Its a fee-ord, not a fi-george!

Hello everyone! Currently we are in Mount Cook National Park. The town of Mount Cook is about 150 people at best. And.. one restaurant. And..... its chilly!

Yesterday we went to Milford Sound on a day trip. It was sooo amazing both on the drive there and back and the amazing cruise we took. We left at 7 in the morning and the drive there took 5 and a half hours with several stops along the way for photos. THe veiws were absolutely incredible. Words cannot describe the beauty so we will just attach photos. We seen a Kea bird on one of our stops as it landed right on our bus. A kea is an alpine parrot, green with orange underwings. They were labelled as sheep killers back in the early 1900's so people were paid to hunt and kill them but now they are fully protected. There are only about 8000 left in the wild but its seems like more because they hang out by car parks in touristy spots because they enjoy.. rubber! They have been known to attack tires and windshield wipers. Everyone here calls them "cheeky"! And we went through Homer's tunnel, 1.3 km long and drops 110 m, thats like a 10% grade. Crazy! And then on the other side we were there. The weather was cloudy but the sun broke through at several points. ANd the rain stayed away giving us a beautiful view. Anyone who comes to New Zealand should go to Milford Sound. Its actually a fjord though, not a sound because it was carved out by a glacier.

On the bought cruise, we made our way all the way out to the Tasman Sea (Pacific Ocean) before making our way out. We seen a seal basking on the rocks and got soaked driving right up to a huge waterfall!

We then headed back and Kim and I slept almost all of the way back to Queenstown.

Then today we hoped on the bus to Mount Cook. We arrive here just after noon. After settling in and snoozing for a half an hour, we went for a short hike up to Kea Point. The clouds made it look like it was about to storm and there are snow warnings for tonight so we will see. They got some last night. Maybe some more tonight. Because of the clouds we could not see Mount Cook on the way up and even during the hike it was still cloudy. At Kea Point we saw the Muellen Glacier, which is really ugly actually, because its horizontal not vertical so all the debris just settles on top of it as it melts and freezes. So... it looks like dirt. Then we headed to the Edmund Hillary Alpine Experience at the Hermitage Lodge (like Jasper Park Lodge, but Kiwi style). It had lots of mountaineering information and exhibits about Hillary, Mount Cook, Everest, and his Antarctic experiences. There was a film on him we watched part of and we are going back tomorrow morning to watch the planetarium exhibit and the film on Mount Cook. We came back to the YHA Youth Hostel and slept for 1.5 hours before heading back up to the lodge for some chilli and good eating! Now we are sitting in the youth hostel's TV room with the fire roaring.

Tomorrow to Christchurch! Our last stop before the wonderful, heated, land of OZ!!!!!!!!!!!! I wonder if we'll see a wizard....

Love you all and God Bless!

Kim and Dennis

---

---