Hey, everyone! Rob has helped us with the photos (apparently it's not just a "human error" problem, but, a blogger glitch...makes me feel a little better, anyway) ....so, if you're interested, just click on this URL: http://picasaweb.google.com/robert.erwin/HMSNZPicsSmall
I look forward to writing more another time, right now we are heading up to Glenorchy to pack our chocolate and other backpacking necessities to head out on the Routeburn Track in the morning....then, we're doing the Milford Track (where we hope not to get devoured by sandflies)...so, I hope to be in touch sometime.....let me just say that right now the sky is clear blue and you're all in our thoughts and hearts.
Oh, the Remarkables here in Queenstown are just that, too.
Love, Holly
Tuesday, February 27, 2007
To Paradise and Back Again
Hello. So a lot has happened since the last post. The most exciting thing for me since then has been a trip up to Mt. Cook, the largest mountain in New Zealand. We drove through a valley alongside an extremely blue lake all the way up to the base where we camped for three nights. The first night at the base we heard a huge crashing, and at first i thought it was a car backfiring, but it was actually avalanches coming down the mountains around us. Then the next morning I awoke to what sounded like cats screaming, but that turned out to be alpine parrots called Kias. One flew up on our vent at the top of the van where we could see it through the screen while we were lying in bed. They're green with red under their wings and they act like two year olds. They have been known to tear windshield wipers off cars and shred tents. Very curious about everything. That day we took a helicopter ride around Mt. Cook, and landed on a patch of snow. It was amazing! And so warm to be so high; I was wearing a tank top and perfectly comfortable. We flew over glaciers and looked for climbers summiting. The next day we hiked up a mountain next to Cook and had incredible views from up there. On the way down we went swimming in a little pond thing surrounded by snow capped mountains. Before Mt. Cook we drove to a town called Akoroa, a cute French town in a bay, which was actually a volcano crater that had filled with water. We spent Valentines Day there, so we made reservations to eat at a very authentic French restaurant. We were actually seated at a table with a few other couples because the place was sooo small. The menu was written on a board outside and the drink menu was a three inch thick folder full of spirits, wine, and beer. The food was very good and we were extremely full afterwords. One couple at our table we got to talking to and they told us that they owned a hostil a little ways out of town, and that we should come and have a walk around. So, the next day we went over there and it was the most beautiful and peaceful place with rolling hills where you could look out and see the extremely blue/green bay below. We went for a little walk, then layed down on a hill and listened to someone nearby playing the guitar. Holly wants to build her dream house up on one of those hills. Yesterday we went to Paradise (the name of an actual place) where a lot of scenes from The Lord of the Rings were filmed. We even met a guy who was going to be filming for the next Narnia movie, and he was around there scouting a location. Now we're in Queenstown, the adventure city of NZ. We went and watched people bungee jump off a bridge which was good fun. Highly entertaining. We also went to see the Blue Penguins, the worlds smallest of them all. They were so adorable! The parents were all coming back from fishing and when the chicks saw them they went running for their moms and dads, but when the parents saw the chicks they ran for it. We also saw the yellow eyed penguins, the second largest. they were very cool. We actually managed to miss our tour to see the penguins even though we were 45 minutes early. But we were in the van drinking a beer and suddenly our tour was gone, so we ran over there and asked the office where our tour had gone, and of course they told us they left already, so they just put us on a later tour. My birthday was awesome, we made sushi and had chocolate cake and ice cream for dessert. Tomorrow we'll be off tramping through the mountains. Hope all is well! Love you all!
~Mary
~Mary
Thursday, February 15, 2007
Zigzagging
Hi everyone! First of all, sorry about the photos not showing up....we will try to get them back up when we have access to a computer that accepts discs (I still use my 35mm camera).
Okay...where have we been? So much comes jumbling in that I hardly know where to start....We decided to title this post "Zigzagging" because we left Nelson on the northern tip of the South Island after going to the public beach cafe for some bangers and mash and headed to Kaikoura on the East Coast- well-known for it's sea wildlife. Well, we got about 20 kilometers north of town following a twisty road heading south along the coast bordered by steep hillside on one side and rocky, craggy Pacific Ocean on the other...nearing dusk (it stays light here til 10:00 PM!) and, spotting some fur seals on the rocks, we pulled over to watch...the van engine died and we hopped out to check out the seals, me saying over my shoulder, "I hope it starts when we get back." It didn't. I flagged someone down passing by (actually, they were on their way BACK to Kaikoura for gas, realizing they didn't have enough to make it to the ferry in Picton- this is a fairly common dilemma here on the South Island-you can really get into places with where there is very little inbetween- I love it. That's basically, how we ended up here in Akoara, but, that's another story.) So, I borrowed their cell and called AA (as it is called here)- the guy on the phone asked me for landmarks and I told him "not much other than some seals and u bunch of rocks". For some reason, he thought it was hilarious that I called them a BUNCH of rocks....hmmm...so, I asked him what he would call it and he said, "a whole lot of rocks" (I was guessing he wouls say "heaps" of rocks as everything here seems to come in "heaps"ie: heaps of fun, heaps of dolphins....and, that's what we had in Kaikoura. We went on a whale watch and saw a sperm whale and went on a seal swim and I'll always have this image of a seal swimming right up to me and looking in my eyes. Funny their eyes look brown on shore, but, in the water, they looked blue. We did this in the open water and it was a blast. The other cool thing was the "Bull kelp"- HUGE! I've never seen seawood so big. It's a small town, so we were able to walk everywhere. For dinner at an outdoor cafe, the waitress asked me, "Would I like a whole crayfish or a half a crayfish?" Coming from a childhood in New Orleans, I was thinking,"What would I do with a half a crayfish? I ordered a whole and out came a "Rock Lobster". It was delicious...and, quite good value for the money(another famous saying here). Ezy Rentals sent uyp a new van for us from Christchurch and we headed over Lewis Pass, stopping at Hamner Springs for a soak in the Hot Springs (nice to be on the other side of the counter :) and spent the night there. Then, on to Fox River where I was given a tip to tramp (hike) up to Hanging Ballroom (THANKS, Matt Drexel). That 2 hour hike turned into an 8 hour hike as we made 13 river crossings to get there (we counted them on the way back!)-so, that makes 26 roundtrip. You get the picture. It was FABULOUS! The water was a CLEAR clear, blue, or green. We saw Wekas along the way (a flightless bird that resembles a chicken, only all brown- it does have tiny wings). Oh, and we went up to these caves along the way...one was open to the public and, fortunately, I had my headlamp (thanks, Dad, for your advice to always carry a headlamp, water, sunscreen, and bug repellent- I forgot the whistle) so we explored...very cool. We also came across a hunter at one of the river crossings ( he had a gun and 2 dogs with him) who was carrying 2 legs of something...I asked him what he had, and he said he'd killed 2 goats. He gave us some landmark tips to get to Hanging Ballroom as there is no trail to speak of (and, we'd been told that the river had changed course fairly recently, also).And, told us if we saw blood on the rocks, no worries, it wasn't a freshly murdered tramper-ha-ha. Thanks for that bit of info. He was quite friendly. We got up to this idyllic little spot with a pool and a rockface covered in moss. We hung out a bit and then, headed on...Mary had to turn back for her shoes (again, we've discovered that tramping consists of hiking boots AND Tevas (or Keens) and, then, we heard the "bleating" coming from upon the cliff. When we looked up, we were devastated to see what appeared to be a baby goat. Oh....it was just like "Bambi" and our hearts ached. We'd call to it and it would call back. After some deliberation, we went on and actually found Hanging Ballroom which is a huge rock overhang. We were grateful that we chose to do this as a dayhike because the sandflies were intense. (the right word is actually INTENSE). Mary discovered that across from here (after hearing what sounded like a train coming through), a section of the river just goes underground. So, heading back, we tried to coax the goat down, we tried to figure out a way to get up to it and get it down (picture JUNGLE on a CLIFF)...the Kiwis call it "bush". We got out my binoculars and saw it had horns and hoped it would be old enough to survive. A local couple we had tea with in their camper bus the next day were entertained by our attempts and assured us it would be fine. On to Punakiki and Pancake Rocks, over Arthur's Pass back to East Coast and now we're in the idyllic town of Akoroa- overlooking a volcanic crater that is filled with sea water and sailboats. We found the real Hobbiton yesterday. More on that later. Love you. Holly
Okay...where have we been? So much comes jumbling in that I hardly know where to start....We decided to title this post "Zigzagging" because we left Nelson on the northern tip of the South Island after going to the public beach cafe for some bangers and mash and headed to Kaikoura on the East Coast- well-known for it's sea wildlife. Well, we got about 20 kilometers north of town following a twisty road heading south along the coast bordered by steep hillside on one side and rocky, craggy Pacific Ocean on the other...nearing dusk (it stays light here til 10:00 PM!) and, spotting some fur seals on the rocks, we pulled over to watch...the van engine died and we hopped out to check out the seals, me saying over my shoulder, "I hope it starts when we get back." It didn't. I flagged someone down passing by (actually, they were on their way BACK to Kaikoura for gas, realizing they didn't have enough to make it to the ferry in Picton- this is a fairly common dilemma here on the South Island-you can really get into places with where there is very little inbetween- I love it. That's basically, how we ended up here in Akoara, but, that's another story.) So, I borrowed their cell and called AA (as it is called here)- the guy on the phone asked me for landmarks and I told him "not much other than some seals and u bunch of rocks". For some reason, he thought it was hilarious that I called them a BUNCH of rocks....hmmm...so, I asked him what he would call it and he said, "a whole lot of rocks" (I was guessing he wouls say "heaps" of rocks as everything here seems to come in "heaps"ie: heaps of fun, heaps of dolphins....and, that's what we had in Kaikoura. We went on a whale watch and saw a sperm whale and went on a seal swim and I'll always have this image of a seal swimming right up to me and looking in my eyes. Funny their eyes look brown on shore, but, in the water, they looked blue. We did this in the open water and it was a blast. The other cool thing was the "Bull kelp"- HUGE! I've never seen seawood so big. It's a small town, so we were able to walk everywhere. For dinner at an outdoor cafe, the waitress asked me, "Would I like a whole crayfish or a half a crayfish?" Coming from a childhood in New Orleans, I was thinking,"What would I do with a half a crayfish? I ordered a whole and out came a "Rock Lobster". It was delicious...and, quite good value for the money(another famous saying here). Ezy Rentals sent uyp a new van for us from Christchurch and we headed over Lewis Pass, stopping at Hamner Springs for a soak in the Hot Springs (nice to be on the other side of the counter :) and spent the night there. Then, on to Fox River where I was given a tip to tramp (hike) up to Hanging Ballroom (THANKS, Matt Drexel). That 2 hour hike turned into an 8 hour hike as we made 13 river crossings to get there (we counted them on the way back!)-so, that makes 26 roundtrip. You get the picture. It was FABULOUS! The water was a CLEAR clear, blue, or green. We saw Wekas along the way (a flightless bird that resembles a chicken, only all brown- it does have tiny wings). Oh, and we went up to these caves along the way...one was open to the public and, fortunately, I had my headlamp (thanks, Dad, for your advice to always carry a headlamp, water, sunscreen, and bug repellent- I forgot the whistle) so we explored...very cool. We also came across a hunter at one of the river crossings ( he had a gun and 2 dogs with him) who was carrying 2 legs of something...I asked him what he had, and he said he'd killed 2 goats. He gave us some landmark tips to get to Hanging Ballroom as there is no trail to speak of (and, we'd been told that the river had changed course fairly recently, also).And, told us if we saw blood on the rocks, no worries, it wasn't a freshly murdered tramper-ha-ha. Thanks for that bit of info. He was quite friendly. We got up to this idyllic little spot with a pool and a rockface covered in moss. We hung out a bit and then, headed on...Mary had to turn back for her shoes (again, we've discovered that tramping consists of hiking boots AND Tevas (or Keens) and, then, we heard the "bleating" coming from upon the cliff. When we looked up, we were devastated to see what appeared to be a baby goat. Oh....it was just like "Bambi" and our hearts ached. We'd call to it and it would call back. After some deliberation, we went on and actually found Hanging Ballroom which is a huge rock overhang. We were grateful that we chose to do this as a dayhike because the sandflies were intense. (the right word is actually INTENSE). Mary discovered that across from here (after hearing what sounded like a train coming through), a section of the river just goes underground. So, heading back, we tried to coax the goat down, we tried to figure out a way to get up to it and get it down (picture JUNGLE on a CLIFF)...the Kiwis call it "bush". We got out my binoculars and saw it had horns and hoped it would be old enough to survive. A local couple we had tea with in their camper bus the next day were entertained by our attempts and assured us it would be fine. On to Punakiki and Pancake Rocks, over Arthur's Pass back to East Coast and now we're in the idyllic town of Akoroa- overlooking a volcanic crater that is filled with sea water and sailboats. We found the real Hobbiton yesterday. More on that later. Love you. Holly
Monday, February 5, 2007
A Window into Our Lives....Wish You Were Here!
Hello everyone- Rob here. Holly and Mary have sent the missing photos to me via email, but I'm having a heck of a time getting them to upload to Blogger. In fact, it's not happening. So I've uploaded them to a web album, and I'll post the URL here. Unfortunately, in some cases I'm not sure which captions go with which pics, so you'll have to figure it out yourselves. It can be a little game ; )
Our Ezy Cruiza Campervan- camped at Whananaki Beach, N. Island
Mitai Maori Warriors-Rotorua, N. Island
Holly, the Hobbit, in front of Bilbo's home- Hobbiton, North IslandHot Water Beach-Coromandel Peninsula, N. Island
Anchorage Beach, Abel Tasman National Park, S. Island
Anchorage Beach, Abel Tasman National Park, S. Island
My favorite photo.......love, Mom
Saturday, February 3, 2007
Hello everybody! We just got back from a four day backpacking trip on the Abel Tasman coast. Although it was very flat and easy going, my feet, legs, and back were killing me by the end of the trip, but I have seem to developed new muscles and a new tan which I like. The walk was incredible, starting out along the coast then heading into the jungle a while then back out again. We stopped at many beaches along the way, swimming and lounging around, which was awesome. The jungles were unreal, reminding me of Jurassic Park, and the ocean was the clearest blue ever against golden sand. Sometimes hiking throught the jungle you could look through the trees and see the ocean. It was really incredible. Then on the last day we hiked about 7 hours strait, not to mention up THE BIGGEST hill around which was supposed to be a short cut, that's why we went over it, but it turned out to be the same as going around it. It was awesome though; we got to the top and had a nice veiw around us at all the rolling hills behind and the beaches ahead of us. We stayed in huts for three nights, which was an experience. The huts have bathrooms, kitchens, and usually two rooms in which about 14 people sleep all lined up. On the second night we happened to get stuck in a room with a bunch of old men that snored, and of course we were in the middle because we got there late, so there was a symphony of snorers around us all night. The third night we stopped at a restaurant along the way to our hut, drank a couple of beers then had a little difficulty finding our hut after that, although it was fun. I feel so good being clean again. Anyway don't have much else to say, love you all!
~Mary
Cheers! I have fully fallen in love with this country and especially this island! We just got back last night from our coastal trek in Abel Tasman National Park (the smallest of NZ's National Parks and the one with the most coastline) and oh, my God, it was beautiful! Just like one of those magazine covers you see when you say, "That's where I want to go!"- golden beaches, CLEAR blue-green water, and jungles of fern trees, and pools filled by water cascading down over a jumble of mossy rocks. I think Mary may have gotten a tad bit annoyed with me when I didn't even realize I was stopping every 10 feet to look at something. I was not the only one along the way who wondered if we could get anywhere with such incredible views and opportunities to stop and swim on one of those beautiful beaches or whatever! People along the trail all acknowledge your passing like on Colorado trails, only you'd hear a "Hiya!", "Gidday!", "Hello!", or "Hi!". The beaches and fern trees were the highlight for me. In the true spirit of backpacking, we made sushi the first night and soon realized we had not brought enough chocolate, so when we were surprised with the Aworoa Lodge near our hut our last night out, we truly enjoyed our cold beers and stocked up on chocolate desserts for our final day. We were ready to "take our feet off" by the end of it, but, we came back to the Holiday Park in Motueka and got cleaned up again and are now heading back to Nelson for the day and will head on down the east coast. Oh, part of the trek was a Marine Reserve and saw a few starfish- a cool little one kind of octaganol=shaped with blue tips.
Love, Holly
~Mary
Cheers! I have fully fallen in love with this country and especially this island! We just got back last night from our coastal trek in Abel Tasman National Park (the smallest of NZ's National Parks and the one with the most coastline) and oh, my God, it was beautiful! Just like one of those magazine covers you see when you say, "That's where I want to go!"- golden beaches, CLEAR blue-green water, and jungles of fern trees, and pools filled by water cascading down over a jumble of mossy rocks. I think Mary may have gotten a tad bit annoyed with me when I didn't even realize I was stopping every 10 feet to look at something. I was not the only one along the way who wondered if we could get anywhere with such incredible views and opportunities to stop and swim on one of those beautiful beaches or whatever! People along the trail all acknowledge your passing like on Colorado trails, only you'd hear a "Hiya!", "Gidday!", "Hello!", or "Hi!". The beaches and fern trees were the highlight for me. In the true spirit of backpacking, we made sushi the first night and soon realized we had not brought enough chocolate, so when we were surprised with the Aworoa Lodge near our hut our last night out, we truly enjoyed our cold beers and stocked up on chocolate desserts for our final day. We were ready to "take our feet off" by the end of it, but, we came back to the Holiday Park in Motueka and got cleaned up again and are now heading back to Nelson for the day and will head on down the east coast. Oh, part of the trek was a Marine Reserve and saw a few starfish- a cool little one kind of octaganol=shaped with blue tips.
Love, Holly
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