Touring the South Island - look who we found!

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Hi everyone. Hope you're all alright. We've had a busy couple of weeks since our last blog, starting with a 4 day canoe trip down the Wanganui River. It was absolutely beautiful, peaceful and oh so sunny for a change, and we even managed to break a couple of records by paddling 100km in 2 days, the fastest the hire company has ever had people do it in! It helped though that the river was fast flowing due to the storms the previous week though, but sshhhh!

So we have met up with my mum and Steve, spent a couple of days in Christchurch letting them catch up on sleep and just catching up in general! Took a while but the next day we were off, sporty little greta the granny car leading the way with steve and mums camper very far behind somewhere on the horizon.

So, for the bit you've all been waiting for, introducing for the very first time on our blog, my mum and Steve*

At our own expense, the Davis Family on tour to New Zealand, Easter 2007. including our own personal guides to the Land of the Hobbits, Stacey "wise" and Keef "Frodo" who welcomed us in the traditional kiwi fashion, with kiwi rain flooding almost as strongly as the tears. What with jetlag and the international dateline, we thought we were back in England. Stacey "wise" asking for chocolate and cuddles and Keef "Frodo" sucking up to Shirley.

After collecting the Davis Mobile we slept for a day, then the adventure began. So it was off to see Captain Ahab with his tattooes helper (Stacey), sorry I mean Quigley, for whale watching at Kaikoura. We got 3 sightings, first Tiaki (18m) and then Little Nick (16m), 2 male sperm whales. We got introduced to overnighting in dodgy laybys before finishing up in Glacier Country, after a couple of days. At the campsite at Franz Josef, the cold wind blew and we froze. Shirley had a cold nose, but it didnt stop us from having a typical Davis bbq, much to the amazement of the other campers. We walked up to the Glacier with all of us wrapped up apart from "Hard as nails" Shirley as Keith said (brave) as she remained in her tshirt the whole time! We also visited Lake Matheson, the mirror lake, (I am still the fairest of them all says Steve) for reflective views of Mount Cook and Mount Tasman. The clouds stayed away until we were back at the coffee shop for a cappucino and chocolate fix. Liz, yours is getting cold! Sharon, you owe us as it was your shout! Finally we have headed to Queenstown, enjoying the adrenaline rush from an hour long jetboat blast, heading straight for trees, rocks, beaches and anything else we could avoid at the last minute at high speed. We even did 360deg turns and got a cold shower to wake us up!

Next we head off to Lake Te Anau and Milford Sound. Come on Steve, keep up with us, but no faster than 50kph!

*The views expressed above are not neccesarily those shared by keith and stacey

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Photos

Nice!
or should it be ..... sweeeeet!

Hard shirley!
See.. we all have jumpers and hats on!

One lump or two
make mine a large!

Another dodgy camp spot
mmmm fine until a wierd spade man turned up!!!

Comments

[Pearl]

Hilarious and still jealous
Ooh I am sooooo envious it is so beautiful. I thoroughly enjoyed the guest bloggers. Sorry Stacey am about to talk about work - I have survived Science week - just! We did Family Day (James and Sunil particularly heroic) - then me, James, Matt, Becky and Dave (Clark - Astronomy) taught holography to 94 Foundation year students for a week - oh and did the Light Express for them during the week in our 'Foundation Photonics' module - they loved it of course. Then we had a Science conference for 360 Year 10 students. Anyhoo - am knackered. Still need you back Keith. Continue to have a fabulous time. I so wish I could go on adventures too. Pearl x