January 23, 2007 

Sunday morning I awoke with Rachel rapping on my bedroom room. She was very upset and had a lot of pain in the lower part of her abdomen. She had had this problem before in the past and thought the pain would subside and eventually go away, unfortunately it only grew stronger and we soon found ourselves at a private hospital with Rachel’s host mom and Nadya. After communicating with the doctor, through Nadya, and we had around an hour wait for the results. In the mean time Rachel got a nice shot in the ol’ behind to dull the pain. Once the doctor read over the results he determined Rachel had an infection and prescribed her to take Cipro (An antibiotic that we actually brought with us for such circumstances!).

Later in the night when Rachel was resting in bed I started to develop a fever and chills, not to mention other things that will be left in the bathroom. I always say, “what happens in the bathroom, stays in the bathroom!”. Wait….I never say that….anyway…The next day I felt a little better and decided to attend our first day of Spanish school, but left early in the morning. A while later I was back at the house and in the bathroom, next thing I knew I was in the shower and on my back. I have never fainted before and hope to never repeat it, let alone hit my head on the shower wall. Playing it safe, we ended up at the same private hospital. After a similar procedure I was diagnosed with intestinal bacterial infection, or a more exact name of E. Coli. Lucky me! And now I’m on Cipro as well since it seems to kill everything along with some medicine to keep my fever down.

Today we are both doing much better, aside from being a little tired.

January 20^th, 2007 Yesterday, we took a trip out to a rural village school in Morelia located at the base of Vulcan Fuego (Fire Volcano). We found out a little more of what the organization we’ll be volunteering for is all about. For the trip a bunch of us crammed into the ‘bibliobus’ (library bus) full of books, reading, and other useful materials along with a ton of new desks strapped down to the roof. The desks were a finishing touch to a project Probigua, in conjunction with a Switzerland based sponsor, started over one year ago. They raised enough money to build a new school section in the small village, provide it with white boards, lights, and desks. There were prolly 150-200 kids going to school there that all greeted us with big smiles and giggles, and the boys quickly jumped in to help carry the new desks. After everything was unloaded an assembly took place to thank Rigoberto, the Probigua founder and visionary, and Max from the Switzerland sponsor. Then they fed us all food and played live music. The kids were somewhat timid and drawn to us who had cameras in our hand. They would all pose for a picture, someone would take it, and then they’d want to see it immediately, and then the process would repeat over and over if allowed. The village was very grateful and appreciative of the support. One father even took a day off work from the sugar cane fields to personally thank Probigua for all the help in front of the large crowd that had gathered.  At night Rachel and I met up with some other students from the school for some drinks. There is one lady from Oregon, others from Germany, Denmark, Canada, Switzerland, and Austria. Everyone seems nice, but we still feel on the ‘outside’ of things at this point. This will probably change though once we begin class on Monday and volunteering shortly thereafter.

January 18^th, 2007

Andy and I made it safely to Guatemala! Our flight was delayed out of Houston but once we took off it was a quick trip with an interesting landing with an applause ending :/ When we were on the ground we retrieved our baggage, and were glad to see our driver holding a sign with our names on it. Antonio drove us from Guatemala City to Antigua. It was about a 45 min drive in a gold Toyota (just like ours at home Pops). Andy was the first to be dropped off. I was dropped off 30 ft down the street. We both said hello to our host moms and then went directly to bed.

I awoke at 7:00 for breakfast, and reintroduced myself to my host mom, Elsa. I am now Raquel. I also live with two other students. Betsy, a native Canadian, and a German lady named Nadya. Both of whom speak many languages including English. I’m the only one that doesn’t speak Spanish, but hopefully that will change soon! Andy’s or Andres as we call him now, is living with a family of five: host mom and dad, Oscar and Aida, and their kids Oscar, Aidas, and Diana. They also have a toy poodle that is slowly warming up to Andy.

We covered a lot of ground today… Mostly everything in Antigua is accessible by foot. After checking in at the school, exchanging money, getting on the internet, and eating lunch, we took a hike to Cerra del Cruz which is a cross on a hill that gave us a great view of the city and some time to get to know Betsy and Nadya who invited us in the first place. So far our trip is off to a great start! Tomorrow we are taking the biblioteca bus to a village with Probigua. This weekend we plan to climb the active volcano, Picaya… if it is not to hot! Spanish school starts on Monday then we will have some studying to do. Till next time, Raquel y Andres

We finished our travels by leisuring seeing Akaroa on the South Island during our last week and visited (and my parents met for the first time) Kerry, Darrell, and their daughter Paige for fish and chips on the beach our last night. It was a nice way to start and end my trip to New Zealand.

Waiting for our night flight we hung out in Auckland City and did a “Reverse Bungy” as our last thrill ride. If you take a sling-shot, point it to the sky, enlarge it a thousand times, and substitute people for rocks you’ll get an idea of what this contraption looks like. It was a huge rush as we were shot at 200kph (120mph) into the sky and twisted upside down and back on the way down! What a way to go out. =)

Then it was off to our long plane trips home and were welcomed by snow on the road home to our house.

Home Snow Home.

WoW, I’m not even back yet and rumors are already starting. Just to remind Joe and Jozlyn back home, and anyone else, I am not engaged and am not getting married. And I have not proposed. Just wanted to clear that up before anything got out of hand. Later.

My dream-machine aka Toyota Corolla is no more. I sold it a few days ago in Christchurch to a car rental agency. I do this in preparation to make the long trip back to the States. As you all may or may not, I am heading back sooner than I originally planned for. The plan was to work here in NZ, but as I found work I found it wasn’t worth it. Most places required you work 3-4 hours a day, 7 days a week in exchange for room or sometimes room and board. Yes, the pay isn’t great, but I expected that. What I didn’t expect was the 7 days a week thing. I hoped to work and travel at the same time; however you can’t get real far in half a day. So I decided to simply travel and see and do as much as I wanted. Now that I have done that I am coming home. Coming home to what I don’t know, that is yet to be decided. I have some temporary work lined up, and after that maybe I’ll look for some more or perhaps go back to school in Arizona for some refresher courses. I’m sure it’ll all work itself in due time as this chapter in my life comes to a close and I transition into another.

Pictured above is the Backpackers Car Market where I sold my car. For $65NZD bucks you can put your car on their lot for 3 days. The hope being another backpacker will come through wanting to buy it. To the right is me swimming in the cash I got paid in! The Corolla was a great car, and never gave me even problems over the 15,301 kilometers (~9,500 miles) that I drove it. Now with my plane tickets changed to coincide with my parent’s departure date we will be leaving this land on the 18th of this month. Therefore I will see some of you all back home very soon!

Wow, has time been flying by! It’s already 2006 and I’m not even sure when I last wrote on here. Ever since my girlfriend Rachel arrived on the 21st of December time has slipped right on by. It feels like she just arrived, but sadly she has just departed two days ago on the 4th of this month. I hope everyone out there had an enjoyable holiday like we got to have here and got lots of nice pressies! Like I was just saying Rachel arrived a couple of weeks ago and we all traveled long and hard to make the most of her time, all the while hopefully making the most of it. Her first day in we didn’t even waste I picked her up by myself at the airport in Auckland early in the morning and we drove to Waitomo Caves from there. Waitomo was one of my favorite places and I thought she’d like it too, and as her Christmas present (since I couldn’t think of anything better) I signed us with a local company who dressed us up in some sweet, smelly dry suits with headlamps and white rubber boots. They then took us rappelling down into a cave where we grabbed tubes and hiked upstream through an underground river to begin our black water rafting adventure. As the current swept us downstream our group was instructed to turn our lights off and we were then greeted
by thousands of little blue lights made by glowworms. I’d seen glowworms before, but these were by far the most abundant and amazing to see. We past our starting point and kept going down the cave on our tubes until the guide stopped us for a chocolate and hot orange drink before we made our way back. Once back to where we dropped down into the cave we ditched our tubes and harnessed into a safety rope to climb our way out. It was a great time that we got to experience with a local guy (the guide), two Irish girls (one of which had a hell of time in the caves that kept tripping, losing her tube, and even accidentally caused her friend to fall and go spilling over some rapids face first on her stomach), and a Canadian guy.

After that we did a couple of hikes to Mangapohue Natural Bridge and Marakopa Falls to add to the Ruakuri Caves trail that we did earlier in the day before the tour.

The following day we drove to Lake Taupo where we met up with my parents for my 23rd birthday. Dang I’m getting old! Our first stop for the day was just down the road from where we were staying, Taupo Bungy. If there’s one thing New Zealand is known for besides it’s beautiful landscapes it would have to be it’s extreme sports, and there’s a few I felt compelled to do before my time here is up. I’d been telling Rachel for months that she would be jumping with me, despite her large hesitation or want not to she did! And so did both of my parents! My Mom was the bravest out of all of us and went first to the blue, blue river below us, followed nextby my Dad, and finally side-by-side with one arm around each other we jumped tandem screaming (I think) all the way down. It was an awesome ride and well worth it I thought to do at least once. A little yellow raft came out from shore and picked us up to courier us to the rivers bank where we made our climb up to watch our daring leaps of faith on video. We also got pictures taken, but haven’t had time to get them scanned, otherwise I would have loved to put them on here. Until I do though these ones will have to do.

Following that we drove up to Rotorua where we went zorbing. Those of you who don’t know what zorbing is it’s a large plastic ball with another plastic ball suspended inside it. You climb into the inner plastic ball filled with warm water, push the thing over a hill, fall down, and go laughing the entire way down. Prolly doesn’t sound all that great, but it was actually a lot of fun and better than I thought it was going to be. My parents rode in one zorb together and Rachel and I rode in another together.

To finish out the day we arrived at local Maori village where we could observe them doing traditional things like weaving baskets with flax, playing games, cooking, and so forth. They then took us inside where they performed on a stage singing songs, telling Maori legends, and the women showed their talent by demonstrating there use of “pois” (I think) which is small, white pom-pom attached to a long string back to a handle. At one time each of the four ladies had four separate pois of their own swinging around in succession with one another in different directions without hitting anything else. Really quite impressive, hard to explain too, and a nice change on birthday from the usual dinner and movie routine since nothing is ever open on Christmas Eve.

 
The next day was Christmas and we didn’t want to waste a day, even though I think everyone would have liked a day to rest we drove south of Taupo to hike part of the Tangariro Crossing, which I hope everyone found worth wild. We went as far as Red Crater (pictured below) where we could see blue lake, three emerald lakes, two volcanoes, and the far stretching valley below all from this one vantage point. That night we had a nice dinner where we stayed followed by opening pressies.

On the 26th we left Taupo to catch the ferry from Wellington over to the South Island. We left early because my Dad wanted to stop at a place called “Gravity Canyon” to ride the “Swoop” or as they called it the “Flying Fox”. My Mom didn’t want to do it so he easily persuaded Rachel and I to join him. After making a daunting climb up to the top of the canyon wall we were coaxed to climb into two safety harnesses each complete with matching glasses. When our turn came up we walked up to a platform which raised us high enough for the operators to fasten us in. They checked and rechecked everything and sent us on our way. All of us were attached together on a single suspension cable with our stomachs parallel to the ground and faces forward as it swooped us down through the gravity canyon, dropped us 175 meters, and caused us to reach speed in excess of 160kph. What a rush! And then we got to do it all over again in slow motion as they slowly reeled us back to the to
p.

The ferry ride wasn’t as fun as the swoop, but was beautiful as ever passing through Cook Straight and entering the Marlborough Sounds of the South Island to the port city of Picton. We got in late and were thankful to find a place since the ferry was full and everyone else was scrounging for accommodation. Rach and I ended up having to camp for the night, which was fine, but I “forgot” to tell the place I was traveling with her since I’m so used to traveling alone and this seriously upset the manager who noticed it the next day. I tried to explain the situation to him, but I don’t think he bought it and said he woulda “tossed” me out if he noticed it the night before and I was “lucky to get any sleep”. I nodded accordingly and paid the man an additional 14 bucks. I kind of find it ridiculous that there’s no discount for additional people in a party because it’s not like that tent is taking up anymore space regardless if there’s one or two people in it.

Oh well.  We split company with the angry man and went on to Christchurch stopping off in Kaikoura along the way where I took everyone to a walk around a peninsula where fur seal colonies hung out on the oceans jagged, rocky edge. My Dad got a little close to one of the seals causing it to yelp and growl in a discouraging fashion telling him not to come any closer. Other than that we had a great time hanging out and watching them play in the water or sunbathe on the open rocks. My Dad even liked the town so much that he wants to return there on our way back for a couple days.

In Christchurch we wondered downtown to Cathedral Square for some evening “nibbles” as my Mom likes to say now and drinks at a local Irish bar.

On our way out to Franz Josef Glacier the following day we stopped at Kura Tawhiti Conservation Area. I had a hard time explaining this place before and I’m still not sure how to go about it. From a distance it looks like it could be ruins of an old city, but upon closer inspection you’ll see its only large limestone rock formations. It’s a rather big, spread out area filled with hundreds of nooks, crannies, and tunnels to hide in and climb about. Making for a nice place to hang out for a day, and would be awesome if you had a lot of people to play hide and seek in or sardines.

We also went to Arthur’s Pass for a picnic outside, and where I was hoping we’d get to hike up to Devil’s Punchbowl Falls, but due to time we had to drive to make it Franz Josef Glacier. We didn’t make it in time though because the whole town was booked up when we arrived causing us to backtrack to an earlier town for the night. This turned out all right because we got to eat the local delicacy “wait bait” at a restaurant and have a “jug” of beer. Rachel asked the bar tender lady for pitcher of beer, but only got wide eyes in return. She had never heard that word in life she said, so with a series of pointing gestures she got what she was asking for across and found out they call them “jugs” here.

To my dismay we found out the glacier tour companies were booked up and couldn’t take us on. The holidays here are much different from what I’m used to here. Coming through before earlier by myself I never had to book anything ahead. Accommodation and tour companies always had room when you showed up, but from Christmas to New Year’s it’s as if the whole of New Zealand takes off and backs everything up during that time. We always made due with what we could get though and made the most of it. Although we couldn’t hike on the glacier we did hike up to it and got close enough to walk over chunks of ice that had fallen off. I found the warning signs to be a lot fun and tried mimicking the black stick man’s body actions in them. Driving on from Franz Josef we stopped in one of my favorite towns, Wanaka for a few days. My Dad kind of wanted a day to just hang out so Rach and I took the car up to Mount Aspiring National Park and she got a chance to drive through the fords! =) She did quite well seeing as how we didn’t get stuck and I’m writing this here today. We took the hike up to Rob Roy Glacier through what looked like a subtropical rainforest covered in moss with a large river cutting through it. Once in the Rob Roy Valley we of course had our patented PB&J sandwiches and were joined by Kea birds. One thought he was oh so clever and sly and managed to poke a hole in our bread bag, knock the peanut butter jar down the mountain where he tried to break it open without success, put a few notches in my backpack’s cup holder, and almost made off with our bag of cookies. Prolly sounds kind of pestering I’m sure, but they’re quite entertaining assuming they don’t make off with any of your stuff. The glacier was beautiful as ever with its numerous waterfalls and cracking sounds echoed throughout the valley.

We needed a day to rest ourselves and relaxed on New Years Eve day taking in the sun, ultimately getting burned (which is easy to do since New Zealand doesn’t have an ozone layer above it), and playing in the lake. That night we managed to find a Mexican restaurant which was awful and followed it up with drinks back at our place. Among my drinks I managed to drink 3 beers! I’ve never drink that many beers (because I hate the taste) in my life, and broke my previous record of 2 beers that I set when I was 15 in Mexico with my parents trying it for the first time. Man was I proud of myself and still am. Don’t have any plans to drink it again, but still proud. Oh yeah, they shot off fireworks at midnight over the lake. Rach and I ran down to barely make it in time. Cheers to everyone for 2007! I mean 2006!

As a last thrill ride we headed to Queenstown the next day in hopes of riding the Shot Over Jet Boat up the Shot Over river. However they weren’t operating that day, and weren’t yesterday either because one of their boats caught on fire. They of course didn’t tell us why, we had to find out in a local newspaper article why. With the weather turning stormy we ducked into a local theatre to watch the New Zealand made movie, King Kong. It was good, but definitely overdone in a few spots.

Mount Cook was a place Rach wanted to visit while she was here, and one I hadn’t been yet. Leaving the parents in Wanaka for a couple days more we moved on in that direction. And of course Mount Cook Village was booked up solid, except for one room that ran $660 bucks a night that just so happened to be half p
rice. Usually being a sucker for ½ priced goods I wouldn’t to jump on the offer, but thinking better about it we stayed in a town called Twizel. It worked out well because clouds hung over the mountain range the entire time, but it was clear in Twizel. We decided to do a hike to Mueller Hut and up to the peak of Mount Oliver, the first mountain Sir Edmund Hillary climber. We didn’t make it however because rain and eventually heavily falling snow cut our hike short. With that though we concluded we had experienced every type of weather possible during our time here: rain, dry heat, humidity, snow, sleet, overcast skies, high winds, clear fine days, and so on.

Overall though Rachel’s time here was met with some of the best weather I’ve seen. So all in all a really great time with her that I wish didn’t have to end, but all good things must. I took her to the Christchurch International Airport on the 4th of this month. I won’t go into it, but it was a long and hard goodbye, followed by an even longer drive back to Wanaka by myself, but prolly not near as bad as Rachel’s flight from Christchurch to Auckland to LAX to Washington Dulles to Charleston, North Carolina.

Now we are in Te Anau and my parents just got back form a cruise in Milford Sound. I stayed behind today as I’ve already been up there and need time to figure out a couple things like selling my car and changing my plane tickets to leave soon. Our time here is almost up! My parents are booked to fly out the 18th! They’ve almost been here 6 weeks already.

Hope everyone is doing well back home and enjoyed the holidays. Cheers once again for the New Year!

We have since moved on from Taipa after spending a very good time with my parent’s friends up there. And we would like to thank them again for showing us around, putting us up in a flat, taking us fishing, and everything else in between! So thank you Mark and Ann and your friends! And we hope you enjoy your holidays back home in Estes.

– Pictured above left is Mark and Ann, and above right is their neighbor Keith who took us out fishing. –

After leaving from up North we thought it best to get things sorted for the holidays before everything filled up and left us to celebrate it in the streets. Thus we made towards Rotorua with a quick stop in Matakohe along the way. Once there I got to show my parents around and let them see a couple things I enjoyed during my time such as the Redwoods Forest there and experience a couple things I didn’t get to as well like Wai-O-Tapu and the gondola and louge rides.

Wai-O-Tapu – This is a large volcanic and or thermal area wreaking of sulfur smell and bound by endless unnatural, yet natural colors that you ordinarily wouldn’t find elsewhere. There were formations of brilliant yellows and reds, boiling lakes of greens, red algae covering the surface of almost all the trees, and my personal favorite was Champagne Pool which constantly steams and has a deep aqua blue center framed by fiery orangish-red color and a crusted edge. I wish I could remember all the different mineral makeups that formed these awesome creations, but they have slipped my memory. I might have to look at my brochure
again if I can find it…….

– To the left is the famous Champagne Pool and to the right is me Mum and I in front of I think Devil’s Hot Tub or Devil’s Bath. I can’t remember for sure because Devil this and Devil that were of high use. –

The one picture I wish I could have gotten, but missed because I was too slow, was of my Dad sticking his foot in a thermal pool. It was right off one of the trails, was clearly marked to stay to the trail too, but he “wanted to see how hot it really was” and burned his foot in the process. Turns out it was, “damn hot(!)” and quite amusing to my Mom and I. =) And hopefully teaches everyone else out there not to stick your foot in boiling thermal pool.

Gondola and Louge Rides – The ride up to the top of the mountain in the gondola was nice and gave an excellent view of the city, lake, and surrounding area from the top. The louge rides were fun, but a bit disappointing. On one track you picked up a good deal of speed, enough to blow your helmet back, but the fun was soon cut short as they placed crisscrossed 2×4’s across the track to make you lose your speed as you zigzagged in between them and the speed could then never be recovered.

– Here’s my Dad and I wearing our sweet safety helmets as we tried rock the lift back up to the top, and the other is a partial view out of the gondola down upon Rotorua. –

During all this and a few other things we managed to get sorted for Christmas. We will be staying in Taupo for a few days during which, if all goes according to plan, we plan to go zorbing, bungy jumping, and experience a traditional native Maori dinner on my birthday with Rachel after she gets in on the 23rd, resting on Christmas day, and catching a ride on the ferry to the South Island the following day in the evening.

Waitomo Caves – This was one of my favorite places on the North Island and thought my parents would enjoy it as well. So they got to experience the glowworm night walk along a stretch of small river intertwined with small cave tunnels off it’s banks, walk through the natural land bridge, see Marakopa Falls, and even took off on their own for a day with a local tour company where they got to rappel, go caving, black water rafting (tubing through caves), see even better glowworms underground as they floated along in their tubes, and climbing.

– Here they are in their stylish wetsuits as they rappel down to the stream below. –

Now we are in a town called Whatamanga on the coast of the Bay of Plenty where we have been for the past few days, and prolly will stay until we go to Taupo. It’s a nice central location to a number of sites in the area and allows us to have a home base to travel from. Yesterday we drove to a nearby gorge where hiked among numerous old gold mines, even ventured into some bigger ones despite the lack of flashlights and were just thankful to be out of the rain because we got absolutely drenched while outside on the trail.

Today was super nice out and we took a drive up to the tip of the Coromandel Peninsula and followed a trail up to a lookout point for some stunning views like the ones pictured below.

Actually the parents are here! And have been for quite some time. Almost a week in fact, I guess I’ve been slacking on updates because of it!

– Here we are at the Waitangi Treaty Grounds with a Maori carving substituted for my bro who couldn’t make it out here. –

Anyway, Me Ma and Pops got in just fine last Friday, and didn’t suffer too much from the effect of a long flight. We’ve been doing a variety of things. First we got out of the big city and headed up North to a town called Whangerai. Stayed in a nice Bed and Breakfast our first night and did a couple easy hikes in the area there to get a feel for things. And moved on to Paihia in the Bay of Islands, my first stop on my own, where we stayed for another night before coming up here to our current destination of Taipa. Taipa is a very small town and not touristy at all which is just fine. My parents have friends here, Mark and Ann Perry, that we’re staying with at the moment who are actually from Estes, and have been coming here for 21 years if I remember correctly.  They have been great and are showing us a good time. Our first day we ticky-toured up to the Northern tip of the North Island to Cape Reinga stopping off at Spirits Bay and the sand dunes along the way. The sand dunes were fun. My Dad and rented a boogey-board to ride down on them. No one else was up for I guess, but we had fun as they watched us from down below. My Dad must have felt I was a little kid during the experience because at one point he held the board for me while I climbed on to go shooting down the sand to a vicious spill and sliding halt on my rear. It didn’t stop me from getting back on though and ending up in a stream below before getting off. And then on the way back down we took Ninety-Mile Beach which was awesome. Driving on the beach was so much more relaxing surprisingly than the curvy, bumpy roads of New Zealand. The beach was nice, straight, only a few bumps, we could watch the waves beat in on the sand, see
seagulls pick up small shells to about 20 feet in the air before releasing them to the ground below in hopes of breaking them open for a small treat, and so forth.

– Here’s a picture of my Dad wiping out on the dunes. –

We’ve also been out fishing in Doubtless Bay where we caught Red Snapper and a number of other fish that I can’t recall there names at the moment. I caught four of them, and was happy with that(!) because when we usually go deep sea fishing in Mexico or something we usually don’t catch anything at all, or everybody else does and I don’t get squat. So we had a local restaurant fix some of the catch last night which was fresh and delicious!

– This is one of Mark’s catches of the day. –

What else….oh yes, we’ve been oystering as well when the tide is out. Yesterday we brought in bucket after bucket of the little guys, which are quite good steamed or even cooked on the grill with a little sauce. So all in all things have been going very well and we’ve been enjoying living on the sea if you will. We plan to move on shortly though South of here and figure out where we’re going to stay for Christmas before everything books up! Hope everyone is doing well back home in cold Estes Park! We heard today that it was 17 below there! Yikes

Hi Everybody! Hope you all had a nice Thanksgiving and ate lots of turkey with all the fixings. I know I wish I could have been there to partake in the feast, and to watch some football, but that’s all right. I actually bought meat for the first time, sausages to be exact, and ate them with baked beans in tomato sauce and garlic bread.  Prolly doesn’t sound too great, but it is was really good and my stomach ached from eating too much. That’s what it’s all about right? =)

Anyway, the last few days have been quite busy as I make my way back up north to pick up the parents in a week. So I’ve been all over the southern part of the south island ‘ticky-touring’ or having a ‘walkabout’ as they would say here to places such as Milford Sound, Slope Point, Curio Bay, McLean Falls, Cathedral Caves, Nugget Point, Dunedin, Moeraki, Oamaru (Penguins), and now Fairlie.

Milford Sound – It took a while for the weather to clear up, but it finally did and allowed for a wonderful day in New Zealand’s best known attraction, and only Sound that is accessible via a car. I could describe this place, but feel a picture would do it more justice.
 
This one is kind of small, but there is more pictures to be seen in my pic and 360 section. To the left center is the most photographed peak that appears in all the books, Mitre Peak.

Slope Point – This is New Zealand’s southernmost point of the South Island. The equator is 5140km from it, and the South Pole is a 4803km away.

Curio Bay – Here is where Hector Dolphins can be found most often, which are the world’s smallest dolphin and I think they maybe endangered as well. The sea was rough that day so I failed to see any, but did come across a 180 million year-old petrified forest in the bedrock leading out to the ocean. There were trees and stumps strewn about in reckless order that seemed very well preserved given their age.

McLean Falls – Just a short hike up to these nice falls on a trail created by local high school kids.

Cathedral Caves – These were impressive caves off the south coast formed from the tide coming in and out daily, and therefore only accessible during low tide. As the name implies these caves were huge with ceilings reaching 35-40 feet in height (maybe more, I’m just guessing). A couple of the caves even joined together creating a u-shape and spitting you out on a different section of the beach when you came out.

Nugget Point – Here massive land forms jutted out into the ocean with a tint of gold to them giving them their name, and creating a very dangerous point for boats crossing by. So a lighthouse was present on the point on as well. I was hoping to be able to go inside it, but it was fenced off and according to a sign was all controlled remotely from Wellington since 1989 when the last lighthouse dude retired.

Dunedin – This seemed like a very pretty and appealing town as I was pulling in for the night, but as I was doing so I got pulled over for a speeding ticket. This upset me to where I only felt like driving more and continued on to Oamaru. I think I’m over it now though………

Oamaru – Penguins! Penguins! Penguins! What more can I say? Here in the town of Oamaru they have a blue penguin colony. I believe the penguins are somewhat threatened, but are thriving in the area thanks to the protection they receive. The penguins go out all day to the ocean fishing and screwing around, and come back to their homes on land in the dusk. It was sweet to see them coming in in the distance singularly and in small group called “rafts”. They looked funny paddling in on their white stomach with their heads sticking above the water like a duck, but when they dove they could quickly dart and move about with such grace and ease. They rode waves into the shore and beached themselves on their stomachs until the water cleared allowing them to promptly stand up and waddle clear of the next wave (hopefully). They then formed small groups to ascend up the rock hillside and run to their homes. The ones who arrived early waited at first for it to become darker before making their move. Once at their homes they went through a ritual where they stood outside their entrances and announced they were back by standing as tall as possible, flippers spread wide and squawking obnoxiously. If their mate was inside they’d do the same. Kind of like saying, “honey, I’m home” I guess. Wish I could have gotten some better pictures; they turned out most blurry as I was taking them from the hip since cameras were prohibited, but it was still great to see some 200 odd penguins, which was as little as 48 nine years ago before they were protected, and I’m glad I got to because I don’t think I’ve ever seen them in real life except maybe when I was a little kid at the zoo, but don’t recall it.

Now I’m in a small town called Fairlie not rushing around, and happy to be back in the tent and not sleeping in the car again. I plan to make more stop in Hamner Springs before crossing back to the North Island and meeting my parents in Auckland.