Glaciers Galore!

Saturday's itinerary included driving, glacier, driving, glacier, driving, play by river, more driving, flat tire, more driving, and destination Queenstown.

The first glacier we hiked (and when I say 'hiked', I mean 'walked for 15 minutes') to was Franz Josef. It was very pretty.

We can strike extremely cool poses at any time in any place...

And with our super 18 times zoom, we caught a glimpse of the little people climbing through the glacier.

At any other locale, this majestic waterfall scene would be a tourist hot spot... but not here. I doubt most of the visitors even took a gander over at the magnificent falls. The glacier got all the attention at THIS site. To make the waterfalls feel better, we snapped a photo...

After Franz Josef glacier, we hopped back in Gus to chug along to the next glacier: Fox Glacier.

It was a little surreal seeing Fox Glacier in real life as it was the location of a recent national tragedy. Two Australian brothers crossed the safety barrier/signs and were killed by an ice fall. One of the bodies was discovered immediately, and the other body was discovered 10kms downstream from the glacier about a week later.

Another interesting (and fairly ridiculous) little factoid around this news item was that because the brothers didn't return their rental car promptly (for obvious reasons) and the keys were lost in the glacier, the rental company was going to slap their parents with a whopping huge fine. Thank heavens Prime Minister John Key has some brains (and a heart) and stepped in. Silly rental company.

Anyhoo, on the bright side, Fox Glacier was really beautiful...

We made ourselves comfy on some rocks and indulged in a little PB & J, Manuka honey (YUMMM), and bananas...

Mmmm... the G family looooves their PB & bananas! (Those family members who enjoy pickles also love their PB & pickles, but personally I think pickles are disgusting and I'd rather eat dirt).

After satisfying our bellies, we hopped into Gussy-Goo for some more driving...

When we needed a stretching/fresh air break, we stopped at a roadside creek to play with the rocks and sandflies...

Our next plan was to gun it straight to Queenstown. However, sweet little Gus had different plans. he decided to blow a tire, so we rather conveniently parked him between Subway and the beach in Wanaka. Marc & Lowell skillfully replaced the tire while Kylie and I were quite content to have no clue what was going on.

Kylie and I took care of ordering the Subway and saving a picnic table.

(Kylie was demonstrating how heavy Marc's sub was. It felt like someone threw a 5 kilo weight in the bag with the sub.)

When Kylie and Lowell get together, they can be quite entertaining. Lowell teases her and clips distorted bobby pins onto her nose, and she giggles and becomes even goofier than usual.

Marc and Lowell had the tire fixed impressively quickly, so after downing our subs, we topped the new tire up with air, and cruised safely the rest of the way to Queenstown.

We hit the hay in a parking lot, and hoped to high heaven that regular feeling would return to our legs in time to participate in the many activities we had planned in the big Q. (Kylie and I were the ones with the sore legs who stumbled around like one-legged drunks. Marc and Lowell were fiiiiiiiiine.)

Stay tuned...

Avalanche Peak (aka extremeley sore leg mountain)

This past Friday (Feb 6) was Waitangi Day in NZ (celebration of the signing of NZ's founding document: the Treaty of Waitangi) which meant... long weekend! Add that to my already long weekend (Hallelujah for having Mondays off), and you get a SUPER LONG WEEKEND FOR LOWELL AND JULIE!!

Lowell and I had every intention of taking full advantage of each SECOND I had off. On Thursday night, Lowell and I flew to meet Marc, Kylie, and Gus (affectionately referred to as "Gussy-goo") in Christchurch (on the South Island). I think it's worth mentioning that we flew via Quantas Air solely to advertise the fact that our evening airplane snack included FUDGESICLES and PIE (so maybe don't fly with QA if you are a dedicated Weight Watchers member).

While I curled up to have a snooze in the traveling bed (I cannot tell you how often we've been thankful for a vehicle with a bed), Marc drove. By midnight, we had arrived at our (rather rustic/unofficial) camping destination:

Prettier view than most campgrounds, but the toileting situation wasn't quite so convenient.

We rose with the sun on Saturday morning so we could head INTO Arthur's Pass (rather than sleeping directly outside it) and conquer the planned hike for the day: Avalanche Peak.

Before beginning the climb, we had brekky in a parking lot and had pity on a cute hobbling one-legged Kea bird (until it started eating the sealant off of Gus- then it was just an annoying hobbling one-legged Kea bird)...

And now for the hike. Look at Marc & Kylie at the beginning of the hike. Kylie's all relaxed, enthusiastic, and snap-happy. Her grump-o-meter was in the negatives. For now...

Lowell was also pretty excited:

(Jumping off of something was not an option at this point because that "something" would be a cliff.)

Elevation was gained very quickly on this hike, and the first "couples shot" opportunity presented itself within minutes.

This is Kylie saying "WHAT AM I??!"

(The answer she was looking for was apparently "a dinosaur". Sad, isn't it? hehe)

It was so cloudy outside that it appears as though Marc & Lowell are at the peak. HOWEVER, the ginormous cloud is covering the overwhelming steepness that was to come.

A lot of the trail was not so much a path as it was a giant cluster of ROCKS. I successfully completed a mini section of rock climbing and was really quite proud of myself...

Lowell had a little fun with a Kea bird (this one was extra special... it had TWO legs!).

And Marc had fun photographing Lowell with the lucky two-legged Kea bird...

Throughout the hike, the peach sticks were our life line. Follow the peach sticks. ALWAYS FOLLOW THE PEACH STICKS. Either that, or walk off the edge of the earth.

While beautiful, this hike was also slightly depressing because of all the deceiving "peaks". We kept thinking we were climbing the main peak, then we'd get to the top and notice that a cloud was mostly covering the next "peak".

Climbing fake peak number 1:

Fake peak number 6. This was particularly depressing as I really thought I HAD reached the very top (and Kylie's grump-o-meter was also on the rise (good thing she's fun even when "grumpy"))...

Marc & Kylie walking a ridge between fake peaks...

After 3 hours of continual INCLINE, we finally arrived at the real peak (I think) :

Unforunately, the view (which was reportedly several beautiful peaks, valleys, and glaciers) was virtually non-existent. Oh wait, we had a lovely view of a big ol' cloud.

We started eating our lunch on the very tippy top of the mount, but it got REALLY cold REALLY fast, so we soon vacated.

And then came the decline. The brutal brutal 3.5 hour decline.

The brutally COLD (to start) and mainly STEEP 3.5 hour decline...

Am I in pain? Am I excited? Am I sneezing? Am I being a goof? I couldn't tell you...

(To this, Lowell says, "This is what I wake up to every morning." Thanks dude. I love you too.)

What I like about the following picture is that Marc & Kylie aren't posing in front of a pile of rocks... they're posing ON THE TRAIL!!

Li'l resty rest on the way down...

Getting closer to the bottom...

Marc assessing the look/feel of a completely ridiculous mustache:

By the time we reached the bottom, I had never been so happy to see a road. My lips, in fact, carressed the glistening pavement with a gentle kiss, so happy was I to be reaquainted with it.

Kylie and I could barely walk for the remainder of the weekend as muscles we didn't know we had were threating to jump right out of our legs, but we still managed to dig up plenty of fun and adventure. Luging? Check. River Surfing? Check. Hot Tubbing? Check. Bungy Jumping? CHECKITY CHECK CHECK CHECK!!!