Milford Sound, the most beautiful place in NZ

After a morning latte we made our way on the KIWI bus through the thick snows of the Fiordland towards Milford Sound. The weather was not looking good for our trip on the water.

HISTORY:
Milford Sound is not really a sound but rather was carved out by a glacier and when the glacier melted, the Tasman rose up and filled the space carved out. Beneath the water, the mountains continue to plunge down as steep rock walls until they reach the floor of the fiord at depths of 100-450m. A fresh water layer that sits on top of the seawater filters light to allow normally deep water dwelling species to exist very close to the surface (ex. black coral). We were able to see this phenomenon in the 10m Underwater Obeservatory. Interesting huh?

We drove through Homer Tunnel (1.2km) carved into the mountain by victims of the 1930 depression. "The weather could be vicious, the terrain ferocious, high in altitude, steep and rugged, beset by floods and deadly avalanches. Workers were brought face to face with the avalanche hazard." We even saw some avalanches high up the mountain as we were driving down the winding road to the tunnel!!

The 2 hour boat cruise was fabulous because the weather cleared right up and the sky was blue. The trip was so humbling because it showed us just how small we are in comparison to nature. There were huge jagged rocks rising thousands of feet upward with calm waters below. There were beautiful waterfalls with rainbows peeking out from the falling waters, avalanches in the snowcapped areas above us, a fur seal devouring a fish, and a pod of 20 dolphins swimming alongside our boat. I don't think we could have been more lucky.

New Career as a Sheep Shearer?

Saturday June 17 we left Curio Bay and drove towards Te Anau. On the way there we stopped in Invercargill (NZ's southern-most city... closest to Antartica besides S. America) I went to a museum named "Shearing South" where we learned about the history of New Zealand shearing and were given an understanding of how important it is to the economy and the people.

The 9 hour record for shearing sheep is 856 sheep... that's 80+ per hour!

Next stop, a farm with 3000 sheep and two dogs (herder and hunter). The "herder" silently directed the sheep with strategy and patience whereas the "hunter" moved them by biting and barking and jumping on top of them!

We each got a shot at shearing a sheep but after only a few second of it, I felt so guilty that I gave my turn up. The sheep were shivering from cold because it was 35 F outside and we were taking off all of their wool! Plus, it often made them bleed when the shearers caught their skin. I decided that I thought it was morally wrong but then I bought a pair of wool socks that evening! haha

I Heart Penguins and Sea Lions... Curio Bay

Friday we woke up and got on the green bus with possibly the most annoying person I've ever been around, the driver. Now how do you avoid that? Yikes... We took a walk down to Nugget Point which has since become one of my favorite views in New Zealand. This area was given it's name by Captain Cook because the story goes that when he saw the rocks in the Pacific with the sun behind them, they looked like golden nuggets. What do you think? We then took a walk down to Surat Bay to see if there were any Sea Lions sunning on the beach. Well, as luck would have it, we saw 3 of them just chilling.

After lunch, we went to a few other lookouts towards a beach, a lake, and a waterfall and then drove on towards Curio Bay. We walked down to the water and the driver pointed out a fossil forest (160 million years old) estimated to have been from the ancient continent Gondawonaland.

Finally, before settling in to our accomodation, Dolphin Lodge, we saw the rarest and 3rd largest penguins in the world, the yellow-eyed penguin. They were coming in from a long day at sea. How Cute!

Dunedin...Home of the World's Steepest Street

Yes, Thursday June 15 we arrived in Dunedin (pron. Dune-E-din) which is very proud to be the "Home of the World's Steepest Street, Baldwin Street!" What an accomplishment! There was only one other person on the tour of the southern-most parts of New Zealand (i.e. Bottom Bus) and she was named Lise and was from Denmark.




Yeah, it's steep.







Dunedin is a small University town with very old architecture. One of the prettiest buildings was the Train Station because not only was the outside striking but there were .75 million tiny tiles that made up the patterns on the inside flooring.

The highlight of the Dunedin visit was our tour of the Cadbury Factory. Cadbury has the chocolate market on this side of the world and there's a good reason. The Cadbury here is not like the nasty Cadbury Easter candy we get in the states but rather an amazing, melt-in-your-mouth chocolate experience. I have never seen so much variety in chocolate bars than in NZ and Australia. Some examples: Black Forest (choc/cherry), Mint, Double Fudge Brownie, Country Chocolate, Energy Dark, Jaffa (choc/Orange), Dream (white choc), Triple (dark/milk/white), Licorice, and the list goes on. I mean honestly... it's amazing.

Despite the fact that I would have happily eaten chocolate for dinner, I ate roasted veggies at the Percolator Cafe.

Queenstown

So Queenstown is the most famous city in South Island New Zealand and is where all the "fun is at." Queenstown is famous for bungy (it was invented here), the Ledge, the Canyon Swing, the Nevis, skydiving, snowboarding, and the list goes on. As far as adventures, I chose only to snowboard. We watched one of our friends do the 46m bungy and only heard stories from the ones that did the 136m bungy (Nevis).

Queenstown also has incredible bars. We went to World Bar where they are famous for the Teapot cocktails. How fun is that? And there's a bar we didn't go to called 4 Below and the ENTIRE bar is made of ice... ice chairs, ice cups, ice tables... you rent warm clothes to wear and you can only be in it for 30 minutes.

Meagan and Garith taking tea pot shots....... Garith, Pete, Me, Kay, Emily, Carly, Roxy, etc

The next day I met up with some of the KIWI Experience girls on the waterfront for lunch and then watched The Break Up with Jennifer Anniston with Katye, Lindsey, and Nick (Americans!). It was so good and I weeped for over an hour! haha

Katye with Me and Meg Kay, Anika, Emily, Meg, Me, Roxy, Carly

Wanaka... Snowy Mountains

After leaving Franz Josef (June 12), we headed toward the snowy township of Wanaka set in the mountains and on Lake Hawea. The winding road trip down the Haast Pass was our first glimpses of "real snow." This was one of my favorite towns because it was so picture-esque.

What made it even better? I got a call from Zach. Yes, a good town.

Alisson (Ireland) and I on the Haast Pass on our way to Wanaka.

Near Death Experience #2

FRANZ JOSEF
The Franz Josef Glacier located so close to the sea and the rainforest that it is a natural phenomenon "...mighty cascades of ice, tumbling down a valley towards the sea..."

This glacier climb is reknown as one of the best tourist attractions in New Zealand but after my experience, there was nothing attractive about it! Sunday, June 11, I was scheduled to climb the 8 hour hike to the blue ice and beautiful views of the glacier but it was raining. Since I had already paid and this was supposed to THE experience of a lifetime, I went. (Once again, Meagan's intuition told her not to go)... We were clothed in 4 layers + gortex rain jackets and pants, hiking boots with spikes for the ice, etc but within 20 minutes everything in our day packs was completely drenched. Luckily I thought of putting my camera underneath my layers against my stomach in hopes that it might, just might stay dry. Apparently most people thought their bags were "waterproof" and didn't do the same. Unfortunately, most of them had to forfeit mucho dinero for another one.

So anyhow, as we got closer, the ice looked incredibly large. It was virtually a mountain of ice between two rock mountains! The first part of the ice is quite dirty and rocky but after about 2 hours of hiking, it got a little nice. At this point, 11:15am, the guide suggested that we take a break for a quick snack to tide us over until lunch. There was so much rain and we were so cold that we couldn't take any pictures or stop for more than 2 minutes or we began to freeze.

I was so cold because the gloves we were wearing were wool and were literally filled with water. We could wring them out about every 20 seconds and about a half a cup of water poured out! Nice for keeping the old hands warm huh?

As the rain continued to fall, the steps from the previous group were washed away by the rising water levels and the guide had to pick-axe new ones for us to follow. About this time, things were getting hairy because the rain was falling harder and our footing was getting worse. (A girl from another group that we happened upon fell into one of the glacial pools up to her chest!) Some of the steps were so small and up against a verticle ice wall that we had to press ourselves up against... they even put a metal pick with a rope attached into the ice so we could use it to "swing" ourselves around a huge ice boulder that jutted out over a crevasse/abyss because there was nothing to hold on to! Needless to say, most of you know that I'm a very tough girl but I was panicking... I started to cry a little (embarrassingly) because I literally thought I was goint to die and I was scared.

We could tell the guides were nervous... even raising their voices at one another and there was talk of a helicopter flying in to evacuate us. The rain started to fall so hard that we couldn't see 5 feet in front of us and the winds were so strong that I had to take a 3-point stance behind a glacier block to stand up safely. The ice was incredibly slippery and we were walking over tiny ledges that were getting smaller with the rain.

Eventually the guides realized that we couldn't go down the way they had planned because the path had been washed away, so they had to take us back UP the glacier to create a new path to get us DOWN. So as that went on, there was no more counting of climbers or even talking. Everyone had a mission, to get home safely. Two more girls fell in the glacial pools... yikes. Then, the thunder and lightening started... and hail! It was hailing on us!

We made it off of the glacier by about 4:30pm (that's almost 4 hours of trying to get home!) and came across a small stream that we had stepped crossed early that morning. The stream was now a raging river with the water to my hips! The guides had us walk 5 across with 3 of us in the middle and 2 guides on either side. We had to wrap our arms around one-another's waists and shuffle our feet along the ground to the other side. One girl in the group in front of me actually lost footing and was pulled down by the current. It took 3 male guides to get her standing again! I almost lost footing but my teammates held me up. When we got to the other side of the river, 2 more guides grabbed our jackets and yanked us across the bank to safety.

Basically it is all history from there because after that it was another hour walk home through the rainforest before we could get changed into warm clothes.

Apparently, had the company known that the weather was going to change, they wouldn't have sent us out on that day. The storm lasted for a couple of days and even knocked out the electricity in the city (Meagan was pretty worried about me on the glacier at that point!) The hike the next day was cancelled.

Pu Party

We had the typical themed KIWI party night at Pu Lodge (yes, pronounced POO) at Lake Mahinapua on Friday (9th). Our theme as designated by our driver Bodz was "Starts with the letter P"

My group went as Pensioners
Meagan's as Prince and his back up dancers

Other group names were 3 Little Pigs and Punk Rockers. And one English group went as a Postman, Parcel, and a Black and White Cat (which is apparently some sort of English show).

Near Death Experience #1

WESTPORT
Friday (June 9th) I woke up early to go horseback riding but as it turned out I was the only one that went on this activity. The instructor Nicky was quite happy to teach me to ride and to get the horses out for a gallop. We saddled up as I was riding “Carlos” and Nicky was on “Sandy.” Best friends and both of which are generally very calm horses. Well, after a few minutes of slow walking, cantering, and trotting… we moved on to galloping.

Nicky thought I was doing just fine riding FOR MY FIRST TIME so she decided that we should “race” the horses. Well, of course I’m up for adventure so I agree. My basic instructions were “just hold on…” I was pretty excited and feeling really good when my horse won but I was fully aware that I played no role in the win… I simply held on.

The next area, Nicky says “this is a really narrow lane… we’re going to gallop so just stay right behind me.” I hang on for my life and we gallop really fast down the trail. Instead of walking back, Nicky decides we should gallop back. Well that sounds just fine until her horse doesn't stop properly when it gets to where the river intersects!!

My horse tried to go around hers, but there was a river so he takes a sharp left. Guess what that meant? Yes, I went flying off the right and landed on the river bank. It was quite funny and I shook it off as Nicky went up the river to get my anxious horse. As she's adjusting Carlos' saddle, her horse runs off across the river and I reach for it's stirrup ripping it off as it goes by.

So I re-saddle Carlos, and Nicky walks with us through the river (waist high in water), but Carlos decides he wants to catch up with his "friend..." At first, I'm okay with leaving Nicky behind for a little canter to the other horse but when Nicky's horse starts trotting away and my horse starts picking up speed... I got scared! I tried to stop Carlos but the more I tried to stop him, the faster Sandy started running! We were in a full gallop now with Nicky (the instructor) way behind on food and Sandy leading us through the trees, over small streams, and through a herd of scared cows!!

By this point I was praying that Carlos would stop or that I would fall off ... clearly my second wish came true before my first because I half jumped off and half flew off when I saw Carlos running towards another clumping of trees. I was definitely thinking that I would rather fall off before we hit the trees than after! This time, my fall was so painful it brought tears to my eyes and I'm laying there thinking "I am too old for this..."

Well, I look up and there is Carlos, staring at me, seeming to say "Oops, I probably shouldn't have done that..." but then I hear a whinny from the trees (Clearly Sandy calling Carlos) and Carlos bolts. Leaving me there on the ground. I picked myself up off the ground and headed back towards where I last saw Nicky.

We both walked back to the main gates and hoped the horses would be there waiting for us. There they were, eating grass and chilling out at the gate.

The adventure didn't stop there because apparently the cows were angry that our horses had chased them around so one of the cows jumped the fence and started following us. That of course freaked my horse out... but we got away before anything else happened. It was quite embarrassing when we both rocked up with jeans soaked to the knee from wading through the rivers!

My instructor said she had never seen anything like that before and the horses are always really well behaved... she said I did all that I could have done though! haha Needless to say, I won't be riding anytime soon.

Nelson Lakes, Ham, Mallards, and Eels

Thursday we went tramping (Mom, don’t worry, that is how they say hiking…) around Nelson Lakes. They were beautiful. I am especially appreciative of them because this is one of the only lakes in New Zealand that we actually had good weather for.

There are at least 2 lakes in New Zealand that we didn’t get to see due to weather that actually make MIRROR images of the mountains, sky, and trees… so this is as good as it got for us…

The coolest part though is that while we were enjoying our ham sandwiches along the boardwalk, watching the mallards swim by… two huge freshwater grey eels were swimming just below us. They even tried to eat the ducks’ feet a couple of times (sadly, one duck was actually missing a foot… probably from an eel!)

Did I mention the beautiful rainbow that was quite possibly the largest, most perfect rainbow I've ever seen. It was as if we were driving straight towards the "pot of gold." Then, a second one appeared! The KIWI driver even pulled over so we could take some pictures of it!

Onward to the South Island

Wednesday (June 7) we hopped on the early ferry to Picton on the south Island. The ferry was more like a cruise ship and I reckon that if I was really poor I might just pay for a few rides to and from the north island ($55/trip) and call it a cruise. There were cafes and movies, lounges and decks, and it goes straight through some beautiful scenery!

Picton was the harbour town and we had some quick lunch to tide us over until we got to our hostel (Prince Albert)... no dirty remarks please...

Meagan and I walked to the "center of New Zealand," a summit, to watch the sunset on the horizon. It was obsurd how flat the water was ... you couldn't tell where the water ended and the blue sky began. The only thing that gave it away was a ship in the distance floating on what looked like the sky!

Meg and I made a delicious cashew chicken with Italian bread and brie for dinner. Nice backpackers! ;)

Finally, A Great Cup O' Joe In Wellington

We arrived in Wellington on Sunday (June 4) and found a really cool city. It was especially nice because we have a friend who lives here and it was nice to see a familiar face. We met Kaz in Melbourne but she was one of the Aussies working in Tahoe when we went last year. We went to a party at her place the first night in Wellington but that ended disastrously as the anti-American comments didn’t take long to come out.

Another Wellington highlight was Te Papa Museum. This was a really interactive museum that has about 100 exhibits that explained the history of the Earth and more specifically how New Zealand was formed (it broke off of an ancient continent named Gondawonaland that incorporated Australia as well). There was so much information about the fault lines and how they have formed New Zealand’s topography… very interesting. The other exhibits included “Mountains to Sea” where we learned about all the animals found in and around New Zealand and how they got there. I could go on and on about the cool things I learned but I think I’ll just summarize by saying that it was one of the coolest, most modern interactive museums I’ve ever seen. We also took a stroll down Cuba street which definitely reminded Meg and I of South Congress in Austin. It was hippy-ish and trendy with shopping and cafes. We really liked it.


Giant 4 meter Moa bird and largest Eagle with something like a 9 meter wingspan!









We had dinner at Kaz’s house and then called it a night. I like Wellington and I’d like to head back there sometime if I’m ever back on this side of the world!


Kaz and her roomie teaching us about the native Fruijoa Fruit.

River Valley and Rolling Hills

Not much to report today (Saturday, June 3) but on our journey to River Valley we passed through some of the most beautiful country side I’ve ever seen. The rolling hills were covered in beautiful green grass, cows, and sheep. I couldn’t help but take a million pictures out the window.





These are some of the girls we've been travelling with: Lisa, Hanna, Nicky, and Laura.

Tongariro Crossing

So after an eventful day of caving and skydiving, we stayed at Urban Retreat and got a good night’s sleep for the next bit of adventure. We had to be up at 5:30am to catch the bus to the Tongariro Crossing, an 8.5 hour hike considered one of New Zealand’s finest one day walks. The weather in the morning was freezing but by midday it had cleared up and was quite beautiful.

I was dressed as warmly as possibly could be with about 4 layers but by the end of the hike I had peeled all but one layer off! Meg and I walked with two guys from Atlanta, Georgia and a girl named Katye from South Carolina (we met her in Rotorua).

After 1.5 hours of walking a rugged and barren rocky mountain terrain, we came across the “Devil’s Staircase” which was appropriately named because it was over an hour of vertical climbing (800m). Our legs were burning! Once we got to the first plateau, the South Crater we stopped for some pics, but continued on up the vertical climb to Red Crater. This is where the best scenery is and where we had our lunches. The rocks were heated up here because it’s just next to an active volcano (scary!). This must have been where people got the idea for heated seats! From the top of Red Crater, you could see the Emerald Lakes (another appropriately named geographic area) and Blue Lake (again…). This was about 2100m and it was mostly downhill from here.

Red Crator and Blue Lake

Emerald Lakes

The view of Lake Taupo could not have been more beautiful. We were obsessed and took a million pictures. The combination of blue skies, blue lake, mountains, and snow made your jaw drop!

I have to say, by the end of this hike, I was pretty freaking tired and my old-age joints were in some pain. Everyone complained of aching knees for the next few days!

Glowworms in Waitomo and Skydiving in Taupo

Holy Cow, what an exciting day (Thursday June 1)! Today we woke up really early for a 7:30 departure for Adventure Caving...

Basically, when we were told to put on freezing cold wetsuits, wetsuit socks, flannel jacket, and a helmet with a light outside in the freezing NZ temperatures. It was extra painful because the wetsuits are really hard to get on and they were already wet!! The booties even had ice on them! Yeah, I've never been so cold in my life. Then we drove up to the Waitomo Glow Worm Caves to learn to abseil.
The ropes to abseil (you know, when you go down a mountain and you're attached to a rope and harness) were frozen so learning was not much fun. We got to the cave's edge and I abseiled 35 meters down all by myself and then waited for everyone else to do it also.

The next step, I was hooked up to a zip line and pushed off the edge of a rock into the interior of the cave, speeding extremely fast, not being able to see anything because it's pitch black... screaming! As I hit the end of the zip line, I could clearly see the glow worms on the ceiling and I sat quietly until everyone had arrived.

We drank some tea with our legs dangling off the edge of a really high ledge over 50F black water below... and then we were told to jump off the ledge onto an inner tube! WHAT?? I was pretty freaking scared but did it. Yikes...

Then we floated in the dark/freezing water and watched the glow worms above us (really just maggots that are trying to attract other insects by pooping substance that glows).
Glowworms = Maggots + Poo

Then, waded neck high in freezing water for about 10 minutes over rough rocky floor but before we got to the next part, the tea had already gone straight through both Meg and I. Well, we were warned not to 'pee' in the wetsuits because they absorb liquid and they would smell so the instructor asked us take OFF OUR WETSUITS and pee in the cave! It was so cold and such a bitch to get the suits back on again. haha! Apparently we were the only ones who had to pee in over 5 hours... riiight... I think we were the only honest ones!

Then we floated on our backs with the current to nother part of the cave where we crawled through TINY spaces and under low hangings in which our whole bodies were submerged in water except for enough space for our heads to fit if we turned them sideways. Cool.

The final part of the caving experience involved climbing UP two waterfalls with the water pouring down in your face and trying to find food holes in the rocks under the water. That was challenging and exciting.

So after some tea and hot soup, we caught the KIWI bus again and headed towards Taupo. I slept the whole way and woke up at the Skydiving Center. It wasn't more than 45 minutes before Meg and I were all strapped up and ready to jump out of an airplane over the stunning Lake Taupo and the mountains that surround it.

To make the view even more fabulous, it was sunset when we actually jumped from the plane.

Yes, I went for the ol' skydive again. The freefall was incredible... despite the fact that I couldn't breath and felt like I was suffocating. Apparently I forgot to close my mouth and breath through my nose... oops. Then the gliding time couldn't have been more beautiful with the snowcapped mountains and huge crystal blue lake Taupo... pine trees and bright green rolling hills covered in sheep.

What a day!
This is Lake Taupo. You will see more pictures in the Tongariro Crossing Blog.

Waitomo

Remember how I said Rotorua was smelly? Well it's because of the geo-thermal activity in the area and it smells like sulfur = rotten eggs! Eeew!

We headed to the source, Te Puia (the name says it all!) where we watched Pohutu and the Prince of Wales geysers errupt and spray hot steam about 20 m into the air! There were also boiling mud pools and hot rock chairs that were the original "heated seats!" We learned how to make traditional Maori dancing skirts with leaves and saw our first Kiwi bird (in captivity of course).

Bubbling mud pools. Used for skin treatments in spas.

The Kiwi is so funny because it has a long beak with nostrils on the end and no wings... but a really fat little body! haha It lays eggs up to 2/3 it's body size! Can you imagine?

Beautiful sunset in Waitomo.

We stayed in Kiwi Paka YHA hostel in Waitomo which was much like a ski lodge but spent the day touring Mangapohue Natural Bridge Scenic Reserve (giant limestone arch) and PiriPiri Caves Scenic Reserve where I saw a large cave and climbed down into it. Finally, we hiked a short distance to Marokopa Falls to see the 3rd largest waterfall in NZ (36 km).

It's got nothing on Niagra.

Rotorua ... what a smelly place :)

Tuesday we caught the bus at 7:30am (another early morning) and headed towards Rotorua. We stopped off at an active gold/silver mine. I have never seen one and it was so incredibly deep and took up land as far as the eye can see!










En-route to Rotorua, we also stopped at the Karangahake Scenic Reserve to look at a gorge and to walk the "windows" trail. The cool part was the old railway tunnels that we walked through. It was so funny because at one point we got separated from the group and had to walk through this pitch black tunnel about 50 m long and we got about 3 steps into it and I chickened out. Meagan forced me go back in and offered to lead us... and she just kept saying "look, follow that little light at the end of the tunnel..." We finally figured out it was a flashlight and we called out to the person carrying it towards us and then the light went off! We just started screaming and ran back out the way we came! haha I was so scared that I even cried a little bit! Turns out, it was our bus driver trying to scare us! It worked. He gave us a little tour of a few of the old tunnels with his flashlight.

I carried Meagan on my back to protect her boots!

Afterward, we stopped in Mata Mata, where Hobbiton was in Lord of the Rings.

Then, we stayed in "Hot Rocks" hostel which was not so nice... but we spent most of the night at Tamaki, a total immersion in Maori culture through a re-creation of traditional villages from the 1600s.

A chief was chosen from our "waka" (canoe/bus) and we had to chant "hee" in response to "Te Waka" and then paddle! How cheesy, but fun :) Then, a traditional war dance was performed by the Maori's about 2 feet from the "chiefs" which was quite intimidating. The warriors were painted up and stuck their tongues out and made their eyes wide and grunted.

We were invited back to the "Marae," (meeting place) where we watched the Maori perform customary dances, skills, and songs. They cooked us a feast of traditionally prepared Hangi (cooked underground on hot rocks) including sweet potato, stuffing, chicken, lamb, etc. It seemed a lot like a Thanksgiving meal back home.

Whitianga (Fit-i-onga) i.e. Mercury Bay

Monday morning (May 29th), we got on the Kiwi Experience bus at 8:30am and then headed to Mt. Eden which is one of 70 dormant volcanoes around Auckland. The crater was HUGE and filled with bright green grass. The best part was the view it offered over the city and the beautiful rainbow that filled the sky above the city.




Inactive volcano, Mt. Eden, in Auckland






Shortly after that stop, we drove up the North East side of NZ towards the Coromondel Peninsula. We were supposed to stop off at Hot Water Beach to dig our own natural hot water springs in the sand but the tide was too high and we couldn't. Instead, we took a 2 hour walk to Cathedral Cove with a few stops along the inlets like Gemstone Bay and Stingray Bay. We decided to go down onto the volcanic rock in Stingray Bay and climb over to a cave... well, Meagan's nice leather boots got drenched by the incoming tide so she had to bail but I spent about 30 minutes climbing these slippery, sharp rocks. I am so glad Meagan has patience with me because I am just like a little kid when I see objects to climb on! As we were leaving, there was a sign that said not to go into the bay area because of falling rocks and danger! haha oops



Meg and I at Gemstone Bay.





Cathedral Cove had two huge rocks with holes in them that lined the beach and made for nice pictures. The trek to Cathedral Cove was all downhill but since we were now short of time (thanks to my escapades) we had to book it back... what a work out!










We stayed at Turtle Cove Backpackers which was one of the nicest places we've stayed yet and spent the evening watching Sweet Home Alabama with all the girls on the Kiwi Bus. Nice.