Sweet as!

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After a whirlwind tour of New Zealand we are now in Australia and ready to slow down the pace a little. We had a great time on the South Island of New Zealand and did some more great hikes and walks. Our first one was in Abel Tasman National Park on the North-West side of the island. We took a boat ride up the coast then walked back to where the bus was going to pick us up. We misjudged our timing a little bit and ended up power walking and running the last few kilometers to make the bus! Thankfully we made it just in time and had a nice air-conditioned ride back to the town of Nelson.

From there we headed south to Greymouth, where we had a tour of the Monteith's Brewery (which was really the only thing to do in town). After learning about how they made it we got to appreciate their various drought's during a 15 minute free pour at the bar, during which we needed to have a few glasses of each so we could really appreciate the various flavors.

Waking up a little groggy the next morning we headed to Franz Joseph where we spent 2 nights in order to have a full day to go on a glacier walk on the Franz Joseph Glacier (one of 3 in the world that descends into a tropical forest). We put our crampons on and got to squeeze through some melt holes and large crevasses, it was a mix of hot and cold with the weather being mid 20's and sunny, while we were sliding through tight spaces on ice and melt water.

The next stop on the trip was Queenstown. It was a great little city with lots to do and lots of backpackers walking the streets. We took advantage of the good nightlife and spent a night out with some friends from the magic bus we have been touring around on. At the World Bar they served us some teapots full of who-knows-what that Hawley seemed to especially enjoy. We spent 2 nights in Queenstown in order to do a day trip over to Milford Sound, an inlet on the West Coast that we were told was not to be missed. On our boat cruise we drove through a waterfall and saw some dolphins leaping out of the water which were especially hard to get a picture of.

Our New Zealand trip came to an end in Christchurch, where we got to see a real live Kiwi. It was a good end to the first leg of our travels, which we quite enjoyed. Everything was very rushed but we certainly made the best of our time there. We are now in Sydney where we have spent the last few days just hanging out, walking around the city and lounging at Bondi Beach. We are off to Broome tomorrow and going to be renting a camper van to travel down the West Coast to Perth. I have been training my mind to keep to the left hand side of the road and not to stop for pedestrians, hopefully I will catch on quickly!

Sweet as!
Joe and Hawley

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