Sydney... wooohooo!

We made it to Australia and we LOVE it!
A friend from college, Amy, was randomly visiting her friend, Steph, who lives in Coogee beach. It worked out perfect timing for us to meet up with them and stay in Steph's amazing apartment overlooking the beach. It was heaven for us travelers. Everything about being in an apartment and not a hostel is wonderful for a change. We didn't have to wear our shower shoes for a change!!


Our first day here in Sydney we climbed the bridge. From the top you could see the entire city. The view up there was amazing but of course they didn't let us take our cameras up so we can't share the view with you. But check out our hot outfits.








And of course, a very fun girls night out for our first night in Sydney :)
and Amy's last :(

Dolphin Encounter...

There aren't enough exclamation points to explain the fun we had swimming with the Dusky Dolphins in Kaikoura. It was amazing.
There were 600 dolphin... SIX HUNDRED!!!

We all sat at the back of the boat and when the captain blew the horn we all slid off into the water surrounded by dolphin. We would swim for about 10 minutes and then get back into the boat to drive to the next big group. They were everywhere.


At some points you would be surrounded by about 10 at one time. In front, underneath, to the side. To get their attention we were supposed to sing or squeak or just make some noise. It really worked and they would look at you and then if you wanted to play with them you could swim in circles and they would follow you around and around. Well actually we were following them around. They are so fast it got tiring after about a minute of swimming around.


What an experience!
Our last one in New Zealand. We had to say goodbye to the lovely country today. There were a few tears when we had to give up our car and try to stuff all the stuff we acquired into our already stuffed bags. ha. lots of stuff :) Oh but get this... the lady that we turned the car back to... LIVES IN FLAGLER BEACH. Wow. She is from New Zealand and was just back for a little bit visiting her mom, but she has lived in Flagler beach for like 10 years. Small small world!

So now... AUSTRALIA IT IS! The last stop on this amazing journey.
We are in Sydney now. Planning on climbing the Sydney bridge tomorrow. More adventure awaits.

Tekapo...

The pictures say it all...

Queenstown - Adventure Girls

Queenstown was awesome! It is the adventure capital of the country. Anything you can think of they have it here to try. We chickened out on the Bungy jumping… but we did do some fun Jet Boating, Helicopter riding, Rafting, and Horseback Riding. The Jet boat was really crazy. Pretty much just a huge Jet Ski that could hold about 20 people. Just kinda skidded on top of the water, only needing like 2 inches to ride on. We drove up and down the river coming inches from the canyon walls and busting out 360s all over the place. Really fun!

We apparently got really lucky with our Helicopter ride. We had crazy Pete for our pilot and he was honestly crazy. They say he is the best helicopter pilot in the country and they used to have him for the tours all the time until he opened his own company. They haven’t had him in years, but for some reason he was our pilot that day because the other companies were not running or something. Not really sure, but he was awesome! We took off just barely missing the first mountain top and then he practically flew us sideways. I didn’t even know a helicopter could do that. Then he shut the engine and we just free fell for a good 3 seconds. It was so much fun.

The helicopter landed us right where we were meeting up with everyone to go rafting. Suzy and I got stuck with a raft full of girls who had never rafted before. At first we were a little bummed, but it turned out to be great. We went through some class 4-5 rapids and got to jump off some cliffs on the way. And of course since we were the “girl raft” everyone picked on us. Both Suzy and I got pulled off the raft into the ice cold water at different times. Lots of fun!

Horseback riding was our second day in town. Dougal was my horse and Suzy rode Bert. Bert was awesome, just kinda stayed right up front with the guide. Our guide said he was like the nerd of the bunch, kinda like a goody two shoes. Haha. Dougal, however, decided it was a good idea to eat every 5 seconds. I am not even exaggerating. He stopped to eat every 5 seconds. But he didn’t want to lose his place in line so he would trot back up to his 3rd position before the next horse could overtake him. Oh and he kept tripping. Just walking along and all of a sudden would trip and fling me forward. Definitely kept me alert or I would have easily been thrown off. So funny. Our guide told us that there are some thistles out in the field that some of the horses get into that actually gives them a pretty good high. She said Dougal eats them quite often. Awesome, so my horse was high. Guess that’s the reason for the constant eating and tripping. We had a great time though. They let us trot and canter a few times and like always the scenery was beautiful.

We are staying in Lake Tekapo tonight hopefully climbing Mt. Cook tomorrow but the weather isn’t looking too good for us. Good thing we have our little Sunny to take us where ever the sun is shining.

Happy March 1st! Only 5 more days left here in this perfect country. So sad!!

But check out the coke bottle...

Wanaka... sweet as!

We love Wanaka!


We also love blue sky's!! We have had them for two full days now. Woooohooo! It is supposed to get rainy again tomorrow afternoon, but hopefully it will pass quickly. The blue sky here is so beautiful. Not sure if it is just because we haven’t seen one in so long, but the blue is so vivid and tealish. Unlike any blue sky we can recollect seeing at home. Plus the scenery is quite complimentary as well. Huge mountains and blue lakes and tropical forest and cute towns… yes we are obsessed with New Zealand!

We went on a hike to Rob Roy Glacier in Mt. Aspiring National Park. It was about a four hour hike and ended with a spectacular view of the glacier and the mountain range and waterfalls and fields of dandelions. It’s hard to believe that all these geographical features exists so close to one another.

Had a beautiful drive down to Milford Sound past the Remarkables Mountains, more pretty lakes and into the Fiordland National Park area through a wormhole of a tunnel that appeared to have been blasted hundreds years ago. Taking a cruise through the sound tomorrow.

..."sweet as" is a saying that New Zealanders use all the time. Just at the end of any sentence or by itself. For example... So long for now, sweet as!

Fox Glacier - Ice Climbing

Wow!
I know I said that about SkyDiving but Ice Climbing was just so much fun too. We met up with our guides at 8am and they layered us in warm gear (fleeces, gloves, beenies, pants, snow boots, socks… everything). They gave us ice picks, boot crampons, ropes and a nice big bag to carry all of our equipment in. There were two guides and 7 of us. It was a perfect amount of people. Our guides were lots of fun. One Brit and one Kiwi and they were like crazy monkeys climbing all over the ice.
It has unfortunately been raining here for the past 3 days so the weather was a bit chilly, but the glacier, even in the rain, was beautiful. It was right in the middle of huge lush green mountains. You would never have thought there was a huge glacier sitting right there. And the color of the ice… bright blue all over the place… Amazing!
We hiked up the mountain about an hour before coming to the glacier. There we put on our crampons, which are spikes for our boots, our harnesses and our helmets. Were were ready for adventure and looking good! They taught us a little bit at a time but our group was pretty good it didn’t seem like anyone wasn’t ready for the climbing part. It is really amazing how much you have to trust your gear though. You would think the pick or the cramps would need to be shoved deap into the ice to hold you up, but really only about ½ an inch and you are golden. You can just stand there, 5 feet above the ground with only ½ an inch of spike holding you into the ice. Crazy!
At the first wall there were two ropes . One person climbed while another person relayed them. The relay job was quite stressful since the person’s life pretty much rested in your hands. If you didn’t lock the rope right or let it go to quick the climber could easily fall down the 20 ft wall. Aaaaahhhhh! But, nothing like that happened. We were all very careful with each others lives and actually the repel down was one of the funnest parts.
It didn’t take as much arm strength as you would think. The ice picks were more for balancing and keeping you from falling off the wall backwards. Most of the work was done in the legs. Kicking the toe of your boot, with the crampon, hard into the ice and then standing up trying to keep your heels down and not too tilted. A lot to remember when you are 20-30 feet above ground, but we definitely had a wonderful time on the ice.
We climbed up about 6 times and by that time we were all cold and tired enough to be done. It was a great adventure though. Who gets to visit a glacier and ice climb all over the place?!?!?!?
(Everyone please pray for no more rain in New Zealand!! We need sunny days from here on out. This country is too pretty for constant rain. AND without sunshine how are we going to get our beautiful pictures to post for you?)

Tongariro Crossing & Wine Tasting

Our second day in Taupo we took a day bus down to do the Tongariro Alpine Crossing. This was where a lot of the Lord of the Rings was filmed. Maybe the part with the eye?? Neither of us are huge Lord of the Rings fans, so we weren’t sure, but it was a great hike nonetheless. Total of about 6 hours. A good 2 hours straight up the mountains and then a good 2 hours straight down with little bits of flat ground in between. We are still feeling the pain in our legs. That downward hike is not so nice on the knees or the shins.

But the hike was beautiful. Very strange the way it would be completely clear and then within seconds the fog would take over and you couldn’t see more than 2 feet in front of you. Check out this picture… seriously, 2 seconds and the fog took over. AND COLD!! At the top of the mountain ridge we were freezing. But it was all worth it being outside for an entire day getting some long overdue exercise.

The Red Crater and Emerald Lakes were beautiful. The lakes smelled like sulfur but they were a vivid turquoise color and the rocks surrounding them were hot to the touch from the volcano.

We caught a bus that night after the hike, or I guess early morning (1am) from Taupo to Wellington and jumped immediately onto the fairy to the south island. We picked up our car... Sunny. Sunny is actually the model of the Nissan (we have never heard of it before), but we thought it also a good fit for his name as well. He is a great little car and besides having to drive on the opposite side of the road and circle around a ton of round-a-bouts, we love it! Alana is the primary driver since Suzy left her ID at home and she has already hit 2 curbs, but what can you expect from having to drive on the other side of the road?!?! Don’t worry, we have full insurance :)

We are staying in Blenheim at the Grapevines hostel. They are very cute. The owner lives in the house connected to them. It is a great home away from home. AND we went to our first grocery store last night. A month and a half since we have been in one of those. We had a hay day picking out our breakfast, lunch, and dinner. We might stick to eating out as it seems a bit cheaper for us. It is nice to be in true civilization again though. You definitely take it for granted until you are in Southeast Asia for a month eating noodles and rice.

We went wine tasting today in the Marlborough region right in Blenheim. Beautiful vineyards all over the place. We visited three vineyards and one Schnapps tasting: Mount Riley, Wither Hills, Bouldevines, and Prenzel (Schnapps). At the Wither Hills Vineyard they actually had a row of each grape they harvest for people to walk around and try. You can just pick the grapes right off the vines. It was so fun tasting the difference between all the grapes. Their Chardonnay here is outstanding. Nothing like we have in America. And the Pinot Noir is fabulous too. Pinot Noir grows the best here because of the climate so the next time you are looking for a really good red wine, try New Zealand’s Pinot Noir!

Our last stop was at Prenzels. The whole place was full of different Schnapps and you could choose as many as you liked to taste. The butterscotch and peppermint and the melon were all amazing. We also tried some flavored Brandy. It was good, but neither of us are fans of Brandy so we kept mostly to the Schnapps selection. If only we had enough room in our bags to bring home samples for everyone... guess you will just have to come and try it for yourselves.