Milford Sound

These flowers, which looked like huge lupine, covered the valley floors as we drove in towards Milford Sound.  It was a bit of a curvy drive in, and longer than we expected, but it was beautiful.  We made it without stopping until we saw the Kea from the previous posting bouncing around a little turnout.  They are incredible birds.  They are the only alpine parrot and their intelligence compares to that of a chimp.  They have been known to kick snow off a cliff and fly out to see if they hit anyone, and then repeat that until the people below don't think it is as funny as they do.  They like to chew on soft stuff like the rubber on windshield wipers and tents.  Anyway, we stopped to watch them for a minute and then made it in time to get on our boat about three minutes before it left (a little close but not unusual).  
It was raining on and off while we were out on the Sound.  They say there are only four permanent waterfalls, this being the first you pass.  On the day we were there the waterfalls were to numerous to count, literally feet apart all falling quite a distance down the rocky, forested walls around the Sound.  I've never seen so much water, it was truly incredible.
This was another one of the permanent waterfalls which they actually stick the bow of the boat under.  Legend says that if women are touched by even a drop of the water it will make their faces appear to be ten years more youthful.  The ladies standing down there in the picture may or may not have lost some wrinkles, but they definitely didn't expect the boat to go forward as far as it did, and they were screaming and running seconds after we took this picture. 
One of these long cracks which water is often running down is actually where the two techtonic plates meet below New Zealand.  Obviously they are the cause for the mountains along the west coast and they said they are stilling raising about an inch and a half per year.  
We were lucky with weather.  The rain made the Sound so incredibly mystical and yet the sun came out for spells of the trip so we could be up on the deck with blue skies and water falling all around us.  
Waterfall after waterfall after waterfall.  Easily one of the most beautiful places I have seen.

Cheers Johnny

Around Dunedin

Sorry about some misspelled words in the previous blog, we did it late last night and didn't proof read it.  Anyways after New Year's Eve we drove to Dunedin in our huge 12 person van (it was all the rental place had left), stopping by Moeraki Beach where there are spherical boulders.  It was so great to be with our parents again, we were excited for them to see Dunedin.  While we were in Dunedin we went on an awesome tour of the tip of the Otago Peninsula.  We rode in a large four wheeler that took us to see yellow-eyed penguins and a colony of seals with many young pup seals.  We saw two pups wrestling with each other, it was really cute.  We also got to see a couple penguins waddle out of the water.  It was a pretty cold ride, but well worth it, the views from the top were spectacular.  

We also ate at Johnny's restaurant, and of course my favorite part was shopping down town.We  went and watched the blue penguins come out of the water and make their way to their nests.  Johnny's dad had a penguin walk right between his legs and peck at his foot!  After Dunedin we headed to Milford Sound which will be our next post.  The last picture in this blog is the bold and cheeky mountain parrot, the Kea, which we were entertained by on the way to Milford Sound.     

Christchurch and Kaikoura, the First Time

We just had a wonderful couple of weeks with our parents.  That is why we haven't been calling or posting or anything else.  It was a busy and excellent trip and we'll try to show you the best of it.  First we picked up Linda and George in Christchurch and went up to Kaikoura.  This first picture is the backyard of Lyell Creek Lodge where we stayed in Kaikoura.  Below the pampas grass were the Hoffmans eating the enormous crayfish we caught when we went fishing with Johnnie George (the guy who runs the hostel).  Kaikoura is a really cool little town where the mountains literally meet the sea.  Sorry this is underlined, I don't know how to fix it.
At this point we were just getting back from fishing with Johnnie.  We were so happy, one cause Mae's parents were in New Zealand, two, because we didn't get sea sick and we were sure we would, and finally because our newly purchased sun protection keep us away from the dangerous, cancerous UV rays so prevalent in NZ, and made us look really cool!
We got pretty close to these wandering albatross while out fishing.  They say that their wing span can be up to 10 feet, they were absolutely enormous.  Instead of flapping their wings they just glide and use their feet like a water ski.   
This is lake victoria (more of a pond really) in Hagley park in Christchurch.  It is a much better city than we first gave it credit for when we drove threw four months ago.  Mostly it was always sunny and warm, kind of the opposite of Dunedin.  
This is the Cathedral that is in the heart of Christchurch, with the rose window behind Mae and Linda.  When my parents arrived it was New Years Eve and there was a big party in Cathedral Square.  I was the only one who stayed up until midnight to hear and see a few of the fireworks.  We had all gone to bed and I couldn't fall asleep due to the contents of my mothers fanny pack, and my contemplation of how to best present it to Mae, more on that later.

A Night on Long Beach

This is the home of the best climbing in the Dunedin area.  The little cave with the three entrances that we camped in is called Cathedral Cave and has some cool bouldering routes.  Further down the beach is where they do sport climbing (our gear will arrive with our parents so we can climb a little in January).  The big cave I'm standing in is the home of what must be some pretty wicked Guy Fawkes bon fires/parties.  You can see how the roof of the cave has been painted black with the years of smoke.  This was Mae's first day off since we went to Te Anau nearly three weeks ago.  It was really good for us to get out, even if it did start raining in the middle of the night and through the next day.  That wasn't so surprising though as all of my days off for the past month have been cold and rainy.  Sorry the blog has become so boring, hopefully the pictures make up for the less than inspiring writing.  Not much new has been happening since our last post, just more work.  However, I am undergoing two major changes at the current moment.  I, for the first time in nearly 25 years, have a great desire to be drinking coffee and eating soup pretty much all the time.  I don't know what did it but there are two more down.  I'm sorry to say that I don't love seafood yet, but the other night Mae made some Hoffman/Chugwater chili littered with beans and I loved it as well.  Suffice it to say that we are turning over some new leaves here in New Zealand and are still so happy to be here, even if we do miss the sun we grew so accustomed to back home.  That's all for now.

Cheers,

Johnny

Te Anau

Te Anau, who's pronunciation baffles us still, is totally awesome!  It is about 2 hours South of Queenstown, and is the gateway to Fiordland National Park.  Te Anau the town is small but really cool with some great shops and pubs.  It is right on Lake Te Anau with incredible mountains behind it.  We actually stayed in the much smaller "town" of Manapouri, situated on Lake Manapouri (again with an incredible backdrop).  Most of New Zealand's great walking tracks are around this area and Maegen and I did the last 6 kilometers of the Kepler Track.  The next 7 pictures are from that walk.  Not to focus too heavily on Middle Earth, but the canoeing scene at the end of the Fellowship was filmed on that river, and the forest was used for scenes of Lothlorien.  We had a sweet cabin right across the street from Lake Manapouri.  You could climb up the chimney and poke out the top to get a great view.  We renamed Fraser's Beach, "Viking Beach" for Gunner due to the yellow and purple flowers all over it.  We now have to figure out what tracks we want to make reservations for, and how we are going to explore Doubtful Sound, probably by sea kayak.  It was absolutely beautiful, we had a great weekend.  

Cheers, Johnny

Allen's Beach

Hey Everybody- These pictures are of Allen's Beach, where Johnny and I went last week.  The beach was just gorgeous, it seemed to go on forever.  Johnny and I climbed around on the rocks which had little rock pools and hidden seal lions.  The sea lions always scare me because they blend in with their surroundings and then they hiss at you as you walk by.  We also had a huge white bird (Johnny's convinced it was an albatross) dive bomb us because we were near her/his nest.  He made awful noises at us that sounded like a propeller.  I thought Johnny was going to get his head taken off by the bird swooping over him.  The weather has been really nice lately, and it was so exciting to be on the beach with the sun shining.  After Allen's Beach we drove up the peninsula and waited until dark for the blue penguins to come out of the ocean.  We got to see around 30 penguins.  They come out of the water in groups of 10 to 15.  Then they climb up the beach and waddle to their nests where they have their partner and chicks waiting for them.  In the picture you can kind of see his blue feathers, and they were only about a foot tall.  The penguins walked only about 4 or 5 feet away from us.  It was really neat, but unfortunately at that point it was to dark to take pictures of them (can't use the flash because it hurts their eyes).  Tomorrow we are taking a trip to Te Anau and Doubtful Sound, where we will hopefully kayak.  We'll let you know how it goes- cheers maegen

Tunnel Beach

Rumor has it that the farmer who owned land nearest to tunnel beach dug the tunnel you see Mae in so that his daughter could get down to the beach in the next three pictures.  The surf is really strong here and as a result of the beach access, the daughter drowned.  A pretty sad story, which made Mae a little uncomfortable walking down the tunnel to the beach.  We came across this enormous sea lion down on the beach so we climbed back up and watched it struggle across the beach and glide into the water.  It would duck four or five waves at a time on it's way out to the open water, it was really cool to watch.  There are just so many incredible landscapes all so close to us here, we are so lucky.  You can see how big the tunnel is in the last picture with the little pink spot on top being Mae.  It is also incredible how empty all these places are, even being so close to the second largest city on the South Island, it kind of reminds us of Wyoming.  Now it's back to a week of work.  Happy Guy Fawkes/Election day!

Cheers, Johnny