The land of adventure.....

So long since i've last written! in fact... i just checked it out and i wrote a blog since then, but apparently it didn't load. and now i have NO idea what it said. so, sorry bout that. i'm sure you weren't missing out on much. so, i have a bit of time while my pics upload to try to recap as much as possible. i hate this cause i never get much detail in, but i'll do the best i can.
Melbourne: quit that horrid job with one week left to enjoy the city. So marcy and i did a whole lotta nothing special, but fun: read and lazed in the botanical gardens for an afternoon, went shopping for a few odds and ends, did our laundry, went out with the crew from work, visited melbourne museum, and basically bummed around. we had booked our flight to NZ, but changed it last minute so we could go to the great ocean road with our girlfriends from work, Jo and Rory. Rory's family has a beach house (or beach mansion if you prefer) there so we went with them for 3 glorious days. What an absoutely amazing spot! There was Jo, me, marce, rory, her nephew Fab (yes, his name is fabio. who is 32), her other nephew Thomas (fab's brother who is 2), and Rory's friends Michelle and Amy. Went to Lorne to the pub, hiked to the lighthouse and did a whole lot of relaxing in a house with a 180 degree view of the ocean. so wonderful. Went back to melbourne and stayed at jo's over night before heading off to...
New Zealand: if you've heard this is the most spectacular place on the planet, you've heard right. it's really kind of a condenced version of canada with lakes, moutains, fields and small towns, but with a TON and a half of sheep (~40 000 000 actually - so you see them EVERYWHERE. even running down the side of the road looking either really happy or really confused) , extra extra windy roads and people with funny accents (is that ten or tin? they don't quite know what vowels to say when). We have rented a little ol car to travel around the south island in. It's a called a toyota starlet and is most definitly asian noted by all the labels in funny characters. we're doing a great job of driving on the other side of the road! so proud of us.
anyway, we began our journey in christchurch where we landed late at night to 7 degree weather, so just went to the YMCA where we stayed and crashed. The next day it was pouring out and a great oppertunity to plan our trip and do a limited amount of sight-seeing around the town . Thanks to some guys from england we ran into in the most delicious bagel shop, we realized it was much more affordable than we thought to rent a car. So we picked up our little blueberry the next day and proceded to tour the area around christchurch such as going up the gondola and going to taylors mistake which is a beach from volcanic rock so the sand is black. pretty cool. Up bright and early on fri. (16 march) to head to Lake Tapiko (so beautiful and turquoise) and Mount Cook where we did a quick glacier hike, but didn't stay too long because it was SO windy. We drove down to the bumpin town of Twizel (pronouced Twy-Zell, not twizel like the licorice like we 1st thought). The extent of excitement there was seeing a kitten eat a dead hedgehog. i thought they were friends at first cause they were just sitting beside each other. i prefer my nice world bubble. We stayed in a cute little motel lodge that had dorm rooms. Up early again the next day to head down to Omaru where we were supposed to see penguins but due to our "top-knotch" planning skills had to miss out on because they only come out at sunset and we had more of a drive to Dunedin where our hostel was booked for the night. but we found entertainment there and went on a brewery tour of Speights (had to forego on the cadburys because of timing and they weren't running at full production anyway). Which was a good way to start st. paddy's day. that night we just went to a couple of local pubs in the octagon (town centre). The next morning we treated ourselves to a nice big greasy breakfast, as we had a 4 hr. drive to Te Aanu. It was raining on and off all day but this drive was amazing and filled with so many sheep and roadkill (found out that here it's ferrets, oposums and bunnys) that we were entertained. mostly by the sheep. and partly by trying to figure out what road kill was previously what animal. sounds gross, i know, but there's just SO much of it. Te Anau is right on a lake and it was raining so we did some browsing of tourist shops all afternoon. that night we went on the coolest tour of the glowworm caves. they are in a spacticular cave that you have to hunch right down to enter for about 10 feet and then it opens right up to a huge cathedrial ceiling. a gushing stream and waterfall lead up the walk to the groto where you get in a little boat and it's pitch black and all you can see on the walls around and above you are little blue dots that look like stars but are the glowworms. they move and it looks like twinkleing lights. the coolest experience ever. as we were leaving marcy and i almost got trapped in an asian tour group. it was a close call but we found the right way out and the people where we were supposed to be. The next day we had a wake up call of 5 am to drive out ot milford sound where we kayaked 14 k over 4 hours around the sound, which is really a fjord. it is by far the most beauiful place i've ever seen. Regardless of the hilarious looking thermal longjohns, clouds and drizzle it was ... no words can discribe it's beauty. a 168 m waterfall that is miniturized by the height of the mountains which are so lush and green with trees growing right out of the rock and seals that are 5 feet from your kayak. We finished that at 2 in the afternoon and arrived in queenstown at around 6pm, after running a few errands in Te Anau. We showered since we smelled of bug spray (the sand flies in milford sound were so bad) and sweaty. Then went and walked around downtown Queenstown which is such a resort town. nothing but restaurants, bars and sports shops. all overpriced. i went to the infamous Fergburger and had a massive chicken burger (plans to go back for a beef one). Today we hiked Lake Hayes and booked ourselves in for the Canyon swing where we drop 60m free falling before Swining out between the canyon. the cliff we jump off is the height of three 747's end to end. SO excited and a bit scared. But i must log off. I have added new pics of the end of Melbourne and what i have of NZ so far on CD. Will try to update again soon, hopefully before we get back to Oz. We fly to Cairns in 5 days, before which we are doing the Franz Joseph glacier and working our way back to Christchurch doing hiking and such along the way.
Miss you all... check out the pics and hope to get updates from you all soon.
xoxo