Tracy Carolyn Photography

Queenstown is the adventure sports capital of the country, if not the world.  Everything here is extreme.

Case in point:  Usually when you hike to the top of a mountain, you just enjoy the view.  Not in Queenstown.  Once you’ve hiked your way to the top (or taken the gondola if you have $26 to spare) you can luge, paraglide, bungy jump, bungy swing, take a helicopter tour, or mountain bike back down.  We just chose to enjoy the view and eat our packed lunch.  The mountain isn’t even that high above town, but the views are spectacular.

I think Queenstown would fit nicely into Colorado.  The town itself is very much like Vail or Breckenridge – except the lake is a beautiful vibrant blue.  The water in New Zealand is so clear and blue everywhere, I don’t know how they do it.There are loads of other adventure sports you can take part in here, like jet boating, canyon swinging, sky diving, river surfing…the Kiwis have thought of every way one could possibly throw themselves off something and offer it to tourists.

John and I have both been skydiving and paragliding before, and neither of us was interested enough in bungy jumping to pay the exorbitant fees.  Our mothers will be happy to know that we kept our feet firmly planted on the ground the whole time. :)

New Zealand is one of the most consistently scenic places I’ve ever been.

If I’d stuck my lens out the window of a moving car, put the camera on endless motor drive, and held the shutter down for hours as we cruised around the New Zealand countryside, I bet I wouldn’t have ended up with one bad photo.  It’s gorgeous there.

Unfortunately, I didn’t have a car window to motor drive from, let alone take a few choice snapshots.  Renting a car and filling it up with gas is very pricey here (think over $7/gallon for gas) so we opted instead to take buses at a much lower rate.  This meant neither one of us had to get comfortable driving on the opposite side of the road, and we never got lost.  However, it also meant we couldn’t stop to take photos every time I saw something beautiful (which was often.)  Instead, I gawked at the incredible views through the smudged windows of our bus, thinking longingly of the beautiful images that could have been.  Sigh.  There are worse problems.

The reality of this, however, means that much of the gorgeous scenery we saw went unphotographed – including much of Milford Sound, the entirety of the Gibbston Valley wine country, the drive up the West Coast on the way to Fox Glacier, and the spectacular sunset over Lake Hawea.

That said, I did manage to get a few pretty pictures.  But know that for every image I post there could easily have been 20 more – it’s just that beautiful.  Should you travel to New Zealand in the near future, I suggest renting a car so you can take in the splendor at your own pace – it’s how we’ll do it if we ever return to this part of the world.

Scenic photos to come soon.

There’s a fun fact out there that there are more sheep in New Zealand than people.  I don’t know if this is actually true, but there are an awful lot of sheep out there.  Here’s just one of many, many sheep stations we’ve seen while driving through the countryside.  It really makes a nerdy knitting girl (like myself) want to buy some wool.  And it makes a carnivorous guy (like my husband) want to buy some lamb chops.  Oh dear.

If you were looking for a city that was the antithesis of Central America, Auckland would be it.

The city is completely clear of litter (we saw a total of three items, and we were looking hard), graffiti, homeless/begging people, and air pollution.  The water in the harbor is so clean and clear it looks like the Caribbean, and people actually swim in it.  Everyone is friendly, easy to understand, and charges the prices they have listed.  John described it as a “futuristic utopian modern city,” and after four months in South/Central America, that’s how it felt.

We landed in Auckland at 5am, having spent 13 hours flying over the Pacific and losing a day as we crossed the International Date Line (goodbye December 7th, we’ll meet again next year.)  We had secured a place to stay with a lovely couple we connected with on Couchsurfing, and we spent most of our first day in New Zealand at their house.  I took a quick little hike to see views of the city and suburbs while John napped (he slept a solid 8 hours), and then we cooked dinner for our new friends.  So it wasn’t until the following day that we explored Auckland properly.

As we made our way into the city the next day, my first Kiwi cultural test was trying to order coffee faced with options like flat white and long black.  Huh?  Turns out a flat white is kinda like a stronger version of a latte with more foam, and a long black is like an Americano.  Flat white it is.

With the coffee conundrum handled, it was time to explore.  We meandered around the downtown area, marveled at the pristine streets, sat in the park in beanbag chairs, and ogled the cool giant trees.

A ferry ride seemed in order, and we decided on the 12 minute ride across the bay to Devonport.  It was then that we discovered how amazingly clear the water in the bay is.  I’ve never seen such clear water so close to a major metropolitan area.  Auckland has the nickname “City of Sails”, and there were plenty of people out on Sunday afternoon proving why.

In Devonport, we walked along the beautiful beaches and enjoyed gorgeous views of the Auckland skyline.Since Auckland is built on top of several active and inactive volcanic cones, the beaches are lined with hard volcanic rock.  It makes a lovely contrast to the bright turquoise waters.

I think this treehouse  has one of the best views in Devonport.More cool trees.  This one has grown its own support system from branch back down into the ground.  Impressive.Once we had finished gawking at the bay, we walked to the top of Mount Victoria to picnic in the shade.  This was our view from our picnic spot, where we enjoyed a smattering of snacks, including in-season strawberries and New Zealand wine.  Yum.

After our picnic, we spent some time in the local art gallery trying to figure out the modern New Zealand art aesthetic, and then headed back to our hosts’ house to enjoy another dinner together.  We had a short stay in Auckland, but I was surprised by how beautiful this city is.  Even with the sticker shock (it’s so expensive here – especially coming from Central America), I could already see why so many people love New Zealand.

With our two days in Auckland complete, we flew down to the south island and into Queenstown – more soon!