Milford Sound to Christchurch to Fiji

hey guys,

here I am updating the blog in a hostel called the Smuggler's Cove in warm, cloudy Nadi (pronunced "Nandi" for some reason), Fiji.

Here's an update from the last few days. We went from Queenstown to Milford Sound in Fiordland. It was a drizzly day on the cruise of Milford Sound, but the weather added a bit of a mysterious, eerie feel to the same area where a scene of Lord of the Rings was filmed. The rain also helped fuel the waterfalls. We saw seals and small penguins during the cruise....another sign that we're not close to home when we see these animals in their natural habitat! After the cruise, we slowly started making our way back up to Christchurch to return the camper, stopping every once in a while to see something weird or wacky, like watching some people bungy jump off a bridge. Some spots along the trip were so windy it felt like our poor camper was going to get thrown all over the road! The city of Christchurch is really neat. It has a lot of the old Gothic architecture; it was great to be back in a city for a little while after spending so much time in the open!

We had some time to kill before taking our evening flight from C-church so we visited the Antarctic Centre and got to see some of the work that New Zealand is doing in Antartica. For some reason, we also willingly put ourselves in a room where they mimicked a snow storm. At one point, the temperature dropped to -18C with the windchill. It was enough of a reminder of what the weather may be like back home that it made us that more thankful to be on our trip! We stayed in Auckland near the airport overnight and took the flight to Fiji this morning. We arrived this afternoon and spent some time with a travel agent who booked all of our activities will we are here. Tomorrow we take a boat trip up to the Yasawa islands, spending some time on Naluca island where the blue lagoon is (not sure what it is, just that it's really really nice). We only have 10 days here so we are trying to make the most of it!

So, some photos...it will be a few days until I am able to post messages on the blog again as the islands we are going to visit don't have ATMs, so internet access is out of the question.

From left to right: Elephant Mountain (I think) because if you look closely, it looks like an elephant's head with its truck near the waterfall coming up (don't worry, I looked at it for a while and could only see it near the end); one of the huge misty waterfall filled mountains we saw on the way back from visiting Milford Sound; our super camper home, with the mountains in the back and a native bird, the Kea, sitting on top; and finally one of the beautiful sights we saw heading to Christchurch. We stopped off at a spa/hot pool spot and were able to catch a sight of a rainbow near Lake Tekapo, a lake that in some lights looks like the colour of the minty Crest toothpaste (you know what I mean...that turquoisey colour).

Anyways, we hope you're doing well and look forward to sharing adventures of Fiji when we are back from the islands and back to civilization!

The problem with New Zealand is...

...you go through so many pictures on your memory card! It seems like just yesterday we bought a 16G card (yes, 16 gigs) and we only have about 1500 pictures left on. We are putting everything at the highest setting though...it's so hard not to here. Every picture is right out of a postcard!

We are in Queenstown now. It's not hard to see why Queenstown is so popular. The scenery alone is absolutely spectacular; in the back, the remarkables mountains surround a beautiful lake. We spent some time in town, after driving what seemed like allllllll day (it's really hard to gauge how long it will take to get from one spot to another here. Even though our trusty TomTom says it will take a certain amount of time, the roads are so windy and our poor camper runs out of steam the second we hit a small hill). We even went to the local casino. Nothing too interesting, but it's nice to be in a town after being isolated for so long.

Camperlife has been great. It's so fun to be able to have everything we need in the same vehicle; we can eat, shower and sleep, all things that require little to no planning. We have been eating fairly well, considering that we are on the road most of the time. It's amazing how much daylight we have. It was dark until after 9 last night, which makes it a lot easier to put in longer driving days if we need to.

Some more pictures, from left to right: the Blue Pools, on the way to Queenstown. The water is so clear you can see fish swimming at the bottom; a view from the Fox Glacier; a beautiful lookout on the way; and a stop to see a 28m high waterfall.

From helicopters to pancake rocks to glaciers

hey guys,

we have had an adventurous couple of days! We took a helicopter ride first thing yesterday morning. I have never been in a helicopter before. What an experience! It was such a rush to travel at such an incredible speed and rise so quickly in the air. The views of the mountains and the water from such a height were absolutely spectacular. I think I am destined to never see a whale though. We toured around for a while in search of whales (apparently sperm whales surface every 40-45 minutes so they can predict, through the use of a GPS, how soon another one will surface) but couldn't find any. We saw TONS of dolphins though! They travel in large pods. They seemed to be having such a great time jumping out of the water.

From the helicopter ride, we left Kaikoura to take the Lewis Pass to Punakaiki, where pancake rocks can be seen. Scientists still don't know what caused the rocks to look like this. I am not too curious to figure out why...we just liked to look at them and marvel at their beauty. From Punakaiki, we headed south to where we are now, Franz Josef, to marvel at the beauty of the Franz Josef glacier. For the first little while when we arrived here, all we could see was the glacier, which looks like a strip of snow that couldn't quite make it down the hill. After a while, the clouds cleared and we could see the mountains in the back. What a beautiful sight! At one point we came across a pool where the glacier, mountains and clouds were reflecting in it to make a perfect mirror image. That'll definitely get printed up to decorate the new house with!

So, here we are now in Franz Josef...we will likely head out to see the Fox Glacier tomorrow, and then head south to Queenstown, the adventure capital. Unfortunately we may have to skip Milford Sound because we are short on time, but we'll cram in as much as we can.

Here are a few photos for your viewing pleasure. From left to right: a photo of Kaikoura from inside the helicopter; Jason with the mountains and helicopter after the flight; rocks on the way to Punakaiki to see the pancake rocks; an example of the beauty and destruction of nature (scientists think that the pancake rocks are formed by aquatic sedementation, followed by uplift, followed by erosion); us with the glacier in the back; me showing that it is indeed a mirror image; and finally the glacier by itself.

We hope you're doing well...drop us a comment or two! We love to read them. They give us motivation to post more messages :)

South Island adventures

hey guys,

here we are in Kaikoura, New Zealand, on the east coast on the south island. We took the ferry from Wellington to Picton yesterday morning. My travel book wasn't kidding when it said that Wellington is a windy city! Our poor camper was getting blown around all over the place when we were waiting to load the ferry. The ferry was also the biggest ship we have ever been on. Just the inside was like an underground parking garage. Upstairs had tons of lounges to watch movies, relax and take a nap.

We stayed in Picton overnight last night. Picton is a small town, but it was nice to relax for the evening. We left this morning to go to Kaikoura. Kaikoura is wellknown for the beautiful marine life; on the way to the town, we stopped by a seal colony and saw tons of New Zealand fur seals just lounging around. They definitely weren't catching up on their tan; it's not an overly pleasant day today.

For you lord of the rings fans, here is a video we found in new zealand that mixes beautiful landscape and shows some of the film locations from lord of the rings: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rs_HsTzXFf0.

Jason just booked us on a helicopter tour tomorrow to see sperm whales. I have never seen a whale in its natural habitat, and have never been in a helicopter, so it'll be great to do both in the same day!

Some pictures for you!

From left to right: the size of the ferry we took from Wellington to Picton (although we were travelling with a different company), Jason on the ferry in his new All Blacks "jumper", an example of the landscape along the way, one of the beautiful snow capped mountains and a few seals taking a nap

livin' it up in a campah

hey guys, here we are in Taupo, New Zealand. We left Auckland yesterday afternoon to pick up our camper van. it's a lot nicer than i thought it was going to be. I was expecting a volkswagen hippie van but we have a proper campervan with a table that turns into a bed, a mini kitchen and a toilet/shower. We're livin' the high life! Here is the site where we got the van: http://www.nzmotorhomes.co.nz/23berthtoyota.php. On our first day we made our way to the town of Rotorua and camped...well, sort of camped...we parked in a spot and used the campsite facilities. We left this morning to go to Waiotepu and made it just in time to see the lady knox geyser erupt. From there, we walked around and saw how incredible and beautiful nature can be. Rotorua is well-known for the thermal activity. The different bubbling pools, coloured sulphur rock and mud pools are awesome to watch. http://www.geyserland.co.nz/ The scenery is gorgeous too. This is just how I picture Ireland or Scotland. Beside the road on both sides are hills, hills, and more hills, surrounded by tons of trees. Of course, there are more sheep or cows here than anything else...every once in a while I get spoiled and see a few horses, but overall the animals are just like back home. The weather in NZ is noticeably cooler here. I had to dig our my sweater (or jumper, as some people call it) and jeans the other day. I thought I had banished them to the bottom of my suitcase. So, here are a few pictures. From left to right: the "twelve apostles" (although there are only seven standing), the view inside the "blow hole" (both from the great ocean road), the sunrise from our 6am flight from Melbourne to Sydney, in Rotorua: the geyser erupting at precisely10:20am, us near some bubbly sulphur, and the "devil's bath" (or where slimer from the ghostbusters gets his beautiful colouring).

In the land of the Kiwis

hey guys,

sorry for the delay in updating the blog. On our second last night in Melbourne, we had dinner at Dracula's, a cabaret restaurant with a vampire/Halloween theme. In a way, it was our belated Halloween celebration since we were sailing on the Whitsundays on Halloween night. The food was great, the show was great and the staff really get into character! The interior of the restaurant was awesome too. Sadly we were not allowed to take pictures.

On our last day, we rented a car and toured around on the great ocean road for the day. It was quite the experience driving on the left side of the road! It's fine when you're driving straight, but the minute you turn, it's an entire mental exercise to remember which lane to stay in. Inside the car, some things are backwards but others are on the same side as back home. For example, the gears on the shifter are on the same side but you shift with the left hand. The pedals are on the same side. The worst was the windshield and lane changer "sticks" (can't think of the name right now). It took a while to get used to using the right one. In the beginning when I wanted to signal I kept turning the windshield wipers on!

The great ocean road didn't disappoint! We stopped off a lot to take beautiful pictures of cliffs, water and beaches. We made it down to the twelve apostles. What a sight! Unfortunately with erosion only seven are left, but they are a magnificent sight. Not far from the twelve apostles is another super cool rock formation. On the walking path we even saw a wallaby up close and an echinda, which kinda looks like a stockier, smaller version of a porcupine.

We took the plane the following morning at 6am for Sydney to catch our flight to Auckland. This meant getting up at 3:30 to return the car. It was a rough morning, but the sunrise was breathtaking.

So, here we are in Auckland. We spent yesterday walking around with an English lad from Jason's dorm room. Last night we went to a pub crawl. I am definitely feeling the burn of that this morning...uggghhhhh.

Anyways, we rented a camper van to tour around in for ten days. I am looking forward to trying out that experience!

Sorry I can't upload pictures right now. It was so much easier with the other memory card that turned into a USB plug in. Sadly the new one is just a regular one and I can't find my memory card reader. Photos to come soon!

Safe and sound in Melbun

hey there :)

Here we are in Melbourne (pronunced "Melbun"...funny Aussies). Last night we went out and explored the city a little. We even found our way to the bar Allumbra, where two guys we met in Thailand so long ago work. One of them was working at the bar and so he made us a beautiful drink. It was nice to see him again, even if it was for a few minutes. That's one of the many things that I love about travelling...where it takes you and the people you meet along the way!

Today we rented a couple of bikes from our hostel and went to the Melbourne Zoo. It was built in the 19th century when they had better ideas about how animals should live in captivity. I was impressed with the space and the gardens. We even got to see some giraffes up close, as well as some koalas, kangaroos and even a platypus. From there we toured around the city. Melbourne is such a cool mix of cool trendy, fun and old buildings.

For dinner we stopped off at the grocery store on the way back and bought kangaroo steak. Yes, we did. It sounds horrible, doesn't it, since we were at the zoo and saw kangaroo today. The main reason is just because when we were sailing in the whitsunday islands, one of the crew members suggested that we try kangaroo, and we hadn't had the opportunity to try it until now. I think if we would have grilled it on a proper BBQ instead of on an Aussie BBQ (almost like a hot plate) it would have been different. Anyways, it was pretty good, although yeah, pretty strange to eat an animal you only just saw that day.

Here are some pictures from our outing today. From left to right, a meerkat (they made him look so much cooler in the Lion King...but this guy was cool because he was just hanging out and posing), the lazier of the two gibbons who just stayed near the window while his buddy swung around effortlessly from rope to tree and finally a lowland gorilla (we loved this guy because it looked like he was just waiting for his buddies to come back with beer).

So, hopefully tomorrow will be less strange, although we're going to a cabaret dinner thing called "Dracula's" that was highly recommended. So, maybe Melbourne will just be a strange, fun, cool place, which is just the way I like it anyways :)

Hangin' out (literally) in Byron Bay

hey guys,

I know an update was long overdue. Since the last post, we left Rainbow Beach and made our way to Byron Bay. We stayed two nights at a hostel near the beach and met a lovely London Ontario chap. We spent the next few days lounging around Byron Bay, taking advantage of the cheap meals, drinks and inappropriate activities at Cheeky Monkeys. We also did some great sight seeing, including borrowing bikes from our hostel to see the Cape Byron lighthouse, which is at the eastern most point of mainland Australia. The view from the top was phenomenal; we even saw a family of dolphins and a turtle swimming around!

We spent a long time trying to find another hostel for the next two days in Byron Bay, but eventually we found a place for our last two nights. We had booked a bus to take us to Melbourne for our final days in Australia but then decided to take the loss and take a plane to Melbourne instead of spending 24 hours on a bus. So, we had some extra time in Byron Bay.

We decided just for kicks to go hanggliding on our last day. What an incredible experience! It was a really windy day, but it was awesome just to soar and hang out for a while (we flew tandem). You get strapped into a suit that kinda makes you look like a caterpillar-type creature, and then just walk off a cliff where the wind takes you and picks you up. It was really hard to top that adventure.

So, here we are in Melbourne, where we will stay for a few days before driving along the great ocean road and finally arriving in Sydney to take our flight out to New Zealand. So far the city looks really fun with lots of things to do. It's a nice contrast from Byron Bay, which was more of a beach town.

Finally some pictures...the first four are views around the lighthouse, and the bottom two are from our hanggliding adventures (Jason is in the photo on the left. I am surprised the photo turned out so well considering I was flying at the same time and in an almost horizontal position).

More updates to come! Thanks for your patience! I hope all is well back home.

Oh yeah, in other news...I officially graduate on the 14th. I won't be there and have no intention of leaving this lovely paradise to attend a boring convocation so after two years of hard work I will just have to get my degree in the mail. Not the way I wanted to go out, but I can enjoy graduating from here :)

Driving on the wrong side of the beach in Fraser Island

Hey guys,

after surviving a 16 hour greyhound bus ride to Rainbow Beach, we left yesterday morning for a self-guided four wheel drive camping trip with 8 other people we have never met. We left our hostel in rainbow beach early Monday morning with a four wheel drive vehicle packed with everything we would need for two days on the beach. It was so awesome to drive on the beach! The conditions were pretty rocky at times, and we really had to be careful when the tide was coming in, but it was an interesting experience. We saw a shipwreck (the Maheno) and manta rays from on top of a beautiful cliff. What a day! We camped right near the beach. Camping was definitely "roughing it". We had to bury everything because the dingoes might come and steal our food (I am serious...for you Seinfeld junkies, the line "a dingo ate my baby" is apparently based in truth when a woman claimed that a dingo ate her baby. Since then, there are signs everywhere warning people to watch their children. Sidenote: yes, we saw a dingo. Not that interesting...dingoes look like fox-sized dogs). We slept on the beach and could hear the ocean. Unfortunately, we couldn't go swimming in the ocean because of the tiger sharks that could eat us. yes, we are definitely living on the edge here!

After a few hours sleep, we all got up early to try to beat the tide to make it to a beautiful lake. What an experience! I drove on the other side of a car for the first time ever. It's really weird to shift with the left hand (although the pedals are on the same side as back home). The road was so bumpy. I felt so hardcore to drive offroad. When we arrived at the lake (Mackenzie lake), it was worth the drive. The sand was just like in the whitsundays, but the water was incredibly wonderful. it felt so great to be in freshwater instead of constantly coughing up salt water. From there, we walked around a rainforest, admiring all of the different kinds of trees. We left shortly thereafter to make our way back. The ride back was a blast! The driver was almost doing it on purpose to make us fly out of our seats. Thankfully we were wearing sealbelts so we were ok. :)

Now that we are back in rainbow beach, we will likely head out to Byron Bay, and aim to be in Melbourne by the weekend. We fly out to Sydney for Auckland on the 13th so we want to make sure we use our time well.

Some pictures (left to right): Indian Head, hugging a tree in the rainforest and near the Maheno wreck.