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