Ice Ice Baby

We’ve moved down the west coast quite a bit since we last wrote! The highlight of the past week was visiting the Glaciers – they are really amazing and unique, with rainforests growing right next to them, and they also are quite active – they move 1-2 meters a day! There are two major glaciers, Fox and Franz Josef. We decided to do Fox because it is less crowded and the tour busses, which we avoid like the plague, tend to go to ol’ Franz. The towns themselves are incredibly small and everything is shockingly overpriced (a red onion set us back a few dollars!), but the glaciers make it worth it. We did an all day hike which was awesome – we had a great guide who was really into exploring the glacier, and we got to see some really wicked ice terrain, including blue ice! We went through a couple ice tunnels and through some crevasses and learned to use our crampons pretty quickly! (our feet were tired at the end of the day from stomping down on the crampons so you don’t slip) We’ll put some pictures up so you can see it all, its hard to describe, but if you ever come over to NZ, definitely do a glacier walk!

We decided to drive down the coast a little bit after that, and forego staying at a crappy holiday park in Fox Glacier. We were in the middle of no where so our sleeping options were limited and we ended up camping near this lake, which was pretty but unfortunately absolutely over run with sand flies (which are like mosquitoes, only tinier so they are harder to swat, and give you horrible itchy bites – basically the devil with wings). So, after we squished the ones in the car one by one with our thumbs, we were trapped in our car by 8:30 b/c trying to stay outside with them would make you go insane. Needless to say, it was an early night!

Now we are in a town called Wanaka, which is somewhat close to Queenstown. We are staying at this great hostel (probably our favorite one so far) that overlooks the lake and mountains and have had a good “day off” in preparation for Queenstown, which is known as the Adrenaline Capital of NZ. We’ll let you know what we get up to there - as long as we live to tell the tale…

p.s. – we have a new member of the family that has joined our dashboard: may we introduce Count Sparkle-Tongue. Don’t let his dashing smile charm you – he is an evil lord that steals other people’s feet and eats them to seek revenge for the loss of his own foot… Thanks to Takaka’s charity shop for our new adoptee!

down souf'

So, we have made it down to the South Island now! Since we last wrote, we had the briefest stint at Wwoofing known to man – one day. We decided that the lack of an accessible toilet after 9pm and the fact that we weren’t guaranteed a shower after work, plus the fact that we weren’t really being fed in the true meaning of what wwoofing is supposed to be about. Given that these were all the things we were supposed to be getting in exchange for working, we decided to leave. Given this we cut our time in Wellington short so we could keep on moving and see what all the hype about the S. Island was about. But, before we left, we fit a good drum & bass night in – it was nice to have a good night out in a city! We really liked Wellington a lot – there’s a lot going on there, especially compared to the rest of the cities in NZ, so we may head back there when we settle down and get jobs eventually…

We ferried our Gerald (car) across quite early in the morning, along with some confused cows that kept sticking there heads out over there containers and checking out the ocean… it all must have been very traumatic!! So we arrived in the south at Picton and promptly made our way over the twisty roads to Nelson, passing by many apple orchards that brought back some painful memories! After a blustery few days in Wellington, summer seem to back amongst us in Nelson… We explored the town and enjoyed our luxurious hostel that included a swimming pool, spa pool, sauna and volleyball court. Anywho, we soon got back on the road and headed for our next Wwoofing spot… in Motueka Valley. We stayed here for 5 days with a slightly intense German family of 5. Their children, ages 16, 12 and 10 were a little crazy, bar one of them (the youngest), which literally fell in love with us (as we’re sure she does with all their wwoofers). While we were there we completed such tasks as grubbing, apple picking, hazelnut picking and …. wait for it…. window cleaning!!! Wahoooo! Sarah however got to skive off from work for a couple of mornings as fortunately the mother of the family (who was also very nice) ran her own little clothing company, and she just loved having Sarah go into her workshop with her and help out! Apparently one of the garments Sarah actually worked on has now been sold at market – way to go!!! So after a few crazy days, lots of family and especially sibling arguing, and a little too many games of Monopoly… we decided to leave (yet again!).

We headed up the coast towards Golden Bay, and the very north western point of the south island. Here we had the chance to do a quite spectacular horse trek that took us onto Wharariki beach (one of the most beautiful beaches). The 3 hr trek caused many a hurt bum, but it was worth it as we got to canter across the beach, even Gary had a go, despite his disobedient (or just plain lazy) horse, Flick. The views were stunning and the rock formations on the beach were so interesting and unique! So after this we went back the way we came and headed towards Abel Tasman National Park. The next day we headed out on a 3 day kayaking trip that involved weaving in and out of the many many bays of beautiful white sand and amazingly calm, clear waters (especially considering it was the ocean!) We camped out for two nights and constantly fought off the pesky sand flies for 3 days straight. We enjoyed amazing weather pretty much the whole time we were there (sorry Carly) and we finally camped out properly in our tent and got to use our camp stove!!! Wooooo!! Highlights on the water included the baby seals and the two seal colonies we paddled up to. The seals were so playful they were swimming all around us and even bumped into our kayak at one point. They had the biggest, cutest eyes in the world… a look only ruined when they got grumpy and started squealing bloody murder, like a dinosaur, to be fed!! So after spotting some huge fish in the marine reserve area, and a stingray that frightened the hell out of us while swimming close to shore, we safely made it back without tipping over the kayak once!

So since then we returned to Nelson for the Farmer’s market (which Sarah loved) and ate Penguino’s gelato (the best). After stopping over on the way, and enjoying a pre-Easter Roast Dinner (ummmm!!), on Easter Sunday we visited the Pancake Rocks and spent the rest of the day relaxing in drab Greymouth! We’re about to move onto the Glaciers, which should be lots of fun… so we’ll try and update this after then!

Booyakasha for now (and happy easter!)

at the bottom of the north

hey everyone!
so we're in wellington right now and we are very much enjoying the city life after many ventures through the tiny towns of new zealand. since we last wrote on here we have been very busy as always.. man the unemployed life is hard! so adding to what sarah wrote about the beginnings of our travels (she missed the best bit!) we have so far been from auckland, to tauranga, to opotiki, to rotorua and then to taupo. we enjoyed the wondrous experience of zorbing in rotorua, which for those of you that aren't familiar, it involves two of you getting in a huge blow up ball at the top of a big hill, they throw in some water, and you roll down! although it sound kind of mental, its so much fun, and we recommend anyone to try it.



so after that we had a great time in taupo... we treated ourselves to some nights in a hostel, and went kayaking to some maori carvings on the lake. we also did the tongariro crossing, a 16km hike that goes through a number of active volcanoes including mt doom from the lord of the rings. the hike was quite hard work at the start, which included a steep trek up what is known as the devil's staircase. the winds were absolutely crazy high up and the conditions were verging on gale force, but we held on and the decent was pretty easy going... (we're experienced hikers now). unfortunately a lot of the views during the day were ruined by the bad visibility levels which was kind of a bummer, but we still completed the walk though!

so after almost doing a sky dive but it being canceled due to bad weather, we moved on to napier and hasting. although our journey was no less than traumatic. we had half a tank of gas when we left and hoped to pick up some on the way, but there were no warnings that there wouldn't be one for the 2 1/2 hr stretch to napier. being slightly worried about our situation, and finding we were on empty very quickly, we proceeded to coast most of our way down there, and fortunately made it, finally! so we stayed at a really friendly hostel, where we camped out in their yard. (oh did we mention we acquired a tent in taupo from some leaving travelers, how nice) we were in napier with the intention to stay for a couple of weeks as it was APPLE PICKING SEASON!!! needless to say we got ourselves a job and started on our third day in the town. after 2hrs Sarah had had enough, and after another 2hrs I had too, so when we worked out how much we were getting paid vs. how much of a blag it was, we upped and left and hitchhiked our way back home to the hostel. we then found out later that day that some guy broke his wrist after falling of a ladder, so we were relieved our career in apple picking is now over! (we lasted 4 1/2hrs). so after partying a little, oh and enjoying the art deco architecture to its fullest in Napier, we left for the bottom tip of the north - capital city, wellington!

so far we have had a great time. it seems that wellington, unlike much of new zealand has actually caught up to rest of the world and has lots to keep you entertained. we have done some gallery visiting and there's an arts festival on too at the moment which is great. we have also given Gerald (our car if you've forgotten) some love in the form of 4 new wheels and a wheel alignment. apparently our wheels were getting pretty dangerous, oops, but all is good and smooth now. so we're planning of sticking here for a day or so more, then we're going north a little to do some Woofing (working on an organic farm) for a week or so. and after that we're going south for more adventures.... so we'll keep you posted on our progress.

also we have had to move our photographs to snapfish coz flickr wants to charge us to put them up there so sign up and you can view our photos, plus its much easier to view slideshows on there!

feel free to comment on our blog by the way!!!

bye x
gary (and sarah too)