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