Hey Everyone,
Sar and I are stuck in Invercargill at the moment due to some good Southland weather (Rainy and VERY windy). Well, we havn't done too much since our last post so this will be a quickie. We spent the past 5 days in Te Anau: the gateway to Milford Sound. Our first day out of Queenstown to Milford took an unexpected twist because the earthquake had caused some landslides and this closed the road to Milford Sound for a number of days. We made the most of one of the most beautiful days of the trip so far exploring the world famous road to Milford. The highlight being a great hike up Key Summit, which is the first day of the Routeburn hike. The views of the snowcovered peaks are not done justice by the photos. It turned out to be a great day!
We went for an overnight cruise in Milford Sound the following evening. It was so cool. The road up is amazing. We got our taste for winter with the snowcovered ground and massive mountains. The coolest part was going through the Homer tunnel...a man made tunnel through the mountains with only enough room for one coach at most points (our driver had to reverse halfway back up the tunnel). When we got to the other side of the tunnel it was amazing to see how dramatic the mountains are. They are so much steeper then any I have seen before. It was even more evident when we reached the Fiord where they meet the ocean. Once we arrived we had a few minutes before we boarded our boat for the next part of our journey. We cruised out to the Tasman sea, I jumped into a Kayak and Sar jumped into the speed boat and we explored the Fiord. I got soaked and Sar saw a Penguin (who got the better deal??). We had a whole meal of food and it was delicious. We woke up in the morning to a great surprise! Milford came alive with the rain. I have never seen so many waterfalls in my life...one about every 10 feet. Again the road was closed so we got trapped on the boat for a few more hours (and a free lunch). Unfortunately our bus thought we were stuck for the day and left without us...leaving us trapped in Te Anau for 3 more days...oh well!
Today we did a farm tour in Tuatapere, we got to feed little lambs and shear some ewes. Sar got to drive the quad bike with everyone else in the trailer (Dave you would've be proud!). Sar was amazed at how much wool comes off of a sheep (they look really skinny without all the wool). I had the pleasure of shearing the worst sheep the farmer had ever had! I had to put it in a headlock while shearing it. After all our hard work we were treated to some local sausages for breakfast, Tuatapere is the self proclaimed sausage capital of New Zealand (Mr. Nicoletta, not as good as yours!).
Unfortunately, we were unable to go to Stewart Island today because the seas were way too rough...which means we have to come back to NZ again some day!
Miss you all,
Love,
Sarahandroo
p.s. More pictures on the link!
Tuesday, October 23, 2007
Tuesday, October 16, 2007
Bone Shaking Quakes!
Alrighty folks
YES WE HAVE SOME PICTURES!! Yahoo! What a disaster that was trying to get some pictures up...I have gained a lot more gray hair from getting that sorted out (look closely at my moustache and it is quite evident!)
So we last left you off in Punakaiki...What a beautiful spot. From there we headed to the booming city of Barrytown (aka Baz Vegas) poplulation 4. Sar and I did some bone carving in the morning, again it is surprising what you can make with a little expert guidance. Again, Sar topped the class with a sweet as bone carved necklace! I didn't do too shabby, but mine smells like burning...so I can't wear it right now. That night we kicked our shoes off, and pants and shirts for a fancy dress party (costume party). My costume of a Scottish school girl made me look more like William Wallace! Our bus driver's nickname is Gullom and he showed us why...he came out of nowhere with the most amazing Gollum costume of all time: weird hair strands, silver thong, black unitard (and hideous man body according to Sar) and glued on ears so he couldn't hear a thing! The night was a blast and we partied a bit later than usual.
Next morning we hopped on the bus to the scenic town of Franz Josef. It is nestled in the mountains and the views are spectacular. We opted to take the challenge of a full day hike up the Franz Josef glacier the next morning...Very cool (literally.) We were so lucky to have a sunny day for this one as it is supposed to rain about 99.9% of the time there. We had a guide take us up and carve steps in the ice as we went along. Now a bit of science: Franz Josef glacier actually sits down in a rain forest which makes it unique. It is also still growing at a considerable rate because of the 30m of snow the mountain gets each year! All this makes for a steep climb up! All in all Franz was Granz!
Next Stop Makarora. Sar and I went for an adrenalin filled helicopter flight around Mt Aspiring National Park. As a special treat we got to see the newest lake in the area created by a landslide...this lake if it bursts has the potential to put the whole town under water...Dang! The best part of the ride was when we dropped off one passenger to take a jet boat ride. It felt like right out of the movies, the jet boat was going up the river and we went up and sharply banked down right over top of them. One of the guys on the boat said he was expecting the machine guns to start firing at them at any time. That night we had a Karaoke contest to win a tandem paragliding flight in Queenstown...we didn't win...(Lionel Ritchie's 'All Night Long' is harder than it sounds!)
Wanaka was next! We spent 3 days in this quiet, funky little town and Andrew was desparately hoping to skydive! Unfortunately the weather was never quite right and he wasn't able to go up. The mountains seemed almost close enough to touch and we spent a few afternoons in the sunshine just enjoying the scenery.
I had a much needed dentist appointment to fix my aching tooth. Bad news is my tooth is dead. (RIP tooth next to my molar). I feel much better now and the dentist was hot as. Ha! We went to this sweet little movie theater with only random sofa chairs and love seats to sit in (and of course an old convertible car for lovebirds) (we didn't sit there). At intermission they served us homemade ice cream and cookies and that pretty much made my whole trip right there. Pretty good movie too. We also went to Puzzle world and you can imagine what that was like! We had a blast in the illusion rooms and trying to navigate the 1.5m of labyrinth they had outside! Andrew pretended he was the Minotaur and I acted embarrassed. Good times.
Wanaka was also home to Natural Disaster #3 and 4 as we were woken from sleep by another earthquake and felt the aftershock again the next morning! This one was freaky! Our whole room was swaying and we felt like we were in a water bed. It lasted about 20-30 seconds but it felt much longer! Hopefully that's the last of those!
On our way to Queenstown we stopped off at the original bungy site - Karahau bridge and Andrew took the plunge!!! It was great and I got it all on video. Pictures will be online soon!
Here we are in Queenstown and although we know it is beautiful the rain and cloud are masking all the scenery. We're mad as but trying to make the best of it! Tomorrow off to Milford Sound if the weather holds up! Cross your fingers!
Miss you all back home!
Love,
SarahandRoo
YES WE HAVE SOME PICTURES!! Yahoo! What a disaster that was trying to get some pictures up...I have gained a lot more gray hair from getting that sorted out (look closely at my moustache and it is quite evident!)
So we last left you off in Punakaiki...What a beautiful spot. From there we headed to the booming city of Barrytown (aka Baz Vegas) poplulation 4. Sar and I did some bone carving in the morning, again it is surprising what you can make with a little expert guidance. Again, Sar topped the class with a sweet as bone carved necklace! I didn't do too shabby, but mine smells like burning...so I can't wear it right now. That night we kicked our shoes off, and pants and shirts for a fancy dress party (costume party). My costume of a Scottish school girl made me look more like William Wallace! Our bus driver's nickname is Gullom and he showed us why...he came out of nowhere with the most amazing Gollum costume of all time: weird hair strands, silver thong, black unitard (and hideous man body according to Sar) and glued on ears so he couldn't hear a thing! The night was a blast and we partied a bit later than usual.
Next morning we hopped on the bus to the scenic town of Franz Josef. It is nestled in the mountains and the views are spectacular. We opted to take the challenge of a full day hike up the Franz Josef glacier the next morning...Very cool (literally.) We were so lucky to have a sunny day for this one as it is supposed to rain about 99.9% of the time there. We had a guide take us up and carve steps in the ice as we went along. Now a bit of science: Franz Josef glacier actually sits down in a rain forest which makes it unique. It is also still growing at a considerable rate because of the 30m of snow the mountain gets each year! All this makes for a steep climb up! All in all Franz was Granz!
Next Stop Makarora. Sar and I went for an adrenalin filled helicopter flight around Mt Aspiring National Park. As a special treat we got to see the newest lake in the area created by a landslide...this lake if it bursts has the potential to put the whole town under water...Dang! The best part of the ride was when we dropped off one passenger to take a jet boat ride. It felt like right out of the movies, the jet boat was going up the river and we went up and sharply banked down right over top of them. One of the guys on the boat said he was expecting the machine guns to start firing at them at any time. That night we had a Karaoke contest to win a tandem paragliding flight in Queenstown...we didn't win...(Lionel Ritchie's 'All Night Long' is harder than it sounds!)
Wanaka was next! We spent 3 days in this quiet, funky little town and Andrew was desparately hoping to skydive! Unfortunately the weather was never quite right and he wasn't able to go up. The mountains seemed almost close enough to touch and we spent a few afternoons in the sunshine just enjoying the scenery.
I had a much needed dentist appointment to fix my aching tooth. Bad news is my tooth is dead. (RIP tooth next to my molar). I feel much better now and the dentist was hot as. Ha! We went to this sweet little movie theater with only random sofa chairs and love seats to sit in (and of course an old convertible car for lovebirds) (we didn't sit there). At intermission they served us homemade ice cream and cookies and that pretty much made my whole trip right there. Pretty good movie too. We also went to Puzzle world and you can imagine what that was like! We had a blast in the illusion rooms and trying to navigate the 1.5m of labyrinth they had outside! Andrew pretended he was the Minotaur and I acted embarrassed. Good times.
Wanaka was also home to Natural Disaster #3 and 4 as we were woken from sleep by another earthquake and felt the aftershock again the next morning! This one was freaky! Our whole room was swaying and we felt like we were in a water bed. It lasted about 20-30 seconds but it felt much longer! Hopefully that's the last of those!
On our way to Queenstown we stopped off at the original bungy site - Karahau bridge and Andrew took the plunge!!! It was great and I got it all on video. Pictures will be online soon!
Here we are in Queenstown and although we know it is beautiful the rain and cloud are masking all the scenery. We're mad as but trying to make the best of it! Tomorrow off to Milford Sound if the weather holds up! Cross your fingers!
Miss you all back home!
Love,
SarahandRoo
Pictures...Finally!!!
Click on this picture and it will take you to a selection of photos (only a few right now because we don't have that much storage per month with flickr). We hope you enjoy!
SarahandRoo
Wednesday, October 10, 2007
Better way to post pics
Anyone have any suggestions on a better way to post pictures???
Thanks!
SarahandRoo
Thanks!
SarahandRoo
Sunday, October 7, 2007
Natural Disasters...
Hey Everyone!
We have been out of computer contact for the last week or so, therefore no posts!
Natural Disaster #1: We made our way to Taupo for the night before we were supposed to do the Tongariro Crossing (one of the worlds best one day hikes). We woke up in the morning feeling good and ready to tackle some volcanic mountains and great views. Our bus driver procedes to tell us that the hike is called off because Mt Ruahepu erupted the night before. Now our bus driver is a character and liked to tell us outrageous stories for fun and was always cracking jokes. We thought this was another one of his jokes...unfortunately not! We turned on the TV and it was all over the morning News, one poor guy got his legs crushed while he was sleeping in a hut on top of the mountain by a bomb flying out of the volcano...dang. Naturally, We decided to do the smart thing and head up to the national park anyway for some hiking! Relax Moms...it was totally safe (we hoped). The day was perfect, blue skies and sunshine. The views were spectacular, I took about 5,000 pictures of Mt Doom from LOTR (lord of the rings for all you fantasy nerds). We did some great hikes and had an absolute blast. That night we stayed in a wicked hostel which looked more like a 5 star ski lodge.
We made our way to Wellington the next day and spent a few days touring around the city. Very cool and trendy city...everyone dresses like Sarah there so she absolutely loved the shopping (window shopping only!). The New Zealand National Museum, Te Papa, is there and it is unbelievably cool.
After Wellington we took one of the scariest (funnest) flights imaginable to the Picton, on the South Island. The plane was this oversized Cesna, which held about 12 passengers. It was so windy that the plane was bouncing around everywhere...it was better than any roller coaster I have been on. The pilot didn't even try to sugar coat it before we took off...he just told us it wasn't going to be a pretty flight. Sar was pretty nervous at parts (So was I!). But it only lasted about 25 min. When we arrived we pretty much headed straight to the vineyards for a wine tour and some much needed refreshments post turbulance. The wines were all good...the region is famous for its Sauvignon Blanc...tasty!
The next day was a bit of a trying one...our bus broke down and I think our new driver did too...not our favorite driver yet. Eventually we made it to Old MacDanalds Farm on the edge of Abel Tasman National Park...there were tons of Llama all over the farm. This was our base to head out and explore the National Park. Sar and I packed up our huge packs and enough food to last us for the duration of our hike and off we went for a 3 day adventure.
We ended up hiking about 24 km the first day...with only a short lunch because it started to rain...Again! To put it short neither of us said much the last hour and a half of the hike...we were exhausted. But the hike itself was beautiful. Tons of golden beaches and blue ocean, and all in a subtropical rain forest complete with palm trees! The hut we stayed in was great...there was only 2 other people in the place with us.
The next day we made our way to tackle the track again. It was much nicer out and the hike seemed so much easier only doing 11 and a bit km. The hut we stayed at the second night was sooooooo good. Right on the beach of a HUGE estuary, 2 km tide change! There was a nice wood stove and lots of wood to chop to keep me busy. Again only the 2 guys from the night before sharing the hut with us.
Natural Disaster #2: The next morning we were getting packed up when this huge noise came from what sounded like the roof. I thought that some possums or something got on the roof and were fighting...but when I looked up on the roof, nothing. Hmmmmm. We found out later that an earthquake hit south of us rating 5 on the Richter scale. Needless to say we survived unharmed! We finished off the hike and caught a water taxi back to Marahau where we started and spent the next day relaxing at Old Mac's Farm. It was such a great hike!
Now we are in Punakaiki on the west coast of NZ. It is really cool here...I think they filmed Jurassic park here. THIS is a Rain Forest...it has rained for 2 days straight. That didn't stop us from doing the best adventure yet: Making a Knife! We made some sweet as knives yesterday. We started with a piece of steel, wood and brass. We had to forge the steel, pound it out, grind it, pollish it, saw our handle peices, drill it on and sand it down...Man are they bad ass. Sar's knife looks so mean! She made one of the best knives of the group and the smile on her face (and mine) was ear to ear. The guy who tought us is a complete showman...so funny! At the end we even had to drink his homemade moonshine! It was tasty. There was also axe throwing and the biggest swing ever! It took 6 people running with a rope attached to the bottom of the swing to get the person up for the swing (way scarier than I thought it was going to be). All in all, one of the best days of the trip. Today we are just taking it easy and getting ready to do some bone carving tommorow!
We miss you all and will do our best to get some picture up soon!
Love,
SarahandRoo
We have been out of computer contact for the last week or so, therefore no posts!
Natural Disaster #1: We made our way to Taupo for the night before we were supposed to do the Tongariro Crossing (one of the worlds best one day hikes). We woke up in the morning feeling good and ready to tackle some volcanic mountains and great views. Our bus driver procedes to tell us that the hike is called off because Mt Ruahepu erupted the night before. Now our bus driver is a character and liked to tell us outrageous stories for fun and was always cracking jokes. We thought this was another one of his jokes...unfortunately not! We turned on the TV and it was all over the morning News, one poor guy got his legs crushed while he was sleeping in a hut on top of the mountain by a bomb flying out of the volcano...dang. Naturally, We decided to do the smart thing and head up to the national park anyway for some hiking! Relax Moms...it was totally safe (we hoped). The day was perfect, blue skies and sunshine. The views were spectacular, I took about 5,000 pictures of Mt Doom from LOTR (lord of the rings for all you fantasy nerds). We did some great hikes and had an absolute blast. That night we stayed in a wicked hostel which looked more like a 5 star ski lodge.
We made our way to Wellington the next day and spent a few days touring around the city. Very cool and trendy city...everyone dresses like Sarah there so she absolutely loved the shopping (window shopping only!). The New Zealand National Museum, Te Papa, is there and it is unbelievably cool.
After Wellington we took one of the scariest (funnest) flights imaginable to the Picton, on the South Island. The plane was this oversized Cesna, which held about 12 passengers. It was so windy that the plane was bouncing around everywhere...it was better than any roller coaster I have been on. The pilot didn't even try to sugar coat it before we took off...he just told us it wasn't going to be a pretty flight. Sar was pretty nervous at parts (So was I!). But it only lasted about 25 min. When we arrived we pretty much headed straight to the vineyards for a wine tour and some much needed refreshments post turbulance. The wines were all good...the region is famous for its Sauvignon Blanc...tasty!
The next day was a bit of a trying one...our bus broke down and I think our new driver did too...not our favorite driver yet. Eventually we made it to Old MacDanalds Farm on the edge of Abel Tasman National Park...there were tons of Llama all over the farm. This was our base to head out and explore the National Park. Sar and I packed up our huge packs and enough food to last us for the duration of our hike and off we went for a 3 day adventure.
We ended up hiking about 24 km the first day...with only a short lunch because it started to rain...Again! To put it short neither of us said much the last hour and a half of the hike...we were exhausted. But the hike itself was beautiful. Tons of golden beaches and blue ocean, and all in a subtropical rain forest complete with palm trees! The hut we stayed in was great...there was only 2 other people in the place with us.
The next day we made our way to tackle the track again. It was much nicer out and the hike seemed so much easier only doing 11 and a bit km. The hut we stayed at the second night was sooooooo good. Right on the beach of a HUGE estuary, 2 km tide change! There was a nice wood stove and lots of wood to chop to keep me busy. Again only the 2 guys from the night before sharing the hut with us.
Natural Disaster #2: The next morning we were getting packed up when this huge noise came from what sounded like the roof. I thought that some possums or something got on the roof and were fighting...but when I looked up on the roof, nothing. Hmmmmm. We found out later that an earthquake hit south of us rating 5 on the Richter scale. Needless to say we survived unharmed! We finished off the hike and caught a water taxi back to Marahau where we started and spent the next day relaxing at Old Mac's Farm. It was such a great hike!
Now we are in Punakaiki on the west coast of NZ. It is really cool here...I think they filmed Jurassic park here. THIS is a Rain Forest...it has rained for 2 days straight. That didn't stop us from doing the best adventure yet: Making a Knife! We made some sweet as knives yesterday. We started with a piece of steel, wood and brass. We had to forge the steel, pound it out, grind it, pollish it, saw our handle peices, drill it on and sand it down...Man are they bad ass. Sar's knife looks so mean! She made one of the best knives of the group and the smile on her face (and mine) was ear to ear. The guy who tought us is a complete showman...so funny! At the end we even had to drink his homemade moonshine! It was tasty. There was also axe throwing and the biggest swing ever! It took 6 people running with a rope attached to the bottom of the swing to get the person up for the swing (way scarier than I thought it was going to be). All in all, one of the best days of the trip. Today we are just taking it easy and getting ready to do some bone carving tommorow!
We miss you all and will do our best to get some picture up soon!
Love,
SarahandRoo
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