Geo: 44.4653, -72.685Today was going to be a hiking day. This was important because I started off the day with a crepe that was probably way too fattening and sweet to be a breakfast, but it was. It had caramelized peaches with mascarpone cheese and raspberry syrup. Oh my!It looked to be a rain free day so I set off for the Smugglers Notch State Park. There was a hiking path to a pond that I wanted to take that was supposed to be about 2 hours. The road through Smugglers Notch is only open part of the year and I could see why! Once you get past the gondola area, the road becomes very windy, narrow and lined with giant boulders. It was one of those roads that I don't like to drive on, but ... read more

Geo: 44.4653, -72.685Here I am on my second vacation of the year, albeit a much shorter, cheaper and closer to home trip. Vermont is the only state in the Northeast that I had never been to and decided a fall trip to Stowe would be the perfect long weekend trip. So, as of 1:15 PM EST today, I only have 8 states left to get to! The day started off bright and early with a 6 AM flight out of O'Hare on jetBlue. My dad kindly drove me at 4:30 in the morning. There were a lot more people at the airport at that time then I thought there would be. The flight left on time and was uneventful. Had a short 2 hour layover at JFK and then a 41 minute flight to Burlington, VT. ... read more

Geo: -45.0311, 168.663Today we decided to drive south for a bit as we didn't have anything else to do. Good thing we did because we came across a ton of sheep moving up the road. They were much more orderly than the cows that were on the road and moved pretty quick. Very cute! Stopped at a little town that has a steam engine, but it wasn't running. We came back to Queenstown to do some shopping and have lunch. The big place to go here is Fergberger and so that's where we went. It was delicious! The burgers were huge and I could only eat half. I had a regular burger with brie cheese and Renee had the same, only with blue cheese. Amazing! It had been closed for some renovations and just reopened on ... read more

Geo: -45.0311, 168.663Tuesday Renee and I took a LOTR tour. Our guide picked us up a little after 8 and there was one other girl on our tour who was from London. She was spending the entire year traveling around and had come from South America, was going to Austrailia next and then Asia. Very interesting to talk with her about her travels! We drove around Queenstown first to view a Korean fort that was built for some Cold War movie. It was supposed to be a shell, but the director made an actual fort so you can still see it on a hill. Then we headed north to Glenorchy. There are lots of LOTR sites that we stopped at, but I have no idea what they were. I only know the scenery was amazing! Glenorchy ... read more

Geo: -44.0074, 170.483This morning when we woke up, it was pretty chilly. There was ice on the windshield and the car said 2 degrees. That's Celcius, not Farenheit so not below freezing! But the sky was clear and it eventually warmed up as we headed inland. Our route today took us along the coast for a bit, then headed in and south to Christchurch. There we found the Pirates Cove Mini-Golf (yes, for all you campers, it's the same kind as the one in Sister Bay!) and we played a round there. No pirates hanging in trees, but still a nice mini-golf. Once around Christchurch, we headed west to Geraldine and then to our stop at Lake Tekapo. The road became hillier and windier and we could see snowy mountains in the distance. Then we came ... read more