Mt. Cook National Park - Part 1, the hike

So for our second destination in New Zealand, we ventured to the Mt. Cook National Park, which is part of the Southern Alps range that runs the length of the South Island and contains the highest mountain in New Zealand - Mt. Cook. It's also interesting to note that approximately 40% of the park is made up of the 72 named glaciers that are still moving, melting, and evolving the landscape around the area. As a matter of fact, 70% of the entire country's electricity is supplied by the water running off of the glaciers! Maybe I'm a complete dork, but I thought that was fascinating.

When arriving at the park, you only have two choices of where to stay - The Hermitage, a luxury hotel or campgrounds at the base of the mountains. Now, I'm not the campy type, so this was one accomodation decision that was very easy for us! Here is a view from our window on to our balcony and beyond:


Day 1 was primarily spent on the balcony of the hotel bar, drinking local beers and playing Uno. I maintained my lead but was punished for this with my disappointing food experience. You see, I need a good bowl of mac & cheese at least once a week to keep me happy. I had yet to see one on a menu until the hotel bar pulled through with a glorius offering of fresh baked mac & cheese. The excitement that built up in that 15 minutes of waiting was nearly too much for body to handle. The disappointment that took over when they brought it out to me with chunks of ham in it was almost enough to make me leave the God forsaken country and come back to America, where we know the value of purist Mac & cheese. Anyway, they couldn't make it without the meat and I had to sustain myself on beer, salad, and fries.

Day 2 started out with a hike up to the Terminal Lake of the Tasman Glacier. The hike itself was a 3 hour easy hike with a few steep climbs with a lot of photo ops. A couple of things to note when looking through these: 1) I hate bridges, 2) I didn't come with appropriate hiking clothing (mainly b/c I don't OWN appropriate hiking clothes) - so jeans and a top I wear to bed had to suffice. In the first picture I had just come over the edge of a hill and noticed what was going to be the death of me in approximately 10 minutes. Cassidy laughed and said he had noticed it quite a while ago but neglected to tell me just so he could relish the very moment when I did finally see it on my own. See how happy he is crossing the bridge? Me, not so much.









All finished with the hike! I was so happy not to have any more bridges to cross (there were 4 crossings in total) and excited to head back for a much deserved rest and some food! However, the universe had other plans in store for us... on to Part 2.

The drive to Mt. Cook

Alright, so I have not quite been on the ball when it comes to blogging - BUT WAIT! I have plenty of excuses, good excuses. You see we had the arrival of our wedding pictures (which consumed about 2 entire days of my life), Christmas festivities, winter illnesses, and my favorite part - 5 little 5 week old kittens that moved into our home temporarily and after about 2 minutes with them, into my heart permanently. I'll do a blog on those little buggers a bit later.

For now, let's just go through some highlights of our 4ish hour drive from Christchurh to Mt. Cook. Cassidy and I were both extremely excited to be heading further south and away from city life so that we could catch a glimpse of the much talked about natural beauty of the New Zealand countryside. It didn't take long before we were driving along curvy roads weaving through green hills that elevated up into snow-capped mountains. And the sheep! My God, the sheep! It's unreal how many there are. Below are some random shots we took along the way:





A highlight of the trip was Lake Tekapo. It is a lake that feeds from the glaciers and is the bluest blue that I have ever seen. The pictures below were not edited at all, this is the actual color of the water! The church in the picture is the Church of the Good Shepard. It is a teeny tiny little chapel that stands alone on a hill looking out across fields of flowers towards Lake Tekapo. We spent a while just walking along the waterfront, enjoying the views, and checking out the wildflowers that grow everywhere in New Zealand. They are beautiful! Oh, and I found a very large bumblebee and followed him around to try to get a good picture of him. It seems that Cassidy had never seen a bumblebee before because he kept telling me "that is not a bee!" due to the very large size of it. I assured him that yes, this is a bumblebee...but I don't think he ever came around to believing me.

Next post - Mt. Cook!

Christchurch, New Zealand

Our second honeymoon destination was Christchurch, New Zealand. After our midnight arrival and the discovery that the rental car company was nowhere to be found, nor was the car that we were told would be parked and ready to go - we just took a taxi to our B&B. A bit tired and sufficiently aggravated about the rental car, we were thrilled when we pulled up to the historic manor that would be our home for the next 2 nights. It was built in 1861and it was beautiful, both inside and out!

The next morning we walked through the city's Botanical Gardens, which were actually quite impressive (well, as impressive as trees and flowers can be). Granted, Cassidy and I aren't really the types to stay in the gardens for hours on end and ponder the species of trees...but every so often we do stop to smell the roses and take a picture or two. Below are pics of a black swan that lived on the river that ran through the gardens. He caught me taking his photo and came over to where I was, presumably b/c he wasn't all that into me hanging around his family. However, I got a good pic of his red bill and eyes (then ran away)!


We then headed toward Cathedral Square to see the namesake cathedral - "Christ Church". The town square was an interesting mix of older, more detailed buildings and a whole lot of buildings built in the 70's and lacking of any character. I think Cassidy and I have been spoiled by the beautiful architecture of cities like Prague, Paris, and Rome because we spent a little bit of time taking it all in but then ultimately decided our time would be better spent with a meal and some cocktails. We did end up having some of the very best Indian food we have ever tried that night. So if any of you ever go to Christchurch (I'm sure you've been inspired by my yawnfest post), go to Himalayas on Colombo street!




The next morning we picked up our rental car and started our 4 hour drive toward Mt. Cook! Stay tuned for some beautiful views like you have never seen before! Unless, of course, you have been to New Zealand.

Cairns, Australia

Day 1 of our honeymoon started with out midnight arrival into Cairns, Australia. From the first gust of fresh air that hit our faces, we knew we were in for a very hot and very humid couple of days!

We woke up bright and early the next morning, ready to hit the ground running. Then we walked outside...and turned right around to head back into our air conditioned room. It was in the 80's at about 80% humidity - and it was only 9 AM! The first day ended up being a day of relaxing at the B&B, which had a small pool and a parrot named Chook to keep us entertained while we adjusted to tropical temperatures and a new time zone.



The next morning, after drinking our weight in liquids and coating ourselves in sunblock, we boarded a boat that would take us out to the Great Barrier Reef where we had a full day of snorkeling as well as our first introductory scuba dive. We were instructed to put on "jelly suits" - which turned out to be a full body wetsuit that protected you from jellyfish, since they were floating around the areas where we were diving. After suiting up, it was a full day of swimming, floating, diving, and me staring at the horizon every time our boat was on the move. Turns out as I get older my body is not a fan of boats. It was an incredible experience and we both really liked scuba and the additional things that you can see when you are able to dive deeper and not have to worry about where your next breath is coming from! Not suprisingly, my favorite part was a huge fish named Wally that comes to the diving site daily and actually loves attention! I was able to "pet" him (can you pet a fish??). Below are pics of us and some of the pictures we took while snorkeling/diving. The one with a head and a fish is Wally and myself:























Our 3rd, and final full day, in Cairns started with a scenic train trip up to the rainforest at Kuranda where there was a wildlife park, bird park, butterfly house, and a small village with a mix of art galleries, junk stores, and aboriginial stores (complete with aboriginies out front playing some tunes).



It was here that I was able to hold a koala. Many of you heard my premeditated plan of getting one and running with it, but all of those plans went out the window due to the fact it was an effort to keep myself walking out in the heat, let alone try to run with a 20+ lb koala. So I had to settle for holding one and really, it was everything I thought it would be. As you will see in the photos below, I was very excited to get him in my arms!





After we cooled off at a local pub, we jumped into our cable car that hung very high above the rainforest canopy and began the descent that took just about an hour! I was terrified b/c it didn't feel very stable and we were very, very high in the air. There were many bumps and strange noises along the way which freaked me out for the duration of the ride. However, the conversation for the entire ride down went something like this:
Cassidy - "Want to make out?"
Amanda - "Stop talking, you are shaking the car"
Cassidy - "Oh we can shake the car"
Amanda - "Seriously, shut up, I'm trying to focus on breathing"
Cassidy - "How about I move to the other side of this car?" (thinking it is funny)
Amanda - "How about a divorce if you don't Shut Up?"
Cassidy - "If we make out I'll stop talking"
...so on and so forth.... Here are some views from the ride down:




The rest of our time in Cairns was spent around the house chatting with Chook (yes, he could talk), other guests and Joanna, the woman running the B&B. The next day we woke up and headed to the airport to board our flight to Christchurch, New Zealand!

Also, the picture below is possibly my favorite picture of the entire honeymoon!