New Zealand-Day 11

December 31st 2010

New Years Eve! hard to believe that we're going to be the first nation to bring the new year. It's amazing!!! We first went to Fox Glacier before heading to Queenstown. We took a hike up onto the glacier. The hike was so beautiful. The river flowing from the glacier was glacier run off and we saw giant chunks of ice flowing down it. It was cool to see. This is a picture of us at the base of the glacier.

We had a chance to taste the rushing water. It was extremely fresh tasting. Bryan had to hold onto me :)

Right before we got on the glacier we had to put Crampons on the bottom of our shoes.

Hiking up onto the glacier...

We made it! Look at the view! The glacier was cold but not as cold as I thought it would be. The sights from the top of the glacier were beautiful. I couldn't believe that this was how we were spending the last day of the year. The year has brought so much joy and perspective on life. this was the icing on top of the cake.

Ice cave.

On the way back down the glacier. We couldn't wait to hear about Bryan's passport. Emmo, our tour manager, had been checking up on the passport all morning while we were off having fun. When we got down he let us know right away that they found the passport in Wellington AND his buddy would bring it to Christchurch...It'll be waiting for us! PHEW. We were so happy and thankful. Now I didn't have to kill my husband.

Strange chips...mint/lamb flavor :) tasted OK...

Then we were off to Queenstown. We made a quick stop and this beautiful view.

Queenstown! We made it to Queenstown! This is Fergburger. A popular burger joint. Like Pinks hot dog in LA. The line was out the door. It was tasty.

Us on our patio in our hotel. It over looked Queenstown. I had never stayed in a place this amazing before. It felt like a movie set, I kept waiting for someone to wake me up. Queenstown is easily the most beautiful place I have ever been. This is where we got to bring in the new year. Couldn't wait!!!

We got all dolled up and went down to the lobby for dinner and drinks. The restaurant had a wall of Windows, this way we could see the view while we had NYE dinner. At dinner Mike and Andrea bought us a round of yummy shots. It was a great way to kick off the night. We jumped into taxi's and headed into the small town of Queenstown.

We started at this place called Buffalo Bar. The bar was two stories. Some of the group went upstairs and got in trouble for throwing ice off the balcony at other people...I'll give you one guess on who started this game. yes! It was Bryan...about 15 minutes before midnight the group wondered outside to the lakeside.

There were hundreds of people with the same idea. Once we got to the lakeside, there was a band playing music and there was a giant count down to midnight. The first nation to welcome the new year!! We all hung out and danced and waited until the last 10 seconds. We counted down together and shared our first NYE kiss as husband and wife! We were in a different country celebrating the coming of a new year. It was such a great feeling. Fireworks went off over the lakeside. Then we shared in some hugs and kisses with our friends. We also scanned everyone else to see who else got kisses...We didn't see any juicy hook ups but lots of love was being spread.

As the group walked to our next bar we clapped our morning song. It was great to have around 50 people clapping in the streets. It was a great bonding experience. We felt like sheep walking in such a huge group. The famous 'world bar' was our next stop. They served teapots loaded with shots. Teapots were flowing that night. We had a couple of shots, they were tasty. We didn't stay long because our first day of 2011 was going to be a long one. BEST NYE EVER!