What a great week we have had so far! We don't have tons of time to write because we are - hold yer breath for the shock - going out to eat. Yup. That's right folks - we have a treat coming to us tonight and we are excited to not be cookin' next to Tinkerbell. Yipee! So, I will summarize events of the past week and maybe tomorrow or the next day we will do a real update with pics and all.
Last Saturday - spent the day in Blenheim getting ready to head south, headed south to Kaikoura and Jay went snorkeling while I snoozed in the van. The abalone quest was not successful, but man he was cold and took a lot of out-of-focus pictures. I was dry and warm.
Sunday - lazed in the hot springs at Hanmer Springs Resort. This place is awesome! Thermally-heated waters fill swanky pools and mix with cooler water so you don't get boiled. And it is cheap because they don't pay to heat the water! Your job is to move from hot spring to hot spring all day. Tough job.
Monday - Mt. Cook/Aoraki National Park - rain rain rain - but I loved it! We were in glacier-land! Most of this day was spent on a soggy road.
Tuesday - Mt Cook again...but the rain stopped and the biggies (mountains) started to show their faces. I was shocked to discover we slept in the shadow of one giant, Mt. Sefton, without knowing it last night (it was covered in clouds!). We hiked a LOT today - to a glacial lake called Hooker Lake. What were those boys thinking when they named that!? Then we hiked to town and had a beer while we stared at Mt. Cook. We watched a kea (alpine parrot endemic to NZ) try to eat someone's camper chair at night. High class entertainment.
Wednesday - Another hiking day - this time we went up up UP and got a nice view of Mt. Cook and Mt. Sefton with some altitude. Beautiful. Then we drove to Oamaru and met up with a guy my friend Sean Neilson spent time with in NZ during his visit. Jim is a great guy! He used to run penguin tours, but has since sold the business. BUT he kindly took us out to see the yellow-eyed penguins and boy oh boy, did we see them! What a rare and very special treat. These birds are only found in NZ and are one of the more rare birds to see in NZ. We just happened to get lucky and see not only chicks and parents....but all these amazing interactions and behaviors. The parents preened, squaked, shook heads and necks, and made a racket. The chicks begged, ate puke from parents (yum), and fought over food - all about 5 ft. away from us! And for the record, they approached us. We just stood completely still with our mouths hanging open the entire time. Awesome.
Today - Jim took us around Oamaru in the morning (after inviting us to sleep inm their house in real beds with a real bathroom the night before, we accepted). We loved this little town with all the cool limestone buildings. Now we are in Dunedin with plans to go to the Speights Brewery tomorrow and on a tour to see the only mainland nesting colony of albatross! YIPEE!
Everyday - happy.
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