This morning felt like it came really fast. The Captain woke us up at 7 for breakfast and then we cruised out back to the end of Milford Sound to the Tasman Sea.
There was a huge cruise liner coming in from Australia so that was pretty cool to see. It looked just tiny compared to the steep mountains surrounding it. It was another beautiful day on the boat. You could tell that the crew was really excited for some sunshine and it gave us a chance to go a little further out.
We saw a Red Deer on the rocks. They can be hunted all year round and they get a few people who come up and hunt from helicopter up here. So the Captain said it was pretty rare to see one in the wild. We also saw a bunch of adolescent fur seals lounging on the rocks and then bottlenose dolphins swimming along the edge too! It was really cool that we were able to see such diverse wildlife, it sounded like that's less likely to happen when it's rainy.
We returned to the port and then made our way back towards Queenstown. We had learned that before we got to Milford Sound the road into it, through the Homer Tunnel, had been closed for 4 days due to bad weather. So we determined that we were truly lucky to have such nice days.
We didn't waste much time when we got back to the hostel. We are in the same room as our first night and then we decided to go down to the beach and Marine Street. It's a beautiful day and we just wanted to soak it up. We found Hell's Pizza that my sister Heidi suggested we try and ate that for dinner. I think that I got more of a kick out of the fact that a cute botique called Angel's Designs was directly across from Hell's Pizza.
We did some shopping, had some delicious ice cream, and then came back to the hostel to get ready for going to the Ice Bar.
Incase you're unsure of what this is, it's exactly as it sounds. The bar is made of all ice. Even your glasses are just carved out ice. We were given a parka and grippy gloves and then went on in. I had a drink called the Perky Penguin which was delicious. The there was even an "air hockey" table inside - so really an "ice hockey" table. The bartenders told us that they do change out their ice carvings about every 4-5 months and it's two guys from Auckland that do it. The best part is that they get the ice from Vegas!
Originally they only had the ice bar in Christchurch, but the earthquake that recently hit them leveled it and they rushed to open one in Queenstown. He said it took the guys 10 days to have it ready. Now it is the largest ice bar in the Southern Hemisphere.
Even with the jackets and gloves we still felt a little cold so we finished our drinks, slammed the glssses into the "ice garbage" and went outside to warm up. We walked around for a little while before making our way to the hostel.
Going to take it easy tonight since we are getting picked up early for our tour tomorrow.
We will be able to reassure everyone that the world doesn't end, we are 17 hours ahead of you in Minnesota so if you're feeling uneasy just check in that you've heard from us!
Cheers!
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