Ceaseless Landscapes

February 15 and 16. (Sorry for double posting February 14th, here is the real post) We left Queenstown after 3 nights there. I wasn’t sorry to leave. Quite the contrary. Everyone was nice, it had great shops, there was so much to do, and I loved the atmosphere of music and cheerfulness. I might even move there one day. We left for Te Anau that day. It was only a 5 hour drive, which has become normal for us by now. I slept most of the way, too tired to do anything due to my nerves still being shot. We arrived at our hostel and settled down. We napped, which was very beneficial, because as soon as we awoke we felt lively again. We headed to Subway for dinner (cheap and simple tonight) and preceded to the local park to throw around the Frisbee we had bought (we sadly lost the rugby ball a few days ago). We then finished off the day with a spectacular 6 hour Lord of the Rings marathon, where we watched the last two we hadn’t seen while in New Zealand. When we finally curled up into bed, it was about 3am, but I still wasn’t properly tired.

The next day we were awoken by Erik at 6am. We didn’t realize we had a sightseeing appointment at 7am and we rushed to pack our things and get out the door, only to later be told that we would be staying another night at Te Anau. We drove 2 hours to the sightseeing harbor. We hopped onto a tour boat, with a café, free tea and coffee, and a free deck of cards. That’s all we needed for a good time. We cruised through huge mountains and lakes, continually seeing beautiful waterfalls, double rainbows, and baby seals. The landscape was amazing, like all landscape in New Zealand, but it never stops surprising me how preserved this land is. It’s one of those sights that can only be explained when you see it for your own eyes. No wonder they used it for Lord of the Rings. At one point, we cruised right under a waterfall, where Steran, Claire, Brian, and I all got soaked to the bone. It was plenty fun, however. We passed the time with playing President (a card game), but it soon got too loud because we kept yelling at each other and getting really into the game. After 2 hours we pulled into the harbor, where we made about 3 sandwiches each and talked late into the afternoon. At around 5pm we left for the hostel. I went to the computer repair store and gave them my computer. We played another round of Frisbee and made ourselves some great tasting tacos. I went for a run after dinner, wanting to get back in shape after 5 delicious meals today. We watched another movie tonight, Anchorman. We laughed and joked, staying up late as we swapped jokes and ridiculously childish scary stories. It’s now the next morning, and I’m finally catching up on the days where my computer was broken. Hopefully this repair did the trick. Thanks for reading!