Milford pictures

Milford sound, 16th

Having trouble with Wi-Fi, so pictures to come later.had a lengthy but beautiful scenic coach drive to Milford sound, followed by a cruise down this fjord, and coach back.On the way we stopped various times, to take photos and go on short walks. The journey took us into rainforest territory, and one walk went to a spectacular waterfall carving it's way through the rock.at another we met the friendly parrots called keas, who seem to like tourists. It was rather misty and rainy, as I suppose it often is in rainforests...So I was a little concerned we wouldn't see the sound in all its glory, but actually this only added to it's appearance, as there were extra waterfalls all over.the boat went in close to one waterfall, so we all got soaked through.this was much fun, and amazing experience how much force was thundering down. There was also a buffet on board, which was an excellent chance to stock up on foods that I haven't had for a while, and luckily it wasn't choppy enough to feel seasick! Ooh, and we saw seals, and one solitary but extremely cute penguin :-)

*updated* Tasman glacier and on to Queenstown

Hired a bike to cycle the 8km to the Tasman glacier...this is another massive lake that didn't exist a few decades ago, but is rapidly growing...the glacier that is far at the other end of the lake is receding by 400 to 800m a year apparently, unbelievable! Feeling somewhat floppy and stricken with cold today (still! Boo!) But hopefully a couple of days with limited physical activity from here on shall help! 

Able Tasman, who many things in this country are named after, was a Dutch adventurer who found New Zealand before captain Cook did (who many other things are named after)

Getting the coach to Queenstown soon...more later!...

...a beautiful journey today. we passed through a valley named lindis (second picture) after lindisfarne on the way to Queenstown...And it bears no resemblance whatsoever to where it got it's name from...was lovely though.And I've worked out the main difference between here and England, other than slightly bigger and less populated, is no dry stone walls!

Feeling a little sad to have left mount cook without achieving quite everything I would have liked...And Queenstown is much bigger...On first impressions I like it less, but there is so much to do I'm sure it shall win me over!

Day trip to Milford sound tomorrow! 

Finding snow, 14th

Today I stayed in Mount Cook village, and headed out on another walk. I was supposed to taking it easy to try and get over my cold...but then it was sunny, and not forecast to be so nice tomorrow. What could I do! I did restrain my walk to the short version (the longer and very appealing second option was to hire ice equipment and go to a mountain top hut to stay the night...but didn't want to get into trouble by being tired) The top of the two lakes you can see here is the one I walked to yesterday with the icebergs. The big grey stripe on the middle is debris left by a retreating glacier. I spoke to an Australian guy at the top of this walk (who was about to set off further up the snow on skis!) And he said 20 years ago when he first came here, the top lake didn't exist-that's how far the glacier has retreated. There is serious climate change happening here. In 1991 the top fell off the highest mountain you can see...these kind of things are happening due to ice melting and rocks becoming looser as a result. If î were to ever come back here in the distant future, I suspect it would look very different!

Just refuelling on a large plate of spaghetti, then after I shall go into the sauna (yes, this YHA has an actual sauna included in the not at all expensive price!)

Woułd love to stay here longer, and attempt the long walk to the hut, however it's set to get windy tomorrow, and anyway I have so many other places to see! So it's onwards for now. Let's hope the next places are as wonderful!

Mount cook, Sunday 13th

It turned out to be another beautiful day for the coach ride to mount cook village, so there were stunning mountain views everywhere.we drove round lake pukaki, and could see mount cook, the tallest mountain in the country, in the distance.from the centre of the village (Its called a village but is basically a cluster of hostels and hotels, no shop!) Mount cook is obscured by other mountains. I'd love to go up and explore, but it is very avalanchy in certain places you can hear it every now and then crunching its way down.I think this is very standard in glacier areas, but you certainly can't just head off without lots of knowledge of the area.luckily they do have plenty of trails in the valleys for we tourists, complete with suspension bridges and well made pathways...so today I did the hooker valley trail, to view the terminal face of the hooker glacier, and the lake full of icebergs it has created at the bottom. It was a ten mile trek (5 each way), and not as flat as the lady in the hostel made it sound! But very worth it with beautiful views all the way.

Lake tekapo, Saturday 12th September

Today saw my escape from the city, and into the mountainous regions. The coach took about four hours, the first two of which were fairly flat, and all of a sudden it got hilly and then mountainy...apparently yesterday there was a snow storm here at lake tekapo, but today has been gloriously sunny! I went to the hot springs, then had a kayak on the blue lake, and then for a walk up the hill with the observatory.
Had a walk down to the lake this evening to look at stars with two guys from the hostel (alfie from Sweden, and Olli from York), as we are in a dark sky area, and the stars are very bright! We returned to the lake at midnight to try and catch a glimpse of the southern lights aurora (didn't know it existed!) But couldn't really anything...though alfies camera with long exposure captured a bit of a glow.

Day out in Akaroa...Friday 11th September

Today was an exciting trip to Akaroa. I booked onto a day trip on a little mini bus with a friendly man doing a spot of commentary along the way. It took about two hours each way, but was a lovely scenic journey-I was glad to get out of the city. Akaroa is not too dissimilar to the Lake District...except less people...and with a big harbour that has dolphins in it :-) yay! 

So I went on a swimming with dolphins adventure, which was super exciting! The water wasn't exactly calm though, so I was glad I had taken preventative sea-sickness measures (in spite of it looking very calm within the harbour). It was so exciting spotting Dolphins that that kind of distracted from the queasiness too. The type of Dolphins in Akaroa harbour are only found in New Zealand, and are just over a metre long. They tend to stay in small groups (pods) of up to three... The first ones we saw were a group of three, tearing towards us from straight ahead. They were so graceful and pretty! We got in the water as they came back and forwards through us a few times, before heading off again. The water was very cold, but our amazing thick wetsuits did a very good job of keeping us warm and buoyant. Some of the waves (swell really, they didn't break into white waves) seemed to be a couple of metres high, though it's a little difficult to judge with untrained eyes! After that we saw lots of Dolphins coming and going, but none really stuck around for long. We did get back in the water later but didn't get much interest from the Dolphins-from the reaction of the guides it wasn't an especially good trip on the interaction front, but even seeing them for a bit was well worth it, and it was a very exciting boat ride and swim even without the Dolphins!

There was enough time for a potter around the little town, and eat fish and chips (to which the mans reaction to my question of "are there any forks" was "you're no kiwi are ya!?") then got the bus back...

going to see another show from the arts festival tonight, then onwards to pastures new in the morning :-)