Day 13

We started out this morning for a visit to Tunnel Beach. We went at 8am, so we had the place all to ourselves. It seems as though nobody starts to wake up around here until at least 9am. Tunnel Beach is beautiful (that's it in the picture). Then we spent the rest of the day out on a tour of Otago Peninsula to see the wildlife – especially the albatross and penguins. We also saw lots of seals and sea lions. The penguins were so cute! Now were just getting organized since we leave for home tomorrow. We may venture into Auckland for a while during our long layover, since we haven't seen any of the city except the airport. We are sad to go, but I know one of us (who will remain nameless – ha!) is very excited to see kitty Chloe :)

Day 12

This morning we woke up on the boat and had a nice breakfast, had some more cruising in Milford Sound, then we were on our long drive to Dunedin. After we got out of Fiordland National Park, the drive was pretty uneventful. Looked a lot like Minnesota, but with sheep instead of cows. We finally got to the other coast, got a little beach walking in tonight, dinner, and now we're just relaxing with some wine before our last day in NZ! In the picture of the waterfall, that's Josh in the all black outfit on the front of the boat getting soaking wet :)

Day 11

Today was amazing! We had a 5 hour drive from Queenstown to Milford Sound. The drive was beautiful – we made a lot of stops. Once we finally got there, it looked just as pretty as all the pictures I've seen – only bigger than I even imagined. I was totally in awe. We had a couple of hours to walk around the area and take (a million) pictures. Then we got on the ship for our overnight cruise. The took us out into the sound and the boat was able to take us right up about 10 feet from the waterfalls because only a few meters from the mile-high peaks, the water is already 800 feet deep. And some dolphins came right up to our boat and were following us around! Then we anchored for the night, and were able to take some kayaks out for a little exploring – that was neat. We had a really nice dinner with an Australian couple that were really funny – they were both doctors and telling us we had better hurry up and start having kids! Then we went out on the boat deck in the complete silence and pitch black to watch the stars – we were the only boat on the water, and the nearest town is 100 miles away – it was so neat!

Josh's Bungy Pictures

Day 10

Today was our adventure day in Queenstown. We booked a paragliding flight at 9am. We were worried we wouldn't be able to go because at 8am it was still raining, but it cleared up just in time to go! We took the gondola up the mountain, had a 15 minute hike up to the top, then they hooked us all up. We stood about 10 feet from the edge of the cliff, and he said, “ok, run!” So we took off. It was a nice beautiful flight down until he decided to start doing some high speed spirals – yikes. I screamed the whole time! But we had a perfect landing and got some great pictures. Josh and I were both feeling a little sick after that, so we took a little break before we went out to the bungy. We were going to tandem jump, but I totally chickened out. So just Josh went. It was fun to watch him. He just got right up to the edge, put his arms out, and jumped – no fear! I think I was more scared just watching him! He loved it of course. Then we went on a hike up the Queenstown hills, and now we are just getting ready for a big steak dinner – yum! Unfortunately, they don't have Josh's bungy pictures posted yet, but we'll try to post them ASAP – they're awesome.

Day 9

We woke up today with more rain, no power, and started our drive to Queenstown. I've never seen it rain so hard for so long! If it would rain like that back home for 2 hours, the whole city would be flooded! Luckily here, people have drains in their yards to funnel the water away – I thought that was quite interesting. Our drive was supposed to be 5 hours, but it took us about 8. It was pouring rain, we were driving through the hairpin turns in the mountains, there were huge waterfalls crashing down onto the highway, and there were several new rushing rivers we had to drive through (probably not very smart). I was pretty sure we were going to die one way or another! The 2 pictures are of the rushing water we drove through, and another of some of the debris on the road. Luckily, we finally made it here to Queenstown. It's very pretty – no more rainforest, just pretty mountains. And we are booking some adventures for tomorrow!

Day 8

Today was the day of our big Glacier Adventure. We arrived at the glacier guides building and were very happy that our trip wasn't canceled. We got all our waterproof gear since we knew they were expecting rain, and got on the bus to go to the Franz Joseph Glacier. We hiked through thick rainforest up and down steep “trails” on the side of the mountain and in about 1.5 hours, we made it to the face of the glacier. It was pouring rain the whole time. It is so strange to hike through such dense rainforest and then suddenly come upon a huge glacier! The rain and wind were picking up, and the rivers that we had to cross were quickly flooding. There were huge waterfalls all over crashing down the sides of the mountains. So the guides had to cancel the trip up the glacier – bummer. Big bummer. The hike was amazing, but we never got to actually set foot on the glacier. It's good that they did cancel the trip, because we would've never made it back in a few hours time. The river was already very flooded - the guides pretty much had to pull us across the river, and our “trail” back had quickly turned into a waterfall about knee deep. The town is under a “heavy rain warning” - they are expecting 5 to 9 feet of rain (yes, I said feet) in the next 3 days – crazy. So now we're just going to spend the rest of the day in the hot glacier pools and do some laundry. And maybe book our bungy jumping for Tuesday!

Day 7

Today we took the Tranz-Alpine Train from Christchurch to Greymouth. I have never been on a train before, so I was pretty excited. The ride was 4 ½ hours, and was so beautiful! The ride took us through the plains, then through the mountains via Arthur's Pass, then down to the west coast. The first part of the ride was just flat farmland, then we hit the mountains, then went through a 5 mile long tunnel, and came out the other side to lush rainforest. We got to take lots of pictures from the outside viewing deck – it was freezing and the smell of exhaust was choking, but it was so pretty out there! Then we picked up a car at the train station to start our drive to Franz Joseph. We made a stop at the Tasman Sea – really neat. Black beaches again, and very rough seas. We then had another beautiful drive through lots of mountains and rainforest – the vegetation is so neat and very thick (you would love it Kelsey!). We are now in Franz Joseph – it is super windy and supposed to rain heavily tomorrow, so we hope they don't cancel our glacier hike. They get around 21 feet of rain here a year, so they said unless it is coming down in sheets, we should be ok!

Day 6

Today we watched the sunrise, then had a 3 hour drive to Christchurch. Christchurch is a very English town. Feels like we're in England, not NZ. It's Poppy Day today (we think maybe it's like Veteran's Day?) and it's also college graduation – so everyone had their poppy pins on and there were graduates parading through the streets. We walked through the Botanical Gardens, got some caramelized peanuts, did a little shopping, and had lunch/dinner at another great GF place – yum. The rest of the day I think we're going to relax and drink the rest of our New Zealand wine! We will be out on the glacier for the next 2 days so we may not have internet.

Day 5

We left very early to drive to Kaikoura. We had a beautiful coastal drive and right at sunrise, we came to an amazing black sand beach that we had all to ourselves. After our stop there, we made our way to Kaikoura. We spent a couple of hours on the Cliffs of Kaikoura Peninsula hike. The picture is of Josh and I there – it's amazing because the snow-capped mountains come right out of the ocean. We also got to see a seal colony, but they were not so happy to see us - Josh got a little too close and they let him know very loudly they didn't want him there! After the hike, we spent the afternoon whale watching. As you can see by the picture, we did get to see a sperm whale. The boat took us about 10 miles off the coast where the water was already 3,400 feet deep. I was looking and feeling pretty green after the ride, but it was well worth it.

Day 4

This morning we took a couple of short flights down to the south island. And guess what?! I have no luggage AGAIN! I can't believe it. Air New Zealand managed to lose my luggage twice in 3 days. They tell me it's going to be here by 8:30pm – right . . . Anyway, so now we are in Blenheim. We spent our day driving out to Queen Charlotte Sound and had lunch and some wine out at the wineries. Queen Charlotte Sound is beautiful! The drive was a little scary though – all those hairpin turns are even scarier on the wrong side of the road. And there are so many wineries here – you just drive past miles and miles of solid vineyards. We stopped at a little place for lunch and some wine – and everyone here seems to have a gluten free menu for me (just another reason we shouldn't come back - haha). There was a cute little kitty that hung around our table that seemed to really like my salmon. I made the mistake of giving him a piece, and then we couldn't keep him away from us! The picture is of Josh and I under the grape canopies.

Day 3

Things are looking up! We got up at 4am (yay jet lag!) and the sky had cleared up. We made our way to Starbucks for some coffee and blogging, then it was on to Wai-O-Tapu Thermal park. It was my first adventure driving – no crashes, but I just can't seem to remember that the blinker is on the other side of the steering wheel, so every time we turn, the wipers go on – haha. I'm sure the kiwis get a good laugh out of that. The Thermal Park was really neat. The smell of Sulfur was overwhelming, and everything was steaming, boiling, or some crazy color. And upon return, my luggage was in our room – Hooray! Then we hit the town on foot. It is autumn here, so the leaves are starting to change. We saw Lake Rotorua, shopped at the Jade Factory, and had some GF pizza at Hell Pizza. It was much better than the Chicken flavored potato chips I had picked up for a snack earlier in the day! We spent our evening at a Maori Concert and Hangi (feast). We were picked up in a large bus, and we were the only Americans. We learned about their culture, they did warrior dances, and then had the feast. We sat by a few British people and listened to them talk about all their vacation time and holidays that they take - maybe we need to move to England?

Day 2

Started with 14 hour flight from San Fransisco to Auckland. We got on the plane and it looked brand new – nice high ceilings, new chairs, etc. And luckily, the plane was only ½ full, so we had the row of 3 to ourselves so we could at least stretch out a little. I got 2 really good gluten free meals, watched “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button”, and played lots of games. Unfortunately, I only got about 1 ½ hours of sleep total – there was a toddler on the plane that screamed almost the entire time! Not that I blamed him, I sure felt like screaming 12 hours into that flight too – yikes. We also hit some pretty nasty turbulence. But we finally made it. Went to get our luggage – no luggage for me :( Apparently my luggage is in Hawaii and won't be back until Wednesday. And when we got our car and got outside, it was pouring rain. Josh was understandably tense as we were on very little sleep and he had to drive for 4 hours in the downpour on the wrong side of the road! Definitely not the smoothest start to our trip . . . So we spent the rest of the day navigating the city, getting some clothes for me, and soaking in the 100 degree geothermally heated pool outside our motel. And we got some huge burgers at BurgerFuel with gluten free buns for me – yay! We also had a good laugh at Warehouse (the NZ Walmart) walking through the “Manchester” section?? and dodging little birds flying around the store. Quite entertaining.

Day 1

We flew from Minneapolis to San Fransisco. We had a 7 hour layover in San Fransisco, so we decided to get the heck out of the airport and see something! We took the BART downtown and walked all the way out to Fisherman's Wharf (ok, so it wasn't THAT far, but it felt like it because of the enormous hills we had to go up and down!). So we saw the Golden Gate Bridge, Alcatraz, some street performers, and lots of bums.
Josh's favorite part was when we were walking through Chinatown and he was the tallest one around – haha. We got all the way out to the Pacific, spent about 20 minutes looking around, then had to turn around and go back. Oh well, much better than sitting in the airport anyway. We got back in time to have a couple glasses of wine, then got on the plane!