Monday, May 26, 2008

The South of the South Island





































1. Weka
2. flying albatross (wingspan can be as much as 3 meters and they are about 1.5 meters head to tail!)
3. more albatross
4. sunset at Stewart Island
5. kiwi bird (come on it is there, you just have to see it!!)
6. albatross (they love the free fish!
7. fishing
8. the cod supper I caught and cooked!
9. aurora australis (the Southern lights- well a photo of a photo. I guess the best time to see them is during their spring)
10. tuatara ( he is a 100 years old!)
11. church (old building in Invecargill). I love churches.. the windows and such.
12. old phone on Stewart Island!
13. most southern golf course in NZ (6 holes, $5 green fee!)
14. homer tunnel (build by men returning from war to earn their EI, rather than being given it for free!)
15. NZ fur seal in Milford Sound
16. neat rocks carved out by water
17. erased a perty picture of the drive to Milford Sound
18. kea - bird will eat anything
19. Te Aneau
20. mirror lakes
21. Mitre peak Milford Sound
22. Waterfall Milford Sound
23. para sail shute
24. Queenstown
25. LOTR site
26. LOTR site
27. flotation chamber
So where was I? Ahhh Larry and Dixie deserted me in Queenstown (JK), as they headed off to Christchurch to catch their flight. All is well. I am back to hostel life and moving every couple of days, but I have sure seen some interesting things in the last while.
My first adventure was going para sailing. I thought it was going to be as scary as jumping out of a plane, but not at all. It was fun and relaxing the whole time. I have a DVD with some photos, but am having issues getting them downloaded to this page, so you will have to check them out another time. I also went up the Queenstown gondola and caught up on my journal and enjoyed the views for the afternoon, which turned into the evening and even had more fantastic night views of the city. This place is made for anyone who wants to do ANYTHING!!

I went for a bus ride out of town to Arrowtown for the morning and checked out this old gold mining town, basically supported by immigrant Chinese miners. The area of town they live in still has the buildings they made standing. Their "houses" were like 5 feet by 5 feet. that included their kitchen and bedroom. A cool thing about this place was it was used for filming parts of Lord of the Rings, so I went to check out those places.
When I returned to the city, I had my greatest adventure yet! I had a flotation massage! The weirdest thing ever. One showers to clear off any lotions etc, then one climbs into the chamber and lays back and you float. The water is about 30 inches deep and (I am sure the lady said) with 30 kilos of salt... so you just float. The weirdest thing... then I had a great hour long massage to finish it off. My kind of adventure!
My next journey was to Te Aneau and Milford Sound. Not much to do in Te Aneau, as it is the start of the treks in the area, so I went walking around the "village" for 4 hours, checking the local birds and loving the view. I also took in a movie make about the "sounds" in New Zealand by a local helicopter pilot. It was pretty neat.

Milford Sound was a pretty neat place. Though misnamed by Mr. Cook, as it is actually a fiord carved by passing glaciers and not water erosion, or whatever this difference is.. It was an in between day, from what I am told, as it was a pleasant but cloudy day, and the best days are on sunny days or on rainy days. When the sun shines everything sparkles and when it rains the waterfalls pour down the water off the sheer rock cliffs. It was a nice way to spend a clam 2 hours on the water (less the 10 minutes when we went on to the Tasman sea and almost flipped over! NOT)
Off I went to Invecargill and my stepping stone to Stewart Island. I went to the South land museum there and little did I know that not only are there the two main islands of NZ, and little Stewart Island, but NZ possesses 4 or 5 other Islands that they refer to as the subarctic islands. These islands were manned for many years for fear that they would be taken over by another country, but as well were stocked with supplies because so many ships were wrecked hitting the islands and people would be marooned for up to 2 years before they were saved! Here to is house the near extinct Tuatara. It is a prickly lizard related to the dinosaurs. the museum is involved in breeding them and trying to get their numbers increased in the world. They can live to be over 100 years old and are incredibly slow twitchers! They move slower than anything you can imagine, like hmmm.. me on the ice! JK.. Invecargill also has some amazing old buildings, so I did a historical walk through town in the rain! I also got to meet up with a guy I met in the hostel in Queenstown. We had some drinks in an Irish pub and I had an amazing shrimp supper.
Off I went to Stewart Island the most southern island in New Zealand. A weird little place with a ton of character. Stewart Island is about 2 times the size of Singapore , but only has 380 residents and only 2% of the island is inhabited. 85% of the island is a national park and 17% is owned by the Maori, but not used so much. The island's power was run off generators until 1989, they got a single line phone system in the early 1990"s and then a sewer system in about 1992! They still collect rainwater on their roofs to use for drinking and home use! It really is a throw back to the days of yore. I stayed with a funky NZ couple in a B&B, which was relaxing. There are a ton of great walks here but it was cold and I was lazy so I didn't do any long ones. (That is one thing I will do when I return to NZ, some of their famous tracks)
So on my quest to see animals in their natural habitat, I went on an evening outing to search for kiwis. It was a neat experience and we had a great guide, named Philip, who was quite knowledge able. We got to see 4 kiwi birds in different areas and different genders too. My photos are crap though because we couldn't use our flash as it would scare them away, so I am hoping on of the other people on the walk got a great photo, otherwise I will just have to remember on a postcard! The next day I ended up on a fishing boat, fishing for cod! I actually caught a few, and after the ride got to take the fish home! I also went for a quick one hour hike on Ulva island, which has had all predators removed from it to allow for the native NZ birds (most of which do not fly) to grow and prosper. I had a weird experience when I wand knelt down taking a photo of a saddleback bird and a Weka walked right passed my knee..Scared the bejesus out of me!
Stewart Island was neat place. I shall return one day! Then I left the bottom of New Zealand and headed back towards the North. I hope it means warmer weather as it has been cold and rainy... not what I dreamed about for my holiday.. BUT is is so beautiful here and only 3 more weeks until I hit the islands!

I hope all is well at home and you are all healthy, wealthy and wise!!


Tuesday, May 20, 2008

New Zealand- The South Island with Larry and Dixie
















1. the Walter peak property- yours for only $50 million NZ$
2. Scottish highland Sheep
3. up close an personal with a red deer
4. view from the window of the parlour at the Walter Peak property (we had a tasty afternoon tea there!)
5. view from the boat on the way beck to Queenstown
6. puzzle world entry.. the clock has been running backwards since January 1, 2000! going back in time!
7. the maze
8. mountain view from our campsite
9. the Cinema Paradiso
10. Lake Wanaka
11. Dixie driving! (Larry had had enough and she fiercely took over!! JK she did great!)
12. our ferry across the Cook strait
13. the pancake rocks (or so i think.. could be the blow holes.. it was dark, but still perty!)
14. view from the passenger seat
15. views from the passenger seat



It really is hard to believe that the South Island could be nicer than the North Island, but with the Southern Alps dominating the West coast it really is beautiful.

So we crossed over tot he South Island on the 10th of May and headed to Blenheim. Dixie and I toured the stores in this sleepy town while Larry went to an airplane museum. Then we started making our way to Wanaka with a sty over in Greymouth. On the way we attempted to check out the Punakaiki Blowholes and Pancake rocks, but it was late and dark, so we only had a dim view of what looked like it would have been spectacular!

The next day we headed to Franz Joseph Glacier (and I already did a blog on that). Which was sooooo nice. I had a lot of fun crawling in and out of the ice caves and climbing on the ice with the crampons.. maybe next time I'll do a full fledged ice hike!?!?

We arrived in Wanaka early in the afternoon and started the tour at Puzzle world. A neat little place (which deja vu tells me I have been before!). We stated with the outdoor maze that uses two stories to complete. One has to find for different colored forts (one in each corner) and the find the exit... It took us a little while, but we all made it out, some a little easier than me! When we arrived in Wanaka, WOW, what a beautiful place! the water was huge and peaceful with mountains rising from the shores and the sky was a clear blue with the sun getting ready to set... so neat!

That evening I went to the neatest movie theater ever. The Cinema Paradiso is much like any other theater, until you walk in the actual theater. There are no cinema seats, but couches and lounge chairs to relax in. There is even an old car if you want to feel like you are at a drive-in! Then half way through the movie, they have an intermission and I had theee best ginger and white chocolate cookie ever, then brought mu tea with me to finish watching the movie. (It was "into the Wild", if that matters).

While Larry went on a flight in a tiger moth plane and airplane and toy museums, Dixie and I had facials and toured the shops of Wanaka. A very neat little tourist town that everyone should pass through at least once! And off we headed to Queenstown.

Queenstown is the adventure capital of New Zealand and there really is anything you want to do to get you adrenaline going... but I decided that really I like my life and don't feel I have to test it, so massages and pampering my bones is much more my style (and the money lasts a little longer!) But before I came to this grand decision I did go on a jetboat ride on the Shotover River and a couple of other rivers, where the water was only about 6 inches or so deep in some spots. Pretty neat thing to do. Then the three of us went on an old steamboat, the TSS Earnshaw, to Walter Peak farm. It was a nice relaxing thing to do and the farm was on a landlocked piece of property (only accessible by boat) and oh so BEAUTIFUL... and for sale for only $50 million dollars (so about $40 million CDN!)

The next morning I had my interview for probation services and Larry and Dixie went up the gondola and luged, then Larry finally got to fly, though as a parasailer. he loved it though (and I did it a couple of days later.) That afternoon they dropped me at the YHA and headed off to Christchurch to catch their plane to the Cook Islands.

It was a very quick 2 and a half weeks and having a camper van was fun and a great way to see the country, only if we had months and months to do it would it have been better!

Monday, May 12, 2008

Franz Joseph Glacier











So I skipped a few days, but I'll get back to them. I am tired and just wanted to post what we did today!
Today we did a heli-hike to the middle of the Franz Joseph Glacier. After a phenomenal 10 minute helicopter tour to the drop off, we walked around for 2 hours, crawling through caves and over the glacier. It was so cool!
Anyway I am tired and will write again another day!

Shari