Horse riding in Te Anau

My first time horse riding in Queenstown was way too much fun. I didn't really think it could get any better at  Te Anau!

So how did we end up in Te Anau? We drove up to Te Anau, because we wanted to see Milford sound, which is a fjord. We heard many great things about it, about how beautiful it is, this and that. However even though Milford Sound has always been hyped up, and we had a natural instinct to believe what has been raved about, when we were there, we were disappointed. Apparently it rains like there's no tomorrow, pretty much every single week and there are rock falls and other dangerous things. So you have to be careful. It is a 2 hour drive from Te Anau, and we went on the a Real Journey's nature cruise. 

The weather was bad. As in extremely wind, rain, and fog that covered everywhere. You can see that in this picture, when my dad asked us to come up to take pictures, my sisters and I were nearly blown away by the wind.  And my dad's cap actually flew away! It's somewhere sitting on the bottom of the water now... 

Anyway, so our trip to Milford didn't work out that well. We were in Te Anau for 2 nights, and it's quite a quiet and small town. Small town people are always so friendly!

We were thinking of things to do, and since my dad just loved horse riding so much (he says he wishes he could 'rent' a horse and camp in the mountains), he popped up "What about horse riding?"

Things to do in Queenstown

In Queenstown, there are endless possibilities for 'what you should do'. Especially during the summer, the entertainment sector, companies are competing against each other.

I forgot to mention earlier about how beautiful it is in Queenstown. The water is crystal blue, and you know the lake has good water, when it is clear and you can see the bottom with the rocks. The pine trees on the mountain are my favourite. It reminds me of Lake Tahoe. And it looks like what I've seen in those typical American movies, where families go for a holiday or for camp near the lake (Parent trap and Cheaper by the dozen). Picturesque!

Horse riding

Horse riding is my personal highlight of the trip! We went twice, and we really did love it. I really loved the first time, but I even loved it even better the second time in Te Anau, which I will be posting about later. My mum decided to stay at the hotel.

We went to Moonlight stables, near Arrowtown. We were taught how to control the horses, so how to go forward (kick them in the belly), turn right and stop. I rode on a horse called Sayla (not sure of the spelling) and he was pretty comfortable to ride on. Not too tall, and behaved. Except when it wouldn't stop eating grass.

 
We even got to canter (seriously scary) and trot. It was really scary at first, and you're holding on for your dear life. But it's fun! We got to do it a few times.

 Yii-May described her horse as 'temperamental', as it specifically didn't like one of the white horses. I find horses amusing, how some of them have attitude and how there's one particular bossy horse that has to be leader.

We saw a lot of deer, so pretty! Except, at that time, they had their antlers off.