Farewell New Zealand

It's hard to believe that our four weeks in New Zealand have come and gone! We spent our last two nights in Kaikoura, a fun little beach town on the east coast, known for its marine life.


So we figured we'd get the full experience and hop on a ferry out into the Pacific Ocean to get a better view of the dolphins. It did not disappoint! As we started out into the water, an albatross and its giant wingspan decided to join us and fly along in the boat's wind stream. Shortly thereafter we noticed some dolphins playing in the distance, and as we made our way closer, we discovered that they were not just playing amongst themselves, but with a giant sperm whale! It was an awesome sight, but without a license to whale watch we had to continue our journey out into deeper water...and all of a sudden dolphins were everywhere!

So I figured why not go for an even closer look?

About 15 others and I slipped into the water on four different occasions to play with the dolphins. To attract their attention, we kicked our flippers and tried to make interesting noises. I (of course) decided go sing. The song of choice? A derivation of Smashmouth's All Star: "Hey now, you're a dolphin, get your show on, come play!" Apparently dolphins are huge Smashmouth fans because I frequently had 1-4 dolphins swimming circles around me at an arm's length! What a terrific experience! As the time for our trip ran short, we headed back to the boat and started to make for shore...but the dolphins weren't done playing! They swam with us for a ways, almost directly beneath the boat.

And put on a bit of a show!

Of course the whales didn't want to miss out on all the fun, so a humpback whale cruised alongside for awhile.

It was a fantastic experience and a great way to spend our last day in NZ!

It's been an AMAZING month and both Kelly and I hope to return to this beautiful country sometime in the not-so-distant future!

Next stop: Sydney!

Location:New Zealand

Planes, Ferries, Automobiles (and bikes!)

We have been having so much fun the past few days! After leaving the Franz Josef Glacier we headed up the coast to Nelson where we spent the night before heading back up to the North Island for a day. The next morning we woke up and headed to Picton in order to catch a flight to Wellington. We had a bit of time to kill, so we went exploring on the beach first.


 

Then we headed to the airport to catch our flight. The ferry from Picton to Wellington takes over 3 hours each way and because we were only going for one day we decided to take a 15 minute flight there and the ferry back.

This is our death trap...I mean plane. It sat 13 including the pilot and copilot.



I was pretty freaked out the whole time, but I have to admit that the scenery was unbelievable.




When we would fly over the clouds, I was noticing rainbows reflecting on the tops so I wanted to get a picture of it. This is what I wound up with. So cool!


Once we checked into our hostel, we headed out the Te Papa National Museum before it closed and then went on a food crawl in the Cuba district. The closest thing we could think of to compare it to would be Telegraph Ave in Berkeley.


We had appetizers at one place, pizza at another and pavlova at the 3rd (which did not compare to the one we had at Hopper's at all).
The next morning we woke up and headed on a 2 hour bus tour of the city. Because we had to catch the ferry that afternoon we did not have a lot of time to explore the city, so we thought the touristy bus trip would be the best use of our time. Here we are on the top of Mt. Victoria.

And at Old St. Paul's. 

Then we headed to catch the ferry that would take us back to Picton through Cook's Straight. This is the back of the boat...Nelly asked why it smelled like a petting zoo. Look closely.




We then made the quick drive into Blenheim where we have been for the past few days. Yesterday we took a bike trip wine tasting through the Marlborough region which is famous for the Sauvignon Blancs. It had poured the night before but we got lucky with beautiful weather.



There were two other couples our age we met and spent the day with, both from Australia. We watched the couple on the left get engaged in one of the vineyards so we had quite the day and night celebrating with them!


After our bike trip we all met up later in town for dinner, quite sore I might add from 7 hours of bike riding! We had a great time with them and hope to meet up when we are in Australia. This photo is from the restaurant where we met for pre dinner drinks.


And that brings us to today where we are headed down the east coast to Kaikora for the remainder of our time here before we head to Australia on Monday. I can't believe our time here in New Zealand is almost over and that we have been gone nearly a month.

Location:Picton, Wellington and Blenheim

Ice, Ice Baby

After leaving the beer tasting, we did some backtracking and headed down to the Franz Josef Glacier which is one of 3 warm climate glaciers in the world (the second was just a bit south and the 3rd is in Argentina). Our group of 30 trekkers was split into 3 groups and Nelly and I joined the fastest, fittest group (ha!). We had to hike about 10 minutes through the rainforest to a clearing that appeared to be at the base of the glacier. It seemed so odd having go hike through a rainforest to reach a glacier.

It is quite an illusion though as we still had to walk 2.3km to reach the base. The ice mass stretches between two large mountains and its jagged surface
makes its way down to a river of melted ice powered by a waterfall in a cave running beneath the glacier.

After making our way there we put our crampons on (spikes for our boots) and began our ascent up the glacier.

Our guide created stairs in the ice for us with an axe he carried to make it easier for us to traverse.

After all of our bungee experience I thought I could rock this ice wall too.

Fortunately the guide stopped me ;)

My favorite photo of the day...I love the reflection in his glasses.

Location:Franz Josef Glacier

Our Lady of the Alps

Mom and Dad,
I just want you to know that I tried going to mass but it is only said once a month here and I was a week late.









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Location:Franz Josef

Still On The Road....

I think I have driven more in the last 5 days than ever before! It's been the most beautiful drive though so it has been well worth it.

We woke up in Milford Sound to pouring rain, which lent for this scene upon leaving our room. All of those waterfalls were not heavy the day before. Supposedly it rains 180+ days a year there.

Once we got to drier land we started seeing these views.

Our goal for driving up the coast was to see the glaciers and to attend the Wild Foods Festival at the recommendation of some friends back at home. There really is no other way to describe it other than Bay to Breakers except drinking is encouraged, you are penned in a festival arena and they serve everything from chocolate covered grubs to worm truffles to pork sausages.
There is live music all day and costume contest for the best costume fitting the theme of that year.

Being at the festival was the first time since being here that I have gotten emotional because my best friend's first baby shower was taking place at the same time back at home. Literally 30 seconds later God sent me this angel.

See, Aubrey's family is from Kentucky...it was a sign!

After the festival there was a concert with local bands that we stayed for. It was really good, however it made for an extra long day. So when we got back to our hostel at 2:00am we were not too happy to find the front door locked and we did not have the code to open it. I had to crawl in through the laundry room window to let Nelly in. Yep, that really happened.

This morning on our way out of town we stopped at the Monteith's Brewery for a tour and a tasting. It's pretty much the only beer we have been drinking (cider for me).

After we got a tasting of all of their brews, they let us pour a full glass of whatever we wanted. Nelly had their Original Ale whose recipe dates back 200 years and I had their seasonal Summer Ale which tasted like Ginger and honey.

I'm not a big beer drinker, but boy can I sure pour a good one!

Next we are off to the Franz Josef Glacier. Stay tuned!

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Location:Hokitika and Greymouth