Mt. Cook

We left Akaroa yesterday and headed to Mt. Cook.  Once again, the drive was incredible, but this time we also had snow-capped mountains! We stopped many times to take pictures of the beautiful scenery.  Unfortunately, the pictures just don’t do it justice.

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Like I mentioned before, Mt. Cook is near the glaciers.  We were expecting this to be one of the coldest areas that we visit in NZ, but it was just the opposite!  It was about 80 degrees when we got there in the afternoon!!

In Mt. Cook, we stayed at a lodge.  We were both a little unsure about how it would be.   It was very nice.  It was a small hotel room and bathroom with a communal kitchen/ living area.  Because we were only there for one night, we didn’t make use of the kitchen.  However, we we impressed by the size.  For dinner,  we ate at the Old Moutaineers Cafe.  Justin had a hamburger, and I got a lamb stew.  They were both OK.  We enjoyed the giant plate of potato wedges the most.  In New Zealand, they serve potato wedges with chili sauce and sour cream.  It’s pretty good!

When we got back from dinner, I fell asleep pretty quickly and forgot to post on the blog!  Sorry!

The next morning, we planned to go on a walk to the Tasman glaciers.  It was about a 15 minute walk up a hill/ mountain.  The hike wasn’t that bad, but I was wearing ballet flats (I’m not sure what I was thinking!). I kept slipping!

When we got up there, the view was beautiful, but it wasn’t the best we’ve seen.  It was hard to appreciate the size of the glaciers from such a high perspective.  The color of the water was interesting.  It was an opaque green color.  Justin said that he read that the color is caused by something called “glacier flour.” I don’t know, but it was a different color than we have seen previously and the water was still as glass.

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After hiking to the Tasman glaciers, we got back into the car to drive to our final stop in New Zealand……Queenstown!  We’ve heard it called “a millionair’s playground” and “the adventure capital of the world.”  It seems like the perfect place to conclude our “tour” of New Zealand.  Other than one day, Justin left Queenstown open to decide what we want to do when we get there.

The drive was about 3.5 hours long and it went by pretty quickly (especially since I was sleeping on and off!).  I’m sure Justin didn’t mind that I was sleeping, since I was very cranky from not having any coffee that morning!

We stopped at a vineyard, Felton Road,  in Central Otago on the way and picked up ANOTHER bottle of wine.  We are overloaded with wine.  We are going to have to ship some to Australia with us.  To ship it to the US is 290$.  I don’t think that’s an option!

In Queenstown, we are staying at the Hilton.  AHHHHH.  So nice to be back in a hotel! We thoroughly enjoyed all of the apartments, cottages, and houses, but it is really really really nice to be back in a full-service accomodation!!

For dinner, we ate at Winnie’s Pizza Bar.  Justin got pizza, and I got a big beautiful bowl of mussels.  I have been craving mussels since we got to the South Island.  Apparently, New Zealand is known their green-lipped mussels, and they were delicious!!

Tomorrow, we are taking a helicopter to Milford Sound!  I’ll let you know how it goes!

XOXO Alyce

P.S.  We heard that some people are having trouble with the pictures on the blog.  We’re not really sure why that is happening.  Justin thinks that it has something to do with the number and size of the pictures.  We are able to get them to pull up on our end, but sometimes it takes a few minutes.  Sorry about that!!

 

 

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