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