Australia & New Zealand Adventure Part V: South Island, Fjordland and the West Coast

Time has really started to speed up, I cannot believethat I will be back in

Australia

this time nextweek....I last wrote to you all from

Dunedin

. So much hashappened, it will be hard to put it in a nutshell, soI'll just describe the bare highlights.... There hasbeen little sleep, much activity, much partying andmerriment... Oh so tired am I!After having so much luck with the weather so far, wedid spend much of last week sheltering from somepretty violent storms that brought rain, more rain,rain, and Oh....? Did I mention we had some rain? Ihave begun believing that a tent is no longer properlyfunctioning unless there is a river of swift currentflowing directly beneath, next to, or through it. Ifcontents of said tent also become drenched then one isofficially camping. Needless to say, this did serveto dampen our spirits a little, but we have bravedthrough it, and now head to a North Island where majorhighways have now re-opened after some of the worstfloods in 25 years! I sure know how to time my trips!After I last wrote, we drove into

Fjordland

on thesouth west coast of

New Zealand

. We took a four hourboat cruise on Milford Sound, which was so mindboggling beautiful that flies had laid eggs in mymouth since I had my jaw dropped to the floor for theentire voyage.... On our return from the sound, agroup of eight of us were dropped off to start a 3day

back country

hike through the

Routeburn

Track.Again, we had a stunning time despite the rain on thesecond day. My only issue on this trip was dealingwith the rage of my fellow hikers who stupidly forgotto pack any lunch provisions and therefore vied toharbor as much guilt on me as possible for thinkingonly of myself and packing the night before....(mysalami and cheese was most precious....!)Heading north from

Fjordland

we arrived in

Queenstown

,which I have decided is the Boulder equivalent in NewZealand. I loved it. Lots of open air cafes around astunning lake with "The

Remarkables

" (mountains usedmany times in the

LOR

movies) in the background. Myonly travel bugs here were the unfortunate

occurrences

of having my mobile stolen (please email me your phonenumbers if you are in

Australia

!!!) and taking anill-fated

Lord of the Rings

jeep safari tour with adriver who was better suited to a career sellingfuneral packages....He received the not-so-often-seendark side of my pissed off nature, and I got a fullrefund. What a jerk. He even had the audacity topoint out that he hadn't seen any of the moviesbecause he had "better things to do than spend 3 hoursin a movie theater!" I can think of more appropriatethings to say to six eager (and yes, somewhatpathetic, I grant you) young

LOR

fanatics who had justforegone the opportunity to

hand glide

to spend $100seeing film locations in the flesh.Anyway, moving north again, we took a trip to FoxGlacier (Jon, I thought of you.) situated amongcoastal

rain forest

. Several of us took a guidedcrampon hike on the ice and I got to crawl inside anice cave complete with flowing river.....greatexperience.We stayed a few nights in

Punakaki

in the

Paparoa

National Park. I went Black water rafting which isbasically an inner tube ride in complete pitch blackother than the mesmerising star-like

luminescence

ofglow worms in the sky. Excellent!Today we left Abel Tasman National Park where I wentSea Kayaking for the day, only to be turned around dueto gale winds....oh well, no rest for the weary....Heading to

Picton

tonight, and ferry tomorrow back tothe North Island and then 2 more days to

Auckland

.I will stay in touch!