Sunday, April 15, 2007

I, kea.



I don't care where you are in the world, but I want you to drop what you are doing and run (don't walk) to Puzzling World! Now!

Sarah and I first past Puzzling World as we drove through Wanaka on our way to Queenstown. And, after a day or so of me going "we should go to Puzzling World!" Sarah finally gave in, and we made the drive back to Wanaka to check it out.

Puzzling World is basically divided into two sections. the first section is a series of four Illusion Rooms including a "forced perspective" room, and a "tilted room" -which made Sarah feel a bit discombobulated. And we all know how cute Sarah is when she's discombobulated.

The second part of Puzzling World is the Great Maze. Now, a few years ago, my brother, a friend and I all went to Burning Man where someone had assembled a giant maze. The maze at Burning Man may have been a tiny bit better, but the Puzzling World maze was still challenging and more ambitious.

After Puzzling World, we decided to make another hike, since the weather was holding and we were in Wanaka. So, we were off to hike Rob Roy Valley (no relationship to Sarah's coworker... that we know of).

The hike we had done the previous day had a great pay off, but had been a bit lacking during the actual tramp to the summit, but that definitely wasn't the case with the Rob Roy Valley Hike. First, we got to drive about 30 kilometers down a dirt road, through a stunning valley, testing out the Enterprise's off-road capablities.

The valley we drove through to get to the trailhead.

Then, the actual hike itself was a winding path through some pastures, across a swing bridge, and then up through some scenic forest next to a gun-metal grey, boulder-strewn river. The hike and valley came to a sudden end in a series of steep valley walls, upon which hung giant, cool-blue glaciers and over which dumped amazing waterfalls.

Sarah crossing the swing bridge.



More stunning scenery...

...equals more happy Sarah!

In addition, as we sat, eating apples and enjoying the stunning natural display around us, we found outselves surrounded by a circle of new friends. Three or four Kea parrots had taken interest in us, and were probably hoping we'd share our apples with them. But, instead, they just provided us with some great photo opportunities.

Keas!

Sarah with Keas! (They were really quite brave, and would come up very close to us.)

Having soaked up the setting, and smiled at the parrots antics, we happily made our way down the valley again. The sunny slowly setting behind us.

Oh, and as far as the title of this entry goes...

I, kea. Get it? ...ok, never mind.

2 comments:

Joe said...

I love that on the Puzzling World web site with all the quotes from the customers from around the world it is the American who comments about the fabulous gift shop.

The General said...

Ha! I hadn't noticed that.

I suppose we should just be glad that the quote doesn't contain the words "dope" or "dawg."