Our Love for Kiwis... Chapter 3

Welcome to the third post! Okay, so moving right along, after Queenstown we drove to Wanaka (wan-a-ka ... not Wa-nocka, we got a dirty look after that mistake!). It was here that we found the coolest (scratch that, geekiest) tourist attraction - Puzzling world!
Grant and I took it on ourselves to finish their giant maze in less than the 30min - 1 hour suggested time.




15 minutes later, victory was ours.







Meanwhile, Nicole stayed indoors to keep warm and work on the individual puzzles. Look it was a long time in the car okay?! Don't mock us! After Puzzling World closed (yes, Nicole almost had to fight to stay inside to wait for us!), we drove on to Haast (enter German accent) to find a room for the night. 'Blink and you miss it' applies here!

The next morning we drove further north on the west coast to Glacier Country! The southern of the two Glaciers is Fox Glacier. This was where we stopped for photos and a hike to the base of the glacier. We decided not to pay for a tour because we wanted to leave before 4pm and the timing wasn't good for us. Joe/Liz and Andrea/Jenn all pass on huge support for the hikes though, so we have something on the list for our next visit!
This is the Fox Glacier from the first lookout we went to before driving to the foot of the ice.

So we got a little closer, and although we hadn't heard any bad stories about the 'unguided' tour we were about to take on... we knew we had to keep our eyes and ears open when we saw how many 'safety' signs lined the paths.

*Editor's note: The sign below appears on the walking track - so you aren't allowed to stop for photos because there could be a rockfall? hmmm












Apparently getting this close to a huge slab of ice is not for the faint of heart (or anyone who can't complete the 100m dash in under 11 seconds!).
Good for a laugh or two at any rate! We'd do it again!





And here is a shot of us driving over a one-lane bridge, shared with a railroad track. Grant "umm, there's no train coming right?"





In the morning, we left our motel in Greymouth and drove east toward Hanmer Springs. We picked up this awesome photo on the way - going out to our small group of fans in Aurora and Barrie :) Grant gave the brakes a good test when he realized what the sign said (I actually wasn't paying attention at the time!)

Hanmer Springs is in the middle of the island in a valley and there is a relatively famous thermal spa there. So we went to check out the hot springs and soak in our swimmers for a few hours.

*Note to self - attending an outdoor hot springs mid-winter does NOT in fact ensure that you will not freeze your feet as you walk along the concrete wearing nothing but a swimsuit. Next time, we bring thongs!












And then, of course, we played a round of mini golf so that we could say we played while a) in New Zealand, and b) while overlooking the mountains. AMAZING! York Region does NOT have this scenic an opportunity for mini-golfers. We need to put an order in for a beach, and a mountain range. Someone let me know how that goes? Siobhan? Kirsten?

Alright then, that's the end of post #3, we're headed outside for a walk. But we're trucking right along! Do you feel like you've been on vacation reading all of this? It is a lot to write about, but we crammed heaps of stuff into just 9 days of driving. Busy busy busy - just the way we like it!

xoxoxo