To Franz Josef...and beyond!

After WWOOFing we stopped in Queenstown for a night to watch the Rugby final, what a good game! It was France and New Zealand and France had been slacking but somehow made it through and then ROCKED in the final. New Zealand won, 8-7. That day there was also a jazz festival in town with a little market as well. It was a beautiful day! We then took a 7.5 hour bus to Franz Josef where I think it rained for at least 30 hours straight. We were going to do a Glacier hike but it was crazy expensive even for a half day trip and I don't think we would have paid much attention to anything but the rain. Luckily we were only there for 1 full day.





We then went to Nelson which is my favorite place in New Zealand so far. It is up north on the coast and it is an artsy little town. It was the first place we've been that could survive without tourism in NEw Zealand. Also at a KIA dealership they had a 1970 MG on sale for $6,990. Totally doable! If only I knew how to drive stickshift AND could get it where I am going to live. ANYWAY we did some cool stuff in Nelson. I went for a run the first morning and ran right past a girl wearing a UW MAdison Buckey shirt! I was wearing my UW Rugby shirt so we stopped and chatted a bit, it was cool! We also hiked up to the center of New Zealand. It's not actually the center but it was decided that a while ago so they have a hill with a plaque and all. It was cool and you could see the whole city. We had a picnic dinner up there. The next day we went to Able Tasman NAtional Park. We did a 2 hour kayak there and we got to go out to this island that had seals on it. Then we stopped for lunch and walked back. It was a perfect day and really relaxing. On our last day in Nelson we went to the Farmer's Market and it was really great. They had a bunch of food but also arts and crafts as well. There was so much I wanted to buy! We ended up but food for dinner there and got this hot smoked white fish, it was SO GOOD!

The next day we went to Picton which is just a small harbor town and took a ferry to Wellington. The ferry was really nice it was like a cruise! They even had a movie theater. I was sad to leave the South Island because it has been so cool. There are hardly any people around and it is huge and there are sheep everywhere. It went by really quickly!

WWOOFing

So we finally had our first WWOOFing experince at Kinloch which is about an hour north of Queenstown. IT is near the Routeburn track and Paradise, where they shot a bunch of The Lord of the Rings. It is a really beautiful place. We worked with the Glover family. They have three kids and own a B&B in Glenorchy, an inn/hostel, and a souvenir /coffeeshop. We did a bunch of jobs around. We worked on a house that is on the property next to thjeirs that they are renting so that they can house WWOOFers in the summer. We cleared brush, cut down some trees, cleaned, got rid of mold, painted, and moved stuff around to make it look more homely. We also did some mulch, some housekeeping, and I got to go into Glenorchy and work at the coffeeshop! We did some moving around and I redid a menu board and got to work by myself one day as well! It was cool. It was interesting because it was a business so it felt a lot more like we worked for them instead of with. The next place we're WWOOFing we are staying in the family's home so I think it will be a totally different experience!

We also got to meet a woman from Germany and it was wonderful to get to work and hang out with her! Her name is Maria and she actually studied in Minnesota in high school! We hiked together, watched movies/rugby, ate lots of chocolate and popcorn. It was really nice spending time with another traveller and actually getting to know her. She comes to the US relatively often so hopefully we can convince her to come to Colorado.

We got to do some cool thigns. We hiked the Routeburn, hiked Mt. Alfred, which is a mountain surrounded by a mountain range and a lake. The hike was the hardest I've ever done but it was worth it. The end was 100 meters just scaling up shale. Ugh. But it was really pretty. We biked about 7 miles to and from the hike. Big day. We also got to kayak the lake. It was great! We enjoyed our first WWOOFing esperience but we're looking forward to a different one soon!

Queenstown

So, after Milford Sound we went to Queenstown for 4 nights. Queenstown is cool but it is so tiny! It's funny what they consider a city here. Everywhere is so tiny so all of the sudden you go somewhere where more than 10,000 people live and it seems MASSIVE. While we were in Queenstown it was Steve's birthday! So, we decided to go bungee jumping to celebrate. Yikes! We did the highest jump-143 meters. There was an almost 8 second freefall. It was so nuts. I wasn't scared until about halfway into the jump when I realized I couldn't catch myself and I was headed head first into a valley. Ha. But it was really cool!

Another highlight of Queenstown was the food. There is one burger place that was recommended by Amanda(thanks!) and it was so good! The burgers are HUGE and yummy. It is called Fergburger and apparently people ask to franchise it about 3 times a week, but they enjoy just staying one place. Kinda cool. First I had the Southern swine. Then a Bun Laden. Veryy different but good! We also found a chocolate shop that I think we went to every day. It's called Padagonia and they have coffee cheesecake, chocolate, ice cream, croissants, oh man. Otherwise we just went on a couple walks and hung out, did some shopping. It was relaxing. I liked Queenstown, the capital of adventure I just wish it wasn't so expensive. If you want to do all the fun stuff it costs quite a bit!