Wanaka again

After the ladies left and we had a night out of fun with our Queenstown friends, Mariah and I looked north. We hitchhiked to Wanaka, which we'd now been to twice before, in order to hike and reunite with Mike and Chris!

It was a much-needed vacation from our vacation from our vacation, so we didn't do much besides lay around on the beach, do a couple small hikes, go kayaking, and go to an agricultural fair (which included a sheep herding competition). Some pictures to recap:

Family Vacation

Maureen (Mariah's mom) and her friend Val arrived at the perfect time. Mariah and I were both on the upswing from recent sickness, we were running out of leftovers for dinner, and I was ready for some days off for once. It was time to finally be tourists in Queenstown!

They both arrived on the evening of March 2nd, having already spent some time in Christchurch and Franz Josef (thus essentially retracing our legendary steps).

TUESDAY
On March 3rd the adventures began (after they'd picked up their rental car, some groceries, and explored the town a bit while I slept in). We started with a quick trip to Glenorchy, a beautiful town just outside of Queenstown, known for its natural splendor and delightful hikes. We hiked up a mountain, saw some historic mining-related things, and all got a lovely taste of the remarkable NZ landscape.

On the Road to Queenstown

Saturday (Jan. 31)
We struggled to get going and find someone to pick us up, since there was almost no traffic going through tiny Franz Josef at 12:30 in the afternoon. After maybe 25 minutes someone finally picked us up--a nice Canadian dude by the name of Mike.

Mike was also backpacking around, but just for 3 weeks, so he enjoyed spontaneously stopping at nice viewpoints which, of course, we appreciated. Here are some of the sights we saw during our drive south: