World ExploraSean: Glaciers to Queenstown

After leaving our cozy accommodation and the memories of apple strudel behind, we went for a miniature hike along the Pororari River Track, which houses several nice views. This place has to be paradise for a professional photographer, I'm an amateur and am in heaven. We were told it was a 1.5-2 hour walk, but our driver failed to mention the first half is completely uphill, resulting in me getting super sweaty. I mean seriously, the one morning on this trip that I showered...what a waste!

I am so disappointed we never saw someone garbed in Lord of the Rings attire on one of these trails

I had heard that sunlight could turn a troll to stone, but James is still with us

All these places make me wish I lived in the wild...but only if there was booze and beautiful women

We ended up going to Franz Josef where the main draw is a heli-glacier walk, in which you take a helicopter to the top of the glacier and walk around for a few hours. German Daniel had pre-booked his stuff through a travel agency, which for some reason booked him for Fox Glacier instead of Franz Josef. There was a lot of smack talk about which glacier would be better, so we were all anxiously waiting for the following day when we would take our trips. That night, the hostel bar was doing a horizontal bungy/beer chugging contest. There were supposed to be 4 teams per bus, as there were four different tour companies passing through at the same time. Teams had to consist of a male and female, with one member running to the bar to get a beer while attached to a bungy, then bringing it back for their partner to chug. A second was shaved off your time for taking off either your top or bottoms, and an extra second was taken off if you got naked. If you spilled beer, you got seconds added on, unless you drank the spilt beer off the dirty floor.

Our bus didn't have the minimum female numbers to qualify, but after seeing one team finish in five seconds, it was clear no one was going to beat them, so I wasn't too bummed. Besides, bar challenge or not, I think we all know I took my shirt off anyways. The air of competition continued in the morning as Daniel and I debated who was going to die on their respective glacier hike. It went a little something like this:

"Good Morning"
"I hope you die today"
"I hope your helicopter crashes"
"I heard that nine out of every nine Germans that goes to Fox Glacier dies"
"I hope someone stabs you with an icicle"
"You have beautiful eyes and your hair smells like cinnamon"
"You look like shit and smell like a dead animal"
"I just purchased the video game Call of Duty so I could simulate killing Germans"
"I just fart in your pillow"
This went on for about ten minutes...

Franz Josef Glacier

We made our way to the glacier hike place at 8, but upon arrival we were informed our trip was delayed until noon because it was too dangerous to fly the helicopter in the stormy weather. We came back at noon to find out it was officially cancelled... BAHHHHH. We did not get very lucky on the south island in terms of weather, as it was too crappy to do activities, but on the other hand it might have been a good thing because it saved me hundreds of dollars. Dan was still able to do his Fox Glacier hike, because there wasn't a helicopter ride, lucky bastard. In lieu of the hike we ended up going to the hot springs for a couple of hours to just chill out and relax.

That night we had an endless pizza buffet at the hostel...until they decided to stop serving us. We were all pretty full though, so couldn't get too upset by the early stoppage. That night there was another bar challenge, which was basically just a scavenger hunt, and James represented us. Luckily one of the stages was to scavenge a t-shirt, so I was once again required to be shirtless. Can you guess what the final stage was? Getting naked. I'm really not sure what is up with this place and wanting to get people naked. Especially when the finals is just two dudes and you share a room with one of them. What the heck New Zealand, zieg mir titten! (German for show me boobs)

Fox Glacier, which we drove past on our way out of town

After leaving the glaciers behind, we did a lot of sight-seeing as we made our way to Wanaka. A few people on the bus were doing skydives, so we picked them up and then made our way to a mirror lake to take a few photos and soak up the views.

The first mirror lake I saw in New Zealand....They'll get better as the blog posts continue

Rainbow sneaking through the gloomy day

Our next stop was a lookout point over a beach, where the view made no sense. On one side you have lush, green lands and on the other side a sandy beach. There was also a tree-house like structure you could climb for better views, which I was pretty excited about. We also stopped at another suspension bridge/river area since I don't have enough random stop photos.

Here's the plant life, and if you turn around you'll see...

this beach...Unreal

I'm a little far from 8 Mile

Our final stop for the day would be at a place called the Blue Pools. Karlyn told us one guy on the last bus wanted to do something crazy, so the option was to jump into a pool of melted glacier. This fellow claimed it was so cold his penis became inverted. Upon hearing of such a challenge, German Daniel, Canadian Evan, and I immediately raised our hands and said we were keen. After all, with my glacier hike cancelled the previous afternoon, I was in need of an adventurous glacier related activity. Like lemmings, most of the other men followed us into the depths of Operation Inverted Penis.

Did the men do this to impress the ladies with their manliness? Duh! We're any of them impressed as I screamed like a girl after jumping in? Hopefully!

It's hard to believe I am in glacier water since I look so hot!!!!! British Dan told me it felt like he was in a hot spring after I hopped in

After our funtivity, we made our way to Wanaka, which is a pretty cool little town and supposedly has one of the best views in New Zealand for skydiving. That night we had a few beers/dinner at the hostel bar, played pool, watched rugby, and then went out for a few more drinks and to check out the local bar scene

Awesome views of the mountains in Wanaka

Take a picture

Can you imagine a world in which there are two of me?

A few of the crew went to a place called Puzzle World in the morning, while some of us decided to get an extra two hours of sleep. I elected for the extra sleep and we ended up getting some of the best coffee I've ever had at a place called Patagonia. We ended up picking everyone up from there anyways, so we got to take a few pics of their various illusions.

There's another picture of me supporting this structure using just my penis, but I like to keep this blog kid friendly

The Southern Alps that run between Wanaka and Queenstown house one of the most extreme bungy jump/swing combinations in the world, known simply as the Nevis. The bungy jump is the second largest in the Southern Hemisphere at 134 meters or around 450 feet. The Nevis Swing is 160 meters above the ground with a total arc of 300 meters. The speeds you reach doing either activity approach 120 kph or 75 mph. Most of the group elected to do the bungy, but having already done one, I didn't want to shell out $260 on the Nevis, so I just did the swing which was $160. Plus I ended up getting 20% off since I'd already done an AJ Hackett jump, so no complaints!

Most of the guys did the bungy, because they'd never done one, and all of them loved it. They all said it was the scariest thing they'd ever done...Pansies! (S)Mikkel unanimously won the contest for best GoPro video on his jump, as his reactions were hilarious. One of the Irish girls, Christina, did the swing along with James and myself. The main reason I chose the swing is because, unlike the bungy, it's the largest of it's kind in the world. I figured I should get unconventional on the swing, so I decided to go backwards. I wanted to go upside down, but the guys working it said backwards is just as good...and probably way less effort for them on setting up the harnesses. Whereas a bungy jump is terrifying, the swing is pure fun.

Feeling Nevis?

Backwards, because you need to be adventurous

Once you let go, you'll be unafraid

Shhh...one of my Calvin Klein poses

I want you

I busted my heal jumping off this cliff and the picture doesn't even look that cool. Probably not worth it :p

Upon completing all of our Nevis activities, we barbecued some Italian sausages and purchased our pictures/video clips, before heading to Queenstown. Reaching Queenstown is a pretty pivotal part of your journey. It's generally the place where travelers break up their trip since it is the adventure/party capital of New Zealand.

Such amazing scenery

Sitting back and soaking up the fact that this world is so mine for the taking

Would we survive Queenstown, would we survive saying goodbye to each other, would we survive karaoke or the mechanical bull? Perhaps you'll find out if I write another blog...

Group Photos