"Beauty and grace are performed whether or not we sense them. The least we can do is try to be there." Annie Dillard
The South Island of New Zealand is breathtakingly beautiful. Jagged snow capped peaks, water ways carved out by glaciers and ancient forests grace the landscape. Like its sister island the hillsides are dotted with sheep. A variety of birds flood the sky. Seals & penguins can be spotted on rocky ledges basking in the sun, while bottlenose dolphins swim up for a closer look. Crystal clear glacier fed icy blue lakes are everywhere. There is a never ending surf that pounds the coastline. The south island is magical.
Tramping the Queen Charlotte and Abel Tasman tracks turned out to be quite the adventure. It always sounds easy during the planning stage from your comfortable living room. After renting backpacks, sleeping bags, cooking gear and packing a large amount of food for Mike including rotisserie chicken, we were off to our first of three huts, only to realize that these packs were really heavy. Four hours later and pretty darn tired, we made it to our first hut located on the beach, a wonderful spot n spite of the relentless sand flies. Between early morning tidal crossings, 35 kilometers of tramping, stopping to enjoy the views and a water taxi ride out we had an amazing, if not exhausting experience.
Queenstown, a beautiful mountain community situated on lake Wakatipu was the start of hours of decision making... should we bungy, 4 wheel drive, white water sledging or sky dive just to name a few of the activities. After consulting the local experts at the I-Site we settled on Funyacking/ jet boating on the Dart River, a day cruise on the Milford Sound, and an overnight cruise on the Doubtful Sound both are fiords. In the process we got to do a wee bit of kayaking, take an icy plunge in the Sound, and be surrounded by the most amazing scenery.
While there are not many people on the south island we managed to meet a few. In Nelson there was Rae & John, friends of Lisa in Brisbane, who made us a wonderful dinner and shared stories of their extensive travels all over the world. On the Abel Tasman we met a couple, about our same age from British Columbia, who sold it all and have been traveling on and off for the past eight years, very tempting. We had such a good time with Elsa and Yugo, our adorable, Portuguese bunkmates on the Doubtful cruise, we are now contemplating adding Lisbon to our itinerary. Finally the two 20 year old hitchhikers we picked up from the Netherlands who entertained us from Lake Tekapo to Geraldine with their stories of hitchhiking and tramping all over NZ. One of the absolute highlights of traveling is meeting amazing people from all over the world.
One last tidbit.. NZ. introduced Possums to controll the Stoats which were intoduced to control the mice and rat population, arriving with Capt. Cook, all to save the native birds like the Kiwi. Today NZ has 80 million Possums and a declining bird population. Not very effective pest control.
SHOUT OUTS;
Hobbs, The Embassy for notorizing was brilliant! We love you too.
Jessie, The package was the best!
Hannah, Five weeks and counting!
Our Friends and family, We miss you all.
The South Island of New Zealand is breathtakingly beautiful. Jagged snow capped peaks, water ways carved out by glaciers and ancient forests grace the landscape. Like its sister island the hillsides are dotted with sheep. A variety of birds flood the sky. Seals & penguins can be spotted on rocky ledges basking in the sun, while bottlenose dolphins swim up for a closer look. Crystal clear glacier fed icy blue lakes are everywhere. There is a never ending surf that pounds the coastline. The south island is magical.
Tramping the Queen Charlotte and Abel Tasman tracks turned out to be quite the adventure. It always sounds easy during the planning stage from your comfortable living room. After renting backpacks, sleeping bags, cooking gear and packing a large amount of food for Mike including rotisserie chicken, we were off to our first of three huts, only to realize that these packs were really heavy. Four hours later and pretty darn tired, we made it to our first hut located on the beach, a wonderful spot n spite of the relentless sand flies. Between early morning tidal crossings, 35 kilometers of tramping, stopping to enjoy the views and a water taxi ride out we had an amazing, if not exhausting experience.
Queenstown, a beautiful mountain community situated on lake Wakatipu was the start of hours of decision making... should we bungy, 4 wheel drive, white water sledging or sky dive just to name a few of the activities. After consulting the local experts at the I-Site we settled on Funyacking/ jet boating on the Dart River, a day cruise on the Milford Sound, and an overnight cruise on the Doubtful Sound both are fiords. In the process we got to do a wee bit of kayaking, take an icy plunge in the Sound, and be surrounded by the most amazing scenery.
While there are not many people on the south island we managed to meet a few. In Nelson there was Rae & John, friends of Lisa in Brisbane, who made us a wonderful dinner and shared stories of their extensive travels all over the world. On the Abel Tasman we met a couple, about our same age from British Columbia, who sold it all and have been traveling on and off for the past eight years, very tempting. We had such a good time with Elsa and Yugo, our adorable, Portuguese bunkmates on the Doubtful cruise, we are now contemplating adding Lisbon to our itinerary. Finally the two 20 year old hitchhikers we picked up from the Netherlands who entertained us from Lake Tekapo to Geraldine with their stories of hitchhiking and tramping all over NZ. One of the absolute highlights of traveling is meeting amazing people from all over the world.
One last tidbit.. NZ. introduced Possums to controll the Stoats which were intoduced to control the mice and rat population, arriving with Capt. Cook, all to save the native birds like the Kiwi. Today NZ has 80 million Possums and a declining bird population. Not very effective pest control.
SHOUT OUTS;
Hobbs, The Embassy for notorizing was brilliant! We love you too.
Jessie, The package was the best!
Hannah, Five weeks and counting!
Our Friends and family, We miss you all.
I have anxiously been awaiting another blog and my wishes were answered. Actually today I looked at your pictures and noticed new ones had been put up but no blog to to go with. As always the stories are great and the pictures are amazing. Although I am going to give a little bit of advice that the sideways peace sign is pretty much out of style, and you will look more cool doing the straight up peace sign (I am sure mom has much practice doing this sign from her hippie days). Looking to forward to actually being in the pictures with you 2 cool kids in only 33 days !!!!!!!!!!! MISS YOU SO MUCH (which I know you are well aware of) and LOVE YOU to the moon and back
ReplyDeleteWhat Hans doesn't know is that a real trend setter does the peace sign sideways, and you two are real trend setters, espeically with Dad in a tank top. So glad the package arrived safe and sound, Hope you were able to find every one of those peanut M&M's out of the bottom of the box. As always I love the blog, it brings so much joy to my mornings, and I love getting to see your shining faces. I can hardly wait to be there with you where, we'll tear up Thailand.
ReplyDeleteLots of love, hugs and kisses from Colorado to you.
Jess
P.S. Hobbs and I have been reading the Toa Te Ching, thanks for leaving it, its amazing.
Hi Guys, sounds like your having fun. Mike, Bob Z & I just won the Bldr Older, sure miss your platform game!!!
ReplyDeleteI get so excited when I see "BLOG ALERT" in my in box! I really enjoy reading your posts and looking at the pictures of all of the beautiful places you have been! If I could only do a fraction of what you guys have been able to do . . .
ReplyDeleteLove and miss you both!
Michelle
Hola mis amigos preciosos. Here I am in Guatemala and I didn't know the blog site. But I met an Israeli woman,30 years old, and she was setting up a blog on your site !!!! So now I just read your latest, saw your beautiful faces and burst into tears. Just love you!!! Que les vaya bién
ReplyDeletejan
and the adventure continues! great pictures guys. we're going to miss you at thanksgiving this year, but we'll be ready to skype with the whole family (hopefully you'll find a savvy internet cafe in vietnam with a fast connection.) looking forward to seeing you guys in January! let me know if i can bring you a knish from nyc (or a rice ball from Tokyo- I'm stopping there for a night on the way!) love ya, lee.
ReplyDelete