USA Day 13. Cable Car.

I figured I should start my time off with doing the most touristy thing possible - and something you definitely can't leave San Francisco without doing - riding the infamous Cable Cars!

I figured I'd save my legs the hour long journey and simply hop on the Cable Car up to the north to hunt down a location from Princess Diaries (don't judge)

 It started out pretty gloomy when I was queuing up to get on the Cable Car - but seeing them turn the cable cars around was kinda cool at the bottom of Powell rd. The car goes onto a wooden platform that the conductors then turn!

 I was actually pretty impressed with the cable car as it chugged up all the ridiculously steep hills without much hassle - aside from when a Fed ex truck stopped in front of us in the middle of a hill which meant we had to roll backwards down the hill to then attempt to climb it again!

I didn't get any photos while riding the car sadly as it was crammed full. But the conductor decided I needed some photos of me on the car and took a couple of me up the front before introducing me to 5 other conductors as his new wife… standard.

 The weather massively picked up by the time I got up to the Marina with gorgeous skies!

 There was no way I was going to be queuing up for the cable car back though! It took me over an hour and a half to get on, and I didn't fancy spending another hour and a half in direct sun waiting!

 Instead I strolled about the front and the embarcadero and attempted to hunt down a particular old game that I wanted to play (ok, so I only wanted to play it because it was featured in Princess Diaries..)

 I knew the Musee Mecanique (where the game was meant to be) was along one of the piers, so I just strolled along all the little ones!

 and, I think, got a few cool photos for my hassle

 I did eventually find it! And I may have been a little too excited to finally get to use all the quarters I'd saved up to play the games!

 (this was just a minor one I wanted to see)

 But this one was the star attraction! If you've watched Princess Diaries you'll recognise it - I had a go and failed, miserably but it was fun to give it a go!

 The it was back through fisherman's wharf with all the crabs, and I couldn't resist picking up some chowder in a traditional San Francisco Sourdough Bread Bowl - and it was yummy

 Not as many photos as usual today, I mainly just pottered about and enjoyed the sun before coming back to the hostel and booking my flight to LA (I need to fly back to LA to catch my flight to NYC). I was holding off booking it because I really didn't want to spend that much but the train took 32hrs whereas the flight took an hour and a half. Plus I've already paid for my nights accommodation here so I didn't want to lose it. 

In the end it cost me even more because I waited (typical) and I have to wake up at 4am on Friday and I don't land in NYC until 9pm - so that sounds like it's going to be a wonderful fun-packed day!

Day 21. Glaciers

This should really be, Glaciers, Hitchhikers and Shooting since three pretty fun things happened today!

First things first it was a gorgeous sunny day so cancellations were out the window and it was off down to the helicopter launch site!!

 A beautiful view of the mountains from the launch site 

 Our helicopter coming into land

 The ride started by taking us over 'rainforest' clad mountains it was surreal how the clouds looked being so close and how high up

 And then we started to go further into the Alps with the snow covered mountains at our feet

 We got to see three glaciers, including the big two. Fox, Frans Josef and Tasman. As well as a look out over to Mt Cook.

 Me in the helicopter!

 We also booked in to have a landing at the top of the Glacier which I'm so glad we did, it was more expensive to have a landing but it was great to actually be out in the snow

 I should probably add we took this photo so we can submit it to the Lancaster Study Abroad Society Photo Competition - we weren't doing this weird pose for no reason!

 After about 10 minutes or so we set off again over the glaciers

 The view was stunning, and I'm pretty sure I had my mouth open for most of the ride

  

 It was back over the rainforest down to the landing site again, the whole thing took around 45 minute (it should have only been half an hour but we made sure to keep the driver chatting when we landed so we got some extra time) but it was possibly the highlight of my trip so far. It was very, very cool.

 So after packing up the car and getting changed we were off on the road again! We decided to mix up the seating arrangements as it's not been often we've all been driving together so I sat in Axel and Cara's car while Axel drove and Cara say in ours. 

 We stopped (I made us stop) at Knights view point to see our last glimpse of the ocean for a while, and to grab a photo of the stunning view 

 It was around this point, just before we actually got into the body of Haast Pass that we passed some hitchhikers, we and Axel drove on as we weren't sure we'd have room and didn't know if the other two wanted to pick them up. Just down the road I stopped for this photo and George and Cara said they wanted to pick the two guys up, so. We turned around...

My first time picking up hitchhikers was fun, Christoff from Switzerland came with me and Axel while Neil from Plymouth went with Cara and George. They were really nice and had some funny stories to tell about a car that lasted them two days before it broke down and was then too expensive to fix!

 We stopped off at one of the mirror lakes which I'm so glad about as they were at the top of my 'to-see' list, and they didn't disappoint!

 After the mirror lakes we came to Wanaka which is where the guys wanted to be dropped off, while there me and Axel ran to find a toilet while Cara and George carried on ahead - there's only one road so we knew we'd easily catch up!

But. Me being impulsive and Axel being easily persuaded meant we did a little stop off along the way.. On the road there was a saying 'have a shot' and I've never held a gun before nevermind shot one so, we did a minor detour to a gun range!

It was really fun, we got 25 bullets to shoot at this tiny target. And I did pretty well, if I do say so myself, 20 in the middle 5 in the red just outside the middle. Natural good shot the guy said :)

 Aside from that little detour we took our time getting to Queenstown - mainly because I kept wanting to stop!

Day 7. Queen Charlotte

After a bit of an early start, I gave mum a quick ring, then set out on a walk around Picton as George was still fast asleep and I wanted to make the most of what was beginning to look like a beautiful day. Me and Axel walked along the harbor side for a bit before Axel, claiming tiredness, went back while I carried on exploring. Men. I managed to find ‘Bob’s Bay Track’ which finishes at a little bay with safe-swimming water. It was a really lovely walk, which only had a couple of scary sections where there’d been landslides and I had to skirt across, and the views were perfect throughout!

The view along the walk

 And what I saw whenever I looked down!

 I still can't get over how clear the water was!

 And the view when I finally made it to Bob's bay!

 Some of the beautiful shells scattered along the coastline 

The bay was lovely and it was great to paddle along the shore and admire the purple and blue shells after a walk in the midday sun (I obviously didn’t think through the timing of the walk). I dawdled at the bay for a while but I realized I’d left my phone with Axel and I didn’t want him to be waiting for me as we hadn’t agreed on a time to set off. After rushing back to the hostel (most of which was uphill) I find George in a hammock having just gotten out of the hot tub and Axel dozing on the sofa.

The route to Havelock 

 at one of the look out spots you could pull into

We did eventually set off, after I rallied everyone (it really shouldn’t be so hard for three people to be ready at the same time), and we took the Queen Charlotte Drive across Marlborough Sound. The drive was beautifully scenic with lots of look-out-points, a few of which we stopped off at. The downside though was the road was very twisty, there were a couple of turns which were painfully sharp and by the end of it we were all feeling a little nauseous!

 Coming into havelock 

 Our view while we ate dinner on the patio of the hostle

Me winning at Risk (even though I'd never played it before and Axel and George claimed to be pros!)

We arrived in Havecock in one piece, just. Found a hostel and were about to settle down for the night when we were told about a waterfall track which if you took at night allowed you to see glowworms up close. Well we couldn’t pass up that chance so after playing risk until the sun went down me and George borrowed some torches and went for a walk up a very steep, muddy path. We actually almost missed the glowworms as we were so busy trying to maneuver a particularly narrow and wet section that we didn’t notice the cliff wall was filled with glow worms! It was obviously impossible to take a photo but it was absolutely beautiful.

Axel heads to Nelson tomorrow while me and George are taking the Kenepuru road up Marlborough Sound, bring on tomorrow! 

P.S we passed two women on bikes twice on the road here (we passed them, then pulled up not long after at a look out & then we ended up having to pass them again) and when we were sat playing risk they walked into the hostel! They said 'hello again' so they clearly remembered us too! Such a small world!