I did it. Barely. Kevin definitely did it, no worries. I had to be talked into it. For about 5 minutes on the ledge.

There’s a video of me looking like a vomit-run-away combo before finally doing it. As usual, better pictures to come.

We were supposed to do a heli hike to the top of Franz Josef Glacier and have a 2 hour hike on the glacier. Our flight was cancelled due to weather conditions. And the next day’s flight was probably cancelled. Would we want to come back next week? uh, no.

So we took the Valley Trek up to the base of the glacier.

It took us a while to shake off our disappointment, but soon were treated to some very nice views and a decent hike.

It was quite the scrabble up to the terminus. The glacier is now the smallest it has been since the 1960’s and is receding more every day. The unusual thing is that is showing growth on the top of the structure. They are unsure what this means for the future of the glacier.

There were waterfalls all around the valley, bursting all around. It, of course, was raining, so it was difficult to get shots of them all.

In front of this cave is where the helicopter is supposed to land. The clouds and fog only shifted for a few seconds in time for me to get this shot. The only helicopters going in were to grab the guides who had been left up there for the day.

Some of the ice chunks break off of the glacier and tumble down the river. Our guide jumped down and grabbed a hunk so we could all hold or touch a piece of glacier!

And here is a koru from Lake Matheson just because it was my favorite pic from that day, and nothing else really turned out.

Let me just say, Kevin and I are NOT kayakers. We’re not good at it. And for some insane reason, I booked 3 separate times for us to kayak. This was our first one. We got the crash course in how to use the skirt, pedals for the rudder, and general ways not to kill ourselves.

Then we finally cruised over to the beach where we had lunch and chilled for about 1.5 hours. We were not interested in swimming or sunbathing, so it was a pretty boring time for us.

But the rocks were pretty…

 

We’re heading back a way in our journey for a moment to see NZRiverjet on the Waikato River. The Waikato (meaning “flowing waters”) is the longest flowing river in NZ, about 425 km/264 miles. We picked up the river in lower Rotorua.

It was raining. It was cold. We were waffling. We were glad we went because it was all worth it.

This is Andy and Susie from Bristol, UK.

These guys rock. They let us have pictures from their waterproof camera (mine with housing was just too big to bring) AND brought us back to their campervan for coffee and hot chocolate! Incredibly kind, funny and generous people. We hope to be able to return the favor  someday, as well as visit them in the UK. I have it on their authority that they live in TRUE cider country, and it shouldn’t be missed.

Did I mention it was raining? In a speedboat?

At least we weren’t alone in our misery!

Along the river was this cool, seemingly unreachable cave. Our guide, Adam, said that the tribes buried their chiefs there to guard the water and that they had some use of abseiling even back then.

If you’ve been paying attention, then you remember that Rotorua has tons of geothermal activity. The Big Squeeze is no different! We gladly jumped out of the cold, rainy boat and jumped into warm water from the hot springs.

Beautiful bush surrounded us, and we learned about the Silver Fern, one of the many symbols of New Zealand. It’s underside is highly reflective and can be used to signal search planes or helicopters from above, when placed in a triangle.

We crawled through the Big Squeeze, warming up in the shallow waters when we needed.

It all led to this amazing, WARM, waterfall in between the rocks.

Once again, all these wonderful photos wouldn’t be possible without Andy and Susie. Cheers to them!

 

Today was one of our free days in Queenstown, so we went up the gondola up Bob’s Peak to take in the sights. And the luge. The ride rises 450m/1475 ft above the town.

So far, we have had nice weather – warm with a nice cool breeze.

Queenstown is home to NZ’S longest lake, Lake Wakatipu .

For lunch, it was time to try out the famous Fergburger. And this place is a touristy destination all it’s own.

There’s a 15-20 minute line to place your order, then 20-25 minute wait for your food to come out. But when it does. ..

Last night, we stopped in for dessert by the waterside at Patagonia Chocolates. I panic ordered a cheesecake. Delicious, but very different than our own in the states.

Not to mention this piece was huge- at least 4 inches tall and bigger than my hand! We didn’t finish it.

After a lovely breakfast at Collinson’s Cottage, (including peaches picked straight off the tree), we decided to hike up Mount Iron. The mountain is 548 meters high and gives 360 views of incredible various mountains and lakes.

Lovely town with incredible views of mountains and lake. Stopped for dinner at Urban Grind. Started with a lovely Red Apple Cider.

This place is a ski town in the winter.

And just a nice place to visit. A charming place all together.

We drove out to see Lake Matheson to see this neat reflection of Mount Cook in the water. Instead, we saw this :