12-19-10

Sunday morning was an early one as we woke up in the disgusting moldy trailer we had rented for the night(we did not know this before renting it), so we could store all the stuff out of the van somewhere.  After breakfast we jumped in the van to head to the BIG Auckland car fair at the race track.  As the key turned we heard the clicking that we had only heard before when the car would not start… "Ok, no big deal, pop the hood and yank on the + lead and she should find power again".  Tried the normal yank and tights a couple times which did not work, broke out the hack saw and cut the opening big so we could get the lead to attach tighter, still nothing and it is getting late.  Ok grab the emergency battery and throw her in, bingo! Lets go!  At the fair their were around 20-30 other campervans being sold by travelers in our same situation, anxious to sell before leaving the country.  We all kinda eyed each other a little checking prices and so on, we had one of the cleaner looking cars for sure.  Everything started out ok, we had a few people come by interested and then the rain set in, and it freaking RAINED, for the the next 3 hours!   There were rivers running down the parking lot, we both stood outside totally soaked, opening the slider door as potential buyers walked by to show the goods, then closing quickly again to keep the car from becoming an aquarium.  It was getting close to noon when things closed down when a swiss kid we had talked to earlier came back for another look, we talked for a while then he left again and said he would come back 20 minutes later at 3min to 12 he had not shown up and with the downpour not letting up one bit the place was cleaning out, I headed out to wade around the parking lot and try to find a restroom, no luck but I did see our swiss friend in a 83 camper van with 350,000kms on it but it looked cool all retro'd, damn!  Got back to the van and we both sat there just about ready to leave when he showed back up and just jumped in to escape the downpour and ….. he made an offer.  It was not as much as we wanted but it was $500 higher than the low price we decided we'd accept so hey not so bad.  We drove him home and decided he'd call a mechanic for the inspection he wanted on Monday and call us to let us know what time to be there.  We then headed back to the trailer park in, yes, the still pouring rain.

Back at camp we hung out in the community room reading, watching it pour.  After sitting all afternoon we were getting antsy so we did some circuits which in the humidity got us as wet as being outside in the downpour.   Also an Australian guy half watched us and half watched the news and made comments on our workouts.  I think he was determined that we were crazy doing pushups, lunges and jumping around the room, I am sure we looked strange, for all you P90X cadets Rockstar jumps were part of the routine.  That night it was out of the terrible trailer and back in the new comfortable bed in Serena but hopefully  for the last night!

12- 16, 17, 18 - 10

We woke up and drove into auckland, it is time to sell our Serena! We found a motor camp just 10min from downtown.  The weather was extremely humid and we were more then ready to take showers!  We got our clothes together and as we were tearing apart the van looking for our towels when it hit us and we realized our bag with our towels was back at the glowworm caves. We still showered and just dried off with the last of our dry clothes, and started the laundry.  Change of plans, now it was get to bed early and up early in the morning to drive back to the caves and pick up our stuff, YAY!

The drive went really smooth, we got out of Auckland before morning rush hour and were at the caves in 2.5 hours flat and back to Auckland with towels in hand by noon. Had to do another load of laundry as our towels and wet cave cloths were already smelling quite ripe!  We also washed Serena at the motor camp which had a hose, brush and all the essentials available for use.  Along with all the cleaning we watched the rain fall all afternoon and looked up some hostels to drop fliers off manana.  

The next morning we went for a run right away to escape the humidity, it was weird to run again as almost all of the exercise we have been getting has been straight up or down on the Kiwi hikes.  Got back from the run and spent a couple hours vacuuming Serena, washing the inside and making under the hood look clean with some degreaser the motorcamp owner gave us.  Once Serena was shining we headed down town and spent the rest of the afternoon in and out of hostels dropping of fliers.  We also stopped by the backpackers buy-backs and were shocked how many vans were for sale.  We had heard they were hard to come by in January and Feb but there seams to be an overload of them as people head home for Christmas and a new wave of tourists come after the holidays.  We had no luck with people immediately interested from the hostels but felt good about getting the word out on the street now just wait for the calls to roll in!  

12-15-10

Well we picked the weather right, woke up to a beautiful day with all the previous days clouds and humidity gone.  We headed down to the Tongario Crossing shuttle and jumped in. We were there for the first stop thank god because the same guy that two days ago told us not to worry about a reservations now seemed shocked we didn't have one and let us know it was a full bus and we were the last two (jackass)!   The shuttle drove around to a B&B and a Holiday park to pick us the rest of the hikers then it was off to the trail head.  On the road there we saw 4 or 5 large buses coming the other way empty like they had just dropped off a load at the trail head and when we arrived we saw that was just the case, there was probably a good 100 people at the trail head getting ready to start the hike.   No problem, we both hit the port a potty then jumped on the trail and the crowd quickly thinned out.  

The trail was in Mt. Dooms shadow the entire first half and brought us through several different landscapes all surprisingly desolate especially since almost anywhere else we had been in NZ something green seems to be growing on most surfaces.  There were large cliffs around as we made our way up a valley and onto a huge lava flow where the switch backs started and we quickly gained elevation. They refer to this part as the devil's staircase, it was hot and a real workout, and Mt. Doom was getting bigger with every step. At the top we entered two big craters from past massive eruptions and the landscape went from old lava flows to barren flat wasteland that resembled pictures from the surface of Mars. It seemed so strange to walk through this turrain, as we usually walk through some sort of forest, it felt like you should not be there, and when you think about the fact that it is an active volcano and read the posts of what to do if it erupts maybe it is not the safest hike! It is also amazing how beautiful such a barren landscape can be. Soon we starting to climb again through some loose rocks and scree, and made it to another flat part with even cooler views.  We saw the red crater, it is really hard to explain, but it is red and black and has a lava shoot that would ooze out a lot of lava. We had our last climb for the day on the opposite side of the crater, at the top we saw the beautiful emerald lakes and steam vents on the trail we walked down. The top was a bit caustic since there was a military camp from austrialia there comprised of about 40 teenagers that were very loud. The trail down was a scree shoot that had us running down it while ducking out photographs.  We ate lunch by a large lake in a crater, the color was not as blue/green as the emerald lakes but, it gave us a nice place to eat lunch and get away from some of the other hikers.

The decent to the car park was a few hours of steep switch backs, we walked on private land and got views of the "hot springs" a few vents that were very active, with the strongest sulfer smell I have ever had to breath in.  Toward the end it was really bottle necked with hikers all trying to get to the car park to catch the 4pm bus pick up. 

We were exhausted after our long day on the trail, and headed to our DOC for the night. We did not have kiwi's and no stomach aches.

12-14-10

Cave day is here and it is game time, we both woke up and pulled on our spelunking boots ready for the wonders of the New Zealand underground. My stomach was feeling much better, and I was just as excited as Paul to see the wonders of the cave.  Arriving at Rap, Rock, and Climb we met the rest of our group, three young kids from Japan (two girls and one boy) they seemed very nice but did not speak much english so we chatted with our guides Simon and Cheri, Cheri was our official guide and Simon her "evil shadow" was along to evaluate her. We piled into a van and drove into a pasture and up to a run down building with two large 40ft metal storage container (like you see on trains and flat bed trucks) Now this seemed out of place and a little on the shady side, but it was where they store all of the equipment we would be using. Normally I would have been thinking this looks like a place they could murder us, but I was distracted by Simon telling us that we picked the right tour time since our chance of a flash flood hitting he cave in the afternoon was likely. I think he thought he was putting my mind at easy, but naturally the story of other guides having to blind dive into flooded caves and hold their breath as the current washed them through channels and popped them out on the other side naturally put me on edge and I was already going through survival scenarios in my head to get Paul and I out in any flooding event.

Cheri got us fitted with wet suites, gum boots, helmets with lights, and repelling harnesses, once geared up we got back in the van for a 5min drive further into the pasture land.  We followed a sheep trail (yes, full of sheep shit) to a fence that had ropes tied to it. At the ropes she showed us how to use our harness and ropes to abseil down into the cave, it was really easy on land with both feet on the ground, I did get nervous when the sheep baaah'd at me when I slipped! 

After the practice we walked down the trail to the cave entrance there was a rope to our left and Cheri told us to clip our two safety lines to it, I felt foolish because I thought this was another "practice" but I was wrong and I was first in line to abseil down into the cave (I thought we were going to walk in and abseil later) I got nervous!  Cheri clipped me in and told me to step off the plat form, ugh…we were really high about 25 meters up and I had never done anything like it before.  Having the others behind me I sucked it up, put my fears aside and slowly stepped off, and to my delight I did not crash to the bottom, the rope held just fine and all I did was swing even with the platform as I froze and did not move a muscle.  I soon figured out that not moving a muscle would not get me to the bottom so I got my wits about me and fed the rope through the clips as we had practiced earlier.  It was a lot of work to lower your self down with a rope, the ropes were we and really stiff going through the clips, but it was a lot of fun. Dropping into the cave this way was so beautiful and I was fine as long as I looked level and not down. At the bottom I unclipped my self and moved out of the way for Paul to come join me. One of the Japanese girls after Paul decided to unclip at the bottom, stop right under the rope, take off her helmet start playing with her hair, she could not get it right and would not move until her friend had made it down, done her hair for her and been yelled at by the guides to "get the hell out of the way" and go wait in the pre determined meeting place that had a nice big sign saying "WAIT HERE".  We were waiting in about knee deep water and by the time everyone including our guides came down I was getting cold, but we soon started to move into the cave. Close to the entrance Cheri introduced us to Jeff the eel, he is very use to people coming into the cave and let people touch him (I did not, I thought he might swim in my boots) but Paul gave him a little pet.

We made our way up ankle to chest deep water through the cave with formations all around and after a couple hundred yards the roof opened up into a big cavern, at this point we all turned off out lights and above us was an amazing glow worm display with thousands of them everywhere, it was amazing.    After laying on our backs and enjoying show our guides let us back towards the entrance.  At the cave entrace we pick up intertubes that were tied on the wall and jumped in, grabbed onto each other's ankles in a line and were led down the other direction behind our guide.  As we disappeared out of daylight thousands of glowworms appeared on the ceilings, walls, everywhere and all of the sudden there was a huge SLAP behind us, "oh know the entrance has collapsed"  I thought, but is was Simon hitting the water with a big stip which is supposed to make the glowworms glow brighter.  As we floated down the cave you could see the tunnel in front and behind because of all the glowworms lining the walls and ceiling as we continued floating through the cave for 10 or 15 minutes the ceiling began to get closer  and at a point where the water got shallow we stopped got off our tubes and just stared at glowworms 2-3 feet over head, up the and down the tunnel and reflecting in the water in all directions we were all in awe.  After a couple minutes Cheri brought us over to a low ceiling, had us turn off our lights and left hers on horizontally across the ceiling showing hundreds of glowworm dangling strings the worms fishing lines right infront of our faces, we had to duck not to hit them they were right there, a couple had bugs caught in the syliva and some had bug shells at the top that they had caught, sucked up and eaten, so cool!  My amazement turned to annoyance after watching the damn japanese chick (same doing her hair below people repelling) hitting the glowworm syliva strings after being told specifically not too, this girl was lucky I didn't just make her disappear in that cave!

After getting up close and personal with the worms which are actually in the maggot family we continued down the cave for another 30-40 minutes checking out stalagmites and stalagtites, cool rock formations, playing and squeezing though small passageways  and exploring everything along the way before coming to another cavern with a high ceiling.  We were too far back for any more glowworms (no more bugs to eat) but we all sat on a ledge her and our guide handed out chocolate and poured glasses of a hot orange cider out of her thermos she had been carrying.  We sat back there for 15 minutes eating and drinking before heading up a small trail high onto a side of the cavern and through a small passage way we had to squeeze through the near the top.  Cheri explained that the high ceiling in this area and our ability to get high in the cavern made this the emergency spot incase the cave started to flood, they even had a barrel attached to the rocks that she explained was emergency food rations to feed any stranded people if the water shot up.  Knowing it was a wet rainy day outside it was good to know they had an emergency plan but also a little scary to know this cave is prone to flood in any heavy falls!  Cheri and Simon also explained that the next few kilometers further down the cave became a little harder to pass including a section you had to go under water (in the winter or high water times) hold your breath and let the current bring you through a small section so this was where the tour turned around.  The walk out was cool again with lots of worms and Cheri snapping lots of photos.  Back at the entrance we each took turns climbing up a 50 foot wall while being belayed by Cheri.  

Once above ground again it was showers at the storage containers then back to the headquarters.  At headquarters we were shown all of the pictures Cheri had taken while drinking warm tomato soup.  We had them burn us a copy of the photos then jumped in Serena, exhausted from 4.5 hours of cave exploring, and headed south back to the gate of the Tangario not knowing at the time we were leaving both towels, swimsuits and wet socks in Rap, Rock and climb headquarters.

At camp that night I had another really bad stomach ache right after I ate a kiwi fruit, and looking back I ate a kiwi on an empty stomach the other night as well.  Hmm…no more kiwi's for now.

12-13-10

Up early on the ferry for a kinda rough ride across Cook Straight.  Our boat was a lot nicer than the first ferry, we had big comfortable seats and they had a large food court with all kinds of eating options.  Shabree's stomach was a little on edge so we went for the $1 toast option and it was SO GOOD.  We had not had toast in so long it is amazing how much we missed it!  On land again it was pedal to the medal through the north island farm land to Ohakune, the gateway to Tongariro National Park, home of Mordor and Mt. Ngauruhoe (Mt Doom).  We pulled into the I-site and inquired about the Tongariro Crossing, turned out the weather was supposed to be bad so no shuttles were running the next day so we had to find something else to do.  The Wiatomo Caves were next on our list and a couple hours up the road so we grabbed some fliers, called and set up a 10am tour and jumped back in the trusty vannette to head north.

A couple hours later we pulled into Juno's a hostile in the middle of green rolling hills of grazing land, apparently right in the middle of cave country and 5 minutes from our tour operator headquarters.  The hostile was a happening place with almost all the tent site full and people lounging all over the community room and kitchen.  We heated up dinner and ate outside in the hot, sticky weather to avoid the crowded and even hotter, stickier hostile.  Poor shabree spent from half way through dinner till she could finally fall asleep fight off severe stomach pains that we could not figure out where they were coming from.  Luckily she was able to fall asleep and we both slept well waking occasionally to a passing downpour. 

1212-10

Rolled out of Marfells and into Bleinheim early, we had a mission to accomplish today, building a bed in Serena to increase her appeal for an easy sale to backpackers eager to hit the open road.   We forgot that being a Sunday most places are closed or have limited hours.  Looking for a Mitre 10 we came across another home and garden store, Paul quickly was inside pricing out lumber, chewing gum, paper clips, ect. whatever it would take to build a quality bed. We found some wood that would work, but before we made any purchases we needed to take the seats out of the van, no problem. Paul got the front seats out no problem but the back seats were bolted down with a size 14 bolt and we needed a socket wrench to get the bugger loose. Not wanting to purchase a set we asked the worker if he had one, luckily he did, unluckily it only went to size 13. Oh dang the store was closing at noon, did not have the right size socket for us, so we thanked them for their help and piled our crap back in the van in search for a gas station that might have a socket set as well as the elusive mitre 10. 

  We then drove around some more discussing if we should even spend the money on the bed and looking for a Mitre 10 since the other store closed at noon.  We found a Mitre 10 (comparable to a Lowes) and we found it to be a cheaper option with some different lumber, now we just had to get the damn seat out.  Leaving Mitre 10 for a renewed search for a socket set (they did not have one I could use) we came across a Cricket game in progress and stopped to check it out.  45  minutes later bored out of our minds we left with a renewed confidence that cricket is the lamest game on earth.  We then drove to Renwick and finally a gas station loaned Paul a socked set and we got the seats out.  Then headed back to Mitre 10 in Blenheim and it was on.  

The next 4-6hr were ugly, I just remembered Paul telling me how easy this will be "no problem, just cut this here, here, and here, nail there, Boom donzo! This would have been the case if the store was more like ones back home that would cut the wood for you using a powered saw.  However, this is not the kiwi way and you don't go around wearing short shorts around if you take the easy way out. So once the wood was purchased they handed Paul the dullest saw that he had ever seen/used. They also provided him with a hammer (for children 5 and under or hanging pictures with tac's), a saw horse and a little space outside their lumber yard and an extra stall by Serena for a work shop. Soon all of our possessions were out in the parking lot like we were a bunch of gypsies setting up camp. 

The bed came together relatively quick considering most of the time (hours) spent trying to rip plywood with a dull saw or cut through the 12cm x 12cm (or something like that, basically 4x4's very rough cut, very wet, knotted lumber for the framing.)  Most of my job was staying by the van and all of our possessions, I was the liaison to the general public who stared  and gawked at our workshop and flea market. A few older kiwi men ventured over and asked what we were up to, they clearly have never seen pimp my ride, so I told them that my husband was building her a bed.  This seemed to satisfy there curiosity and I got a few grunts and a good luck to ya. Soon my liaison position was put on hold and I was recruited to the field for some hard labor. I had to pick up one end of the platform and squeeze into the back with it and help guide the bed into position. This was a simple task but when Paul switches into Project Manager mode he is all business and did not see if my big toe was out of the way. After a few bad words and some blood, I heard Paul make a comment about flip flops and construction not mixing (funny he was wearing them as well) and OSHA would not approve, I told him I was not a liberty to discuss the matter since I would be filing a workers comp complaint! 

With a new bed in the back and the chairs pile on top (no where to throw them out) we headed north to Picton to the motor camp to stay and load on the ferry in the morning.  At the camp the lady checking us in started laughing at us and informed us she was one of the gawkers had seen us in the Mitre 10 parking lot and wondered what we were up to and why we were doing it in the Mitre10 parking lot… wow, it is a small island!  

We made shrimp/chicken fajitas for dinner and crashed out sad to  be leaving the south island for good in the morning.

12-11-10

It was a long night of heavy rain and wind.  You could hear some of the gusts starting way up the valleys and it sounded like a MAC truck coming our way and you'd just lie there and wait for the gust to slam the van.  I seriously considered getting up and turning Serena head into the wind because we would rock so bad in some of the gusts.  Even with the storm raging we both found a way to catch some good zzz's. However, the morning brought an amazing day to wake up to, some clouds left of from yesterday's storm but lots of sun everywhere except around the mountains, the winds were gone and it was quite pleasant out.  We heard a ruches high up on one of the mountains to the west of our camp just as we were stirring and looked up to see dust cloud and some death cookies (rocks) flying from a rock avalanche high up on the mountain, wow glad we were not any where near that shoot.  We got moving early and ate a good breakfast in the food shelter then talked to the German girl and a DOC ranger about the best prospects of a hike.  After coming up with a plan we set a meeting time with Katerina and headed up to Seely Tarns for a look around.

The hike was spectacular with a steep trail quickly gaining elevation and giving beautiful views down the valley and of the massive mountains and glaciers all around.  Once at Seeley Tarns we were able to capture some good shots of Aoraki as the clouds blew away then in again.  We were climbing on a ridgeline that rose 2000 meters up from the valley floor with alpine tussock grasses and bush but just to the north we were dwarfed by Mt Sefton with it's huge cliffs and glaciers.  Down the valley the rocky mountains met the green valley, it was a picturesque hike in all directions.  On the way down we were spotted and checked out by several different Kea's but these were true mountain birds and did not come close to bug us for food like their bothers down south.

Made it down in perfect time to meet Katerina, we commented on how punctual we are… Loaded up the van and headed north again.  The lake looked even more blue today and as we drove along it we were able to capture some good pics of the unbelievable color and more shots of Aoraki looming above the other peaks, more noticeable as we were able to get some distance from it.  We continued on and dropped of Katerina in Lake Takapo then sped across the HOT Canterberry plains.  

It was a long day but we made good time and covered quite a bit of distance stopping in Kaikoura one last time for a takeaway burger  then on the road again pulling into Marfells Beach just in time to catch a beautiful sunset over the ocean and hit the sack.

12-10-10

We woke up early after a rainy night and had a long drive ahead of us to Mt. Cook/Aoraki.  The drive was beautiful through the Octago region.  The area is in the rain shadow of the huge southern alps so it is rather dry with tussock grass  and rock jutting outcroppings all around, you would recognize it as the Plains of Rohan from Lord of the Rings.  We drove for several hours through that country and got out at a DOC park and went for a short hike to explore a little of it.  Heading north the scenery changed to desert looking tussock grass and we got back on roads we had already been on passing just east of Queenstown.  

Over a couple more passes and through Twizel we turned left onto 80 and headed towards Aoraki along the amazingly blue Lake Pukaki.  Once in the Aoraki/Mt. Cook DOC campsite we got a spot and headed out into the rain and wind to explore.  We headed up Hooker Valley fighting strong wind and downpours the whole time, the wind was so strong our faces and hands were sore and red.  We crossed a swing bridge in-between gusts  which got both of our adrenaline running for the day.  Every once in a while the clouds would lift a little on the hike exposing huge granite faces to the north with massing hanging glaciers all over them, we could sense that we were surrounded by something BIG and kept our fingers crossed that things would clear up and give us a look tomorrow.   After an hour or so the rain and  the wind picked up and the rain started to pour sideways so we returned to camp while we could still get across the swing big.  There were several people camping in tents at the campsite and we returned to find all the tents half blown over and every one of them soaked, and our love for Serena grew even more!  The campsite was probably the best DOC camp we stayed at and had a large enclosed kitchen area, we grabbed out cooking supplies and joined the 20-30 other campers seeking refuge in the shelter.  We had a nice dinner and played some cards while listening to the wind howl outside, some of the other campers who were in tents were discussing staying in the shelter since the wind had found a way to blow water inside every tent.  Right before bed we met a German girl who was sleeping in the shelter and was hoping her tent would not blow away, she asked to hitch a ride in the morning.  We kindly agreed to give her a ride after we went for a hike (if the storm blew over) then Shabs taught her a lesson in "getting your butt kicked at speed" then sent her on her way to bed.

12-9-10

We left Dunedin and headed south to The Catlins, a region in the south east that has sea cliffs and vegetation that is quite different than the rest we have seen. The Catlins are hard to see from the road and most of the sights are accessed on dirt backroads, it was kinda weird to navigate and decide what to see and what not to see.  With in an hour we were turning toward the ocean to Nugget Point, there was a short walk to a look out where there could be Elephant seals, sea lions, yellow eyed penguins, and lots of birds.  Out of the van and on the trail we were pleased to get out of the very cold wind from Dunedin, we took a short detour to a smaller lookout to see what DOC thought was cool to see. On a large rock in the ocean were a ton of nesting Royal Spoon bills, they had tuffs of feathers on there heads that were long and flopped around in the breeze, through the binoc's we could see they were all white with these crazy long skinny black bills that were straight except for the spoon at the end, almost like a elongated skinny platypus bill and they had long stick legs. We had fun watching them, they were busy making nests and tending to there eggs they seemed like the ocean cliffs even though they looked like they should be living in a marsh or river rather than on a rugged coastal rock. Anyway we continued on the main trail on the look out for elephant seals down below on the rocks but all that was there was fur seals and sea lions. Once we made it to the lighthouse look out we saw some really cool grooved rock formations in the sea cliffs and spotted more seals and gulls, we did not stick around to long since we have already seen a million gulls, and seals.  

Back in Serena continued into the Catlins toward Curio Bay, this bay had been recommended to us by a few different people for camping and great sights.  Arriving at the bay we discovered we are about one bay over from the most southern point in NZ, and I can tell you it felt very close to Antarctica with a stiff breeze coming straight from the south.   The bay was very pretty and we read there was a colony of penguins living on the coast and we had a chance to see the rare yellow eyed penguins, and a petrified forest during low tide.  The camp had lots of spots to camp, but the ground is not very flat, Paul found a great spot that was surrounded by 10 foot tall flax plants on all sides, it felt like we were in the middle of a corn maze weaving through all the sites and roads cut through the flax.  The campground was run by a non profit organization and offered kitchen and showers for super cheap.  Since the sun was out we took a walk along a rock shelf on low tide, the waves were big rolling in with antarctic water and they would crash up on the edge of the rocks and make huge sprays, Paul kept trying to get closer but would have to run in when big swells would come rolling in and drench the rocks.  We watched the ocean for a bit and explored tide pools then moved to another spot when I noticed that the cliff we were walking by looked really strange with crazy lines and formations in it.  As  Paul investigated further we realize it is part of the petrified forest, these were tree rings that had been petrified in the cliff mud and rock, you could count the age of the trees the rings were so easy to see, it was really neat.  We peaked around the corner of the cliff and realized the rest of the forest is stumps that you can see in low tide, realizing there is more to see on the other side we climbed back on land and walked down the road to another access point only after we both nearly got drenched when Paul tried to convince me to run with him in-between waves to around the cliff corner and we were turned around because the rock ledge we were running on dropped off into the ocean just around the corner (funny how he was positive it made it all the way to the other side).  It was a close call but we made it back before another set of cold arctic water drenched our path.  The new access point had a nice staircase down to the petrified forest and had signs posted about the yellow eyed penguins that if you see them stay at least 10meters away.  They posted that the penguins come back from the sea to there nest two hours before sunset, so we figured we could explore the forest, then have some dinner and come back to watch the penguins after dinner.

The forest was cool, there were stumps sticking out and logs laying on there side, forever entombed. Just when I was getting bored I heard Paul in a loud whisper of excitement "Shabree, look a penguin!"

Holy crap the very rare yellow eyed penguin is coming back from fishing!  We stop to watch him chilling on dry land cleaning himself and hopping along the rocks and then another one appears! We were so close to them, and they did not seem to be bothered by us. We watched them for a good hour, they cleaned themselves and bathed in the sun, soon we heard the mama penguins calling from the bushes where their nests were, for papa penguin to get back to the nest with the fish. It was funny, one of the mama's was up on the top of the hill, and it took her 10min to traverse down the hill, she was so clumsy on land but she made it to her husband and they went back to the nest after she kinda chased off the other penguin.  During watching the 3 right in front of us interact 4-6 more penguins at different points on the beach came up onto the rocks and made their way to their nest in the thick bush, as soon as they were out of the water you could hear mama calling from the bushes and them returning the calls.

After feeling giddy about watching the penguins and being so close we went to check out the kitchen to cook our dinner, following the map to the kitchen we were shocked when we came to three small circular plaster circular buildings no bigger than an out house and one was the shower, one the bathroom, and the other was the kitchen with one burner! Hmm looks like we are using the cook stove tonight! We made our wonderful chicken curry and watched the sunset over the bay.  

12-8-10

Spend a WINDY COLD day in the Dunedin library checking airfares to SE Asia which turned out to be very expensive so we booked tickets to Sydney for the last month of the trip.  Both of us are VERY excited to be headed across the Tasman to check things out.  Check yourself aussie's,  It's Miller Time!

12-7-10

Woke made a quick breakfast and coffee and it's south we go!  We were both excited to see some new territory and as we drove past the Canterbury Plains the scenery became much more scenic with hilly farm/pasure land, small farm houses, the beach on one side and the mountains on the other.  The towns were all old and unique, we discussed how neat it was that they keep up their towns so well even the little ghost towns had nicely painted building and manicured landscaping.  On a quick side trip off the main road we came across the Moeraki Boulders, they are these random spherical boulders on just a small 100 meter section of beach, they range in size from 6 feet in diameter to 2 feet in diameter.  It was really fun to explore these boulders, they are so perfectly round they look man made.  some have viens running through them of some other mineral in kind of comb shaped design and some are split in half or more pieces and you can see the comb on the inside and if very strong put each piece back together to complete the sphere again.  It was really cool.

shabree learning the hard way what happens when you disobey the signs and get to close.

Once back in the car it was off to Dunedin and back to winter.  We pulled into Dunedin about 4 in the afternoon and quickly got a camping spot somewhat out of the raging wind.  We thank our lucky stars we were not tent camping while walking past a few tents that were basically flat from the wind and one right by our camp that was completely broken… long night!  We then went to the front office and booked our Speights Brewery Tour, from what we heard this is a must do in Dunedin.  We took the bus into town and toured the brewery, it was neat because it was still in the original location (over a hundred years there) and used a lot of the original brass tanks.  The tour was kinda cheesy but interesting , one neat point is all the water comes from a 70 foot bore under the building, this bore is so healthy with ground water that there is a tap on the outside of the building that people can fill up jugs of fresh untreated spring water for free, they ask for a 10 cent per liter donation that is donated to charity, the collect and donate about $100,000 a year from this tap donation.

After the tour we were both starving so we got a beer and a pretty disappointing dinner there.  We shared  our meals of  lamb and the pork schnitzel and they lacked in any kind of taste (so british) but it was needed food after the free beer tasting and long drive of the day.  After that is was a long walk home to the campground in the howling wind and to sleep.  On a side note we walked past an auction building that had some items in the window to entice clients, and one in particular really got our attention. It was a large glass framed box, inside was two stuffed seagulls with two baby stuffed seagulls, in sea cormrit, and another sea bird I did not know the name of, they were displayed with seashells and reef around them. We laughed and could not imagine anyone buying this ridiculous thing, then was disturbed by someone spending hours of their life making this thing. Crazy Kiwi's!

12-6-10

12-6-10

Got up and headed south, the shifter on the van had been acting strange and felt loose to we made a quick stop by Rangiora and Lindsey jacked her up made a couple adjustments and in about 2 minutes she worked great again.  Heading out of there we went to the public library and did some future travel investigations looking at options and ticket prices.  After several hours of research we decided SE Asia might have to be another time since tickets there are just as expensive as from the states even though it is half the distance.  With several other options on our minds we headed for a cheap campground on the beach in Amberly for the night.  Once there we went for a long walk on the rocky beach, did some calisthenics, made dinner and went into a LONG, HARD sleep.

12-4-10 - 12-5-10

It was sad to see our friends go, the short 5min drive to the airport was not a lot of time to reflect on our time in NZ together. As time goes and everyone has time to digest all of the activities and randomess we encountered in 2 1/2 weeks I hope they had as good as time and Paul and I did with them.  It is an adjustment back to our slow paced days and no planning for tomorrow, one day at a time is sounding really good again.  We headed out of Blenhiem and back to Kaikoura for a chill day.  Once there we decided two days was needed for laundry, blog and Skype catch up, set us the van sleeper style again, install mosquito netting so we can open windows at night  and hey the weather was PERFECT so why leave????  yeh this slow pace traveling is not going to be hard to adjust to!  

12-2-10 and 12-3-10

Feeling the effects of our previous night we rolled out of Watt's and into the McDonald parking lot, this really was the only thing that sounded good, oatmeal just did not have enough grease to sooth our bellys. The menu options are different than the states, they don't have just mcmuffins, they have the Brekkie which consists of egg, ham, cheese, hashbrown, and yummy onion sause between two biscuits;  also their is a Mega Mcmuffin that has two sasuage patties, with egg, and ham between english muffins! Oh yeah, it hit the spot, Paul and I went over board by ordering a Mega McMuffin to split after polishing off a brekkie and hash brown each and Ben really crossed the line when he ordered a milkshake, craziness. Now feeling like crap and a little ashamed we once again squeezed into Serena (our tight fit getting tighter) and drove to Kaikoura.

Paul and I felt like we were home again, we pulled right into the Kiwi motorcamp we stayed in before, but were disappointed that the marine layer was in and our friends could not see the amazingly beautiful mountains around us, or how blue the water is.  It was still warm so we lounged by the pool and read our books, and soaked in the hot tub.  We were hoping for good weather, and good sleep as they were going to be swimming with dolphins in the morning.

Thank goodness went to bed in the clouds and woke up to a perfect day with a slight breeze! It was an early raise to get to the dolphin encounter by 8:15am, take down tents, and pack up but we moved fast as there was lots of excitement in the air.  Paul and I were super excited to be back on the boat as spectators having already swam we looked forward to seeing the dolphins do their acrobatics in the air, and see them swim around our friends.  The weather almost matched our's but the wind was out and the sea was quite a bit more choppy and our friends were more than likely to have a small wave fill their snorkels, we were both a little concerned on how clear the water would be but that soon went away as we came upon the pod.  . They were diving with the largest pod of dolphins the encounter has seen all year and we were there to watch! There were over 500 dolphins in the water, you could have walked across them to another boat at certain times! It was so awesome to see so many swimming around, through and under our friends. Paul and I also loved watching them do flips out of the water sometimes within 15 feet of the boat and their babies trying really hard to jump but they could not jump very high! We got amazing photo's and video!

Our friends loved it, and we think it was a highlight of there trip, and certainly a great way to end it.  We grabbed some fish n chips on the way out of town, and about 10min into the drive back to Watson's backpackers just about all the swimmers were asleep. 

Back at Watson's we did a quick van cleaning, and gutted her to make sure everyone had all there stuff, and gave her a good sweep. We went to the store to get dinner, Paul and I wanted our chicken curry, Ben and Justin opted of a pack of 6 frozen meat pies, and we are not sure what feed house Jeff and Kasey shopped at but they bought some packaged alfredo noodles and some tuna to throw in it, and our last hokey pokey ice cream.  This is how dinner turned for everyone on there own to a community feast of chicken curry.  Having meat pie over load and being so generous on this trip we told the W2's that they should eat our curry and we could have meat pie appetizers, they seemed to like the idea, Jeff and Kasey's alfredo with tuna smelled and tasted like a cow manure/dead horse mix so we let them get in on the curry as well.   They did offer the share the alfredo al tuna but no one took them up on the offer. 

Not only was this their last night in NZ it was also our last cribbage game and being best out of three a lot was riding on this game as we were tied.  All of our hands were bad, and many had no points, but I had a break through hand that scored 20 points, this was the deal breaker! Soon my team rallied and it was over  with Justin not missing any pair points we took an easy victory! Oh yeah! I'm not sure if it was late or if the losing players did not want to hear recounts of our victory game but everyone went to bed right after the game.

12-1-10

It was a short drive in to Motukea for the crew to try our favorite meat pies at Patisserie Royal, however we had just eaten oatmeal for breakfast not 30min prior to our arrival at the bakery. This can't stop us from a little indulgence to some of the best meat pies in NZ.  It soon turned ugly, meat pies were not the only thing on the menu, apple fritters, custards, cream filled donuts, and a chocolate croissant also made it into our belly's! Feeling like fatties we heaved our big asses back into Serena and drove to Blenhiem low rider style.

In Blenhiem we booked a night at Watson's backpackers that was recommended by the couple from Vale, CO that we met at the Barn. We set up our tents, rented bike's, and peddled to the vineyards. I felt very french, with my new pixie hair cut, riding a bike through acre's or hectars (as they call them) of vineyards, and having the next few hours of my life be all about wine! This romantic fantasy was interrupted once I realized I had keep my head out of the clouds and concentrate on directing the guys who were all over the road!  

We went to 5 vineyards and one brewery, while I wish I could recount all of the wines, and vineyard names, here are the highlights I remember (from sober to tipsy):

1.  The first place only let us try 5 out of there 10 wines this = lame but was a good place to start

2. The second place was extremely lame because we had to pay $2 to taste, but we still got a little fuel to keep going

3. Moa brewery was great we were only supposed to try 5 beers,  the gal behind the counter was from CA so we chatted with her and she kept pouring good portions, we made it through all their beers and ciders! VIVA America!

4. The next place looked like it was in a strip mall, and the worker did not care about her job so she poured all of the wines and let us behind the counter, silly Kiwi, she could have refused to serve us do to our level of intoxication.

5. Pulling into the next winery Ben got footage of me twice attempting to parallel my bike in a huge car spot and not quite succeeding either time…the lady working said it was our lucky day since they never have all 6 bottle of the sparkling wine (champagne) open but the french wine maker had a private tasting with a british journalist so we reaped the benefits and drank the bubbly like rap stars!

6. Paul goes crazy after seeing a street sign "Paul RD" he climbs up it like a monkey. VIVA Pablo

7. Kasey's bike is broken and is peddling harder than the rest of us, which I imagine is getting harder after each tasting.

8. We get to the last winery close to closing time, we roll up very loud and "shhh" each other and try to play it cool so we will be served…this lady was very boring, however she let us try all 11 wines! Sucker!

9.  Ben keeps riding on the back rack, chopper style.

10. We somehow make it back to the Backpakers riding along side the highway.

Needing some good old pub food to soak up the wine we went to the Cork n Keg and ordered up some fish and chips, it hit the spot.  After looking around we were defiantly surrounded by good ole boy Kiwi's just off from work, and one random one who was wearing a flannel shirt, plaid barrette style hat, and well i'm still not sure if he had any shorts on (the shirt was long and i'm hoping his shorts were just extra short.) Getting sleepy we left the pub and walked back to Watts. The guys left in search of more booze and Kasey and I in search of water! 

Kasey got sucked into a conversation with Meredith and Mikey a couple from Georgia (not originally) they started their traveling in Nicaragua and went into Columbia and other central and south american countries, they will be in NZ for the next 2 weeks before heading to SE Asia.  They were very nice, but soon Meredith got annoying and would not stop talking, maybe we were tired and coming down from our vino overload and did not give her a fair chance but we were both done with the conversation.  They guys were outside playing bocce ball and having a grand time, but darkness crept in and chased them in doors, for round two of cribbage.

Let me first say that not one of us was in the right state to be playing cribbage, for one thing Meredith was talking the entire time and it was very distracting, second me, Kasey, and Justin lost only because our heads were not in the game, and this lead to lots of drunk shit talking and people missing points and accusing each other of wrong counting and other cribbage related jargon. Then Paul brings out these platic pre made shot glasses that were baily's in one half and melon liquor in the other, just peel back the foil top and enjoy (it was better than it sounds but not much.) Most of us made the right decision and went to bed after cribbage, but Paul and Jeff stayed up for a Gin and Tonic and told fishing stories.  Something worth noting is the disclaimer Kasey and I gave our men "if you guys want to stay up fine, but don't wake us up when you come to bed" And of course the promises of being quite were just as true as a Kiwi saying there roads are good, total BS! I'm awakened by "Hey babe, sorry to wake you but do you know were my toothbrush is?" Having anticipated this and left it right by the tent door gave my annoyed answer " "YYEESS", and pointing to it as I let out a growl of irritation. Paul "Thanks babe, I love you" then after brushing his teeth "Babe is there a water bottle in the tent?" "no" "Well can I have the key to the van to get one?" "here" "Thanks babe, I love you!" It was pretty funny and we both passed out for the night, and I'm pretty sure Paul did not take one drink from the water bottle.

11-30-10

Had a nice slow morning, the sun was shining so we decided to stay one more night at The Barn, we had breakfast and everyone took their time getting ready for the day.  We started a hike into the park to discover some of the many beautiful bays Abel Tasman has to offer.  It was fun taking our friends into the park, the landscape and vegetation is very different from Fiordland national park and the Keppler track.  It does not get old being back to Able Tasman for a 3rd time, who does not love a beautiful beach with crystal clear water?! We walked for about an hour through the rain forest to Apple Bay, there were some lady's sun tanning right off the trail and a few others scattered around so we made our way to the far end so the guys could toss around the rugby ball and Kasey and I could get some much needed tanning time in.

The rugby game did not last to long as the sea breeze was in full effect and soon the guys were sunbathing, snoozing, and reading with us gals.  For a few relaxing moments it seemed like we had the beach to ourselves, that is until we looked out to see a whole herd of Kayakers paddling our way. Soon our tranquil beach was swarmed by a group of young kids from all over the world, they did group activities like sprint races and human pyramids and they did all of this right in front of us when there was a whole beach for them to frolic on. 

We decided it was time to relocate to a smaller bay that was on the way back to our camp.  I think Ben and Justin liked the new bay better, as we dropped out of the forest onto the beach there were two women sunbathing topless right off the trail for everyone to see.  The guys talked about some possible passes they could throw the lady's way so Ben and Justin could impress them, however I told them European woman are not impressed with American football. We all just lounged some more and once evening started to come on and the sand fly's came out we headed back into camp to cook some dinner.

Once at camp we realized we did not have dinner for the night planned, and The Barn was a good 30min one way from Motueka the closest town.  So we went to a cafe for a round of beers and cheap appetizers, Kasey and I were very tempted to order dinner, but we decided to save some money and scrape together what we could find in the van. The waitress told us quietly that the Fat Tui (a cart along side the road) has the best burger she has ever eaten and at reasonable prices.  She was a goofy blonde from Punakaiki that giggled too hard at our mispronunciations of towns, forgot which beers were which and spilled wine on another party, she was very sweet but backed up the blond stereotype. We ran over to see what the burger menu looked like, but to our disappointment the cart was closed. There were a few other people that had heard the same thing, so we waited in the parking lot for a few minutes to see if someone would appear, but I guess they'd gone fish'n.  So instead we cooked up some raman noodles with cheese and crackers, and started talking to a couple from Vale, CO about their travels.

The couple was just married and are on a 3 month round the world honeymoon, and when they get back they are opening a restaurant in Seattle area called the Wurst Place that will specialize in gourmet brats. They were very nice and it was fun chatting with some fellow Americans and talking about the crappy internet and hearing of their troubles in Europe because of all the strikes, they could not even go to some of the places they wanted to. This couple also gave us the low down on a small hostel in Renwick that has tent spots and rents bikes for wine tasting, they could not say enough good things about the place and we all decided we would check it out since wine tasting was next on the list of things to do.    After dinner it was more cribbage then to bed exhausted from a rough day on the beach.

11-29-10

It was an early morning, in the pursuit of showing our friends as much of the cool places we had visited as possible we were heading north to Able Tasman but first stop was Westport to get a second tire.  Once in Westport we found a firestone right off the main drag, they had the size we needed and it was half the cost of the other one, and took about 10min.  It was a load off everyone's chest to have two good tires on Serena.

On the road it was a fast hot drive through the north central part of the island with Justin holding it down at the helm.  We drove in to Abel Tasman in the late afternoon, threw on our swim gear and headed out to play on the beach.  It was perfect weather and we had a nice session of sun tanning, rugby water diving catches photo session and wading in the Tasman Bay, the water is 3 feet deep for hundreds of meters with small sand islands you can walk between, the warm water and sunny beach was very refreshing for everyone.   As the sun started to set we headed back to camp grabbing a drink at the local cafe on the way.  At camp we made burgers and beat Jeff, Paul, and Ben 3-0 in cribbage. 

11-28-10

We were all very excited that our days drive was only 2hr and since it was grey and cloudy in Hokitika there was not reason to stick around. After a quick drive to Punakaiki we set up our tents and took our friends on the river walk that we loved so much, the weather was still a little over cast but it was warm out and it felt good to be out of the van and get the blood flowing.  After our hike we walked up to Pancake rocks, we were lucky because the tide was in, the waves were big and the blow holes were in full effect spouting water out of cracks in the rock sometimes 20 - 30 feet in the air.

We made a great dinner of shrimp fajitas and Jeff and Kasey taught us how to play cribbage. It was a fun night. Once it was dark we went glowworm hunting in the cave by our motorcamp.  

and on the walk back Ben spotted a glow worm on the underside of a huge roadside boulder.  We were able get very close to, and Jeff got a cool picture that you could actually see the worn, the light and his syliva(the part that glows) hanging down. Back at the campsite we heard a rustling in the tree right by our tent and after some investigation we found that is was a possum, we checked it out a little it was cool to see one alive as we pass 5-10 dead ones every day on the road.  

11-27-10

Woke up to the hot sun on the tent all relived to have had zero crazy kiwi sitings for the night.   While Shabree and I slept soundly our friends explained how the Solvakian couple kept them up for hours making no effort to keep quite how much they were enjoying each other in their tent, thankfully we had slept through it.  We packed the car again in-between throwing the rugby ball around and prepared for another day of driving.  We headed into Haas pass and the sites were again beautiful huge snow capped mountains and beautiful weather.  

We were making great time down through the pass to the ocean where the marine layer set in, reminded us of the Oregon Coast, beautiful until just before you get to the beach.    Cruising along we were about 15min out side of Hasst a very small town on the west coast when we heard a loud POP! Crap…flat tire! There was no shoulder but we got over as far as we could and put on the flashers and told everyone to get out quick, it was go time, pit crew style.  We were amazed that there was no other damage just the crap tire. We put the donut on and thought about leaving some of us to walk back to town since it was so small and bald, but we piled in and went about 5mph's back to Hasst.  We were so lucky that Haas a town of 250 has a mechanic shop and that we were only 15min away since the next town was over 2 hrs north.  However, our luck stopped there, the mechanic did have a tire, but he charged us off hours because it was a Saturday so $210 later we had our new tire. The guy told us that all of our tires were the wrong size, a little smaller than recommended, and he looked at our other back tire and it was very worn on the inside but he did not have another replacement.  He could not explain how this wearing was happening, had us get in the van and watched how it ran fully loaded, it looked fine and he thought the tires must have been damaged on another vehicle because ours seemed to be riding straight and true. 

Feeling stressed about our other tire we drove towards Fox Glacier, being really easy on left hand turns that put a lot of pressure on the worn tire.  About fifteen minutes out of town again we ran into a road block.  It was a woman on a horse drinking a beer, she told us just to pull over, they were moving cattle up the road to a new pasture. This was a first for Paul and I, we have been stopped by sheep but never a herd of cows on a major highway. Once most of the cows were in pasture we were told we could drive on but just to watch for stragglers. We made it past the cows and after a couple hours pulled into Fox Glacier one of the few glaciers in the world that flow trough a subtropical rain forest.   We got out of the van and walked to the glacier, it was cool, but we were all a little antsy to move on, so we rallied and drove another two hours to Hokitika. By the time we pulled in it was about 8pm and we were all so tired of driving!   We found a small grocery store that was open and managed to scrape something up for dinner.  We found a Kiwi motor camp, and were surprised it was rundown since all the others we have found were super nice.  During dinner we chatted with two gals from Ontario, Canada.  One of them had been going to school in Christchurch for a year and the other was a friend from home here to visit for a few weeks.  

11-26-10

We lucked out yet again with the weather. We filled the locker and headed out of the motor camp toward Milford Sound.  The drive was stunning, the mountains got bigger and there were valley floors with loops flowers in full bloom along beautiful rivers and lakes.  As we made our way back the valley the mountains started to get closer in and we entered a pull out to view this stunning view over looking a valley. It is hard to explain how beautiful Milford is in writing and pictures just do not do it justice, the mountains are shear vertical granite slabs covered with vegetation in parts, and exposed rock or covered in snow, on one face there could be five or six waterfalls cascading down the full 3000-5000 foot face to the valley floor, everything is so massive you loose all perspective and feel very small like an ant on the ground.

Once we pulled out of the view point the road droped at about a 10-15% grade, and it is of course curvy and goes into one lane, we have heard that the road can get bottle necked during the summer due to the huge tour busses that make this drive three times a day, good thing we got an early start. Paul and I thought they should let either car or tour busses drive on the road but not both.  At the bottom of the grade and as we climb further into another valley most of the vegetation disappears except some flowers and nothing but huge granite mountain sides with glaciers and waterfalls on every face are left to see.  As we continue to climb we see Homer tunnel tucked in the end of the valley, it looks so small and flat in the middle of the huge valley.  Since it was dug out of a large mountain I guess it would look small.  As we entered it got very dark and damp, we found out that Serena's lights barley showed any light (big surpise) the tunnel was very steep down, the road was bumpy with potholes and old pavement,  all of this making it  hard to tell how steep it was. The tunnel is very rugged and did not look finished like tunnels back home with cemented insides and good lighting. Kasey and I were thrilled once we broke on through to the other side, only to see another extremely steep grade as we traverse down the valley with the granite walls even tighter in to us. This valley was like entering the land of the lost, large mountains with visible glaciers, mist and clouds hiding some tips so they remain a mystery as to how tall they really are, parrots running around the parking lots and mist hanging over the green glacial fed rivers.  The road continued through this valley at steep grades till we could see Milford Sound and we popped right out at the end of the sound, which is really a fiord as we learned (sound = flooded river valley, fiord = flooded glacial carved valley) the early english settlers had mis named the sounds.  

I expected a small town like Sisters Oregon at Milford since it is such a destination, but all it was, was a cafe, parking lot, lodge, six hundred and fifty million sand flies and the boat terminal with a huge tour checkin/waiting area.  I guess it is nice to keep it simple and not have a town built up around it.  The utter shock came to us as we opened the doors and were instantly swarmed by millions of sandfly's! There are sandfly's everywhere but this was by far the worst we had ever seen! If you stood still for just a second thousands would land on you, crawl up your nose, and in your ears! It was so gross, we sprayed every inch of our selves with bug spray and they still  swarmed! We ran into the cafe and ordered a sandwich while we waited to board our boat.  Ben showed us all how to eat a healthy breakfast by devouring a mince and cheese pie then washing it down with a magnum ice cream bar and it was only 9 am! 

With a few minutes to board, we walked quickly to the terminal through hordes of flies and filed on to the front observation deck of the boat.  As we pulled out onto the sounds the wind picked up and the sandflies disappeared.   We found our spot on the front of the forward deck and everyone just started pointing and taking pictures, no mater where we turned there were endless amazing views, huge mountain cliffs rising vertically over a mile out of the water, waterfalls, trees and tree slides.  At one point while as we were sitting about 30 feet off the edge of land looking at a 300 foot waterfall the captain explained that the water depth was over 1000 feet deep below us so it was no problem to steer our 60 foot boat within a couple feet of shore, the cliffs continued vertically down under the water.  The entire cruise was filled with one site after another, we went right under several waterfalls, saw young male seals battling on the rocks and got to watch two Fiordland Crested penguins hop along and dive into the water, slipping on the rocks and falling over on their way.  We were all in amazement the entire 2.5 hour cruise.

Once we were all back on land and loaded in Serena we headed out, she chugged slowly but surely up out of the valley, down the other side and back to our motor camp to pick up the packs and head north.  5 hours later after passing over the highest highway in NZ we passed through Wenaka a really cool looking mountain town with tons of cafes, bars and restaurants that were crawling with people.  After debating on staying for the night we decided to go the cheaper route and headed to a DOC camp.  Once at the camp we set up and had fun skipping rocks before making dinner.  At dinner a nice couple from Solvakia invited us to share their table for dinner.  We gladly accepted and began to talk while sharing our whiskey with them and them sharing Fernet 8000 a Solvakian drink with us.  They explained that they had just finished an orienteering competition around Christchurch showing us their map and talking about how they had to run through a bunch of pasture land jumping electric fences to reach the points.  They were traveling for a little while before heading home and were heading north to fly out of Aukland, they made us feel lucky because they had hit bad weather in Fjordland with nothing but rain and our trip had been so nice.  After a little while a half drunk half crazy Kiwi and his dog Sam came over and joined in the conversation telling us about hunting pigs and how his dog should be driving because he was half drunk, we all half chuckled while thanking god we were not on the road with this guy.  The conversation continued with Sam running around checking things out then Kasey commented that Sam had just pissed on my backpack, I went over to wipe it off and throw it in the car expecting the guy might call his dog and put him on a lease but he just laughed.   A minute later Sam decided to piss on our tent which the crazy kiwi thought was great and just kept on laughing and carrying on not trying to stop his dog.  We let him know this was not funny and we were not amused  that we had pee on our home,  he right away was like "what you don't like dogs" to which we answered "we just don't like them pissing all over our stuff".  This made him mad and he left mumbling something, glad he was gone we continued our conversation with the Solvokians then when time for bed we each took weapons to our tents for protection from the crazy kiwi.

Shabree and I quickly fell asleep still tired from the tramp while the others packed in Ben's tent to have a night cap.  

11-25-2010

Happy thanksgiving for us! We got up early and hit the trail all anxious to get back to civilization.   We found out a bus came to Rainbow Reach  a DOC site on the river and the first part of the trail accessible by a long gravel road that would cut 2hrs off our hike back to the control gates. We did not have a reservation and did not know if the bus dropped you off in Te Anau or at the control gates or how much it cost but we were all anxious and wanted to be there in time to find out. We hit the trail and about an hour in we reached Rainbow Reach, after much debate Paul, Jeff, and Justin said they would run the last 5 miles to the control gates and get the van to pick up me, Kasey, and Ben and all of our packs.  

While we were waiting Craig and Roy hung out and we chatted some more. Roy gave me his phone number and told me that Paul and I could stay for free when and if we go to Australia! It is a good thing the guys ran to the van because the bus that came was tiny and would have only sat the 6 of us and there was a lot of others waiting for it.  When Craig and Roy left on the bus back to town, Ben, Kasey, and I solved the worlds problems while passing around our small "peanut" rugby ball. Soon we heard Serena's horn a honk'n and  we see the rest of our group hanging out her window coming down the road. Yay, they made it!  When we inspected Serena closer we saw that the young Germans we met on the trail four days ago wrote "space ship" on our girl like they told us they did with their van. Cheeky Germans!

After we were all loaded in we got a camp site, set up our tents and drove straight to the local bakery to get meat pies and ice cream! There is nothing like a meat pie after 4 days of raman noodles! Next stop was the grocery store for our thanksgiving feast, 3 small pre cooked chickens, veggies, bread, and some potatoes to mash!  After a nice shower Jeff, Kasey, and Justin took a nap, while Paul, Ben and I went into the lounge area, I started to blog, Paul and Ben had their books, it was not long before Ben started to snore and was out on the lounge couch. That left Paul and I, the sole survivors of the Kepler tramp!

The feast was  not quite thanksgiving in the states but good for our limited shopping options and kitchen appliances. The garlic mashed potatoes turned out well considering we mashed them with a fork, the chickens were in the oven, and Justin was in charge of stuffing…the meal was wonderful, however the stuffing got tossed, it was burned on the outside and doughy in the middle, non of us knew quite how to cook it since it had the consistency of bisquick.  After some boxed wine and chocolate for desert, we had the group finalize what they wanted to do with the rest of there time here.  They decide to drive up the west coast, spend a couple days in Abel Tasman, drive to Kaikoura and swim with dolphins, then we will drive them to the Blenhiem Airport, they all changed their flights and it was set. It feels great to have our plan in place! Now off to bed for our early raise and drive to Milford Sound.

11-24-10

We all slept like rocks, and woke up at about 8:30am.  We were expecting rain and saw some nasty clouds that were moving in fast, we were thinking we should just pack up and eat some granola bars for breakfast since the sandfly's are so thick, but Paul said we had a long day ahead and it would not take to long to make oatmeal. So we stuck it out with the fly's and had a breakfast of tramping champions! Good thing too since we had a small climb to start the trail for the day it was climbing so much at the start we all started to wonder and debate if we were actually heading back up the trail, luckily we were on the right track.  The trail was going to be mostly flat with a section of sidling. What is sidling? We had no idea, but we were sure to find out.

10min into the hike we came to a sign that showed us the "big slip" in 1984 they received record rain and in 24hours a side of the mountain came sliding down and parts washed all the way to Invicargill!  It was impressive to see, and we were glad it was not raining. 

After a couple of hours we made it to a trail maintenance hut and picnic shelter at Rocky Point, this is the halfway point to our hut.    We stopped to have a snack and take our packs off for a few minutes, and we saw Craig and Roy the Australians.  They asked were we stayed last night and we told them of our sweet spot, and not so sweet sandfly's.  They laughed that we all crammed into one tent to have dinner together, and told us we had the better night, they had a full hut, it was hot, and about 15 of them were kids in rehab group for drug or alcohol problems with loud foul mouths.  We ate our bars quick and hit the trail, told the Aussie's we'd see them at the hut.

Hiking along at a good pace we quickly found out what sidleing meant, part of the track had washed away (go figure) so DOC made a new one, steeply up a mountain side! Ugh, we are tired and do not want anymore steep climbs, after sidling two ridges, we finally hit the other side and had a very steep switchback trail back down to the original trail.   This was a long 1hour detour and we all joked how we would just chance it at the next detour.

The forest was full of silver beech trees with big ferns in-between, it was like no forest we had seen before.  We crossed about 30 wooden platforms of various length and height over marshy land or creeks before we saw the lake that our hut was on.  We knew we were close, and 30min later we found our hut, with very tired feet. Paul and I decided that we would sleep on separate bunks tonight since they did not have the side by side platform ones! 

We made our tea and changed, the guys were antsy and wanted to check out the lake for another possible polar bear jump.  With not much else to do Kasey and I went to watch.  There were lots of sandflys here as well, but the guys took off there shirts and made the plunge. They said it was a lot warmer than the river from last night, but warm by no means.  Paul convinced me that it was very refreshing and I should jump in with him. I decided to go for it since I was feeling very grubby, took off my pants and went in! It was very nice, I did't get my head wet but the cold felt good on my tired body.  After 2 min I was ready to get out, but the fly's were waiting, and I got a lot of bite's just getting dressed! 

Back in the hut Roy, asked us if we already drank our wine for the night, we told him that we did not have any for the night, he could see the disappointment in our eyes, I think he was a little disappointed as well hoping for a chance to get in on some.   He was surprised we jumped in the lake without it and explained how there must be something in the water making us goofy! I stayed and sipped tea and looked at old national geographic's from the 70's while the guys were playing american football with a miniature rugby ball in the grass outside.

The day before we started our tramp, 29 miners outside of Westport on the west coast, became trapped when the shaft collapsed.  Our warden came in to give his talk, and told us that another explosion happened that afternoon and it was unsurvivable. This was sad to hear, he told us he had lived in that community for quite a few years and that it was a real shame.  He also gave us a history about this walk, back in the 70's they wanted to build a hydro plant which would have covered most of the trail along the lake water, as a young kiwi he came down to protest this from happening along with many other kiwi's and they stopped it from being built.  He said he is grateful to come full circle and have an opportunity to work in this area now some years later.  He also told us how lucky we were to have no rain, but no rain means, our water supply had to be switched to the emergency supply which is a small creek up the mountain.  He said the water was safe even though it had a green hugh to it, the hugh was from the beech leaves that fall into the water, he called it beech tea.  He also commented that he was beginning to wonder if something else had leeched in when he saw a group of americans jump into the cold lake after drinking it, and then tossing around a small peanut, informing the guys rugby balls are much bigger in his country! We all had a good laugh! 

We chatted with Craig and Roy most of the evening all happy to be in a spacious hut with very few sandfly's rather than a 2 person tent.