Catch up time....

So- we're back in Sydney now... and I haven't even told you about the 2nd half of our trip. It was terribly hard to break away from the fun to get onto the computer.. so I'll just catch you up now :)

The last time I updated this was when we were leaving the glaciers. That afternoon we headed to Lake Wanaka. It's a beautiful lake and quite large. The town is just a sleepy tourist town- very laid back and relaxed. We camped on a river that night in a quite campsite. The river was beautiful. In the sun it was this greeny-blue color and very clean. Tristan and I set up our tent just on the river bank and were able to brush our teeth in the river because it was so clean. We camped next to a German couple who had been working in a cherry orchard for the week. They had piked a huge bucket of cherries that day and shared them with us. The biggest cherries we've ever seen. Twice the size of a 25 cent coin- and tasty too! The next morning we did a HUGE hike up Mt. Roy. Of course it didn't look that big from the bottom, but it took us a good 3 hours to walk up to the top. It really was a bitch, but well worth the view at the top. We could see for miles! After a refreshing swim in Lake Wanaka we got into the car and headed South to Queensland.

We hadn't made any plans ahead for accommodation in Queenstown (which was supposed to keep us traveling on the edge) and we had the hardest time finding SOMEWHERE to sleep that night. We checked out 2 camp sites that were pathetic and then started doing the rounds at the hostels. We checked out about 15 hostels who all had no vacancies and finally found the last 2 beds at the Lakeside Backpackers. It was nothing special, but it was better than sleeping in the car. After being stressed for a couple hours we tracked Felicity down and had some dinner and discussed what we were going to do the next day. We ended up deciding that we'd head to Milford Sound and then come back to Queenstown and do a sky dive (I'll get to that soon).

So a 2 hour drive south got us into a town called Te Anau where we did a horse ride on this guys farm (very fun!) and then another 2 hours down to Milford sound. I'll post pictures when I get a chance to look at them, but even the pictures won't do this place justice. Everything was MASSIVE. We drove down this windy road to get to our hostel at the sound and couldn't get over how big everything was. The cliffs towered over the car.. Hell I can't describe it. Just imagine the biggest thing you've ever seen and double it. We got to our hostel that night and being quite tired, we headed straight to bed after dinner. The next morning we woke up really really early to get to our sunrise kayak on Milford Sound. What an amazing way to see the sound. We were in a group of 8, including the guide, and he took us all around the main part of the sound. We saw 3 year old seals (about 20 of them) and some really interesting rock structures. Again- we were looking at mountains that rise over a kilometer and a half into the air. Just fabulous. After the kayak we drove back up to Queenstown for dinner and our skydive the next morning.

So we had dinner and a few beers back in Queenstown and headed to bed. The next morning we were damned with more torrential rain so the skydive was canceled. It was terribly disappointing, but as Tristan said- it's better to have it canceled than to not see anything in the dive. We'll book a time to do one in Australia- which will be great when we do it.

Since it was raining so hard that day we decided to just get in the car and drive until we found somewhere else to go. Ending up in Mt. Cook- the tallest mountain on the south island. Again, the rain and clouds blocked the view of the mountain in the evening (I was just praying that it would be worth the trip) but when we woke up it was SOOOO worth going to this place. The mountain is beautiful. We did a short hike that morning to get a closer view of Mt. Cook. Excellent! Just beautiful!

Next was a stop to Lake Takapo. A truly turquoise lake surrounded by mountains. We were very tired here and didn't do much but enjoy the view of the lake. I'm not going to describe this place because I just can't. I'll post a picture instead and you can see the real thing.

Last stop was to Akaroa. This tiny town was originally settled by French and was completely influenced by everything French. The street names are French, the buildings have French architecture and even the food has some French flare. Just a quaint town- one more place to relax before heading back to Australia.

The last drive was back to Christchurch were we had our last share of beers and hanging out with other travelers. Not to mention the best nachos on the planet.

The flight was all fine and we're back in Sydney, terribly sad that tomorrow we have to go back to work. We were both so ready to call up our bosses and tell them that we're never coming back, but decided that we needed to be more prepared to do that. It will happen- just not sure when.

To sum up our trip, it was just the most amazing place with the nicest people, most beautiful places, and stunning landscape. I thought Australia was beautiful... until I arrived on the South Island of New Zealand.

Pictures coming this week. Have lots more going on during this month, so I'll make sure to keep you all updated on here.

Planning a trip to NZ??? Just let me know and I'll give you a good month and a half of traveling destinations!

Love,
A