The Land of Hobbits

 New Zealand!  What a beautiful place.  Brandon is in rotations this year, which means he gets a full week off every 8 weeks.  So we decided to take advantage of it and take a little trip to New Zealand.  Being the mountain lovers that we are, it was so nice to do some real hiking again (no offence Australia) and spend some time in the mountains.  I'll let the overload of pictures do most of the talking...
 We flew into Queenstown on the Saturday, and decided right away that it reminded us a lot of Waterton.  Little town in the mountains, a big long lake, delicious ice cream shops, and an amazing burger from Ferg Burger.  We spent the afternoon walking around town and took some pictures of the amazing sunset on the lake, then headed to our camp at the Shotover Top 10 campground just a few minutes outside of Queenstown.

 That night we FROZE.  The only sleeping bags we have here are little thin things meant for an Australian summer's night.  We went to NZ mid March, which is early fall.  I had checked the weather before we left, and thinking that 18 degrees wasn't that cold, packed a few pairs of shorts and a light sweater, with one pair of jeans, just incase.  (I failed to realize that a high of 18 degrees meant much colder nights).  Needless to say, my attire the following nights included wearing my jeans, socks, a maxi dress, long sleeved shirt, sweater, scarf, and toque all at the same time.  My towel also came in handy as an extra blanket.

Sunday morning we got up and went to church, where I became the chorister and Brandon was asked to bear his testimony in the tiny Queenstown branch.  I think there were 16 people there and 12 were visitors.  We loved it though.  One of my favourite parts about travelling is getting to meet so many different people are hear about their lives.  The people in the Queenstown branch are so friendly and wouldn't you know it, one lady even remembered Grandma and Grandpa Steed from when they served a mission there years ago.

After church we started the drive to Milford Sound, where we spent the next couple of nights at the Milford Sound lodge campground.

 One thing about New Zealand - there are SO MANY SHEEP!  And they're quite adorable, I have to admit.  I couldn't resist taking a million pictures of them.

 Milford Sound = land of the sandflies.  Good thing its pretty :)

 Monday morning we got up and did a little exploring, then went on a kayaking trip that afternoon.  And by kayaking, I mean kayak sailing.  Our guide was genius enough to bring a parachute so we linked our kayaks together and sailed for almost half of the 16km kayak trip.  Harder than you would think, but it saved my arms!

 Tuesday morning we packed up our tent and headed back toward Queenstown.  We decided to do a hike along the way called Gertrude Saddle, which was supposed to have amazing views of the mountains and down toward Milford Sound.  Unfortunately for us, our curse of bad hiking weather followed us to New Zealand, so when we got to the top we could only see a few feet because of the fog.  We loved hiking through the valley though, and got some cool pictures up in the clouds.  I guess we'll just have to go back one day to see the view!

 The tunnel through the mountain on the way to Milford Sound.  Once a year they celebrate the creation of the tunnel by running a race through it naked!

 The only wildlife we saw on our hike:

 Tuesday night we headed back to Queenstown, and decided to upgrade from our tent to a self contained cabin.  Best. Idea. Ever.

 Wednesday we decided to go for a low key day and drove a few minutes up the road to a quaint little town called Arrowtown.  It was probably our favourite place of the trip!  We had a little picnic, walked around town and the valley, and took a drive up the road to watch some random strangers bungy jump.

 Crazies I tell ya.

 Oh, and how could I forget?!  We also made a stop at the Remarkable Sweet Shop to taste some fudge.  I could have stayed there all day.

 Thursday was hiking day again.  I had seen some pictures of Mount Roy and decided we needed to go there.  And by we, I mean Brandon and I, and our good friend rainy weather.  It was a bit of a trek straight up the mountain, but the short glimpse of a view that we got at the top (that we didn't take a picture of) was pretty spectacular.

 Mt Aspiring in the distance was looking pretty spectacular too.

 I had hauled my tripod with us to NZ in hopes of getting some sweet night shots, so Thursday night we went out to give it a try.  The moon was pretty bright, which prevented us from getting really vivid stars, but you get the idea.  So. Many. Stars.

 Friday morning we did a little exploring near the Shotover river before we started our drive to Dunedin to see our friends Jon and Carly.  They were such fantastic hosts and we must have REALLY enjoyed our time with them because I didn't even take a picture with them!

 Told you there was lots of sheep!

 Saturday we spent some time seeing Dunedin, including the Cadbury factory and some of the wildlife along the coastline.  These seals weren't even phased by us.

 Then Sunday we went to church again and caught our flight home!  We loved seeing New Zealand and can't wait for our next adventure!