Days 150 & 151

Day 150,

We woke up, took a shower and had a little breakfast. We found out that the party last evening was completely crazy (fights, harassment, stolen/lost credit cards) so we were glad we didn't attend. After breakfast we walked down to the beach, and along the way Andrea saw this..



















We walked along the beach and took a few photos.



















It was a little misty, but it was nice to get out and enjoy the beautiful sea.













We headed back up to the hostel to pack and get back on the bus (today is our last day on the bus, yippie!!) The bus was great and served its purpose, but we were so happy to be done with it. Well, it took a little longer than normal to load the bus due to all the drama last night. We got a little nervous because we had a train to catch.

We needed to get down to Greymouth to catch the TranzAlpine train. The TranzAlpine is supposed to be one of the most beautiful scenic train rides in the world. It travels from Greymouth on the west coast to Christchurch on the east coast going through the Southern Alps. Well, we made it to the train (train was about 30 minutes late) and found our seats. The ride was amazing. The scenery was incredible.













We had a few snacks while enjoying the views. We stopped at Arthurs Pass for a few minutes to breath some crisp, fresh mountain air.













Further along the journey we got our picture taken...













A little helicopter came along and was taking pictures of the train as it passed through the picturesque mountains. We (Andrea) also took some pictures of the train as it passed through the mountains.













The trip was amazing; we saw some amazing rivers, mountains and gorges, we traveled through some amazing tunnels and plains. The sun was setting as we were heading through the Cantebury Plains toward Christchurch and it made for an awesome ending to this incredible train ride.













Back in Christchurch we checked into our hostel and headed out to grab a bite to eat at a local Thai restuarant. The food was great. After dinner we went back to the hostel to watch a little T.V. and get some rest.

Day 151,

We got up early to get cleaned up, pack up, get some breakfast and go get our rental car. We rented a car to spend a few days traveling around to some of the places we really wanted to spend time in throughout the Southern Alps. So off we went in our pretty little...













It reminded me of my little red Ford Focus back in MN. (sigh!) We headed south along the coast because all the ski resorts were closed due to high winds and snow.













After spending a couple of hours heading south we turned west and headed toward the Alps. We stopped for a quick bite to eat at a little cafe then spent several hours heading toward Twizel, winding over the rivers on the one lane bridges and meandering through the foothills and mountains.













We arrived in Twizel and found a room at a motel/hostel. We settled into our room, made some dinner and did some planning for next day. We finished off the day doing a little work on the computer before heading to bed after our first day with a car (driving on the left hand side of the road without any incidents).

Days 148 & 149

Day 148,

We're back! So I hate to admit this, but this blog post was started on 7/22/2009 and today is 9/23/2009...where have we been? (I will explain in future blog posts).

Today was another beautiful day in paradise. We are back in Abel Tasman National Park for the second time. Last time we were here we did a two day kayak trip and a scenic flight over the park in an ultralight (you know that hang glider with a lawn mover engine). So this time we decided to see the park from land. We loaded up our daypacks and headed down to the Abel Tasman Coastal Track. It is one of New Zealand's Great Walks. It typically takes 3 to 5 days to complete, but we decided to run the whole thing in 1 day...NO WAY, did you actually believe me? We decided to walk a portion of the first section of the track.

We walked the beach on the way to the track and searched for cool seashells and admired the awesome patterns in the sand.













We had to do a little wading to make it from the beach to the trail head, but we made it.













We took a few pictures at the trail head then headed West into the park.













We hiked for a couple of hours enjoying this incredible park from land. Along the way way we admired the amazing vistas.













We stopped at Apple Tree Bay to have a little lunch and soak in the scenery.













After lunch we turned around and headed back toward the park entrance. We took some more time on the way back to enjoy the views and take some photos, like this...













and this... (last time we were here we kayaked next to that island)













and this.













After making it out of the park we headed back to our little cabin to get cleaned up, have some dinner and relax. We enjoyed a quiet evening and a beautiful sunset.













Day 149,

We woke up early to make some breakfast and get packed up. After a quick bite we headed down to the main road near the water to wait for the bus. Luckily the bus stopped and we loaded up to make our way back down to the west coast. Along the way to Barrytown we stopped to get some coffee then some lunch then we took a few pictures. The weather was pretty poor so we didn't head out to the pancake rocks this time around. Eventually we made it to Barrytown and got settled into our room. We weren't interested in partying and doing the dress-up night, so we just had a little pasta and played some computer games in our room. We went to sleep early after our long day of traveling.

Days 146 & 147

Day 146 - Leaving Kaikoura!

Today is a big day, we are leaving Kaikoura where we have been living for the past 3 months! We woke up early to finish packing and do some final cleaning before leaving our house. With our packs on our backs again we headed down to meet the Stray bus to continue our journey. John has been working on getting Andrea to be early for things... so we got to the bus at 8:15am and it didn't leave until 9:30am! Ok, so the bus was scheduled to leave at 8:30am ;).














Along the drive we stopped by the waterfall just outside of town to see the baby seals. We have been here before to see the seals, but it was fun to see them again. They are too cute!














As we continued along our drive north towards Picton, we passed a large crayfish... so while John mourned the death of Michael Jackson and protected himself from swine flu, he posed for a picture. Many New Zealand towns have their "claim to fame" and then make a very large sculpture of that. Naturally, just outside of Kaikoura there is a large crayfish, you might have seen some of the other large objects in previous posts.














Then we arrived in Picton and checked into our backpackers before heading out on a walk along the harbour. It was a beautiful day so we were out enjoying it.














Andrea made some friends...




















then we headed to the grocery store and went back to our backpackers to take a nap, it has been a long day!

We got up and went in the spa pool, had some dinner and free hot chocolate pudding and ice cream, YUM! Then relaxed a bit more and went back to bed.

Day 147

The morning started off slowly as it was raining outside and we had the morning to ourselves before meeting the next bus. After cleaning up we headed out to the spot we were meeting the next Stray bus. While watching them pull up, we were a bit worried about the state of the bus we were traveling in as it jerked forward and was making a lot of noise. We drove a little bit down the street and then had to unload the bus and go get some lunch while we waited for another bus to come and pick us up.

We were in Picton hanging out for another couple of hours before the bus came to get us and we headed west towards Abel Tasman National Park. It was nice to get moving again.

We stopped in Motueka to go to the grocery store, and then finally arrived in Marahau (just outside Abel Tasman National Park). We cooked some pasta and played cribbage before heading to bed.

Days 143-145

Day 143, Another Big Day
Andrea woke up early to head into her Monday morning meeting. Andrea came home and woke me up to have some breakfast. After breakfast we did some work on the computer and got a package ready to send home. After lunch Andrea headed to work and I went down to the post shop to send the package, then to the movie store to return some movies and close our account and the grocery store to get a few items. On the way home I stopped by Hislops Cafe to get a coffee then went and chilled on the couch. Andrea worked till 9:03 pm then she was done, done, done. No more working for her. She came home and we celebrated her last day and watched a movie.

Day 144,
Today we did two things in Kaikoura we have been meaning to do for a long time. So, after a little breakfast, some computer work, cleaning and a chat with our friend Fran we headed down to town. On the way we stopped by the Kaikoura Museum (1st thing). We pass by the museum every time we go into town and have been talking about stopping for a long time now.




















There is not a lot in the museum, but we did find out the meaning of Kaikoura (actually we already knew that)...














And we got a picture with one of the old timers...














After exploring the museum for at least half an hour we headed down to the fish store. At the fish store we picked up dinner (more on this later). Next we went over to the internet cafe to upload some pictures and then to a shop to get a couple of gifts. We headed home to relax before making our dinner of this...














New Zealand green lippped mussels and this...














crayfish (rock lobster). This is the second thing we have been meaning to do; eat crayfish in the "crayfish food" town. We cooked up our seafood and enjoyed every bite. After pigging out on the awesome food we relaxed, watched a movie and took a bath.

Day 145, Last day in Kaikoura!
We slept in a little this morning before a nice breakfast and some laundry! Fran came by to pick us up to head out to the local Irish restaurant/hotel.















We had a great lunch at the Donegal House and walked around their grounds a little before heading back into town. We stopped and had a coffee and cake on way back home from lunch. It was great to hang out with Fran for a little while.

Back at home we did some cleaning, packing and organizing in order to get ready for our last two crazy weeks in New Zealand. Later in the evening we met up with Cally to go check out her new place and then headed over to Dusky Lodge to get some pizza and hang out with some good friends. After pizza, a few beers and some good conversation we headed down to the local pub to meet some more friends and have another beer. It was great to see everyone and sad to say goodbye to our new friends. We will miss our friends and this neat little town, but are excited to get moving again.

Days 135-142

Day 135,
Andrea woke up early to head into work for the day shift. I slept in a little before getting a call from our housemates who are in the Czech Republic. They are having a great time visiting Jana’s family. I let them talk to their fish so they knew they were still alive. The rest of the day I spent working on the computer and relaxing. Andrea got home around 5:30 and we had a nice stir-fry dinner. Then we watched a movie and Andrea’s favorite shows (it’s a Sunday).

Day 136,
Andrea got up early to head to her Monday morning meeting and I got up just after to head down to the building site. Andrea came home after her meeting, had some breakfast, then got ready to chat to the DC in NH. I came home for some lunch and Andrea was chatting to the DC so I just ate quick and went back to work. Andre headed into work for the afternoon shift after her conversation with Dr. P. I headed over to Hislops Café after work, then went down to the movie store to get some more dollar movies. Stopped back at the Café on the way home to pick up a free coffee. I spent the evening relaxing and watching some TV. When Andrea got home we watched some more television then headed to bed.


Day 137, Big Day!
Andrea woke up early with me to make some breakfast before I went down to work at the motel construction site. She hung around the house doing some stuff on the internet, making a bunch of phone calls and taking a few pictures.


























Pretty cool eh.



























I worked for a few hours then found out my boss wasn’t feeling well, so he was going to see his doctor and wouldn’t be back for the rest of the week. Holy cow I am done working…sweet as! This was going to be my last week, but I didn‘t expect it to be this short. It was a physically demanding, but interesting job. So I thanked the owner and headed home. When I got home I got cleaned up and talked to Andrea for a while then gave my Mom a call to make sure she was doing alright. After talking to my folks we headed downtown to have a final lunch at the Thai restaurant then borrowed a car to head up to the grocery store; we stopped at the Whale Watch along the way to find out about going on a cruise. We dropped off the car and headed home to have some dinner. After dinner we went down to a local pub for a beer with some friends then headed back home to watch a movie.

Day 138,
We woke up and had some breakfast before walking down to the Whale Watch center to catch our cruise. Hoping we will see lots of whales. We hoped on the bus to ride over to the marina to get on our boat. We boarded the boat then headed off into the pacific ocean.

The ocean floor next to Kaikoura is very unique. Kaikoura lies at the intersection of the Pacific plate and the Australian plate so, there are mountains 2600 meters high just 12 km from the coast and canyons 1000 meter deep in the ocean floor just 1.6 km offshore. This large canyon in the ocean floor is known as the Kaikoura Canyon and provides perfect conditions for all sorts of marine life including whales. The primary year round residents are sperm whales, however many other types of whales, including humpback, ocras, etc., migrate through the area during different times of the year.

On the boat we kept a close eye out the window looking for the...













the spray of the sperm whale.













Luckily we saw one, then...













the tail comes up as the whales dives down deep to go get some lunch. The whales come up to the surface to rest and let their food digest after every snack.

We were lucky enough to see another whale...













and another...













and we also got to see some of these...













Dusky dolphins. They followed our boat for awhile as we cruised to find another whale.













They did some tricks while playing in the bow wake of the boat.













We saw another sperm whale













and another as we were getting ready to head back to the launch.













In total we saw five male sperm whales.













What a cool trip!













And what an amazingly beautiful piece of New Zealand. We had an incredible time watching and photographing these awesome animals.















After our cool whale watching trip we headed home to have some lunch and relax for awhile. That evening we got some awesome pizza (like hula hula, hen and ham, drunken rabbit, or gone hunting) from the local pizza joint and watched a movie.

Day 139,
Pretty boring day after yesterdays fun. Anyway, we woke up, had some breakfast, did some internet stuff and watched a little TV. Andrea headed off to work, while I finished organizing our final weeks and did some odd jobs around the house. When Andrea got home we relaxed a little, took a bath, then headed to bed.

Day 140,
We got up, had some breakfast and went over our plans for the end of our trip. After a little lunch we walked down to take a few photos of...














me at the construction site with my "flash" hammer (as my boss liked to call it.)













This is the half done motel. We also took a few photos of...













Andrea at Hislops Cafe. We had to have a little photo proof that we actually did a little work (Andrea more than me).

I hung around the cafe for a little while drinking a coffee and talking to the staff. Then I headed home to relax for the evening and do some work around the house. Andrea came home around ten and we chatted for a little while before heading to bed.

Day 141,
Andrea got up early to head into work for the day shift. I slept in a little then hung out at the house relaxing. When Andrea got home we looked at some photos from our wedding that one of her friends had put on facebook then cleaned up for our date night. We headed down to Hislops Cafe to have dinner since we hadn't really eaten any of the menu food. We had a great dinner; Andrea had the lamb steak and I had the roasted chicken 3 course dinner special. The food was awesome. After dinner we walked home and sat on the couch watching movies. It was a wonderful date night!

Day 142,
We got up, cooked some breakfast, did some internet stuff and did some more planning. After lunch Andrea headed down to the cafe and I hung around the house making reservations and relaxing. Andrea had a busy day (served lots of coffee and comfort food) due to the cold and rain. Andrea got home late, so we relaxed for a little bit then went to bed.