Our second foray into Queenstown began with the group
sleepily climbing onto a bus at 9am Friday morning (Thursday nights are big
party nights here in Dunedin, students are too impatient to wait until Friday
nights for the weekend to start).
After a four hour ride on a bus that barely
managed to climb most of the hills between Dunedin and Queenstown, we jumped
out at the banks of the Shotover River. A brief safety talk was given, and then
we were loaded onto jetboats and sent spinning down the river. The boat drivers
where insanely good, swooping by the sides of the rocky ravine with barely
inches to spare and doing 360 degree (or more) spins whenever there was enough
room. I still can’t get over the fantastic blue color of the water around here.
According to the boat driver that blue color is the result of a mineral from the
glaciers that feed many of the rivers in the Fiordlands.
After dinner that night we visited a different kind of glacier,
the Ice Bar. It’s exactly what it sounds like, a bar made entirely out of ice
inside a large walk in freezer. Even the glasses were made out of ice!
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Chilling with Donna and Nikki at the Ice Bar |
The next day the real fun began. We packed our bags and piled
back on the bus bright and early, heading to one of the Great Walks of New
Zealand, The Routeburn Track.
We started from the Routeburn Shelter and (some of us) hiked all the way up to Conical Hill and back for a total of 9 hours of hiking.
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Routeburn Shelter and Conical Hill circled in red. Click for an expanded view |
It was easily one of the most gorgeous hikes I've ever been
on. Even the slight drizzle as we
stepped off the bus seemed to enhance the beauty of the beech forest. The
variability of the environment as we trudged along was astounding as well.
Every time we turned a corner I wanted to whip out my camera and take more
pictures, and that’s pretty much what I ended up doing. I'll leave you with a few of my favorites.
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Getting Started! |
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Still stream in the valley |
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Grasslands in the valley |
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Flora at higher elevations |
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Sheer cliffs and snow capped mountains |
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From the top of Conical Hill |
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Selfshot on the way down |
One more thing! My flatmate and I are planning a three day trip for a bunch of us to the Kepler Track (another Great Walk) in two weeks. It's gonna be awesome!
Kia Ora!
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