Skiing, glowworms, and more spectacular NZ!

I went skiing! Its September and I went skiing!! I loooooove it! After our bungy adventure, we were pooped the whole day (seriously!), BUT I was NOT going to let that stop me from going skiing the next day! Queenstown has 4 ski mountains around it and Mt Cardrona was supposedly one of the better ones! Besides Whistler-Blackcomb, Canada like 15 years ago, I have only skiied Colorado and Utah. So I was curious and excited to ski in New Zealand. Unfortunately, everyone and their moms were saying that the snow conditions were bad, it was too "spring," its a tiny mountain, blah blah. So I had SUPER SUPER low expectations going (was it going to be like Wilmont, WI?), and of course, it was nothing like what I heard. The mountain was actually fairly big (4 lifts, 30ish runs?), plenty of terrain, and pretty good snow conditions. Yes, it was a little hard-packed in the morning and a little slushy in the pm, but I was actually impressed with the mountain. It was sooooooooooooo beautiful though with the sunny skies!! The mountains are awesome and pretty with Lake Wanaka in the background. Lauren doesn't ski, so I was on my own. Me and mountain, ahhhhh. But actually, it was pretty peaceful because I needed some me time to soak everything in and digest all that I've done these last few weeks. You know how when you are just going and going and don't stop to think? Hellooo? I'm in NEW ZEALAND?!?! Everything has happened soooo quickly and its crazy for me to think that I've been gone just about 3 weeks! I've seen and done soooo much in both Australia and NZ. Its hard for me to even think that I will be gone for another 3 months!

Anyhoo, so I had a wonderful, peaceful day on the mountain doing a sport I love. We chilled out that night because the last couple had been late nights!

Today we 'hired' a car, as they say here, to go to Te Anau and Milford Sound. For the 1st time in I don't even know how long, we could sleep in a little, and have a leisurely morning taking our time to drive up the BEAUTIFUL route to Te Anau, which in Maori means "caves with a current of swirling water." The actual town is pretty small but we took a catamaran through a tour group to go to Aurora Caves with the infamous Glowworms (which are only found in NZ and Australia), amongst the Fiordland National Park.

It was pretty cool! We crouched and ducked our way through the cave, which was mysterious and amazing. The 'swirling water' as they called it, eroded the limestone and sandstone creating these awesome rock formations, waterfalls, and tunnels through which water was literally forcibly gushing out. But of course the highlight was the glowworms. Their 'tails,' or butts seriously do glow, and interestingly, when they are hungry they glow because the glow attracts insects and then they feast on them. We took this little boat and had to sit quiet (because the glow worms are sensitive to noise and would 'turn off' their glow) and in the pitch dark because they are also sensitive to light. That was REALLY cool... but also a little eerie and spooky. We seriously saw what looked like a sky full of stars (okay, butts of glowworms) less than a foot away from us. It was AWESOME! Lauren and I were reminded of our youthful days putting those glow-in-the dark stickers on our walls (QG, you still have them!). It was almost entrancing looking at them, and definitely ahh-mazing. Its too bad we couldn't take pictures because, yes, they flash would disturb them.

Oh, here's the cute cabin we stayed in Makarora (AMAZING starry night) and then our fellow Stray bus passengers:

Soo.... NZ, if I hadn't said this sooo many times before, is jam packed with absolutely stunning and beautiful scenery. Everywhere you turn, there is something great to look at! Here are some example of the things you just "come across":

Here's a funny quote to finish off...
"I wish I was a glowworm,
a glow worm's never glum.
'cos how can you be grumpy,
when the sun shines out of your bum!"

Haha! Cute, huh?