Christchurch

After leaving Nelson and swinging through Kaikoura, it was time to head to Christchurch (the biggest city on the south island - population over 300,000). As you can imagine by its name, it has a strong English influence. It was a great city and we enjoyed our time there looking at art and admiring the architecture. We were lucky with the weather and that always helps. The old university was turned into the greatest art center and the Canterbury Art Gallery was impressive and free! We all wished we could spend a bit more time there, but we have limited time left on the south island and much more to see. We have booked our flights to Fiji, so we are on a mad dash to see what we can in 3 weeks before we fly to Auckland to catch a flight to Fiji. We will stay in Fiji for 12 days and head home to the states soon after that.

Swimming with the Dolphins

Words cannot describe how amazing this was. We had the opportunity to swim with dusky dolphins in their natural environment. They gave us wet suites and snorkeling gear and brought us out in a boat to where the dolphins were last seen. We jumped into the Pacific and and swam around with them. They are curious and they like to play so they came over to check us out. There were so many of them and some would stop to hang out for a while. They liked to swim circles around us, and at times I could see up to 15 swimming below me.

Drew witnessed a different show from the boat: all the dolphins from the top of the water. Check out Drew's blog to see some amazing slideshows and footage: www.studio1504.blogspot.com. After Katie and I swam we got to see this view also. We could see dolphin fins everywhere. Many of them were doing flips in the air. It was unreal. The captain of the boat told us that for every one dolphin we could see on the surface, there were 4-5 below. We could see about one hundred so there were about 400-500 around us. They live a nice easy life near the town of Kaikoura. Near Kaikoura is an ocean shelf that attracts marine life (Kaikoura is where we saw all the seals). Those dolphins are so smart and it was so much fun to swim around with them. It was amazing that they were so friendly. We just loved this experience!

Nelson Lakes National Park

Another day trip to another beautiful park. It never gets old.

Golden Bay

We spent the day driving to what is known as Golden Bay. It was a gorgeous drive and we were amazed by the scene at Te Waikoropupu Springs. It is a sacred place for the Maori and has the clearest water in the world.




Then we went to the beach:


The drive home:

Abel Tasman National Park

I was so excited to come here! It was in our plans, but had been put off by working and less than perfect weather. We finally made it there on Sunday and the day was gorgeous! The mountains, water, and beach were so bright. It felt good to be there.

Erich and Petra were able to meet us in Nelson before we left and we traveled to Marahau to start our experience of the Abel Tasman. We took a water taxi to Torrent Bay, which was about 12 km away. I love being in boats, so I had the biggest smile plastered on my face during the ride (even though it was going so fast I couldn't take a picture without my camera smacking my face and was getting salt water spashed on me from most directions). The views from the boat had me in awe by the time they dropped us at Torrent Bay (aka paradise) and we were on our way. We walked that 12 km back to the car in about 4 hrs.

This park is awesome in size and beauty. Similar to the Kahurangi, many people hike and kayak through the area for 3-5 days. That must be quite the experience. I am so impressed with the people that take these trips (and there are a lot of them). Hiking and camping for days with everything you need on your back is a huge accomplishment. But, as with many things that are a lot of work and sacrifice, I think the rewards are great. I feel really good (although tired) after walking and spending the day in places like this. I love that these environments are kept naturally beautiful and yet enjoyed by so many people.



Torrent Bay:

The beginning of our walk:







Beautiful views...


The sky filled with clouds when we got back to Marahau:

Cable Bay

Drew and I stumbled upon a sign for this bay when we went for a little drive. We checked it out and thought it would be a great place to come for a day walk. When we went back for this walk, we lost the path that we were supposed to be on and just kept walking up giant hills for a while. I was a little worried that it would rain, so we didn't stay for too long. It is another beautiful, amazing place in New Zealand.



The land to the left is actually an Island and the blue water coming in is from Tasman Bay. There is only water on the other side when it is high tide.

Mount Arthur (Happy Valentine's Day!)

We decided that a good way to celebrate Valentine's Day is to climb a mountain! The lady at the Department of Conservation told me about Mount Arthur in the Kahurangi National Park. Kahurangi means "treasured possession; special greenstone" in Maori and it is the second largest national park in NZ. There are many options for hikes. Among them is the well known Heaphy Track. People reserve beds in huts that are set up throughout the park, carry all they would need on their backs, and set out for a 3-5 day excursion.

We were happy to just do a day trip to the summit of Mt Arthur. Of course things don't always happen as planned. We got a little bit of a later start than we had anticipated and the directions to the park weren't labeled the greatest. On the way there our left rear tire decided to blow out. Luckily, Katie and I got our spare patched up before we left Napier. So, we threw on the spare and drove up the unsealed, super steep road to the car park. There we learned that it was an 8 hr hike instead of the 6 hrs we were expecting. We just started hiking and figured we would just go as far as the hut and then decide whether to keep going. By the time we reached that hut the clouds had moved in like crazy and we couldn't see the beautiful mountains around us (the hut was at 1310 meters above sea level). So, we decided to not attempt the summit hike. We walked back to the car and were in the clouds almost the whole time. It was a 3 hr walk total and it felt really good. I have really developed more of an appreciation of being surrounded by nature.

This was the scene before our hike started:

The woods kept changing as our walk went on. This was the really mossy part:


The clouds just rolled in...



and our path looked like this:

The trees in the distance looked like this:



Good show, Kahaurangi!