Day 4

This morning the van picked Eva’s best friend and me up at 8:30 in the morning to take us to the stables. On the way, we picked up more passengers including a few Bay area Californians. One of them knew Chase Crewdson one of my classmates from kindergarten to high school.

Once we arrived, we did our paperwork first. Our trip was the longest and needed to be started as fast as possible.

We soon meet the other riders, a guy from England who did competitive jumping and had helped with retraining racehorses for pleasure riding and two people from Connecticut who owned their own trail horses.

Our trip was rather flat and uneventful, but we had a few challenging rides. One of them was going across a wide and deep fast moving river. The Water reached the bottom of the horses barrels. To the point were our feet if not elevated would get wet. The water was so fast. That we had to direct the horses into the current to get across the river, and the point were we exited was further down the river than the point that we entered.

I rode a horse called Omar, a sweet yet grumpy black ex stunt horse. We had a lot of fun. While not super responsive to my leg. He was really good and walk canter transitions when he had to catch up with the herd. Also, he had a nice comfortable canter and trot.

A polluter as well, he urinated in a wonderfully clean stream.

Supposedly, our trip was following the path of Saruman’s army in The Lord of the Rings but I couldn’t really tell even after I saw all three movies again. However, I enjoyed the scenery and the ride.

By the end of my three and a half ride, my ass was killing me.

That night we went out to Fergberger, the most popular burger restaurant in Christchurch to eat.  We stopped for desert at a local gelato. It was then off to The world Bar. A bar where mixed drinks are served in teacups. Later that night there was a live band. Dancing with Eva, I had a blast.

Tomorrow, it is bungee jumping.

Milford Sound part II

Days three’s excitement occurred during the end of our cruse of the Milford Sound.

That morning the cruise traveled out of the sound into the high seas. The bow raised and crashed down with each wave. For fun, barefoot, I traveled to the bow with my camera. When the bow crashed down I enjoyed the short feeling of falling. At that time I was the only one out on the bow. Everyone else, mostly German tourists, observing through the windows of the captains  cabin. According to a civil engineer from Scotland and his wife, they were laughing at me for going to the bow and getting wet. However, once he and his wife had gone there he could see why. The view, much more up close and personal than the captain’s cabin. The German tourists were also commenting on how big the waves were, they were quickly corrected by the captain who said waves could get a whole lot bigger than the 5m they were currently at.

Turning around back into the ound we quickly retraced our root back to the dock.

The rest of the trip that day was an uneventful buss ride. We ended our day in Queenstown. Passing time till dinner I went window shopping down town.

I had dinner with Stephan, Mica, Eva and all of the other German tourists in our tour group. We cooked spaghetti and tomato sauce.

Later that night we traveled downtown to Minus 5 Degrees. A bar in an industrial freezer with ice statues of motorcycles and unicorns and benches were everyone wears UGG boots and coats. It cost us approximately twenty dollars to get in with one free drink and five dollars for any extra drink order.

I happily enjoyed two martinies

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After a short pole dancing routine, I went to sleep early horseback ridding tomorrow.

Milford Sound part 1

From the lodge in the woods we traveled by bus to the Milford Sound. On the way I got to experience my first temperate rain forest, mirror lakes, and random tourist shops.

Our first stop was a fruit stand where you could buy homemade candies and dried fruits along with ice cream in which they mix in your favorite fruits.

Next, we stopped for gas where I bought a leather Australian hat. It was a lot nicer than the one I bought in England. It had thicker higher quality leather and plastic instead of number 8 wire for the brim support.

Lunch consisted of a venison pie at another tourist stop. The view over the lake was amazing, even with the clouds.

It was also rainy

The rain obscured the Mirror Lakes a bit, however we still got the idea.

The temperate rain forests of New Zealand are grown on only a few inches of soil over rock. Therefore, to stay on they intertwine their root systems to scale the steep mountain sides. This leaves all the empty spaces  perfect locations for waterfalls.

We then traveled through a hand made tunnel through the mountains to the other side to Mission Impossible music.

At the other side we stopped for a short walk through the forest were we saw some amazing stone formations.

I think the rock formations are amusing, the three holes in the rock remind me of an imperial scout helmet.

After our short walk, we arrived at our accommodations the Milford Wanderer.

Our room approximately and eight by five foot room was shared my three people, Mica, Christina and me. It also gave us a low level view of the water.

The Milford Sound while wet was beautiful. The waterfalls were in full swing. We experienced strong winds and close views of seals and penguins. We saw the  penguins, while kayaking around the sound, therefore I did not bring my camera in fear that it would get seriously wet. It was chilly. Especially since, I was only wearing my bathing suit.

Later I jumped from the top deck of the ship to go swimming

The water was freezing.

That night our dinner was crackling, pork, mashed sweet potatoes and green beans. We stayed up late playing connect four and due to my swimming experience I enjoyed two shots of Red Label whiskey.

Day 1 Topdeck Tour

Day 1 Topdeck Tour

Topdeck picked me up at 7:30 am. Immediately I meet people. Mica from Germany and Christine from Canada were the first. They had met each other that night. There were four other Germans to start with. Stephan, a social worker, his partner and Eva and her friend were next and two Americans, one from New Jersey. The other two girls were from Mexico.

We first traveled to a farm were we had a lovely fresh tea break filled with fresh scones, sausage rolls and cookies, followed by lamb feeding and my third sheering demonstration. As a gift, we were all given dog whistles. Hard to get a hang on we looked like idiots as we tried to make noise. I did figure it out by the third day.

Next we traveled to lake Pukaki and lake Tekapo both were a beautiful light blue, apparently caused by particles carried by the glaciers.

At the lake Tekapo village we had lunch. Thanks to my previous night with Max, and his gang I had lunch pre-made. In the village we met a Newfoundland dog with a very diplomatic personality.

The last place we visited before we arrived at our first accommodations was the Mount Cook village, literally a museum and hotel rolled into one. The museum was going over the history of mountaineering and of Sir Edmund Hillary, who was the first to reach the top of Mount Cook.

Our first accommodation, a skiing lodge during the winter, was a nice introduction to travel. While not a fancy hotel,, bunk beds and twins only. The food was simple but acceptable. A slightly bland yet well made lasagna with green salad, balsamic vinaigrette dressing. Dessert was a lovely chocolate brownie with wiped cream.

Later that night we went on a walk were I got to practice some spanish and got to divert a small stream.