New Zealand's South Island. My goodness, is it breathtaking. The scenery is so stunning that I tend to run out of adjectives when describing it. Covered in mountains, lakes, glaciers, and sheep, it surpassed the Swiss and Austrian Alps as the most beautiful place that I've ever been. It's so consistently beautiful, in fact, that I became 'used to' the landscape after being there for a week. In hindsight, it feels like I should be punished for this. A recent review of the photos I took reveals that yes, it's gorgeous everywhere, and yes, I'm crazy to have taken this for granted toward the end of the trip. Everything is so...so...dang, I think I'm already beginning to run out of adjectives. I suppose that means that I need to start showing you photos instead of talking about the terrain.

There are many more neat photos where that comes from, but I'm getting ahead of myself. Let me back up.

In early February, my parents arrived in Melbourne to begin their month-long jaunt through Australia and New Zealand. Linnea and I had a wonderful time showing them around. On the two weekends that they spent in the city, they got to explore laneways, enjoy the local cuisine, and attend a cricket match at the Melbourne Cricket Ground. During the week, they left Melbourne for some outdoorsy adventures along the Great Ocean Road and Phillip Island. After a fun 10 days hosting my parents, Linnea and I said 'see ya soon' instead of 'goodbye.' We would be seeing them in Queenstown 6 days later after they stopped in Sydney and Christchurch for more sightseeing.

Now that you're caught up, I can jump into talking about the trip. Before I do that, here's another photo. Look closely and you might find my parents.

Queenstown

For the first few nights of the trip, we stayed in an Airbnb just outside of Queenstown, hailed by many as the 'adventure capital of the world.' Those who have given this title to Queenstown were right. It's amazing that bungee jumping, mountain biking, skydiving, shark boat rides (Google it if you're unfamiliar), and much more are all easily accessible in a town of just 15,000 people. The glut of adrenaline-inducing activities was not what drew us to Queenstown. Instead, we were there to enjoy the easy access to nature, some of which is just a few minutes from the city.

Okay, that last sentence isn't completely true. While all four of us were excited for hiking in New Zealand, there were a couple of us who were also planning on taking advantage of a particular adventure activity. If you're wondering who might have been planning to do that, let's just say that my parents had gotten their fill of 'adrenaline' after taking a gondola ride to begin a hike on our first full day in Queenstown.

After shaking off the post-gondola jitters (sorry, Mom and Dad...this will be the last time I mention it :) ), we began our hike to the summit of Ben Lomond. What a terrific introduction to New Zealand. It was fairly strenuous and we were all sore for a couple of days after, but the views of Queenstown and the Remarkables in one direction and the Southern Alps in the other made the hard work worth it. The PB&J's that we scarfed down at the summit couldn't have tasted better.

The next day was a more relaxed one that included a wander around the charming Arrowtown and a visit to a local winery. After the previous day's tramp (what Kiwis call a hike), we needed to give our glutes a break. Plus, Linnea and I needed to bide our strength for the adventure activity that I alluded to earlier: SKYDIVING. I put that in all caps because I was terrified. I am afraid of heights and did not enjoy bungee jumping when my friend Miguel convinced me to do it in Austria. Linnea was adamant that we needed to skydive, but I threw every excuse at her to see if I could convince her otherwise because we hadn't booked anything yet. "It's dangerous!" (it's not) "It's too expensive!" (it is) "They won't have any spots left!" (they had plenty) "My mom won't want me to!" (true, but she stayed cool). In the end, not only did I fail to talk Linnea out of skydiving, but somehow she convinced me to jump from 15,000 feet, which is the highest available jump. We booked our tandem jumps for early the next morning.

We arrived at the jump sight through a lot of fog. Of course we weren't allowed to jump until it was clear outside, so we had to wait until the fog lifted. This gave us plenty of time to get our jumpsuits on, meet our tandem diver, and think about the fact that we would soon be jumping out of an airplane. In addition to the jumpsuits and silly looking hats, we got a breathing mask. A breathing mask - what for? you might ask. It turns out that, because we were jumping from higher than 13,000 feet, we were legally required to be given supplemental oxygen. That thought made me even more anxious, but I started to feel better after I met my tandem diver. This was mostly because he has been a professional skydiver for 26 years in New Zealand, the Amazon, and Michigan. He made me feel safe as we got in the plane and started to go up...and up...and up. After what seemed like quite a while, he showed me the altimeter on his wrist and we were only at 8,000 feet. The view was already incredible, but I was happy to see even further as we continued our lazy upward circles, putting on breathing masks at 13,000 feet. I'd like to say this is when it got real for me, but it didn't truly become real until I was falling. I've been in plenty of airplanes and not once considered jumping out. This time felt no different. Until of course, it wasn't. All of a sudden a green light at the back of the airplane turned on, the hatch opened, and the first divers fell out. I wasn't far behind.

It takes a few seconds of free fall to really believe that you're plummeting toward the earth. By the time you've wrapped your head around it, you've reached terminal velocity, which is about 120 mph. It turns out that rocketing at terminal velocity is too much fun to be scared anymore. The free fall was 60 seconds of pure joy. It's a very good thing that I had a tandem jumper because I was having too much fun to think about the parachute. Once the chute is released, I spent about 5 minutes gliding towards the earth. During the gentle descent, I got the chance to drive, which was fun until I spun us around a little too aggressively. I paid for that fun in some nausea later. The landing was smooth and, while I very much enjoyed skydiving, I was happy to be on solid ground and to see that Linnea had made it too. As quickly as I could, I texted my parents to tell them that we had landed safely. They responded that they could now begin enjoying their day.

Te Anau and Milford Sound

Te Anau is where we stayed for the next couple nights. We chose Te Anau not for what you can do in the town, but for how close it is to lovely sightseeing and tramping. Upon arrival, we set out to find beverages and dinner. We came away satisfied, having found happy hour at a bar before tracking down pizza and craft beer. Te Anau is small, but there are a handful of eateries that appeared to be worth trying. Our first morning in town we woke up early to begin driving. We headed to Milford Sound, which is a fiord leading to the ocean that's known for its beautiful waterfalls and tall peaks. Milford Sound isn't easy to get to; there are many one lane bridges (very common in New Zealand) on the way, you have to go through a mountain at one point, and it's nowhere near a town. It's so remote that power lines don't go there. All electricity used by the tour operators and the small number of people that live there must be generated on-site, which is done via hydroelectric power courtesy of the waterfalls. When it comes to lists of things to do near Queenstown, seeing Milford Sound is on nearly every one. After taking a cruise through the sound to the sea, I think it deserves to be on these lists. It's an interesting and unique bit of geography that is unlike anything I've seen before. You may be surprised to learn that the only regret I have is that it wasn't raining during (or immediately before) our cruise. When it rains a lot, thousands of temporary waterfalls cascade down the steep mountainsides.

On the way back to Te Anau from Milford Sound, we made multiple quick stops to enjoy the sights. The highlight on the drive back was on the Te Anau side of the mountain tunnel. Here you can usually spot the mischievous kea, an endangered mountain parrot that is only found in alpine regions of the South Island. I call this bird 'mischievous' because they have been known to steal things from people, including keys and passports. As a side note, Mischievous Kea happens to be the name of a tasty beer brewed in Queenstown that Linnea and I very much enjoyed. The start of the Routeburn Track was the one spot that we intentionally skipped on the way back because we would return the next day.

Routeburn Track

The Routeburn Track was the reason I booked flights to Queenstown. Well, I suppose it wasn't specifically the Routeburn Track. It was learning about New Zealand's Great Walks that inspired me to begin looking at flights, and in August of last year I jumped on a flight sale. The Great Walks are a series of popular multi-day tramps that are very well-maintained by New Zealand's Department of Conservation. Each Great Walk has huts and camping facilities. I chose to camp because it felt more 'hard core' and, quite honestly, I wanted an excuse to sleep in the tent that I bought many months ago and hadn't used yet. Camping means carrying a bunch of extra gear, which leads to some very large and heavy backpacks. Upon seeing me declare my backpack 'ready to go', my mom asked if I was sure I could carry that huge thing through the mountains. In typical defiant son fashion, I told her that I would be fine. I wasn't positive, though. This was my first backpacking trip and that thing was pretty darn heavy.

We drove to the start of the track and were joined for the first few hours of the tramp by my parents. Sunny and clear without being too hot, It was a nearly perfect day. After an hour or so of hiking uphill through alpine forest, we emerged at Key Summit, where we were treated to spectacular views. See for yourself:

Mom and Dad joined us until we stopped for lunch. They said "see you in July", turned around, and tramped back to the car to continue their New Zealand adventure. The following day they dropped off their rental car in favour of a camper van. I don't want to say too much for them about their camper van experience, but I think they were happy to be flying home after 4 nights in the van.

We continued our hike, stopping along the way to admire views or fill up our water bottles in a stream. After a few more hours of hiking, we were very grateful to arrive at the campsite. It turns out that our packs were pretty heavy, mostly because we were carrying a week's worth of clothes for just 2 nights of camping. The campsite was in a beautiful spot near a large glacial lake. Linnea was gutsy enough to take a dip in the very cold water:

We became friends with 2 other couples staying at the campsite that night, the conversation starting when Linnea overheard one of the girls say 'New Hampshire' with a clearly North American accent. One couple was from NH. They had recently quit their jobs to spend 6 months traveling. The other couple was from Missouri and at the end of their two week vacation in New Zealand. It was fun to swap stories over dinner (tuna tacos aka a packet of tuna wrapped in a tortilla) about our travels.

The weather wasn't quite as friendly the next day. It was misty and rainy, which was too bad. That was the day we most wanted good visibility because we would be at the highest elevation on the track. We powered through the hike because there wasn't much to stop and look at, although there was something pretty about how misty the mountains were.

Once we got to our campsite on the second night, the weather was much better. It was done raining, which allowed us to set up our tent, and the fog had lifted, letting us enjoy the view of Routeburn Flats from our campsite. We played cards at the picnic table for a while (gin rummy, if you're wondering what we played), but you can only sit still for so long before the sand flies drive you crazy. We finished the card game inside the tent.

The next morning, we decided to hike back up the mountain a little bit to enjoy the views that the fog had obstructed the day before. We left our heavy backpacks at the campsite and hiking magically became easy. I felt like I was moving faster than I ever had. The views ended up being worth the relatively easy hike, but we didn't have too much time to wander because we had a bus to catch. On the way back down, we hiked and chatted with a middle-aged guy from Seattle (it seemed like everyone on the track was American).

When we got back to Queenstown, we hadn't eaten hot food in a few days. That doesn't sound like a long time, but peanut butter, freeze dried yogurt and granola, trail mix, tortillas, and tuna get old pretty fast. We decided to treat ourselves to Fergburger, Queenstown's seemingly world-famous burger joint. I was very hungry and ordered the largest burger on the menu, which, to my own surprise, I managed to finish in a reasonable amount of time. It's easy to work up an appetite when carrying 30-something pounds on your back.

We crashed early at the hostel that night. The next day, we met up with Linnea's friend Linnea (I know, I had never been with 2 Linneas at the same time either) and enjoyed a beverage at our favourite spots in Queenstown, Perky's floating bar (it's on a boat!) and the town square on the water (no open container laws). Having such a lovely, relaxing last day in Queenstown made me sad to leave. I think Queenstown was sad to see us leave, or at least it wanted to make sure we remembered how beautiful it is, because it treated us to this sunset before we left for Melbourne:

Dear New Zealand,

I'll be back.

-Ben