So after our Q-town Christmas and New Years we came home to Christchurch (ChCh) for a few days and my friend Mim came over from the States. She slept a night and then we drove back down to Q-town. The day was clear for the drive down and at Lake Tekapo there is this lil stone church and wedding was going...what a setting. Here are some pix from our adventures with Mim. 

Trip to Queenstown

Its amazing how many different landscapes one can in a little drive around NZ. 

Mt. Cook was clear again for this trip as well. 

On the drive down past Mt. Cook. 

Lake Wakatipu by Ben's house. Q-town

I like these. 

Landy to Masetown

The next day we landrovered into this ole Goldminer's town. It's on this 4x4 road with tons of river crossings. It was heaps of fun. 

Nice faces everyone. 

There are so many Lupins. I love lupins. Reminds me of that book I loved when I was little,
"The Lupin Lady" 

pretty. 

The crew up on the old....oh, I forgot what it was called and what it did...something to do with Gold though. 

The Landy crew 

Masetown. It was an old gold miners town back in the day. There are a few remnants left today. 

good times. It was a great trip but sadly when we got back on the main road it stopped working all together...Ben had bought it the day before. Ash and Mike were notorious for their maniac ways when they were younger but I atest to their good natured driving skills this day. I do want to thank Ben, because it was a really fun trip of lots of river crossings. 

There is a Gondola in Q-town that takes you up to the top of the hill above the city. There is a restaurant, an alpine slide, bungy jumping, and a Maori cultural performance...quite the lil one stop shop. We walked up and hung out. 

Great photo on the chairlift to the alpine slide. It's quite the little tourist world up on top of the hill there in Q-town. 

I don't know why its red but it makes it look even cooler. This was after the Kiwi Hake performance. I had seen many at school in Hawaii but this was Mim's first and some of the Maori performances can seem a little aggressive. Thanks to Ben for the free tickets. 

Trip to Milford Sound

From Queenstown is the road that takes you into the Fiordlands of NZ. I hadn't ever been and it had been years for Mike so we headed over. In acuality, it's not very far from Q-town in kilometres but the road loops around to get there. It is one of the most beautiful drives I have been on and totally worth the day trip to go out and back. Once you get to Milford Sound you can take a boat down the sound so you can really sense the immensity of the cliffs. It got darker and rainier as we got into the drive, but it turned out to make the sight even more incredible. Yes, me like. Good day. 

These are some of the shots of the drive into Milford Sound. Even if you didn't go on a boat ride, this drive is incredibly beautiful. The rain made it even more dramatic but I'd love to see it on a clear day as well. 

Here we are in front of our boat. We opted for the longer (and more expensivs) cruise but it was worth it and the rain and wind made it feel like a real adventure out there. 

The first big waterfall which I forget the name of. Lots and lots o' water. 

The cruise begins....ohhhhh 

This is Mim's rock star yell out to the waterfall. 

Love it. 

I'm not sure which emotion was meant to be portrayed because I look like a psycho-killer and Mim looks sort of goofy...really we were just being blown around from the wind.