Meat Pies and Dark Skies

Activity level: 🌶️🌶️

Modes of transportation: 👟🚐

After our eventful night escaping the ruckus in the campground, we weren’t sure if we could handle the next thrill of paragliding. It turned out the decision wasn’t ours to make as the weather didn’t permit. We woke up to a call from the paragliding place telling us that it was too windy, so we had to go back to the booking venue and get a refund.

View when we woke up—definitely no paragliding today. ☁️

The good news is that gave us a little more time to enjoy Queenstown, which is charming. We stopped by a bagel shop for breakfast and Wi-Fi. Then Sarah picked up some new leggings since we didn’t quite have time in LA, and we walked around (Lululemon sponsor us).

The rosemary breakfast bagel was fantastic! and it was nice to have access to Wi-Fi again after car camping.

We noticed an extremely long line running down the block to this place called Ferg-something, so we went to investigate. Turns out, the line was only for the burger wing of the restaurant (Fergberger was worth a 30-minute wait, apparently), and we were able to walk up to the Ferg-gelateria and Ferg-bakery.

With a line this big it must be good, right?

Eric got kiwi sorbet in a cone, which was delightfully tart and creamy. The people behind the counter tried it after we seemed so happy with it, and also said it was amazing (which… I guess they don’t let them try all the flavors normally).

Eric was ecstatic for the kiwi ice cream!

Still wondering if kiwi the bird and kiwi the fruit are related.

We also went over to the bakery and got a boston-cream filled donut, a prosciutto pastry, and a pretzel. All of them were amazing, so Eric went back to try the steak and cheese pie. Then he went back to get another one, against Sarah’s better advice. He didn’t feel great after that, but he says it was worth it.

I don’t know what they put in this. But it was all delicious!

Sarah noted this was the best Boston cream pie she’s ever had – even against the ones in Boston! She was also still recovering after the camping antics from the previous night.

This was Eric’s 3rd meat pie of the day and where he may have went too far.

They quickly stopped by a “Pak’nSave” where Eric picked up apples, bananas, and (secret) beers while Sarah figured out where to stay that night.

Eric hid the beer and apples in the fridge—the camper was fully equipped.

From there, they left for Aoraki Mt. Cook for the 3.5 hour drive to the alpine center. The views from the highway were spectacular, with Mt. Sefton looming over the road, covered in glaciers and snowpack late into the Spring.

Energy drinks were a must for the 4 hour drive to Mt Cook. We also discovered the fig apple Red Bull which was delicious.

Sarah and Eric stopped by the Hermitage Hotel to put their names in for the wait list for a glacier river tour (spoiler: we didn’t get it). We didn’t stay at the hotel but they have an open door policy for visitors to explore and even play the piano in their 3rd floor lobby over-looking the mountains. The hotel itself was so cute and Sarah was happy to have access to a clean bathroom after car camping and the road trip.

After playing a little Moonlight Sonata, we went on a nice little hike behind the alpine hotel with striking sunset views of the mountain range. The sky was just overcast enough to light up with pink and blue hues, jutting over the mountain.

The hike felt like walking through a jungle.

And then we got this beautiful view of the peaks. Apparently there’s a glacier in the view too.

By the time we finished the hike, it started to get dark quickly—this was the world’s largest dark sky reserve after all. We could barely see in front of us as we drove to the Horse Hill campground for the night. Sarah, still spooked from the night before, had lots of trouble navigating the campsite at night. Trying to soothe her, Eric put his arm around her while they were walking, causing her to jump a foot off the ground and yelp.

The view from the Hermitage Hotel – it’s the only hotel allowed in the Mt Cook due to Dark Sky reserve. The facilities were wonderful and staff extremely nice even though we weren’t guests. Next time we’ll have to stay here.

Instead of a hotel, Eric put his Eagle Scout knowledge to work and set up the car camper for a night under the stars (and a layer of clouds between us and the stars).

Those aforementioned clouds meant that, although we were inside the Dark Sky Reserve, there was not a star in the sky. Eric broke out the beers as a surprise, so we pretty much had to sit outside in our camp chairs. We chilled for a bit, enjoying the calm, pointing out slightly less black patches of sky and analyzing closely for constellations. But nothing. So we packed up and went to sleep.

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