Six months into our “fun-employement”
journey, you'd think I'd be a little better at blogging. So far we
are lucky to get a blog posted every couple weeks, so I'm going to
try and stay a little more on top of things. With any luck we will
have more posts for the next 6 months of our journey.
Right now (aka 2 days ago when I wrote this) we are on the ferry, headed
back to Wellington and the North Island. It's hard to believe we
only have 3 nights left in New Zealand. I believe the last blog left
off with the amazing Fiordland National Park. It truly was one of
the most beautiful places I have ever been. After our cruise in
Milford Sound we headed north to Queenstown. It was weird being back
in a bigger city, and we had plans of getting out and exploring. By
the time we finished laundry and got all settled in we both opted
just to hang out, and try to get a little bit of Australia planned.
The next morning we headed up to Mt
Cook. We lucked out and the clouds parted on our drive in, affording
us amazing views of Mt Cook. The wind was gusting like crazy the
entire day. Despite being blown all over the road we safely made it
to the visitors center and found a short 3 hr walk to stretch our
legs. At the first swing bridge we were almost blown off the bridge,
I thought about turning back but after about 30 secs the wind died
down and we ran across the bridge! We made our way through
occasional gusts until we reached the lake and “view” of the
glacier. From there the gusts turned into a hurricane, with water
blowing off the lake and no lapse in wind speed. We snapped a few
quick pics and then ran back towards shelter...while running back I
felt like mario with star power, I would jump and get pushed
forwards, moving faster than I ever have on my own. It was fun, but
a little scary. Once back at the car we decided not to camp there
and headed on down the road. We found a campsite on a lake and got
the last powered site. We can tell it is getting closer to peak
season, there are a ton more people out and about.
Next we headed to Akaroa, a small
French town on the Banks Peninsula. We walked around town and just
relaxed in the sunshine. It was by far the warmest day yet in New
Zealand. Our campsite was on a hill overlooking the harbor. The
next morning we watched a cruise ship unload its passenger for 4
hrs...I can't believe how many people fit on that ship! Akaroa is
home to the worlds smallest and rarest dolphin, so we boarded a
sailboat in search of them. There were only 8 people on the boat and
it was so relaxing. The dolphins swam on the bow of the boat, and
at times there were 10 up there. We even saw a baby that was less
than 3 months old. You could've reached over the side and touched
them. Another great experience on our trip. After our boat tour we
headed north the Christchurch.
We opted to take the Tranzalpine train
tour from Christchurch to Greymouth over Arthurs Pass and back. The
scenery was great and it was nice not to have to drive for a day. We
enjoyed looking out the window, and catching a nap on the return
journey. We started driving north and managed to find a great
campground with power, showers and only a $20 price tag. Typically
those campgrounds have been $40-50/night. That wraps up our time on
the South Island. Tomorrow we are supposed to go bungee jumping, if
I don't chicken out! We've been searching for a GoPro, but they are
really hard to come by in New Zealand, so no luck yet. Guess we will
have to film the bungee jumps the old fashioned way (except that
camera is basically broken with spots all over the lens), so I guess
you will get no photos of bungee unless we can find a new camera in
Wellington tomorrow!
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