Ok, so it’s been a while since the last post, and for some reason, the news of Sarah’s shaved head has produced many requests of pictures. Unfortunately, although we have many, they are all trapped on my laptop and we’ve had no wireless connections to upload with. Rest assured, when we do, pictures of Sarah will be the first things to go up.

Anyhow, we are almost done with NZ, for now. After Queenstown, we headed up to see the Fox and Franz Josef glaciers. We saw the Fox Glacier, and got to walk up to the terminal face. Very cool. It was amazing to walk through the valley the glacier had carved, and then see the glacier itself. The next day we went to see the Franz Josef, but it was raining really hard, and we couldn’t see much. After that, we stopped in Greymouth, where we had a head shaving good time for Thanksgiving. Then on to see the pancake rocks in Punakaiki. We weren’t expecting much, but they were really incredible. Possibly one of the coolest natural formations we’ve seen, and that’s saying a lot. Then we headed up to Motueka, a small town on the edge of the Abel Tasman National Park. We booked a day trip of sea kayaking in the park, and of course it ended up raining. It was ok, because the kayaking was so much fun, and we had our own little tour, just us and the guide. He was very nice, and really knowledgable about the area. We got to see some seals, but unfortunately none climbed up on our kayak. (It apparently happens sometimes) Then on to spend a night in Picton, before getting on the ferry and saying goodby to the south island.

In Wellington, we decided to stop at the zoo, because the guide book said they had one of the best kiwi houses in the country. It was really dark, (kiwis are nocturnal) and was supposed to have kiwis, moreporks, tuatara, and possibly other animals. We were in that little building for a good half hour and didn’t see a single thing. Oh well, the rest of the zoo was pretty good. We even got to feed giraffes! After that, we headed over to New Plymouth to see Mt Taranaki, a volcano on the west coast. Of course, it was raining, so we could’t see the mountain at all.

Then on to the last thing we wanted to see, the glowworms at Waitomo Caves. We booked one of the “blackwater rafting” trips, which is actually sitting on an innertube in the cave waters. The caves are huge, and there are many tunnels and systems, and the different companies run different tours in each of the cave areas. We once again got our own private tour, and some of it was great (like the glowworms, really beautiful), and some of it not so (cold, muddy cave water up the nose).

Now we are back in Auckland, and will be flying out to Brisbane on Monday morning (our time). I’m not sure when we’ll have wireless again, or even when we’ll have a chance to post again, but hopefully it won’t be too long…