Busy week!

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Hi! Unfortunately, no place in Te Anau will allow me to upload photos, so this blog will be missing the visuals until I return to Auckland. But here's how my last 10 days or so have been.

Originally, my plan was to stay in Auckland for a week and lay low, conserve money and all that, but then I decided to get out for a couple days. I'd heard from other travellers that Taupo was the place for adventure sports, so I made my way there in the hopes of skydiving (tandem, of course!). Bad weather prohibited me from doing the skydiving, so my consolation prize from myself was a trip to the Hot Springs Spa, where you can soak in a mineral pool. Fabulous! Much better than any man-made spa I've been in. My massage was great as well, but I'm starting to feel sympathy for the massage therapists I visit. Four years of lugging around a laptop has left me with some knots near my neck that six weeks of physical therapy couldn't remove. So when the masseuse arrives at that spot, I can generally sense a silent cursing on her part. The masseuse at the spa told me in her quaint New Zealand accent, "Regular treatment would be best."

Just before leaving Taupo, I did a short hike to Huka Falls, which is not high, but quite forceful. It was nice being in the "wilderness" after spending a lot of time in cities and on beaches.

After returning to Auckland, I joined some people from the hostel in watching the Kiwis defeat the Kangaroos (Australians) in rugby league (I think - maybe it was rugby union). It was the first time in 46 years that the Kiwis had won in Sydney (and AUS was favored to win) so people were quite excited by the victory. A few of us also went dancing that night, which was something I hadn't done since I started traveling.

My brother's arrival on Sunday signified the start of an action-packed two weeks. With only a couple of days on the North Island, we took advantage of the first summer-like weather and went sailing on one of the America's Cup boats in the Auckland Harbor. They allow people to help sail by "grinding" (hoisting and adjusting the sails) and steering the boat, so we both tried our hands at that.

The following day we drove (on the left!) to Rotorua, which is known for geothermal activity and therefore reeks of sulphur. Our first mission was to try Zorbing, which some of you may have seen on The Amazing Race reality show. Basically, you're in a super-sized golf ball while rolling down a hill. We chose the hydro Zorb so you slide around in water in the ball. I'll post video footage when I return to the US.

Our other mission in Rotorua was to see a geyser. Te Puia, one of the sites of a recreated Maori village has an impressive geyser that spewed for upwards of ten minutes while we were there!

Then it was off to South Island! We flew to Christchurch and hit up the Canterbury Brewery, the botanical gardens, and some really impressive restaurants. From Christchurch we drove north to Kaikoura for the afternoon to go whale-watching, specifically sperm whales as NZ is one of the few places to see them. It's hard to find them because they dive for a couple hours at a time, but we did see one, along with a seal and an albatross. Check back for my photo of the whale's tail. =)

We stayed further north in Blenheim for two nights in a fabulous bed and breakfast called Redwood Heights. Blenheim is in the heart of Marlborough, NZ's most well-known wine region, just next to Cloudy Bay. We rented bikes and rode to several wineries for tastings. Being a fan of dessert wines, I was delighted to discover late harvest reislings (the grapes are so ripe that the wine is very sweet) and botritised wine (botritis is a fungus that causes grapes to dry out leaving mostly sugar - also known as noble rot).

We had a scenic drive around the north coast and over to Franz Josef on the west coast. The population of franz josef is 321, but it's a popular destination because you can hike into the glacier there. There's a small portion of the glacier that is considered safe, but it was really cool to tramp on solid ice and into crevices. (I think our guides were creating a new path with ice picks as we went.)

Now we're in Te Anau near Fiordland in the southwest area of South Island. The lake here is the starting point for our four day tramp on the Kepler Track, one of the great walks of NZ. We'll be walking around 4-6 hours a day and staying in huts at night. This will be my first multi-day hike, so I'm looking forward to the challenge. I'll try to post the pics for this blog and notes about the tramp before I leave New Zealand, but I may claim exhaustion and wait until I return to the US.

Hope all is well!

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