April 20th! Glaciers and Pancake Rocks!

Tuesday, April 20, 2010
-Got out of Wanaka a little after 7, the clouds were all around us near the ground, and when they weren’t, it was super foggy. I found it pretty, but I wasn’t the one driving through it.
-We made a bathroom stop and went into the café (smallest town yet, like three buildings and some houses) and they were super nice. They had no filtered coffee, but helped me out with figuring out what to order. No trim milk, but I had some of that and splenda in the car. It was like SUPER caffeine. For $4, it was tiny, but it was takeaway (that had added 50cents) so I at least got the lid, and it sent me through the roof. There was a German voice for at least half an hour. I was instantly awake.
-Now on to Fox Glacier! About half hour away, we came along the ocean beach, and for a good ¾ mile along the beach/road, there were rock pilings and branches all set up into designs and formations.
People had all formed these mini altar-esque things with them. A lot of the white rocks had been written on with peoples names and dates. If I had a marker, I would have done it. I could have spent a good hour just walking down the line looking at all the formations and writings on the rocks. It was very cool. There was a seagull that literally followed us down the line. He would sit on a rock very close to us, we would move down a few feet, he would fly down to right in front of us again.
-Fox Glacier was first, and the Access Road, and since you could actually see the glacier and the path to the glacier, we decided to make the trek. Big WIDE path of the glacier. An hour there and back. Climbed over rocks, crossed streams, up shaky paths. It would NEVER happen in the states. Never. Safety hazard waiting to happen. They were safe in the fact that we couldn’t get too close to it. On the way back took a mini side path to one of the melting streams and touched chunks of ice.

-After a very brief Franz Josef Glacier stop, we popped into a Four Square grocery store and I started to put our pita lunch together. Humus, spinach greens, red pepper from the night before’s salad, and deli ham. They were delicious. And then Tim had some more hummus with leftover broccoli and carrots while I had an orange. We each had two of the chocolate Afghan cookies.
-We made it to the Pancake Rocks and Blowholes right at high tide. We felt like we were walking through a corn field with the types of plant and height of the plant that was constantly surrounding us. The rocks themselves were pretty neat. The waves just beating down on them in high tide and seeing all the caves and crevices below the rocks was just as cool as the pancake effect itself. The formations were much bigger than I actually expected them to be. Not the rocks themselves, but there were lots of them in the area.
-A mini mouthwash at the store cost $9.
-Stayed the night in Wesport, at the camp we parked right next to the kitchen. There were two people in there already, so it was rather awkard to make out pita sandwiches, our broccoli/carrot/olive/hummus plate, and heat up the egg pie. They were at the table, so we had to go eat outside. It wasn’t freezing, but I would have rather ate inside.
-I was getting creative for dessert, so I made the apple and banana in a skillet, with the honey and peanut butter and then tim put his in a pita, and I scooped mine up with half a pita. It was seriously awesome.
-Spent time looking up hotels/hostels for our few days in Sydney before Mom arrived, Our biggest hurdle is the flight to Sydney right now. With our luggage the way it is, it just seems impossible. Impossible So we need to work on that tomorrow.

Black Wednesday: April 21st.

Preface: Near the end, I sound like a manic depressive, note the date, and check out facebook for current pictures and note how much happier I look!

Wednesday, April 21, 2010

-There were Weka birds outside our car this morning, chirping away. We saw a lot of those yesterday, we thought they might be weird looking kiws at first, but saw a sign telling us we were stupid and they were Wekas. So we got ready, a little easier this morning than other mornings, not sure why. Maybe we are just getting used to it. Maybe it’s a little more methodic than it was originally, but we made our coffee in the kitchen and headed out.
-We pulled into Nelson, and the World of Wearable Arts/Collectable Cars Museum. It was smaller than I expected space wise, but had the same amount of stuff that I expected. The first room just had three ball gowns, one made entirely of wood, one made entirely out of copper tin things, and one involving an entire tea set on shelving as the bussle. Then there was a big show room, several were out in the room and stationary, but then 20 or so were on a constantly moving conveyor belt of mannequins, and then you read a card on your seat that talked about each one. I totally dug it, the materials were crazy, there were feathers and tea bags and car parts, and wood and ear plugs. Just very very strange. One looked like a brown big bird kiwi puffball. There was the South Pacific business suit with lots of sequins and craziness.
-The second half of the museum was the car collection. There was this crazy expensive luxury car that had real wood paneling and each back seat had a personal tv and the rear seats totally folded out like a lazy boy. That was pretty swank. They had a Delorian that Tim HAD to have his picture taken with.
-Nelson was like the Australia book jackpot. Of all the stores we had looked in so far, all they had was lonely planet for 60/70 bucks. This one had numerous brands, and those brands all cheaper. I gathered the best ones, and went outside to flag Tim into the store. We did our best logic and bought a small Lonely Planet Sydney book for $NZ28. That should at least last us the three days we spend there, and then we can look through Mom’s Australia book for the other cities.
-Lunch was a small bowl of nonfat cottage cheese, and a killer small bowl of fruit. It had mango, kiwi, grapes, pineapple, and canteloupe. Delicious and nutritious lunch. I miss healthy food.
-We started the drive leisurely to Picton, 3ish hours away. The weather stayed awesome and sunny with very few clouds, so we pulled off onto the shoulder pull offs a few times for pictures, listened to Tim’s ipod, it was actually a really nice drive. It’s just hard to fully enjoy how pretty and relaxing is. Its like, this is the most gorgeous place on earth, in the most beautiful weather, and we are stressing majorly about Australia and flights and getting our luggage to Sydney. Those stresses just overtake all that we should be enjoying, and its hard. We didn’t want it to be this way at all.
-Finally we had to say pause and go for a walk because we needed dinner groceries and it was getting dark soon. We walked down into Town Centre with this totally awesome little park right in front of the water to watch all the boats and ferries. Green grass, nice beach, benches, playground. It was the perfect place, and all we could think about was luggage. We saw the big big ferry turn around into the dock, so that was somewhat interesting, it was like parking a Cadillac in a bathtub.
- Back at camp, Tim made more calls on luggage with no luck and looked up a bunch of things online. That is when I saw my bank account and had a breakdown. I can’t even go into it here because I will flip out again. And its not like I am even having a good time here. (for those reading this far, remember that this was April 21st when I wrote this…) We are cold every night, we sleep in a van, we eat crappy grocery food that is super unhealthy for us, but it’s the cheapest they have, and nothing is fun. Gas is ridiculous, everything costs more than we expected, all just to burn my savings. Ridiculous. I lost it. I sobbed in the van for at least half an hour. At least. No consolation. Can’t go home. Don’t want to stay here. Just trying to focus on being with mom in Australia, even if that means still spending more money. It will be fun, and involve hotels, and my mommy.
-It was 7:15 before we made dinner, and following the events of the day, it was an epic fail. The chicken was the worst chicken tim has ever even seen. It was 65% fat, and the actual meat was awful. We tried skilleting it, adding the veggies and butter and salt and pepper (just to make it edible) but I had about two bites of chicken, some of the veggies, and olives. The saving grace was that Tim got Uncle Bens thai rice for himself, you just microwave it, but there was enough for us both. Total savior. It didn’t help that there was a group of Germans in the kitchen making an AMAZING smelling dinner. Then they watched How I Met Your Mother. We wanted to get away from them, so we went to the tv lounge to be online and eat our chocolate cake roll thing, but it was so cold in there that we ended up back in the kitchen in the back corner, which ended up ok.
-He tried to book our flight to Sydney on Emirates, even switching over to the camp computers that were hardwired in, but it kept showing up as an error. It was annoying, cause we really need to get those tickets booked before its too late.

Hot!

Good lord Cairns is hot. Like holy whoa humidity. NOW I finally feel like I am in the South Pacific. Friday is a five star Great Barrier Reef Cruise and I could not be more pumped.

Snorkeling, fishies, hot, sun....maybe even a tan? Heaven forbid I get rid of this Vampiric skin I have been sporting for the past five weeks. Like really, I dont think I have been this pale since high school. This must change in the next four days. *fingers crossed*

Nessa would love it here. Sprawled out, meowing at everyone to bring her a cool beverage, swatting at every bird that squawks by (and thats a lot), but not bothering to move...*sigh*

I miss my kitties. But I like Cairns!

Adelaide Crows....

Australian Football is for pansies. They might as well be male figure skaters.

Coach Mitchell would even bench these guys.....

Ouch.

April 19th.

Monday, April 19, 2010

Alarm went off at 5:17, as planned. And as much as I didn’t want to get out from the warm covers, it was nowhere near the torture as the morning before. It’s almost easier getting up that early over around 7/8. We both were wide awake almost instantly. And it was still pitch black. The darkness is all the time. From 6pm to almost 7am. Its depressing. Like WAY depressing.
The darkness started lifting and we could see the beginning of the mountains around us as we drove to the Milford Sound. It was really cool. We went into the Homer Tunnel. Which looked regular at first, but it was about a lane and a half wide, so you didn’t know what to do if you came across a car (little did we know that it turns into a one lane at 7am (but it was early than that) and that eventually the lights turn on via solar power, but while we were in it, it was pitch black and curvy. Super creepy and nerve wracking. We came out on the other side and the mountains that surrounded us were completely undescribably. They were huge. They looked huge, and then you saw a tree or something only a tiny way up and realized they were about 10 times the size you actually thought they were. It was insane. And they were gorgeous. Clouds and fog hung low. Streams trickled down from places you couldn’t even see the beginning of, we saw places that we knew we would want to stop at, but kept driving so we were sure to make the boat on time. The mountains were covered by clouds, it was so weird and eerie, like full sized clouds had come down and were chilling in the valleys of the Mountains, it wasn’t mist, they were actual clouds. Strange.

We boarded the RV Sinbad. Breakfast was served free with the morning trip (love the free food). We ate pretty quickly, and made our way to the front of the ferry, where we stood the whole way out to the ocean. We passed a large rock with three seals, two adults and one baby, which was super cute since the baby kept squirming like it couldn’t get comfortable on the hard rock. Our captain was quite amusing, making fun of the Aussies, and making comments like, “Lets turn this girl around…and the boat as well…” We passed a waterfall that looked dinky and small, but were told that it was THREE TIMES the size of Niagra Falls.
It was just ridiculous, the size and majesticness of the mountains were unbelievable. We would be out, and you would see a tiny tiny fleck of white in the background, looking like a duck almost, and then you would realize as it got closer very slowly, that it was a full size passenger ferry. Just immense. There were waterfalls that started so high up, that they never hit the water below, they had turned into mist and blown away before it even hit the water. There were ledges, not tops of mountains, but just ledges that were 800m above us. I took a million pictures, and every single one of them looked like a photograph.

Fjord Facts: The Milford Sound isn’t really a sound, it’s a Fjord, some moron just named it a Sound before realizing it was really a fjord.
And.
There are numerous earthquakes in the Sound a year (oh, and). And that every 150 years, there are catastrophic earthquakes, and that they are about 150 years overdue for another one.
We slowly worked our way back to the Homer Tunnel, stopping at the Chasm along the way, and then back to Te Anau.
Got gas outside of Queenstown, drove through, just to see what its like. Very Vail like, at the base of the mountains, but 85% of all the stores and businesses were either nature/outdoor or crazy sports related. It was clear what the town made its money on, but it was a very cute town, looked decently cheap, and like the town would be very easy to live and work in. The trees were more fall-like than anywhere else. All leaves were gorgeous yellows and reds.

After Arrowtown, we then had a massive debate about how far to try and make it. We had been in the car for 10+ hours already, and Fox/Franz Glaciers were another whole 5 hours away, and I just did not want to be in the car anymore. But really, it was still super early (4ish) and there is no reason to get closer to the glaciers while we have nothing else to do. Tim wanted to make it there, but I just ugh. I had totally hit the wall. Decide to drive just to get it done since we wouldn’t be doing anything at the campsite anyway. Start the drive, by the time we enter Wanaka an hour later, we had lost our minds which including singing songs about how much it sucked to the tune of Christmas carols.

Wanaka Bella Vista to the rescue! Topped off with a preroasted chicken and salad from New World, all rolled up in an orange chocolate muffin to share. That right there made the night a total success, but it got even more productive when we spent the next several hours going through every single brochure, and planning the entire rest of the time in the South Island and the rest of our time with the stupid Spaceship.

Roos for yous!

These are far too awesome not to share today....and then it punched me in the face....

Sunday, April 18th, 2010

Sunday, April 18, 2010
-Going to the bathroom at 3:30 in the morning at a campground with super sketchy people around in weird camper vans (albeit just like ours) is beyond scary and I thought I would have a heart attack tearing back to the van.
-Can I just say that no bathroom should shut all the shower doors and stall doors at night, so you can see that no one is trying to kill you?!
-The night was so cold that I woke up with the blanket 100% over my head, and I am totally one of those people that cannot stand anything even touching my face when I sleep, let alone all the way over my head…
-We started at the Dunedin (Duh-Nee-Din) Railway Station first, really pretty, but not much to do.
-The Cadbury Factory tour is the most awesome thing on the planet for chocolate lovers. EVER. Chocolate waterfall, cups of warm chocolate straight from the machines to eat with a spoon, and handing out free candy left and right. Just the smell of the place could wake me from a coma.
-We learned that white chocolate is only cocoa butter, milk and sugar. So that was somewhat disturbing.
-I got to do the 45 minute Cadbury chocolate tour, so the next on the agenda was the 90 minute Speights Brewery tour. It was actually really cool since it is one of the last Gravity Breweries in existence. There were only two other people on the tour, so the end “tasting” session turned into, “Here’s the taps, here’s the glasses, go for it” Sidenote: This is the definite upside to touring in the off season, the tours are virtually dead and you get better service and its generally a lot funner.
-Skipped out on Larnach Castle. I don’t need to see some random dude’s house for $50.
-More Subway goodness (shocker).
-Jaffa’s need to come to the United States. This needs to happen, anyone in favor of chocolate and orange flavor combined, join us in this conquest.
-New Zealand farms deer. This seems very strange to me. Why would you want to farm them?
-Looks like we should be hitting the Te Anau campsite a little after 6:30. Its strangely still a bit light, I mean, don’t get me wrong, its still dark, but the gloomy clouds that have been around all day still seem to be reflecting a tiny bit of light. Maybe that can hold out….wishful thinking.
-Te Anau was a small but quaint town, the first store we went to, was a huge debate. We were in that store for at least 45 minutes trying to figure out what to do for dinner. I was feeling so crappy not having any vegetables or protein in my body. I wanted eggs or chicken, but Tim wasn’t feeling the chicken or cooking, but I didn’t want to eat plain spinach for my entire dinner. It was a big mess.
-Next stop, gas station to fill up before heading to Milford Sound in the morning, since there is no gas stations between the two towns. And even the word “town” I use lightly. We went into the Real Journeys office, (they are sure open late (8:30). We debated about whether or not to spend the money (100 each) on the cruise. But Tim really wanted to see the Sound, and other from the one end at a parking lot, there is no real way to see it unless on a cruise. So we booked one for early the next morning.
-We were quite annoyed about a lot of different things, and now we had to lug all of the cooking equipment and food and such to the cold camp kitchen to cook, at like 8pm. We were just miserable. Had to wash everything first, no towels, just gross. But we scrambled our 6 egg whites (using butterpacket since we had no spray) with broccoli, and put cheese on top. But at least we got free breakfast on the boat that next morning! That was a definite plus!!!
-Went back to the van, to put everything away and get settled for the night. It felt like it was raining at first, but it was more of a heavy mist, not as bad, but still. Just one more thing, AND it was pitch black. With one of three lights working in the back of the van. Pretty miserable. At least it was 12 degrees warmer than the night before!