We Saw Lots of Seals!
Westport, New Zealand

Just a quick update; we went back to see the pancake stacks during high tide. It was interesting to see the large swells sweep into the caverns, and then shoot up sprays. There is an area called the chimney top; when the waves below are strong enough, the pressure created sends out a huge mist out the top, just like a chimney would spew out smoke. It was quite neat.

Interestingly enough, we meet up with Lucy and Karolina again. New Zealand is a small place! Since then we've driven up the west coast, and stopped by to see the seal colony just 12km SW of Westport. It was very amazing to be there. I counted at least 60 seals either sleeping on the rocks, or swimming in the cove. Many of them were very young pups; some were still milking. We spent quite a long time there just admiring these cute creatures. The little ones had darker fur, and the older ones made funny noises now and then. It was a fun time. Still heading up to Nelson tonight, and tomorrow morning, we have an appointment for bone carving!

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More Adventures Through New Zealand
Punakaiki, New Zealand

I last left off with us visiting the Otago Museum in Dunedin on the 14th. On our way south, we stopped off at Nugget Point where we saw many seals sunbathing down below. Just a few minutes off at Roaring Bay, we spent an hour watching yellow-eyed penguins swim ashore and waddled up to their burrows. Somehow we had not expected them to be sleeping up on the clift, amongst such green shrubs. They were certainly very cute when they get off the water; they almost look like little men running up the sand.

A Hooker's sealion also came up on shore, and some of the penguins swam around waiting till it was safely out of the way before they headed up. It was a very exciting time for us. That evening, we camped at the Parakaunui Falls, down south in the Catlins Region. We went to sleep to the sounds of waterfalls and went for an early morning walk to visit the falls the next day. We walked through lush green forest before reaching the multitiered falls. Winston successfully captured a 'neutral density' effect of the waterfall so that was quite fun (you'll have to ask him about what that means if you want to know, but it has to do with the pretty still white colour of the water).

We enjoyed the day touring the very south of New Zealand that day. We saw many beaches, visited a petrified forest (million year old forrest fossil in the sea), walked to the most southern point of the island (South Slope), and passed a sea lion sleeping on a path at the Waipapa Lighthouse. We had dinner in Invercargill before stopping for the night at Riverton Rocks.

It is incredible the number of sheep, deer and cattle farm around this island. Everyday we see countless of them; some of the sheep have their wool sheared, there are different breeds of cattle, and how weird to see deer in large numbers behind fences when we're used to seeing them in the wild at home.

The next day was a long day of driving up to Milford Sound with a stopover in Te Anau to make arrangements for our sea kayaking trip. The drive up to Milford was very beautiful; beautiful lakes, valleys and mountains accompanied us. When we made the turn towards west, there was an instant change in the weather. Milford Sound is one of the wettest areas in this country. The area receives between 6 to 7 m of rain a year! Needless to say, it was cool, grey and misty and we drove downhill all the way towards the sound. What was incredible though, with all the rain, is the abundance of waterfalls everywhere.

Imagine this: huge rock clifts on both sides of the road, as far as the eye can see. Soaring waterfalls, pouring down the side of the clifts, everywhere you turn your head. At one point, I counted more than 30 waterfalls with just one view. It was absolutely incredible, and it would be difficult to look at ordinary waterfalls again.

We spent the night in our van parked at the Milford Sound Lodge, where we got to enjoy their warm facilities. Early the next morning, we were picked up for our kayaking trip. We turned into 'purple people' as they called it. In other words, purple jacket, skirt, paddles, and gloves. It was pouring rain all day, and of course, we got quite wet out in the kayaks. But what a neat experience, paddling on the waters of the fiord, and again, witnessing amazing waterfalls.

After a warm shower and lunch back at the lodge, we headed back towards Te Anau and then changed direction up towards Queenstown. We arrived late at night and camped by the side of a lake just before the city. We woke up to a beautiful morning, with blue skies, and a calm lake with wonderful reflections of the autumn leaves and mountains.

The drive into Queenstown was absolutely gorgeous. Not only did we drive up along a beautiful lake, there was also a river completely lined with yellow leaved trees. Queenstown is indeed in a very scenic setting; water, mountains and sun. We didn't stay too long in town; we spent a good deal of the afternoon on Deer Park Heights, a site filmed in all three of the LOTR movies.

I'm not even going to attempt to tell you the scenes that were filmed here; Winston might be able to do that. However, I can tell you that the scenary from the top was amazing. It was also fun that there were a ton of animals in the area. We passed by wooley sheep, goats came running up to the car looking for food, donkeys stuck their entire heads into the car, bisons walked by, deer with large antlers, and some giant black furry pigs (I can't remember the name) were feeding by the side of the road.

That evening, Winston checked us into the Milestone B&B so that I could wake up nice and warm in a cozy bed the next morning (my birthday). We enjoyed a splendid steak dinner at a nearby pub; we watched the meat cook on a stonegrill right on our table (nice and hot). Our room was very elegant and comfortable, and the next morning, I had a huge birthday breakfast. The proprieter Betty, served us more food than we could eat. There was cereal with fruits, tea, toast, pancakes, bacon, eggs, sausages and tomatoes. Very yummy indeed. The B&B is in a beautiful setting, with a large garden decked with waterfalls, benches, and gazebo. It is definitely a great place for weddings.

We visited nearby Arrowtown with its beautiful fall colours, and spent some time in the Chinese Mining Settlement. As it was in the States and Canada, Chinese miners came over in the 1870s to mine for gold. Next we stop by to see people bungy jump off the bridge over Kawarau Gorge. This was the site of the original bungy jump in New Zealand, and is in a beautiful setting. The water in the gorge is a deep turquoise green. I still don't understand the appeal of bungy jumping, nor do I plan to try it.

For those who have watched LOTR, we drove along the gorge, where the Pillars of the Kings was filmed. It is indeed a spectacular setting, as it was in the movie. Along the river, we stop to watch a couple of people kayak down grade 5 (near imposible) rapids. It took a while as they had to walk down the side of the river first to check out the rapids, then head upstream to get into their kayaks. They started with 4 paddlers, but only two ended up doing it (successfully!).

We finished off my birthday in Wanaka, at the Puzzle World. There were holograms, illusions, puzzles, and a giant maze to do. We drove late into the night and spent the night at Lake Matheson, up by Fox Glaciers on the West Coast. In the morning, we signed up to do a helihike on the glacier. At noon, along with 7 other travellers, we got into heavy boots, and got ready for our helicopter ride up the glacier. The flight was quite fun, there was so much to see everywhere. We flew up above roads, rivers, farms, and then along the clifts of the mountains and over the glaciers. We didn't even notice the other hikers on the glacier itself till we were ready to land.

The glacier itself is huge. We can't see over the top nor the bottom of this thing. After putting on cramptons, we followed our guide Matt for our 2.5hr walk. It was actually quite easy walking on the ice, for not only did the cramptons help, it had also been sunny all day so the top surface of the ice had been melting. We were warm most of the time, in sunglasses. We stopped by many caves, and crawled through some of them. It was very wet inside the caves, as they are constantly melting. In some cases, we had to crawl just to get through it. It was all fun. The glacier ice is a beautiful deep blue; hopefully you can see it in some of our photos. By the time the helicopter came back to get us, it was also quite cloudy, cold and windy. We were all very excited when we got back to town.

We drove up towards Hokitika, and spent the night parked by the beach. At 11pm, the moon was so bright that we could see all the driftwood on the beach, and the huge white waves crashing along the shore. It rained all day yesterday. We spent some time browsing through some of the jade shops in town, had a wonderful breakfast in a cafe with a wonderful teapot collection, then stop by at the Just Jade Experience.

We ended up spending 10 hours here, with Gordon the jade master, and Lucy and Karolina, our jade making partners. First, we each come up with a design, then Gordon carves out our pieces for us. By the time he finished all four of our pieces, it was already pass 2pm. The next 4 hours were spent polishing. We went through rubbing sticks, and 6 different types of sandpaper before finally getting our pieces buffered. Whew. What a long day, but how satisfying to be going home with jade pendants that we had each help design, and polish. It was a ton of fun.

We spent last night here in Punakaiki. This place is famous for their 'pancake stack' soap structures out by the sea. We did a walk around this morning, and sure enough, the stone formations are all in layers, really like stacks of pancake. However, high tide is not till almost noon, apparently the best time to view the area with all its blowholes. So I'm making use of this time to finally get updated after a yummy breakfast of muesli, fruit and yoghurt. We're heading up towards the Nelson area by tonight (we hope). We would like to do some bone carving while we're up to, but we'll have to see if there is any availability.

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