There and back again- A girl's tale

This is where Bobby and Natalie are living, it's in Marlborough Sounds.  Our first stop after picking up Amanda and Laura from the airport.  It is really secluded, and both Manda and Laura almost lost it on the curvy as drive in.  It's a great place though, Bobby and Natalie are lucky to get to experience it like they do.  
From this dock Bobby catches about 66.666666 percent of their meals.  
This is either Hariet or Harold, one of the two White Faced Herons that live out front of their caravan.
After traveling through Blenheim, highlighted by the bicycle wine tour, we went to Akaroa, just South of ChristChurch.  Right after this picture was taken Amanda and Laura both narrowly escaped death as they slid down rocky chutes to the safety of the Harbour.  Mae took the long way around to avoid the scary descent.  
Here is the exact same picture minus the people.  It is a peninsula on a harbour that is in a peninsula, it was a really cool place.
We then stayed a night in ChristChurch for a night, and then went over Arthur's Pass to the west coast.  These waterfalls are near the base of Franz Josef Glacier.  
This is the glacier itself.
Mt. Cook is on the right and Mt. Tasman is on the left.  We were lucky with weather on the west coast so we were able to see them pretty clearly.  
This is one of the golden crushed granite beaches in Abel Tasman.  We did the last 8 miles of the Coastal Track which was a really nice walk.  The water in Abel Tasman is a vibrant aqua-marine, it's awesome!

This is a fern frond on a punga tree, which is an important symbol in the NZ culture.  It stands for new life and new beginnings, it is called koru.

We did a kayak trip to see split apple rock (below) it was a really fun trip.  We paddled through a couple of caves and got to enjoy the crystal clear water.  Johnny and I flipped our kayak over so Johnny could experience coming out of the kayak under water.

After Abel Tasman we drove to Nelson for our last night with the girls.  We went to Marchfest (NZ version of Octoberfest).  We had a great time trying new beers and listening to music.  It was a great trip with Amanda and Laura, it was awesome to see parts of NZ we hadn't and we enjoyed their enthusiasm for NZ.  Seeing them made it that much more exciting to think about coming home.  

We are back out on the vineyards but working for a different company and it is going much better, we almost enjoy it.  So we'll be doing that for the next few weeks.

Cheers, Maegen and Johnny