The Glowworm Song

I wish I was a glowworm
A glowworms never glum
Cause how can you be grumpy
When the sun shines out your bum!

I didn't make this up but I found it at the glowworm caves and memorized it.

Zak

Cast off!!!

Our first 3 hrs in Dunedin were spent at appointments for my arm.

"Gollum arm" Zak said.

My arm is skinny, scaley and pretty yukky looking. Also severally lacking in flexibility. So I have half a dozen somewhat painful exercises to do for the next fortnight to try and get some more rotation in the wrist joints.

Massive surgery scar to try and get rid of too.

But at least the cast is off.




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Milford Sounds

Today we went to Milford Sounds on a boat trip. Milford Sounds is a fiord. A fiord is created by a glacier carving out a valley from a mountain. There are lots of waterfalls in Milford Sounds this increases after particularly rainy weather. There was one wide and large waterfall that we went quite close to, about a meter or two away from it. I was on the deck at the time and I decided to walk up to the bow so I could get sprayed too. It turns out I underestimated the waterfall because my raincoat was covered in water and the front of my trousers were soaked.

There are a lot of steep cliffs in Milford Sounds partly covered in moss and trees. The bare patches are caused by tree avalanches much like snow avalanches.

There were lots of seals sleeping on rocks, and there was a seagull annoying them.



Us on the way to Milford Sounds.




Seagull annoying seal.




The View

By Emma


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Adventure capital of New Zealand

We had four nights booked in Queenstown. Our route here was longer than expected due to the weather issues on the West coast. But by skipping the night at Fox Glacier and driving for the day instead, we got to Queenstown as planned.

Day 1, we went up the gondolas and Bruce, Zak and Emma played on the luge. It was very popular and the lines started out a bit long. Emma was particularly pleased with how fast she could go. She only gave Bruce one worrying moment when she went off track and was close to tipping the cart over.




Second event for the day was jet boating on the Shotover river. Again, not a sport for me, so I checked out the shops while I waited. They had a ball and pronounced it the best thing ever.



Day 2, we took a trip on the Earnslaw to the Walter Peak farm and had a farm tour and BBQ lunch there. They had pork spare ribs, a family favourite, and since it was all you could eat, we had a lot of spare ribs! The weather was now extremely warm, and we hung out at the motel for a while before heading back to the wharf for paraflight. But it was too windy and the flight was cancelled.

Day 3. First up paraflight. This was something I could do, so Zak, Emma and I went as a triple. Bruce just took photos of this one. For paraflight you are harnessed under a foil which is dragged behind a speedboat, and you took off and landed in the deck, so we didn't get wet. Perfect since I am not supposed to get my cast wet. We were last to have a go, as the only ones going triple. The kids watched the ones before who had their feet dipped in the water and decided they wanted to try that. Zak got his feet wet, but Emma being shorter and lighter was not so fortunate. It was not too scary and there were lovely views on yet another beautiful hot day.

Lastly for the day, we drove out to Arrowtown. The kids were keen to try gold panning which was part of some if the aborted activities planned on the West coast. So we have done that, looked around the historic chinese settlement from the gold rush days. Now they are just building dams in the river to cool off.

Leaving tomorrow for Te Anau.

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On the way to Greymouth

Something swallowed up this blog the other night. So here are a few pictures.
1/1/13
Cape Foulwind - really windy...




Seal pup




Pancake rocks.




BB
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The National Kiwi Center

Yesterday we went to The National Kiwi Center. The first thing we saw were the eels. Their long gray, but fish-like bodies swishing around the tank with menacing electric blue eyes flickering in the gloom. The ones upstairs were worse longer and larger there were also more. Some were old blind even, (the old ones had dead cold white eyes, the young ones who could see had electric blue eyes). But it made it no better. Now I can't believe I joined the queue to feed the eels 3 times.



There was no sign of the tuataras probally hiding because of the rainy weather. There were lots of fish, I particulary liked the ones with pink and yellow tails sometimes with a dot of another colour. I don't know what they are though.

Then we saw the kiwi it had thick sturdy legs, a long beak and glossy brown feathers. It was running around in circles madly. Then a man came in to give the kiwi its lunch. He put down a plastic plate with a pinky brown mushy substance. I think it was worms or something of the sort. It ran to the food and pecked at it and the man walked out. It kept running in circles in the enclosure and pecking at the food, and repeating.

By Emma

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Trip disrupted by weather

I have spent many hours planning and organizing this trip. Once I started booking accommodation in the more popular places where it is harder to find at this time of year like Nelson and Queenstown, I pretty much had to work out where we would stop in between and how long we wanted to stay in each location. Once I started, I just keep planning and so in the end I pre booked the whole trip. Also I needed something to do while off work with my broken arm.
Today's plan was to start in Greymouth, see Shantytown, so the kids could pan for gold and wander down the west coast and end up in Fox glacier for the night, ready for a walk on the glacier first thing tomorrow morning.
But we woke to 40-50 km/hr winds and torrential rain. An outdoor activity like Shantytown didn't sound like fun. Instead we headed south to Hokitika. We stopped and did one of the local activities (which the kids may blog), and had lunch at a cafe. While there, the water on the footpath outside the cafe got to a foot deep and then slowly receded.


We then wandered through a couple of craft shops and overheard a conversation about road closures. The 6 - our route south to Fox glacier - and the 73 (Arthur's Pass) were both closed. The 6 being down for perhaps a number of days due to a washed out bridge. The 73 closed for flooding, perhaps open tomorrow.
So we had a quick change of plan .....
We headed back the way we had come this morning to Greymouth and took the Lewis pass to Christchurch. Four hours later....accommodation wasn't too hard to find, but with phone and Internet down in southland, we couldn't cancel our bookings for tonight or tomorrow. And tomorrow we have another long long drive to Queenstown to get back on schedule. Maybe just winging it for the accommodation on this trip would have been wise after all....
Cathy
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