last views of NZ

hit the duty free shops, and spent the last of my NZ currency on
candy, food and beer. wrote the last postcards, and did a little
blogging (was determined to finish before I left... but didn't quite
get there!). boarded the plane out if Auckland late afternoon for the
long flight home... and it was kinda fitting that my last views of NZ
were of waiheke island, where heather and I had started our travels
almost three weeks before.

I'll be back. for sure. :)

flying up over the south island

hearher and i made our way to the airport in queenstown the next
morning, and began the long journey home. we parted ways, and were on
separate flights back. we both flew fron queenstown back to Auckland,
with some amazing views traveling back up the south island over the
mountain ranges.

in this pic, the franz Josef glacier (the ine we hiked) is on the
left, the fox glacier is just in front of the plane engine in the
center, and mt cook (highest peak in NZ, I believe?!), is on the right
side. stunning, even from the air!!

last bits of our last day fading away....

remarkably glowing remarkables

the remarkable mountains surrounding the lake in queenstown.

happy girls. :)

queenstown put on quite the sunset for our last night

I think the only reason we managed to leave the hotel that afternoon
was because we needed to return the rental car.

car retrunes successfully, we wandered queenstown for a bit and
settled into get some food and drink.... the reality that our trip was
over was setting in. really went by faster than any other trip I have
taken, and left me wanting so much more time in new Zealand. such an
awesome sampler trip... but barely felt like I scratched the surface.

after our happy hour, we wandered the lakefront, and we so thrilled
with the amazing subset show that unfolded in front of us. couldn't
have asked for a lovelier parting gift. :)

finally... a proper hotel!

heather and I discussed the paceof our trip quite a bit before we
left... and made some of our lodging bookings, and left others to book
along the way. I dint remember our reasoning at the time we did it...
but it was quite delightful to roll back into queenstown the afternoon
of our last day. and have a proper hotel to check into to relax,
shower, reflect, and repack. one last time! my stuff totally exploded
everywhere, and I took a ling decadent shower while heather took a
little nap. pretty surprising, but I did manage to pack all my stuff
back into the bags I came with. was pretty good bout not buying too
much along the way!

token sheep pic!

look mom... sheep! everywhere.

sheep butts.

unlike the deer, the sheep noticed us right away, turned around and
hearded away from us. got a lot of pics of fuzzy sheep butts. sheep
really are everywhere in NZ, and I gotta say... I had many delightful
lamb dishes in our travels. yum. (sorry cute fuzzy sheep, but you are
yummy).

back to queenstown through the rolling countryside

it was amazing, by the time we made it over the mountain away from the
sound and the rainforest... the pouring rain had slowed to a drizzle.
by the time we were back across the lake in the water taxi, rain had
cleared up all together, and there was blue sky peeking through. the
fiordlands are rainforest indeed!

we said goobye to our new friends, and even passed along a bunch of
the food supplies we had to others just starting their travels, and
set off back towards queenstown.

hadn't taken any of the token new Zealand farmland photos yet... so we
scoped out some happy livestock along the way. didn't hurt that the
sky was moody and dramatic against the vibrant landscape.

this pic of a deer farm. mammals are not native to NZ, and they are
primarily raised on farms. weird for me to see a Herd of deer just
hanging out. when we stopped, they all turned to stare at us, and a
few brave ones even moved the group in our direction a little. nit
quite enough for the iPhone, but it was interesting how interested in
us they were!

bye bye doubtful sound

we boarded the bus to head back over the mountain, and our lovely
boat headed back out into the sound. kinda puts the scale of the
surroundings into perspective... the boat was intimate, but relly not
that small, and it looks totally dwarfed floating in the sound.
awesome overnight adventure. beautiful place!

one last treat

the captain kicked up the engines on the boat bright and early in the
am... and we slowly woke up as we started to head back to the dock. it
had poured rain all night, and showed no signs of letting up that
morning. several cups of coffee... and a delicious breakfast later,
and we were just about back to where we began. I went up to the bunk
cabin on top deck to grab my gear, and was treated to the spectacle of
2 dolphins swimming alongside the boat. I barely had a chance to get
my camera on, and let the guy behind me know.... and they were gone by
the time others made it out of the cabin. fun little parting gift!

... finally! lobster dinner :)

got dried off and changed after the wet kayaking tour... and our 4
course dinner was served. they started out with boat-made squash soup.
warmed us right up. heather and I opened up a bottle of the white wine
we bought on our first days on waiheke island... and then the lobster
was served. soooo yummy! served chilled, it is a bit sweater than
Maine lobster, but the tail section is a whole lot meatier. loved it.
lobster course followed by fresh fish and veggies. just kept coming!

the wine and good food flowed all night, and we had a ball discussing
life, travel and all sorts of things with our fellow passengers till
the wee hours of the am. that evening was probably the most amount of
time we spent connecting with other travelers on the whole trip... all
in all, I think we were both thrilled that we had spent a little mire
on the overnight, for a mire intimate experience. totally worth it.

our evening cove looking out on the sound

next up.... kayaking!

the captain tied the boat up for the night in a gorgeous little cove
with a gushing waterfall. the dumped (brand new) single kayaks off the
upper deck of the boat... and a crew of us set off to explore the
shoreline of our little cove. of course it started to pour rain just
as we were setting off, but by then, it didn't really phase anyone.
the boat was equipped with a full sized dryer... so we knew we would
not be wet for long.

in our little journey, we spotted a new Zealand waka bird pecking away
at some muscle shells for dinner, and we watched it for a bit.
interesting wingless bird! didn't seem to care we were all floating 3'
away from it.

it was too wet for me to take photos in the kayaks, but heather got
some good ones with her waterproof camera.

little catch!

a few people did manage to catch these small orange fish with big
eyes. not really big enough for dinner, but the fishing activity was
certainly entertaining.

next activity on the agenda... fishing!

returning yo the calm of the sound, the captain took us to a few
shallow reefs, and we tried our hands at some fishing. due to the
windy weather, the fish weren't really biting. we tended to come up
with big tangles of the 6 or so fishing lines. no worries tho, we
weren't going to go hungry. our lobsters were being cooked as we fished.

barrier islands and more seals

we circled around a few of the little barrier islands at the mouth of
the sound looking for molting penguins. no penguin sightings, but we
did see several more colonies of the seals. interesting note conveyed
by the captain, although commonly known as fur seals, they are
actually sea lions. I forget the distinction between the two... but
heck, seems like history has forgotten as well!

a bit windblown

we continued cruising around the sound, and headed our towards the
mouth where the sound meets the tasmin sea... the day was still
varying degrees of wind, clouds and rain showers, but the views were
spectacular all around!

hello dinner!