Today I went to Milford Sound! It was wonderful! (How many times have I said this already about New Zealand?) Anyway- this place is a MUST SEE! We took a bus down through the canyons and into the sound and hopped onto a cruise boat, had a great lunch, and floated through the sound!
I have been horrible about posting-so I just threw a billion pictures on this post… Im trying my best to finish these NZ posts up… it can be really time consuming!
Today I am coming home from BEAUTIFUL Stewart Island and heading up to Te Anau!
This dude sands down clam shells and makes jewelry!
We also stopped to play with the puppies!
I want….. this ONE!
I am getting so lazy and behind on posting pictures of NZ…. so heres some little pics to click on!
o yea! The other ‘part’ of the chain that holds little Stewart Island is in this hodge podge of pics too! 
Stewart Island!
This place is honestly the prettiest place on Earth! It was kinda windy (as you can tell by the water) but it was the perfect little place to stop for two days and go hiking! I probably walked over 10+ miles up, down, and around the Island- but every little nook and cranny here was BEAUTIFUL!
Camera timer + cool tripod thingy = pretending someone else was taking the pic!
(I was in the rainforest…NO ONE was around)
Today was a lot of traveling from here to there- and stopping at little spots for picture ops!
To start the day off, I had a Chai Latte to cure my hangover! We went out again last night… I honestly love this place! All the hostels are connected to bars!
(….theres no worrying about getting ‘home’)
The weather was similar to yesterday’s…. nasty looking in the morning… and GORGEOUS after lunch!
A real-life light house!
It was a longer walk then it looks!
But I stopped and took random pictures.. of course!
After lunch I was dropped off to catch a ferry to Stewart Island!
The ferry ride was nice… but a little long… but the scenery was (like everywhere else) GREAT!
Can you see the white chain looking thing next to the white house? The South Islanders made a chain that connected their Island to Stewart Island- so little Stewart Island wouldn’t float away.
(I’ve got a picture of where the chain connects to the Island too!)
On the Island! (Water is was WAY cold)
After a busy day of traveling I hung out in my condemned little room at the hostel and later went on a 4 hour hike!
I can’t believe I have been working on finishing up this post since December 31st! Its now January 10th and I can finally bring myself to crossing it off my ‘list of things to do!’ I spent most of the time posting pictures… the internet here is so slow… it takes 10-15 minutes to upload one picture! Most of the time I just start the downloading before I go to bed and its done when I wake up! (Thats IF the internet stays connected!)
Anyway- here is a collection of pics of several beaches we stopped by as we traveled through the Caltins Valley!
No no… this guys not dead! Hes sleepy.
Giant yawn.
This looks cool… but its actually a dead, dried-up, semi-rotting seahorse…
….one that our guide hung from his rearview mirror on the tour bus…ew.
At least he didn’t save either of these things!
A cow on a mountain, near the ocean.
Yum! These flowers smelled like bananas!
I think these rocks were called “the (something) marbles…”
I’ve gotten pretty good at taking pictures of myself! Wa La!
Today we stopped and had a tour of the Speight’s Brewery Tour in Dunedin. It was actually kinda cool and had alotta history behind the building and the actual beer making, plus… We got unlimited samples of the beer! 
I think I’d be able to take a keg off your hands if your offering!
They make beer in there.
Beer making is cool- but look at these cute little tiles!
They make beer in these thingies too…
Outside the Brewery theres a water spicket of natural spring water- its sooo good!
After the tour and many many samples- I stumbled across the ACTUAL Hogwartz HQ!
I actually think it was the backside of a Backpacker’s hostel… but you never know!
After discovering the hidden whereabouts of Hogwartz HQ-
I wondered around and took some pics of the cool churches around the city!
Wild Cow Lilies? AWESOME!
Yesterday I decided I needed to get out of Queenstown and explore the rest of NZ in the little amount of time I had- Thankfully NZ has these little travel-planning spots called i-SITES! I went in the shop, told them I wanted to go somewhere else… and they recommended the ‘Bottom Bus‘ small group tour!
The first leg today was from Queenstown to Dunedin- We got there fairly late in the day, had a small tour of the city, and went to the “world’s steepest street!”
“The slope of Baldwin Street is approximately 1:2.86 (19° or 35%) – that is, for every 2.86 metres travelled horizontally, the elevation rises by 1 metre.”
People run up this thing… ugh!
“In November 2009, three men were charged with disorderly behaviour and dangerous driving after taking rides in a chilly bin (a cooler) being towed behind a car down Baldwin St. One of them said it was because the bars had shut and they had nothing to do.”
I love this country!
O! Heres a couple other randoms:
Teletubbie ice cream!
The University kids like to tip over cars and burn couches….
I told our driver/tour guide he had a ‘Jew fro’…. but he didn’t get it… lol
A professional pic is below of the same place- see the mountain in the background?
I stole this pic from a website- but its really this beautiful!
I also went to see a movie in Dunedin at the Regent Theatre… I saw the “Invention of Lying” – It was so-so…
I decorated today! Its a little late to get the decorations up… but they are FABULOUS!
I put white lights up first… but didn’t plug them into a converter…. so they burnt out
At least the colored lights turned out pretty nice!
I also decorated the door to my CHU… I think the bullet hole stickers are a nice touch!
I wasn’t the only one around my living area to decorate!
This CHU was totally decked out!
And someone made this sweet Reindeer!
MERRY CHRISTMAS FROM IRAQ!
Canyoning (known as canyoneering in the U.S.) is traveling in canyons using a variety of techniques that may include walking, scrambling, climbing, jumping, abseiling, and/or swimming.
I didn’t really know what I was getting myself into on this one… Today I went Canyoning… in the freezing cold water that flowed through jagged rocks…down a huge ass mountain. I even got to hop into potentially paralyzing pools of ice water! Yesss. Other then the temperature of the water- Canyoning was exciting and pretty sweeeet…I only feared for my life about 75% of the day… 
The Weather was kinda icky-rainy today- but we were already gonna get soaking wet so it was the perfect day to go!
A group of us headed out to the canyoning site around 10am, got there at about 11:30 and suited up for all the craziness! (The company’s website) -I did the “Routeburn – Glenorchy High adrenalin half day trip in spectacular surroundings” route.
“Canyoning can be dangerous. Escape out the sides of a canyon is often impossible, and completion of the descent is the only possibility. Due to the remoteness and inaccessibility of many canyons, rescue can be impossible for several hours or several days.”
O… that must have been in the fine print…
Anyway- we put on two layers of wetsuit, picked up some helmets, and hiked for about 45 mins up the Steep Mountain Rainforest! It wasn’t bad- it was just a little hard to maneuver and walk with a full body wetsuit on!
So- Today I woke up with a rough hangover… stayed in bed till noon and then caught lunch with my German and Australian roommates! (Can you believe the German was hungover!? Def thought they couldn’t get hangovers!) By 1:00pm my voice was completely gone- I think it was a combination of being sick from the H1N1 shot I received before I left and the sour alcohol I consumed in large amount .
With no voice I headed up to the Gardens along the coast- I wanted to check ‘em out and do some Geocaching! Although, I ended up falling asleep on the grass (that has happened a lot this vaca!) and not finding the Geocache I looked endlessly for!
At least I got some pics!
Brrr… this time of the year the Arctic winds kick up!
