Two drifters off to see the world. . .

Since the last post we have done alot! We drove down to Christchurch to meet Andrea, my friend from work in Halifax, and her boyfriend Paul who flew in a few days earlier from Northwest Territories. Along the way we stopped in Kaikoura where we saw hundreds of seals lounging on the rocks at the side of the coastal highway which was really neat. We then spent one night in Christchurch before heading out the next morning with Andrea and Paul, us in our van and them in their campervan, to tour the South Island. We drove down to Oamaru to try to see some blue penguins and yellow-eyed penguins to no avail. They apparently don’t come to shore until the evening so we didn’t stick around, plus it cost about $30 to see them. So we then went on to Dunedin. Eero and I went to the grocery store and Eero got recruited for a scavenger hunt in the store. He had to find a number of female toiletry items and then he won some new socks, which he needed, a ballcap and a Speight’s Beer jumpsuit. We have photos which we will be posting of him in his suit. He then ripped it later that evening at the campground when he caught a duck.

The next day we hightailed it out of Dunedin and drove down through the Catlins. We stopped at Nugget Point for a quick hike to see the nugget shaped rocks and some more seals. We also stopped at Porpoise Bay to try to see some dophins but there were not to be seen but the views were spectacular regardless. We did alot of driving that day by ending our day in Te Anau, the gateway to Fiordland. It was a nice town with the 2nd biggest lake in NZ, about 64km long and over 300m deep. We stayed at a nice campground where I got to chase a possum around that was eating the tree next to our van. The next morning we drove up to Milford Sound. The drive up there is very scenic. Once there we tried to to book our boat cruise for the next day and also a twilight kayak trip that night but the kayak trip was a no go since they only had room for 3 of us. Instead we went on a boat cruise of the sound that evening. It was a great cruise. There were only 15 people on our boat so there was plenty of room to get away from people. Eero and I went out to the lower front deck where everyone thought was windy and wet since the upper deck was but it was great. So the 4 of us had the best seats when we got up close to the rocks to see the sleeping fur seals. It was gorgeous weather, which is good considering it rains about 300 days a year there and they get about 6-7m a year of rainfall. After talking to one of the guys running the boat we decided the kayaking wasn’t worth it and we would save our money to do it elsewhere. We stayed at the only Milford campground where we got eaten by sandflies which are similar to blackflies. The next morning we drove back down to Te Anau where we had a leisurely lunch by the lake before driving to Queenstown.

On the drive to Q’town we stopped in Kingston in the afternoon at a beach on Lake Wakatipu, which is the largest lake in NZ, 84km long and about 400m deep. We got to Q’town last night and went to Fergburger after checking into the campground for dinner. Their burgers are some of the best any of us had ever had. Then we wandered the town checking out the beach and shops before settling in at a bar for some drinks. Then we decided to try to make some money at the casino. They had 2 cent machines which I lost about $4 on, Eero broke even and Andrea and Paul won about $8. We also saw some huge eels in the shallow water off the waterfront boardwalk that Eero decided to pet. Today Eero and I decided to go bungy jumping. We figured if we are going to do it once we may as well do the biggest one here, so we did the Nevis jump which is 134m high. There were 17 jumpers all out in the jump pod which is suspended by cables over the Nevis river. They jump by weight so Eero went 5th and I ended up 2nd last even though they made me go last. It was a great time even if it didn’t last very long. We got a DVD of the jumps so we have prook we did it. We might even try to post it somehow for eveyone to see.

Well I think that is about it for our update. We have also added some more photos.

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