Post Stewart Island Fun

After our tramping travesty, we went to the Fiordland Natl. Parks to check out the Milford Sound. This is not actually a sound but a fiord and im not sure what the difference is. It is a long winding bay with very steep mountains and waterfalls that go into the ocean. We went on a cuise that takes about 2.5 hours and saw some seals and things. We also hiked up to an area that is snow capped year round which is a little strange when it is warm enough to wear a tee-shirt. Next we headed to queenstown which is a big party town.

It is also one of the adventure capitals of NZ. You can skydive, bungy jump, hang glide, jet boat, parasail, etc. the list goes on and on. We didn't do any of these extreme sports, but we did have fun still. We camped one night at a campsite a little out of town and the next stayed at a hostel. We walked around the town a lot, went to the botanical gardens where you can play frisbee golf and we saw an asian blindfold himself and walk around with a stick which was confusing. Then we went to the wharf where you can sit on the beach front and we paid a few dollars to go to this underwater observatory where you can see the big rainbow trout, eels, and diving ducks. For 50 cents you can push a button and feed them and we did that three times. We also had one of the best burgers on the whole trip at a place called Fergburger, delicious!

After Queenstown we went to the Glaciers further north. Fox Glacier and Franz Josef. It was quite rainy when we went there but we were able to get pretty close to Franz Joseph. It is a really really big Ice cube with a stream running through it. There were many warnings saying to stay within the ropes because two years ago a tourist snuck onto it and got crushed. The glaciers have been receeding since the 1950s and they hope that they will recover.

We will continue when we get more internet time... (sorry)

Tramping on Stewart Island

As mentioned before, we htought it would be fun to take a three day hike out on Stewart Island. Boy were we wrong. 22 Miles and three days later we still have not seen a Kiwi in the wild. Some of our fellow trampers were fortunate enough to have spotted one of these flightless birds in the wild. The lack of fun goes further than the lack of fauna sightings but the majority of the hike was done with blistered feet and sore shoulders.

It was good excercise as half of it was up some steep very grades and a third of it was in the rain. One stretch of the track was almost entirely a mud pit ankle to shin deep. We spent most of the time avoiding the mud and that prolonged our trek a great deal.

We did, however, make it out safe and alive but we were very happy to be back to civilization.

This is a neat small suspension bridge on the track

MUD !!

Bloo looking happy to be tramping

After a long day of tramping.

Silly Pics 2

Git is saving middle earth and going to destroy a very important ring

This is just funny

Bloo is trying out for a rap video

Silly Pics

This was not a lake when we set up the tent.

This is some gross meal we concocted with instant mash potatoes, pasta, and hearty stew.

If Bloo hadn't had his fix of tall bikes in the US, Look at what he found here.

Git thinks shes a penguin sometimes.

Onwards from Christchurch...

From Christchurch we headed south to Dunedin which has one of the oldest universities in New Zealand. Now, normally this is a busy college down with a lot going on. Good music and bar scene, restaurants, people in the parks, etc. etc. but apparently for two weeks during the end of december into the new year, all of NZ shuts down. Literally every store on every block was closed with signs saying back Jan. 5th, it was Dec. 22nd. This isn't just in Dunedin, it's every where. So, the place was quite dead and much like a ghost town so we did not spend much time here.

We also stayed in a town called Omaru, where we spent New Year's Eve (HAPPY 2011!) and everybody is obsessed with penguins. There is a colony of Yellow Eyed Penguins and Blue Penguins here, which are both quite cool! We didn't get to see the Blue penguins because they bogart them and make you pay $30 to see them run over the wharf at night into their nesting areas. But, you can go spy on the yellow eyed penguins for free from a distance, which we did! It was great. You go two hours before dusk when they come up on the shore back to their nests after a day of searching for food for the newborn pups. We got some great photos and video.

There is a similar bogarting of birds on the Otago penninsula near dunedin where one of the few Albatross colonies are. The big ones with a 9 foot wing span. They are impressive birds and they are unable to bogart them entirely because they can fly, so we were able to spot them amoung the seagulls from the parking lot instead of paying the $46 to walk through the gate and do basically the same thing.

Penguinos and Albatross

Arthur's Pass PIctures

This is the "Devil's Punchbowl" It was a good time to see this because of the massive rainfall we had been getting.















This is a Kea. As one local says "You don't want to be on the business end of that beak"















This is the Castle Hill Bouldering and Climbing area. There is plenty of rock to be climbed here

This is the view from the road that popped our tire. This rainbow was spotted atop Mount Cheeseman.

New Zealand Update

Well, many adventures have happened since our last update. The car has provided many opportunities for ryan and I to practice our motor head knowledge from a flat tire to a new brake pad, a broken jack, and electric windows that just stopped rolling up. At least the engine still works, although lately it's been a bit testy starting up some mornings.

Aside from the car, we have seen some great things and done ALOT of hiking and walking, "tramping" if you will, which is what they call it here in NZ.

After Nelson Lakes nat. park we made our way to the west coast and started south. We saw the pancake rocks in punakaki and the seals at westport. At Greymouth we decided to head inland a bit into Arthur's Pass. We heard there was bouldering here at Castle Hill and ryan was very excited to check things out. :) It was also where some of the Lord of the Rings was filmed.

We drove over the mountain pass in the pouring rain. We had heard that there would be a storm coming in that would drop nearly one half a meter of rain which "Isn't a small amount of rain" according to one ranger. We did some scenic driving and blew out one of our tires. This was the point that both of us wished we had bought a replacment car jack for the one that broke a month previous, rotating the tires. We were fortunate enough to have a nice Kiwi fellow pull over and let us borrow his jack for a few minutes to change the tire. He must have felt bad for us sleeping out in the rain with a flat tire so he offered us a bacheler pad he had on the other side of the mountain.

This is the sign we used to flag him down.

After one day of camping in the rain we were just about ready to check out the climbing area and leave but we came across another issue; a bridge had been washed out on the road we travelled in on. There arent too many other ways around the mountains from that point and we were forced to change our itinerary along with many other angry travelers at the pass. Because of this, we were unable to take our Kiwi friend with the car jack up on his offer to use his pad. So we headed east towards Christchurch then south along the east coast to Dunedin and Invercargill.

This is a picture of a picture of the bridge that had been washed out a day after we drove on it.