Mom & Dad visit: New Zealand

Although I had an amazing time in Melbourne, I couldn’t wait to leave… only because I was meeting my parents at the Sydney airport. It was the first time we were seeing each other in four months. Needless to say, we were all excited to be reunited! The three of us flew straight to Christchurch, which has been described as the most “English” city outside of England. After two days we were ready to move on to Franz Josef, home to some of New Zealand’s largest glaciers. One day later we were heading to Queenstown, our undisputed favorite city of the trip. While there we took a day trip to Milford Sound and went fishing. My parents absolutely loved New Zealand and I wouldn’t be surprised if they came back to do a tour of the north island or to visit Queenstown again. A week passed very quickly and before we knew it we were flying back to Australia to go relax on Hamilton Island for a few days!

Although it’s the largest city on the south island, there still isn’t very much to do in Christchurch. We walked around the town, browsed through the markets in the church square, watched a few street performers, and visited the botanical gardens.

Christchurch is known as the Garden City of the world, and they definitely didn't disappoint. My mom and I couldn't get enough of all the beautiful hydrangeas.

We passed Ross on the way to Franz Josef, a small town known for gold mining.

Dad and Mom in front of Fox Glacier, the longest glacier on the west coast of New Zealand.

The weather in Queenstown was absolutely perfect and only added to the beauty of the lake, trees, and mountains.

The drive four hour scenic drive from Queenstown to Milford Sound is one of the most beautiful in the world. We stopped at this "mirror" lake to take pictures.

I lost track of all the dolphins we saw on the two hour cruise that day. It was magnificent.

It rains about 182 days out of the year in Milford Sound. We were lucky to fall into the 183 days that it did not.

Milford Sound isn't actually a sound, it's a fiord. The difference between the two is that a fiord is carved out by ice and a sound is carved out by water... but who really wants to go through the trouble to changing all the names on the maps?

Instead of doing another four hour drive back to Queenstown, we decided to fly back in a ten person plane. It might have been my favorite part of the whole day.

Our fishing guide and me. I caught the fish, but he was nice enough to hold it for me in the picture so I didn't have to get my hands dirty.