Day 28

Drove from Mount Cook to Christchurch.  Rain all day.  Final photos posted here.  Back to Auckland tomorrow and home the following day.

Day 27

Good day today.  Excellent weather.  In the morning did a boat tour to the Mount Tasman glacier.  In the afternoon, the much cancelled Tasman Glacier heli-hike finally happened.  And it was worth it.  Perhaps some star gazing tonight.

Sorry about the lack of photos.  Most wifi isn't fast enough to upload photos and I'm saving the little data I have left on my phone card for other stuff.

I've uploaded a few today.  All photos are here.

Coincidence, fate or .......

Since our heli-hike was cancelled yesterday, we went on a 3.5 hike to a glacial lake.

As a preface, I need to mention a lovely couple from the Czech Republic that we met on our overnight boat trip to Doubtful Sound.  They were supposed to be on a different boat with a large group travelling together, but there wasn't enough space so they got bumped to our boat.  We sat together for meals and talked to them quite a bit.

Anyway, we're hiking yesterday and run smack into them again.  The series of events that allowed this to happen were extensive:

1. They had to be the one couple out of their whole group that got bumped.
2. They had to get bumped to our boat, out of a choice of a few.
3. We both had to end up on the opposite side of the country at the same time.
4. Our Franz Josef heli-hike had to be cancelled.
5. Our Mount Cook heli-hike had to be cancelled.
6. We both had to choose this particular trail, out of about 8 choices.
7. We had to be on that trail in the same timeframe.

Coincidence or fate or .....

Day 26

Drove up to Mount Cook today.  Nice weather most of the way, pretty warm.  Uneventful drive except for a stop at the Elephant Rocks.

The scenery in and around Mount Cook is beautiful.  Mountains, valleys, rivers, glaciers.  There is no town, although they call it a village.  A few places to stay and a couple of places to eat.  As you can imagine, the places to eat are priced accordingly.  The buffet dinner at the Hermitage, which is the biggest place to stay in Mount Cook, the buffet dinner - I repeat - buffet dinner is $63.  You get the idea.  We found a place which wasn't cheap, but was more reasonable.

Today, which had very nice weather for most of the day in the village, we were scheduled to do our previously cancelled heli-hike from Franz Josef.  We had rebooked it for Mount Cook.  You guessed it - cancelled again.  Bad weather up on the glacier apparently.  So we have rebooked again for tomorrow.  This is our last chance.

Tonight we were to go stargazing, but to no one's surprise, it also was cancelled.  Cloudy and raining.  Tomorrow is fully booked, so that's out as we are gone off to Christchurch after tomorrow.  Maybe we can venture out and see something on our own.

Day 25

Before leaving Dunedin, we visited Signal Hill, Baldwin Street, and the Orokonui Ecosanctuary.  It was very foggy looking down from Signal Hill, but was still a good experience.  Baldwin Street is indeed very steep, but only locals can drive on it.  We didn't feel like walking up it, so we just looked.  The sanctuary was very good.  We had an extensive look and visit with four Takahe birds, saw a couple of Kaka parrots and a large blue eyed longfin eel.

We drove to Oamaru.  On the way we stopped to see the Moeraki Boulders, which are really quite amazing.  Oamaru is a very funky town with a lot of great old buildings and interesting shops.  It's worth a visit.  Just don't arrive on a Saturday or Sunday because nothing is open.  They actually have a toy store on the main street that is open Tuesday from 10:30 to noon and Saturday from 10:00 to noon.  3.5 hours for the entire week.  Most stores close by 4:30 on weekdays.  Welcome to 1950.

In the evening we visited the blue penguin colony.  Cute little guys, but only saw 13 of them returning from a day at sea.

Big day tomorrow.

Day 24

Long drive today to Dunedin.  Showers on and off, but it turned into a nice day by the time we reached Dunedin.  Visited the Dunedin railway station, the Settlers Museum and the Chinese Garden.  Apparently Fridays are some sort of cruise night for the classic car owners and we watched them parade by for about 20 minutes.  Lots of neat old buildings in Dunedin.  Very hilly city.

Day 23

Today we did a boat tour of Milford Sound.  It's a 2-3 hour drive there and about the same to get back.

But it's worth it. You've never seen anything like it.  The day was drizzly on and off for most of the day, but that made the experience even better.  Waterfalls everywhere you looked.  Hundreds of them.  Big, small, tall, short.  Fantastic.

I'll post some photos, but I'm sure they can't convey the spectacle.

Before dinner we went to the local movie house and watched a half hour aerial documentary of this area.  The area is Fiordland National Park.  Quite good.

Day 22

We didn't get back from the boat and finish lunch until about 1:30 PM.  We did find time to do another 4 hour hike, but that was it.

If you read the Day 20 post, it originally had the wrong hike posted.  It is correct now.

Day 21

Very special day today.  We did an overnight boat cruise into Doubtful Sound.  You drive for 20 minutes, catch a boat to ferry you across a lake (50 minutes), then take a shuttle bus for another 55 minutes to get you to the boat that you will spend the night on.

This was likely the best day so far.  The boat takes you up and back through several fiord arms of Doubtful Sound and reaches the Tasman Sea before returning.  The scenery is spectacular and the water was like glass.

Along the way we:

• Saw a couple of fur seal colonies.
• Saw a crested penguin.
• Went kayaking for about 30-40 minutes in the fiord.
• Fished (for our own dinner) a couple of times.
• Pulled up lobster traps and reset them (the crew, not us).
• Caught the following fish and/or birds:
• Scarlet wrasse
• Blue cod
• Tarakihi
• Barracuda
• School shark
• Albatross
• Watched the ship's captain have to dive and cut loose the lobster trap rope that had fouled the propeller.  

Michele caught (and lost) the shark.  Actually, she caught a wrasse and the shark swallowed it while she was reeling it in.  Same story with the albatross.  He was unhurt, as was the shark.  This brings her lifetime total to three of things she almost caught while catching something else.  In Brazil she caught a piranha that was then stolen by a hawk.

Lunch was a type of rock lobster caught in the sound.  The captain (who is also a lobster fisherman) says he gets 109 NZD a kilo. for it.  No idea what the retail price is, but geez....  Dinner was whatever we caught that day.  I'm not a fish guy, but the blue cod is very nice.

We slept in a bunk that was almost big enough for 1 person.  Cozy.

Anyway, we were gone for more than 24 hours in total and it was excellent.

Day 20 (with updated hike link)

Four days behind in posts.  Sorry.  Sometimes just busy, sometimes it's technical.

Day 20 found us driving from Queenstown to Te Anau.  Arrived early and did a 4 hour + hike.  Easy track, but a magical walk through a fairytale forest of moss, ferns and mushrooms.