Not many, if any

In Te Anau we stayed at an awesome hostel just outside the 'town' called Barnyard Backpackers, it had 2 woodstoves, a pool table, no bunk beds and a clean kitchen! The cottages were a bit of a walk away from the main house but it was all good. We met Cecil and Peter, who had randomly met up in Nelson and decided to drive together across the south island. They were cool, poor Cecil's car supposedly broke down and the mechanic fully ripped her off by charging 350$ for some small piece and ten minutes of labour. sad!
We left early the next morning to go to the Kepler Track.
Above the cloudline!
It was such a hard walk, 1 hr to Brod Bay and then a serious climb up Mt Luxmore, it took us roughly 2 hrs when it shouldv'e taken 4.5 hrs. we are just that fit. we only had one pack and 2 day bags so we took turns taking the massive pack. it was sooo brutal! We got to Luxmore Hutt around 230pm and went to explore the caves. We took water from a stream outside the hutt as instructed by the i-site and then after i took a sip read a poster about Giardia, a bacteria that causes explosive foul-smelling diarrhea (is there any other kind?) I freaked out, but decided it was too late to boil the water. Luckily we didnt get it! that would have been rough. Especially since the builders of the hutt thought it would be genious to put an outhouse inside the hutt on the TOP FLOOR beside the bunk rooms. ewwww. and there was no toilet paper. ewwwww. the hutt has running water and real bathrooms in the summer. gutted. Anyway, that was off topic. The caves were pretty sweet, lots of fossilised stuff, stalagmites and stalagtites i think they are called. Limestone caves. speleothem. kirk just looked that up for me on google, i already forget all the stuff i learned. i think travelling makes me dumb. I forget people's names 5 seconds after they tell me!
That night we made lamb stew with quinoa, and our little stove wasn't working so we had to use the woodstove. luckily it wasnt the gas stoves the other huts had! We went to bed pretty early and decided to drag mattresses to the fire so i wouldnt freeze to death. Another couple did the same, while the 6 others went upstairs to the bunk rooms, the hut slept 50 ppl! so big. I had the best sleep ever, i was so warm!


The next day we got up early and hiked as far as we could without crampons and ice axes. Then we when back to the hut, got our packs and went down the mountain.
Above the treeline!
We pretty much ran down, took us just over an hour to get down. Then stopped for a snack and walked the last bit and collapsed beside the car in the parking lot 2 and a half hours after we started. we were so dead.
We drove to Slope Point straight away, stopping only for groceries. Twice, because we saw a countdown and had to see if lollies were cheap. and we spent probably 100$ on food. oops! worth it though.
We drove through Invercargil and got to slope point around 630pm. Yes, we drove the scenic route at night, genious. The lonely planet guidebook recommended 2 hostels at slope point and one of which was already closed and for sale. Luckily the farmstead hostel was open, we had to go to the farmer's house to sign in, no doors were locked! so random. there were 4 other people in teh kitchen when we got there, cecil and peter were there! they have the lonely planet book too, as did the other couple. we all had rooms to ourselves it was awesome. made a great dinner of venison sausages fried with potatoes and onions with steamed broccoli. Black forest chocolate for dessert. Watched some more 'how i met your mother', just for something different and went to bed around midnight. we took the heater into our room (from the kitchen), but it heated using lights, so our room was bright, but it was worth it to have some warmth. Woke up around 9am and left the hostel at 10, we drove through the catlins today, stopping at nugget point, kaka point, owaka just for gas, slope point (where you had to walk through sheep pen...) and a few other random places. i must say i wasn't that impressed with the catlins, the gorgeous west coast scenery has spoilt me! I miss snowy mountains.
Windswept trees at Slope Point
Now we are in Dunedin, staying at a little hostel just outside the town centre that has a sauna and spa pool. yessss i cant wait to use them. Our room has no bunk beds either. sweet. The plan for tonight is a Speight's brewery tour and then tomorrow Cadbury World. Stoked.
LOVE!

Baby, I'm not alright when you go

The night be spent as Montrose Backpackers in Franz Josef was such a bust, I could hardly sleep, I was in a room full of smelly boys who snored like nobody's biz. Ick. And I woke up at 7am. Oh well, it was nice to be warm anyway. The next morning we set off for Wanaka. stopped heaps for photos since it was a gorgeous day. Arrived in Wanaka around 5pm, realized it was Sunday and decided to track down a church. We saw signs for a catholic church and followed it until we saw another sign that said presbyterian church so we went and saw a sign that read: Taize, 6pm. I went in to ask what this Taize was and apparently its a straight up meditation service where you sit quietly with candles everywhere. Not quite my style, but the pastor-lady said there was a pentecostal church called 'lighthouse' for young snowboarders up the road in a lawn bowling club. Heck yes. Fish and chips was on our minds since the last time we tried was such a bust. Went to Wana to get some fush & chups. Got hoki and elephant fish with way too many chips and ate it all. Pretty yum! The church was super small, maybe 15-20 ppl there. Instead of having a band they put on a CD and everyone laid down on the floor to 'soak'. I was weirded out at first but it was pretty cool in the end. The pastor was speaking about leaving a legacy, and I quite enjoyed the message. Its funny how you crave church when you travel. Or I do anyway. Met some lovely people after the service and found out the church had started out in the states for a group of young professional snowboarders and now there are lighthouse churches all over the world. sweet as. As we were leaving my cheeky travel buddy asked one of the church leaders where we could find a good place to pitch our tent. I should add that I had already asked where to rent some boarding gear and Darren had offered his gear to us. Darren said he had a spare room and invited us to stay over for the night! as Wanaka was bloody freezing we were SO stoked. Darren and Vanessa were so awesome. We had our own room and they set us up with gloves, snowsuits, board, boots, everything we needed. We stayed up talking with them for a bit and then went to bed, I had a wicked sleep. Next morning we went to Treble Cone. Absolutely terrifying trip up the steepest hill I've ever seen with my old old all season tired. eeek. We made it though! Perfectly blue skies in the am. Very different hill to what I'm used to though. ALL man-made snow, and you only ski the very top of the mountain. you drive up to the top of the mountain and ski down maybe a quarter of the way down. weird. but its too warm near the bottom. no trees either! no way to tell which run is intermediate or advanced. also there are backcountry trails that you hike to after taking the chairlift, ski down and then hike back to the bottom of the chairlift. what a workout! and the boots i bought are way to big so i had a hard time getting my edge in as my heels would slip out all the time. kind of annoying. but i still had so much fun, especially when we accidentally went off a few drop offs (really narrow run too!) I was challenged in ways i've never been challenged on my board and i think ive improved quite a bit already! and tremblant is not icy at all compared to treble cone.
we made dinner for darren, van and their flatmate dave. chicken stirfry. yum! and brownies for dessert. kirk added too much water and the icing because sauce. it worked though.
We stayed another night with them and left in the am for queenstown. we stopped at a local fish and chips place (McGregor's) that van recommended to us and said we had to get blue cod instead of the crap fish. it was WAY better than our last fish. and we bought some ginger slice. I was stoked to see Rocko! We ran into her randomly on the street! love it. shes working 12 hr days so we couldnt catch up much but arranged to meet up the next evening. had such a hard time finding a hostel to stay at since queenstown's high season is winter. duh, totally forgot that. found a spot at nomads, was a pretty garbage hostel, really but one night is ok. just watched pushing daisies until 1am, then our roommates trickled in one by one, waking me up heaps. i missed the tent i must say.
Drove up to the Remarkables to board. We were warmed that snow chains were needed to get up the hill, but after making it up treblecone we were cocky and decided to try it, our hostel receptionist said you could rent chains partway up anyway. oh snap, we made it! and lucky too as there was NOWHERE to rent snow chains. crazy woman. the road wasnt nearly as bad as treblecone's anyway. Had another perfect day, remarks had 10cm of fresh snow too so we did some backcountry trails, and i have been sore ever since, hiking with a board is tough! but worth the fresh powder. I scratched up my board from the rocks everywhere. Did I mention that the hills have rocks and grass patches? sooo strange, and the lifts dont have foot rests so your feet get mad cramps from the board hanging down! Awesome day though, went back to town around 430 to return kirk's rentals and my rented snowpants and went to our new hostel 'bungi' to investigate the hot tub. it was so awesome, we had our fergburgers too. famous burger place. i got tropical swine, streaky bacon, pineapple, aioli, lettuce, tomato, etc, etc. not as good as the works but better than burger fuel. huuuuge burger, i ate only half.
met up with rocko for mochas in a cute resto and sat by the fire to catch up. was so lovely! Wish it could have been longer. Went back to the hostel to make granola bars and stayed up late watching pushing daisies again. the hostel kitchen was awful and disgustingly dirty. not fun to cook in. but we were in a nice little 4 bed dorm, and the place had an outdoor hot tub....
Left the next morning early to do the 134m Nevis bungee. Not gonna lie, I was nervous and wondering why the heck i was doing this to myself. again. first bungee was wakefield, 60m. Drove 45mins to the spot and it was so foggy we had to wait in the pod for like an hour before we could go. Had to under go the awful awkwardness of being weighed in all your winter gear and with a harness and having your weight written on your hand, and put in order of heaviest to lightest to jump. HATE that part. So I was third in line to jump, I shuffled the the edge and had to smile at the camera before my swan dive. Flippen heck I screamed like no other. Screamed until I lost air. Then it was done, on the first recoil i pulled the tag and was sitting upright to get pulled back in. What a rush! I couldnt stop smiling. Best moment. Next up I want to do the highest bungee, its 320m in colorado.
After that we drove to where I am now, Te Anau. Planned to do teh milford track, but duw to 60 avalanche pads on the track and the treacherous terrain, we decided to for once in our lives be sensible and choose an easier track. We decided on Keplar track, you hike above the tree line on day one and then you need ice axes and crampons. unfortunately we dont have hiking boots which you need for crampons. almost bought some boots at warehouse but the quality was too brutal to even be worth 45$. So we will just do the first day and then walk back down the second day. We will stay in a hut one night up there and rent an avalanche beacon just in case. scary!
I bought snowpants/ splash pants today for 50$ so I dont have to rent anymore...yay!
now we are in the libs using free wifi. yes. Had chocolate/banana pancakes for breaky. so good. finished season one of pushing daisies last night. gutted the show was cancelled. i LOVE it. now we are gonna watch how i met your mother. honestly thats the only was we can make it to bed after 8pm, theres nothing else to do at night! well i suppose we could party but its off season here and no one is around! Laundry day today...how exciting slash disgusting we made it 2 weeks without laundry. ewwwww.
LOVE!

She had an earthquake on her mind

I am so in love with New Zealand. Such a beautiful country. Don't get me wrong, Wellington is amazing and I feel like its my second home, but the South Island is gorgeous!
We left Thursday July 8th early-ish to get to the ferry for 12. Unfortunately it was delayed until 3pm due to crazy winds. We took the opportunity to walk around Welly and I showed kirk the Parliament (beehive) and Te Papa, pretty much the only sights I knew of. We bought a camp stove, fuel, pots, mugs, cutlery and other really useful camping gear. We made it back to the ferry just in time for it to be delayed even longer, but we were allowed to board anyway. We got free hot chips (fries) and milo to keep us happy. An awful movie was showing too. The ferry pulled out of the harbour around 430ish and I felt seasick pretty quick, so I feel asleep and woke up a few times but slept 99% of the trip. Arrived in Picton just before 8pm and we drove to Blenheim to find a random spot to camp. Slept beside a winery that night and left the headlights on to put up to tent. Oops, it made my car battery die. Good start! We decided to wait until morning to deal with it. Coldest night of my life, I had 2 sleeping bags and wore all my winter gear and still froze. All night cars drove by and honked at us, so annoying!! In the am we flagged down some cars but no one had jumper cables, so we walked to the nearest house and the owner helped us out. We went into Blenheim to see what there was to do...nothing. We found a chocolate factory and got some free samples and then drove back to Picton. Where I bought some jumper cables, just in case. From there we drove the Queen Charlotte Drive, amazing views. We did a walk along the Queen Charlotte Track, maybe 3 hours or so, it was great. So beautiful. We made our way to Nelson next, I thought it would be a happening town. Nope. So we got groceries and more gear from Warehouse and drove to a winery outside Nelson to sleep. Again flippen froze. Drove to Marahau the next morning, gateway town to the Abel Tasman National Park. We did a short day hike, maybe 3-4 hours again. Decided to pay the extra 12$/person to camp outside a hostel in the town. It was awesome, great little kitchen, hot showers, and a roaring fireplace. I swear it was 35 degrees in there, everyone had a red face! The Stray bus people were there, it was nice to socialize a bit. One guy even cooked us sausages and potatoes! Yum. Met a hilarious Greek guy who asked me what 'oh snap' meant and I explained it as an expression like sweet as. SO he goes 'ooooh, sweet as snap"! Sooo funny. The next morning we set off on a 3 day kayak trip with our rented tandom kayak. Overnight we stayed in 2 huts, Anchorage and Bark Bay. The weather was utterly perfect, all blue skies and sunshine. The first night we met some lovely kiwis and americans who made a big fire and shared their weird flavoured marshmallows (called pink and white but taste like cherry) with us. And some whittakers chocolate. YUM! We visited a glow worm cave that night and the park ranger checked our hut so we were glad to have paid! She showed me how to find scorpio in the stars and we saw venus. Sweet as. We were told the hut was heated, but it was only the kitchen area that was heated and it was shut off at night. I only brought one sleeping bag and flippen froze. Just for something different...
The next day we explored the seal colony island, baby seals were sooo cute. Got some good photos I hope. We stayed at the Bark Bay hutt next, we arrived at low tide and had to walk for aaages to get in. But it was nice enough. Made some dinner and went to bed at like 8pm. I'm turning into an old lady! I awoke around midnight shaking and shivering like nobody's biz. It was awful. I actually had to go outside to puke, but took me so long to get out of my sleeping bag that I didnt make it to the 'bathrooms'. Sorry peeps, TMI I know. The next day I still felt awful and I'm pretty sure I had a fever, I could hardly paddle so we took breaks every few minutes. I was useless though, luckily we didnt have far to go. At lunch we stopped on an island and I stumbled off the kayak and onto a rock where I fell asleep instead of eating. SO unlike me. We got back to Marahau and debriefed and got on our way. Next stop was Westport, but we arrived late so we just slept in the car. The next morning we went into the 'town'' and used internet for free at the libs (library) and then drove to Greymouth. The drive was beautiful, snowy moutains, lush native bush. Amazing. We stayed at Village Backpackers since we needed showers pretty badly. We camped outside the hostel actually, but used their facilities. Cost us 15$/person. Not bad. We made granola bars, granola and watched Wayne's World. Soooo funny. The hostel was awesome, empty and quite but had free bikes and kayaks for hire. Didnt take advantage though. The next day we drove to Arthurs Pass, highest elevation town in NZ. We did an unreal hike called Scott's trail, which was suggested by the very informative lady at the i-site. it was just what we wanted, climbed past the treeline, and ive never seen such gorgeous vistas. Pretty much was losing my mind it was so beautiful. It took us about 3 hours to do a 4-6 hour hike, because we are just that fit. We saw the devil's punchbowl from the ridgeline. so cool. We slept that night at a tiny campsite that was free and made a sweet little fire and watched Step Up on my laptop. Chatum Tanning!! we are sooo roughing it. hahaha.
The next morning I was pretty grumpy because we were woken up by the train and cars going past every 5 mins. We booked it to town to do out dishes in the bathroom and then drove to Hokitika where I got to do my bone carving for 85$, pricey yes, but so worth it. I did it in a studio where I was the only amateur, usually its alll backpackers. So I literally did all the carving myself, I was so scared I would screw up and break it, but I dropped it just once when I was buffing it. All good though. We went to the local fish and chips shop (or fush and chups as kiwis call it) to try some whitebait, which is famous in the area. but it wasn't in season and would have cost 150$/kg when in season. Yikes. we orded a lunchbox meal which was 2 fish and some chips, or so we thought. Waited for it and got fried chicken. re-read the sign and realized the 'lunchbox' options were just chicken not fish. and we both hate chicken skin so peeled off all the batter and skin and crap and ate some chicken. dark meat though.... ewww. we will have to try again and order actual fish. We drove to Franz Josef after and signed up to do the day hike the next morning at 8am. We parked at a lake where it blatantly read 'no camping and no parking'and broke both rules. We did the hike today and it was amazing. Not as challenging as Scott's Trail, but I loved it. We are staying at a shanty hostel, in an actual room tonight as we have camped the last 10 nights and deserve it. My face is sunbrunt again (burnt it kayaking too).
I can't even begin to describe how gorgeous and amazing and beautiful this country is and my photos will never ever do it justice. So I highly rercommend you get here asap and see it for yourself.
On to see Mount Cook tomorrow and then Wanaka for some snowboarding!