A few photos I added to finish out our journey. Erin could not get them downloaded, so I (Sheila) took a stab at it.

Moeraki boulders

Lake Wakatipu

Lake Wakatipu

Sheep near Glenorchy

Glenorchy

Queenstown

Nugget point lighthouse

There he is returning from his long day at sea!

Penguin Place

Larry, the penguin I saw at Allen's beach. (Erin named him)

Harbour Cone on the Otago peninsula

Harbour Cone on the Otago peninsula

Moeraki boulders

Moeraki boulder and Erin

I got splashed! Erin just laughed!

Erin with her friends.

Wellington Harbour famous statue (and Erin)

It is Saturday morning, we are at Erin's apartment in Wellington.  Erin was trying to download some pictures yesterday, but was unsuccessful.  She will try again today.  Just a brief update since our last entry.  She did put pictures on facebook, though.

My last entry was Wednesday morning.  Wednesday was kind of our day to relax.  Erin stayed at the hotel pretty much all day, read her book and did this wooden balancing penguin game/puzzle that we got at Penguin Place.  In the morning, I drove to Allen's beach on the Otago peninsula (just a 10 minute drive on a gravel road).  This beach had signs indicating that the Yellow-Eyed penguin sometimes hung out there.  It was a huge beach, at least a mile long.  There was a rocky shoreline to the left, where I saw several sea lions sunning on the rocks.  To the right was a long beach with grassy bluffs.  Because I like walking on the beach, I started walking.  There were no other people on the beach.  About one half mile down the beach, I spotted a yellow-eyed penguin sitting on the bluff.  I got within about 10 feet of him, and of course took some pictures.  The yellow-eyed penguins are molting at this time of year, and when they are molting, they stay on land all day.  It is quite rare to see penguins on your own.  Usually you will only see them when you go on the tours, because they have private protected habitat for the penguins.  I was pretty excited about it, but felt bad that Erin was not along.

Later after we had lunch, I drove to the Albatross Center.  The albatross is a large, fairly rare bird, that uses this area as a nesting ground.   There is also a lighthouse in this area (the one that Erin took a picture of when she was in Dunedin earlier).  I did see one albatross flying overhead.

Thursday, we left the Otago peninsula about 9:30 am. and drove toward Christchurch.  We stopped at several lookout points along the way.  A very interesting place is the Moeraki boulders.  They are a collection of very round large boulders along the shoreline, with interesting lines and shapes in them.  We also stopped at Omaru, which has a tour for the little blue penguin.  They however were not offering tours that day.  We arrived in Christchurch airport at about 5:00 pm, dropped off our rental car, checked our luggage, and walked over to the Antarctic Centre.  Christchurch is the stopping off point for all flights to the Antarctic. The center has information and demonstrations about the Antarctic, but it also has live Blue Penguins!!  Of course, that is why we went.  We then flew back to Wellington at 8:20 pm.  We got to Erin's apartment about 11:00 pm.

Friday we slept late, Erin did laundry, and we walked to the Museum of New Zealand down by the harbor in Wellington.  This is a very large place, with everything you want to know about New Zealand.  We only saw about half of the exhibits and then got tired.  We walked to the grocery store to buy Erin's next week of groceries, and then proceeded to walk back uphill to her apartment.  This is a long difficult climb!!

My plane leaves today, Saturday, at 4:00 pm.  I will arrive in Mpls at 9:30 pm Saturday.  That doesn't sound bad, 5 hours!

Bye for now.             Sheila

...

FINALLY back in Wellington

Penguins

It is Wednesday morning and I am sitting in a little cafe on the Otago peninsula by Dunedin. We do not have internet in our motel. Yesterday we drove from Te Anua to Dunedin(Otago peninsula). This area is a little less mountainous. It is more of a farming/grazing land. They say that New Zealand has about 40 million sheep. I believe that we have seen at least 30 million of them!! They are everywhere!! We stopped at a lighthouse along the coast at Nugget point. I got to see my lighthouse!! We arrived at Dunedin/Otago peninsula and went directly to Penguin Place. We were able to book one of the last tours of the day. We saw many Yellow Eyed penguins!! Of course, Erin was excited!

Today is another bright sunny day. Hope everyone is well.

Bye for now.

Sheila

It is Tuesday morning here. Yesterday, Erin went bungy jumping and lived to tell about it!! She jumped off the Nevis Bungy, which is the highest in New Zealand and one of the highest in the world. Basically, you take a cable car out across a gorge. They have a little station set up out in the gorge, which you then jump off of. She has a little video of it that she might post. While she was jumping, I drove the car from Queenstown to Glenorchy along the lake. Very curvy, windy road. Beautiful also. That seems to be a common word for me lately. The weather was sunny and nice. After Erin returned, we drove from Queenstown to Te Anau, about 2 hour drive. We went to the Te Anau Glow Worm caves. Unlike Erin's much earlier blog about Glow worm caves, we simply walked into the cave and took a small boat (we did not army crawl and rapel down waterfalls). Glow worms are only located in New Zealand. You are not allowed to take pictures of the glow worms, because they do not like light.

Today, Tuesday, we are driving to Dunedin area. Dunedin area has many penguin colonies, so this is our main goal for the next two days. The sky is clear and sunny again today, but a little cool, probably about 58 degrees.

Bye for now. Sheila

Yup

Mirror Lake on the road to Milford Sound (which technically isn't a sound, it's a fjord). Mom was more than slightly obsessed with this lake; I will admit, it is kinda a neat pic

The typical brochure/postcard view of Milford (do a google image search of Milford Sound and I guarantee that about 85% of the pictures will be of this view)

Some seals taking a nap in the Sound

The boat terminal is just around the corner; this was as we were coming back in to land

Today (Sunday) we went on our Funyak Safari on the Dart River near the town of Glenorchy, and boy does the name sure live up to itself; it sure was fun...! Glenorchy is on the top of the Wakatipu Lake (Queenstown is right in the middle) and is the location of many movie/TV/commercial scenes. Lord of the Rings, Chronicles of Narnia, and the new Wolverine movie are just a few that had scenes filmed here.

Awwww...Mom and I standing in front of some pretty

Blowing up the FUNyaks!

The peak in the upper left corner was used in a quite pivotal scene in Lord of the Rings; I was excited

Off to Te Anau tomorrow to see the glow worms; oh, and I'm going bungy jumping, at the highest jump in New Zealand...eeek!

Peace

Saturday Milford sound

Our Milford Sound tour was a long one.  We got picked up at our motel in Queenstown at 6:30 am.  The bus ride to Milford Sound is four hours one way.  It was a beautiful drive.  Erin slept most of the way of course.  We stopped at a couple of place along the way.  Mirror lakes was just as it sounds.  The reflections in the lake were wonderful.  Great photos.  Our cruise at Milford Sound was about two hours.  We had quite a bit of sun, with fog mixed in.  We saw dolphins and seal. There were a lot of little waterfalls down the mountain because of the rain the previous day.  It was very beautiful.  The ride home was quite long.  We did watch a movie for the last two hours.   I have not included photos today because Erin is leaving now to meet her study abroad friends (who also happen to be in Queentown) at a bar where everything is made out of ice?!   We will post some photos of Milford Sound tomorrow.  Bye for now.      Sheila 

Los Photos

Howdy all,

Here we are, the pics you were all waiting for, maybe...ok, it's the pics that mom has been wanting to put up since we left on Tuesday.

So, now it is Friday evening and we got to Queenstown about 3 hours ago; we ate supper (tea, as the Kiwis call it) at "The Cow" which was a pizza/pasta place. Not sure how that relates to a cow, but whatever, it was delicious, and the garlic bread was ginormous!

Tomorrow we go on our Milford Sound tour, which by some tourists companies is considered the number one tourist destination in the world, so it's a pretty big deal apparently...!

Here's a low-down of our last few days in photos:

Here is Mom's interpretation of the Marlborough Sounds, as we came over on the ferry on Tuesday morning

A representation of my feelings driving a car, on the left side of the road, with the wheel on the right side; I still turn the windshield wipers on whenever I try using the blinker, and I accidentally drove for about half a block on the right-hand side of the road in Franz Josef before Mom screamed and I realized my mistake...oops!

Lake Hotoiti, and some duckies

Mom on New Zealand's longest swing bridge in Buller Gorge; some little girls got on it and started jumping up and down and Mom almost soiled herself (I think the bridge scared her a bit)

OF COURSE I had to stop and get my picture taken with this sign! Sadly, we saw no real penguins at that time; it was kind of dark out, if you couldn't tell

So, like the last post said, we REALLY wanted to climb the glacier, but it was POURING out! They canceled the trip :(    It was raining in a rain forest, imagine that

Instead, we went to the Hukawai Glacier Centre and learned all about glaciers, how they're formed, and anything else you would want to know. Also, Hukawai has the only indoor ice climbing wall in the Southern Hemisphere, pretty sweet, eh?! Naturally, I had to try it; I figure I enjoy rock climbing, so why wouldn't I like this as well? It was fun, and really tiring, AND I even made it all the way to the top on my first run (the second I didn't because Jono, my belayer, decided that I needed to try an overhang...he had too much confidence in me)

Since we couldn't go on our Franz Josef Glacier, we went down to the nearby Fox Glacier. We couldn't get any closer to the terminal face than this because that trail was closed due to a rock/ice slide, but it was pretty awesome nonetheless.

Today (Friday) on our way to Queenstown; the day started out pouring rain again, but as we went further south, the sun came out and Mom started making me pull over at every single stop so she could take pictures. There was a lot of pics to choose from, so we only picked a couple for your viewing pleasure

On the way to Queenstown, we were going to stop in a town called Wanaka to get some lunch, and right before the town we discovered this fun thingy called "Puzzling World" and we ended up spending about 2 1/2 hours there, and only got ice cream for lunch, but it was a good trade-off. The Puzzling World was a place full of optical illusion things and a giant maze that took us about 1 1/2 hours to get through! 

The photo above; is it an illusion, or is she really taking a dump with some Roman dudes in a giant latrine? Hmmm...?

Flippin' sweet clock tower that I had to hold up (it wasn't that heavy obviously) that counts time backwards

Another one of Mom's MANY pictures....ooooo. how pretty

Ok, done for now; have to get up early tomorrow to go to Milford Sound

Peace.

Yo

Still don't have good internet access; Mom hopes our next hotel will have it so we can put up pictures, we'll see.

Yesterday we made it to Franz Josef, however, all the glacier tours were booked for the day, so instead we drove to the Fox Glacier and wandered around there. Then, Mom tried driving the car.....which was slightly terrifying (I think that she'd agree). Went to Lake Matheson, which is supposedly famous for it's reflections of Mt. Cook and Mt. Tasman. However, due to the fact that it was extremely cloudy, all we got was a reflection of the dark clouds.

Today we were supposed to have our glacier tour, however, it has been raining ALL day; probably about 5 inches already and it's only 2:00pm. So, now we're actually sitting in the Hukawai Glacier Centre, waiting for my turn to take a whack at ice climbing; Mom says she didn't think she wanted to try....I think she would have been fine, and I wanted to be able to laugh at her.

Ok, pictures (hopefully) tomorrow.

Peace.

Wellington to Greymouth

Hi. We do not have the ability to post pictures at the hostel we are staying at in Greymouth, so this brief posting is being made by Sheila. We got up quite early at Erin's apartment. We left Erin's apartment at 6:55 am and walked uphill, then downhill ,pulling our luggage, about one half hour to the ferry shuttle station. This then took us to the Inter Islander ferry. The ferry ride is 3 hours long. Erin took a nap inside the whole time. Sheila stood on the top deck, outside in the vicious wind, for most of the ride. It was beautiful and I took MANY photos! Once we reached Picton about 11:30, we picked up our rental care. Erin drove the whole day. She thinks she is quite a pro at this driving on the left side of the road! We made our way to Greymouth, with several stops along the way. We finally reached our destination at about 7:30 pm. We will include a few of these photos when we have internet access in our room. Bye for now! Sheila

Spring Break '09...ahhh, I mean, Mid-Trimester Break '09

Howdy.

Well, it's been exactly 2 months since I left for New Zealand and it's already halfway through the term. Last week was the start of, what I keep accidentally calling Spring Break, which it's not because it's not spring here, it's fall, which is kind of important for the whole "spring" part of Spring Break. Anyway, Mom got here today and we're leaving bright and early in the morning for our South Island adventure! Hooray! I went and picked her up at the airport, dropped all her bags off at my place, and went and wandered around Wellington. We walked downtown and I showed her the hoppin' Cuba St/Courtenay Place area, rode on the wonderful cable car, and explored the Botanic Gardens. Soon after we got back, Mom proceeded to fall asleep on my bed for the next 3 hours until I woke her up with my excellent and gourmet spaghetti. And now, she's sleeping again...   :)

For those of you that may care, or may not care but are reading this anyway, this is home-sweet-home; my flat is down these stairs on the bottom floor of the house.

And here's the front/top floor of the house.

Yippee!

There's this giant tree in the Botanic Gardens that I decided to climb; the view from the top of the city below was pretty awesome...!

Here's Mom in the Gardens overlooking the city/harbor, posing in a typical tourist photo

So, here's a rundown of what I did my first weekend of break; a group of 6 of us girlies went down to Abel Tasman National Park which is right on the top of the South Island on the coast. We wandered around the park for a few hours, and it was beautiful, just like everything else here. 

Beach at low tide...really low tide apparently

A pretty awesome shot of a beach with the snow covered mountains in the background

We also stayed one night in the town of Nelson and hiked up to the geographical center of New Zealand, from which this lovely photo was taken

We took the ferry over again, and this picture was taken on the beach in Picton looking back at the Sounds, very similar to an early picture that I have posted, but the sun was just shining so nicely on the water, I had to post this one as well...!

Now, prepare yourself for this next part; I still can't believe that it happened/I did it. It was an incredibly spur-of-the-moment thing, and Abbie must have some amazing persuasion skills because somehow, someway, she talked me into jumping out of an airplane....yeah, jumping out of an airplane, and I got pictures to prove it too for those that wouldn't believe I could do it. So, this little adventure consisted of flying up 13,000 feet into the air, jumping out, and free falling for a full minute before the parachute was deployed, which occurred at 5,000 feet. Therefore, during that free fall, you reach a terminal velocity of 120 mph. Seriously, still can't believe I did it, but I'm glad I did because it was Amazing! Probably not something I'll do ever again, but amazing all the same. I did almost soil myself too many times to count before, during, and after the experience, and there are many pictures that captured the terror on my face, which are really entertaining to look at now, after it's all done with.

Also, Abel Tasman was probably one of the coolest places someone can go skydiving; there is the ocean and beaches on one side of you, snow-capped mountains on the other with rivers winding through, and to make it even cooler, the sun was setting when we went which made everything that much prettier!

A shot outside the plane just before we jumped

Me pretending to not be scared shitless on the plane ride up with my tandem dude Simon (obviously we had to jump strapped onto someone else that actually is a pro at this kind of thing...a.k.a. someone completely out of their mind!)

Also, he was pretty cute, which made it all that much better.  :)

On our way out

The view on the way down...I'd say that's gosh darn pretty if you ask me

Probably about to soil myself, judging by the facial expression; Simon is obviously nuts

Right after the parachute was deployed

Coming in for a landing

Yeah, there you have it; I'd say it was a successful start to break. 

Peace.