Day 10: Saturday, July 5
The morning came quickly after our 4th of July party. After the car was loaded, we hit the road. First stop, Wanaka (well after a trip to the gas station, a salmon farm, Lake Pukaki, and some bathroom breaks).
The walk wasn't that challenging but I did have to keep stopping to rest before or after steep parts. Now, unlike before being pregnant, I don't always feel accomplished at the top of a mountain or end of the hike, instead I just feel exhausted but cling to the fact that going down will be better. It was a definite challenge to pack for winter in the middle of summer (and while being pregnant) and I continue to question my choices. I keep wondering why I didn't bring my thick gloves or my hat. It's supposed to be colder in Queenstown so we will see how my body adjusts. I was super hot back home so I thought the cold weather would be nice for a change. However, my body still goes into a bit of a shock out in the cold because I'm out of practice with cold weather. I'm an incubator and icebox all at once! It has been and will be a continual desire of mine to be more hot than cold though so don't judge the pictures of me in 4-5 layers on top and 2 layers on the bottom. No matter the challenge or misery I may face on these hikes in the coming days, I know the view will be great and of course the view from the top of Mt. Iron was nice and so it made me thankful for attacking it head on.
Once we were ready for the descent, I seemed to fly down the track because going down a hill is so much easier.
Since dinner was quickly approaching we headed to the store for something to fix. Our final decision was to have some ravioli and meat sauce. The sun sets around 5:30 so we hung out at the hotel the rest of the evening. I was tired, so I actually fell asleep while they played a few games of the card game version of The Game of Life. It was pretty humorous but I only stayed awake to hear some of their crazy stories.
Day 11: Sunday, July 6
Evan loves to get up and get going early, therefore we pulled ourselves out of bed, loaded up, and headed to the hike of the day-Rob Roy glacier hike. I slept fairly well and only woke up a few times due to people talking outside in the parking lot. In order to get to the hiking spot, we had to fjord some rivers and streams as well as travel for many kilometers on a gravel road filled with cattle stops. The humor of the drive came when Morgan got out of the car to chase some sheep that were in the road. She got so sad when it ran from her. While chasing them, Jeremy and I saw a sheep mount another one right in front of the car! The drive was a success though because only a few big rocks popped up and hit underneath the car, which is nothing in comparison to the gravel road in Authur's Pass that we experienced on our way to Mt. Sunday (Edoras) last time we were here.
There were two lookout points on the hike so we just headed out and decided to play it by ear on where we would stop depending on how I felt. With packs on our back and layers ready to be shed, we headed toward the top. The beginning of the hike was along a beautiful river. Later we crossed over a bridge and traveled through a nice little forest before we started our ascent. I enjoyed this part and was feeling good, but knew it wouldn't last. Although some of the walk was quite nice in terms of temperature, comfortability, ease, and elevation others proved to be challenging. There were times I got upset with my inability to go quickly and I kept thinking about how other pregnant women do things like this all the time at the gym, so that kept me focused. As we climbed, we started to shed layers fairly quickly. We even walked through streams along the way but the views were beautiful. The views do make the hikes better (especially for a pregnant woman whose brain keeps telling her to give up).
One of the most memorable moments was also the one where I was the most fearful. A slip (or rock avalanche in this case) had recently taken out the trail so Evan carved little steps in the side of the mountain. I was terrified. I saw it ahead and said, "Jeremy, I can't do it." He kept telling me I could, so off I went with a little bit of coaxing. Evan and Jeremy had to help me up and across by holding my hand and pulling me along, but the payoff later was nice.
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| The foot-made trail thanks to Evan |
With the desire to go to the bathroom that pushed me the last little bit, we finally reached the lower lookout. Jeremy and I decided to stay there while Evan and Morgan continued another 30 minutes to the upper lookout. While waiting, we took some pictures and ate lunch. Although I'm glad I didn't go onward, I was sad to miss out on a good view. The hike took them about 45 minutes, so it would have taken me longer and I would have probably given up because the trail was covered in ice. Safety wise, I'm glad we stayed.
However, we started getting cold right after we stopped at the lookout because we weren't moving. After staying there for as long as we could handle it, we headed back down with the thought that Evan and Morgan would catch up to us. They didn't though because of the icy trail and so we actually beat them back to the car. We did take our time going down as we stopped to take pictures along the way since we didn't do that on the way up. As we neared the car park, I made some comments about the frozen, frost covered ground and cow manure around the trail. Right then, I slipped and fell. Before leaving for New Zealand Jeremy tried to convince me I needed some hiking boots instead of my Timberland's, but I didn't really want to spend the money so I said they'd be fine. Sitting on the ground, my mind started going. I knew my tailbone would hurt later, but my immediate comment was, "I think I just landed in cow manure!" I've had birds poop in my hair before but I sure didn't really want to land in cow manure, frozen or not. Jeremy helped me up and we assessed the damage and realized I just got a little dirt on me, so we continued to the car. It was here on the trail I thought a lot about being pregnant and doing things like this and I realized I don't eat for two (as some people do when they are pregnant), but instead I breathe for two.
After the hike, we headed back towards Wanaka so we could get on the road to head to Queenstown. The "shortcut" road we travel is extremely curvy, which made me a little fearful because I have gotten carsick a lot more since being pregnant. The whole way, I just focused on the road and held onto the door as we drove in the dark and was okay. I try to look at the sights all around because they are incredible but there are times when focusing takes precedence! Since the hotel was outside of the city we checked in, had a little snack, and then headed to Fergburger for dinner around 7:00. Due to it being ski season, we knew it would be quite a wait but we were prepared. We waited about an hour for our food to be done but we scored some great seats inside (there are only 4 tables and a few bar stools inside and 2 or 3 tables outside). Most people order and eat elsewhere kind of like how we did last time when we ate on the lake but it was a little cold to eat outside. After our late dinner, we went back to the hotel and crashed.
Day 12: Monday, July 7
The morning hike, Arawata Terrace was pretty easy (25-40 minutes), which helped my confidence and legs. The view wasn't that great, but it was a nice walk. At the end of the walk, we rushed to lunch because we had reservations for 12:00 at Winnie's, the pizza place we liked last time. This time they had a deal: get a small pizza and get a movie ticket for $25. Evan had previously talked with us about seeing a movie so we were up for that deal.
Before the movie, we headed to Glenorchy, which was about 45 minutes away from Queenstown. We took some pictures on the pier before heading to our next hike.
The paved road soon became gravel as we neared the destination- paradise walk. This wasn't any ol' road through pastures and wasn't even like the road the day before because this one had spunk. This road had character. This road had potholes and by potholes I mean tons of them! This proved to be quite humorous because Morgan tried to swerve to miss the potholes but ended up hitting others while in the process. The speed limit was 50 kilometers per hour, but she was taking the road like a champ. It was like she was a race car driver or part of a racing video game in real life. She would have collected lots of coins if each pothole was a coin though and she even showed us her excellent off roading ability for the second day in a row. Morgan said that she would have collected more coins, but she was leaving them for the sheep. There was even one sheep running around, outside of the pasture (paddock), and down the road away from Morgan yet again.
Although she's a champion at fjording rivers, there was one we told her we couldn't cross. Yesterday, Evan and Jeremy got out of the car to help us get across a few fjords as well as to decrease the weight inside, but today she was determined her Fit could handle it.
After succumbing to the fact we weren't going across, we turned around and headed to Diamond Lake, a lake we passed on the way in. However, it was a little muddy and chilly so I stayed in the car as they took pictures. On our way back into Queenstown we stopped on the side of the road to watch the sun set over Lake Wakatipu.
Once we were back in Queenstown, we headed straight to the movie, How to Train your Dragon 2, that started at 6:15. It was a good movie. The day wouldn't have been complete without us running to our dinner reservations after the movie since we had been going nonstop the entire day! Our dinner reservations were at 8:00 at a place called Flame. Morgan and I had filet and Evan and Jeremy had ribs. It was quite delicious. Once we ate, we headed back to the hotel.
Day 13: Tuesday, July 8
While we slept, Morgan woke up early to take Evan to the airport so he wouldn't miss another day of work. However, we weren't lazy long because we packed up the car and headed out of Queenstown once she was back since we had a long drive ahead of us for the day. On our way back, we decided to visit Mt. Cook village and do a short hike there. Mt. Cook is the tallest mountain in New Zealand, but there aren't many times you get really close to it so this was an exciting thing. After visiting the information center (i center) we decided to eat a quick lunch in the car before doing the Sealy Tarn walk (a 3-4 hour walk). Part of the walk included 2000 steps. I didn't know how many I would be able to do, or how many we would do before we would need to head down because of time, but off we went. I only made it up about 750 of the stairs with frequent breaks. From that view you could see Mt. Cook, another mountain with a glacier, and a lake with silt in it. Many of the lakes have silt in it due to the avalanches and slips, but that is what gives them a beautiful color. The view was quite nice.
We all had a conversation recently about how easy it is to become a "view snob" because New Zealand views are incredible. God's creation here is breathtaking and not many people get to experience these places in their lifetime. After making our way down the steps, which isn't as fast as down a hill or mountain trail, we headed to Tekapo for some dinner and stargazing. Most of the faster restaurants were closed by the time we got there so we ended up getting a subpar meal from a little supermarket/convenience store. Morgan and I got a salad but they weren't any good. Jeremy wasn't impressed with his steak pie either. Oh well. Once we ate we went to a nearby picnic area to give the sky time to get a little darker before taking some pictures. While waiting, we decided to make up a story. Each person was allowed to give one sentence. It turned into a horror story about cannibals. Once the story ended Morgan made a comment about seeing a hooded person outside the car. We knew it was a joke, but we were on the side of the road, at night, in a little picnic area, telling scary stories, so there was already a bit of anxiety hanging in the air. While Jeremy was taking some pictures Morgan let out a yelp, which definitely made us jump! Haha. The stars were pretty too but the moon was a little too bright so we got back on the road and traveled the rest of the way to Christchurch. We got home about 10 and I headed straight to sleep.
Day 14: Wednesday, July 9
Jeremy caught a bit of a cold the other day and has been coughing and blowing his nose quite frequently. He's trying to drink lots of water and get rest to help him get over it quickly, but it is still hanging around. Today, we all slept late, well that of course is with the exception of Evan. I actually woke up early but just laid in bed for the morning. I decided to be lazy the entire day. I wrote and chilled. Jeremy and Morgan went to run some errands in the afternoon while I hung out at the house. We made dinner (salmon/chicken for me, homemade salsa, sweet potato caserole, and veggies) and hung out for the rest of the evening. It was a good day to just rest though because the weather wasn't the best. It was a blah day and drizzled here and there through the evening. The power went off about 9:30 while we were watching The Office. It was out for blocks and blocks. Our evening then turned into a time of conversation and Monopoly Deal by candlelight, but I will admit that I fell asleep during the game while waiting for the power to come back on.
Day 15: Thursday, July 10 (pictures to come as soon as they are edited)
Morgan, Jeremy, and I left Christchurch about 9 and headed towards Kaikoura, which is on the eastern coast. The drive is only about two hours but it is beautiful. A bit of the drive is right along the coast. To the left we saw the mountain, which dropped off for the road, and to the right of the road was the Pacific Ocean. Our first stop was the Ohau Stream Walk that led us straight to a waterfall. The 10 minute walk to the falls wasn't the highlight of the walk though because the walk was actually to a place where the seal pups played during the day. They were super cute and would let people get close to them, unlike the adults which we found out later were very territorial. I could have stayed and watched them all day long, but we went to see the adults next.
The adults were in colonies all along the coast. Most of them were sunbathing and sleeping, but others were alert and hissing at all the viewers.
After that, we went on a walk along the peninsula walkway. It started off pretty steep and I was a bit worried, but we came to the top of the mountain fairly quickly and the just walked along the top. The view was spectacular. From the top we could see some more seal colonies and decided to walk along the beach on the way back so we could see them. both places, on top of the mountain and along the beach were windy. While walking along the beach, we had a few obstacles to overcome. First, we encountered a seal on the path and other seals surrounded the path so we were trapped. All the signs warned about getting too close to them, but we had to get around it. As we waited for it to move, it started hissing at us. We inched forward the hissing continued but it also moved off the trail at the same time so we were making a little progress. I took a step forward and it started moving very quickly for us so we all started sprinting out of the way. The movement actually helped us get around it, but the whole experience was scary since a seal bite wouldn't be the most enjoyable thing! Once we made it past the seal we traveled onward. Up ahead we encountered obstacle number two. It was actually high tide so the trail disappeared underneath the ocean, therefore we had to make our own path across these huge rocks as the waves crashed upon them. As I looked ahead, I realized that our rock climbing could only last so long before we were without a rock on which to climb because the water was hitting alongside the mountain on which we had been on top of earlier on the walk. There were a few options: continue forward in the cold water, turn back and go past the seal to the place where we came down the mountain in order to do the hike in reverse, or make a new path up the side of the mountain. Obviously we all agreed the first option was not really an option so we were left with two choices. What to do? Jeremy wanted to go back the way we came. Morgan and I didn't really want to go back by the seal. I also didn't want to go back that way because it would take us such a long time to return since we were so close to the beginning of the hike that was already supposed to be about 1-2 hours long. I was actually excited about climbing the side of the mountain covered in tussock, flax, and grass. Jeremy was worried about me though since I am 28 weeks pregnant, but since I felt confident, off we went. I led the group up the hill. We had to hang onto something at all times though in order to keep ourselves from falling. I was pretty much on my hands and knees crawling up the steep 30+ meter hill, which is quite humorous because I was terrified by all the stairs the other day. Jeremy followed closely behind me as I scouted the way and helped push me up if I got stuck. Praise The Lord we made it up safely. I know. I know. I shouldn't be doing things like that but that might have actually been better than getting bitten by a seal or freezing to death! Going up that way was pretty crazy the more I think about it but it was worth it in terms of time.
Our trip home seemed to fly by and the pumpkin soup dinner tasted delicious as our bodies thanked us for a nice meal and time of rest.
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