Te Anau

The next day, we headed for Te Anau (pronounced Tea-Anoo which I didn't know. Ignorant tourist). However, before we left we ate at Fergburger again and we tried the Southern Swine and Chief Wiggum.











Te Anau is a small town with a country feel. It is a nice stop if you are visiting Milford Sound otherwise it would be a 5hr journey from Queenstown. There really wasn't much to do there apart from visiting the bird enclosure. They nursed wounded native birds and kept them in the enclosure until they healed before being released back into the wild. The takahē was the cutest bird ever! It had this gorgeous blue gradient colour on its body and was so round! I really like animals that have a high volume to surface area ratio. For example wombats have a special place in my heart.







On our way to dinner, I saw a baby Alpaca inside a yarn store and naturally I ventured in. It was only 2 days old and it was super cute and also super soft! The owner of the Yarn store and the alpaca was lovely and I ended up buying two balls of white alapaca wool. I am excited to knit my scarf now. On a side note, I always seem to be knitting scarves in the middle of summer. For dinner, we ate at a local fish and chip store (Mainly Seafood) and my sister had a chat with the owner who was just so friendly. Too friendly.






LP is an amazing drink!

Queenstown

Our next destination was Queenstown. Queenstown is probably one of the most well known cities in New Zealand as it is marketed as the "Adventure Capital of New Zealand". But more on that in a bit.

On the drive, we took a rest stop in Tarras and met a motorcycle group that was touring the South Island which was really cool.












We also stopped at Cromwell for fresh fruit and I saw so many varities of plums and peaches that I had never seen before. We left with 3kg worth of cherries and 3kg of this special plum.








Queentown was super windy as a storm was brewing and the city felt odd. Just a little too gimicky. Sort of like the feeling that I had in Amterdam, except that was restricted more to certain areas of the city. Left right and centre, someone was selling you sky diving or bungee jumping or white water rafting. It was just ... too much.





A visit to Queenstown necessitated a visit to the famous Fergburger. We split a Sweet Bambi and a Fergburger with cheese. It wasn't a long wait for the burger considering the sheer volume of orders and there must have been around 9 people in the small kitchen area. I liked Sweet Bambi burger better than the other one since I really liked the sauce that ccompanied the deer patty.

Tramping in Hooker Valley

Hiking in New Zealand is called tramping and today was the day that we would be tramping in Hooker Valley. Mature.It was a 5 hr return walk and the most popular track in the National Park. We crossed three swing bridges and saw the mountains from every single angle.






It was incredible to see the ice on the mountain (it looked blue too! I am guessing from the glaciers) and a somewhat enjoyable walk. My only issue was that since it was a walk through the valley between the mountains predominately, there was a lot of rock/ gravel to walk on which became incredibly tiring as you constantly had to stabilise yourself.






Iceberg.








View from the room.

We returned back to our accommodation with nothing to do and I spent the remainder of the day watching terrible tv and skyping.

Mount Cook & Lake Tekapo

On the second day (the very first full day) we headed for Mount Cook via Lake Tekapo. I have to admit that I don't have too much experience with highways in Australia (perhaps I get confused with motorways) but the highways that connected all the cities in New Zealand seemed quite small. They were always just one lane.









When we left Christchurch, it was incredibly overcast and a little chilly compared to Sydney weather. However, by the time we reached Lake Tekapo, the skies had cleared and it was a brilliant blue with no clouds. The colour of the lake was incredible! My photos do not capture the aqua coloured water. This lake (and in fact most of the lakes) are this colour due to the glaciers and the particles that settle in the water.









After a very long, but scenic drive, we arrived at Mt Cook and our accommodation which was incredibly shit considering it cost $150 / night. We were exhausted and with the little time we had left in the day, we to the lookout for the glaciers which was very underwhelming. But the view of the valley was breathtaking. I am sure it was used in a battle scene for Lord of the Rings (along with probably almost every single city in New Zealand).