It turns out we've been in the middle of nowhere for the past couple of days, so we haven't had internet access.
Well, since our last update we have covered a lot of ground. We have been to Mt. Cook (where we went on a hike through Hooker Valley at the base of Mt. Cook), we have driven through a series of "towns" that we thought were stopping points, but are not much more than a few houses, and a gas station (if you're lucky). We have been through the Lindis Pass (very nice), to Queenstown (which we both thought looked a lot like Northern California), through Lake Te Anau, then on through the rainforest to Milford Sound. On our way to Milford we picked up a fellow backpacker named Carrine. She needed a lift to the Hostel in Milford. She was a bit strange and seemd to bring out the New Yorker in both of us as when passing through a 'Lightless Tunnel' I (Jen) promtly turned the light on and rifled through my camera bag so that we could see what she was doing in the back. So as not to make it rediculously obvious tha we were watching her, Kevin piped up "oh, there's a light back there for you, too". Milford was another one of those towns with not much to do. Much to our delight, there was a pub with a large screen tv. We got a couple of beers (Tui, brewed here in NZ- great!) and watched cricket. We had planned on taking a boat cruise around Milford Sound, but the weather wasn't cooperating. We decided to go for it anyway. The rain held out so I was able to snap pictures to my heart's content on the upper deck. We drank free coffee/tea which we both marveled at- quite different from a tour boat in the US. We saw penguins and dolphins and the scenery was spectacular. After leaving Milford, we headed back to Queenstown for a quick stopover before heading to Lake Wanaka and Haast. On the way out of Milford we stopped to take some pictures of some Keas (mountain parrots). While Jen was laying down to get a close up of one Kea, another one jumped up on her back, apparently he thought it was a good place to hang out.
Lake Wanaka was a nice little town, full of small shops, and cafes. We stopped there and made some gourmet PB&J sandwiches for lunch, then headed out for Haast. There isn't much to do in Haast at all. Unless you are a hunter. So we went to a local pub for a drink, and to look over our itinerary. There we met a funny old man, Tony Valeski, who was relaxing with a pitcher of beer. He was the only one there until we arrived. We chatted with him for a bit, and he gave us his view on the One Way Bridges in NZ (which are everywhere). Tony thought "someone should blow up the whole lot, and build proper bridges." After parting ways with Tony, we headed north towards the Glaciers. Along the way we stopped off in Lake Moeraki to see the Monroe Beach Penguin Colony. After a 40 min hike through the rainforest we arrived at the beach to find the Penguins were not home. As if this was not disappointing enough, it started pouring rain (go figure, in a rainforest!) After that, we drove onward to Bruce Bay where we camped for the night on the side of the road next to the Tasman Sea.
This morning we drove to Fox Glacier to skydive, however, the weather did not cooperate so we had to scrap those plans. We hiked to the terminal of Fox Glacier instead. Now we are in Franz Josef Glacier, resting up before beginning our journey back to Christchurch.
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