Kiwi Summer: Round IV

Once again we spent "one more" summer in Queenstown. The river was calling, plus we really just couldn't think of anything better to do. Steph initially worked in the Riversurfing/Canyoning shop again, but it turned out that the new canyoning owner was a huge jerk so that didn't last long. She quickly landed a job at i-Site, the main tourist information center in town, which actually worked out much better in the end. Employees at i-Site book tourists for accommodation, tours and transportation, so all the tour operators in town are interested in having people like Steph do their activities for free. She may not get retirement benefits or paid sick days, but how many jobs have perks like free bungee jumping, helicopter rides, jet boats, paragliding, hang gliding, wine tours, off roading, and boat cruises? She could have gone sky diving as well but insists she's "not interested." Here's some of her adventures.

Hang-gliding from Coronet Peak 

She actually got paid to go to Doubtful Sound

Bungy jumping didn't go too well. She hurt her nose.

The real highlight was a 2-1/2 hour helicopter ride

They flew from Queenstown to Milford Sound...

landed on a glacier and even a west-coast beach....

and back to Queenstown. A $950 ride for free!

Queenstown is ideally located for hiking. We tried to make an effort to do some of the "big" hikes this summer, but there is never enough time to do them all.

Earnslaw Burn hike was gorgeous. They filmed some of the Hobbit up here

Steph went and did the Rob Roy hike without me

Rob Roy Glacier near Wanaka

If all else fails, we have Queenstown Hill quite literally out our front door

Snow day up Queenstown Hill

Before we left New Zealand again we made sure to do the famous Milford Trek

It's a fairly level hike up this beautiful valley on day 1

You follow the crystal-clear Clinton River most of the day

This is how clear the water is - and it's full of trout!

Knocked out the first 13 miles and made it to the first hut before sunset

Had to get up before sunrise to try to get to the saddle as the sun comes over the mountains

Just in time. This picture doesn't capture just how windy and cold it was up there!

The pictures don't do it justice

We also got to see Sutherland Falls - the highest in New Zealand at over 500 meters!

Woohoo awesome hike!

Some of the other things we got up to this summer...

Steph's brothers hiked the Te Aroroa trail the length of New Zealand. We met them at the finish

Of course we took them riversurfing while they were in town

A friend of mine imported some Jetovators so I got to play

Other highlights of the summer were the full-moon riversurfing mission, a sea kayaking trip I took in Milford Sound, and an end-of-season beach trip with the Serious Fun crew, but I don't have pictures of those at the moment. I'll post them as soon as I get them off a friend back in Queenstown.