New Zealand and a bit of Taiwan!

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Wednesday, December 24^th I boarded the plane to spend Christmas break in New Zealand with Angie!!! I flew from Taipei to Hong Kong to Auckland and finally to Queenstown (which is in the South Island) making it a full 24 hours of traveling. I arrived about noon on Christmas day (Thursday) and Angie did not fly in until Saturday, so I had some time to explore on my own first. I made it to my hotel which had a spectacular view and then walked back into town to start exploring. I sat on the beach for awhile to soak up the nice sunny warm Christmas day. I watched several street performers and ended up being a part of the final act of a magician show. The magician had asked for a volunteer and the little girl beside me was raising her hand so I was gesturing towards her so that she would get called on, instead he choose me. I had to go up front and position myself just so and try to throw a playing card on top of the roof of a building. He got the audience to start clapping to give me some encouragement. After I threw it, he said I did such a great job that he was going to give me 20 dollars. When I started walking away he said “don’t you want to trade that for anything?” Of course I said no and then he said, “Don’t you want to trade that for a watch?” I looked down at my wrist and sure enough he had taken my watch at some point and I had no idea haha. He did end up throwing the playing card on top of the building which was rather impressive.

Then next day I had to switch hotels. I walked around town for a bit and had Fergburger, a famous burger joint, for lunch. I ate it on the beach with a couple from Bangkok that I met waiting in line for the Fergburger. That’s one thing that I love about traveling is meeting random people and hearing about their traveling stories! After lunch I walked around the city gardens and found a skate park. I went back to the hotel about midday to make use of the pool and soak up the sun a bit and ended up falling asleep outside at the pool. I had dinner in town again and had an early night to bed as I was a bit jet lagged and tired.

The next day (Saturday) I met Angie in the hotel lobby. It was so nice to see her again and we had a great time together!!! Once she got settled into the hotel sans her check bag (it was stuck in the states yet) we headed into town for lunch and to walk around a bit. That night we took the gondola ride up to the top of the mountain to watch a Kiwi Haka performance done by the Maori (one of the indigenous tribes in New Zealand). We had a bit of time before the performance so we had a snack and enjoyed the view. The performance was short, but very well done. They sang and danced and told us some details about the Maori. At one point the asked for volunteers and I got to go on stage to learn a dance. After the performance we rode the gondola back down to town and went to the Ice Bar. This is a bar where everything is made out of ice, the bar itself, the chairs, tables, and cups. They provide parkas, boots, and gloves before you go inside. The temperature was set at -7.4˚C which is about 19˚F. It was a lot of fun, but they only allow you to stay inside for about 30 minutes before the next group of people goes inside.

On Sunday we had a bus ride to Glenorchy where we saw some famous Lord of the Rings film sites and other sites for many movies and advertisements (including Coors Light and Milka). Next we took a short nature walk before getting on the jet ski/boat where we were able to see more of the Dart River area. The bus brought us back to Queenstown and then we met up with the Nomads safari group who gave us a tour of the The Remarkables (a famous mountain range in Queenstown that was also used in the Lord of the Rings movies), Arrowtown, and the surrounding area. We saw people bungy jump off the bridge between a canyon, but thought we would save that for the next time haha (not really)! We also took the 4D jeep in the river to see more of the area and try our luck at panning for gold. Unfortunately, we did not strike it big with any gold, but it was fun to try. We were dropped off in town with just enough time to check on Angie’s luggage that still did not make it to Queenstown before we boarded the TSS Earnslaw for our steam boat ride to the Walter Peak sheep farm. We ate a buffet dinner which was extremely good and watched a sheep dog demonstration and sheering demonstration. This 22,000 head sheep farm was absolutely gorgeous with tons of flowers all over.

Monday morning we hiked for about an hour and a half up to the top of the gondola where we started our three hour zip line course. It was so much fun, great views, and rather thrilling. Angie and I both tried going upside down, starting with a trust fall, and no hands (which seemed to be the toughest). After this we moved to our new hostel where Angie got her luggage finally, went to a brief meeting about the Kepler Track, enjoyed Fergburger, bought some more food for our hike, and went to the third Hobbit movie in the theater (we had to see this in theaters if it was playing while we were in New Zealand right?!). That night we went to our hostel to pack up what we needed for the Kepler Track, as we had to carry all our supplies including sleeping bag, rain gear, food, water, etc).

At 6:45am on Tuesday we got on a bus to head to Te Anau where we were supposed to be dropped off at the Conservation Center at the edge of town so that we could pick up our Kepler Track tickets and board a water taxi (we only had 30 minutes for this). Unfortunately, we were dropped off in the middle of town and had to get to the Conservation Center on our own with only 30 minutes to spare before our water taxi left. After walking for about 5 minutes or so I stopped to ask someone where the Conservation Center was and she said it was a kilometer down the road and would take 10 minutes to walk there so Angie and I started running with our big packs on the entire kilometer. They then told us that the water taxi was back where we started so Angie started back towards the water taxi while I got our tickets. I then ran all the way back and made it with minutes to spare! We later found out that they would have made a second trip for us if we were late, but at least we found out that we could run with our packs on! The water taxi took a few minutes to get across the lake and then we were ready to start our trek!

The first hike to the Luxmore Hut was a steady incline the entire way. It is an 8.2km path and took us about 3 hours and 15 minutes with a lunch break. After we were passed the brush line it was quite windy and chilly. Once at our hut we warmed up a bit and then hiked about ten minutes to the Luxmore Cave before we cooked our dinner. The hut was much nicer than I expected with running water, toilets, stoves for cooking, and mattresses. A storm rolled in with strong winds and rain through the night. The next day (Wednesday; New Year’s Eve) we started hiking at about 9:30 with rain off and on the whole day. It was quite chilly as we were walking on the ridge for most of the day. We took a side trip to climb to the top of the Luxmore Summit (the highest point on the track at about 1472 meters or about 4830 feet, but the wind and rain started picking up just before we got to the top so we decided to turn back. There were two shelters where we were able to take a break from the wind and rain for a bit. Despite the bad weather, it was still absolutely gorgeous views! It took us about 2 hours to get to the first hut, an hour and 20 minutes to get to the second hut where we took a 10 minute lunch break, and then another hour and 50 minutes to walk the 14.6km to the Iris Burn Hut. Once at the hut we dropped off our gear and then walked another 50 minutes roundtrip to a waterfall. When we got back to the hut, warm dry clothes were a welcoming change! Since it was New Years Eve we drank our small bottle of wine that we brought along and stayed up until midnight to be one of the first in the world to bring in the New Year! We played cards with our friend Robyn and visited with a couple from Belgium, a guy from Canada, and a couple girls from New Zealand.

We started out at around 9am on Thursday for the 16.2km hike to the Moturau Hut. This was a fairly easy hiking day as the trail was mostly level ground. It took us about 2 hours and 30 minutes to a shelter where we ate our lunch and then about another 2 hours and 15 minutes until we reached the hut. I think we were slower walkers than most as we would stop every little while to take pictures and enjoy the scenery. We had quite a bit of time at the Moturau hut to enjoy the sun as it was finally starting to show itself. We stretched and layed on the beach for awhile and then finally were brave enough to go in the cold lake. It was very refreshing! The last day of our hike was a short one as it was only a 6km walk to where we would get picked up by a bus (this took us about an hour and 50 minutes). The bus brought us back to the edge of Te Anau. Since we had some time before our next bus came to bring us back to Queenstown we decided to walk another 40 minutes round trip to get a muffin. The muffin was definitely worth it though!

Once back in Queenstown, we showered and then headed straight to get some Fergburger. I usually do not like burgers that much, but this was so good I had it three times while I was in Queenstown! We saw an outdoor concert in the park and walked around a bit before we went to bed. I think we were both pretty tired from the hike.

On our last day in Queenstown (Saturday) we checked out the craft fair in the park and bought a few souvenirs. Walked around the town, ate pizza and ice cream, and enjoyed the amazing views one more time. We took the bus to the airport and got ready for our long flight to Taipei and then car ride to Taichung.

We arrived in Taichung about noon dropped our stuff off at my apartment, and then headed downtown to a traditional tea house downtown. We had tea and dessert and then went to the jade market where Angie got a salt lamp. For dinner we had Din Tai Fung, which is super tasty!

I had to go to school on Monday so Angie did some laundry at my place and then we biked to Sushi Express for lunch, got bubble tea (she said it was good but would take a bit to get used to the bubbles), and picked up a few different types of fruit for Angie to try. After school we went for a hike near my apartment and then went to hot pot for dinner. On Tuesday Angie went for a walk while I was at school to a park and got a little turned around on the way back, but she was able to make it ok and pick up some bubble tea! She came to school before lunch and then stayed with me at school for the rest of the day. After school we went to the Hot Springs and relaxed before we had dinner at the night market. Angie took off for another long flight back to the states on Wednesday morning. We had an amazing trip together and there are already talks of more back packing trips together! Thanks for being awesome Angie 🙂