We chose to settle in Queenstown because of the nearby ski fields, but the town also has a reputation for being the adventure capital of New Zealand.  Although the majority of the activities were well out of our price range (even with working five jobs between us) we still managed to do a few crazy things over our six months in town. 

When we first arrived in Queenstown we took a job with Ziptrek EcoTours, guiding guests on 4 or 6 ziplines on top of Bob's Peak overlooking Queenstown. It was a bit different than the zipline we worked on in Alaska... there were no flips or tricks allowed and our tour was scripted right down to the jokes we were supposed to tell. I wouldn't exactly consider it an adventure activity, but the views were beautiful and as guides we were given the opportunity to do a few of the other tours in town for free. We spent as much time as we could in the winter trying to get our money's worth out of our ski passes, and between zipline guiding, go-kart supervising, babysitting, and working at the airport we didn't have many days off together to do anything else. Luckily we had a much lighter schedule for our last two weeks in New Zealand with only one job each, so we were able to cram in quite a few adventures.

The zipline was located at the top of the Skyline Gondola along with quite a few other activities, such as mountain biking trails, tandem paragliding, a street luge track and a bungy jump. Queenstown is the home of the worlds first bungy jump, off of the Kawarau Bridge, and the same company operates this shorter but more scenic jump overlooking Queenstown and Lake Wakatipu as well. Although the drop is only 154 feet, its location on the side of the mountain makes it feel much higher. We had both been bungy jumping before in Washington, but we couldn't pass up an opportunity to do a free jump in the town where it all got started. Unlike a traditional jump where the cord is attached at the ankles, we were given a full body harness and attached by the waist which gave us the ability to do different jump styles. I opted for a running front flip and Steve did a handstand into a forward dive.

Another activity we got the opportunity to experience through our jobs at Zip Trek was the Shotover Canyon Swing, billed as the worlds highest cliff jump. From a platform 357 feet over the Shotover river we got to experience a 196 foot free fall, but instead of bouncing back up like a bungee jump we swung out in a 656 foot arc over the canyon below. The rope was connected to the harness at the waist, giving us the opportunity to plunge to possible death in whatever manner seemed best. I chose my signature front flip, and Steve decided to step off sideways while staring straight down to get the full effect of the free fall. After our first solo jumps they gave us the opportunity to go a second time for free, so we decided to do a tandem jump, strapped together at the hip. This time we swung out slowly over the canyon and hung upside down to stare down at the river before our jumpmaster released us. You know what they say, the couple that plummets towards the ground together stays together... or something like that.

After enjoying the Shotover river from above, we decided to get a closer look with a ride on a Jetboat. Shotover Jet has been around since 1965, and was one of the first adventure activities in Queenstown. The jetboat is a very iconic New Zealand activity, and we didn't want to leave the country without experiencing a ride in one. Rather than having a propeller at the back of the boat, jetboats draw water through a pump inside the boat, and eject it out the back allowing them to operate at speed in water only 3 inches deep. Our driver was able to skim across the surface of the shallow river at 60mph, barely dodging the canyon walls as he expertly maneuvered past giant boulders and executed 360 degree spins. The ride lasted over 25 minutes, and we had such a good time that when we got back we decided to pay $20 for a second ride. At $150 for nearly an hour of jetboating, we felt like it was the best value for our money activity that we did in our entire stay in New Zealand.


Check out the Movie page for videos from our adventures in Queenstown and see more photos here.

Our time in New Zealand is coming to a close pretty quickly, but there are a few more places we want to see before we leave and Dunedin was at the top of the list. In another life I had strongly considered getting my Masters in Kinesiology from the University of Otago in Dunedin, so I was especially curious to see the place I would have spent two years of my life. Dunedin is a mid-size city  situated on the East coast of the South Island, about 3 hours from Queenstown. We managed to trade a rainy and windy day in Queenstown for warm sunny weather in Dunedin, and after eating lunch at Velvet Burger we spent a leisurely afternoon wandering around down town and admiring all of the beautiful architecture.

There are a lot of really impressive old stone buildings in Dunedin, but our favorite was the old train station. It took three years to build out of local granite and basalt, and was opened in 1906. At its peak it could handle over 100 trains in a day, but today its just visited by a couple of sightseeing trains and the building is also used as an information center, bus stop and art gallery. Living in Queenstown, which is a major tourist destination, where things are open all week, we had forgotten that the majority of places in New Zealand virtually shut down on Sundays. Dunedin, on the other hand, is more of a "normal" city so we weren't able to look in any of the cute little shops or have coffee in any of the quaint cafés, but we did manage to snag a spot in a tour of the Cadbury chocolate factory.

The Cadbury factory in Dunedin manufactures all of the New Zealand specific candies... things we had never heard of before we arrived here like Jaffas, Crunchie bars, Pebbles and Snowballs. We started our tour by exploring their little chocolate museum in the visitors center where they explained the history of the Cadbury company and displayed all of the old candy wrappers and marketing materials. Then we were led "backstage" by a tour guide in purple overalls who explained to us how chocolate is made and a bit about the process behind the manufacture of different candies. We didn't actually get to see inside the factory for "health and safety" reasons, but we did get to spend time in a sensory room where we got whiffs of the different chocolate flavors from giant PVC pipes on the wall and we got to design our own melted chocolate treat for consumption with tiny wooden spoons. At the end of the tour we climbed to the top of a giant silo where we watched over 1 ton of liquid chocolate pour from the ceiling in a giant cascading waterfall. It had nothing to do with making chocolate... they just do it because they can.

During the tour we learned that the steepest street in the world was just on the other side of town, so of course we had to go check it out. At its steepest point, Baldwin Street goes up at a staggering 35% gradient, so for every 2.8 meters you walk you gain 1 meter of elevation. The road is so steep that the sidewalk is actually a staircase, and the top of the road is paved in concrete rather than asphalt, because on a hot day the tar would melt and the asphalt would actually slide down the street. Our car struggles enough just getting up our driveway, so we figured it was safest to just park it at the bottom and walk up. The street is incredibly steep, but not very long and we made it to the top in less than 5 minutes and were rewarded with a pretty cool view over the city. The rain clouds that we had left behind in Queenstown began to roll in just as we got back to the bottom of the hill, and we made it back to the car just as the first drops began to fall. The drive back to Queenstown was wet and windy, but by the time we made it home the bad weather had cleared up and the stars were out.

For more pictures of this beautiful town check out the Photos post.

Two weeks ago we woke up to a gloriously sunny day, and with just a few weeks left in New Zealand we decided it was too good to waste. We've been living just 45k from Glenorchy all winter and had never made the drive out, so we decided to hop in the car and have an adventure. Glenorchy is a little one horse town, with just a gas station, a general store and a few cafés, but it has some amazing scenery and was the setting for quite a few scenes in the Lord of the Rings. We had brunch at the Glenorchy Café and enjoyed pancakes and pulled pork sandwiches in their back garden in the sunshine and then took a walk down to the lake shore. From the lake we noticed what looked like a trail up one of the smaller mountains in the middle of the valley, so we stopped in the store to ask about it and found out it was a fairly straightforward hike.

After a short drive out of town we parked the car at the trail head, slathered on some sunscreen and headed into the trees. The first two-thirds of the trail was steep switch-backs through the forest that reminded us a lot of hiking in Alaska. The trail was well marked with orange blazes, despite the fact that steep terrain and heavy brush made it pretty much impossible to step off the trail even if you wanted to. Once we reached the tree line, however, the trail markers completely disappeared and the final one-third of the climb was an extremely steep scramble through the tussocks and spear grass and over loose rock. After an hour of clinging to clumps of grass to try and stay on the unstable and near-vertical mountainside we crested the ridgeline and realized we had missed the trail and had been following a goat track instead.

Once we were on the established trail the going was much easier and we made it to the summit just as the weather started to take a turn for the worse. The wind picked up and dark clouds started rolling in, so after 4 hours of climbing we only spent about two minutes on the summit before making a beeline for the treeline. The views from the summit were well worth the effort though, from 1,375 meters we had a full panoramic view of the Dart and Rees river valleys and Lake Wakatipu. The hike down had its own challenges and even on the right trail the terrain was very steep and we were constantly setting off little rockslides. Still we made much better progress on the way down, and reached the trees in about a quarter of the time it took us on the way up. The rest of the descent took about 2 hours and we reached the car just as the first serious raindrops started to fall. Our timing with the weather couldn't have been more perfect!

You can see more pictures from this beautiful hike here.

A few weeks ago, Steve and I managed to wrangle another day off together, and we decided to make the most of it by doing something a bit different. I found a good deal on cross country ski rentals and a trail pass for the Snow Farm, so we woke up early and headed out of town. The snow farm was an hours drive over the mountain along the same road we traveled to go to Treble Cone for our birthdays. As we wound up the road past golden-brown grass covered hills it was hard to have faith that there would be enough snow up there to go cross country skiing. Even when we arrived at the access road for the snow farm the mountains were still bare, but as we rounded the final bend all of a sudden we were surrounded by white. The same phenomenon occurs when we go snowboarding... because the climate is just too mild for snow to survive anywhere but at the very tops of the mountains in the shaded areas.

When we arrived at the Snow Farm we found out they were gearing up for a big cross country ski race the next day, and we felt a bit out of place surrounded by a bunch of Lycra-clad athletes springing around the trails. The skis we were given were thinner than the cross country skis we have at home, designed more for racing than exploring the back country, but they didn't take too much getting used to. We decided to leave the racing crowd behind and set out on the Loop Trail, a 13 kilometer round trip that would take us over gently rolling hills  and past the Meadow Hut. It took us about three hours to reach the hut, where we stopped to warm up a bit and eat the lunch we had packed before continuing the last few kilometers back to the base building. We debated exploring another one of the shorter trails, but decided to save our energy so we could go night skiing at Coronet Peak.

We drove back into town around 4pm and treated ourselves to Domino's before headed up to the mountain. Neither of us had ever been night skiing before and we weren't quite sure what to expect. The sunset from the top of the mountain was spectacular, and we soon got used to the darkness in-between light-towers. The evening was warm and the snow was quite soft and slushy, so after a few hours on the main chair we decided to head over to the beginner lift and work on some tricks. We've both been concentrating this season on learning to ride switch (with our opposite foot forward) and we spent the last few hours working on 360s, tail and nose presses and buttering. We won't  be joining the x-games anytime soon, but we both made good progress on new skills and had a lot of fun riding together.

One of the perks of having our birthdays just two days apart is that it gives us a great excuse to spend a little extra money to do something special. So after several months of working multiple jobs and saving every penny, we took the day off in between our birthdays and took a trip to Treble Cone in Wanaka for a day of snowboarding. We jumped on a bus at 745 in the morning, slept most of the 90 minute drive to the mountain, and had our tickets by 10am. Following the bus drivers advice, we headed straight for the top of the mountain, and we weren't disappointed. After a warm up lap we hiked up to the top of the mountain and we found the closest thing to powder we've seen in New Zealand, as well as one of the best views yet.

After our hike we spent the rest of the day on the Saddle Basin lift, enjoying the best runs on the mountain. Our favorite spot was a run called Super Pipe, a huge drain with 30ft walls that acted as a natural half pipe. Even after the clouds moved in and the visibility started to deteriorate the snow in Super Pipe was still good. Of the three mountains that we've ridden in New Zealand so far, Treble Cone was the closest thing to a "proper" ski resort. The beginner and advanced areas didn't overlap, the difficult runs were actually challenging, the runs were well-marked, the lift ramps were well-maintained, they didn't groom every run to within an inch of its life, and maps were available everywhere (and for free!). It would be great to go back one more time before the season ends.

We've been in Queenstown for a little over a month now, and we've been so busy finding an apartment and interviewing for jobs that we've had very little time for adventure. We had a bit of a "chicken or egg" situation when we first arrived, since no one wanted to rent us an apartment without proof of employment, but no one wanted to hire us until we had a local address. Fortunately we were able to submit proof of sufficient funds with a local real-estate company, and our application for an apartment in the suburb of Frankton was approved fairly quickly. We live at the top of a very steep driveway with fantastic views looking out over lake Wakatipu and the Remarkables mountain range. We're both working as zipline guides with Ziptrek EcoTours, but Steve recently accepted a second part-time job with a local Go-Kart operator and I'm training for a part-time role as a customer service agent with Air New Zealand. We're hoping that having several jobs will help us save back some of the money we spent exploring on our bikes for 4 months.

With all the interviewing, training, and working we've been on very different schedules for the last few weeks, so when we found out we were both off on Wednesday we decided to make the most of a rare opportunity and go on an adventure. One of the perks of working for Ziptrek is that we get to enjoy free tours with several local companies so that we can recommend them to our guests, so we decided to call up Roscos Milford Kayak Tour and see if we could tag along. As soon as Steve finished work on Tuesday we jumped in the car and made the six hour drive down to Milford Sound. We camped for the night at the DOC campground at Lake Gunn, and met up with our guide at the Milford Sound Lodge the next morning at 10am. We've seen a lot of rain here in Queenstown in the past few weeks, so when we woke up to a dark and rainy day we weren't too surprised.

We had a great time out on the water, despite the cold and the rain. We were outfitted in base-layers, a fleece and a waterproof jacket and given a spray skirt and kayak specific neoprene gloves. We shared a tandem sea-kayak that we steered with a pedal and rudder system, so we didn't have to coordinate our paddling to turn. Much nicer than the last time we went kayaking together, when we had an inflatable kayak with one kayak paddle and one canoe paddle, and our boat got a puncture halfway down the river. We started out with some quick safety instructions before we split up into a small group and headed out with our guide. We paddled through a fairly shallow marshy area and out to an enormous waterfall fed by a remnant glacier. From there we made our way up the fijord, paddling along the cliffs that extended all the way into the water before paddling across the open water to the other side. We stopped in the middle of the fijord to watch a seal playing in the water and warmed up with a hot drink before continuing to the other side and back down to where we started. We passed several more waterfalls on our way back to the dock that wouldn't have been there if it hadn't been raining, so there was a silver lining to the wet weather. 

We got off the water around 3pm and got back on the road to Queenstown as soon as we could to try and make as much of the scenic drive in the daylight as possible. We stopped off in Te Anau to get gas and treated ourselves to a nice dinner and made it home just after 9:30. It was really nice to get out of Queenstown for a day, but we were grateful for our nice warm bed at the end of our long adventure!

To see more pictures, check out the Photo post.

We officially reached the west coast around 10:30 the next morning and headed North. Our first stop was at Blue Pools, a 30 minute round trip hike to a suspension bridge over a river with some beautiful deep clear blue pools. From there we stopped outside Haast at the Curly Tree Whitebait Company to try whitebait pattys. Whitebait is just the term for a baby fish, doesn't matter what species, and you eat them whole fried up with a bit of egg and served with lemon and salt. We stopped at two waterfalls between there and the town of Fox taking the drive nice and slow to save gas and not miss any of the scenery. In Fox we hiked up to the glacier, but the Department of Conservation doesn't allow visitors to get closer than 200m from the ice. From Fox we drove on to Franz Joseph and splurged on a night in a holiday park so we could take our weekly shower.

The weather was a bit dreary the next day, but cleared up just long enough for us to hike out to the glacier viewing point, past the prettiest waterfall in New Zealand. We headed back to town to hunt down our friend Wyatt from Alaska who was working as a guide on the glacier, and after a quick lunch to catch up we got back on the road. 40 minutes North of Franz Joseph is a beautiful little DOC campsite next to Lake Lanthe so we decided to set up an early camp to watch the beautiful sunset over the water.

We slept in the next morning then made our way slowly to Hokitika, a cute little town with a lot of shops and cafes. We spent some time walking around, visited the Sock Machine Museum and ate lunch at Fat Pipis Pizza. From Hokitika we headed to Greymouth, but despite it being the largest town on the West Coast we couldn't find much to do. We had expected our trip up the coast to take a bit longer than it did, so we had made an appointment at Barrytown Knifemaking for Saturday. Unfortunately we made it to Greymouth on Wednesday so we stocked up on food and headed to Nelson Creek to the free campground to hang out for a few days.

After 3 relaxing days at Nelson Creek reading and napping we headed to Barrytown to forge our own knives in a full-day class. We started at 9:30 in the morning with a raw bar of steel and ended at 5 with a shiny new knife. We had to heat the steel in the forge until it glowed orange...too long and it would burn...then hammer it out on the anvil to flatten the blade and infuse the steel with more carbon. 3 or 4 rounds of hammering and then we heated it once more and quenched it in a bucket of water to harden it. From there we marked out the length of the handle and cut off the extra steel with a hacksaw. Then we took the steel to the belt sander to remove the black and polish the middle of the blade before we started on the handle. 

After we finished up with the knives we still had enough daylight left to explore Pancake Rocks, thin sheets of limestone with thinner layers of mudstone in between that make them look just like big stacks of flapjacks. Scientists aren't exactly sure what caused them to form that way, but they do know that they formed on the sea-bed and were later lifted up and eroded away to form the large towers and cliffs. We ended our day at a holiday park in Charleston and enjoyed another good shower to wash off all the ash from the forge.

The next morning we drove through Westport headed for the end of the West Coast road. We stopped in Seddonville to explore the Chasm Creek Walkway, a short bushwalk that went through an old railway tunnel and over several bridges. After our little hike we drove through Karamea to Oparara to see the limestone arches and caves. All the trails were at the end of a 14k dirt road and it was in pretty rough shape so it took quite a while to get out there. We hiked out to the Oparara Arch on a trail that ran parallel to a beautiful stream. The arch was massive...several hundred feet high and wide...but the best part of the hike was the friendly little bird we met on the way back. He followed us for several feet, flying past our heads and jumping from branch to branch next to us, and when we stopped and put out our hands he had no qualms about jumping into our palms and trying to divest us of our rings. By the time we finished the hike we were both pretty hungry, so we decided to cook dinner and save the cave hikes for the next morning.

We woke up to a bit of a drizzle, but considering we planned on spending the morning underground it didn't bother us too much. We made the short hike out to Crazy Paving Cave where the floor was covered in "bricks" of fine sediment that dried slowly and cracked to give it a cobblestone look. The walkway was wired off to protect the fragile formations and it only took a few minutes to see the whole cave. Box Canyon Cave, right next door, didn't have any of the natural "paving stones" and so we were free to explore every nook and cranny of the enormous cave. Steve quickly found the narrowest passage possible and we began worming our way into the depths of the cave. 

Our side-stepping and shoulder scraping paid off in the form of a small chamber full of massive hand-sized spiders. These cave spiders are apparently direct descendants of the earliest known true spiders and the sign at the entrance warned us to "look but do not touch," a sentiment entirely unnecessary in my opinion as I can't even imagine wanting to touch them with a 10 foot pole. It did make me slightly less inclined to want to go squeezing into any more small spaces, but when we made our way to the back of the cave I couldn't resist climbing up a large pile of sedimental clay deposited by who know what source of water. From the top of my 30ft mountain and I had a clear view of the massive cave around me, and I discovered another small passageway that led to the rear of the cave where we found a little colony of glow worms. We turned off our headlamps and enjoyed the artificial starlight for a few minutes before heading back above ground.

By the time we emerged into the daylight the rain had all but ended and our drive back to the main road was bumpy, but uneventful. We headed back south to Westport and took the road for Nelson, planning to slowly make our way from there to Christchurch and then back to the Queenstown Lakes area to start looking for jobs.

To see more of the West Coast's beauty go to the photo post here.