Yesterday, we said good-bye to our new friends from our Active New Zealand tour. We had a great time hiking, camping, kayaking, and biking around N.Z. We started in Christchurch, which we loved. Then we met our group and traveled south into the Southern Alps. It was beautiful, but rainy for the first few days.







On the 3rd day, we took a scenic flight into a secluded area called Siberia Valley. We stayed one night there (Patrick and I were the only ones that opted to tent it and it was the best choice). The scenic flight was absolutely amazing. We flew over a valley and saw pristinely white glaciers.









Once we arrived in Siberia, we hiked to Lake Crucibal, an elavated glacial lake. It too was amazing and the hike was full of beautiful waterfalls and freezing cold river passings. (Oh, and by the way, we were able to just dip our water bottle into the rivers and drink the fresh glacial waters. It was the best tasting water, ever!) We had a great dinner and then did TimTam Slams for dessert. TimTams are chocolate cookies and when you suck hot chocolate through them, they melt in your mouth. They were seriously delicious. We're trying to figure out how to ship a box of TimTams back to the states.
The next morning, we hiked to our jet boat which zig zagged its way back to town. Then we drove to Queenstown and had time to hang out in the town. We did a hike up Ben Lomand and took a gondola ride back down. It was beautiful. (I feel like I'm running out of suitable adjectives to descibe the things I've seen and done on this trip.)

After 2 days, we left Queenstown and traveled towards Milford Sound. We did an amazing bike ride through a valley (who's name I can't remember). Patrick had the perfect way of describing the scenery of the ride..."This is the type of scenery you see on brochures for churches. This is what makes people believe in something greater than themselves." It was so incredible! Then drove through to Milford Sound, where we were surrounded by even more awe inspiring glacial mountains and valleys. We had a great night of laughter and talking with our group.

The next morning we kayaked Milford Sound. And although it was raining, it was fantastic. The mountains came alive with waterfalls. We also saw penguins.

In the end, I'm overwhelmed by how much I've experienced and still have to experience. I can't believe how lucky we are.