Bumps in the Road

Second full day in New Zealand.  It started raining late in the night and was pouring.  This did not bod well for our helicopter ride to the glacier scheduled at 10am.  We were going with Glacier Helicopters to see the 2 largest in New Zealand, Fox & Franz Josef.  The clouds were way down on the floor of the valley.  We went into town only a couple minutes from our RV park to be told no flights were going out.  We rebooked for a 3:30 flight in hopes, per the radar, things would blow out by then.  We settled the RV on a side street.

The kids did homework and Andy and Avis headed to walk town.  Lots of souvenir shops (good grocery, 4Square) and a stop for coffee at a packed Full of Beans.  We enjoyed the NZ favorite of flat whites.  This place was packed and had great pastries and pies. Taking drinks back to the RV we helped the kids with homework until lunch.  Here we dined at the recommended Snakebite.  A odd combo of Thai, Chinese, and Burgers.  Avis had duck noodle soup and Andy had blue mussel fritters and dim sum.  The kids were nothing exciting.  We've noticed like our last trip to Asia the Chinese tourism is booming in this part of the world as well and there were a lot of signs in Mandarin and many restaurants with Asian dishes.  We peeked in the kitchen and noted a Thai chef, so yes, please.  A little shopping and back to the RV to wait.

Unfortunately, come 3PM our trip was canceled for sure as they showed Andy the webcam

at the glaciers and they were completely fogged in.  No flights would be going out today.  Disappointed (but it did save us a HUGE chunk of change) after a quick hike on the Terrace Walk right in town looking for glow worms (no luck there either...too bright out) we moved on and traveled 4 hours to the south to Wanaka.  But our travels rewarded us with some amazing views we did not expect...we went from mountains to the coast and back to the mountains again...stopping so much to gawk (Mom's word), we added another hour on to our trip.

Every turn in this country is amazing.  And this being their spring snow/glacier melt is full tilt, so we are guessing we saw 100 waterfalls today on our travels.  One stop including an amazing beach where there is a huge shipwreck of the Schomberg.  Also, Ally is loving all the small cafes, and we found a lovely food truck on another beach with all kinds of goodies.  We had coffees, crepes, and ice cream, a good way to soothe our disappointment of the day.

Today, an Anthony Bourdain quote came to mind..."Travel isn't always pretty.  It isn't always comfortable.  Sometimes it hurts, it even breaks your heart.  But that's okay."

Today we were disappointed, but we quickly moved on and realized how incredibly blessed we are to be taking this trip together in this beautiful place.