Gidday loves!

We stayed in Rotorua after our Maori feast Wednesday night. Thursday morning we woke up a little later than usual, which was very nice :) We went to McDonald's for breakfast because you get free internet there if you buy something. The McDonald's here could teach ours a lesson in the states. All of the McD's here are super nice, I practically feel like I'm in a Starbucks! After some internet time we headed to a geothermal park to watch the Lady Knox Geyser erupt at its every-day time of 10:15am. After we watched the Geyser, we hiked through the rest of the gorgeous, but smelly park. I especially LOVED Champagne Pool because the colors of the pool and the steam rolling off it were just amazing. 

McD's being all nice in NZ.

Lady Knox Geyeser

Rainbows have been following us EVERYWHERE in NZ!

Jurassic Park?

Geothermal mudpools

Geothermal color pools

For my fellow Hunger Games fanatics.

Note: Don't touch the geothermal pools

I will never get over the trees here. They amaze me.

Champagne Pool

Me! :)

Little lamb at the Hobbiton entrance. SO. CUTE.

AHHHHH!

Hobbit house!

The Shire

I was practically hyperventilating this entire tour.

The Green Dragon. We couldn't get any closer than this :(

The party tree, where Bilbo gave his speech in the Fellowship of The Ring

Too bad I don't live in NZ, I am the height it called for to audition to be a hobbit.

Bag End.

The Shire. So beautiful.

Gidday!

We woke up early Wednesday and did quite a bit of driving. We drove up to Taupo in hopes of seeing where they based Mount Doom from LOTR, but sadly heavy clouds didn't allow us to see the volcano :( Mount Doom is only loosely based off the volcano at Taupo, so it wasn't SUPER disappointing, but still, it was a little sad. Anyway, after seeing some smaller hot water areas, and a small waterfall, we moved on from Taupo and headed to Rotorua for the night. If you've never been there, let me tell you... Rotorua SMELLS. Why? Because it's a geothermal area filled with lots of hot springs and geysers; so despite the smell, there are lots of cool things to see there. Once we got to Rotorua we settled in our hostel and resisted cooking dinner because we were scheduled for a traditional Maori cultural experience and dinner that night! We went at nightfall to a Maori village where they talked to us about their culture and cooked us a feast underground. It was really interesting to learn about all their culture and the history of New Zealand. After lots of nights with just spaghetti for dinner to save on money, our visit to the Maori tribe left us with very full stomachs. It was really dark and hard to take pictures there, thus the lack of photos; but it was another one of those things I liked experiencing without being behind the lens. 

enjoy!

XOXO . Kristian Lynae

Hot water stream in Taupo.

I couldn't help feeling like we were in Jurassic Park or something. 

Huka Falls at Taupo

Maori culture experience. The different tattoos tell what rank in the tribe someone is,
the more tattoos the higher ranked they are. 

They cooked our food underground. 

Our Traditional Maori feast for the night.
nomnomnom :)

Hello!

Sorry I'm a bit behind on the posting, we've been lacking internet. 
Tuesday morning we left Picton on the Bluebridge Ferry and headed for Wellington. I adore Wellington because it reminded me a lot of NYC, and I'm completely in love with NYC. My fellow travelers didn't like it so very much, but they aren't very into big cities. We spent a little bit of time in Wellington, then headed to Mount Victoria, which is located right between the outskirts of Wellington's big buildings and residential area. We headed to Mount Victoria for a sweet lookout of the city, but more importantly to me, we were in search of a filming location from Lord of The Rings. The movie had filmed a few scenes in the woods of Mount Victoria, but the most memorable one is when the ring-wraiths ride down a scary trail where Frodo, Sam, Merry, and Pippen are walking, when Frodo feels afraid and yells to the others "Get off the road!" and then they all run and hide behind a large tree branch as a ring-wraith looks for them. Now, understand I'm not a giant LOTR freak or anything, I understand there are crazy die-hard fans out there... but I REALLY like LOTR. So, I was REALLY... REALLLLYYYY excited when we found the trail and saw the famous overhanging tree. More LOTR stuff to come! I can't wait! 

XOXO . Kristian Lynae

Leaving Picton

I love boats.

Wellington here we come!

Helloooooo Wellington :)

Such a gorgeous city.

Wellington Bluebridge harbor. 

That's me!

Mount Victoria in Wellington on the Hobbit's trail. Ahhhh!!

"Get off the road!"

This little gap is where the hobbits jumped over a fake tree root and hid as the ring-wraith searched for them. 
I was a little sad that the tree and roots were fake, I was really hoping I could get a picture under the tree, 
hiding like the four hobbits did in this scene. Oh well, still cool!

Gidday loves!

Well we woke up Monday morning to lots and lots of rain. We had planned on kayaking across Abel Tasman today, but heavy rainfall wouldn't allow for it. We left Abel Tasman somewhat sad because we had really looked forward to kayaking through the National Park's famous blue waters. We had a lovely gentleman tell us about a few scenic routes we could take on our way to Picton though, since we couldn't kayak. We set out for Picton a little bit sad, but still thankful for how blessed we'd be so far with the weather.

We did get to stop at Split Apple Rock for a bit of exploring through the rainforest trail and onto the beach. It was low tide so we were able to explore some of the small caves that are usually filled with water. Something else cool that happened was when we walked out of the rainforest onto the beach, we saw a double rainbow over the water. It only lasted a few brief seconds before fading, but I was able to snap a picture of it :) We saw thousands of clams too! I think they're clams at least... I'm not brushed up on my sea animal identification. Regardless, there were so many I was amazed. We spent a while taking photos here and exploring the little caves before heading back to the car. 

Because of the heavy rain we only stopped one other time on our way to Picton. We made a stop in Nelson because it is the oldest city in New Zealand. We got to see the oldest street there, still preserved as it was; and we got to see an old cathedral. The little city of Nelson was a nice, quaint stop on our way to Picton. 

As I'm typing this blog it's 11pm Monday night here in New Zealand. We got to Picton around 4pm and found ourselves a place to stay. The hostel is called Tombstone Backpackers because it's right next to a cemetery. Despite the name, the fact that it's next to a cemetery, and there is a skull on my keys for my room, the place is one of my favorite we've stayed in so far. They theme is funny, but they didn't take is so far as to be creepy, and the hostel is really nice and clean, and everything looks like the owners really take good care of it. If you're ever in Picton, make sure you stay here :)

We're off to the North Island on the Picton to Wellington Ferry bright and early tomorrow morning! eeeee! I can't wait!

XOXO . Kristian Lynae

Split Apple Rock

Double Rainbow at Split Apple Rock 

Split Apple Rock 

At Split Apple Rock

Playing in the little caves since it was low tide :)

All of that black stuff on the rocks is the thousands of baby clams. THERE WERE SO MANY.

These little clams were EVERYWHERE.

Cathedral in Nelson.

Cathedral in Nelson.

Cathedral in Nelson.

Cathedral in Nelson.

Cathedral in Nelson.

Cathedral in Nelson.

Cathedral in Nelson.

That's a HUGE leaf.

The oldest street in the oldest city of New Zealand.

On South Street in Nelson, New Zealand.

Somewhere between Nelson and Picton.

Somewhere between Nelson and Picton.

Welcome to Picton!

Hey guys!

Sunday we left Greymouth late morning heading for a place called Pancake Rocks. These are giant rock formations that are Ocean Blowholes at high tide. Sadly we weren't going to be able to wait around for high tide, but they were still awesome to go check out! After we saw Pancake Rocks we set out for a long drive to Abel Tasman National Park. 

We got to Abel Tasman with a little over an hour of sunlight left, so we took a hike through the rainforest to the nearest bay. It wasn't the best weather to see Abel Tasman in, but it was still a gorgeous beach. We walked around, played on boulders, and found shells until it got dark. We headed back through the rainforest to our campsite. We ended up heading to bed really early, which I was happy for because I had been suffering a terrible headache all day. 
A good long sleep in the quiet rainforest was exactly what I needed. 

enjoy!

XOXO . Kristian Lynae

On the west coast

Pancake Rocks

Abel Tasman at sunset

Low tide at Abel Tasman

Abel Tasman

Abel Tasman

Abel Tasman

Rainforest trail to the bays in Abel Tasman

Hello!

Saturday was a big driving day as we went up most of the west coast. We set off from Haast early in the morning and headed for the famous glaciers! We were all prepared to hike Franz Joseph Glacier, but we found out when we got to Fox Glacier that Franz Joseph had caved in and couldn't be hiked at the moment. We decided to check out Fox Glacier even though we had heard from lots of people that Franz Joseph was the better of the two. Seeing as Franz Joseph had caved in though, we didn't have much choice. The hikes on Fox Glacier didn't look too promising for the time and money we had so we just did a little hike to the front of the glacier. I was really looking forward to hiking on Franz Joseph Glacier so it was a little bit of a let down to only be able to walk to the front of Fox Glacier, but at least we got to see it. After the glacier we headed for Hokitika, where they are famous for their Jade. All of New Zealand is famous for their Jade, but Hokitika is the place to get it. After a brief stop in Hokitika, where I found the most gorgeous Jade ring, we headed for Greymouth to find a place to sleep for the night. 

Sorry for only a few pictures, more to come though!

XOXO . Kristian Lynae

Knight's Point. This was our view as we drove on the west coast. So gorgeous. 

Fox Glacier

Fox Glacier

That's me! :)

The water around the glacier was INCREDIBLE. The most blue and green I have ever seen in water. Ever.

Gidday!

Friday morning we slept in a bit and went to the one place we found semi-fast Internet so that we could update our blogs. 
We left Queenstown that afternoon and headed for a city named Haast. It was another long driving day with lots of gorgeous scenery. We drove for quite a few hours and found ourselves in Haast at nightfall. Haast is an extremely small and remote city 
from what we saw. We were the only people in an entire hostel so we had the whole building to ourselves, including the giant lounge, kitchen, and bathrooms! We didn’t really have any Internet because you had to pay $1 for every ten minutes, and it took 6 minutes just to log into facebook and check one message in the inbox. So after about $3 we decided that trying to get online was a waste of time. To make things even more isolated, we had absolutely no cell phone reception, not even 3G. It felt like we were in the middle of nowhere! It ended up being nice though because after dinner we were able to go to bed earlier than normal.

I hope you enjoy the photos my loves!

XOXO Kristian Lynae

I finally found a souvenir I really loved. This is a traditional Maori fish-hook symbol that represents safe travels over water, 
and it's made out of New Zealand Paua shell. I saw it in the shop in Queenstown and just couldn't leave it behind. 

Invitation to trespass for a photo opportunity? Ok. You don't have to tell us twice.

I love how the fall colors everywhere contrast with the icy-ness of the blue water and mountains. 

You think you can't possibly see anything else so beautiful that it takes your breath away,
 but then New Zealand goes and proves you wrong.

There were NO cars on this road and I decided to take a long exposure to try to capture the foggy rainforest at night. 
Wouldn't you know it, practically the ONLY car we saw on the road in the rainforest at nightfall decided to drive by as I took 
my first exposure. I ended up really liking how it turned out, but it was a complete accident. 

This was my intended photo, but I liked the accidental one above too. 

Hello my loves!

We woke up early Thursday morning and backtracked about 2 hours so we could revisit some of the rainforest leading up to Milford Sound. I still can’t get over how green and lush everything is. What’s even weirder is that this rainforest is cold; I always imagined rainforests as being hot and tropical. The moss looked really soft so I touched a patch as I climbed up some tree roots, and I was amazed at how soft it actually was. Everything is the rainforest is so intriguing! After we wore ourselves out exploring, we packed up the car and headed to Queenstown for the night. We stayed in the same hostel that we had stayed in on our last visit to Queenstown, and the same French couple was there again. We spent a good amount of time in town that night because we wouldn’t be going through Queenstown again on our journey. Luckily though, there will be lots more rainforest to explore on the west coast as we drive it for the next few days.

Enjoy!

XOXO . Kristian Lynae

Mirror Lakes

Mirror Lakes

This moss is SO soft.

This is for you Adam. I don't know if you can eat these, but there were SO many mushrooms in the rainforest.

Seems legit?

SO thankful for my sponsors who provided these Tevas for the trip. 
They have been superb in all the crazy terrain we've been adventuring through. 

Back on the road to Queenstown!

Gidday loves!

It was cloudy on Wednesday morning in Te Anau, so we were a little uneasy about making a two hour drive out to Milford sound that day. We heard from some locals that it was 16 degrees (celsius) and mostly sunny in Milford though, and based on past experiences of crazy weather here in NZ, we booked our tickets and drove out to Milford Sound. 

I don't know about any of you guys, but I've never seen a rainforest-so the drive out to Milford was breathtaking to me. Everything is so lush and green! It was torture not being able to stop and take pictures along the way. We were running short on time because we had booked our time to sail Milford Sound last minute, so there was no time for stops along the way. 
 We made it to Milford Sound on time and were able to take a few photos before the boat took off. 

The entire drive down to Milford and the entire time in Milford I was in complete awe. The tour guide called it the 8th wonder of the world and a little piece of Heaven, and let me vouch for him that Milford sound is both those things and SO much more.
While we were sailing we got to see dolphins and a seal briefly which was kind've exciting, lol. The mountains though are just amazing, and nothing else at that moment was able to capture my attention like the giant rocks jutting up into the sky. We found out that Milford Sound isn't actually a Sound, it's a Fjord because it was carved out by glaciers. The discoverers of Milford Sound thought it was carved by rivers though, so they named is Milford Sound instead of Milford Fjord. In an attempt to correct the name, the kiwis named the region of Sounds the Fiordland, but they spelled Fjord wrong. haha. All the history is so interesting and fun. Even though the photos don't begin to express the size and majestic nature of Milford Sound, I still couldn't stop taking photos. The guide told us that some of the mountains were twice the size of the empire state building, and some of the waterfalls were the height of Niagara Falls! We sailed right up underneath the waterfalls too. We had to run inside to protect our cameras, but this experience was AMAZING. 

We were talking to our tour guide at the end of our trip across the water and told him that we were planning on hiking a place nearby called the Chasm. He then told us about a off-trail path we could take to see a waterfall up-close. We got off the boat breathless and were excited to hike, but we really though the huge excitement was over for the day. While nothing compares to the experience we had sailing across Milford Sound, we were in for a surprise on our hike. 

We took the off-trail route marked by a green donations box, once we were on the Chasm hike. This took us deep into the rainforest and down to crystal-clear, aqua-colored water. We could hear a waterfall in the distance and we explored. We climbed over slippery wet stone and clung to the side of small cliffs and found a 'trail' that went straight up the side of some slick rocks. We were able to hold onto some tree roots and found a rope that had been tied to higher-up tree roots, and pulled ourselves up the side of the cliffs. This was absolutely AWESOME. We found ourselves at the top of a gorgeous waterfall deep in the New Zealand rainforest. I'm not sure what else I could have wanted in that moment. 

We stayed at the waterfall for a good while then turned back for the trail. We took the rest of the actual trail and found some more awesome rock formations carved out by glaciers. After that we headed back to the car and drove back to Te Anau for the night. It was dark as we drove home but we decided that we would drive back some of the way to Milford again the next day to explore a bit more of the rainforest that we didn't get to see on the way to Milford Sound that morning. 

I don't know if you can tell, but this has been my favorite experience so far. This day goes down in my personal book as one of the top 3 most amazing things I have ever experienced. If you're curious my top experience was seeing a lunar eclipse in Africa last summer. Milford Sound is now my second more favorite experience in my life thus far, moving skydiving down to third. If you are ever in NZ, go to Milford Sound no matter how far out of the way it is, and no matter the cost. 


I hope these pictures give you some idea of my experience. 

Much love mates.

XOXO . Kristian Lynae

Hello Milford Sound

If you take a tour in Milford Sound, go with this company at an earlier time-slot, on the encounter nature tour. There are FAR less people and the boats are smaller so you get closer to the cliffs. 

I thought it'd be fun to take a video :)

Milford Sound

In front of "The Lion" mountain on the right of the photo. 

Look how tiny the boat is next to the mountains!

Complimentary cup of white tea :)

We spotted a sleepy seal :)

Into the rainforest we go!

Special thanks to my friend Jef and my sponsors for providing me these Teva hiking shoes. 
The people I'm traveling with have had cold, wet feet the entire trip, 
while mine have been warm and dry the whole time.  

If you're planning on hiking in the rainforest or climbing waterfalls, get a pair of Tevas. My feet were warm and dry the entire time. I even completely submerged my foot in the water when I slipped off the side of the rocks we were climbing up, and my feet didn't even get damp.

The waterfall we found

Photographing by the waterfall :) AHHH SO COOL

Rock formations carved out by glaciers

Tevas in the rainforest

I already want to go back.

Hello again my loves!!

I'm almost all caught up on blogging about the trip thus far :)

So Tuesday we drove from Queenstown to a city called Te Anau. There was a gorgeous lake running beside Queenstown as we drove to Te Anau, and the sunset was making colors dance all across the sky. We stopped probably 15 times. The trip to Te Anau was supposed to only be 2 hours and 15 minutes, and we ended up making it there in 5 hours. haha. In Te Anau we stayed at a hostel called Lakeview Backpacker. (The hostel a french couple from our hostel in Queenstown suggested to us). Oh my gosh it was a fabulous hostel. It had a little community room where all of the backpackers could watch t.v., cook dinner, and hangout. So many awesome people from all around the world were in little Te Anau with us that night. 

A post from Milford Sound is coming up next!!! My favorite part of the trip. Keep a lookout :)

XOXO . Kristian Lynae

Mountains from Queenstown to Te Anau

New Zealand in a nutshell

Lake Wakatipu

Lake Wakatipu

Looking back towards Queenstown.

The clouds here are amazing.

Driving to Te Anau at sunset

Driving from Queenstown to Te Anau

I adore the skies here. This is somewhere between Queenstown and Te Anau at sunset.

Somewhere between Queenstown and Te Anau

Fog emerged as we drove to Te Anau making the deer farms looks especially cool.