Aotearoa

So, as a kid I saw a documentary on New Zealand.  The magical scenery and history in the documentary made me want to visit New Zealand at a young age.  So, Jake and I finally made it happen after saving up money rather than giving anniversary gifts.  And it was pretty much our dream honeymoon..a few years later.  So, since I am absolutely in love with this place this post may be a bit of a picture overload and full of details.  I do not want to forget any of the adventures we had there.

Siberia Valley

We flew there on Jet Star Airlines, and when we got to the airport our neighbor happend to work for the airline and she hooked us up with prime treatment.  Which is always great for a long flight.  Jake and I got a row to ourselves.  We stopped over at Sidney for dinner (unfortunately we couldn't even see the opera house from the plane, and we didn't have enough time to leave the airport) and arrived late in Christchurch, NZ.  We stayed in a cute hotel and wish we had gotten a photo of us there.

On our first real day in New Zealand we headed across New Zealand to Arthur's Pass National Park.  Along the way we got good views of New Zealand's agriculture.  It still includes lots of sheep, but there is also a lot of dairy and beef farms.  We also noticed that New Zealanders like to have huge hedges around their fields (we're talking full size pine tree hedges).

When we got to Arthur's pass there we hiked Devil's Punchbowl, which is a majestic waterfall.  We headed over Arthurs Pass and headed down to Hokitika.  This was a little town on the west coast.  The water was pretty cold for swimming, but then we are used to Hawaii's beaches and the weather in New Zealand was a bit chillier.  Then we headed down to Franz Joseph with a few lookout points along the coast.  We slept in little rain forest cottages.

I forget the name of these rocks, but they definitely made me think of Lord of the Rings

They have a driftwood collecting festival every year, but they keep this up all year.

The little town of Hokitika

The rain forest retreat

The next morning we hopped on a helicopter and toured the Franz Joseph Glacier.  It may have been the highlight of my trip crawling through ice caves and seeing the ice towers.  It was pretty epic.

Then we headed down to Makarora to begin a new adventure in Mt Aspiring National Park.  We slept in cute little a frame cabins.  The next morning was rainy and wet so unfortunately we couldn't hop on our scenic flight, but our amazing guides arranged it so we could do our jet boat ride that morning.  it was pretty thrilling doing loops and holding my breath as I though there is no way this boat is making it through here.  Thankfully our driver knew what he was doing and we boated through some spectacular country.  Then we started our hike into the Siberia Valley Wilderness.  This may also have been my favorite part of the trip.  With all the rain there were waterfalls everywhere on the mountain slopes.  Then as we hiked the sky cleared as we enter the Siberia Valley and it took our breath away.  It was beautiful.  We stayed in a little wilderness hut nestled into the lovely scenery.

We stopped along the coast a few times, that's Jake down on the beach

Another beautiful view

We also stopped at Thunder Creek Falls

Makarora, the town really consisted of the lodgings and a gift shop/diner/ticket station for flights and jet boats.   Plus an airstrip for the little Cessna. This is our tour bus, Bruce (our guides named him after a famous NZ racer).

Waterfalls everywhere at the start of our hike

Our first view of Siberia Valley, still a bit misty.

The whole backpacking group

And now the view from the hut we were staying in ...from several different perspectives.

Sunset (and yes this is through the window of the hut, where we were playing cards).

The next morning we crossed a river to our scenic flight pick up (again our guides made it so that we could do our plans despite the weather, although because of our having to hike in the day before we didn't make it to Lake Crucible, but another reason to go back :).  It was so cool to fly over such high mountain scenery and get that perspective.  I felt like a photographer for planet earth or something (only I was enjoying it so much I didn't take any pictures, luckily Jake got a few).

That afternoon we biked the Hawea River Trail.  It was a nice trail that skirted several large lakes.  We also saw a location we had seen on The Amazing Race where they surf the river, unfortunately no one was surfing that day.  The scenery was beautiful, but I was a little under the weather and probably out of practice riding bikes (it's maybe been 6 years).  Also, due to construction on the trail it was a bit longer and I'll assume steeper (because the detour had a looooong hill).  So I was pretty wiped out by the end.

Views on the road to our bike ride

Where people can river surf

Some views along the way

A park near the end of the trail in Wanaka (our boys would have loved the dinosaur slide).

Luckily that night we headed into Queenstown and we could enjoy a nice dinner at Flame featuring local New Zealand fare.  And I could relax in our hotel.

Views as we head into Queenstown

Jake's Lamb chops

My salmon (who knew salmon farms were big in NZ?)

Lake Wakitipu, with the Remarkables in the background (yes, the range is really named that, because they are Remarkable).

The next day was our free day in Queenstown was our free day.  We had breakfast at a cute little bakery.  Then we were planning on skydiving, but unfortunately weather didn't work out.  It was too cloudy.  So we used the gondola ticket we got from our tour and enjoyed the views from above.  We also did some shopping in the cute shops.  We at dinner in the most amazing pizza joint, Bella Cucina.  We absolutely loved it. I would totally recommend their appetizer bread platter.

Moa, now extinct were hunted by Haast eagles (also extinct).  The Haast eagles would pick up these huge birds (which are larger than ostriches, but the eagle was pretty huge as well).

From the gondola

Bird's eye view of Queenstown (really it was much smaller than I expected)

Cute old church we found

The next day was a travel day as we headed down to Milford Sound.  The scenery is breathtaking and we learned that deer are farmed in New Zealand.  We drove through the little town that was the deer capitol of NZ (can't remember the name, tiny little town).  Once we got to Fjordland National Park the Scenery was amazing.  We did a couple short hikes to see Mirror Lakes and The Chasm.  Both were fun little hikes.  Then we headed down to Milford Sound to catch our cruise.  Once on our cruise we did a side trip to hike Milford Track.  It was a rain forest hike amidst mountains, doesn't get much prettier than that.

Mirror Lakes (It was a bit too breezy for the mirror effect, but the water was still beautiful).

Our first sighting of a Kea, the only alpine parrot, it is green on top and orange under his wings, on the ground (we saw one fly over during a lunch and while we were on the glacier).

More views along the drive in Fjordland

On the Chasm hike

Part of the Chasm (that is Jake's shadow taking a picture)

Waiting for our turn to go through the tunnel (there is a one lane tunnel that was hand dug out of the mountain, still the only way to get to Milford sound by land)

In the tunnel

Our first views of Milford Sound

Jake boarding out boat

The little boat we took to Milford Track

The Track

Yes, the water was really this color, cool huh?

Then we came back to the boat and we hoped in the Milford Sound for a swim.  It was a bit chilly, but definitely worth doing.  Nothing like the warm waters of the Pacific.  We ate on the boat and then enjoyed the views as our cruise took us all the way to the end of the sound.  We were blessed to see a humpback whale at the end of the sound.  Then we enjoyed the sunset and headed back in.  Jake and I went up to see the stars as well, and I think we saw the Southern Cross (although the New Zealanders pointing it out to us seemed unsure).

Jake stealing the captain's chair (the captain is in the background)

Our guides for the trip

Can you spot the whale?

We woke up and took another cruise of the sound, this time seeing the views in broad daylight.  Also seeing seals and a pod of bottle nose dolphins.

Seal Rock

The seals spin to help with digestion.

The pod of dolphins

Then we headed over to our kayaking launch and we got to see everything at a whole new level.  I also learned that Jake and I are a pretty good kayaking team.  We need to do more of it here in Hawaii.

We then hiked part of the Routeburn Track to Key Summit, which is a high mountain bog surrounded by mountain vistas.

Now imagine mountains like this all around you, and that was how Key Summit was

Cool bog moss

That night we stayed in Manapouri, which was a tiny little town nestled next to a lake.

We met some Car's friends

The view from our room

Our last night together we had a little celebration

The next day we headed to the airport and flew home.  It was Christmas Eve in New Zealand, but we crossed the international date line so we got home on Christmas Eve morning to celebrate with our little guys and Jake's sister and mother.  Speaking of Crystal and Kathy, we are so thankful they were willing and available to watch our boys.  It was nice to be able to leave our little guys with two amazing ladies who love our little ones almost as much as we do.  Our boys had a blast with them.

We also had a blast with them in the week that followed, but since this post is so long another post is in line.