Day 7- Glacier Hike

So today is the day, I hiked up the glacier today! It was quite an experience. Makenna, Kelsey, Lindsey, Aunt Cathy and me, all decided to go in the slow group. It was a good choice, because the climb up to the mountain was very difficult. We had a slight problem on the way up though. In our small little group we had this Indian family that were going extremely slow, so before we even got up there we had to stop a million times for them. But we finally made it to the top of the mountain. It was all worth it, the glacierwas really amazing. Late that day we went into this spa that had hot pools. It really helped our sore muscles from hiking all day, so my muscles didn't hurt at all afterwards :) It was a really successful day today :)

Day 6- Bruce Beach

We headed off to Franz Josef today. It was a four hour drive with a bunch of stops on the way there, so it turned out to be six and a half hours. Our first stop was for lunch in this deserted town. Lunch was pretty good, the mini egg rolls were my favorite. Then after lunch we got back on the road again. We made a couple more stops, which were places where we got to stretch and take pics. But we had a major problem, we had these little bity bugs attacking us called Sand Flies. They weren't so fun. Luckily I only got bit once, right behind my ear. It still itches like crazy though. Our last stop of the day was at this gorgeous beach. You could just an on going view of the ocean, which was amazing. But the really cool part about it was this rock pile that had a bunch of white rocks in it, and you could write things in black marker on top of the rocks. It was so cool. I signed that we all did, and then I also made my own to out in the pile. People from all around the world had rocks in the pile, and I think that's pretty amazing. Then we found this dead shark on the sea shore that I got to take a picture of since my assignment is animal portraits, I got a lot of good shots. After the ocean, we finally made it to Franz Josef, home of the glacier. Tomorrow we will be hiking on the glacier, which I'm pretty scared of, but still excited to go on. So I will let everyone know how it goes tomorrow :)

Day 5-Puzzling World

Today was our first and only day in Wanaka. Before anything we got up nice and early to go take pictures of the sun rising. I got some nice shots, but I was freezing the whole time. I had to de-thaw for like two hours becasue my body was so frozen. Then we got to go to this place called Puzzling World, which was pretty awesome. That morning we found two cats wondering outside of the place that we were staying at. They were the sweetest cats, one of them would follow you wherever you would go. They made me think of Mandy, but I like having them there to comfort me because I love cats and I haven't seen them in a while, so it was a really nice visit that I spent with them :) They had this really cool maze, but my group didn't succeed at this part very well, even when we tried to cheat...haha. Inside of Puzzling World there was a lot of cool stuff like a sideways room that was really hard to walk in. Then there was this other room that half of it was really tall, and the other half was really short, so if two people went in to take a picture, on e would look like a giant, and the other would look like a midget. It was hilarious. After Puzzling World, we drove up to this place where we would hike the Mountain. I had no idea how bad this hike would be, but it was extremely difficult. Makenna, Kelsey, and me were definitely the weakest links. But once we finally got to the top, it was an amazing view, just breathtaking. We got to just sit there quietly for like 15 minutes to take it all in, and it was just so peaceful out there, I loved it. Walking back down the Mountain was a peace of cake. After our hike we went back home and made sandwiches for lunch, and then we all went and washed our clothes finally. Later that night we did this thing called light painting that is so awesome, I don't even know how to explain how cool it is. But we had to go to bed quickly after that. All in all it was a peaceful day.

Day 4-Off to Wanaka

Today was probably one of the best days, it's second to Milford Sounds. We got to go out into Queenstown to explore and shop for gifts. We split up into groups and got to go off by ourselves, which was good because we all got to experience new things, and take different pictures around town. I also got to talk to this guy that was from Hong Kong. He has only lived in New Zealand for two years, but he loves it here because of how gorgeous it is. Then we went inside this Rugby store, because New Zealand is really into Rugby. One of the workers inside the store was talking to us about the World Cup and just informing us about Rugby.  I also learned that they do the Haka in New Zealand Rugby, so I guess that's where Trinity got it from....>:(. But I will have to see for myself if it's exactly the same, hopefully not haha. After we finished up our shopping in Queenstown, we headed off to Wanaka. It's a really small town in New Zealand. When we first got here we got to see a little bit of Rugby practice that some High Schoolers were playing. That night we ate Indian food....it was very interesting, especially since we weren't in India. The bread they had was really good, and I got this really mild chicken that was okay. I'm glad I finally tried Indian food, but I don't think it will ever be one of my favorites. Overall it was a really great day here in New Zealand.

Day 2 and 3- Birds and Farms

So yesterday we took a walk around the town that we are staying in, which was Flordland. We got to walk around the lake, and see a lot of cool birds. We also got to watch two documentary's on New Zealand, specifically about the town that we were staying in. The second documentary was my favorite because it had a lot of cool views from some of the mountains in New Zealand. Then today we packed up to head to Queenstown. We did make a few stops on the way though. We stopped at a farm, and got to see sheep sheered. It was a really cool experience to see how the farm worked, and what went on there. We finally made it to Queenstown, and checked into where we are staying, and finally found internet service so that we could post our blogs, which is what we are doing now. Hopefully this won't be the only time that we can post our blogs, but keep checking to find out more :)

Day 1- Milford Sounds

6/11/11

 So today was amazing. We went down to this place called Real Journeys, where we took a boat ride for two hours. We saw so many cool things like mountains, dolphins, seals, and waterfalls. I got a lot of cool pictures. Even though we were freezing cold, and stumbled around on the boat to get the perfect shot, it was still an amazing experience, and a really awesome way to start off the trip. My favorite part was the dolphins by far. They are such cool animals, and I got a couple good shots of them as well.  

After our boat ride, we got back on the bus, and on the way back to our lodge we made a couple stops and got to walk around Chasm Rainforest. It was my first time in a rainforest, and it was really cool to see all of the different things that it has. 

Later that night we went out at this Pizza place, that had some really good food. I'm really loving all of the native people, and their accents. It would be so cool if I could have their accent, we'll see if I have one by the end of the trip! Some things the Kiwi's say a lot is "No worries" and "For yourself?" which means no problem and for you? 

So yeah, I'm loving this trip already, can't wait to see more :)

New Zealand

This is my blog for my trip to New Zealand and Fiji. We will be posting the things that we do on our blog as often as possible. We leave in two days and everyone is really excited!