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Ahh I'm sorry I know its been days since I've written but this past week has been pure insanity. We arrived in Queenstown last night and this is the first chance I've gotten to sit down and write. Wow! So much has happened...let me rewind back to the day we left Christchurch. Our first destination was Mt. Cook, which was a few hours away so we drove through curvy countryside with views that I can't even explain. I felt like I was riding through a giant postcard. Some of the pics I've posted we're actually taken out of the bus window and they still turned out amazing. We stayed at a rugged little campsite type thing in the middle of nowhere.....there wasn't a store for twenty miles...but we were tucked in a valley, surrounded by incredible mountain views. We went "tramping" around the Mount Cook area the next day, which ended up being about seven miles total because a few of us took the long route back. I felt like I was in five different countries at once, the geography varied so much. We crossed over long stretches of grassy valleys, with snow capped mountains on one side, giant rocky cliffs
on the other, with ice-filled glacial lakes popping up occasionally. The air felt so clean, and there were only a few other hikers on the track, so it was totally peaceful.
Our next stop was Fiordland National Park, which is, I think around 1.5 million acres of totally pristine land. We took a ferry around Milford Sound, which is def a token tour bus stop for all tourists. Even in the rain though, the views were incredible. We passed right underneath waterfall after waterfall, and just when you thought you'd seen it all, an even more intense view would pop up in the distance. All of the fiordland area we saw (the cliffs, waterfalls, rainforest area) look very Jurrassic Park-esque. I can't believe places like this really exist! We stayed at a place called Grumpy's backpackers where we had a pool table and a little group area where all of us hung out in the evenings. I don't know if Grumpy's owner is really grumpy but rumor has it that he is.
And that brings us back to queenstown, in all of its bungy-jumping, skydiving, skiing, and hang-gliding glory. Today is our first official free day of the trip....so I
took advantage and slept in a little bit (wake ups for the past week have been around seven eeek), but there are tons of things to do here so I'm going to head into town after this. We are staying at a lodge/hostel thing, and right now I'm in the reception area, getting a kick out of all the different accents I'm hearing from people checking in (german, portuguese, british, american). There's also a great big friendly black dog curled up beside me and so I'm alternating between typing and petting him. Okay so that's all for now! It should be easier for me to write more from here on out----I think the last two places were the most isolated. So glad I have you guys interested in what's going on with my travels! lots of love, jess
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Dee Anderson
non-member comment
I would stay too!!
Jess - Susan hooked me up to your blog so that I could live vicariously through your amazing journey! What do you think, is this the beginning of a lifetime of discovery? I know you're having an incredible time - enjoy every minute, and it's great that you're able to share this with everyone! Great writing, great photos! Thank you, and here's to future adventures you may choose! There are, as your aunt Susan keeps reminding me, no limits on what we can accomplish! Regards, Dee