What in the world is a Popsicle?

This post is really mostly a list of terms comparing the USA to NZ not a true blog but enjoy!! We wrote it because we wanted to remember it     USA: cool Kiwi:  sweet as https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZdVHZwI8pcA USA term: Popsicle Kiwi term: ice block 

 

USA term: jack of all trades

Kiwi term: a dogs body

 

USA term: cane 

Kiwi: stick

 

USA term: walker

Kiwi: frame 

 

USA term: meeting

Kiwi term: hooey

 

USA term: blitzed/ smashed/ sloshed/wasted/ drunk 

Kiwi term: pissed 

 

USA: bell pepper

Kiwi: capsicum 

 

USA: ketchup

Kiwi: tomatoe sauce

 

USA: dinner

Kiwi: supper or tea

 

USA: highway

Kiwi: motorway/state highway   USA: bundled up Kiwi: Rugged up USA: Eraser Kiwi: Rubber USA: Ground Beef Kiwi: Mince USA: hey man Kiwi: hey bruh USA: Maybe Kiwi: Yeah Nah USA: yes Kiwi: shur bro

USA: Port a Potty Kiwi: Long Drop   USA: bathing suit Kiwi: togs USA: french fries Kiwi: chips USA: Macdonalds Kiwi: Mackers USA: trunk Kiwi: boot USA:  pop/soda Kiwi: fizzy drink USA: sunglasses Kiwi:sunnies USA: chicken Kiwi: chook USA: sunscreen Kiwi: suncream USA: sweater Kiwi: jumper USA: sneakers Kiwi: runner USA: receipt Kiwi: docket USA: galoshes Kiwi: gumboots USA: bye Kiwi: Ta USA: thanks Kiwi: Cheers

USA: hamburger

Kiwi: meat patty

USA: cooler Kiwi: chilly bin  

USA : shady

Kiwi: dodgy

"I think I ate some dodgy chicken"

 

USA: Saran Wrap

Kiwi: clean film

 

USA: slot machines

Kiwi: gaming 

Australia: pokie

 

USA: zuchinni

NZ: corgette   USA: tires Kiwi: tyres USA: tired Kiwi: knackered USA: exhausted Kiwi: shattered USA: fancy Kiwi: flash      ie "he just bought a flash car" 

 

USA: body shop

Kiwi: panel beater   USA: cotton candy Kiwi: Candy Floss (see the picture below)

 

 

The majority of businesses are only open until 5pm.... Like 95% of places

Only some  restaurants are open later.

 

Also driving at night... With the windy roads and sharp turns it takes even longer than usual! 

Also because of nearly everything being closed, finding a bathroom or a place to eat is pretty much non existent! On our three and a half hour drive from Wanganui to taupo we saw ONE place that was open. 

 

Also hotels close, especially if they are smaller places. If you are going to be checking in to a hotel/motel later at night, you have to call and make special arrangements or make a point to stay at a big hotel that has 24 hour staffing. 

 

Weird kiwi fact: some  people of all ages don't wear shoes 

 

Kiwis are very trusting, very trusting! 

We have had multiple excursions we have had to alter because the vendor wanted to take our credit card number and "write it down on a piece of paper" and didn't understand why we were concerned about security. 

 

Dog walking is normal and we see lots of puppies! What we don't see is leashes! At least half of the dogs that we see don't have leashes. 

 

NO SCREENS ON THE WINDOWS (or wall insulation!)!

 

 

 

New Zealand the good the bad and the kiwi

Ok so now that we have been here for almost a year and vacation mode has worn off, what do we really think?

 

The attitudes of People 

People here are just more laid back! 

When it is 5pm, most shops close up and people go home in order to spend time with their families or their hobbies, and lunchtime is also held as pretty sacred.  You see a LOT of people out running walking and everyone seems to have a dog (and usually a cat).  Most notably, they also hardly ever seem to have dogs on leashes.  People here love the outdoors.  Not just for sport, but just to sit outside for coffee.  Even if its cold people put out space heaters and sit outside vs, inside.     So one of my good friends and co-workers in the ED decided to move across the hall to the Wanganui Accident and Medical (WAM) area (fast track/ urgent care). But we didn't just send him over with a cake and some punch, we went throughout the process of a powhiri (poe-firi) which is a welcoming ceremony. It can be used to welcome people to a household, or to a new organization. So we did a powhiri for Will. Sending him from the ED to WAM. There were 30 people there, half sat on one side of the room and "gave Will away" and the other half accepting Will to the new organization. There was some small speeches and it lasted about 30 minutes. This was unlike anything I have seen in the states. The feeling of unity and community really was really special.

 

( Chris Cresswell, Rhihi, Will, Cecil) 

 

(Here is a pic we snapped at a walk in Palmerston.  This dad was talking his 2 kids on bikes out as well as his puppy offleash).  This is pretty normal.

 

 

 

What do we do when we are not on trips?

Most of the time we are writing about our trips.  However, we do have some low key outings that have nothing to do with big trips.  We have people over pretty often.  Sometimes just for "tea" AKA dinner and sometimes for games to!   We try to make it to quiz night at the local pub as often as we can.  There we play on a team with other Docs/RMO's to answer very obscure trivia.  We get invited out for dinner as well for things like birthdays and such.... you know normal stuff.  Finally, we try to hit crossfit 3x/week in addition to running and/or walking 3 times a week.  Cec especially has been running the heck out of the town training for his marathon.  He and will even have run a few times together for practice)

(Here were our crossft instructors and friends with some of thier kids we had over before Karli had her baby.)

 

(Big goodbye dinner for Padraig, Gary, Rhiannon, and Maeve)

  

(A quick snapshot of a quiznight at the red lion pub.  Its exactly what you would expect lol)

 

(Thai with friends for our anniversary dinner)

 

 

(Our crossfit family)

 

(Cec running with will for practice)

 

Infrastructure 

Sidewalks and bike lanes: Amazing!!! Even a small town like Wanganuii has sidewalks EVERYWHERE and there are a plethora of bike lanes.  That being said the "highway" sucks.  They have 2 lane roads everywhere, which may or may not be well maintained.  Travel is slow and has a LOT of bends.      

 

 

(See that little yellow dotted line? That is the median side of the many bike lanes in town.

And driving on the "wrong" side of the road only takes a few days to get used to. )

 

(There are a lot of road bikes out there!  This crazy guy was biking down a hill going close to 60 miles per hour near Wellington)

 

Airports

For most domestic flights there is NO security, which is mind blowing for us Americans, lol. 

You literally come into the airport, check your bag if you have one, and then go to the gate and get on the plane!  You aren't supposed to come to the airport until 45 minutes before your flight! 

 

Also when you check in, you don't wait in line, you punch in your info into a kiosk and then drop your bag off, it's amazing! 

 

(See the self check in kiosks?  Amazing!)

Politics- No TV or raidio addds allowed.  Pople go to festivals or put up signs.,. thats about it.  Sooo nice tyo have all the political BS!

("Advertising")

 

 

Houses: the houses DON'T have double panes in windows, or insulation (well, most of them anyway) so if it is 30 degrees outside, it is probably close to 45 degrees INSIDE     They also have a large indiginous population of a people called Maori that are both fierce as well as incredibly inviting. The attached video is of a small Maori community 45 minutes away that had a hit song in the late 1980's and ended up performing for the Queen of England! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DQLUygS0IAQ also there is the world famous Haka (Maori War Dance) that is performed before every Rugby game https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Vxy_-e_hZ8 Trash is still collected house  side.  You actually don't pay a monthly bill, but you do buy thse trash stickers you put on the trash bags you buy.  They are a little over $1 NZD each and good for 20kg of trash (~40lbs).  I this this is a great method as there never are bill collectors or suchforth.  Your bags only get taken with stickers.  Recycling must be sorted and taken to the dump for a much smaller fee than if you just throw it away.  For example, we had a backseat and trunk full of bottles, cans, cardboard etc. and paid $4 to recycle it.  Much less than throwing it away.  The real negative is you need to sort it and go to the trouble of bringing to the dump.

 

 

(Trash sticker you place on the trash bags)

 

(The recycling center at the trash dump)

 

Public Restrooms NZ knows whats up.  Not only does every town have an isite (information site) with flush toilets, they also have port-a-johns called "long drops" at pretty much every trail head and a lot of rest stops.  Don't get me wrong, there are still some long trips between toilets sometimes, but for such a sparsely populated country they are toilet friendly!

(Yes, this is a port a john/ long drop.  No it did not smell and yes it was clean.  See america, it CAN happen)

 

 

Are there really that many sheep?

 

YES.  However there are also a ton of cattle.  Everything is grass fed, NO CORN SILO's!  Its amazing meat.  Sadly, its about double the price of USA meat.  Why?  The locals still have to pay the price its worth to export it to places like China.

 

(This is typical NZ farm country.  Everywhere you look is sheep farming.)

 

 

 

(It says "Peach teats- Calves love 'em".  For the bobby calves when they separate them!)

 

Anything else?

 

Coffee is a big deal here.  Everyone drinks it.  They even have portable plunge coffee mugs!

 

(Because when you are camping, instant is just not good enough!)

 

 

 

NZ is a tourist economy!  Towns will do this to attract people.  This comes from offering free wifi, handing out brochures and having "isites".  I sites or "information sites" are in every town you pass through and are staffed by people who can point you in the direction of anything that might be interesting.  Towns also try to come up with things to attract visitors.

 

 

(These 2 photos are of the isite and other public bulding in a small town.  Throughout the town are all these panel artwork items.  The town is known for this and people come just to see this art!)

Is it Really that pretty? Yes.  I mean there are beautiful places everywhere, but yes it is that great.  Here is a sampling of some of our favorite photos (some new and some repeats)

In our front yard 

 

 

 

 

Our last days in NZ- Nelson/Abel Taseman and Auckland

Morning started with a short flight from Christchurch to Nelson. Short meaning 45 minutes! We got our rental car from the wonderfully named rent-a-dent. No, there is nothing wrong with the car. Since we couldn't check in until 2pm and it was 10am  we decided to head to the isite. We got some maps and some brunch recommendations. We at lunch at a river cafe that had the best scones we've had in nz. It also had views of the river and we did some high quality people watching as plenty of people were walking or biking. After, We walked along the stream that runs through Nelson for about an hour. Then we walked up the bustling Main Street to the Nelson cathedral.  Did you know why certain churches are called cathedrals? It is because there is a special seat for the bishop to sit and "reside"  It had some beautiful stain glass windows as well as a mini pilgrimage labyrinth inside. From there we checked in and drove up to Abel Taseman Costal track. Now we had booked a kayak and hiking tour for the next day but the weather was looking shady and we wanted to go up and take a few photos in case it was raining we wouldn't want to take our dslr. It was overcast and muggy but still pretty! We only had time to walk in about 45 minutes then turn around, but still great. It was a bush track but you kept getting peaks of the blue waters and beaches. There were plenty of the birds I love to watch to entertain as well. By the time we got back to the hotel it was late. Evening was low key with roaster chicken, yoga, packing,  backing up photos and blogging. We are/we're crossing our fingers that the weather doesn't cancel our tour tomorrow!!  

Walking riverside in Nelson

   

Photos from the cathedral. Note the stained glass has New Zealand ferns and Kowhai flowers that have fan tails and tuis on them to the left.

   

Abel Taseman selfie!!

   

Photos from our walk on the tiny bit of the Abel Taseman costal track

   

Photo of the wildlife and flora around the track.

 

Today started early for what became no reason. There was a pretty bad storm that came through. Therefore, we got up at 6:30 to find out that our kayaking and hiking tour was moved until the next day. I had planned an open day just in case that happened, but it was still a disappointment. Instead we had a dreary rainy day with time on our hands. We spent the morning doing a workout in the hotel room and calling family (it was thanksgiving in the states). After that we headed to Jester's house cafe which is known for its "tame eels".  We got some brunch, which was pretty good, and then braved the rain with a small container of meat to feed the eels.  

 

 The eels were at the bottom of the scariest wet stairs ever, but worth it. They were all gathered, waiting. You basically put a bit of meat onto a stick and they reached up for it! The hardest part was a toss up between keeping the cafe cat from stealing the meat and trying to get then meat into the mouth of the eel (they don't see well). We didn't linger as it was quite rainy!! In fact the entrance to the parking lot was flooded over when we drove in! See Karen feeding them here: https://youtu.be/c5XyoEYTxvk and cecil making a great face feeding term here: https://youtu.be/56WwsuO-RW4.  

 

Cec feeding the eels!!

 

Close up of Karen feeding the eels.

 

R is the flooded entrance, UR is Cec fending off the cat feeding the eels, BL is the warning sign before the stairs to the eels.

 

 

From there we drove into Nelson and went to the world of wearable art and classic car museum. No, I don't know how those two fit but it was an interesting place. The cars were old and classic but the wearable art was something else. It was turkey art but they also had videos of it all being worn during performances. It reminded us of Circ de soile in Vegas. It was surprisingly entertaining. As a bonus, we got a drink at the Spieghts bar next door after  getting done in the museum. 

 

UR an example of the cars- the model T, UR the sign BL speits sign BR the wearable art displays

 

Just a few of our favorite wearable art pieces

 

Takin a noontime glass at speights

 

 

From there we headed downtown to the post office and to the local museum. The museum was disappointing, mostly having a hodgepodge of items that didn't really tell a story. We moved out of there after a short time and decided to head back to the hotel after getting some stuff from the grocery store. We planned a relaxing day as we were both a little tired and it would be early again. Originally, most of the stuff from last week was not supposed to happen it was supposed to be a rest day… we are bad at that. Since we've been running so much a night in before a crazy busy day seemed prudent.  

   

Upper: Bark Bay. BL: split apple rock BR: Another view of Bark Bay

     

UL: Bark Bay UR: Karen in front of Cleopatra's Pool. LL: Anchorage Bay  LR: Torrent Bay

     

Some of the amazing views from Abel Tasman Track

       

Anchorage Bay Pictures

  So the flight in from Nelson was a little bumpy but uneventful. We spent the afternoon walking into town to reverify the cell phone disconnection information. We hit the grocery store and spent the rest of the evening washing clothes and watching the free movies in the hotel. They actually were pretty new like suicide squad and mission impossible. The next day we got up and headed to Kiwibank for what we thought would be an easy appointment to transfer money and close are account. This we thought we had everything prepared for but it ended up being a slight crazy time. We finally got helped out but it was a little crazy for a while and took over an hour. After that it was back to boring with more laundry, Cecils haircut, retesting luggage weight and movies.    

Goodbye New Zealand

   

Queenstown Extravaganza

A little preview of what's to come....

    After leaving Whanganui, we headed to Queenstown. Cec had a few days off before his conference so we used it with gusto. We didn't do much more than pick up our car and check into our hotel. Got some roaster chicken and hit the bed as we had an early day the next day....   Why? We were heading to Dunedin and the Southern scenic route. Dunedin is a little over 3 hours away and we went a little farther as we tried to see Albatross again at the a National Albatross Center.  In case your wondering, we failed and got soaked in the process. The day had started pouring rain and had not let up on us as we looked for the birds. We also had to stop into a camera center as something was wrong with our camera. We found out that the focus was off and that was the problem, thank God. We were concerned that the housing had broke. We also stopped and grabbed some Japanese takeout food for lupper. All those errands (although thank goodness the camera guy fixed the camera and didn't even charge us in very kiwi fashion) took time. We ended up on the southern scenic road hours after planned. We had a series of stops along this picturesque highway drive. Out of the six stops we only made 3 before it was dark, but on the positive side the rain stopped as we started driving. The three places we stopped at were in a part of the route called the Caitlins and wow was it beautiful. Trees line right beside the oceans made for stunning scenery. We stopped at Kaka point and Nugget lighthouse which sticks out into the ocean. It was very windy but the sun had stated to come out and it made for a beautiful view with the white caps and peeking sun.  

We had so many pictures that I used the app a friend told me about to combine a lot of them so not to have a billion photos. This one has the southern scenic route sign in the middle. The UL is Kaka point with sign, UR is Cec enjoying his Japanese dumplings and pancake ( which was unsweet chocolate and different, not bad just different), BL us in front of Nugget Point and BR the bay

 

The fantastic and windy nugget point. Link to view here ( https://youtu.be/RjLsP6lNim8 ) Windy video here ( https://youtu.be/SInrSDGdbLU)

  After that we went to pounamo falls. Now, this should have been a quick side trip, however, we got lost. We zigged when we should have zagged and followed the wrong sign and ended up driving around the back country for an hour looking for this place. Let me tell you, we found some InTERESTING roads (video here:  https://youtu.be/eRCdUcW6L8E). We did end up there and took the short walk down to the falls. It felt like a fairy tail.  We continued down the road as the sun set and made our final stop at One of the bays as the sun set. I am not sure if we will ever stop saying "wow that's beautiful". We got into Invercargil late, around ten and pretty much hit the sack.  

Pounamu Falls

  The next morning we hit one of Cecil's bucket lists and went to Starbucks in the morning. Why Starbucks you may ask, as NZ has many probably better coffee places? This particular Starbucks is the southernmost Starbucks in the world. Honestly, there is not much else in Invercargil so we hadn't planned on anything else. Instead, we drove to a tiny city called Bluff, which is notable only for its port. We had a 10 AM ferry to Stewart island, which is a large island right of the outs tip of New Zealand. It houses a small population of people and even a small grocery store (one of nine commercial buildings).  Stewart island is notable in that it's known for its remoteness and a three day hike on the island. It also is a jumping off point to one of the oldest national parks/bird sanctuaries in the country.  It is a small island (only 3.5km) and what is really nice is you can buy a guide for $2-3 dollars and walk around the marked trails and stop at signs matching the guides and follow the story and/or information.  We got to see the South Island saddle backs, kaka, rifleman birds and some adult and baby weka. They do not care about you and just kept eating even if you're standing right there or passing them on the trail. The babies were so fluffy it was great. It was both Cecil and my favorite bird sanctuary we've visited. It didn't hurt that the day was sunny  in the morning and as we waited for our water taxi back in the afternoon the clouds started rolling back in. By the time we boarded the ferry it started to rain again. We weren't about to complain as it was nice when we needed it to be. We drove back to queenstown that night.  Here are a list of links for our videos: faint ail flitting and singing https://youtu.be/Ru61j_pjOz0,  robin: https://youtu.be/aKkYMwo11ww, parrot that sounds like a Guinea pig: https://youtu.be/VQdRqnysrUA, baby weka: https://youtu.be/Wg-DgtSTBGo  

Southernmost Starbucks and Cec being silly in front of a poster for the fastest Indian in the world movie

 

UR me posting in front of the bluff sign with distances to different locations, UL Cec posing on the trails once on Ulva island, BL the sign that greets you for the township on Stewart island after our water taxi, BR me posing excitedly in front of the Ulva island sign after getting the second taxi over.

   

Beautiful view form Ulva island

 

UL was a kaka who was very interested in us when we stopped for lunch, UR a green parrot feeding its young, BL two South Island saddle backs having a 'conversation', BM a friendly robin, BL a baby weka practicing it's hiding skills, which need work!!

 

We got so close to many birds, especially the weka. They did not care about you and let you get very very close!

 

Top is a very loud bellbird, BL a mother weka and babies, BR shows you me taking a photo and how close the weka were that were hiding

    The next morning we met Brenna and Rhiannon for coffee at McDonald's outside of town because the queenstown marathon was buggering up the center of the city. We thought this would be the last time we saw them as Cec and I were headed out for the day. Those guys had just finished hiking the Milford track (One of the great walks in New Zealand). We chatted and said goodbye, although this wouldn't be the final time but more on that later. Cec and I were heading to mount cook and lake tekepo. Mount cook had been one of our favorite places we'd hiked when we had been to South Island previously. We drove up and hiked the hooker valley track, which shows good views of mount cook, then hiked up what felt like a billion stairs the the tazman glacier viewpoint. The water was so blue it hurt not to go swimming (although it would have been freezing). It was sad to see he glacial melting that had happened. Signposts with photos showed what it looked like in the 2000 vs now. Climate change is hurting things and it's sometimes hard to see that right on display in such a beautiful place. We headed out with perfect timing after that as the beautiful clear day turned dark on our way back down and began to rain, without exaggeration, as we got into the car. The mountain had "caught" some clouds and once we got off the mountain the day turned clear again. In fact, you could turn around and see the rain just over the mountains from the viewpoint out of town.  

Lots of mount cook memories! UL me being a good crossing the scary swingbridge, UM selfie in front of one of the azure lakes, UL we stopped at a fruit market in Cromwell and got dried fruit. We also found the largest pine cones ever! M lake tekepo is so blue it's hard to believe it's real. BL Cec on the stars, as there were many, up to the taizman glacier viewpoint, BR view of the taizman glacier from the viewpoint.

   

Us in front of the beautiful mount cook on the hooker valley track

 

A few last minute shots driving away from mount cook

 

The rain was setting on mount cook from our sunset view in lake tekepo

  From mount cook we headed a short drive to lake tekepo. Another large, blue glacial lake nearby. We spent the evening there dining in a wateview restaurant. Nothing really there as we really were just killing time. We were there for a specific reason- stars.  Lake tekepo hosts a UNESCO protected dark sky reserve. We had booked a tour up St. John's mountin, but high winds ( up to 160 km/hr)  cancelled the tour.  According to the font desk the winds on the mountain were around 125km/her. We didn't leave entirely empty handed. We got some money back and were able to join a shorter tour that stargazer from the fields/ground level. It was safe as the winds were still there but no where near as bad as the mountin. The guides had really powerful laser pointers and showed us famous constellations like the southern cross (and how to find both using it because there is no North Star), magellenic clouds (aka galaxies), "upside down" Orion, Venus, Mars, alpha cebtauri, black holes, and others. There were two types of telescopes, one I kno was 16 other was larger and percentile housed in a shipping container. They had the group ping pong between the two telescopes looking at things and telling us all kinda of information. New Zealand least has a beautiful sky as there is little light pollution and normal pollution, but this place was jaw dropping. It looked like we had walked into one of those star simulations. It was cold out and windy but I would not trade that experience for anything.  Cecil was amazing and chose to drive the 4 hours back to queenstown (vs spending more money on a hotel there). The crazy part was we made plans that evening to be next morning for a big deal.....  

We didn't take this photo but this was pulled from the earth and sky website. This is absolutely what it looked like, if not more stars and impressive.

    7:30 the alarm rings and we get up and drag ourself out the door. Where to? Meet Brenna and Rhiannon at the bungee place. Originally the girls booked into the 8:40 spot, and Cecil was only able to book into the 9:20 slot. Luckily someone went earlier and we were all able to go on the bus together (they all were jumping I was spectating). We were driven out to the bungee place called Nevis point, which is the highest bungee in Queentown. They all we're  weighed again and we all were harnessed in. From there we were brought into the jump station. There we waited as they were called into the dentist looking chair, then we'll,jumped. I did my best to keep everyone excited and cheer. Cec should give you more details! Cecil: This was something that I had wanted to do for a while, I had actually booked in for a bungy at Auckland in the last few months, but it got cancelled due to high winds. So today was the day, the stars were aligning and I got to jump with Brenna (Babs) and Rhiannon (the Welsh Swan). It was a pretty impressive harness that went over your shoulders , Groin and ankles. They also had ankle straps.  So we all got loaded up into a little cart and went to the main platform in the middle of the valley. Then one at a time we were able to jump. This is probably the most daunting thing that I've ever done especially because you couldn't jump because the bungee cord made you waddle like a penguin. So the moment comes and all along I really haven't been that nervous, except when I look down and "Whoa baby!" That's when it really hit me. but I knew that I couldn't think or overananalyze it either, so I just went for it. I had planned to do this really graceful swan dive off of the ledge, but I ended up just hopping off, lol. So I go at to the bottom of the bungee and I was hanging upside down, there was this rope that I was supposed to pull, to be able to sit upright, but I couldn't get to loosen, and I figured the least amount of loose ropes the better, so I came up inverted, which i also got teased about. But I did it! the jump was 134 meters or 440 feet! 

 

UR is a view of the Nevis bungee platform and the drop, UL is a selfie of us on the bus before they all jumped, BL the three amigos locked and loaded BR we took a wobbly cart to the platform in the middle of the valley and got the first view of the drop. Videos pre  jump here: https://youtu.be/8R2wA6S2Nxc and of the jump here: https://youtu.be/Xs9GtCfswBc. 

After we were bussed back to town we all got brunch at some local cafe and chatted.everyone was coming down from the excitement but it was still nice to chat with everyone  everyone one last time.  On a side note, Cec found out he likes bloody Mary's lol.  Cec and I spent the rest of the day pretty much watching movies. We went to see fantastics beats first. What was crazy about this to us is we went over a hour beforehand to get tickets figuring we had to stand in line for decent seats.  The lady selling tickets thought we were crazy! She told us to come back ten minutes before hand, which we did and were the 4 and 5th people in line! The movie was ok and we planned another one a little over an hour later. We killed time by walking through the beautiful queenstown gardens.  Then we hit Dr. Strange and it was glorious. Love that  movie. That evening we hit the sack early as we were very tired.   Video of the Queenstown lake: https://youtu.be/XThq6TTH4bE   We tried to sleep in but we did not get that opportunity as we were staying over a copy center who apparently starts copying at 6am.  We got up and hiked Mt Crichton. It was what you would expect.... Lots of uphill then downhill punctuated by beautiful views of streams,  valleys, mountains and lakes. Great way to spend a few hours. After that we headed into the isite to book a tour for the next day (more to come later). We had a couple errands, including a quick side trip to the delicious devil burger, then Cec went to the conference while I worked on this blog and some other things.  We had an early dinner reservation at a place called Botswana Butchery.  It sounds African but it really was a tasty steakhouse. Cec had what he said were tasty oysters, we both had steak and shared sides. Tasty tasty tasty. That evening wasn't exciting either as we had some details to cover but we got them done. I was pretty excited to book tickets for Star Wars: Rougue One in London :).   

Top is a waterfall on the Mount Crichton hike, bottom is Cec at the summit

 

Cec in front of the very very tasty devil burger

   Morning started early being woken by the print shop again, uggg. Cec and I made the most of it and ran long the lake by the gardens in the morning. It was cool and sunny and a great day for a run. Morning was laid back and I did laundry and blogged while Cec was at the conference. The afternoon was something I was pretty keen on- a photography tour.   We were taken to a place called skippers canyon by our photographer guide. This is apparently one of the two roads you are not allowed to drive rental vehicles. There is a good reason for this, as it fits the definition of a dusty, one lane road with sharp drop offs hundreds of feet into the valley on one side, and the mountain on the other (here is a video of the canyon: https://youtu.be/4qn7dJoMPoU).  If you came across another vehicle, someone HAD to reverse until an appropriate point in the road. It wasn't a flat road either, literally winding up and down a mountain. Blair, the photographer even had an extra camera so that Karen and I could take pictures at the same time. He really knew where the best places to stop and take some amazing photographs. We also got some instruction on how to take better photos and how to get sharper images.  

We got a pic taken by out guide at the end, one of my favs of us

   

A plethora of pictures from skippers canyon.

 

Cec practicing his skills in the canyon

More skippers canyon pics. Notably, the one of me is drinking the spring water straight. Tasty.

We are not sue who took this one but it turned out great we think! Notice the blue river in the background

 

Last set of pictures from the canyon. Notice the crazy scary skippers road in the bottom left. We took a video of the view here: We took a video of the drive here: https://youtu.be/XThq6TTH4bE. 

    The next morning we were planning on hiking up to moke lake, but when we got up it was cold, rainy and dreary. Instead we decided to go the Queenstown escape games. We were locked in a room with clues and trying to find who stole the gold from an1860's queenstown bank (loosely based on real events).  We did escape with only 43 seconds left after 59 very nerve racking minutes, but we didn't guess the thief correctly.   

I'm unsure if we are going to get out at the start...

 

Yes we escaped! Maybe only with 43 seconds but that's still a win!!

  After the tour, we ended up going to dinner with some friends from wanganui. We went to a really bad Mexican restaurant called Somebreros with Chris Cresswell, as well a Rich and Steph Trierwieller. The meal was bad, but the conversation and the discussion was awesome. It was REALLY the last going away dinner this time, as we would be leaving in the next few days to finish our time on South Island and in New Zealand. Interestingly enough, it was November 22nd, one year ago we were pulling into Wanganui for the first time! Time really does fly as our time in New Zealand is sadly winding down.