Queenstown update

Hello and other salutations!

Well, here we are in Queenstown, the birthplace of the bungy jump (I know natives did it, but I think Queenstown is responsible for bringing it to the public.) And Jamie is doing just that right now! From 135 meters. I will let him give the update on that when he gets back!

Well, since we left the north island we flew to Christchurch, which bizarrely was the cheapest way to get there. Once there, we picked up our wheels, an EZY Cruiza. Its been a ton of fun to drive, and a source of some travel preference differences. We thought if we got it, then we wouldnt have to pay fees to stop for the night. That wasnt true. So, we could pull to the side of the road and risk it, but if there is one thing I dont like, its risk. So I prefer to pay $20 for access to a toilet, and to be around folks. Of course, its ok with Jamie, but he likes to keep a look out for all things cheap. Along those lines though, we are doing a stellar job of cooking all our own meals. We eat out maybe one meal a week. That of course saves us a ton of money.

Well, we promptly left Christchurch and decided that we would go north to south, and avoid all the north wine country due to time constraints. We headed to Hanmer Springs for our first landing space. Hanmer Springs is this gorgeous town in the mountains (Ok, how did I not know that NZ is almost entirely mountains? Southern Alps to be exact). The Springs part refers to the natural hot springs. Jamie and I splurged and spent a morning hanging out in the hot springs, getting a little sun, and smelling some fine sulfer. It was a perfect morning.

From there we headed to Hokitika, making a quick stop in Greymouth for some DVDs. One of the great things about the Cruiza is that it has a DVD player which can be plugged in if you are staying at a site with power. Of course, since we are trying not to spend money, we bought collections of 4 movies for $9.99. And the quality matches. Actually, they arent too bad and certainly watchable. We have been hitting a good bit of rain so its nice to set up in the van and watch a movie while waiting for it to pass. Between Greymouth and Hokitika, we got our first glimpse of the Tasman Sea. Most fantastic. Jamie gets really jazzed when he sees water. We got a cup of coffee in Hokitika and enjoyed the view. We also found a bulldog on the beach that would fetch rocks. For hours. Hysterical. Occasionally he would get too much sand in his mouth and on his body so he would run to the ocean, plop down and wash the rock and his mouth out. Too cute. As with all the other locations we have been to, we are buying a ton of presents. Hokitika has a ton of local artist shops so it was a field day for that. I am going to buy a new bag today because we cant fit everything in our packs anymore. (For the record, it was Mikeys present that put us over the top.) We knew we would have to increase our bags at some point, so this isnt a surprise.

From Hokitika, we headed to Fox Glacier, the less popular of the glaciers. The one people usually go to is Franz Josef. We heard that Fox was less congested and from other folks we talked to we were right. Again we splurged and decided to take a hike on the glacier itself. Totally worth it. I have never had crampons on boots or walked up an ice staircase before. Really groovy. Saw crevices that just formed so the pure ice was visible. And since it rains over 200 days a year there, we got downpoured on. And it was still amazing, and tiring. It was a serious workout. Our guide reminded us of Pat. Then he said that in the off season he does project management work for ING. And we nodded our heads, yep, Pat would do something so bizarre like that - give glacier guides in the summer, go into investments in the winter.

From Fox, we headed to our current location, Queenstown. Holy crap. The drive was just unreal. So. Beautiful. We thought the north island was gorgeous, but they arent kidding about the South Island. We have taken over 500 pictures so far, I think I took 100 yesterday just on the drive. We really wish one of us knew how to use a really good camera, and that we had a really good camera. And Queenstown is a fabulous town, although part of us feels like we are Breckinridge. We leave today as soon as Jamie gets back from his Bungy jump to head out to Te Anau which is near Milford and Doubtful Sound. We are likely to go to Doubtful sound as it is the less touristy of the two and I hear its just as lovely.

While we are having an amazing time, we cant believe that only a month has passed since we got married. And we are really glad we arent on a year trip. There was too much running around before we left which I am still dealing with the stress of, or the release of that stress. Oh, and the pyrogenic granuloma I have on my finger is still just so gross. And its on my middle finger of my right hand so it makes doing most anything harder. We really hope it falls off soon. Also, I have been good about keeping only wheat out of my diet and so far, so good. Still crossing our fingers that its a wheat intolerance.

About to run out of time here. If you are reading this, drop us a line and let us know. We would love to hear how folks are!