Wanaka, South Island, New Zealand (April, 2014)

As much as we loved being around Queenstown and experiencing all of the adventure and adrenaline-filled things there were to do, it was time to move on and the next stop was Wanaka.  Wanaka provided breathtaking scenery, mountain lakes, amazing color contrasts, incredible blue skies, and open spaces. 

A lake alongside the road near Wanaka.

The view from one of the mountain passes that we drove.

While in Wanaka, we stopped at Puzzling World, which had all kinds of puzzles, optical illusions, and strange things to play with.  The kids (and the adults) enjoyed the difficult giant maze (Cody and Ryder were the only ones that stayed to the bitter end and finished out all of the elements).  We wandered through all the twisted fun rooms and tricked our senses.  It was a great way to spend an afternoon.  

An entire area was on a steep angle with the walls and ceilings misaligned to trick your senses.  You can see that "up" is the way our heads are pointing.

Miniature Kip in one corner with Giant Emily and Toni in the other.

The girls took the kids to Mexican food while the guys went river boarding back towards Queenstown.

Kip, pretending to use the Roman community toilets.

All of us felt like champions after having done the Nevis Bungy.  We all wore our shirts the following day in Wanaka.

We stopped to snap some pictures at one of the lakes in Wanaka.  This is one of our favorites with the kids with grandma Toni and grandpa Scott.

Ryder, trying not to fall down the abyss in the bathroom at Puzzling World.

Another bathroom at Puzzling World in Wanaka.

Zander and grandma Toni each working on a puzzle at Puzzling World.

While the guys were river boarding, the girls took the kids to the automobile and machinery museum in Wanaka.  Here, the kids got to climb on a real tank.

The kids in an old-fashioned car.

We had to hold up this building to keep it from tipping over at Puzzling World.

The kids playing by the lake in Wanaka.

Another mountain lake alongside the road near Wanaka.

Sawyer's proud of herself for figuring out one of the puzzles.

The guys went river boarding with Extreme Fun River Surfing.  It was pretty cold, but they were given thick wet suits with boots and gloves.  Once they got in the water and past the initial shock of the cold, it was fun.  Basically, river boarding is taking a boogie board down a river through the rapids and trying to do barrel rolls, 360's, and duck-unders.

 Extreme Fun River Surfing is the company that took us river boarding.

This is a view from the top of the canyon that we went down.  

The canyon had 3 sets of pretty good rapids and we ran the canyon twice.  They stopped us at one point and let us do a little cliff jumping, which was fun.

Queenstown, South Island, New Zealand (April, 2014)

After heading back to Queenstown from Milford Sound, we planned an adrenaline-filled day, including riding jet boats through Shotover Canyon, bungy jumping, and riding canyon swings.

First thing in the morning, we bundled up and made our way to Shotover Canyon.  To our surprise, they let both Nash and Zander ride the boat with us so we were able to get our whole family in the boat (except for Cy and grandma Toni, who stayed with Cy to let Emily go with Kip).  The trip was awesome…we were ripping at high speeds through narrow canyons with rock walls on both sides, periodically doing power slides and donuts in tight places that you'd never dream of trying to do these types of tricks.  The boat drivers were amazingly skilled and were trained to keep the boats within inches of the rock walls.  The air was frigid early in the morning, which made the experience even more fun when the water splashed us in the face.

 Our crew, doing a power slide after exiting Shotover canyon.

 The crew, just before getting on the boat.

Sawyer, all bundled up and excited for the Shotover Canyon jet boat ride.

Our next adventure of the day was the Nevis Bungy, which is the highest in New Zealand.  Nevis also has the highest canyon swing in the world, which we also did.  The bungy jump is 440 feet (134 meters) of free falling which lasts 8.5 seconds and it's over a deep canyon with a river at the bottom.  Everyone was nervous and the excitement and fear continued to build throughout the day.

 Cody, taking the plunge into the gorge below from the Nevis Bungy platform.

Eliza, swan diving into the gorge below from the Nevis bungy platform.

After our fun-filled day around Queenstown, we were ready to continue our South Island adventure and head up towards Wanaka and the beautiful scenery further north...

Te Anau and Milford Sound, South Island, New Zealand (April, 2014)

We woke up Sunday morning from the Lakeside Holiday Park (motorhome park) in Queenstown and went to church in a small house at the south end of Lake Wakatipu.  Surprisingly, there were less than 10 locals attending church (we expected a lot more than that since New Zealand has a high Mormon population, but, as we found out, most of them live on the North Island). After church, we headed directly south towards Te Anau.  We stayed the night in Te Anau at the motorhome park right next to the lake and arose early the next morning for the 2 hour drive to Milford Sound.  

The drive was incredible.  On the way, we stopped a few times, taking the short walk to the Mirror Lakes, got out and ran around in the field alongside the Avenue of the Disappearing Mountain, drove through the Homer Tunnel, and stopped and walked to "The Chasm" before arriving in Milford Sound for our 1pm cruise on the Sound.  It had rained extensively the day before, but, on this day, we had clear skies and no rain, so all of the waterfalls were out in full force for our boat tour of Milford Sound.  The scenery was breathtaking.  The pictures really don't do it justice because you can't really gauge the magnitude and size of the cliffs, waterfalls, and mountains.

 Mirror Lakes on the drive between Te Anau and Milford Sound.

 Family photo in the field just off the Avenue of the Disappearing Mountain.

 Taking a break on the drive between Te Anau and Milford Sound.

 We ran into this sheep stampede which blocked the road for a good 5 minutes.

 Getting ready to drive through the Homer Tunnel, which goes right through the mountain between Te Anau and Milford Sound.

"The Chasm" from above…our last stop before Milford Sound.

We booked our Milford Sound cruise through Southern Discoveries and we were 11 of maybe 30 on the entire boat, which was great.  We saw a bunch of other cruise ships with hundreds of people on each of them, which would not have been as good.  Our boat drove right underneath 2 waterfalls, one of which was the fairy falls and had a good amount of water, but there were strong winds that blew the water all the way back so that it didn't make it into the water below in a steady stream.  The other waterfall was powerful and we put the nose of the boat right underneath it so that those brave enough could get a "glacial facial" with the ice cold water.  Ryder and Cody stayed out there the whole time, of course.

After our tour of Milford Sound, we made the scenic drive back to Te Anau and then continued all the way back to Queenstown in the dark.

The fairy falls blowing in the wind created this beautiful rainbow.

 Cody and Eliza looking back toward Milford Sound.

Family photo in Milford Sound.

Beautiful green cliffs.

Sensory overload.

 Grandma and Grandpa after the cruise.

 One of the many waterfalls in Milford Sound after a day of heavy rains.

 Panoramic view of Milford Sound with a cruise ship.

 We lucked out and got beautiful blue skies for our cruise.

 Endless cliffs, mountains, waterfalls, and greenery.

 Mountains come straight down into the water and allegedly continue down for several thousand more feet.

 Looking back into Milford Sound.

 Cody and Scott in front of the waterfall.

 A small waterfall in Milford Sound.

 Beautiful scenery.

 Green growing all over the cliffs of Milford Sound.  Waterfalls everywhere you looked.

Seals, hanging out on one of the rocks in Milford Sound.

After our adventures in Milford Sound, we drove back to Queenstown to get an early start on our adrenaline-filled day of bungy jumping and jet boating...

Queenstown, South Island, New Zealand (April, 2014)

We arrived early to Queenstown, New Zealand from Auckland on our Jetstar flights.  We rented 2 motorhomes between the 11 of us to begin our South Island adventure from Queenstown to Christchurch.  We grabbed some lunch and some groceries and headed into town.  Our first stop was the Skyline Gondola and Luge, and it did not disappoint.  We bought a family pass where everybody got to take 5 rides down either of the two tracks.  It was a fun time; both Ryder and Sawyer were able to drive their own cars on the beginner track.  The advanced track was much faster than the beginner track and Cody, Kip, and Scott had a good time racing each other down the fast track.

 Daddy with Nash on the luge.

 Ryder, riding up the chairlift with lake Wakatipu in the background.

 Grandma, with Ryder and Sawyer, getting ready to go on the luge.

 Waiting in line for the luge.

 A section of the track.

 Ryder, ripping down the track.

 Sawyer, after finishing her first run.

 The boys, getting ready for another run.

View of Lake Wakatipu from the top of the Gondola.

After we finished at the Gondola and Luge, we headed back down to Queenstown for some dinner and to walk around the city.  It's a pretty small town with a mountain/adventure feel to it (it feels a little bit like Park City, Utah or Jackson Hole, Wyoming).  Queenstown is known as the adventure capital of the world.  Cody and Eliza ate at FergBerger, which came highly recommended from the locals (huge gourmet hamburgers) and we bought some gear that we forgot (gloves, beanies, etc.) to prepare ourselves for the slightly unexpected cold autumn weather of April/May on the south Island.

Cody, picking up our dinner at the local joint, FergBerger.

The next day we were going to church in Queenstown, then taking one of the most scenic drives in the world to Te Anau and Milford Sound...