South Island Part 2

We arrived in Queenstown and had a place to stay for free. We had picked up four guys that were hitch hiking back home after doing this few day backpacking trip called the Routeburn. It starts in Queenstown and takes you over the hills into the next valley. We thought it looked like a cool trail so we decided to do it the next day. Most people do it in three days. My father and I decided to charge it through and were done in a day and a half. Probable the most beautiful hike I have ever done. You go way up into the alpine regions and hike near huge alpine lakes and along all these ridge lines with snow just above you.

After Queenstown we headed more up the west coast to the glacier areas.  The two biggest glaciers in New Zealand are called Fox and Franz Josef. I have never been in a helicopter so I thought this would be the perfect place to splurge and ride in one over the glaciers. I also picked a perfect day and the mountains werent covered in clouds like usual. We even got to land on top of the mountains and walk around. My dad decided to not spend the money and go but I totally thought it was worth it!

The next day I went ice climbing at fox glacier for 8 hours. Man it was insane. I have been wanting to ice climb for so long!! It was for sure a dream come true. I cant wait to take my skills back to California.

South Island of NZ pt 1

Sorry guys I really have gotten terrible at updating this thing....
So on Jan 16th my dad, my friend Alex and I got on the ferry to the south island! The ferry ride by the way is so beautiful. You cross the cook strait which is crazy windy (thank god we weren't sailing through it on our boat) and than you come into Good Charlotte Sound. All these beautiful forested little islands surround you for and hour and half.
After we go there we headed down the east coast towards Christchurch and stopped at a few places to surf along the way. Most beautiful backgrounds for surfing I have ever seen. We than headed inland towards our first glacier experiences and ended up at Mt. Cook. We went on this amazing hike that ended with a huge lake with glaciers floating in it and snow capped mountains all around us. We hung out there for awhile and than had to head back to Christchurch to drop off my friend Alex so he could head back to the USA

After Christchurch we headed down to the very South and over to the South West to the famous Milford Sound. The only downfall to NZ is these little things called Sand Flys and their bites are super painful and you itch for weeks. Milford Sound has tons of them. The Maori legend says that a Goddess greated them because she was afraid the people would come there and never leave because its so beautiful. She created the Sand Flys to remind the people they are mortal. The places really is amazing. Its all forest and protected. When it rains the mountains sides spill out hundreds of waterfalls all over. Next we headed to Queens
town. Home of extreme sporters.