While researching breakfast in Te Anau, everyone suggested going to Sandfly Cafe. And it was a great suggestion! I grabbed the pancakes while Grant had the Hash Brown Stack. We added a side of hash browns and some bacon, but we were so full that we didn’t finish them. The bacon was more like thick ham slices, so it didn’t whet our appetite. After breakfast, we swung by the grocery store across the street to grab some snacks for the hike and the road trip to our next destination.

Since we planned two long hikes during the next week and a half, we decided to keep this hike shorter. We headed to the Rainbow Reach hike just a few miles outside Te Anau. It was part of the Kepler Track, one of the “Great Walks” in New Zealand, which was also used during some of the Lord of the Rings filming. The hike was relatively easy on a pretty well-maintained forest. We stopped at Motor Hut for a snack break and to relax by the lake. I thought that became hard to do as we soon learned one of the major pests on the west coast of New Zealand…sandflies. They bothered me first while Grant made a pitstop at the bathroom, but they started getting Grant on our way back to the trail. Their bite felt like small pinches, but we realized there was no getting away from them, especially if they were near water sources.

After our hike, we headed back into Te Anau for gas before driving to Queenstown. I thought gas in California was expensive, but the price in New Zealand is just as bad. Most of the gas was $2.50/L, so basically, NZD 9 per gallon when you do the conversion. On our drive to Queenstown, we realized how lucky we got with our first day in NZ being sunny. Most of the drive was cloudy, with the occasional rain shower. We figured out on this drive that similar to how you might see ranches full of cows in Texas, New Zealand has ranches that raise deer. We read they are not native to New Zealand and so are domesticated to use for venison. We also started to realize that New Zealand has some of the best public restrooms of anywhere we’ve been – the country makes road trip bathroom stops easy!

Once we got into Queenstown, we relaxed in our hotel room as we tried to figure out dinner. Thankfully, like in Australia, the food choices are very similar to ours, so choosing a place to eat isn’t as difficult as it sometimes was in Southeast Asia. We headed to Atlas Brewing Company for some tacos and a burger before exploring Queenstown’s “downtown” area. They had an ice bar nearby, so we decided to grab a time slot and enjoy the experience of standing in a -8 degree (Celsius) room. The only time slot was 9 pm, so we toured the souvenir shops and returned to the room to grab Llama Llama. (My sister’s work has a llama that they use during the Christmas season, like the Elf on the Shelf. She brought it to Sydney to take some pics and forgot on her return, so we have enjoyed taking pictures of it in different places in NZ.)

When our time slot arrived, we returned to the bar to check-in. And of course, the one time I don’t bring the passports with us, they ID me. The only form of ID we had was my license in Grant’s wallet, which she thankfully accepted, but told us most places in town will only take a passport as a form of ID. They gave us a thick coat and gloves before leading us into the ice room. Everything was made of ice, even the cups they made our drinks in. We enjoyed our hour taking pictures and enjoying our drinks while they played various US music. And, of course, their ending song is “Ice Ice Baby.” You get to smash your cup in the trash can at the end of your time in the bar. It wasn’t as satisfying as I would have liked, as it didn’t smash into several pieces.

We returned to the room and caught up on some Criminal Minds while waiting for the first Starship launch (though this one was scrubbed right before lift-off). I tried staying up to watch the start of the Boston Marathon but ended up heading to bed to grab some sleep. I got up around 2:30 to watch the end of the elite men’s finish as Kipchoge was going for the record. However, even the GOAT of marathons had rough days and ended up in sixth place.