New Zealand - Week 2

Hello again from Down Under!
If I've learned anything on this trip, it's that I'm NOT a good blogger! It's much easier just to jump on Facebook and post something here and there. I have friends who currently have great blogs (this means you, Jess!), but I just don't have the patience. Maybe it's because we are always on the go here...but in reality that should just give me MORE to write about! That being said, here's our latest update...

I wrote about Day 8 in the last entry...Hiking in Abel Tasman....so...

Day 9: After the water taxi took us back to civilization, our next stop was St. Arnaud, which is a quiet little town in the middle of a National Park (pretty much all of NZ is in a National Park!). We stayed at a cute little place called Alpine Lodge in a simple little room. We (meaning me) were tired from the hike, so we had an early dinner in their restaurant. We basically ordered off the kids menu...I had pepperoni pizza and Dannie had Mac n cheese!

Day 10: Wow! Not sure how I got talked into this one, but today we did a HARD hike! Mount Robert! I don't know the specifics, other than it seemed like it was straight up the mountain for an hour and a half. At the bottom it was cold, then so hot we had to strip a few layers, then all of a sudden it was like hurricane strength winds! I literally had to stop and hold on to a bush because I thought I was going to get blown off. I was so thankful when we made it to the hut at the top where we had lunch. A hut is where hikers spend the night...they have bunks and cooking facilities. We visited with a guy from NZ and 2 French girls while we ate. Then it was time to go back down the mountain. Again gale force winds! But, it was also fun (and funny)! Dannie hiked ahead of me to get the car...while I took a wrong turn and added another 1/2 hour onto the hike. That part was easy, though. The views on the hike were AMAZING...you
could see forever!

In celebration of the hike, we spoiled ourselves and stayed at a beautiful oceanfront resort called Punakaiki Resort. The view from our room was beautiful and the sunset was gorgeous. Dannie went off exploring the beach before dinner (the boy never sits still!). We ate at their restaurant and had a table overlooking the ocean. That night, we sat on our deck and had an incredible view of the stars. The Milky Way always amazes me!

Day 11: the next morning, Dannie took me an a mini version of his beach exploration. Let's just say my comfort zone is a little narrower than his, so we turned around early. After we checkout out, we went to visit the "Pancake Rocks". Its hard to describe (try Google), but basically they are huge rocks in the oceans that have visible layers from the water beating
against them. We visited here last time and they are very cool!

This time we did a very easy, beautiful hike to a waterfall. The trail was basically all under cover so it was even cool. There weren't many others on the trail, but one guy we passed was from Madison!

Our next stop was St. Arthur's pass, where we intended to do a couple hikes. We stayed at a cute little cabin and I made dinner that night...steak, corn on the cob and risotto. Oh, and lots of WINE! After dinner we played Sequence. Dannie won the tournament, but then we realized we played wrong, so I don't think it should count.

Day 12: like I said, we planned on doing a couple hikes here. NZ weather had other plans. We woke up to rain, which totally counted me OUT for hiking. Dannie went ahead and did a BIG hike called Avalanche Trail while I stayed back, wrote in my journal, checked Facebook...and even did laundry. That night we went to dinner at a cute cafe called The Wobbly Kea. A Kea is a NZ parrot.

Then...the fun began! We went to another bar for a nightcap. It was a lodge-like atmosphere...roaring fire, beamed ceiling...even a couple "pub dogs". We started talking to a group of 9 guys from Australia who were doing a biking trip here. They were quite entertaining! One of the guys, Max, was supposedly a poet and we got him to stand up a couple times and recite some funny poetry. Even got some video. He reminded me of the Gorton's Fisherman for some reason! We had a blast with them!

Day 12: Woke up to more rain! We decided to do a little hike anyways to a waterfall...one Dannie did the day before ( so my earlier post was wrong...today was the waterfall hike...the other one was along a river). The hike was easy and the waterfall was incredible! The weather was just not cooperating and we had to decide which direction we were going to head next. Flipped a coin to decide...but then headed in the opposite direction!

Our next stop was to see the Franz Joseph Glacier. Last time we were here, we actually did the hike ON the glacier. It was really foggy and we couldn't see the top, but since the glacier is slowly receding, we thought we'd check it out once more. We stayed that night near a different one called Fox Glacier. It was rainy and foggy, so we didn't really see it. We had a cool little cabin and I made dinner again. I don't know why, but in NZ there are few hotels with bath tubs. This cabin had a Jacuzzi tub, which was pretty exciting!

Day 13: awoke to....more rain This time it was pretty heavy. Most of the day was spent in the car with me being scared! It was like hurricane strength winds and rain. At one point, a huge tree fell across the road and we coiled barely drive around it. The scariest part was that we had just driven past that site but decided to turn back and get gas. Driving on the windy roads along cliffs with no guard rail is not my idea of fun. Dannie was having a blast, though, because the heavy rain was producing huge, beautiful waterfalls.

Today we were headed to my favorite town in New Zealand...Wanaka! Its a quaint town on a beautiful lake that is surrounded my mountains (some snow capped). There are cute shops and great restaurants! We went to one of our favorite places from last time...a movie theater called Cafe Paradiso. Its an eclectic little place where the seating is various chairs, love seats, airplane seats, pillows...even an actual car you can sit in. They serve food and drinks and at intermission they have HUGE cookies right out of the oven. We had a pizza, bottle of wine, and 3 cookies! The movie was "My week with Marilyn", which was good (but the movie isn't the reason you go!). After dinner we had a night cap at a sports bar overlooking the lake.

Day 14: Guess what...more rain! We decided to hike in the rain anyways. Last time we did a great hike to the Rob Roy Glacier. It was sunny and we had a picnic at the top. This time...we were drenched and a little cold, but the picnic at the top was still fun! The glacier was a little fogged in, but we could see better than we had anticipated. Well worth it!

That night we went to an awesome restaurant called The Cow, which surprisingly, wasn't a steak place. The inside was stone with beamed ceilings and a fireplace. Perfect for a chilly night. We shared a VERY yummy pizza. Afterwards we had a night cap at a neat little bar. I just love Wanaka and would LOVE to live here!

Well, thats it for week 2. Time to go check the laundry while Dannie is out hiking. More later!