Of travel, I've had my share, man. I've been everywhere. (Part 2)

I'm not gonna lie, before I went to Australia, I was pretty ignorant. I had no idea the size of Australia, I didn't know about its proximity to the Philippines and I had no idea of New Zealand's location compared to Australia. Turns out, its to the southeast of Australia, right smack dab in the middle of "coolest-place-ever-ville". New Zealand is prettier than the movies show and definitely more fun. I didn't see any hobbits, dwarves or Legolas, which was pretty disappointing, but my trip definitely made up for it. So, to continue from my last post...

On Wednesday, April 13th, I woke up in my hostel, packed my things, and then caught my flight to Queenstown, NZ via Christchurch, NZ. I flew Air New Zealand for the first time, and it was actually pretty nice. I got bumped up to business class, so I had a larger seat, movies, and a meal for a four hour flight. It was a pretty sweet set-up. After my VIP flight, I landed in Queenstown, and I was already super excited/super nervous. There's just something about being in a different country that changes the way you look at things. I got into a cab, which was driven by a really nice guy named Spud (not making that up), and then I had a really nice drive into Queenstown. 

Views like this tend to make drives pretty fun.

Queenstown is a small resort town on the edge of a huge lake, surrounded by mountains. It is one of the most picturesque places you could ever see and it made my mouth drop every time I walked outside. As far as the town goes, Queenstown was a typical resort town, with a lot of shops and retailers selling outdoor gear, trips/packages and cheap nick-nacks. The town itself wasn't anything special, but the views were extraordinary, and you could do any extreme sport or outdoor activity imaginable out of Queenstown. You could jetboat, skydive, cave dive, tight-rope, ride ATVs, ride horses, canyon swing, hang-glide, para-glide, fish, hike, bla blah blah. It was crazy. I would eventually stay in Queenstown for longer, but I was only there for one night my first time being there.

The next morning, I hopped on a bus with 14 other people and took a curvy, mountain road up to Fox Glacier. My driver was apparently training for NASCAR, because we didn't go slower than 30 mph the entire time and I'm pretty sure he pulled the E-brake and smoked the tires a few times. On top of the fact that I was in the back of a van that was being driven by a man who must have shotgunned five Mountain Dews before we left, it was super cloudy and raining with an intense fog, which is pretty depressing weather. It was even more depressing because I was headed to Fox Glacier, where the only things they have to do are all outside.

Bleh...makes you want to kick something.

So I was carsick, wet, alone and headed to a place where I thought I was going to have the rare luxury of sitting in my room for three days. I wasn't a happy kid.

But it all turned out better than I thought! Even though it was still raining when I made it my hostel, I had booked a single room for two out of the three nights I was there, so I didn't have to worry about sleeping in the same room as anyone else. Also, the hostel had a hot tub! Hot tubs make all of your problems go away. Fact. I spent a lot of time in that hot tub the next few days; is was actually outside, with a tent over the top, so you had great views of the mountains and plains while you were chilling in the hot tub.

Would you believe me if I said I took this picture from the hot tub?

I walked around town and took a lot of pictures. The fog was actually really pretty, flowing through the mountains and making the landscape seem very eerie. Fox Glacier wasn't so bad after all. While I was in Fox Glacier, I had made plans to skydive (you can't imagine how excited I was for skydiving) and trekking on the glacier know as the, wait for it, Fox Glacier. Spoiler alert, my plans didn't turn out this way, but I still had a great time!

The first day, I was supposed to go on the glacier trek, but when I woke up, it was an absolutely gorgeous day! The clouds had completely burned off, so it was a perfect day for skydiving. Knowing that days like this don't come very often, I jumped on the chance, switched my glacier trek to the next day and went out to go find the skydiving guys so I could jump out of a perfectly good airplane 12,000 feet in the air. That was a poor choice, as it turns out the skydive blokes had the day off. So, to sum up, I had postponed my trek in favor of something that I couldn't do. I now had a free day with nothing planned. So what do I do when I have nothing else going on? I take a walk.

Oooh.

Aaah.

Those are pictures of Mt. Tasman and Mt. Cook. Mt. Cook is pretty much covered by the clouds, but they are two of the tallest mountains in New Zealand, and the Fox Glacier is formed in their crevices and valleys. It was a perfect day for a walk, mid-60s, sunny, with a gentle breeze. I was walking towards Lake Matheson, one of the most photographed spots in New Zealand and, so they claim, the world. 

There claims seems to make sense.

If you Google 'Lake Matheson', you'll find gazillions of pictures that are better than mine, but most of them will be of the same general thing; the Lake is very famous for being able to perfectly reflect the mountains behind it. Go check out the other pictures, some of them are incredible.

This picture is also incredible, but mainly because I'm in it.

Lake Matheson was a very quiet, peaceful and (obviously) very still place. After my walk around the lake, I chilled at the tourism center and then walked the four miles back to the town. On the walk back, I was facing the mountains the entire time, which made for an amazing four miles. My first day in Fox Glacier, which I thought would either by rainy or foggy and dismal, turned into a beautiful day with a great walk around a beautiful lake.

My next day was the day of the glacier trek. Not surprisingly, I woke up to absolutely pouring rain, and, not surprisingly, I woke up to not being very happy. Luckily, the tour guides outfitted us with a lot of rainproof gear, and the rain turned to a mere drizzle a few minutes after we left the guide shack. We drove the ten minutes to the foot of the glacier, put on all of our gear, and then headed up the glacier.

Looks cold, don't it?

Part of our gear was crampons. It is a strange feeling, walking with crampons, but it soon became very natural. They have 1-inch long spikes, so you have to raise your feet higher when you walk and place your feet flat on the ground when you step. But they are amazingly sturdy, it’s like you’re Spiderman; you put your foot wherever you want and you stick to it like glue. The hike was pretty cool. We were able to climb through some tunnels, over the ridges and even down into some pretty deep crevices.

I never actually got out of here. I'm writing this blog from the bottom of this hole. 

Being on something that old and that massive is an incredible feeling. It was a long day of hiking and definitely an experience I won't forget. That evening, I packed my things and got ready for the next day's travel back to Queenstown, which would be pretty unforgettable, as well. It was unforgettable, no only because I had the same NASCAR driver as before, but because I got to see Lake Hawea! I didn't get my camera out in time, but if you are ever just happen to be in the area of middle of nowhere southern island New Zealand, be sure to have your camera ready, cause it is going to be worth it. This is the second time I've told you to Google something, but it is definitely worth. Lake Hawea is un.be.lievable.

We finally made it back to Queenstown, where I grabbed some dinner, then crashed at my hostel for the night. The next day, I was scheduled to go skydiving and hang-gliding, so it was going to be a big day. Unfortunately, just like the rest of my trip, the next day didn't exactly go as planned.

I woke up the next morning to beautiful weather, and I was pumped when I was walking to the skydiving office, but when I got there, they said that there were too many clouds in the upper atmosphere for us to be able to skydive safely. So, we had to postpone my flight for later in the morning. To make a long story short, I ended up postponing my flight four more times before the weather was deemed safe enough to dive. It was  a very, very long morning and I was pretty anxious the entire time. Skydiving was the one thing that I had really wanted to do, and it kept looking like I wasn't going to be able to do it. But, finally, the weather cleared, and I found myself signing forms and waivers and driving to the landing site. 

Skydiving is a very cool thing, regardless of where you do it. But skydiving in New Zealand definitely has its perks.

Look at the size of those peaks, er, perks.

Falling from 15,000 feet with that view was absolutely amazing. I can't describe a bigger rush or thrill or more beautiful experience. Your brain has absolutely no chance at comprehending what is happening to you, so you just let it all happen and then figure out what the heck just happened once you have landed. Definitely one of the best things about my trip. If you have the chance to skydive, totally do it. Do it, do it, do it! Also, do it in a place that takes your breath away. Flying to New Zealand to skydive may seem a bit superfluous and rash, but you'll be okay with it once your falling at 125 mph at those mountains. 

It was a day of ups-and-downs (that's a pun for skydiving, ha!). Skydiving was most definitely an up, but then it was time to hang-glide, and suddenly the day started to turn down. The guy that owned the hang-gliding company literally ran the business out of the back of his van. No joke, he had no office or storefront, he ran everything out of his old, beat-up van. 

Bad first impression, mate.

So I wasn't overly impressed to start out with. Things started looking up though, because after we drove up the mountain to get to the launch point, I was rewarded with this view.

Oh yeah, the day's getting better.

However, the good feelings died down, after we ended up waiting, strapped into the hang-gliders, for two hours for the wind to pick up. You see, without wind, "hang-gliding" turns into "fall-dying" pretty quickly. So, without wind, we weren't going anymore. Again, a long story short, two hours of standing later, we unbuckled from the gliders and drove back down the mountain. Not exactly the most exhilarating time ever, but the view was good, so there's a silver lining for ya.

It was my last day in New Zealand, and it was a great one, even despite the lack of hang-gliding. Skydiving tends to make your days good no matter what else you do. Overall, New Zealand was unforgettable. By far, it was the prettiest place I have ever been. I have been to individual locations that are as pretty or maybe even prettier, but in New Zealand, everywhere you go will take your breath away. I firmly believe that there is not an ugly part of New Zealand, which, unfortunately, can't be said for the USA (looking at you, Iowa.)

Going to New Zealand was definitely one of the best decisions I made while I was on my trip, and if you ever get the chance to travel to New Zealand, jump on it as soon as you can. Unfortunately, I had to leave the great country of New Zealand and fly back to Melbourne, Australia, and then fly back home. It was a great two weeks of traveling around Australia and New Zealand, and it was sad to leave both countries, but I was very excited to get back home. I was already missing living as an Aussie, and I was already planning when I would go back, but there's just no place like home.