Our travels continued: down south & up the east coast :-)

Hello all!

I cannot believe it is already the last day of February. It is so unbelievable how fast time goes by. Tomorrow will already take us into March, which means the trip is slowly winding down. 

After Michael made his jump in Queenstown, (which he likes to remind me all the time how cool he is for doing it!), we made our way to Milford Sound. Milford Sound is a fiord, and supposedly one of the most gorgeous places to visit in New Zealand. Michael and I, unfortunately, were there on quite a cloudy day...as you can see in the pictures. So, I think we missed how spectacular it might of been on the shiniest of sunny days, however, it will still quite beautiful. It is REALLY far out there though, and we even had to stop and pay A LOT for emergency fuel. There are no places to camp, and not much to do unless you pay for very expensive boat or helicopter tours. We walked where we could, but overall did not stay long. 

Then we got to a place called Te Anau. The town was small, but the campground very nice. For some reason the Te Anau campground had the best bathrooms ever! They were so clean, the lighting was so nice, and the bathrooms were just overall kind of beautiful...if a bathroom can be beautiful. Maybe I am over-exaggerating because most campsites bathrooms are just “average,” but this really was a good one. Sometimes it feels so good to be in a nice bathroom, and take a nice shower. 

After Te Anau we hit Invercargill. On the way to Invercargill we stopped at a place that said we had made it to the southernmost tip of the south island on the coastal highway by the ocean. The sun was shining, and it was lovely. We found Invercargill to be pleasant, and larger than we expected. We even had dinner with the daughter of one of my grandfather’s (Everett) friends from Aptos, California. My grandfather got to be close with his neighbors in Aptos named, Paul and Audie. They have a daughter living in New Zealand, and Michael and I met her and her husband, had a nice dinner, and they have connections in Christchurch and will even help us sell our car! 

After Invercargill, we made it to Dunedin. The weather was just very bad, and made our time in Dunedin not too enjoyable. We spent most of the time in the tent avoiding the nasty cold and rain, and when we did get out--it was just foggy, grey, cloudy, and rainy. Not to mention, around that time I got a pretty bad cough, and started to not feel my best. It was shocking to me that I did not get sick for 6 months, and now, towards the end of the trip, I got a nasty cough and a bit of a cold. There were a couple nights where I just passed out in the tent, but I think that was good because I could just sleep off some of the not feeling well. 

Next we stayed in Oamaru, where we waited for a package from my mom. It was very exciting to get one new pair of underwear, one new pair of socks, and some candies from back home! (GO MOM & DAD)! We also went to see a yellow eyed penguin colony. There are only a few hundred of the penguins left, and you can only see them at certain times of day if you are patient. We’ve also seen seals and sea lions. The scariest moment was when we thought a sea lion was a big piece of wood, and walked right next to it. Well, it was NOT a piece of wood, and turned around growling at us, and showing it’s  teeth.  We even got to wash our clothes on a nice, sunny day, and we finally finished “Lonesome Dove.” The truth is, we started another book after, but decided it wasn’t worth it to get into something new when we could just start reading “Lonesome Dove” again for the second time! :-)

Now we are in a place called Timaru where we have just been to the city, and found some nice souvenirs. Tonight we even went all out, and ordered pizza!!! Yummm :-) The weather was so nice, we had dinner outside, and the weather reminded me of California. However, shortly after we got in the tent, the rain started again. Ugh! Maybe we’ll find a dry place for a night or two in the coming days. 

We have stayed at DOC campsites along the way, visited lots of wildlife, & eaten A LOT of tuna salad. Life is good besides the rain, which seems to be more than usual lately. The tent is holding up alright, but somehow the fiberglass poles slowly seem to be breaking down a bit. Otherwise, we are still happy and having a great time! 

Hope all is well on the other side of the world, and you have enjoyed the crazy blog pictures. The biggest piece of good news is that there are no more and flies over here on the east coast! That is good for us anyway :-)

More later!

GA