Walking on ice

While Tracy ran around Queenstown with leprochans, I had a small hiatus...the golf ball in my throat turned into a softball lined with needles lodged somewhere between my throat and my ear...simultaneously feeling like someone else was actively stabbing my left ear with a newly sharpened knife. The doctor in Queenstown vaguely called it an "infection behind the tonsil" but I knew better and knew that a small alien had taken over my glands. Tracy was kind enough to not take any photographs, since I looked vaguely like a frog mid-ribbit.

Regardless, I powered forward (with the help of antibiotics and codeine) and enjoyed EXTREME tv-watching and soup-eating on Annie's couch for a few days.

On Wednesday, after all the drugs took effect, we drove to Franz Josef, one of two major glaciers on the west coast of New Zealand, stopping along the way for the blue pools:


On the way, we also stopped at Lake Matheson, and unlike some of Tracy's posted pictures, while this one looks like it's a professional photograph, Lake Matheson is JUST that beautiful, and only looks permanently like a postcard:


In Franz Josef, we met two truly hilarious truck drivers who helped us plan the rest of our route (and tried on Tracy's jewelry):


On Thursday morning we woke up to get on a helicopter to fly near the top of the glacier, where we hiked for 2 hours. It was unbelievable- we climbed through naturally formed tunnels and caves, and experienced a hike unlike anything I've ever seen before. On the helicopter ride up, we got some nice shots:















Then on the mountain, Tracy and I strapped on our crampons and did some hiking, including scaling ice:







After the helihike, we drove to Greymouth, a small town near the north of New Zealand, stopping only for the tackiest tourist stop in New Zealand (I think that's actually their claim to fame), Pukekura, which had strange anti-possum displays:



In Greymouth, we spent the night and woke up the next morning to go to another tourist heaven, "Shantytown," where we actually panned for gold and posed for old-timey (LAME, I know, but still funny) pictures at Ye Olde Saloon (okay, it was called something else, but we spent the whole day calling everything "ye olde," so it just seems appropriate):













After Shantytown, we drove up the west coast to Nelson, stopping off at Pancake Rocks (to this day, no geologist can explain their naturally formed layers):



And in Buller Gorge we saw the longest swing bridge in New Zealand, where we took another jetboat ride and rode a short flying fox ride.

Then back to Nelson, driving right through the town of Richmond:


And we stayed in the beach "holiday park," which roughly translated as "white trash park" so of course we followed suit:




Of course we couldn't miss Abel Tasman Park:





and in Nelson we decided to take a day "off" by laying on the beach, before making Tracy cry for her mommy yet again on the Skywire, the longest of its kind in the world (if you see the small brown dot on the opposite moutain, 1.6KM away, that's where our ride brought us):


And Tracy tries to look brave, but I'm pretty sure she literally crapped her pants during the ride, which started with her screaming "SWEET MOTHER OF GOD!":


Then we hit the natural hot springs of Hanmer Springs, spent the afternoon in a spa for facials and pedicures, and drove back to Christchurch, where we'll spend the next two days before heading to rainy, cold Scotland (I mean, I'm so excited to see Scotland!!). Again, just like Thailand, so sad to see it end, but I've wanted to see Scotland for ages, so Tracy and I are both pretty psyched to spend a week there, seeing both my parents who will join us in Edinburgh and Tracy's family in both Edinburgh and Dumfries.

- Posted by Katie