Spread love and fairydust

New Zealand

Heather, Mike, Will, Paul and Em on Haast beach

This place was so so beautiful at sunset that we all got totally hyper and were runnning around like kids. I'm going to remember this beach forever it was so stunning!! And then I lost my bag in all the excitement, totally freakin out!!! So we then had to comb the beach in semi-darkness looking for it. But Suzanna had picked it up and taken it back to the hostel!

Paul Running!

Milford Sound- It had just been raining so the waterfalls were still there. Apparently it's even more breathtaking when its pouring, but the weather cleared just as we arrived.

Caroline and Emma in Queenstown

Tongariro Crossing

This walk was AMAZING! Mt DOOM was hard work, so i sympathize with mr frodo but it was worth every step. we went from moorland to volcano to turquoise lakes to semi-tropical forest in a few hours.

Was really nervous when I arrived in Auckland had no plan and knew no-one, only a few names and numbers of distant relatives i'd never met. I went straight to the museum to get more of an idea of NZ history and culture (they also had luggage storage so I could sneak off and look for a good place to stay). After depositing my gear at the hostel I decided the next step was to go up the tower to get a good view of the place. I got chatting with Will in the room and he decided to come along. The sun was about to set when we arrived so we got to see the daylight and night views. We signed up for the free city tour with Stray. The guide dude was really bubbly and as Will and I both had up-in-the-air plans we decided to go 4 it and sign up for a Stray pass around NZ leaving the next day!!!!!

Twas awesome as we met some wicked people and got to see so many different places. Some of it was a bit rushed as I only had 5 weeks which wasn't nearly long enough. I will definitely go back again with more time and more extra $$$!

Diarmuid at Te Anau This was another highlight. Diarmiud, Noeleen and I did the Kepler walk. We plodded up the hil and some people ran by!! I think it's called the Kepler challenge and they run the whole 67K up and down the mountains. Impressive stuff! My favorite bit was when we were really high up in the forest and everything was covered in furry, pale green lichen and it just looked like some kind of enchanted fairy forest. Even being really cold in the hut was kinda fun. We met Saskia and Christina at the top... unfortunately there was no view as we were in a cloud, but we sat in the snow and celebrated with an apple and peanuts. GReat craic!..... OH YEEEEAH!

posted by Uma the Puma @ 10:32 AM