New Zealand Day Three.

Before you start reading, you should be warned that this post contains a lot of pictures of mountains (like the one above), so if you have a phobia of mountains or other rock-related fears, you probably should not read this post. :D

Anyways, the dormitory in which we were sleeping that morning was completely dark. And it was really unsettling in a sense. I'm not usually afraid of the dark, because usually the dark I've experienced isn't complete darkness at all (designers would call complete darkness #000000). But when the lights at the head of our beds were all off, you couldn't see anything, not even your hands. You couldn't even tell if your eyes were open cause there was literally no difference so half the time I didn't know if I was awake or asleep hahahah.

The light at the head of our bunks.

Charging Ryan's iPhone.

We woke up at 5am, and thanks to some unfortunate setting of alarms (inside joke hah), so did everyone else. But they all went back to sleep after complaining for a bit so no harm done. Had our breakfast, and then we went outside and saw this.

Awesome. But it was much better in real life than on a computer screen though.

We decided to walk up another track, as the bus only came in the Afternoon leaving our morning free to torture our legs again. :D And we decided to walk the Hooker Valley Track.

I have no idea who named the track. Probably some guy with a weird sense of humour haha.

Manly lip balm for men. Because my lips were dry and cracking apart. 

New Zealand Rocks. Get it? Get it? =P

There were no cars on the road, obviously.

The thing about the Hooker Valley track was that although it was estimated at 4 hours return, we didn't take into account the fact that we had to walk to the start of the track, which added about an hour to the walk because we were staying at literally the other end of the town.

We first came across this field which totally reminded me of Tellytubbies. There were even wild rabbits hopping away from us as we walked! =D

Lenson and Ryan looking like pros. Looking.

The bushes at the sides of the path were really thorny.

We sidetracked a bit and went to see this Memorial built for the people who have died in the mountains surrounding us.

Then we went on and came across the first of two bridges.

Shot dedicated to Mr Yeo who did something similar during our school trip to Perth. :D

Lenson takes off his jacket. Actually we all did because we got warmer the more we walked.

I think the place looked straight out of a Lord of the Rings movie at times. And it was pretty quiet other than the sounds of rushing water off in the distance. And the air was just amazing.

Came to the second bridge which required a fair bit of climbing to get to.

Whoever put the railing there was a genius.

Nike shoes + Slippery Rocks = Not a good combination. Not that the Nike shoes provided no grip, but my Nike shoes underwent such harsh terrain. =(

Serious Tourist Shot. Serious because of the Danger sign.

That mountain covered by clouds in the middle of the valley is Mount Cook, which is the tallest mountain in New Zealand at 3754 metres.

I think the scenery there changed quite drastically. One moment it was waterfalls and rocks and valleys and before you knew it you were walking on a boardwalk in a field. Weird. But great for photography since you wouldn't end up shooting the same thing. Although the mountains were always there.

Stalker.

Ken Watanabe shot.

Passed by this rest shelter. For people to rest in.

After a really really long walk, we reached the end of the trail where we were greeted with the sight of the Hooker Glacier terminal lake. It was epic.

We only stopped here for a while, because we were running late and didn't want to miss our bus, and because it was really windy and cold. So after eating a slice of bread:

Didn't really take as much pictures on the way back. Because we were rushing and wanted to eat lunch before catching the bus. =D

Decided to visit the rest shelter we passed by earlier though.

And eat another slice of bread. =P

Ryan trying the Ken Watanabe shot.

Looks quite close right! =D

For some reason, the walk back to our hostel was much faster than the walk out. Maybe it was because we weren't half-asleep anymore, or we didn't stop as often to take photos because we'd already taken photos of that place, or it was the anticipation of lunch that was motivating us.

Okay so we had our lunch, then waited around for the bus to come. The tour guide of the bus initially thought we were Japanese and asked us a question in Japanese, which we obviously didn't know because we weren't Japanese. But he realised that and started speaking English to us soon after. And this we could understand because weI had practiced the Japanese accent sufficiently beforehand. =P

Along the way to Queenstown, the bus stopped at this market/farm kind of thing.

Being the budget people we were, we didn't buy anything because it was all so expensive. 

Like, $20 for a pinecone?

And I don't even know how I'm supposed to eat that!

These are Freedom Plums. So yea, FREEDOM PLUMS.

There was this wall of name cards. Probably started by someone who had a lot of name cards and wondered what to do with them.

This was an apple orchid right next to the market. Without apples. =(

Then we boarded the bus and continued on the way to Queenstown! I think Lenson is so going to take revenge by posting all the unglam pictures he has of me.

We arrived in Queenstown sometime in the evening, and there were red trees!

Yay. I even took a tourist shot with the tree.

Just to prove that I was there.

First we went to have dinner, at Macdonald's. 

Then we went to find our hostel for the night.

There was a Salvation Army pretty much next to the city centre as well! =)

We went to our hostel, put our bags down, then grabbed our cameras and went out again! This time in search of Patagonia ice cream, which Mr Sim, our Maths teacher back in Secondary 2, recommended to us. =D

No we didn't buy this shirt hahaha.

We saw a giant kiwi! Lenson's expert usage of the flash helped create the tourist picture you see above.

Busker...busking.

Lake Wakatipu. 

We found the ice cream shop! Where the ice cream was awesome! And didn't melt half as fast because it was so cold. :D

Went back to our hostel after eating ice cream because there was really nothing else to do. Unless we wanted to pay $20 to enter an ice bar, which we did not.

My expertly-balanced-charging system.

And that was Day 3.