I'm very excited to announce that my mom (Maureen) and her friend Val has made it to NZ!!! They flew into Christchurch a few days ago and explored the west coast before coming down here to Queenstown. They arrived here last night to a welcoming of pooring down rain and having to carry all of their stuff up the hill to the hostel. I attempted to pick them up, but there was a mix up in the drop off point, so they made it to the hostel while I was standing at the bus stop, not as epic of a meet up as I was hoping...
Today was a lot of fun! We started the morning by picking up the rented car and Maureen tried her hand driving on the left side of the road, we didn't even run into one person! I'd say it's safe to say that she's a pro! We walked around town for a little bit, which takes about 20 minutes to show the whole town, so it was a pretty quick tour. In the afternoon we decided to go to Glenorchy, which is a small town about an hours drive away, full of lots of different trails for hiking. The drive there was absolutely beautiful! We were along the lake the whole time, with all these mountains in the background.
You can see on the right hand side of the photo above, there is a windy road. The entire way there the road was very narrow and curvy, luckily my mom is a professional driver, so we made it through safely!
Once we got through Glenorchy, we had to take a little gravel road to get to the trail, the whole thing looked like Middle Earth to me, so it was a really fun drive.
This was the part in the gravel road where we couldn't go any further. A small river was going across, even though we have a pro driver, we just couldn't risk it with a rental car ;). Luckily for us the trail was just around the corner.
It was a beautiful trail, uphill most of the way, but we saw a lot of cool things.
Like these crazy, yet stunning mushrooms!
This little guy hitched a ride on Val's hat for awhile.
Mom is being a Hobbit and hiding from the Nazgul
After only a little goofing around, we made it to the top!
It was beautiful! It only took us 2.5-3 hours, so it was a perfect afternoon hike!
Unfortunately I don't have any pictures of Val, they are either on my other camera or Val's camera, I'll make sure to exchange some pictures next time to have a more wide variety! But I promise, she was there!!! :)
I'm sure more adventures are to come! I'll be sure to keep you updated!!
Oh my God! Everything looks so beautiful and amazing! I am so happy that Maureen is with you now, and of course I am also a little bit jealous, but n I know how you want and deserve this time!
ReplyDelete