South Island, Ho!

(karen)
Sorry about the brevity of my last post. I realized I had a few seconds before my time ran out on the computer terminal and I barely managed to upload what I had written! So now, on with the rest of the story.

(Jan 2) In our second day in Aukland we decided to take a ferry over to the small volcanic island called Rangitoto. The volcano last erupted 600 years ago, and though it has since been reforested there are still sharp, black lava fields everywhere. We climbed to the summit and had a spectacular view of the Auckland harbor and surrounding areas. We even got to climb through an old lava tunnel!

(Jan 3) The next day we took a 12-hour train ride from Auckland to Wellington. We went straight through the heart of Hobbiton, and I think we might have seen glimpses of Weathertop and Rohan. No orcs yet. We stopped for lunch in Tongariro National Park which is near the base of Mt. Ruapeha, another very large volcano. This whole island is swarming with volcanos! You can see cinder cones dotting the landscape for miles. We arrived in Wellington that evening to gale force winds, gusting up to 160 km/hr. The receptionist at the hostel said that it was the strongest winds he'd seen in the two years he'd live here.

(Jan 4) Still heading for our destination to the South Island, we took a 3-hour ferry from Wellington across Cook Straight into Picton. We were amazed at how lovely the Queen Charlotte Sound is as we navigated through the maze of cliffs and forest to the harbour. Picton is a beautiful, quaint town that is nestled in the green hills overlooking the water. We haven't been able to upload our photos yet, but rest assured I took about 100 in the Sound.

(Jan 5) We spent the day kayaking in the Queen Charlotte Sound. We lucked out with good weather in the beginning and got to see some of the native bush up close, including colonies of spotted shags (that's a bird you dirty minded people). It rained in the evening, but as always with this country it blew through quickly and it was a pleasant, starry night. We keep trying to find the Southern Cross but it's so hard to tell.

Today we are heading over to the Nelson region to go tramping in Abel Tasman Park. I have a slight concern with my knee, which has inexplicably swelled in an area where I fell on it a month ago playing disc. We're keeping our eye on it to make sure it doesn't get any worse. Other than that we are having a lovely time and think New Zealand is one of the jewels of the world. Where else can you be surrounded by subtropical ferns, and see penguins swimming in the water?