<\/p>\n\n\n\n The weather forecast called for clouds and rain, so I wasn\u2019t\ntoo bummed out. On arrival though, I\nlearned a hard lesson: Alpine climates\nchange quickly. The sky was crystal\nclear, without clouds to be seen. \nDespite my blisters, which had painfully persisted since Wellington\ndespite the blister healing pads I bought, I set off to walk around the\nlake. After about 7 kilometers, I had to\ntake my boots off. I kept pushing off,\nbarefoot on the grass, marching up towards the observatory, having decidedly\ngone \u201cfull kiwi\u201d. Finally, I had reached\nthe top \u2013 and boy were the views worth it. \nWith the southern alps around, the beautiful Lake Tekapo below and the\nknowledge that I had completed a 10 kilometer hike uphill (on what admittedly\nwas probably an actual mountain), I was feeling pretty good. My foot, however, wasn\u2019t, so when I was ready\nto go, I asked a person named Jared who was taking photos if he had a car and\nif he could drop me at Tekapo \u2013 he agreed. \nI was very grateful.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The next day was also beautiful but I spent the time inside\ndoing remote work back in the states. \nAfter I finished up, I went out and enjoyed a caf\u00e9, hoping the weather\nwould hold for the stargazing I had booked that night. That evening, I tried going to sleep early so\nI could wake up at 1:30 AM. When I\nawoke, as I feared, the clouds were in full effect \u2013 100% cloud coverage. At the stargazing tour, they offered a refund\nor the opportunity to go into the observatories and see a presentation about\nit. I opted for the refund, then went\nback to try to go to sleep. I probably\ndozed off around 4 AM, and woke up at 7 AM. \nI spent the morning in Reflections caf\u00e9 after checking out then boarded\nthe bus (which was late) to Mount Cook \/ Queenstown.<\/p>\n\n\n\n On the way to Mount Cook, it was extraordinarily hot \u2013 the\nAC unit on the bus had broken and the sun was once again beating down on the\narea making for a beautiful spring day. \nI sat next to a young man named Ivan, who began chatting with me. We talked about travelling, friends, meeting\npeople and the adventures we were having. \nAfter about an hour, I interrupted to actually introduce myself as\nPreston, he said he was Ivan. He asked\nwhere I was from, and he said he was from Russia. He said that he was glad that we could sit\nand have such a nice chat, that people were people and just wanted to live life\nand that we could all get along. I, of\ncourse, agreed. After agreeing, he\nsmirked a bit, leaned over and whispered, \u201cAnd also, I\u2019m sorry.\u201d I knew what he was getting at \u2013 it was indeed\na funny thing and we had a good laugh about it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I had booked the Hermitage Hotel lunch, so when we arrived,\nI went downstairs for a buffet-style lunch with a stunning view from the Hermitage. The hotel itself has fine architecture and\ndesign, maximizing the views of the beautiful Mount Cook National Reserve. With the good weather, it made for a really\nsoul-inspiring lunch. After I finished\nup, I went out for some photos, then up to meet the coach again. When I got to the coach I introduced myself\nto someone who was waiting for a bus. \nShe was a lawyer from Paris, who was a solo adventurer, hiking and climbing\nmountains half way around the world because she can. We had a lovely chat for multiple hours about\nlife and the world. Talking with her and hearing how she was enjoying her time\noff to relax and enjoy life in the beautiful country stirred more deeply that\nfeeling in me \u2013 these places I was seeing needed to be enjoyed and not just\nsimply something that could be seen later, or that there \u201cisn\u2019t enough time\u201d to\nget out and do these things. We arrived\nin Frankton near the airport said our goodbyes and had a hug, then went our\nseparate ways. After checking into my\nAirBnB, I grabbed dinner then went back and turned in early, being exhausted\nfrom a sleepless morning due to attempted stargazing earlier. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The forecast called for rain when I was doing Milford Sound,\nso I swapped the day from Friday to Sunday. \nFriday I spent some time in town wandering a bit, but it was a pretty\nrelaxed day, and most of it was spent resting. \nI had my bungy scheduled for Saturday, so I was really hoping the\nweather would not be rainy. I went to\nArrowtown, cruised the museum, had a beer in an extremely overpriced pub (the\nsame Tui IPA that was $8-9 everywhere else as $13), then headed back to the\nAirBnB when the rain started. Waiting\nfor the bus I chatted with an Australian mother and daughter who were in town\nfor the marathon on Saturday. They were\nfrom Western Australia, outside of Perth, and we had a great time chatting\nwaiting for the bus and on the ride back. \nI stopped off in Frankton, went to the AirBnB and turned in for the day. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Adventure Into The Mountains The weather forecast called for clouds and rain, so I wasn\u2019t too bummed out. On arrival though, I learned a hard lesson: Alpine climates change quickly. The sky was crystal clear, without clouds to be seen. Despite my blisters, which had painfully persisted since Wellington despite the blister healing pads I […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[24],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/avtempwp.azurewebsites.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4824"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/avtempwp.azurewebsites.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/avtempwp.azurewebsites.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/avtempwp.azurewebsites.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/avtempwp.azurewebsites.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4824"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/avtempwp.azurewebsites.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4824\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/avtempwp.azurewebsites.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4824"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/avtempwp.azurewebsites.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4824"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/avtempwp.azurewebsites.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4824"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/20181114_192303.jpg\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\n