The Real N.Z.

About a week ago I headed to the south island and have been loving every minute of it. I've been traveling on the bus and have met so many people from all over the world. Some of them I've been with for over 2 weeks which has really been a blast. Most of it has been a whirl wind and I have lots to say and tons of pictures to show but right now I only have one memory card here so this is the most recent stuff. I'll fill in the blanks when the pace subsides a bit.

Last week I went on a cruise around Abel Tasman national park which was spectacular. We were on a really nice catamaran and had some solid wind so we got to throw up a jibbaker (jib and spinnaker combo) and really get the party started. I also saw a really nice sunset and hung out in a town of 40 people. I climbed the Franz Josef glacier and fell asleep on the bus. (pictures from these events will be posted shortly)

However, the past couple days have delivered the New Zealand that I have really been looking for. The scenery I have seen can only be rivaled by that of the Columbia river valley in B.C. I have been on sensory overload for the past 2 days, it's a good thing I'm not driving.

Lake Matheson with some sweet mountains. We didn't get here early enough for the perfect reflection but no one missed the 6am wakeup.

A typical westcoast beach. We looked for jade by picking up everything resembling green. None was found...

Jade? no, just some cool rocks.

This is what I came to see. How much for the mountain? I'll take two.

"Blue pools"
It reminded me so much of Chiniguchi. You could see huge rainbow trout swimming around. I attempted to kill one by throwing rocks but it didn't work. The water was freezing.

This is a plant we named "the stick tree". These must be the boringest plant in the world. The leaves look like twigs, with this one being fully foliated. I'm going to chop one of these down next Christmas and give it to Charlie Brown, he'd love it.

My friend Malin in Makarora.


Lake Wanaka.

A few of us wanted to go for a hike up one of the local mountains so we got ready and started walking. By the end our journey we had walked 2 hours along a road, got to the base of the mountain, realized it was all rose bushes, walked through a rabbit infested, poisoned field, walked to the beach, walked along a time line and eaten lunch.

The timeline was on bricks along the lakeshore. This one caught my eye as the stray bus seems to stop at every "New World" grocery store in the country.