New Zealand 2/3 finished, where does the time go?

It's hard to believe that we have been in New Zealand for two weeks now and still haven't made a blog post yet.  We only have a week left here before heading off to Fiji for Christmas and I find myself in awe at all we have already seen and done in this spectacular country.  The remaining week will be just as busy and I think Julie would agree that it would be easy to spend another month exploring.  Here is a brief rundown of what we have accomplished so far.

We landed in Auckland on the north island and immediately picked up our camper van.  After a trip to the grocery store and the New Zealand equivalent to a wal mart we had the supplies needed to start our 21 day camping adventure.  It was already late though, so the first night was spent in a commercial campsite near the airport.  The views weren't anything to write home about but it gave us the opportunity to check out the van and read all the brochures we had picked up at the airport to help plan the trip.

Ferry to the South Island

Our plan was to get to the South Island as quickly as possible and we headed south the next morning, stopping for lunch near a lake along the way.  We stopped at the visitor center in Rotorua and picked up a few more pamphlets before stopping at the giant redwood forest and eventually camping on the shore of a beautiful lake.  The next day was spent exploring some of the geothermal areas of the north island and taking a hike up Rainbow Mountain.  We were going to go see their "mini-yellowstone" attraction and a geyser, but when we learned it was $50/person we headed towards the free mud pools.  A couple days later we learned that they pour soap in the geyser to get it to erupt....so glad we saved the $100.  Our plan was to hike the Tangariro Alpine Crossing the next day, but part of the trail was closed due to a recent volcanic eruption so we decided to head further south and hope it was open on our way back to Auckland. The next morning we caught a ferry to the South Island and upon arrival made arrangements to walk part of the Queen Charolette track the following day.  We camped along the coast in the Marlborough Sounds and found mussels and clams alongside the shore just steps from our campervan.  

Our day of hiking began with a boat ride and the realization that the weather forecasters had actually gotten it right, windy and wet!  The windy part was realized immediately with the very rough boat ride, and we ended up hiking for 4.5 hours with a continuous rainfall.  We were soaked at the end of it but even with the bad weather we had some amazing views of the sounds.  While we were waiting for our boat ride back we ran into a couple that we met at Thailand cooking class....CRAZY!   

We had also learned that this part of New Zealand was world renowned for making Sauvignon Blanc and that there a bunch of wineries close together that offered tastings, so we booked a campervan sight for two nights and set off one morning on bicycles hoping to taste as much wine as possible.  We had a blast, making it to the first winery just before it started pouring and then trying to time it right with the rain each time we pedaled further.  Luckily we managed to stay almost completely dry and got to try (and buy) several outstanding wines.  

The next few days saw us head to the west coast and explore the beautiful landscape as we drove along what Lonely Planet called one of the top 10 coastal drives in the world.  What Lonely Planet forgot to mention was the 1,00,000 sandflies that would also be enjoying the ride.  We've gotten rather good at at mushing them.  We got to see a seal colony, experience blowholes, view pancake rocks, see several caves, and look at two natural limestone arches.  We also managed to get a lot of hiking in (non of these spectacular sites were immediately next to the highway)!  

After spending a few days along the coast we headed inland to Franz Josef and Fox Glaciers.  When we arrived it was forecasted to rain the entire next day, so we opted out of the heli-hiking trip and planned to do day hikes.  We awoke to blue skies and enjoyed our morning hikes and views of the glaciers.  After lunch it started to rain, so we hopped in the van and headed south towards Fiordlands.

Doubtful Sound

Reflection in Doubtful Sound

Further down the coast we found what might be one of the most beautiful places on earth with Fiordlands National Park.  We toured a glow worm cave, spent a day kayaking in Doubtful Sound, and took a cruise in Milford Sound.  The weather while we were kayaking couldn't have been any better and we had a private tour because they had to pick up an overnight trip from the day before (they usually have groups of 10 but we were the only people booked that day).  It was truly awe inspiring to be surrounded by such enormous mountains that were long ago carved by glaciers over 2000 meters thick while sitting in a small boat on the water.

You can see all of our New Zealand pictures here and our Fiordlands pictures here