The Lady and the Tramps

Hello from down under down under. We are in NZ for just a few more hours and then we're off to Oz!

For those of you concerned about the title to this blog ("what about DAN?? Wasn't he along on the hikes??") have no fear. He was there too. It just doesn't sound as catchy to title this "The Lady, The Man and the Tramps". Or "The Man, Woman and Two Hikes". Or even "Two People Who Walked for Awhile". Anyway.

Since our last post, we've enjoyed both the Routeburn and Kepler Tracks, two hikes conveniently located near Queenstown, in southern NZ. The first involved lots of trees, uphills, waterfalls and sandflies. I guess there were some downhills as well, as we ended up where we started, but somehow it felt like a tonne of uphills with a teensy little bit of downhills thrown in for good measure. Our weather was spectacular. Lucky us!

The Kepler Track (inexplicably named after some German astronomer dude) featured more uphill, additional uphill and....some steep uphill sections. We saw some coolio caves near the top of Mt. Luxmoore and enjoyed the wide assortment of birds that we saw along the way, including a red-crested parakeet and kea, an alpine parrot. These are among the smartest birds in the world, and are known for their creative foraging. They particularly love to destroy sleeping bags, boots, tents etc in their quest for food. They are neato. And big. About a foot tall!

Post-Routeburn/Kepler, it only seemed right to reward ourselves with collosal ice cream cones (boysenberry dipped in choc in this photo) in the town of Te Anau. Then it was off to Queenstown to pick up our fancy, 1300cc rental car. Squeaky brakes, a hilarious "power" window feature and steering wheel on the wrong side. Dan did admirably, and no one perished on our four day trip along the southern tip of NZ. The only indication that he wasn't a tried and true kiwi driver was his unfortunate tendency to signal by turning on the windshield wipers. HAHAHAHHA.

We visited important NZ historical and cultural sites like Puzzleworld, the Cadbury factory in Dunedin and a giant fruit statue thingee in Cromwell. Along the way, we also managed to witness three teensy blue penguins coming ashore in Oamaru, a yellow-eyed penguin peeing in Curio Bay and a sealion vomiting on the shoreline of the Otago Peninsula. Good times.

Our next stop is Sydney, where we will pick up yet another car (this one standard transmission - yegads!) and a guy named Stefan from Perth. We are hoping, since he has lived in Perth for two years, that he will have an encyclopedia-like knowledge of the entirety of Australia. No pressure, Stefan.

Later!