Hiking on New Zealands South Island

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Hi from David, Christie and Natalie again. We finished our travels on the South Island of New Zealand which included hiking the Abel Tasman Coastal Track, the Routeburn Track and the Togaririo Crossing on the north island. We had a great time and thnk New Zealand is a spectacular country with something for everyone.

We returned to Whangaparoa to pick up Paris and he reluctantly left school to continue our travels together. We flew from Auckland to Tahiti, spent 9 days on the island of Morea, and then flew to Easter Island. After a short stay on the tiny "belly button of the world" we flew to Santiago, Chile.

Paris has started his journal up again, so the following entries are his.

4/17/06

About a month ago I went to a school in New Zealand called Orewa College. I made a lot of freinds there. Some were suicidal Goths, some were pot-addicts, some were nerds, some were rugby players, and some were gamblers. The school was really easy because I already knew most of the material. In my first class, two of the pot-addicts were always late to class but they didn´t seem to care. In class you could choose to listen or not.

I stayed at the Howie's house while I was going to school. They live in a town called Whangaparoa. The Howie's, Angela and David, have two children, Nancy and Anna. David is from New Zealand and Angela is from the Dominican Republic. While staying with the Howie´s we went to jazz concerts, played ping pong alot, went to movies and I learned to boogie board correctly. I forgot to mention that the Howie´s have a cat called Max that liked to climb the screens. Oh, and also I had to sleep in a closet on the floor!

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Photos

Kiwi
The kiwis are big and dangerous!

Waikato River
One big rapid.

Abel Tasman Track
Staring a 3 day coastal hike.

Getting Ready
We had to cross tidal flats at low tide.

Photo 3
Rock that looks like a kiwi.

Photo 1
Another 3 day hike with huts.

Fox Glacier
This amazing glacier starts high in the mountains and ends in a coastal rain forest.

Cows Coming Home
We got to see a state of the art dairy.

Cow Carousel
The cows love the circular rotating milking platform.

Comments

[ginger perry]

manly man
What an attractive manly man Paris has become! Enjoying the blog immensely .........

[lynn]

This submitting comments never seems to work but I'll try again. I love getting your blogs and seeing all the places you've been. What an experience. Also great to see Paris grow up on the blogs. Much love to you all...

[Valentina]

b-e-a-utiful
Wow, words cannot describe how jealous I am! That is so incredible, and from the pictures it looks absolutley amazing. Paris looks so different now (which is to be expected; I haven't seen you all in so long!) Miss you, and hope we can get together when you get back :) Love, Val(entina)