Laura On Ice

Lou and I just got back from some fantastic days in New Zealand’s lovely Fiordland region!

 We started out by getting a hotel (our first since Christchurch) in Te Anau, which is a pretty little tourist town on a pretty lake surrounded by mountains. I really wanted to visit Te Anau because I’d heard there were caves there with glowworms in them! After showering and enjoying a big bed that wasn’t the ground, we moved on to a gorgeous campsite on Lake Te Anau. It was right up near the water in a small wood, and the lake water is so clear it is safe to drink (although we only used it for washing up - there is giardia here, and we didn’t want to get that!)

After setting up camp, we went in and explored the town, and set out on our first Fiordland trip. We took a boat across the lake and went to see the glowworm cave. They walk you into the cave, which contains a rushing river, and then put you in a small punt and turn off all the lights. Lo and behold, the ceiling is covered with these little blue lights, which are all glowworms! It was about the coolest thing ever.

The next thing we saw was Doubtful Sound. It was rainy, so though we had a wet day, we got to see this amazing underground power plant they have there, and got to cruise through the Sound, which is a glacier-carved fjord. We saw fur seals and dolphins playing in the water. It was wet but beautiful, and covered with waterfalls.

 Today, we just got back from Milford Sound, which is the most famous fjord. We had a lot better weather, and the cruise was amazing! The sides of the fjord were completely straight up, some incredibly high! It was a gorgeous day and an incredibly beautiful drive.

We’re off to find our new campsite, and tomorrow, we’ll go to Queenstown to hopefully catch up with friends.

 Ta ta for now!

Today we’re camping on Stewart Island - it’s an island south of the South Island and part of a wildlife preserve. We’ve seen a TON of wild parrots here!!!

We saw Mom’s cousins Nancy and Tom, and they let us stay the night, fed us a GREAT meal and let us pet their sheep!

Yesterday we stayed in Bluff and climbed up the mountain here. Lou’s forcing me to get in shape fast! We look forward to eating Bluff oysters when we get back there.

Lisa, you MUST come here. The bird life is truly amazing!! Seeing the parrots was worth the $110 round trip ferry ticket.

Will check in again as soon as we get more internet!!

Yet another check-in…we’re in Invercargill at the moment, but we spent last night at a crazy cool campground out in the middle of nowhere, right on the beach, with high cliffs on either side of the coast. We even saw a sea lion eating a fish out on the beach, right before we went to bed! There were tide pools and other cool things to look at there too. Only problem was that it started to rain like crazy last night so we had a wet camp this morning!

We drove on through to Invercargill, which is the southernmost city in NZ. We’re staying at a nice campground where we could run some laundry and take showers. We’re getting ready to go to the third largest island in NZ, which is Stewart Island. We hope to do some hiking and camping there.

New Zealand is an amazingly beautiful country, and it’s been fantastic to see everything. There really are a lot of sheep! There are also lots of Subways everywhere, and they are always mobbed!!