First, I am now the owner of a 95 Subaru Legacy! Her name is Kiwi and so far she has been a faithful companion and travel buddy! It was a bit of cash, but I'm finding it so much more refreshing to plan my own itinerary based on what I want to do instead of planning around bus routes. I'm going to get too used to driving on the left side of the road now though!
Milford Sound was beautiful as expected, but of course it poured buckets the evening we arrived until the next when day we left. The drive into the small village though is beautiful, and we even got to drive through a tunnel that is over 1km long and slopes downwards.
After Milford we headed into Queenstown, where I had originally planned on just staying for just one night. It turns out that this beautiful little town is just as addictive as everyone says it is. I ended up going skydiving, and it was a glorious day! The weather couldn't have been more perfect and my dive instructor, Wes, was awesome. Kiwis are amazing people - so friendly and charismatic! As for the actual skydiving though - it's very hard to explain the feeling. I wasn't nervous in the slightest, and was even surprised to find that my heart wasn't pounding out a dizzy jig. Truthfully, I couldn't wait to fall out of that plane. After a ten minute instructional talk, we headed up into the plane, where we sat in a specific order with our individual instructors. Then once we hit the proper altitude, we fell out of the plane one by one! Basically your partner has you hang out of the plane, while his feet are inside. Then, he launches you in a somersault out into the sky. You briefly fall at a speed of 400km/hour until they release the drogue shoot, which slows you to a speed of (only!) 200km/hour. You free fall through the air for 25 second, hollering with pure joy until the main shoot is pulled. From there you have about 5-7 mins of gliding back to the ground. Once back in the van, they warned us that some people may feel sick on the drive home - an after-effect of the dive. Wouldn't you know it, the guy RIGHT behind me grabs one of the barf bags being handed out. Turns out his girlfriend ended up vomiting instead. Phew!
After skydiving we went on a short hike up a nearby mountain and then went back to the car with the intention of freshening up. It was St. Patty's day, and we figured we deserved at least just a beer. After a jug of "Pimms" (an AMAZING drink filled with slices of fresh fruit) we decided to switch to cocktails. Well it turns out that every drink in New Zealand is automatically a double, and the night ended up relocating to a local bar called Altitudes. I met a cool bartender named Morgan, and he eventually signed my New Zealand flag for me, adding on a drink recipe for good measure. One thing seems true for every country - us young adult hooligans always end up at McDonalds after one too many. 
The next day I put my foot down and drove us out of Queenstown. It's waaaay too hard not to spend money there! We took a beautiful drive through Mt. Aspiring National Park, and along the way enjoyed many short stops at various scenic attractions. One such walk was called the "Blue Pools," and it was really just that. About one km down a path there is a bridge that crosses over a river that contains some extremely beautiful blue patches of water. Surrounding the area is a spit of land on which people have built hundreds of cairns. (Small rock statues) It was insane how many of the little buildings there were.
It was starting to rain pretty heavily by this point so we decided to high tail it back to the car and continue on our drive. We arrived in Fox Glacier around 6pm, and decided that we really needed to charge our electronics. Since we're cheap and stingy, we sat in a cafe for several hours, sharing one scone while letting our devices charge. We camped out at a freedom site called Gillispie Beach, and fell asleep listening to the crash of the surf.
The next morning we set out to embark on another hike called the Copland Walk. It is a long 17km trudge through mostly jungle, and you spend most of the time picking your way through rocks and roots. It does have some beautiful areas though in which you amble alongside a turquoise river. Some of the river crossings are extremely impressive, with cable bridges that feel unsafe, but are none-the-less incredible. 5 hours later we reached Welcome Flat Hut, which was built in 1986. The building itself is beautiful with some strange outdoor flush toilets. (Don't ask me how they have flush toilets up in the boonies!)
The highlight of the hut...
NATURAL HOT SPRINGS!
Turns out there is an active lava bed nearby, and it heats the water. The source is a bubbling mass of turbulent water in a natural red rock bowl. Then it flows down a tiny little crack to another pool, where the water is just cooler than your average hot tub. We spent a few hours in the pool with several other people, watching the sun set and gazing at the stars. We even met a talkative couple from New York who also signed our flag.
The walk out was uneventful but still enjoyable. We camped again at the free campsite and woke up to another spectacular morning. We then walked up to the foot of Fox Glacier, which reminded me of the Columbia Icefields in spite of this glacier being much less impressive.
The plan today is to head out to Franz Joseph Glacier, and spend the day restocking our food, (and maybe crying a little over the prices) and preparing for more hikes.
New Zealand Fact of the Day: Bumble Bees here are the size of small elephants.
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