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Published: September 29th 2006
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Hey there! Kia Ora!
So we just go to Queenstown an hour ago or so and I'll just give you a small idea of what this place (and the city we were in last night, Wanaka) look like....imagine smaller cities looking onto a big gorgeous lake with mountains like the rockies rising up behind it! To say quite simply is beautiful!!!! Queenstown seems really cool, there are tons of people walking around all the shops, cafes and tourist bookings shops....it's still ski season here and we're very close to a couple mountains...in Queenstown there are more bars in the city centre than in anywhere else in NZ....We're planning to get a warm up party in before Ash's bday on the 4th of Oct.
Back a few days now.....We went kayaking in a "mirror" lake just after we sent the last blog. The lake is darker because of a mineral tennin which comes from the glacier and it actually reflects whatever is above it! the guy gave us a deal because he wanted our bus driver to go...sweet as!.. I twisted Ash's arm a little....It wasn't the best day but we thought it would stay rain-free -- WRONG! It
poured with rain and clouds covered all the mountains that we would have been able to see...Oh well, it was still really cool and peaceful when the rain was falling. After we paddled across the lake we headed into a river that wound through the forest and required some tricky navigating...Ash had some troubles, every few minutes I would hear bushes shaking and scratching her boat and her giggling...hehehe....The company gave us a disc with all the pictures he took and more so I'm excited to see how many we got! The next day we slept in, watched movies, ate and just chilled out! Our last day in Franz Josef included the full day glacier hike! We got all suited up: rain cover pants and coat, boots, socks, toque, gloves and talonz!! Even from the parking lot ( a mear 2.5km away....we LOVE walking!!) it was a sight! The mountains were covered in lush forest (remember we are in a rainforest) and then in the middle was a massive ice water fall like thing! The glacier gets like 35m of snow a year and that's why it can last in the area...trivia tid bits for you....The hike was tough, especially
b/c of the boots and talonz= heavy..there were huge crev"asses" everywhere that we had to walk up and our guide, Horse, was the type that didnt exactly like to follow the path everyone else likes to! Numerous times he would tell us to wait here and he would then chip out stairs to the top of a crev'ass' make some weird faces about each option we had and then say "we'll make it. this way!" Oh and my favourite comment was "Oh, now i know where we are!" Keep in mind we are on a glacier that to me looks pretty much the same in all directions. For most of the day it was raining and we were freezing but we climbed quite far up the mountain and saw some really cool stuff. The ice is blue because it doesn't have much oxygen mixed in with it yet, like the top layers which are white. We also saw a mountain parrot at the top! yes, it was a dark green colour, but no it did not talk! The glacier was pretty amazing, it was constantly reminding us of what an ice castle would look like and I kept comparing it
to walking in a giant ice cube! We were tired when we finished and pretty much ate and then slept!
Wanaka was a cute little town. Our hostel was farther from town than we would have liked and puzzle world was another 3Km out of town and niether of us were really up for walking the day after the glacier....but what are you going to do! So we walked to puzzle world....a room with a bunch of optical illusions and the slant room and then a giant 2 level maze outside. We found all four towers in only 15 minutes however we both had to cheat to find our way out of the maze!! ooops! Then we walked back into town...grrrrrr...oh wait no we took a cab! yep our first one! Today we walked around town, had coffee and a milkshake and then layed on the grass by the lake in the sun!!! finally we wore tank tops!!!
That's it for now....miss you all and love you all! xoxoxox
Jen and Ashley
P.S. anybody who knows my eating habits....pat Ash on the back she got me to eat Indian food last night....AND i didnt die!!
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Cindy
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It's Gramma Scott again!!!
Hi Jen and Ash... what wonderful experiences you are having.. all the info you put on your blog is so interesting and the pictures are awesome.. just in case you don't know everyone had a great time in Ontario.. and they didn't argue or anything!!!!! Amazing you say!!! I have to agree...LOL and Jen Indian food is delicious, one of my all time favourite foods.. glad you experienced some.. keep having a great time and enjoy and try all you can.. Happy birthday Ash.. have a great one.. talk to you soon.. love and hugs Gramma Scott...or Cindy to you Ash