Sunday, July 14, 2013

New Zealand Lansdcape

The landscape in New Zealand....wow.  This entry is short.  Words literally escape me (yes, that is rare, I know.).


The vista that made the biggest impression, if I have to choose, would have been at the end of our time.  We made our last stop before heading out to Australia in Queenstown. The whole country, really, had been amazing sight after amazing site naturally.  Just the raw nature that we saw in the snow farm, at the river in Hokatica, the Antarctic center area...amazing. 


However, all of that being said, we made our last stop at Arrowtown and then Queenstown.  Upon coming down off of the snow farm, which actually was a little sketchy because of the new snow (We had to have our baggage shuttled to the bus, and then ourselves shuttled to the bus as well because they were afraid that if the bus came to us we wouldn't be able to get down the mountain!! Eeeek!!), the landscape opened up and became less snowy in our path.  And the mountains were unreal.  Movies have been filmed here ("Lord of the Rings", "Narnia" to name a couple) for good reason.  We felt like we were IN a movie.  How could what we were seeing be real? It was honestly just so breath taking.  I really have no words to describe what we saw.  Mountains, mountains and more mountains.  Green, blue and even browns that were alive.  


See for yourself...

The side of the road on our way through the southern Alps


The Maori riverbed near Hokatica
The rain forest where the Fox Glacier ends

The Fox Glacier

Amazing rain forest

The Fox Glacier in the rain forest 
...and a water fall running into a babbling brook
The amazing Fox Glacier
Hiking the beast
Our Irish guide, Andy without his coat!! <sweet!!>
Our Mötley Crüe
Ever the cheerleader, doing the "liberty" on the Glacier
...and we head back after the hike
Can you believe the color of this water?!
Coming down from the Snow Lodge...the view can't be photographed...it was so much more than this. 
Breath taking!!
The "scorpion" attempt and the photo fail!!
Queenstown...and good-bye, New Zealand!!













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