Hello again from New Zealand! After our short stop in Queenstown, we continued the tour!

Mt. Cook National Park
Our next major stop was Mt. Cook. While we came across Mt. Cook while planning the trip, we ultimately decided to stop here based on a reco from one of my co-workers (George J gave AWESOME recos all throughout Australia/NZ!!). It was a fantastic reco as we loved our time here!

Mt. Cook is the highest peak of the range of mountains known as “The Southern Alps.” The peaks are very striking, plus the mountains are 40% covered with glaciers. These glaciers create streams and beautiful turquoise lakes that almost look fake. The drive into the park was along one of the lakes so we had lots of photo opportunities!

We enjoyed a 3 hour hike through the mountains to two more glacier lakes. At the end of the trail you could actually see the glaciers, which is neat since each year the glaciers are receding.

We were also very happy that we found another great place to stay (brand new apartment like rooms that just opened 6 mths ago) at the base of the mountain. It’s great to have places like this to stay near national parks!

We imagine that this is Freddy the Falcon and Frieda coming to check up on us!

Lake Tekapo
My co-worker had also mentioned Lake Tekapo, and this was another great reco! This lake also has the turquoiseo blue waters set at the foothills of the mountains. There is a chapel and collie dog statue located at the edge of the lake that are frequently photgraphed so we got a few shots ourselves. 🙂

There is an observatory located above the lake which provides fantastic star-gazing and views of the lake. This is known as one of the clearest places in the world to see stars, but it was very cloudy so that didn’t work out. However, we could still go up to the top of the observatory for some great views of the lake and some warm hot chocolate!

The other great part of our stay here was Lake Tekapo Lodge where we stayed. It was fantastic!! The lodge overlooked the water, the owners had just renovated the rooms, and there was local New Zealand art throughout the lodge. It was a bit chilly outside so the lodge was a perfect spot for seeing the lake and relaxing. The best part was that the owners had been chefs and made a wonderful dinner for us! We had local merino lamb, fresh salmon, and a lemon tart that were outstanding!

Here are some shots from the awesome lodge!

Christchurch
We finished off our time on the South Island with a quick visit to Christschurch. The city was hit by a massive earthquake about 3 years ago that leveled much of the downtown. We were amazed at the level of destruction and surprised to see how much of the city is still destroyed and under construction. In fact several hundred buildings were closed just this past week after finding structural integrity issues.

We also enjoyed a quick stop at the city’s botanical garden which was filled with springtime blooms such as cherry blossoms and rhododendrons.

Auckland
We finished up our tour of New Zealand with a quick stopover in Auckland. As you’re probably not surprised… we used our time to try out a restaurant! We found a ratings system similar to Michelin that uses chefs hats instead of stars. We hit up one of the top-rated restaurants in the city and had several wonderful dishes including lamb, salmon, scallops, and duck. It was delicious!

We also stopped by a trendy cafe that serves only cookies, milk, milkshakes, and tea/coffee. Think Sprinkles Cupcakes for cookies. 🙂 The warm chocolate peanut butter cookie with a gooey filling was amazing!

Other Random Thoughts…
I can’t end our New Zealand posts without telling you about the heated beds. While I’ve generally found buildings to be kept a bit chilly in NZ, three of the places we stayed had awesome bed warmers. They aren’t blankets like we used to see in the US but instead are like a full mattress cover with heat. This just might go on my purchase list when I get home!

Two other random things we noticed is that all of the electrical outlets in both New Zealand and Australia have switches. We learned our lesson the hard way when we didn’t flip the outlet switch on overnight when trying to charge electronics. After about 3 weeks of seeing these switches, we aren’t sure why they are really that useful!

After a great time in New Zealand, we’re now off for the warmth and sunshine of Tahiti and Bora Bora!