New Zealand's South Island: Wekas, Fjords & Spaceships

Arriving in NZ after immediatley enjoying Cafe Latte and all of the fresh fruit and non-dehydrated dairy products that we could handle, we headed out of Christchurch for our first backpacking trip. We hiked 15 miles (30 miles rt) up to some remote hotsprings and soaked our sore muscles on the Copeland trek. It follows a large glacial river up a steep valley whose sides are full of dripping ferns and lush, thick brush. GREEN is the first word to come to mind, a welcome contrast from the WHITE of Antarctica. On this trip we saw several of the native wingless (flightless) birds, Wekas. They look like a chicken with turkey legs and a pointed duck bill, minus wings. Pretty cute little guys.

We then traveled from Fox Glacier down to Queensland and set off on our second trek, the Routeburn. This trek has spectacular views of glacial lakes and snow capped mountains. On both of our treks we had encountered quite a bit of rain, and a few sunny blue bird days. On our final day on the Routeburn we had to change plans and hike out a differnt way due to torrential rains, a record breaking rainfall day, in the rain forest, you can only imagine the intensity!

As beautiful as the fjordland rain forest area is, we decided to cut and bail, head North to the sun of Golden Bay. We rented a spaceship (bright orange campervan!) and went rock climbing overlooking the beach, walked barefoot in the warm sands and went surfing.

We are now in Sydney Australia where we have been checking out the local art museums and the Sydney harbour area. Today we will fly off to Thailand, and hand out on the beaches near Krabi and do some more rockclimbing and lots of snorkeling. Then perhaps head North to the Chaing Mai area and do some hiking up to some of the mountain villiages...... we will see .....we are playing it by ear....

Unfortunately the digital camera died with no hope of revival. We do have Nate's camera and we will take slide photos and some regular rolls, from these photos we can get some digital copies in April when we return home. So, these are the last photos for you while we are on the road. Enjoy!