truly a 'great walk'

So after our Kepler bad weather adventure, we were hesitant about our final multi-day trip here in New Zealand... especially when we saw the forecast said more rain. Boo! But we were already scheduled to do the Routeburn and by golly... we were gonna do it come rain or shine.



I'll admit it. Josh picked a good one. The first day was rainy and cold, but by day 2 I was in a tanktop and shorts... just perfect clear blue skies and beautiful scenery. It was 1/2 the distance of Kepler... only 32 kilometers - chump change :)... so it was somewhat of a stroll for Josh and I (man - we are such hiking pros now...) but a breathtaking stroll at that. It was 3 days, 2 nights and the 2nd hut we stayed at had an incredible set up - hut on a lake underneath snow capped mountains - in the hot sun, sunbathing and reading - man. That's paradise. Anyway - it was a great hike and a wonderful way to end our multi-day hiking career...

day 1 = cold...

last day = wonderful!

just because...

This is a traffic jam in New Zealand...

Kepler... edited...

So apparently You Tube didn't like that Josh was smoking his pipe in the last Kepler video we posted... so we've taken out those "scenes" (Josh - such a smoker!) and reposted for you to view on a rainy day... enjoy!

wait... it's christmas??

Merry Christmas!! I'm not going to lie, it doesn't feel like Christmas here - not necessarily the weather, but I mean the "feel" of it, you know? In the states you probably can't walk around in town without hearing the sound of carols playing in the stores, cashiers saying "Merry Christmas", or even the fake painted on snow and santa hats galore... here, there's nothing. No wreaths, no hats, no "Merry Christmas" - nothing. Weird, huh? Even when we go to a store and say "Merry Christmas" after we've paid and are on our way, the cashier replies with "Cheers"... as opposed to "same to you!" "Merry Christmas!" or even the politically correct "Happy Holidays"... nadda. But if you think about it, all the Christmas carols and all the western world images associated with Christmas don't really fit here... dashing through the snow? No. baby it's cold outside? No. snow and mistletoe? Nope... so it's definitely a different vibe here, but we're soaking it up.

We decided long ago that we would join our British friend Dominic for Christmas... he has been working in Franz Josef at a hostel for the past couple weeks and will be here through April. Franz Josef is known for its huge glacier just up the valley... so in order to have a white Christmas, we hit the ice and did a full day hike.



It was so neat being on the glacier - so white yet this glowing blue. Don't get me wrong, a good part of it was super dirty, but for the most part it was just gorgeous. We got to get our campons on - those spiky things that attach to your boot so you go anywhere on the ice -and let me tell you, those make you feel powerful when you walk! You can step on just about anything and not slide... plus you have to stomp to make them work so it makes you even more like a powerful giant overcoming this massive piece of ice...

So we had a white Christmas afterall... and we hope that wherever you are - cold or hot - that your Christmas is wonderful. Have YOURSELF a merry little christmas... xoxo

flash me back...

Flashback to Akaroa... the cute French town on the South Island... oui! oui!

come rain or shine...

So Josh and I did our second multi-day trip -- the Kepler Track. Now. This was the trek that I saw pictures of online BEFORE we came to New Zealand and I said, "I don't really care what other hikes we do, I just want to do the Kepler at some point..." So when we were back in Auckland a couple months ago we booked it for this past week. We had to book far in advance because these "great walks" fill up very quickly. The problem with that is that the weather here in New Zealand is totally not predictable... except that it is unpredictable. So, the morning we woke up to do the Kepler Track we saw nothing but dark grey clouds and raindrops on our windshield. The lady at our hostel told us you just have to commit and do it once you signed up for one of these hikes and assured us that it would still be just as wonderful... just a different kind of wonderful... which, in the end and looking back... it was.

We started off on our adventure and it was wet. Very very wet. But by the time we made it past the bush line it wasn't too bad and was quite pretty actually. Cool grasses/fields overlooking the fogged over lake. The hut was really nice - warm fire and great views.

The next day was the bummer day - this was the day you walk about 4 hours on the mountain ridge line - totally exposed with incredible views... all we saw were clouds clouds clouds. It was slant raining, so the left side of our bodies were soaked and it was a LONG 4 hour hike on the ridgeline followed by another 2 grueling hours of steep downhill switchbacks... so it was a long day. We were to be camping that night but once we heard there was room in the hut and an option to upgrade, I made Josh do it (thanks dad - I told him "Would my dad want his only daughter to sleep in a cold wet tent after 6 hours of hell???" I'm one for the melodramatics. :)).

The 3rd day - the last day of our hike - was blue skies. OF COURSE. Curses! It was our longest hike (about 15 miles out) so we were thankful for the sunshine but come on - one day earlier would have been nice. Needless to say, we still had a great time and we just saw a different kind of awe-inspiring beauty... mine was beauty through pain (my knees are killing me!) and Josh experienced beauty through playing survivor man... he made it through and kept me alive. Good job husband! :) Next on the list - the Routeburn Track. Like 1/2 the distance but more ups and downs... forecast = sunshine (HOPEFULLY)...

flashback - yet again!

While we're out tramping it up, we thought we'd send a little video love... this is a flashback to our kayaking trip at Abel Tasman with Dominic... enjoy!

the three tramps... i mean trampers...

So one of the things my dad mentioned that he wanted to do in New Zealand was go on an overnight camping trip... where we hike in, camp, and then hike out. So that we did. After our cruise we picked up some supplies, packed up the ol' backpacks and headed out near the starting point of the Doubtful Sound send off. It was a 3 hour or so hike in and then we were to stay at a hut named Hope Arm hut. It was situated on a lake and we ended up sharing it with a Dutch/Kiwi family. They had 2 sons - 18 and 16 years old - that were super into hunting and fishing.. and that they did. They went out and shot themselves a deer that night and caught a trout earlier in the trip. A little different than the 18 and 16 year olds in Santa Barbara, eh?

On the second day of the trip we took a different route home that took about 4 hours and crossed over a 3 wire bridge - meaning it was 2 wires for your hands and 1 wire to walk on... all over a raging river... well, not so raging, but definitely a river.

That wire crossing was followed by a very VERY muddy trip back to the water taxi area... it had rained during the night and mucked up the trail we ended up taking back to the start. Our boots/bottom of the pantlegs were filthy. But we made it and were tougher because of it. That dad - he's hardcore! It was back to Queenstown for some laundry, showers, and pizza. Yes Please!

don't doubt me!

So after our jetboating and rafting we just couldn't get ourselves away from the water... time to cruise on down to the fiordland to get on a cruise. We made our way down to Doubtful Sound for an overnight fishing cruise - the weather was perfect! This particular region in NZ gets over 6 METERS of rain a year... and the 2 days we were there it was blue skies with a few perfectly placed clouds. Just gorgeous!

Doubtful Sound is supposed to be the most pristine of all the sounds... less touristy than most because you have to take a water taxi across the lake to a bus that will then take you to the sound... so you can't just drive there yourself. Josh puts it at the top of our NZ trip... and I'd have to agree - it's definitely up there. So great!

We got to the boat with 9 other guests - we had lunch first thing... fresh lobster caught that very morning! We carried on with the cruise seeing all the sights.. waterfalls and crazy steep mountains and dolphins and not a whole lot of other people or boats. It was awesome. That afternoon we went fishing for dinner... all of us caught fish - Josh catching both the largest and smallest fish (the hook was longer than the fish was!). Before dinner we pulled up a few more lobster traps and watched Chris (the skipper) fillet the fish and lobsters. It was a hell of a trip. Amazing. Absolutely a highlight.

Now - the video's long, but worth it -- so pretty!

the adventure continues...

So today's adventure was water focused... we were signed up to do some jetboating (where they go super fast up and down the river and very VERY close to the rocks), then helicopter into the top of the rafting site, and then raft down the river... pretty James Bond, huh?

The jetboating was fun... Josh snuck on the Flip for you all to see what it was like - naughty naughty! but you'll get the general idea - super fast, cutting it close, and lots of spins and splashes.



Next onto the helicopter and then rafting... they call it heli-rafting here. The helicopter ride was SO GREAT. You get to wear fun ear covers and he dodged and ducked through the canyons to get us there. The alternative was a crazy windy and scary drive on a bus towing the rafts... no thanks!



We got to the place, did the quick safety report, and then took off... our guide's name was Orion and he was crazy... but fun. There was one point in the trip where we were going down some pretty crazy rapids and were knocked by another boat, filled with water, Orion fell out, and then we got wedged in between rocks... we then ALL (all 8 of us) had to get to the very back of the raft and nearly tip over so Orion could unwedge us - he said the trip was epic and the best he'd had in awhile... so we got our money's worth!

Overall a wonderful day... it's so fun having my daddy here... he's wanting to do all this crazy adventure stuff and taking Josh and I along for the ride... so fun! Tomorrow down to fiordland for fishing and hiking... more later...

who's your daddy?

My dad's here! He made it to Queenstown... by the skin of his teeth. After his flight from Phoenix to LAX was delayed more than 2 hours he had to RUN from terminal 1 to terminal 4 to catch his flight about 7 minutes before it was going to take off... but alas. He's' here!

We've had an eventful time so far... but it's all been planned around the big event... skydiving. My dad had said that he would want to go skydiving while here BUT one of the requirements to jump out of a plane (aside from insanity) is to weight 100kgs or less... that's 220lbs. My dad, one month ago, weighed 230ish. He's a tall guy but really fit so he thought he could do it... and he did! He made it down to 102kgs and that's just about the cut off. So since he's gotten here we've eaten salads and gone on hikes and done all this healthy stuff so that we could get him in the air. FINALLY the big day comes. It's sunny and we have a reservatioin about an hour outside of Queenstown. We leave the condo and head out there. We arrive and find out it's too windy and they've cancelled all their afternoon jumps. Curses! Screw it - we're having pizza...

We call ahead to book one for the next morning. A little pizza didn't hurt anyone, right? We'll the NZSkydive company would be the one to decide that. They had an opening at 7:30AM this morning and we took it. We woke up to sunny skies and drove out to meet our destiny. We got there and they had to evaluate the over 100kg-er. They decided he was good to go and so we were off! My dad and I went in the first plane and Josh kindly took the 2nd plane so his wife and father in law could freak out together... lucky him.

What a trip... or as my dad would say "What a kick in the butt!" - my dad jumped from the plane first and as soon as I saw him go I thought to myself "Holy crap... my dad just jumped out of a plane... my mom is going to kill me." But as you can probably guess, both our shoots opened and my dad had a blast (and so did we of course...). Can you believe it?? My dad skydove -- who's your daddy now? :)

view from our condo...

dad and i at the top of the gondola after a hike to shed some kgs...

riding down the gondola...

before he took his leap of faith...

we did it!

more catlins pics...

most southern lighthouse in the world...

josh and the horny... uh... i mean male sealion...

cathedral caves... oooh... spooky...

two bad ass surfers...

the bluff... we made it from the cape (top of New Zealand) to the bluff (the farthest south)... we did it!

crazy catlins.

Lions and tigers and bears! Well... more like Sealions, Caves, and Surfing, oh my! Our weather wasn't the best in the Catlins, but we managed to squeeze not only a few hours of sunshine, but also a few adventures.

Day 1. We made our way from Dunedin to the Catlins. A beautiful drive with rolling green hills and jagged coastline. We found our way to the southernmost lighthouse in the world and then to a beach chop full of sealions. Well, maybe just a few males fighting over a couple females, but nonetheless, move over national geographic! We saw it first hand!



Day 2. This was a rainy rainy day, but we still had much to do - so onward we went to Cathedral Caves - some 30 meter tall caves right on the beach. We had to wade through to get in (FREEZING!), but it was pretty cool.



After the caves we arrived at our hostel -- a note on the door said "Audrey and Josh - hope this is ok, but we have some friends that wanted to take over the whole hostel so you can stay at our beach house for the same price." and then an address. We're thinking "Sweet! Beach house all to ourselves!" but when we got there it was THEIR house... so not as glamorous as we thought, but still pretty fun to live with a kiwi couple. That night - surfing lessons! We did great if I do say so myself! We both got up quite a few times and had a lot of fun trying... we were head to toe in wetsuits so we were warm... and hot if you know what I'm saying.



Overall - Catlins = good. Until next time!!

looking back... on the memories of...

So we've made it to Queenstown with my pops and as we sit and look at the beautiful surroundings, we've had some time of reflection... and we decided it's time to get you up to speed. So the last we met (or posted), we talked about our time in Dunedin... sorta. Here's a more detailed account:

Made it to Dunedin. Gorgeous city with a lot of old building and much character. Josh stopped to take a picture of every old cathedral/castle and Emilee and I told him he wasn't going to know what to do with himself if he ever made it to Europe. That said, it was Josh's favorite city so far.

We made it to the Cadbury Chocolate Factory and it WASN'T like Willy Wonka... No oompa loompas or nothin... what's up with that? But it was fun because of the free samples and beard guard that Josh had to wear.


Post chocolate we made it to the Speight's Brewery Factory (at least we had our priorities straight, huh?). Very informational and pro-beer tour. I mean PRO-beer. They made us watch a 4 minute long Rocky theme-song video of someone opening and pouring a beer. You would have thought it was someone getting ready for the Olympics, but no - it was beer. What can I say - they like their beer here.


The next day we made it to the world's steepest street... move over San Fran - the true winner is in Dunedin. Go figure. We just happened to be there at the high school lunch hour and 4 boys were timing themselves to see how fast they could ride their bikes down this hill... with ONLY a helmet on. It was the MOST crazy thing I've ever seen. If only their mothers knew what they were up to! BTW - they clocked themselves at 91 kilometers per hour - that's like 55mph... on a bike... with only a helmet... down the world's steepest street. Boys.


That night we made it up to Oamaru which is know for their penguins... rare yellow eyed and the small blue. Both were really cool. We saw the yellow ones first and they come RIGHT up to you and then waddle away like old men. Super cute. The blue ones come out after the sun goes down (which here is like 9:30PM currently) and they come out in droves! They come out of the water and just walk through the city. They sleep under the buildings, in boats, in bushes, etc... so everywhere you walk you see these tiny blue penguins cruisin the streets. Unfortunately they're too hard to take pics of because their fast, you're not supposed to use a flash, and it's dark but they did have "Penguins Crossing" signs!

That was about it for Dunedin... onto the Catlins...

soon and very soon...

So Josh and I made it to the Catlins and are now in Te Anau. The Catlins were fun - full of sealions, penguins, scenic driving, camping, and surfing (yes, surfing)! Pics to come. We soon to head to Queenstown to pick up my dad... pretty exciting travels he had with delayed planes and just barely making his connecting flight out of LA... yikes! Many pictures and such to come - here are a few from Dunedin to tide you over. Until we have free internet again, the posts will be short but sweet... but we hope you enjoy!