Queenstown

Queenstown, NZ in winter is kind of sort of amazing. On the flight there you are flown right over the snow covered southern alps.



Once in the city you have views of more beautiful mountains.



Then if you want, you can take a gondola to the top of one of the mountains to get an amazing view of the city. Yes, the water of Lake Wakatipu is that blue.



By the way, if you're young, or young at heart, and looking for the time of your life, this is most definitely the city for you. Adrenaline junky activities galore by day, the most awesome party atmosphere by night. :)

shattered

Along Milford Highway

On the way to Milford Sound our tour bus stopped at a few places:


In a town called Te Anau we stopped for a break and I walked alone past the closed stores and down the empty main street to the lake, Lake Te Anau. I was the only person around. It was early morning, and the clouds were really low over the lake and there was a lone boat moored near the shore. The scene felt very eerie and desolate, yet beautiful at the same time.



Further down the road was the Mirror Lake of New Zealand.



Then flat land surrounded by mountains that I think is named Knob's Flat.

Sheeeeeeeeeep!!!

Did you know that there are upwards of 40 million sheep in New Zealand? That's 12 sheep for every ONE person. Wild! We saw muddy sheep, baby sheep, fat sheep, pink sheep, blue sheep, (serious, they spray paint them for fun), and only a very few clean white sheep. FYI, the baby sheep are A-dorable. Also in New Zealand are tons of dairy cows, and a few goats. Farm animals galore!

Big Blue.

One of the things I love about New Zealand is that the water in and around it is SO pure. That's the word that comes to mind instantly. It is so turquoise, so blue, crystal clear, and seemingly untouched by pollution. The rivers are not dirty brown, but rage and flow with ice-blue water that makes you want to jump in and play for hours, if not for the whole hypothermia thing. The ocean water at all the beaches is so clear you can see the reefs and tide pools teeming with life.

From the coast near Waipu...






To Mount Manganui...


See me? Those boulders were fun to climb on...


I love the turquoise water, I hope it stays this pure forever!
Behold the power of a fisheye lens:

Ray Ban Reflect.

Somewhere on the Great Ocean Road we pulled the car over and stopped at a look out point. Joy and I weren't so interested in the view to feel the need to get out of the car and take pictures, but Brian did, so we remained in the front seats while he did his thing. Joy and I were just chatting, when I happened to glance at my sunglasses that were laying on the dashboard.
The lenses reflected us all perfectly!
There's Brian on the outside taking his pictures and me with the camera and Joy in the car.
Magic!

Wild things.

Somewhere along the Great Ocean Road there's a little town called Kennett River, and if you turn off onto Grey River Road be ready for some Australian wildlife run-ins. It's a gravelly, bumpy dirt road that goes through a forest largely made up of Eucalyptus trees. I remember we were driving along the road waiting to see some wildlife and we rounded a curve and there on the side of the road were two kangaroos! I was so shocked to see some, (hey, it was my first kanga sighting!), that I shrieked, "Marsupials!!!!" right into Joy's ear. They must have heard me because they bounded into the woods out of sight before I could get my camera out. We saw a few more groups of them in the distance after that, though too far away for good pictures.

We also managed to find a koala! Koalas are known to be very lethargic, brainless creatures, and I found this to be very true. He only cared for his leaves and the one time he looked up mid-munch to notice the tourists gawking at him, he looked vacant and a little bit confused. After he gave up trying to figure us out, he went back to eating the leaf that was hanging out of his mouth.



On our way back to the main road, some tourist buses had parked at the beginning of the road and some idiot tourists were actually shaking, violently, a tree limb that a koala was resting on. The koala was hanging on for dear life and I'm sure he had to be thinking, "Flipping tourists!!! Go bother a kangaroo!!!" I don't know if they were just hoping to get any response out of the poor thing, or if they were hoping it would flop to the ground and come play with them? I don't know, but it was ridiculous. There was also a group of bright red parrots and one managed to land on a lady's head. Quite funny, and the lady had this, "Soooo, now what?" look on her face. Her friend was taking pictures and laughing.

These kangaroo pictures are from a different day on a different beach, Pebbly Beach close to Sydney. A local hyped it up, so we were expecting to see a lot of kangaroos on this beach, but only ended up seeing two. This kangaroo was real friendly, though I was nervous to be so close because I kept expecting his switch to flip and for him to drop kick me and claw my guts out - never happened. Yes, my imagination ran wild, that's how I roll. He actually let me pet him (very soft and wooly), which annoyed him, as he flinched when I touched him, and he was wondering why I wasn't giving him food, as he kept looking at me expectantly.
The pictures of me with the kanga are courtesy of Brian Barker.