Here we are again

For all you English speakers, its been quite a while, about a month I do believe...
And so sit down with a cuppa, so I can tell you what we have been up to...

After we left Palmerston North we went to Wellington, this is a large town and the home town of Peter Jackson. Some know him as the director of lord of the rings, here in NZ he is known as God. And being the fan I am, I took the opportunity to go on another tour to see the sights where the movie was filmed.
We also spent a day in the Te Papa Museum. Yes, excluding the lunch brake we where there for 5 hours. This place is huge and really interesting for the big as well as the small kids. And the best thing is it is absolutely free!
That evening we went to a rugby match. Hurricanes vs the reds (23-18). And we thought they only had cheerleaders at American football games. It was quite an event!

The next day we took the ferry to the south Island. And stayed in Nelson the first night, we kind of planned what we wanted to do on the south Island that evening and had some help from a friendly german guy. (I do believe a lot of people in Germany are not home.)

The south Island is totally different to the North Island, a lot less people, a lot more mountains. There seems to be a bit more emphasis on walking anywhere you go. Because there ain't much else you can do except enjoy what nature has to offer. So being the experienced trampers we are, we have enjoyed a lot of lovely walks. (Mount Robert was rather good, a bit windy on top though) and stayed at some amazing DOC campsites. The one that comes to mind immediately is the one on the edge of lake Moke. Beautiful, but the first time we experienced the cold. We woke up with ice on our tents. It was the 10th of march and it is quite clear that we are going into the autumn here. So we wear another layer of clothes and enjoy the sunshine even more when we get it .

On the way down the Island we had to make a pit stop in Hokitika. We had some trouble with the clutch, so had to have it replaced. It wasn`t too bad, we got to stay in a hostel for a couple of nights. (It was raining and so we could not put our tents up or we would have gotten washed out) One evening we went to the local cinema, this is an old bank building which has been transformed. The owner has put some sofas in the main hall and has hung a big white screen. He sells semi cool wine and beer and the movies shown are all b listed but it adds to the ambiance somehow. It was really cosy and very welcome on a wet afternoon.
I also went bone carving one of the days we where there. Well not exactly bone but shell. I made my own design and worked on it for a whole day. Ine and Katleen went online so that is why the Flemish part of the blog was a bit more up to date. Because I was carving while they were typing.

Anyway the day the car was ready we packed up and headed on again. Thankfully it also stopped raining that day. First stop Hokitika gorge. The river that runs through it has the most amazing color (the water has any way) as you can see on the pictures. We have no idea why its this color (where is that board with information when you need it!) but think its cool and the nauseating swingbridge was fun to!

From Hokitika it was on to Fox glacier and Franz Josef. These are 2 glaciers in the Mount Cook National Park, and they are still growing in size, which apparently is pretty unique thanks to global warming. I went and flew over them with a helicopter, we also landed at the top so we could have a good look around. It was cold but good. and except for Mount Cook being `in cloud` it was a really good day for flying. The next day we went for a walk on the glacier. It was quite a climb getting there, and after we had lunch, it started to rain! Apparently it happens quite a lot. (something has to make the glacier grow). Our guide Rob was from Holland and has lived in NZ for the last 17 years. He kept us entertained with a lot of interesting stories about the glaciers and how they got to be there in the first place. So we didn`t mind the frozen fingers and toes to much.
There where some nice people on the trip with us that day, and to celebrate the hard days walk, we went to the pub in the evening. To Mell, Marcia, Jerry and Lyn thanks for the lovely evening and hope the rest of your journey goes well!

We stayed to watch the live evening act and see the locals unwind. Not made up our minds which was the most entertaining!

The next day Ine had a sky dive booked but the weather gods decided against it, so we moved on.
We stayed the night in Haast, a tiny town, this is because nobody in their right mind would live here. The sandflies outnumber the locals , about a zillion to one. Another DOC campsite, where I actually woke up in a puddle of water. It had rained so much during the night that the field had become a swamp. So we packed up quickly and found the sun in Wanaka. To get here we had go drive along the Haast pas. A long road where everywhere you look deserves its own picture postcard. In Wanaka we had to wash and dry everything because a lot of our gear got wet during the night.
In the winter this town is a ski resort but its main attraction for us was Puzzle world.
Just big kids we are...
In the afternoon we got to Arrowtown. Nice little village, brilliant little chocolate shop! Hand made chocolate following a Belgian recepy. We have been to some cool places but this was nearly heaven for the chocoholic that I am... Ine and Katleen found there fancy in the fudge shop across the road. The chocolate tastes totally different here so it was a nice treat.

The next day we where in Queenstown where we did a spot of shopping, by the end of the day we all had a new pair of shoes, girls will be girls,... Its all the walking we do, they wear out...

Next stop after Queenstown was Milford sound. This is situated in fiordland, another National park and place of beauty. Milford is one of the most popular sounds and easier to get to than Doubtfull sound. So we booked an overnight cruise to see it. We left at approx.4 pm and had a tour of the first part of the sound. We saw some seals as they where chilling out on the rocks. And had a tour in the speedboat as the cook was preparing dinner.
Everyone went to bed early because at 7 in the morning we where heading out to sea. The mist lifting early in the morning made the whole place almost magical.
On our way back to the harbour we stopped at the underwater observatory.
There are two layers of water, salty sea water and, sweat rainwater in the sound. The top layer blocks out the sun so the plants and fish that live here normally survive only in really deep water. And not in the shallow waters of a fjord or sound (300m is shallow, pff). So the black corral that looked pretty white to me, was unique. Its a good thing these tours are all guided. All fishes look pretty much the same to me. On the way back from Milford we went for another walk to stretch our sealegs.

And so that brings us to Invercargill where we are now, planning our trip on Stewart Island.
We are going to do a three day trek and hope to see a lot of NZ wild life. The Island is as Big as Singapore and has only a handful of streets on it, no cars aloud. So I think the chance we see some critters is big.

We will keep you posted...