— post a little late this is from a few days ago —

 

Hi Everyone!

Yesterday we had an amazing day.  We were staying in Invercargill which is on the southern tip of the south island and got up nice and early to make the 8 am ferry to Stewart Island.  Stewart Island is the small island to the south which was originally thought to be part of NZ when discovered by Captain Cook in 1760.  In 1809 William Stewart was the first to chart the island and so its name.  On the island there are several walks you can take that range from an hour or two to a week and a half with huts and tent sites along the way.  We decided to go for the day and do a full day walk.  It was amazing.  The Maori legend goes that the three islands of NZ (the north, the south and Stewart Island) are of people fishing.  The south island is the boat and the north island the fish.  The fish was so big that the Maori in the boat had to throw an anchor and this is Stewart Island.  

So.  Our “walk”.  We decided on a track that would take us through original forest of the island which had never been cleared and had not been altered much.  It was to take us up to a scenic look out and then down along cliffs to some beautiful beaches.  It did.  The thing was that the trek up was not only quite steep, it was, in some places, a good deal of mud and muck.  Jonathan and I wondered if the boys were up to it and contemplated turning back at one point but the boys decided they wanted to keep going.  They saw it as a real challenge to find alternate ways around the muck and it often took up to 5 minutes to get us all 2 feet up.  We were very impressed with how the boys worked together and now we feel they would do very well on a multiple day walk that will take us into Fiordland for 3-4 days. 

Today we are in Te Anau.  It is a little over 100KMs from Milford Sound which is an inlet that is surrounded by fiords.  We are planning to drive up the day after tomorrow and take a cruise around the sound and possibly a day walk there as well.  It is, in a word, stunning.  I have never seen anything like it and we are all enjoying ourselves.  We just wish they didn’t depend so much on tourism because things get really expensive for a family if we want to do any of the touristy things.  We are camping in holiday parks which is less expensive than a hotel and they have the added convenience of communal kitchens and hot showers.

Well, it’s been a very busy week.  Internet access is not the most reliable and can be very expensive depending on where we are… so…  here’s an update.

We arrived safely in Christchurch after many delays but with all of our luggage which is what we are focusing on.  We spent a week in Ch’church getting organized.  We signed a lease on a lovely little two bedroom cottage a block from the beach and bought a car.  We had to get used to the more laid back approach the Kiwi’s take to life so when things were not working out exactly how we’d planned there was a general, “no worries – we’ll get to it later”.  

The people are super friendly and we’ve had a blast.  The metro system in Ch’church is amazing and we were all over the city with some lovely bus drivers acting as tour guides.  

We’ve been to the Moeraki Boulders where these crazy perfectly spherical boulders stick up out of the beach and surf where we also met a lovely choc lab by the name of Havoc who met us in the parking lot and carried on with us for the whole of our visit.  Will was quite take with Havoc (they probably share the same thought patterns) and by the end of our visit he wanted to bring the dog along with us.  Havoc, I am glad to say, is home with his owners and not a fifth wheel to our adventure. We also stopped at a knitwear factory where they make the most amazing and beautiful things.  It was a bit of a back road adventure, but we found it and are glad we did – a fraction of what it was selling for in the shops in Ch’church and even down the road at a tourist stop.

Today we toured Dunedin which is on the Otago Peninsula.  The city is designed to replicate the architecture of Edinburgh, Scotland so it feels very old compared to its actual age.  Tomorrow we are headed over to the peninsula where they have an albatross colony and the protected yellow eyed penguin.  We are looking forward to it.  We will then head down (on Friday) to Invercargill on the southern tip of the south island and take a ferry over to Stewart Island.  We are considering a two day tramping around the island but will see how things go in terms of spirits among the troops.  After that we head north along the western coast to Te Anau and Milford Sound to explore Fiordland.  

Other than that we are getting used to driving on the left side of the road and as we turn left there is a chant among the navigators, “HUG THE CURB” (done in a very bad NZ accent) or to the right, “UP AND AROUND”.  

Thanks for checking out our blog.  We will try to update it more often but we are at the mercy of the Internet servers along the way and the different wireless service available to us.  Very frustrating at times, but we’re learning to deal.

 

~Sarah