The A.P.B

01 Dec

In the morning, we had breakfast and cruised the sound a second time. By noon we were off the boat. We drove a little and took a hike. The hike was pretty. It was in a rainforest (cold) setting. Initially the trail was quite good, but then deteriorated after 1.5 hours of hiking. We turned back. We drove back to Queenstown and found a place to stay.

02 Dec

First thing in the morning, we went for a run and then set up some activities. Tamara organized paragliding and we all got a canyoning trip for the next day. Her “flight” was for 11, but they forgot to pick her up, so you went at noon. I went for two hikes. The second hike I did with Tamara and was to the top of a hill/mountain that over looked the town. We took the gondola back down and had some dinner.

03 Dec

Canyoning was one, if not the best, activity of the trip. In the morning, we took a drive to Wanaka, a town north of Queenstown. Here we met our guide. We got our wetsuits and harnesses on site and hiked up to enter the canyon. It was a narrow canyon and the water was at the max. level for the trip. We practiced some absailing on land and then hopped into the river. We started with a 20m absail (rappel) beside a waterfall. Then we absailed down waterfalls, jumped off cliffs (one was 12m), and slid down the canyon’s stream. It was so much fun. The guide said we were 2 or 4 people this year to do the 12m jump off the waterfall, so we did every jump the guides do…some were pretty intense. Once we got done, we had lunch and then went back to Queenstown.

04 Dec

We started to head up to Christchurch via Mt. Cook. We got lucky with the weather and had unobstructed views of the mountain. It really stood out. As did the glacier lake at the entrance to the park. Once there, we went for a hike to a glacier at the mountain’s base. Round trip, it took about 3 hours. Then we continued on towards Christchurch. We stayed just outside the city in a quiet little town.

05 Dec

Once again we headed up the coast to the town of Picton. It is where you get the ferry to the north island. It was a 4 hour drive in the rain. Not the best. Once we got to Picton we checked into a hostel and walked around the town. Not much going on at all. We had Indian food and went to bed early…we had the first ferry in the AM.