Its been a few days with not a whole lot to report unfortunately; largely due to the fact that most of our trip the last few days has been a repeat of places we have already been :(. I do have a few good tidings to report though!
On Tuesday we decided to make the trip to Milford Sound...which actually is not a sound. It has been misnamed, it is infact a fiord? I have no idea what that actually means and this is even after a 45 minute explanation on the finer points defining of the two... moving along ;). Milford sound is the place where they did quite a bit of the filming for Lord of the Rings. PS, they LOVE that movie here. Every town in the south island has some sort of a "Lord of the Rings Tour" or cardboard hobgoblins in the window. Anyway, the sound is beautiful. What it looks like is a mountain range that got "halfway" swallowed up by the ocean. The pictures should give a decent idea, but it looks like the mountains just pop up out of the water. Unfortunately we had to endure a 14 hour bus ride to see this wonderful sight. Needless to say it was an early night and the verdict is still out on whether or not it was actually worthwhile. All well ;)
The following day we spent exploring Queenstown. We did stumble across one of our favorite (and cheapest) activities yet. For $20 you got to take a big ski gondola to the top of the mountain and to get down??? thats right...LUGE! They had a "street luge" course set up that went down the mountain. And this thing was GREAT and much faster than expected. There were several parts where you were going fast enough to actually leave the ground in your little luge! As much as it hurts to say this, “the amazing joe" was able to pull off a win in the "downhill luge battle race of death." Everyone involved is still disappointed. I'll put up some pictures so you can get an idea, but this thing was "sweet as." Sweet as (pronounced sweet-azz) is the equivalent of saying sweet or awesome in the states. It's by far the kiwi's goto adjective.
Round two of Christchurch yielded a new discovery for us. Apparently, Cristchurch is the world gateway to Antartica...I know, i was surprised too, apparently they're pretty close...Its ok check the globe, we did ;). All of the countries that explore Antarctica have their base at the "International Antarctic Center" next to the airport here. This is where they load up the BIG (US Air Force or course) DC-10's and fly supplies to the big station there. We figured visiting this place was a must do! It was decent...the experience was defiantly highlighted by the ride we took through an obstacle course in one of those tank looking tractors that they use for transport in Antarctica (BTW they float!). Another notable experience is the simulated wind chill room...I felt like i was back in Michigan waiting for the school bus. Gina claims that this will forever be the stupidest thing she has ever spent money on!!! :D
That pretty much catches everything up to speed, that is except for the Chinese dinner incident. Joe learned a very big lesson about ordering Chinese food in a foreign country when you cant understand the menu...Stick to the basics or be surprised!!! The short version of the 3 hour story is Joe decided to order "The Cod." What he received was precisely that...a Cod...the whole thing...completely intact. The look of disappointment on his face has given gina and myself hours of happiness.
