We saw this poster while passing through a small town in the southern countryside.




Sunday, 25 March, 2007

Okay, so the internet has been a little hard to come by, mainly because we haven't made time to use it. To update this blog takes some planning with our laptop--organizing the pics takes the most time. The laptop we brought has proven to be useful, yet a pain in the butt, because the battery is quick to die out, and it acts messed up sometimes. We have been making CD copies of all our pics, just in case. Then, when I am finally ready to go to the internet cafe, I can just insert my thumb drive and roll...Well... it's not that easy either, some cafes here are on slow dial up, and some do not have a hub slot... the bigger cities have the better facilities and the best prices.

I enjoyed our time in Christchurch. Practically every day we parked at the Botanic Garden, and enjoyed the shade of the old trees. It is a highly visited park by tourists and locals alike. There are many walkers and joggers and schoolchildren. At night we slept in Jonathan's and Andre's driveway (two univerisity students we met via frisbee, of course, and spent a few late nights discussing history, politics, and such... actually Andre and Jason did most of the talking!)
And before leaving the area, we learned how good a stir fry can be from a passing traveler friend who made dinner with us. (rosegarden pic)


So, since Christchurch we've been hitting the road pretty hard. The scenery and the people are still awesome! Mount Aoraki/Mount Cook was stunning. We hiked out to Hooker Lake to see glaciers up close! The water is so shiney from the glaciers grinding the rock into a fine dust that is reflected off the milky water. The sound of rushing water from the melting ice was everywhere. (aoraki.jpg)


Another cool fact about this part of the world is the night sky... the milk way is easily seen, and how amazing it really is! (tekapoe night sky pic)


We left for Queenstown on a drizzly dreary day. That's when I started to get cabin fever. We arrived in Queenstown with rain and cold. We tried to enjoy the city (public library, binocular shopping, lunch at a kebab place), but decided quickly to head for Milford Sound. We booked a 2.5hour cruise on the Encounter, rain or shine. Onward! (queenstown pic)



TeAnau proved to be a delightful midpoint stop. We did laundry, and showered, and enjoyed the first sunshine we had seen in almost 4 days. Next stop, Milford Sound...Wow! Weather was better than expected, and the scenery was stunning! (milford sound pic) After this adventure, it was too buggy to stay much longer than stirfry lunch. The sandflies LOVE Jason! So we push further south as fast as we could to Invercargil, but already we were dreaming of the North Island's sunny warmth, and beaches.


Invercargil was on and off drizzly and chilly winds. We met a couple of Canadian friends who hung out with us on St Patricks Day. We exchanged favorite spots to visit the night before they were leaving for Stewart Island. The next night we spent on the Bluff and almost got blown away! The locals laugh with knotted eyebrows when we tell them we slept there on a windy night. Jason and I soon agreed on our next route of travel--North (well, it's the only direction you really can go when you're in the southern most city of the island!) (end of hwy 1 pic)


Yummy lunch!
So, passing through the Catlins, the weather began clearing up, although still windy. We made a lovely lunch at a picnic area, visited a gorgeous beach, and later up the road found an nice place to park for the night (it is clear to see how easy it is for a traveler to find places to park overnight for free).

Hello Dunedin! And what a nice botanical gardens you have! Yes we spent our days and nights at the Dunedin Botanical Gardens (at least our van did). We had a nice hike to town downhill, but the weather (which can dictate our days activities) was pretty nice. It is a university town, so by Thursday night, the parties are winding up for the weekend. We decided to have a pub crawl through town after our tour of the Speight's brewery, and by 2 am there were tons of students out roaming the city streets, buying a meal at the few shops that were actually open, and sobering up for the next day (I think) (dunedin garden) We enjoyed a nice shower at the city pool, which was also a water park, very cool for the kids, and said goodbye, for were headed out for the last part of our South Island excursion.

Here we come West Coast! Look-out sandflies, we are armed with Deet and ready to squish you!