A Day with the Aussies
On our way to New Zealand we stopped in Sydney for a long layover. After getting breakfast we walked down to the bay and we saw the Harbor Bridge and right next to it, the Opera House! The Opera House was amazing because nobody realizes that the tiles on it form a really cool pattern! Another cool thing was there were people climbing up the framework of the bridge! We then stopped at a really cool restaurant and then headed down to an awesome market. We walked through the market and found ourselves under the Sydney harbor bridge where there were old cannons that used to protect the harbor. We then worked our way to Queen Victoria building which was a cool old place that they turned into a mall. We then headed back to airport and took off for New Zealand!
Trolleys, tourist attractions, and tiredness
We came into New Zealand in Christchurch and then had breakfast and went to the Cardboard Church. It was awesome because it was made out of the equivalent of a recycling bin the size of a church! We then got cookies(yum!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!) and took a trolley tour of the city and took a quick tour of the art museum. We then drove up to the Botanic Gardens and saw the Asia Pacific tree climbing championship. After that we decided to go to the Antarctic center where we saw all the super cute penguins and got to ride in the Hageland which was the vehicle that they used to explore Antarctica. After a quick stop for awesome burgers at BurgerFuel, we drove to Timaru where we went to someone’s house where they had built an observatory in their yard. We saw the Orion Nebula, the Gem Box (an open star cluster), Omega Centauri (where two other galaxies collided) and some constellations like Scorpio, Sirius, and the Southern Cross.
In Hot (and cold) water
We started our second day in NZ with some amazing savory pies in Fairly followed by a long drive. We eventually arrived at Tekapo where we stopped at a hot tub pool and walked to a really cool lake with awesome mountains all around. We then went to Mt Cook Village, a small town that had a really cool glacier lake at the edge of the Abel Tasman Glacier. We took, with a group, a small hike to the lake and then got in a boat where we whizzed around the lake. They first took us to an awesome chunk of blue ice, which is formed underwater and can only be seen above water if it flips over. It also only stays blue for about an hour after flipping so it is a rare sight to see. It was so cool (pun intended)! We learned that 90% of an iceberg is underwater. This proves the old saying “just the tip of the iceberg”! We also saw a huge iceberg that extends 300 meters (or 900 feet or 3 football fields). Another cool fact is that as the iceberg melts, the rocks stuck inside are left on the top, protecting it from further melting. The one iceberg was so big that every time a chunk falls off it causes a tidal wave at the other end of the lake! We then finished off our day with happy hour where we had hot cocoa and tea with a perfect view of New Zealand’s highest peak- Mt. Cook, before heading to Queenstown for a pizza dinner and sleep .
WHEEEEEEEEEEEEEE
Dad and jay started off in the morning with a short but short steep walk down to Lake Wakatipu and a nice little trail. After enjoying the awesome view of the lake and the Remarkables mountain range from our apartment, we started off our adventurous stretch we drove to skippers canyon road – the 7th most dangerous road in the world- and took a crazy drive, seeing a few lord of the rings scenes and being next to a steep cliff. We then did a jet boat ride! It was so much fun! We even saw a lord of the rings scene location from the river. We think we were going like 50 mph. It turns out that one of the boat drivers was a native who’s family has been living in the canyon for 5 generations. After another precarious looking drive back to the start we finished off that tour. But, the best was yet to come. We walked over to a nice cafe for lunch and then decided to go… LUGING! We first took the gondola up to the top of a hill near Queenstown and then bought our tickets. We first had to wait in a super long line to learn how to operate the sleds but after that, we were off! We first tried the easy track and quickly realized that it really wasn’t that easy, with Bee even getting stuck and having to get out and push a little bit. After that we tried the hard course which was tons of fun but slightly harder. We then tried the scenic track again and again had tons of fun! After that we tried the harder track again and towards the end, got stuck behind some really slow tourists. Mom was stuck behind one which caused, going backwards, Jay (me), another tourist, and Bee to get stuck. Just when we thought that we would be bored for the rest of the ride Bee found a bank on one of the turns and rode it, even riding with one side on the outer bumper, to pass 4 people! On our last run we split up and got some good photos of this amazing experience. We then ate dinner and went to Cookie Time where they had cookies and safe to eat cookie dough! It was delicious!
Furg Furg Furg Furg Furg is the word!
Today we started off in arrow town to have breakfast and go to a gold mining museum with a lot of Queenstown’s history about the gold rush. For breakfast I(Bee)had a pancake stack with a ton of toppings! Jay had a classic breakfast, dad had a meat pie and mom had a gluten free eggs Benedict. The gold mining museum was pretty cool because it wasn’t all about the gold mining it was also about what life was like in the 1860’s. We had a Segway tour planned at 2:30 but it was only 11:00 so mom and dad wanted to go to a winery or 2 so we did that. Unfortunately we had to cancel our Segway tour because it was raining so we headed over to Furgburger and dad was so exited that he jumped out of the car with the key and told mom to find parking. After the delicious burgers, we went back to the house, played a couple of games, watched a movie and got to sleep. (Little Grandpop also enjoyed the views from our Air bnb.)
Can’t do that in Jersey! Even the burgers look better!