Day Two and Three: Mount Cook.

Welp. My big dreams of updating from the road didn't really pan out given a combination of "technical issues" with our WiFi hotspot (i.e. the rental company forgot to switch it on before we took off) and just plain tiredness after a day of exploring.

Fortunately, Jamie and I took quite a few pictures which can help me retroactively blog about our time on the other side of the world...

From Christchurch we headed south towards Aoraki (also known as Mt. Cook).  We knew going into our trip that it would involve a bunch of driving considering how much we wanted to see in 13 days.  We were also counting on these drives including lots of picturesque stops on the way.  New Zealand delivered.

These are all from the FIRST DAY of driving. Seriously...so much incredible scenery.  We drove through "Pelennor Fields" (or rather, right by it and through land that looked pretty much the same as it) and ended up at Minas Tirith -- or at least the hotel at the base of the mountain upon which they superimposed Minas Tirith. I neglected to take a picture of it, but it was like this minus the CGI castle and Gandalf.

I should note that Man Boo and I had not planned on geeking out on Lord of the Rings while we were in New Zealand, and we actually didn't realize we were passing or staying in these locations until after the fact when we found a book on the Lord of the Rings locations and skimmed it in a souvenir shop.  Still, it was pretty fun to learn about.

It was pretty rainy, but Man Boo braved a trek in Hooker Valley to see Mt. Cook -- the highest peak in New Zealand (also known as The Lonely Mountain in LotR -- again, something we didn't know until later).  Sadly, it was too cloudy to actually see Mt. Cook, but the hike itself was pretty photogenic...

(This one's a panorama shot so you should click it if you want to see the full picture)

(These suspension bridges were all over NZ -- they were scary wobbly)

(Glacier!)

 Because of the rain and clouds, we weren't able to take advantage of the area's designation as a Dark Sky Reserve, but it was a risk we took booking a NZ trip in the off-season. Hey, we got 70% off our hotel and campervan rental and a bunch of free upgrades so I think it was a pretty good trade-off.  We've got stars in Minnesota.

Next stop: Queenstown!