Update, 7 January. Dunedin, New Zealand
Greetings!
New Zealand has proven to be even more beautiful than imagined. We spent 5 short days exploring the North Island by car and saw sheep, constellations of glowworms, sheep, green rolling hills that ended onto black sand beaches, sheep, eerie areas of geothermal activity, sprawling azure blue lakes, and sheep.
We visited the small town of Marakopa, where some very friendly folks had us over for BBQ and celebrated Nate's birthday. The mayor had us over the next day and cooked whitebait, a NZ delicacy that is easily caught in Marakopa. Since they're only there on weekends, they even showed us where they keep the spare key in case I want to stop by.
Once in Rotorua, we found the place to zorb. And just what is zorbing??? Rolling down a hill in a double-walled inflatable sphere. We tried it first wet, which meant that we both got in the sphere at the same time and had a few buckets of cold, soapy water thrown in with us. Then we each tried it dry, and strapped in so that we had the full head-over-heel effect. You should try it sometime.
The South Island is much more dramatic than the N.I. in terms of landscape. Steep slopes, snow-capped mountains, rolling hills, and plains can be seen at one time. We trucked it on in to Te Anau to start the Milford Track, 'the finest walk in the world.' We were met with abnormally clear weather and so were fortunate to be able to appreciate the scenery of the track. New Zealand has done an incredible job of preserving the land. Many of the areas in Fjordland National Park are not accessible by car, and they want to keep it that way. We drank straight from waterfalls, streams, and rivers. Amazing.
The day after completing the track, we took a sunrise kayaking trip on the Milford Sound. There, we experienced the rainy weather that is typical. It normally rains 300 days out of the year. We paddled alongside seals in the quiet water, enveloped in the mist. Aotearoa. The land of the long white cloud.
It has been a fantastic adventure for us both, but now Nate is making his way home while I continue the journey. Check out the newest pics:
North Island, pt 1
North Island, pt 2
I'll keep you posted!
Smak*
Jill