N Zed

On June 2nd I finished my last final exam and then started my adventure to New Zealand later that night. My Aunt Fayne and Uncle John just moved to NZ in April and I could not pass up the chance to go visit them. I have always heard New Zealand is one of the most beautiful countries in the world and now I know why. The first sight I saw of NZ from the plane took my breath away and I fell in love with the country at that instant. The sights only got more incredible through out my stay. Here is the view of the snow capped mountains from the plane.



My Aunt and Uncle live in Timaru which is practically in the middle of the South island. Timaru is on the east coast and has a beautiful bay called Caroline Bay. Can you see the snow capped mountains in the background?



Luckily, Monday ended up being a holiday so my Uncle had work off. This allowed us to travel and explore more of the south island. We stayed in Lake Tekapo for one night, which is a glacial lake. There is an observatory here at the top of Mt. John and it was the clearest night they had had in a very long time so we lucked out. There were more stars in the sky than I have ever seen before. It was incredible! Refer to http://www.laketekapo.cc/ for pictures of the night sky at Lake Tekapo. Then in the morning, the sight of the lake was unbelievable. I wish I could wake up to this sight every morning.





There is a church right on the lake. This is the most photographed church in NZ and it is the Church of the Good Shephard. Notice it does not have a stained glass window. Pretty self explanatory why there isn't one.







After one night in Lake Tekapo, we traveled south to Queenstown. Queenstown is a resort town and the center for adventure tourism. You can do everything here from skiing to skydiving to bungy jumping to jet boating and so on. On my birthday, my uncle took my jet boating and it was so much fun! We traveled through tight canyons and did 360 spins on only inches of water. Later that night, I went to an ice bar with my Aunt and Uncle to celebrate my 21st birthday. That's right, an ice bar called Minus 5. The bar, cups, chairs, and sculptures were all made out of ice. Here I am with my first legal drink as a 21 year old.



Here is an ice sculpture of a kiwi, which is the national bird of NZ.



The bartender left for a minute, so I snuck behind the ice bar for a quick picture.



My Aunt Fayne, Uncle John, and I enjoying our ice cold drinks!



One of my favorite parts of the trip was taking the gondola to the top of a mountain over looking Queenstown. Once again, the views were amazing. I sometimes wondered if this place was real. Everything in NZ was just so beautiful.



On the ride home to Timaru, we encountered some snowy roads due to the snow storm that happened the night before. I had my 3 days of winter while in NZ and now it's back to summer in the states! I think it's safe to say that it was the first time I had seen snow on my birthday.




I had such a great time in New Zealand and I definitely want to go back. I can not thank my Aunt and Uncle enough for having me for everything they did for me!