Daniel Arrived

After a month apart on separate hemispheres, Daniel arrived in Queenstown, New Zealand! We could not have been happier! His first night here we stayed at a real hotel, the Queenstown Crowne Plaza. NZ has a lot of motels, camping, B&Bs, etc, but not a lot of hotels like we are used to in the US. This was our first and likely last hotel in NZ, and it was a nice treat. He flew in with Whitney's husband Rory, and we all went back to the hotel. We had picnic style lunch at the hotel, my typical lunch of sandwich, fruit, veggie, and hummus lunch. Thankfully he loved it so we will be doing a lot more of those meals this trip! The crackers and nutella did the trick, I think. Afterwards, we went on a walk around Queenstown and the lake to get him more adjusted to the time change. After that we did some packing for our camping trip, and then met up with Whitney and Rory. We had wine and cheese together on our balcony and then walked to dinner at a nearby pub called the Pig & Whistle. We shared some yummy fish n chips and a bowl of soup, and finished it off with a chocolate waffle and ice cream dessert at Patagonia Chocolates on the wharf. We had to get stuffed before our hiking trip, of course! The next morning we went back down to the wharf and split an eggs benedict for our last hearty meal before starting the Milford Track.