track. The advanced track just seemed to have steeper hills to go down…it didn’t seem as long of a ride either.
Two rides in, we were cold. So we walked up the steep sidewalk back to the observation building and I grabbed a coffee from the café. Josh and I nabbed the best seats in the house after waiting for a waiter to clear the table. Great view and we were warming up nicely. We hope to be able to go tubing down the mountains in ski season when Josh’s parents come to visit in August. Ski season officially opens in early June so by August, there should be a good bit of snow on the hills.
After we warmed up, we went back for our final luge of the day. We decided to take the scenic route and we had a staff member take our photo together before we went down the hill. I love the luge! It’s safe fun…I’m not into the bungy, sky diving, hang gliding, extreme sports that Queenstown is known for. I’ll take the luge, thanks. Josh liked it but not as much as I did.We left after looking around the observation deck a final time. The ride down the gondola was fine as I was still hyped up about the luge. When we reached the bottom, the gondola staff tried to sell us the same picture portfolio as they sell in Christchurch. Surprisingly, it was $5 less here…this is surprising because Queenstown is the number one tourist destination in New Zealand and everything here is geared towards cash money. Another good couple picture of us that we passed on as it wasn’t worth the price. As it would turn out, it was a good thing we passed on that purchase too.
When we reached the parking lot, I found a piece of paper on the windshield and it was a ticket for parking in a space marked with yellow dashed lines. The fine was $60. So, from having such a great experience we went immediately into a bad experience.
I couldn’t believe it! Where were the yellow lines?!?! They were marked along where the front of the car was located. What the heck?!? Were those there when we parked? Who could see that? And besides that, there were faded white lines that indicated that this was a parking space.
Apparently, we were not the only people to make the assumption that we were parked in legitimate parking spots. Several cars next to us in a row had also received tickets. There was no signage indicating that this was a no parking zone…only those blasted dashed yellow lines.
According to the ticket, we could stop into certain Queenstown locations to pay our fine. Josh just wanted to pay the fine and forget that this had ever happened so off we went to the nearest spot. We asked the lady about the parking situation in that area and she was like, yeah, they know that’s a problem for people but the police think that if you’re driving in New Zealand than you should be familiar with the New Zealand driving regulations and you’re not supposed to park anywhere with dashed yellow lines.
Josh indicated that the city is sending mixed messages when there are faded white lines indicating that this is a parking space. Blah, blah. This lady was basically saying that the city knew it was a problem they just wanted to take your money. Josh said that as a tourist town you would think they’d try to make tourists happy and she was like yeah, the tourists just pay the fee and leave…the city doesn’t care.
So, we paid the fee and left. Queenstown…not the best place for a multitude of reasons. Mainly because it’s a money grubbing snobby uptown sort of place. Josh and I frequently commented that QUEENSTOWN IS NOT NEW ZEALAND. For one, you hardly meet any native Kiwis, it’s a very multi-national small town. And second, everywhere has a tip jar…for no reason. If you want to experience the real New Zealand…get out of Queenstown! However, all this said, it is still the place that'd we'd return to with Josh's parents because it truly is a base for the South Island.
That business take care of, we had to return to the hotel to get ready for a Rotary presentation scheduled for tonight. Josh had spoken to Chris, a Rotarian in the club about a change of venue for the club’s meeting this night. We were supposed to meet Chris at the wharf at 5:30.
We worried about parking (which was completely understandable given our previous situation) and ended up parking on the main road that headed out of Queenstown to Glenorchy. Josh and I double checked we were not surrounded by obscured yellow dashed lines (we’ve learned our lesson for the rest of our stay in New Zealand) and even confirmed with the hotel receptionist at the hotel by the parking space that where we had parked was, in fact, a legitimate spot…she said it was.
We were off to the wharf where a large group of people had assembled in front of a steam boat. Josh and I were wearing our USA/NZ friendship pins but no one approached us for awhile…we also stood out as Josh was carrying the laptop for our presentation. About 10 minutes into standing outside in the cold, Chris rang Josh on the cell phone and we met up through the crowd of people.As it turned out, we totally lucked out and were able to ride an authentic, original 1911 steamboat, the T.S.S. Earnshaw, across the lake to Walter Peak to have dinner. The Rotary club’s normal venue is the casino restaurant in town. We lucked out because our steamboat ride and dinner experience typically costs tourists $100 per person as it is operated by the tourism company Real Journeys. Since one of the Real Journeys higher ups, Tracey, is a Rotarian we got to go on the trip for free.
The boat ride over was one of the most incredible experience I’ve had. Josh and I started out sitting upstairs with some Rotarians, however, after the ship left the dock I went downstairs to find the toilet. Exiting the toilet, I took a walk around the lower deck. It was amazing!
The air was blowing my hair back as I walked forward in the same direction as the boat was moving. There was nothing blocking the wind coming through the open windows which also exposed the ever increasing darkness in the sky as the sun set behind banks of clouds. The lights of Queenstown shrank into the distance the further along we sailed. I had to go grab Josh to tell him that he had to experience this.
Josh and I walked around and even walked through the open area where they throw coal into the oven to power the ship. Note to self: heeled shoes (even low heeled practical shoes like those I was wearing) should not be worn if going through the boiler room area). Yes, my heel slipped through one of the metal bars but quick hands saved me from what would have been a disastrous fall.
Josh and I went back upstairs to finish the ride over to Walter Peak. We disembarked and followed the crowd into a restaurant. We were shunted off into two groups: the Rotary group and tourists. We went with the Rotarians this time.
The presentation was not normal for us as there was neither a screen nor a projector for the laptop we were toting around. After the first round of wine was served along with the soup, Josh and I went up to the front of the room to speak to the 60 person Rotary club. Given the circumstances, we gave them the abridged version of our speech (Josh wisely had printed of a copy of the slides for reference in situations such as these). Someone at the head table was taking our picture while we spoke…but not with our camera (we’re going to try to get copies). Unfortunately, we didn’t teach this group how to Call the Hogs out of respect for the tourists in the next room over trying to enjoy a nice meal that they’d paid big bucks for. Presentation done, Josh and I ate our dinner which was served buffet style in the main room.
After dessert and coffee most people went out to a shed area outside to watch a sheep dog herd sheep. After that, the man giving the presentation sheared a sheep. Show over, we went back to the ship for the ride back to Queenstown. The tourist group (by and large they were over 50) gathered around a piano at the front of the ship to sing songs and dance. Josh and I talked to a couple in the Rotary club who had been to visit Silver Dollar City in Branson in 1992 because the guy works in tour buses in Queenstown. I got really excited at the fact that someone in New Zealand knew about Silver Dollar City!
Once we made it back to Queenstown, we said our goodbyes and walked back to the car. As we walked back, I’m not even joking about this, I noticed something else on the car windshield where the parking ticket had been located earlier. You’ve got to be kidding me!
When we got close enough to see what was on the windshield, we saw that someone had placed a single pink rose blossom there. That is so strange. Was it amends over the parking ticket? Was it a random act of kindness? We will never know….but, I love roses!
We returned to the hotel where it was so cozy to have had turn down service again and the bed already warmed up for us. Josh had noted that the workers were downstairs watching tv so he decided to stay upstairs (I was warm up here so there was no way I was going to go down to the cold lounge) and he read a book while I read a magazine.
We went to sleep with plans to get up in the morning and take advantage of the outdoor hot tub with the mountain and river view.
Monday, May 14
May 14, 2007We woke up and I had breakfast on the courtyard patio while Josh watched tv. It was cold outside but the sun was shining and the leaves were turning colors so it was very nice. Too bad my breakfast was Apricot Delight cereal aka Horse Food because it tasted so bad…seriously, this stuff is for farm animals…mostly because it is too oaty rather than being based more on the corn flakes or rice puffs that are also in the cereal.
We had a short drive to Queenstown today. We skipped Puzzle World as we left Wanaka and we were happy that the sun was shining as we drove along. It was good to be out of the rain forest on the west coast! We saw a marker for the 45 Parallel and thought that was interesting because we think Arkansas is also located on the 45th Parallel. That would explain why we have similar weather down here. Also, Josh and I thought New Zealand was a lot farther south than it actually is which is why it doesn’t get dark super early like in Alaska in winter (which is what I was expecting when we moved down here). We drove past and visited Roaring Meg waterfall. Josh and I could smell autumn in the air. I said it reminded me of Paris in September and Josh said he was reminded of going to the Razorback football games.
Upon arrival in Queenstown, we stopped into the center of town to grab lunch before going out to Glenorchy. We scored free parking for 30 minutes close to the McDonald’s and then we walked there. As it turned out, the McDonald’s was on the lower level of a food court area of a three story mall.
We ordered a two cheeseburger meal to split. We ate the food and returned to the car. As we left town, there was a bright rainbow over the lake that I took a photo of. Then, a steam ship went underneath the rainbow and Josh said to take a picture of that too. We were on the road to Glenorchy and it was really dramatic with the sun breaking through the clouds in streaks. There were three islands in the water: two islands were named after animals and the other was called tree island.
When we reached Glenorchy, there wasn’t much there but Josh saw a store that only sold items that were made in Glenorchy. We had a laugh at that. We also saw the Dart River Safaris office, however, I hadn’t booked us on that for this trip. Josh and I decided we’d do that when his parents visit if they are interested in doing that.
We drove down to the pier and sat in the car because a light rain was falling. We saw a bright rainbow across this part of the lake too. We just had a look around for awhile and then we were off back to Queenstown to check into the hotel.On the drive back, Josh went to look at a waterfall on his own while I stayed in the car and read the Introduction to his Holy Blood, Holy Grail book. After awhile, I wondered if Josh would be coming back. There were a few black bugs buzzing around while I waited. Just when I was starting to wonder if the police would blame me for Josh's disappearance, Josh made it back to the car and we were on our way to Queenstown.
We drove through town and out past Arthur's Point on our way to the hotel. This hotel was free using our hotel points. We reached the hotel and it was empty. When we went inside to the receptionist desk, it was really cold in there but a fire was going in the fireplace. This place is really schmancy.
I got the room upstairs that I’d requested, however, even though the hotel was empty (there was only one other guest that night) we did not get upgraded from our garden view room to a mountain view room. What’s up with New Zealanders not upgrading people in an empty hotel?!? After the lady had shown us our room, she said to go get our luggage and then she’d give us a tour of the property.
We got our bags and got settled in the room. Then, we returned downstairs to get the tour. We were shown the swimming pool and hot tub that were outside. We saw the gym area, restaurant, and breakfast room. Everything was completely empty. The lady, Helen, giving us the tour said that if we wanted dinner in the restaurant we’d need to book ahead so she could arrange for a chef to come out to the property since it was low season. She then showed us a private movie theater downstairs that you can hire for $15 to play DVDs in. We thought that was really cool but since we essentially had the entire hotel to ourselves, and our tv upstairs didn’t carry the movie channel, we decided we could watch movies in the regular lounge area of the hotel if we wanted to. 
Helen pointed out that they would be putting new windows in while we were there. I thought it was for the highway noise but she said it was actually for the cold. They were putting the new windows in on the mountain view side which could explain why we weren’t upgraded but still…ahh! This meant that periodically throughout our stay we’d hear banging and drill noises in the mountain view rooms that were located across the hallway.
We hung out upstairs for awhile before deciding to go into town to have dinner. I got dressed up while Josh sat downstairs in the lounge watching tv. The lounge is really cozy with a fireplace and big screen tv with lots of overstuffed couches to sit on. When I was ready, we drove 10 minutes back to town to eat at a Mexican restaurant called Sombreros we’d seen earlier in the day and that Josh had found a coupon for a free sangria drink with a dinner purchase.
We parked in the same place we’d parked at earlier that day, however, after 6 pm, parking is free and the time to park is unlimited. We found Sombreros which was located on the second floor of a building. Upon entering, I knew we were in trouble when I saw a couple of kids wandering around unsupervised. It turns out their parents were eating but still letting the kids run around. Great.
Josh and I ordered a chips, salsa, guacamole, and bean dip starter and got the two sangrias as well. Pretty soon, to my relief, the family left the restaurant. Josh ordered tacos and I ordered chicken enchiladas. The chips and dip were great (definitely the best guacamole I’ve ever had) and the enchiladas were okay. The Spanish rice didn’t taste like Spanish rice so that was a bust.We had a good dinner and when we went to pay, our waitress was from America (Boston). Lots of foreigners in Queenstown. Like us. Anyway, there wasn’t much else to do in Queenstown besides look at the few gift shops that were still open so we did that. Josh found a hat that fit him for the first time ever so he bought it and was happy. However, I totally freaked when Josh put the green hat on because he looked JUST LIKE his brother Trin. Trin wears hats but Josh never does so seeing him like that was so crazy!
Back at the hotel, we dropped our stuff off upstairs (noting that we had received turn down service and the electric blankets had been turned on in our bed- nice touch) and then returned downstairs to watch a movie on the movie channel down there. Well, Josh watched a movie and I read a magazine…they had tons of old magazines so I was good to go. Even though the fire was going, it was still really chilly in the lounge. The two resident lap dogs, Brandy and Mimi, were trying to take over the couch.
One of the worker guys said he could take the dogs away if they were bothering us and I was like yes but Josh said no. The same worker guy brought us two glasses of water while we sat there which was a nice touch too.
Towards the end of the movie, it was just too cold for me sitting down there so I went back up to the room and Josh finished the movie. Then, we were off to sleep in the comfy warm bed.
Sunday, May 13
May 13, 2007
Josh and I left the villas around 10 in the morning. Justin, the host, did not ask how our stay was. I was prepared to tell him that the villas by the road do have a lot of traffic noise but since he didn’t ask, I didn’t volunteer the information. As we drove out of the villas area, I had Josh drive around to the back of the property to see which villas had the best view of the mountain. Those villas were numbers 5 and 6.
The weather today was still nice and sunny. However, it wasn’t as clear as it was yesterday so we lucked out weather-wise with our heli-hike. Still, people scheduled to go up there today would have had some sun.
We were scheduled to have a big driving day today…about 5 hours without stops to Wanaka. We stopped not too far along into our drive, however, at Lake Matheson. Lake Matheson is supposed to be a really cool reflective lake that reflects the snow capped mountain peaks in the distance. Apparently, when Jess and Ike visited, it was foggy so they didn’t see anything…I wasn’t very optimistic either as it was kinda cloudy.
We decided to do the walk around the lake which was an hour and a half loop walk. We reached the viewing platform and we could see some of the mountain reflected but it was still somewhat cloudy and there were more clouds in the sky. We kept walking through the forest around the loop. Eventually, it became sunny where we were at in the forest, however, it wasn’t clear over the mountains. Some of the pictures showed a better reflection of the mountain than how the mountain really looked to our eyes. 
We had a good walk and decided to go check out Fox Glacier. According to Josh and our map, there was a 10 minute walk to the glacier. We made it to the car park and started walking. Pretty far along, I said to Josh, I thought this was only supposed to be a 10 minute walk. He said the 10 minute walk ended way back there at a viewing spot of the glacier but now we were far enough along that we could go look at the glacier up close.
We crossed some streams in order to reach the base of the glacier. It was absolutely incredible. Because it was a cloudy day, I think it helped us see the blue ice on the glacier. Sometimes when if it is so sunny and bright all you see is white rather than the blue. However, the closer we got to the glacier, the colder it became. We stayed for awhile looking at the view but soon it was time to head back to the car. We were cold and we had a long drive ahead of us.
When we reached the car, we noticed several people having picnics in their vehicles in the car park. It was lunch time for Josh and me too but we drove towards the exit of the park where there was a sign for a suspension bridge and picnic area. While we didn't eat outside, we did walk out onto the bridge which had a maximum capacity of 5 people. The view from the bridge was really cool and the water was quickly flowing underneath us.
I made us ham and cheese sandwiches to eat in the car as we drove along. We also had some tortiilla chips to compliment our meal. The further south we drove, the sunnier it became. The most amazing and surprising thing of the drive was Bruce Bay....the OCEAN. It was so sunny and the water was so blue. I was in love! I could have stayed at this site forever. But, again, we had the long road ahead through the Haast Pass.
I had read about the Haast Pass briefly before our trip. I'd read that it was spectacular, however, in my mind I'd pictured it as deserty and barren like the Canterbury Plains area. It wasn't like that at all. There were so many spots to pull off the road because everything in this area is picture worthy.
The Haast Pass consists of so many stunning mountain views. I had to have Josh pull over because I couldn't do the pictures of the mountains justice while snapping them out the car window whilst driving 70 kmh. We could never figure out which mountain was Mount Aspiring but it didn't matter because, in truth, all the snow capped peaks were awesome. Some natural sites were closed, perhaps due to repairs to the walkways. However, Thundering Falls was open and it was only a five minute walk off the main road and really worth a visit.
Because it was getting dark and we still had a ways to drive, Josh and I ran the 5 minute track through the woods to the waterfall. We were the only one's there. It was a bit chilly but absolutely worth it for the view. We said people who drove past this spot without stopping didn't know what they were missing. The water below the falls is very clear blue and fast moving.
After that waterfall (and more mountain views) Josh saw an unmarked waterfall that was just massive coming down the mountain on the side of the road before flowing underneath the road to the other side. Josh, not always the cautious one, pulled off the side of the road and ran back to the waterfall although there was only a sliver of space for a pedestrian to stand off the highway from incoming traffic. I went with Josh (praying for safety) and fortunately no cars drove past us in either lane while we were viewing the unmarked waterfalls.
After running uphill to safely make it back to the car, we continued our journey. The mountain views continued and led to one of the most picture postcard pefect photo opportunities we've ever had whilst traveling. We saw a clear shot of Mount Cook rising out of the valley during sunset. I'm sorry, it just doesn't get any better than this...well, maybe if the black bugs weren't biting. However, that's a small price to pay for such a magnificent view.
The mountain vistas continued as the Southern Alps truly made their prescence known. Sunset over these mountains and lakes is just indescribable and one of those things that one must experience in order to truly appreciate. 
When we reached Wanaka, things went downhill. We ended up getting turned around in the town and I was hungry so that led to crankiness. Josh bought gas and asked for directions to the hotel then we were on our way. However, even when we did reach the “hotel” it was easy to see why anyone would have difficulty finding it. There are no lights on the Wanaka Edge Suites sign so it’s impossible to spot in the dark. I realized that the lack of lighting may be because it’s more a holiday home/apartment building rather than a hotel.
We arrived at 6 pm and were checked in quickly. I asked if we could have a room upstairs but the guy said there weren’t any. He said we had a nice room with a courtyard that was a 2 bedroom unit…but he told us not to use the second bedroom or we’d be charged the 2 bedroom rate instead of the one bedroom rate we paid for. Man, just by saying that, the second bedroom became more tempting.
We carried all our gear upstairs even though we were only staying for one night. This apartment included a washer and dryer so we brought in all of our stuff in so we could wash clothes. The apartment was really nice and modern. Josh was happy because they offered a movie channel. We were ready to start dinner but we didn’t have a few items so Josh ran to the grocery store while I started the laundry.
We had grilled cheese sandwiches and chicken soup for dinner. It was a really good meal. Then, we decided to take advantage of the Spa before it closed. We put on our bathing suits and walked down the exterior corridor to the Spa room. We tried our key but could not open the door. I told Josh to go check at Reception if we needed a different key. We went together, ringing the “Urgent” call button because it was now after Reception hours (not too late, only around 7:30 or so).
A woman answered the call. Josh asked about using the spa and she said that you have to book the spa and asked if Josh wanted to book it. Josh said yeah and she asked when. Josh said now! That was so FUNNY!!! Then, a guy came out to unlock the spa room for us.
We got the Jacuzzi situated, however, I could not thoroughly enjoy it because I kept thinking about how Aimee’s brother-in-law got some sort of airborne disease by using a hotel hot tub. Josh and I hung out for awhile but then it was time for Josh’s movie to start so we headed back in.
We made some popcorn and watched a movie on tv called Inside Man. It was okay as it started, however, it ended pretty weak. Then, once the laundry had finished, I was off to bed and Josh followed later.
Josh and I left the villas around 10 in the morning. Justin, the host, did not ask how our stay was. I was prepared to tell him that the villas by the road do have a lot of traffic noise but since he didn’t ask, I didn’t volunteer the information. As we drove out of the villas area, I had Josh drive around to the back of the property to see which villas had the best view of the mountain. Those villas were numbers 5 and 6.
The weather today was still nice and sunny. However, it wasn’t as clear as it was yesterday so we lucked out weather-wise with our heli-hike. Still, people scheduled to go up there today would have had some sun.
We were scheduled to have a big driving day today…about 5 hours without stops to Wanaka. We stopped not too far along into our drive, however, at Lake Matheson. Lake Matheson is supposed to be a really cool reflective lake that reflects the snow capped mountain peaks in the distance. Apparently, when Jess and Ike visited, it was foggy so they didn’t see anything…I wasn’t very optimistic either as it was kinda cloudy.
We decided to do the walk around the lake which was an hour and a half loop walk. We reached the viewing platform and we could see some of the mountain reflected but it was still somewhat cloudy and there were more clouds in the sky. We kept walking through the forest around the loop. Eventually, it became sunny where we were at in the forest, however, it wasn’t clear over the mountains. Some of the pictures showed a better reflection of the mountain than how the mountain really looked to our eyes. 
We had a good walk and decided to go check out Fox Glacier. According to Josh and our map, there was a 10 minute walk to the glacier. We made it to the car park and started walking. Pretty far along, I said to Josh, I thought this was only supposed to be a 10 minute walk. He said the 10 minute walk ended way back there at a viewing spot of the glacier but now we were far enough along that we could go look at the glacier up close.
We crossed some streams in order to reach the base of the glacier. It was absolutely incredible. Because it was a cloudy day, I think it helped us see the blue ice on the glacier. Sometimes when if it is so sunny and bright all you see is white rather than the blue. However, the closer we got to the glacier, the colder it became. We stayed for awhile looking at the view but soon it was time to head back to the car. We were cold and we had a long drive ahead of us.When we reached the car, we noticed several people having picnics in their vehicles in the car park. It was lunch time for Josh and me too but we drove towards the exit of the park where there was a sign for a suspension bridge and picnic area. While we didn't eat outside, we did walk out onto the bridge which had a maximum capacity of 5 people. The view from the bridge was really cool and the water was quickly flowing underneath us.
I made us ham and cheese sandwiches to eat in the car as we drove along. We also had some tortiilla chips to compliment our meal. The further south we drove, the sunnier it became. The most amazing and surprising thing of the drive was Bruce Bay....the OCEAN. It was so sunny and the water was so blue. I was in love! I could have stayed at this site forever. But, again, we had the long road ahead through the Haast Pass.
I had read about the Haast Pass briefly before our trip. I'd read that it was spectacular, however, in my mind I'd pictured it as deserty and barren like the Canterbury Plains area. It wasn't like that at all. There were so many spots to pull off the road because everything in this area is picture worthy.
The Haast Pass consists of so many stunning mountain views. I had to have Josh pull over because I couldn't do the pictures of the mountains justice while snapping them out the car window whilst driving 70 kmh. We could never figure out which mountain was Mount Aspiring but it didn't matter because, in truth, all the snow capped peaks were awesome. Some natural sites were closed, perhaps due to repairs to the walkways. However, Thundering Falls was open and it was only a five minute walk off the main road and really worth a visit.Because it was getting dark and we still had a ways to drive, Josh and I ran the 5 minute track through the woods to the waterfall. We were the only one's there. It was a bit chilly but absolutely worth it for the view. We said people who drove past this spot without stopping didn't know what they were missing. The water below the falls is very clear blue and fast moving.
After that waterfall (and more mountain views) Josh saw an unmarked waterfall that was just massive coming down the mountain on the side of the road before flowing underneath the road to the other side. Josh, not always the cautious one, pulled off the side of the road and ran back to the waterfall although there was only a sliver of space for a pedestrian to stand off the highway from incoming traffic. I went with Josh (praying for safety) and fortunately no cars drove past us in either lane while we were viewing the unmarked waterfalls.
After running uphill to safely make it back to the car, we continued our journey. The mountain views continued and led to one of the most picture postcard pefect photo opportunities we've ever had whilst traveling. We saw a clear shot of Mount Cook rising out of the valley during sunset. I'm sorry, it just doesn't get any better than this...well, maybe if the black bugs weren't biting. However, that's a small price to pay for such a magnificent view.
The mountain vistas continued as the Southern Alps truly made their prescence known. Sunset over these mountains and lakes is just indescribable and one of those things that one must experience in order to truly appreciate. 
When we reached Wanaka, things went downhill. We ended up getting turned around in the town and I was hungry so that led to crankiness. Josh bought gas and asked for directions to the hotel then we were on our way. However, even when we did reach the “hotel” it was easy to see why anyone would have difficulty finding it. There are no lights on the Wanaka Edge Suites sign so it’s impossible to spot in the dark. I realized that the lack of lighting may be because it’s more a holiday home/apartment building rather than a hotel.
We arrived at 6 pm and were checked in quickly. I asked if we could have a room upstairs but the guy said there weren’t any. He said we had a nice room with a courtyard that was a 2 bedroom unit…but he told us not to use the second bedroom or we’d be charged the 2 bedroom rate instead of the one bedroom rate we paid for. Man, just by saying that, the second bedroom became more tempting.
We carried all our gear upstairs even though we were only staying for one night. This apartment included a washer and dryer so we brought in all of our stuff in so we could wash clothes. The apartment was really nice and modern. Josh was happy because they offered a movie channel. We were ready to start dinner but we didn’t have a few items so Josh ran to the grocery store while I started the laundry.
We had grilled cheese sandwiches and chicken soup for dinner. It was a really good meal. Then, we decided to take advantage of the Spa before it closed. We put on our bathing suits and walked down the exterior corridor to the Spa room. We tried our key but could not open the door. I told Josh to go check at Reception if we needed a different key. We went together, ringing the “Urgent” call button because it was now after Reception hours (not too late, only around 7:30 or so).A woman answered the call. Josh asked about using the spa and she said that you have to book the spa and asked if Josh wanted to book it. Josh said yeah and she asked when. Josh said now! That was so FUNNY!!! Then, a guy came out to unlock the spa room for us.
We got the Jacuzzi situated, however, I could not thoroughly enjoy it because I kept thinking about how Aimee’s brother-in-law got some sort of airborne disease by using a hotel hot tub. Josh and I hung out for awhile but then it was time for Josh’s movie to start so we headed back in.
We made some popcorn and watched a movie on tv called Inside Man. It was okay as it started, however, it ended pretty weak. Then, once the laundry had finished, I was off to bed and Josh followed later.
Saturday, May 12
May 12, 2007
Josh and I woke up to sunny skies this morning. Amazingly we’ve lucked out so much when it comes to weather and our tours. Heli hikes in this region are notorious for being canceled due to weather and that’s why we are staying here two nights…just in case our tour got canceled due to weather. It doesn’t look like there will be any cancellations today.
I got started on breakfast while Josh was still in bed. I made scrambled eggs and toast with hot tea and coffee. Josh puts so much sugar in his tea that it makes us go through all the packets that they give us. We’ll need to get some more. We sat outside at the patio table in the sunlight eating our breakfast. It was very nice.
We showered and got dressed for the day. We bought some special quick dry, zip off into shorts, pants at the Warehouse a couple of weeks ago specifically for this trip. We put those on and I had my Under Armor on too. We were set to go and on the road at 10. I put the Please Make Up Our Room sign on the door.
We parked on the side of the road up from the Helicopter Line office. We went in and while we were checking in, they said not to bring a backpack with you. So, we had to return to the car to put the backpack in the trunk. We hand carried a bottle of water and the camera. Just as we got back to the office, they were getting people ready to go to the helicopter site…I quickly used the toilet and caught up with the group who were, by this point, across the street and through the forest at the helicopter launching site.
There were about 22 people on the tour. First, we stood in line to get the proper gear: boots, wool socks, ice crampons, and a raincoat if needed. That sorted, we went outside and were split up into four groups...there were two groups of Fast and and two groups of Slow. Josh and I went for the slow group to play it safe. Josh and I were in a group with four other people.
The groups first three groups went off and took the helicopters up to the glacier. Finally, it was our turn. The helicopter ride was incredible. Smooth ride but so high up. Craziness! The views were spectacular. We totally lucked out with the clear skies we had. The snow up above the glacier was so cool because it just snowed yesterday.
Off of the helicopter, we met Anthony the tour guide. He told us how to put the ice crampons on our boots. Okay, that done, we were off. Or so we thought.
We walked around a bit and then we stopped so Anthony could answer any questions we had. Basically, it seemed like he was stalling for time. Okay, hike some more…other people need to figure out the crampons and get some confidence while walking on the glacier. They didn’t trust that they wouldn’t fall and kept going slow and bent over. Come on people.
But really, it wasn’t the people in the group that sucked, it was the “guide” that did. This kid was pathetic really. We hardly walked, yet alone HIKED, anywhere and when we reached a pool of water that was frozen on top, he asked if anyone wanted to swim. One girl did, so she went in while we all waited. Okay, fine. But Anthony was like "anyone else, anyone else". He was just wasting our time…let’s freaking do something…I thought this was supposed to be a HIKE!!!!
Then, I’m not joking, and this totally pissed me off, we got to another smaller pool of water and he asked the group, “Do you want to see me swim?”
NO, I DON’T WANT TO WATCH MY GUIDE SWIM!!! I want you to lead me on a tour and show me some glacier caves and formations. OH MY GOSH! I was infuriated. So, the guy strips down to his shorts and boots, walks around the pool of water and then decides not to go in, gets dressed again, all the while we are standing out there twiddling our thumbs waiting to get a move on.
I mean, just because we picked the “slow” group didn’t mean we didn’t want to hike around. Seriously, we did not pay $500 USD to watch our guide attempt to swim in a glacial pool. Lame. I don’t think my expectations were unrealistic here.
So, the walk came to an end, we took off our crampons and waited for the helicopters to take us down. The clouds were starting to roll in at that time so we had really lucked out with having sunny skies while we were up there.
My fear kicked in while we were waiting for the helicopter and I couldn’t shake the thought of what I’d do if there was an avalanche. Truthfully, I thought I would head in the opposite direction from Anthony because I would not want to be stuck with that guy even under the worst circumstances.
On the helicopter ride down, I got to sit in the front seat. The helicopter ride was wicked again and really, the helicopter rides were the best part of the experience (this is saying a lot as I hate to fly). When we were on the ground, we could really see the cloud cover. The mountains were hardly visible from below.
We went back to the grocery store and I bought another chicken curry and Josh bought another pizza bread. I also bought the best caramel/chocolate ice cream bar ever!!! I was really hungry by that point. Back to the villa which had not been cleaned because the sign had blown off the door knob. Bummer. We requested fresh towels, coffee, milk, and sugar. I took the trash out myself.
We made lunch and I updated the blog and the travel journal while Josh took a nap. Tonight, American Idol is on and the blog is updated although the pictures take to long to upload so I won’t be doing that tonight. I’ve got the pictures (some anyway) on shutterfly so I can share those with everyone back in the states.
Josh and I woke up to sunny skies this morning. Amazingly we’ve lucked out so much when it comes to weather and our tours. Heli hikes in this region are notorious for being canceled due to weather and that’s why we are staying here two nights…just in case our tour got canceled due to weather. It doesn’t look like there will be any cancellations today.
I got started on breakfast while Josh was still in bed. I made scrambled eggs and toast with hot tea and coffee. Josh puts so much sugar in his tea that it makes us go through all the packets that they give us. We’ll need to get some more. We sat outside at the patio table in the sunlight eating our breakfast. It was very nice.
We showered and got dressed for the day. We bought some special quick dry, zip off into shorts, pants at the Warehouse a couple of weeks ago specifically for this trip. We put those on and I had my Under Armor on too. We were set to go and on the road at 10. I put the Please Make Up Our Room sign on the door.
We parked on the side of the road up from the Helicopter Line office. We went in and while we were checking in, they said not to bring a backpack with you. So, we had to return to the car to put the backpack in the trunk. We hand carried a bottle of water and the camera. Just as we got back to the office, they were getting people ready to go to the helicopter site…I quickly used the toilet and caught up with the group who were, by this point, across the street and through the forest at the helicopter launching site.
There were about 22 people on the tour. First, we stood in line to get the proper gear: boots, wool socks, ice crampons, and a raincoat if needed. That sorted, we went outside and were split up into four groups...there were two groups of Fast and and two groups of Slow. Josh and I went for the slow group to play it safe. Josh and I were in a group with four other people.
The groups first three groups went off and took the helicopters up to the glacier. Finally, it was our turn. The helicopter ride was incredible. Smooth ride but so high up. Craziness! The views were spectacular. We totally lucked out with the clear skies we had. The snow up above the glacier was so cool because it just snowed yesterday.
Off of the helicopter, we met Anthony the tour guide. He told us how to put the ice crampons on our boots. Okay, that done, we were off. Or so we thought.
We walked around a bit and then we stopped so Anthony could answer any questions we had. Basically, it seemed like he was stalling for time. Okay, hike some more…other people need to figure out the crampons and get some confidence while walking on the glacier. They didn’t trust that they wouldn’t fall and kept going slow and bent over. Come on people.
But really, it wasn’t the people in the group that sucked, it was the “guide” that did. This kid was pathetic really. We hardly walked, yet alone HIKED, anywhere and when we reached a pool of water that was frozen on top, he asked if anyone wanted to swim. One girl did, so she went in while we all waited. Okay, fine. But Anthony was like "anyone else, anyone else". He was just wasting our time…let’s freaking do something…I thought this was supposed to be a HIKE!!!!
Then, I’m not joking, and this totally pissed me off, we got to another smaller pool of water and he asked the group, “Do you want to see me swim?”
NO, I DON’T WANT TO WATCH MY GUIDE SWIM!!! I want you to lead me on a tour and show me some glacier caves and formations. OH MY GOSH! I was infuriated. So, the guy strips down to his shorts and boots, walks around the pool of water and then decides not to go in, gets dressed again, all the while we are standing out there twiddling our thumbs waiting to get a move on.
I mean, just because we picked the “slow” group didn’t mean we didn’t want to hike around. Seriously, we did not pay $500 USD to watch our guide attempt to swim in a glacial pool. Lame. I don’t think my expectations were unrealistic here.
So, the walk came to an end, we took off our crampons and waited for the helicopters to take us down. The clouds were starting to roll in at that time so we had really lucked out with having sunny skies while we were up there.
My fear kicked in while we were waiting for the helicopter and I couldn’t shake the thought of what I’d do if there was an avalanche. Truthfully, I thought I would head in the opposite direction from Anthony because I would not want to be stuck with that guy even under the worst circumstances.
On the helicopter ride down, I got to sit in the front seat. The helicopter ride was wicked again and really, the helicopter rides were the best part of the experience (this is saying a lot as I hate to fly). When we were on the ground, we could really see the cloud cover. The mountains were hardly visible from below.
We went back to the grocery store and I bought another chicken curry and Josh bought another pizza bread. I also bought the best caramel/chocolate ice cream bar ever!!! I was really hungry by that point. Back to the villa which had not been cleaned because the sign had blown off the door knob. Bummer. We requested fresh towels, coffee, milk, and sugar. I took the trash out myself.
We made lunch and I updated the blog and the travel journal while Josh took a nap. Tonight, American Idol is on and the blog is updated although the pictures take to long to upload so I won’t be doing that tonight. I’ve got the pictures (some anyway) on shutterfly so I can share those with everyone back in the states.
Friday, May 11
May 11, 2007
Josh and I woke up to a rainy morning. This was not a surprise as Josh and I have renamed the West Coast the “WET” Coast. Rain all the time here…which makes sense as the majority of the coast is a rain forest. We could see the waves from our front porch, however, and they were massive, crashing, thundering waves.
Josh cooked us up some grilled cheese sandwiches for breakfast while I made the tea/coffee. We loaded up our gear into the car while it was raining, quickly checked out, and were on the road into Hokitika to buy some fuel and stop in at the Sheep Store and Jade Factory.
At the Sheep Store, I was able to take some funny pictures of Josh with the sheep cutout board. We didn’t see anything good there so we went to the Jade Factory where you can watch artisans carve jade jewelry and objects de art. Pretty cool.
We were back on the road through the rain to reach Franz Josef. OH MY GOSH…the rain! Thick, heavy, horizontal rain was blowing into the car from the sea. Then, it started to hail. What the heck?!?! Too crazy!
We came out of that on the other side all right and I’ve come to say that you have to have rain to have rainbows but Geez Louise, this place is so rainy and I REALLY HATE THE RAIN. I’ve been positive about it all though, I think, because the rain has yet to ruin any of our scheduled activities. If that happens, we’ll see how I hold up.
We saw many waterfalls along the drive to Franz Josef and truly, it was spectacular. Especially, when we started to see patches of blue sky and then, finally, full on sun and blue skies! AMAZINGLY GLORIOUS SUN! Then, I spotted some snow covered mountain peaks and I didn’t think it could get any better.
But then, the full mountain range came into view, the sun was shining and making the waterfalls flowing out from the thick rainforest twinkle and sparkle, and I just teared up and was about to cry over the sheer beauty of it all. I said it was all “Too Awesome.” More than awesome. Wish you were here. Once in a lifetime moment.
We drove past our hotel, Glen Fern Villas, as we were driving into town. That was fine because we were going to look at the Franz Josef glacier and maybe do a walking track around. We stopped into the I-site in town for some info and I called the helicopter tour company (Helicopter Line) to confirm that we would make the tour tomorrow.
Josh got some good info at the I-site and we were off. The Franz was only a 5 minute drive from town and we were lucky that the clouds had broken and we could see the glacier and most of the mountains. We did a hike up a hill for a really nice and private view of the glacier since no one else was up there. Then, we went down to the lower walking track. When we got there, there was a sign saying not to walk any further out because there had been rain recently and the river quickly can change its route making it dangerous to walk out to the terminal face of the glacier. So, we stayed put and had a look…clearly, some people had gone past the sign but like I told Josh, tomorrow we’d be up there so there was no reason to do anything crazy.
We walked back up the hill and saw there was another 20 minute walk to a reflecting pool so we went to check that out. Uh, not so reflective. I guess it was because of the rain and it was clouding back up again. As we were leaving, it started sprinkling.
Josh and I returned to town and went to the only grocery store (a 4 Square) where I picked up a Wattie's chicken curry with rice and Josh got a personal sized pizza. We bought some eggs and milk too. We returned to the hotel to check in and I asked if our room was off the road. It was not. The guy, Justin, would not move us either saying he’d never had a noise complaint, traffic is light and ends after 6:30, blah blah. I didn’t argue but now wish I would have.
Our room rate included a bottle of wine, so we got that and went to our villa (which is like a one bedroom apartment). We also were given some trim milk. We made our food and had some drinks and were set to relax for the evening (minus the whole cars driving by right out the door…BUGGER!) I HATE, ABHOR, DETEST traffic noise…any noise…unacceptable! 
However, we did get free internet because the hotel’s system to charge for it was down. So, you win some and you lose some. However, I don’t know why I am putting up with staying right on the road. Ugh.
I went outside to take a picture of the villa, taking my socks off before I stepped off the deck onto the wet grass. But then, I totally busted and fell down. The grass was sopping wet and slippery! Ah well, I didn’t get THAT wet.
Josh and I watched American Idol and thought that the contestants had the best night ever. Well, except for Jordin but it was Jon Bon Jovi week (who’s music we love) so we enjoyed listening to the songs. I fell asleep on the sofa when Josh took over the computer to play his game. He was off the computer at 1 am and I woke up to go get in the bed looking at the millions of stars in the sky from the patio. We set the alarm for 8:15 so we’d be ready to make our 10:15 appointment for the heli hike tour and went to sleep in the comfortable bed.
Josh and I woke up to a rainy morning. This was not a surprise as Josh and I have renamed the West Coast the “WET” Coast. Rain all the time here…which makes sense as the majority of the coast is a rain forest. We could see the waves from our front porch, however, and they were massive, crashing, thundering waves.
Josh cooked us up some grilled cheese sandwiches for breakfast while I made the tea/coffee. We loaded up our gear into the car while it was raining, quickly checked out, and were on the road into Hokitika to buy some fuel and stop in at the Sheep Store and Jade Factory.
At the Sheep Store, I was able to take some funny pictures of Josh with the sheep cutout board. We didn’t see anything good there so we went to the Jade Factory where you can watch artisans carve jade jewelry and objects de art. Pretty cool.
We were back on the road through the rain to reach Franz Josef. OH MY GOSH…the rain! Thick, heavy, horizontal rain was blowing into the car from the sea. Then, it started to hail. What the heck?!?! Too crazy!
We came out of that on the other side all right and I’ve come to say that you have to have rain to have rainbows but Geez Louise, this place is so rainy and I REALLY HATE THE RAIN. I’ve been positive about it all though, I think, because the rain has yet to ruin any of our scheduled activities. If that happens, we’ll see how I hold up.
We saw many waterfalls along the drive to Franz Josef and truly, it was spectacular. Especially, when we started to see patches of blue sky and then, finally, full on sun and blue skies! AMAZINGLY GLORIOUS SUN! Then, I spotted some snow covered mountain peaks and I didn’t think it could get any better.
But then, the full mountain range came into view, the sun was shining and making the waterfalls flowing out from the thick rainforest twinkle and sparkle, and I just teared up and was about to cry over the sheer beauty of it all. I said it was all “Too Awesome.” More than awesome. Wish you were here. Once in a lifetime moment.
We drove past our hotel, Glen Fern Villas, as we were driving into town. That was fine because we were going to look at the Franz Josef glacier and maybe do a walking track around. We stopped into the I-site in town for some info and I called the helicopter tour company (Helicopter Line) to confirm that we would make the tour tomorrow.
Josh got some good info at the I-site and we were off. The Franz was only a 5 minute drive from town and we were lucky that the clouds had broken and we could see the glacier and most of the mountains. We did a hike up a hill for a really nice and private view of the glacier since no one else was up there. Then, we went down to the lower walking track. When we got there, there was a sign saying not to walk any further out because there had been rain recently and the river quickly can change its route making it dangerous to walk out to the terminal face of the glacier. So, we stayed put and had a look…clearly, some people had gone past the sign but like I told Josh, tomorrow we’d be up there so there was no reason to do anything crazy.
We walked back up the hill and saw there was another 20 minute walk to a reflecting pool so we went to check that out. Uh, not so reflective. I guess it was because of the rain and it was clouding back up again. As we were leaving, it started sprinkling.
Josh and I returned to town and went to the only grocery store (a 4 Square) where I picked up a Wattie's chicken curry with rice and Josh got a personal sized pizza. We bought some eggs and milk too. We returned to the hotel to check in and I asked if our room was off the road. It was not. The guy, Justin, would not move us either saying he’d never had a noise complaint, traffic is light and ends after 6:30, blah blah. I didn’t argue but now wish I would have.
Our room rate included a bottle of wine, so we got that and went to our villa (which is like a one bedroom apartment). We also were given some trim milk. We made our food and had some drinks and were set to relax for the evening (minus the whole cars driving by right out the door…BUGGER!) I HATE, ABHOR, DETEST traffic noise…any noise…unacceptable! 
However, we did get free internet because the hotel’s system to charge for it was down. So, you win some and you lose some. However, I don’t know why I am putting up with staying right on the road. Ugh.I went outside to take a picture of the villa, taking my socks off before I stepped off the deck onto the wet grass. But then, I totally busted and fell down. The grass was sopping wet and slippery! Ah well, I didn’t get THAT wet.
Josh and I watched American Idol and thought that the contestants had the best night ever. Well, except for Jordin but it was Jon Bon Jovi week (who’s music we love) so we enjoyed listening to the songs. I fell asleep on the sofa when Josh took over the computer to play his game. He was off the computer at 1 am and I woke up to go get in the bed looking at the millions of stars in the sky from the patio. We set the alarm for 8:15 so we’d be ready to make our 10:15 appointment for the heli hike tour and went to sleep in the comfortable bed.
Thursday, May 10
May 10, 2007
Today, we woke up around 8:30 or so and got ready to drive all day. We loaded up and went down to reception to ask the best way to get out of town driving over Arthur’s Pass. That done, Josh had to comment on how it always takes me so long to get ready to leave in the mornings. I have no excuse, it’s true.
We got a bit turned around trying to leave town, however, it was fortunate for us because we ran across a McDonald’s…Josh had been in the turning lane, however, when he saw the McDonald’s he got out of that lane and went through a light that was turning yellow to red to get there.
We ordered in the drive thru and I got a hot coffee to drink. I say hot coffee, because when I opened the lid to add my sweetener, I got HOT coffee all over my freaking lap. I couldn’t say or do anything except cry because it hurt so bad. Josh felt really bad for me.
I got everything sorted after that and we got onto the road around 11. We thought the drive to Greymouth was supposed to take 5 hours and we had a 4 pm brewery tour so it was good to get out of Christchurch by 11.
The drive out was bright and sunny and we were happy about that. We’re not big on the rain. We had a nice talk and a nice drive. We started heading into the mountains that had only been in the distance while we were in Christchurch.
The views were spectacular when we got into the valley of the mountains. We saw some rock formations that we’d never seen anywhere else. It was like the scene in The Princess Bride where Andre the Giant tries to kill the Dread Pirate Roberts. Very cool boulders. We would have liked to hike amongst them but we had our appointment to keep.
As we drove on through the mountains, we commented that this landscape was like the volcanic area on the central plateau area of the North Island where we did the Tongariro Crossing. Then, it changed to the rainforest area of the West Coast. There started to be waterfalls evident on the hills. Cool.
When we reached a place called “Devil’s Corner” we were like, with a name like that, we have to pull off here and have a look. What we saw below was the viaduct (a new road built over the river). Back on the road and on through to the West Coast drive where the landscape flattened out. Josh said that the drive wasn’t as bad as he thought it was going to be.
We drove up through Lake Brunner to reach Greymouth. The road sign read “Tourist Road” and Josh and I both said, “We’re tourists.” The fog and clouds were rolling in. We knew we reached a big town when we saw that Greymouth had a Warehouse and a McDonald’s. We arrived about an hour early for our Montieth's Brewery tour so we went to see what the I-site recommended.
It was so funny as Josh asked the lady what we could do in town. I heard her say there was a museum and also some arts and crafts shops. I had a laugh because I knew Josh wasn’t down for either of those activities. Ultimately, we decided to check our email and paid about $2 for 20 minutes or so.
Soon enough, it was time to go on our Monteith’s Brewery tour. Josh was feeling a bit down after checking the email because it brought up things about work and all that. He said not to let him check any work related emails in the future when we are on vacation. We went into the brewery to catch the tour.
We were about 10 minutes early so we browsed the gift shop around until tour time. Dougal was our guide and as it turned out, Josh and I were the only people on the 4 pm tour. Awesome!!! We checked out the brewery and it was pretty standard but cool. Then, we did the tasting of 6 different Monteith’s beers. Dougal explained the differences in the beers. Then, we got to serve ourselves from the taps. Josh kept his drinks small so he was straight to drive.
We really thought that Dougal did an amazing job with the tour and he himself knew that it was all about the service. He was trained to be a Maori teacher, however, he started working at the brewery 3 years ago.
The brewery tour was great, there is even a 6 pm tour that includes a BBQ dinner. Josh wondered why we hadn’t got booked in on that one instead. However, we had a drive out of Greymouth to Hokitika that's why we hadn't booked that tour. We were soon on our way to the Hokitika Shining Star hotel about a 45 minute drive away.
Josh thought this hotel was awesome. When we checked in, our rate included milk for our tea and coffee as well as a free movie rental to watch on the DVD player. The hotel is located beachfront, however, it was dark when we arrived. We could however, here the roar of the ocean although we couldn’t see it. I started getting afraid at the thought of a tsunami. Man, I have some crazy fears. The room was part of a duplex like log cabin and it contained a kitchette. I told Josh we should go check out the Glow Worms that were located across the street.
We drove to the Glow Worm Dell which literally was across the road from the hotel. It was so scary walking up the path in the dark. We didn’t have the cell phone for light or anything else for light so Josh held onto the rail as we wondered up the hill in the darkness. Man, all I could think of was if someone was out there in the woods waiting to get us. We saw the glow worms which was very cool and we could also see the stars above through a clearing in the trees. Then, we quickly made our way downhill and outta the woods into the light! Whew!
Next, we drove into town to see if there was a grocery store. There was a New World, so we bought some things to make burritos and headed back to the hotel to cook. We popped in the DVD Fun with Dick and Jane (the movie we had rented) while the burritos got ready.
The food was really good and I love having a kitchen to make meals in. I washed the dishes afterward since Josh had cooked. Then, we watched some television before finishing up the movie. Well, Josh finished up the movie because I was tired from poor sleep the night before (I’d had a couple of nightmares) and I fell asleep before the end of the show.
Today, we woke up around 8:30 or so and got ready to drive all day. We loaded up and went down to reception to ask the best way to get out of town driving over Arthur’s Pass. That done, Josh had to comment on how it always takes me so long to get ready to leave in the mornings. I have no excuse, it’s true.
We got a bit turned around trying to leave town, however, it was fortunate for us because we ran across a McDonald’s…Josh had been in the turning lane, however, when he saw the McDonald’s he got out of that lane and went through a light that was turning yellow to red to get there.
We ordered in the drive thru and I got a hot coffee to drink. I say hot coffee, because when I opened the lid to add my sweetener, I got HOT coffee all over my freaking lap. I couldn’t say or do anything except cry because it hurt so bad. Josh felt really bad for me.
I got everything sorted after that and we got onto the road around 11. We thought the drive to Greymouth was supposed to take 5 hours and we had a 4 pm brewery tour so it was good to get out of Christchurch by 11.
The drive out was bright and sunny and we were happy about that. We’re not big on the rain. We had a nice talk and a nice drive. We started heading into the mountains that had only been in the distance while we were in Christchurch.
The views were spectacular when we got into the valley of the mountains. We saw some rock formations that we’d never seen anywhere else. It was like the scene in The Princess Bride where Andre the Giant tries to kill the Dread Pirate Roberts. Very cool boulders. We would have liked to hike amongst them but we had our appointment to keep.
As we drove on through the mountains, we commented that this landscape was like the volcanic area on the central plateau area of the North Island where we did the Tongariro Crossing. Then, it changed to the rainforest area of the West Coast. There started to be waterfalls evident on the hills. Cool.
When we reached a place called “Devil’s Corner” we were like, with a name like that, we have to pull off here and have a look. What we saw below was the viaduct (a new road built over the river). Back on the road and on through to the West Coast drive where the landscape flattened out. Josh said that the drive wasn’t as bad as he thought it was going to be.
We drove up through Lake Brunner to reach Greymouth. The road sign read “Tourist Road” and Josh and I both said, “We’re tourists.” The fog and clouds were rolling in. We knew we reached a big town when we saw that Greymouth had a Warehouse and a McDonald’s. We arrived about an hour early for our Montieth's Brewery tour so we went to see what the I-site recommended.
It was so funny as Josh asked the lady what we could do in town. I heard her say there was a museum and also some arts and crafts shops. I had a laugh because I knew Josh wasn’t down for either of those activities. Ultimately, we decided to check our email and paid about $2 for 20 minutes or so.
Soon enough, it was time to go on our Monteith’s Brewery tour. Josh was feeling a bit down after checking the email because it brought up things about work and all that. He said not to let him check any work related emails in the future when we are on vacation. We went into the brewery to catch the tour.
We were about 10 minutes early so we browsed the gift shop around until tour time. Dougal was our guide and as it turned out, Josh and I were the only people on the 4 pm tour. Awesome!!! We checked out the brewery and it was pretty standard but cool. Then, we did the tasting of 6 different Monteith’s beers. Dougal explained the differences in the beers. Then, we got to serve ourselves from the taps. Josh kept his drinks small so he was straight to drive.
We really thought that Dougal did an amazing job with the tour and he himself knew that it was all about the service. He was trained to be a Maori teacher, however, he started working at the brewery 3 years ago.
The brewery tour was great, there is even a 6 pm tour that includes a BBQ dinner. Josh wondered why we hadn’t got booked in on that one instead. However, we had a drive out of Greymouth to Hokitika that's why we hadn't booked that tour. We were soon on our way to the Hokitika Shining Star hotel about a 45 minute drive away.
Josh thought this hotel was awesome. When we checked in, our rate included milk for our tea and coffee as well as a free movie rental to watch on the DVD player. The hotel is located beachfront, however, it was dark when we arrived. We could however, here the roar of the ocean although we couldn’t see it. I started getting afraid at the thought of a tsunami. Man, I have some crazy fears. The room was part of a duplex like log cabin and it contained a kitchette. I told Josh we should go check out the Glow Worms that were located across the street.
We drove to the Glow Worm Dell which literally was across the road from the hotel. It was so scary walking up the path in the dark. We didn’t have the cell phone for light or anything else for light so Josh held onto the rail as we wondered up the hill in the darkness. Man, all I could think of was if someone was out there in the woods waiting to get us. We saw the glow worms which was very cool and we could also see the stars above through a clearing in the trees. Then, we quickly made our way downhill and outta the woods into the light! Whew!
Next, we drove into town to see if there was a grocery store. There was a New World, so we bought some things to make burritos and headed back to the hotel to cook. We popped in the DVD Fun with Dick and Jane (the movie we had rented) while the burritos got ready.
The food was really good and I love having a kitchen to make meals in. I washed the dishes afterward since Josh had cooked. Then, we watched some television before finishing up the movie. Well, Josh finished up the movie because I was tired from poor sleep the night before (I’d had a couple of nightmares) and I fell asleep before the end of the show.
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