New Zealand: Woodbury Safari Lodge...

After we left Westhaven, the helicopters landed us at the foot of the Southern Alps Glaciers. Here we had tea and lunch by the fire at The Landing in Franz Josef. Once our bellies were full, we took a helicopter tour of the glaciers and headed to Woodbury Safari Lodge. The lodge was located just outside a little town called Geraldine.











We spent the remainder of our time at Woodbury. The guys hunted most of the time and although the girls did some hunting, we spent most of our time doing more girly, touristy things :)

Geraldine was a sweet, quaint little town. We went to their local chocolate shop, antique shop, honey shop, butcher shop and lots of other sweet little stores.





Our first morning there, we traveled to Tekapo to swim in the hot springs. It was also a very sweet little town. There were three different pools, all with different temperatures... we liked the middle temperature, which was 38c and just right! After swimming, we stopped for lunch and then did shopping all along the way home.


This beautiful little chapel overlooked Lake Tekapo







The next day, we ventured out Erewhon Station where we rode beautiful Clydesdale horses through the mountains. This was one of my favorite things we did... it made me wish I was a real cowgirl! My sweet horse was named Conner.







On Wednesday, the girls went hunting, but I'll get to that tomorrow. On Thursday, we headed for the ski slopes. The original plan was to ski the famous Mt Hutt...but it was closed due to a lack of snow, so we headed up to Porters Ski Resort. The ski lifts were the most bizzare contraptions ever! I guess they are up to speed with sitting down and resting your feet up the mountain.... or maybe we are just lazy in America :) You kept your feet on the ground the entire time while a little swing thing pushed you from behind. It definitely took some getting used to and I actually fell off it once and fan into a poor little boy and knocked him off as I was swishing down the mountain... oops!

On the way up the mountain, we stopped at this cute little donut shop. They were MUCH different than the donuts we have in America. They were kinda like bagels cut in half, stuffed with fruit cream and topped with chocolate and sprinkles... they were SO GOOD... in fact, I wish I had one right now!










I was a little sad when Mount Hutt was closed... until we found another slope to ski




The whole group


One night, we cooked dinner for our hosts. We did it up Texas style with steak, baked potatoes, salad and sauteed mushrooms. Micah and Bredger did the meat and us ladies did the rest. I have to say, it was one of the best meals we had at this lodge :)



This is Jack. Jack drove us ladies around during our stay at Woodbury. He was quite a character! He kept us laughing and rolling the whole time!



One afternoon, sweet Jack took Madison and I out and let us drive the roads Woodbury on the wrong side of the road and the oppsite steering wheel side! We did pretty good!





For the rest of the time, we got facials, massages, read and relaxed before we headed to ChristChurch for a day before our journey home.