South Island cont.

Day 3: We got to go to Milford Sound. This is a massive fiord (a valley cut by glaciers) within the fiordland national park of NZ. It is stunning and seriously pictures don't do it justice. It is about a 4 hour drive from Qtown, so we opted for a plane flight over southern alps to a boat to cruise throught the sound. So stunning. After our flight and cruise, we drove to Mt. Cook/Aoraki just in time to see the tallest mountain in NZ by sunset.

Day 4: We hiked around to Mt. Cook base to get a closer look at the massive mountain. Then later that day we took these kayaks on a glacial lake and over to icebergs and the glaciers terminal face, or where the glacier ends. They also had this museum on Sir Edmund Hilary, who is a kiwi and was one of the first 2 people to ever climb Mt Everest.
Day 5: Today we had to drive 6 hours to the other side of the mountain (literally only 15 miles from where we were) so we could play on some of the only glaciers in the world that are still growing. On the way, we stopped in Wanaka at Puzzle World to play in a human maze. It is really amazing how the west side of the mountains is like a rainforest while the east side is more like farm land. Day 6: I think this day was everyones favorite. We took a helicopter up the Fox Glacier and hiked around it for a few hours. We found some awesome ice caves to crawl through and the glacier terrain is unreal. Day 7: We went 15 km down the road to the Franz Joseph glacier and hiked to the terminal face, well as close as we could get. These massive glaciers move so quickly. I think they said around 2 meters a day, which is like 6 ft. We got back in the car for another 6 hr drive over Arthurs pass to Christchurch. This was a really pretty drive through the northern part of the alps. Day 8: This morning we were up at 4am to be picked up and go on a hot air balloon. I have always had a fear them, like we would get blown into a crazy mountain side or go way to high and the basket would break or something totally crazy. I dont know why, but the whole time I was silently freakin out. It was really amazing and the views were incredible. We had the largest balloon in all NZ and the 5th in the world. It was massive. I dont know why but I always thought of them like slightly bigger birthday balloons. Good to know its a bit more sophisticated than that.

Day 9: We spent the day in Christchurch, which isnt as cool as Queenstown, but still a beautiful city. Our flight back to Auckland was today and my families flight home so we relaxed as much as possible.

The End...well of that leg of the trip