New Zealand Part IIIa - South Island Adventures

I was nervous about the South Island. It's cold, rugged, solitary, and steep. Turns out my nerves proved correct. On the second day we rented a car and drove from the west coast over the Southern Alps to the east coast. Here's the setting:

Imagine a place where you expect to see Frodo trekking across the loan wilderness with the ring hidden deep inside...
Imagine a rainy, wet place where water gushes out of the side of the mountain into deep ravines
Imagine a place where waterfalls emerge out of nowhere (click on the picture to see the details)
Imagine a place where you share a one lane, slippery bridge with oncoming traffic, and oh yeah, a TRAIN.
Imagine a place where the roads were littered with big, razor-sharp rocks that have careened down the cliffs and littered the windy roadway (sorry no picture)...ENTER THE TRAVELER'S WORST NIGHTMARE: A FLAT TIRE ON A COLD, RAINY, WINDY, LONELY MOUNTAIN HIGHWAY. Yes folks, I'm for real. This is the only picture I got because I was huddled in the backseat with my baby as my brave husband unloaded all of our luggage out of the trunk to get the puny spare tire out to change the completed gashed one in torrential rains.

No cell phone reception, no other choice but to go on. So we slowly drove on and found a mountain lodge off the road about a mile. I felt like I was in a movie as I huddled my baby under a parka and ran up the pathway to this gorgeous place. Enter Eden... the nicest mountain lodge ever. They were so nice to lend us their phone and I was hoping we'd get stuck there. No such luck. With our luck I'm surprised the place didn't turn into the hotel in The Shining.

With the rental company saying it was our responsibility (you know that daily insurance that we always waiver because it costs more than the car itself? Yeah, well I know now why it's so expensive...it's the only thing that covers crap like this!). So we got back on the road and slowly made our way to the only town in the Southern Alps, Arthur's Pass.

While there we made arrangements to meet a guy for after-hours service (because every shop except grocery stores close at noon on Saturdays) in a town that was still 2 hours away. The weirdest thing happened there. We met another guy who had not one flat tire but two!! He was waiting for a tow truck (to the tune of $600) to come pick him up. Guess where he was from? McKinney freaking Texas. No lie!

So we finally made it safely down to our tire guy, the trip's hero. We were $150 poorer and sad because this whole adventure made us miss the Punakaiki Rocks
But we were very glad and grateful to our Heavenly Father that we made it through that safely!

The next day started off much more serenely with places like this:Aaah...now that's more like it!

We hiked to the Franz Josef Glacier. It was freaking awesome!The pictures do zero justice to the size and magnitude of the place. The glacier looks itty bitty, but it's so large! To give you an idea, click on the picture below. See the brown patch of grass in the middle of the gray rock bed? Well, right in front of that there's a little line. That's a person. And they are still a good 30 minute walk from the face of the glacier.

Check out Mr. Daisy Dukes here!! I was laughing so hard and I couldn't help but take a picture. Gotta love the rugby shorts!
We were surprised by how dirty the ice was up at the front. We didn't pay to have a guided tour (complete with ice picks and the shoes with the little spikes on the bottom) because we didn't think it appropriate to take our 5 month old baby up a glacier! But here I am getting as close as I was allowed.Mommy's little champion hiker!
We went on plenty of walks that looked like this:
What can I saw? New Zealand is gorgeous!

We went on a couple of swing bridges that freaked me out!
Here we are at Lake Wanaka, New Zealand's version of Park City. This is was the nicest day weather wise. The next day it snowed!!
We visited Queenstown, the adrenaline capitol of the world. I love it! Not for the adrenaline aspect of it, but it was just awesome! I almost got talked into bungy jumping, but I did the luge instead. So fun!
X did some panning for gold. Too bad our fortune in gold alluded us still!
I would love to finish this, but I'm seriously falling asleep as I type this. So Part III must be divided into two. Hopefully I can do the second part soon!