We drove to Glenorchy, named one of the most beautiful drives in the world. The drive is all around Lake Wakatipu, the large lake along which Queenstown is set. Here are a few of the places we stopped along the way for pictures.
These bright yellow flowers cover the landscape of New Zealand!
This was at Twelve Mile Delta, along Lake Wakatipu.
This dock was in Glenorchy.
This is Pig Island and Pigeon Island, in the middle of Lake Wakatipu.
The second day we were able to ride up the mountain on the gondola, called the "Skyline" here, and did the luge, like an alpine slide in the states. The views were breathtaking, and the luge incredibly fun. That was a highlight for the kids!
Another day we did the world famous "Shotover Jet Boat Ride." Everyone you talk to who has ever been to Queenstown talks about this ride. And it surely lives up to it's reputation! Such a thrilling ride, the boats hold about 14 people and go VERY fast through a narrow canyon through the Shotover River. You get very close to the sides of the canyon, and they do several 360 degree turns as well. You must wear rain coats and life vests, and you definitely get wet! We all went on the first ride, and then they make the second ride so inexpensive that you can't pass up another ride. I didn't do the second ride so that I could take some good pictures. You can tell from the pics how much fun everyone was having!
You can see how narrow the canyon was!
Our final full day in Queenstown, we took a tour of one of the many Sounds along the west coast of New Zealand. We drove our rental car two hours to Lake Manapouri, caught a boat ride across the lake, got on a bus to take us over a pass, and finally boarded a cruise through Doubtful Sound. It was a very long day of travel! But the views through the sound were amazing. Taking the boat through very steep high cliffs that were created by glaciers was a truly incredible experience. As you can imagine, Ethan took "just a few" pictures. Here is a small sample.
It was a little windy!
We saw some dolphins swimming through the sound!
There was also a fur seal colony on a few rocks just inside the sound, close to the Tasman Sea.
We were thrilled to see a couple of penguins left on this rock! They had found 23 penguin nests on this rock earlier this year, but our captain thought that they were all gone by now. Coming back into the sound we found this mom and baby penguin posing for us!
The trip was definitely a highlight of our experience down here. New Zealand is one of the most beautiful places I have ever seen. There was so much undeveloped, beautiful landscape. It's very unlike anything in the US, where coastline is all developed fully!
So we are on back in Sydney and in our final week here. Ethan is finishing up things with work, we are beginning to pack, and doing our final things here in the city. We are excited to be home for Christmas and get back into our busy, hectic schedules. But the time here we have had has been the time of our lives, so many experiences that we will hold dear for the rest of our lives. To unplug from the craziness of our lives was nice, but we did of course realize that there is no place like home!
