Last week in NZ

Our last week in New Zealand started with a typical bad-weather-good-weather sequence. We drove to Mount Cook/Aoraki, NZ's highest peak, planning to go for a half day walk upon arrival. Instead we ended up spending the whole day infront of the fire place at the overpriced YHA, hiding from the rain. The next day the sky was blue and the sun was out. We were still suspecious of the weather so we wore long sleeve shirts (which was a mistake.. it was hot!).

It was a nice walk to Hooker Valley, passing by small streams and reaching a lake with small floating icebergs under the great mountain. For some reason this area is very popular with Japanese tourists, who seem to be always well equipped with proper sun protection and nice picnic meals. On the way back we met our friend Claire and made plans for a last meal in Christchurch.

On the way east from Mt. Cook we passed by lake Pukaki with nice reflection of the surrounding mountains.

We spent one night in a quaint little town called Geraldine (famous for having the world's biggest knitted sweater. Another important world record...) in a hostel that used to be a maternity hospital.

The next 4 days were our time to relax and unwind on the beautiful Banks Peninsula (close to Christchurch).

The small town here (Akaroa) was a French settlement and has retained some of the European character. We met some travel buddies (a.k.a the Schlafmuetzen) in the middle of the road and hung out for a while, sipping ice coffee.
Although the water in the bay is quite chilly we decided not to miss the opportunity to swim with the world's smallest dolphins. After being wrapped in wetsuits we jumped to the water and tried to attract their attention. These dolphins have a busy day - they eat a lot and shag up to 30 times a day! Luckily some had a bit of extra time for us. Anita and another girl on the tour sang to them through their snorkels and I tapped two rocks together. Then they started coming in small groups, swimming between us jumping around and being very dolphinish.

We were very lucky with both accommodations we chose. The second even offered fabulous dinners for all the guests. Hmmmm.....
The last 2 days in NZ were city days - Christchurch and Auckland. In Christchurch we had another chance to meet up with Claire for a final dinner at a yummy Burmese restaurant.

We were a bit sad to leave New Zealand. After 6 and a half weeks and 5579 kilometers with our car we felt we really got to know and love the country. Luckily, our next destination is keeping us excited.

Let's go Australia!

Penguins and Rocks

Encouraged by our short penguin encounter we headed to the east coast towards the bigger penguin colonies. First we spent 2 days in the university town of Dunedin. It was the first 'proper' city since Wellington (it has traffic lights and cabs). We had dinner with Claire, our English tramping friend from Tongariro, and visited the world's steepest street.
We also visited a penguin sanctuary in Otago Peninsula. We hid in trenches, camouflaged like during war, waiting for the yellow-eyed penguins to return from their day of fishing. We were very excited to see a few hobble to their partners who waited for them in the nest.

From Dunedin we continued north along the coast. Our next destination was Oamaru and its blue penguin colony. We stopped on the way at the Moeraki Boulders - huge round rocks on the beach.

Later that night we sat with our warmest clothes on an outside viewing platform watching the blue penguins. They are the smallest type of penguin, the size of a small bottle of milk (30 cm high, 1 kilo weight). Coming from a day of fishing, they formed little groups and climbed to the shore together. They were really funny, some of them stopped half way home then walked back or just stood there, staring. As the time passed, more and more came home. Those which arrived were greeted by their partners with a little dance (and loads of noise) and the partners of those which were still at sea where just screaming for them to come home. It was hilarious!

Fiordland

It has been a few days since we last blogged, so we will try catching up now :-)
We spent 4 days in the snow in Fiordland National Park. We convinced ourselves that due to lack of time we cannot do one of the multi-day tramps in the area and settled for visiting Milford Sound and Doubtful Sound. As it turned out, this was a wise decision since the weather was horrible during the first 2 days. We saw Milford through the rain drops and were not able to do any short hikes on the way there nor on the way back.

At least we met again with our favorite alpine parrot. This time the cheeky Kea got closer and attempted eating our car...
On the way back from Milford the sky cleared up a bit but a few hours later we were in heavy snow again.
The next day was our one successful day in the park. We woke up to clear blue sky and took a cruise to Doubtful Sound, crossing a nice lake to get to it.

Here we also saw our first penguin in wildlife - hiding between the bushes a few meters from the boat (sorry, no picture)
One of the people on our boat cruise has officially won the 'super-traveler' award. This 61-year-old Brit has celebrated his 500th day of traveling, with 400 more to come! Now that is a hell of a trip. An inspiration to us all.

p.s.

We realized that there was a horrible error in the previous entry. Oren did not get the credit for his seal slide!! This has been rectified with the correct link

Wanaka

So far, Wanaka has been one of our favorite towns in New Zealand. The fact that the weather was great made it even lovelier. After arriving we visited the odd Puzzling World where we ran around a big maze for an hour and a half (we started to loose patience, but even finding the exit was difficult). Then we checked out their illusion section with holograms, puzzles and other silly stuff.
Since Wanaka lies on a lake between mountains there are many short hikes that provide really cool views (and a good excuse for muffins after the excercise). Most of the time though, we took it easy and hung out with nice people from the hostel.

The highlight of our stay was, without a doubt, canyoning. It is a bit difficult to explain what it means, but the pictures might speak for themselves. The water was really cold and we stopped feeling our hands very early in the day. However, since we were wrapped in multi-layered wet suits the rest of our bodies were nice and warm(ish). Before we started Anita still secretly hoped that the trip would be cancelled due to weather conditions, but after the first freaky abseil she started enjoying herself and by the second slide she was all into it.

Our favorite part was the slides. One slide was the best - the seal slide - head first into the cold water (luckily we have proof of this dumbness - Anita's slide, Oren's slide)!

Re-DeMosesing

Eight years ago I was backpacking through South America and grew myself a nice, healthy, 50-day beard. I looked like a modern-day biblical Moses. When I finally shaved it off (it wasn't easy) and sent some pictures around, my friend Tom called it the 'DeMosesing Process'. Since then we have been using the term as a substitute for just doing your thing or relaxing (e.g. 'I haven't had a proper holiday in 3 years. I really need some DeMosesing time').

This time I shaved a bit earlier, not reaching the 'food-in-my-beard' phase I reached in South America. I had to give up because I figured a man should be able to kiss his wife, at least on their honeymoon (apparently beards itch. Who knew?). So, after around 38 days I went through the process again, and coined a new (meaningless) expression - ReDeMosesing!

Walking on Ice

Last week we spent a few days visiting the great glaciers on the west coast. Before we arrived we had a visit from a little dude called the Kea - the world's only alpine parrot. He is known for stealing keys, socks and other items from tourists, so we were very careful in his presence...

After leaving the Kea behind we drove down south to visit the Franz Josef glacier. We decided to gamble on good weather and go on a helicopter trip to see the glacier from above and land on a high spot to explore it a bit by foot.
The helicopter flight, Anita's first, was very exciting. The pilot tried to give us a good view so he kept making sharp turns which made our stomachs go hiiiiiiii... Once on the glacier, a nice English guide took us for a 2 hour walk. Our luck continued and we had a sunny day on the ice so we could really appreciate it.




The next day we visited Fox glacier, Franz Josef's little cousin. So in two days we visited 2 of the 3

only glaciers in the world which end in a rain forest. Pretty cool, right?
We walked up through the bush looking at the glacier from the side, until we arrived at the end of the path. There we put on our crampons and followed our guide to the ice. The guide was walking in front, chopping the ice and creating little steps to make walking on it easier. We spent the entire day on Fox, looking for caves, holes and other interesting things before we made our way back to town and from there south towards Wanaka.