Day two on the tour was amazing! We had so much planned and it was mostly all perfect. Our bus was leaving at 7:45am so I woke up at 6:40 and ran to the shower, I had to wait in line but only for 10 minutes or something. Then I finished getting ready and went to eat breakfast, there was cereal, toast, fruit bagels etc. After breakfast we all loaded up the bus and hit the road. Our first stop was a New Zealand jade store. Jade is a stone and it is very famous in New Zealand because it was used for so much many years ago. People used it for almost anything and it was very special and meaningful. For the people who lived in New Zealand it was more precious than gold and if they had to choose between Jade or Gold they would choose jade because of how meaningful and precious it was to them.
We stayed at the jade factory for about 45 minutes and watched them carve it and stuff and walked around for a little bit and then loaded the bus again. Our next stop was Matheson lake, from this lake you can see the two tallest peaks in New Zealand, Mt cook and Mt Tasman. Unfortunately we did not get to see them because it was cloudy so that was a bummer but at least we saw a lot of pictures of what it would have looked like.
It was kind of depressing though because I just saw what I could have saw in the picture and it sucked that it was cloudy. Ya win some ya lose some I guess. At least the walk to the lake was beautiful and through an awesome green rain forest.
Then we loaded the bus again and were off to check into our next accommodation. These hostels were also very nice and clean and I shared with some of the same girls and some new ones. I am getting to know a lot of people that I have met here so that is the best part I think. We checked into our rooms and went to eat lunch. Anas and I split a sandwich and fries, known as ‘chips’ in New Zealand and Australia. After lunch we walked over to the building where we got instructed to gear up for our glacier hike in Fox Glacier.
This was by far the coolest thing. Fox Glacier is the second biggest Glacier in New Zealand, and I hiked it! We stayed pretty close to the bottom of the glacier because it was dangerous and there were so many of us but it was still awesome! The Glacier was so tall and deep in some parts we hiked and it was amazing, I can’t really describe it because nobody will understand but me, but take my word for it!
We had the option to do the helicopter glacier hike but sadly the helicopter was not going up there because it was so cloudy but I think that would have been worth it to go up there for 3 hours. We got some hiking boots with spiked straps on the bottom and a walking stick. It was kind of intense at parts hiking up. We had to stomp our foot in the ice to get up and parts of it were steep and scary but we all made it. We hiked around the glacier for about 2 hours and it was such an amazing experience I can’t really describe it or even try to describe it. The views from the glacier were breathtaking and awesome and that’s all I can say.
After we got to the bottom of the Glacier we drove back to the town (5 minutes away) and gave our gear back and got a certificate saying that we made it through Glacier hiking.
Then we left and went back to our hostel and hung out for a bit before dinner. Our dinner was included with our tour and it was a buffet so we got a lot to choose from. Pasta, fries (chips), Mashed potatoes, veggies, salad etc. After we ate we hung out for a little while until our Glow Worm walk at 9pm. This was so awesome and a good ending to the night. Our whole tour gathered up around 9pm and we walked on this pitch black trail. We held the shoulders of the person in front of us and went in a long train through this dark, dark trail (no full moon). After walking for a while without seeing anything we finally started to see glow worms. These are little tiny worms that glow in the dark and they look like stars. Some places there were so many of them and it was so awesome! It was a lot of fun, I have never even heard of a glow worm until yesterday. After that we played some cards in the downstairs area for a while and then I took a shower and went to bed. We had to go to bed early because we had to be on the bus and ready to go by 7am so we could make it to Queenstown in time, the adrenalin capital of the WORLD : ). So, I will be hang gliding and I will tell you all about it! Good night.
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