So we're off to take a hike. We have our bread and Nutella ready to go for when we hit the summit. DEAR GOD! What a hike. There is no such thing as switch-backs here...just straight up the mountain! So after we realize we are so out of shape we make it to the top. We're sitting there just hanging out, when a mom and daughter walk up. YAY they made it. SO we start chatting with them about New Zealand and about us..yadda yadda yadda....well Nicole starts to get hungry. "humm" she thinks to herself..."some Nutella sounds good right about now." so as she is going for the stuff to make the sandwich, Brian looks at her and says, "there is no knife"....Well now that presented a problem: she was hungry and wanted a sandwich. So, what does she do? Yes, she sticks her finger into the Nutella and starts to spread it all over the bread...by this point she is getting it all over her hand. *classy* When a voice comes outta the blue: "I have a knife if you'd like to use it?" So, yes, we both used the knife. It was pretty funny.
On our way back we were sweaty and needed to shower up before we arrived at Brian's friend's house. SO...naturally we brought the soap down to the river...it was freezing! But, we put soap all over us and our clothes and hopped in and out of the water. Called it a shower. It was refreshing and we were now presentable.
We hung our wet clothes out the window and drove off to Wellington. The GPS took us through some beautiful twisty road, driving through the country is just stunning! The sights are so beautiful. About an hour later we arrived at the Sheehan's beautiful home. When we got there no one was home. Brian got close enough to the house to pick up some open wifi--why not surf the web while we wait right? So, he decides to Skype his dad. "HI DAD...." Brian sits on the concrete decorative bench outside in the front yard...BOOM! Brians falls to the floor throwing the laptop up into the air, causing it to land in the bushes...Nicole: BUSTS OUT LAUGHING! "What happened?" while STILL LAUGHING! Brian gets up, "OH NO! OH NO! OH NO!" while rubbing his butt...THE BENCH CRUMBLED INTO PIECES!!! Seriously, not even 2 mins later, the lady who we are staying with pulls up. Brians now has to introduce himself AND appoligize for busting their bench.
The family was so great. They were cool with what happened. Invited us in, gave us a bed for the night and cooked us an amazing meal. After dinner they had a great dessert. It was some pie thing and icecream....so good! Brian, being the nice guy that he is, decided to clean out his bowl...he puts the bowl under the sink faucet, turns the water on FULL BLAST and it was like a freakin' rocket blast. Water flies everywhere...wets the mom, wets the floor, wets the countertop. Nicole: BUSTS OUT LAUGHING!! Poor Brian. They had to get the mop out to clean it up. At this point we were friends enough to laugh at it and they didn't make Brian go sit in the car...they just asked him not to touch the cat! just kidding. haha
It was a great night, we were able to get on the internet, make some calls via Skype, sleep in a bed and take a real shower.
1-21-10
1-21-10
Today was a lazy day. We hung out at the Sheehans, watched TV, Skyped, and took it easy. It was a much needed lazy day. The days are so long here (b/c of daylight savings it does not get dark until 945pm), so we are on the go until its dark and by that time we've done so much and are exhausted.
We left the house about 5:30 and set out to go see teh Te Papa Museum. It is a science museum and contained a lot of New Zealand history as well. We hung out in there for a while, it was a cool place to be and it was FREE!
After the museum, we ventured off to shop around and see what Wellington had to offer. NOTHING was opened! It is the strangest thing...everything closes at 5:00 around here. Brian and I were so frusterated. We eventually found this place to eat, it was a middle eastern restuant. We split some garlic bread and this awesome lamb/chicken Turkish pizza. It was $14.00 NZD. we are so good at being cheap! After that we watched some American street performer. He was kinda lame. But it was a free entertainment. After the the show we walked around some more. You see the one thing I fotgot to mention was that we were waiting to board the ferry this night. We didn't leave Wellingtion until 3AM though. So we had to fill our night with something to do. And we did. We found a hostel wondered in. Watched a movie that some German backpacker paid for (The Simpson's Movie--such a lame choice, but it was free!). So lame in fact we both feel asleep. I woke up as the movie was ending and realized that Brian was alseep too. OH NO! WHAT TIME IS IT!? shew it was only 1130PM. Brian and I took off and went to the car, got to the ferry line and boarded when we could. We had a nice little nap on the ferry and woke up on the beautiful south island.
SO: in a nut shell, we:
surfed the internet
went to a sweet museum (it was a pay to park lot to-$6.00)
had a great dinner
saw some street entertainer
watched a free movie
hung out in a hostel
got our car --parking ended up being free :)
boarded the ferry and slept for free
Pretty much the whole night cost us 14.00 New Zealand bucks! Not too bad!
1-22-10
1-22-10
We got off the ferry around 6:15 AM and started heading towards Tasman. About 40 minutes into the drive, Nicole fell asleep and I was feeling super tired from the short nap we got on the ferry. I decided to pull off in this park along a river, and we ended up waking up almost 4 hours later, I guess we needed the sleep. We got back on the road and continued on into Motueka where we found a pretty awesome deal on a double kayak for 2 days, with no guide, and a night stay in the Abel Tasman National forest. Since it was already around 1pm, we would have to wait until the next day to pick up the kayak and leave, so we decided to check out the end of the road (and the south island). We stopped at a place called Pupu springs (we still think this needs renaming). Pupu springs is the largest spring in Australia and New Zealand and has the clearest freshwater in the entire world. Unfortunately, because of the dangers of bacteria and pest intrusion, you aren't allowed to touch or come in contact with the springs in any way. It was raining so we hiked quickly, but it was beautiful to look into the crystal clear water and see where the water exited the spring. Back on the road, we headed north to Farewell Spit. Farewell spit is this huge sand area that stretches east from the northernmost point of the South Island. It continues to grow every year as sand is carried towards it by the wind and water currents that flow in the area. We hiked out about 2 miles on the inside coast and then hiked up a sand dune and crossed to the unprotected outer side. It was really cool to see the sand dunes and birds that were out there, and there really weren't any other people. I had carried the bodyboard out there in hopes of finding some decent waves, but the current was moving too fast for my comfort. We hiked back to the car as a nasty storm was heading towards us, and ended up walking in the rain for 45 minutes. After the spit, we headed back towards where we would have to catch the kayaks the next day, and found a great little spot to camp for the night. Nicole made her famous lasagna (noodles, 3 slices of kraft singlesish cheese, spaghetti sauce, and all-purpose seasoning) which ended up being pretty good! After being attacked by the largest flying insect either one of us had ever seen, we decided to call it an early night and get to the safety of the tent.
1-23-10
1-23-10
YAY! Kayaking in Abel Tasman was a BLAST! We kayaked about 10 miles to our campsite. It was amazing. The water was this crystal clear green and absolutly beautiful. There were seal colonies that intregued me TONS! Brian was kinda board with the seals (he says they are annoying in WA), but he was a good sport about me loving them! :) The water was so clear and there were these great little islands we'd paddle by and the islands were full of think, green rainforest trees--truely on of the most beutiful places I think I've ever been. We were kayaking along and then we'd see a seal in the water by the huge rocks that covered the coast.
There was this cool river that we could kayaked to. With it being high tide, we were able to able to kayak up the river. brian go word that there was a bridge that we could jump off. SO...we were off to find the bridge. BBOM! we found it. HOLY MOLY! it was soooo high. We stuck the paddle in as far as we could and it did not touch the bottom, gues it's deep enough?! Yeah right! I was not going to jump...but Brian...well, I dropped him off on the shore and wished him good luck and kindly requiested that he would wear his life jacket. That joker trecked up the mountain/rainforest bush stuff, and walked out to the middle of the bridge (with people watching--I think they thought he was CRAZY!), he JUMPED! I got one lousy action shot. And then the best part...HE CAME BACK UP! I'm not kidding this bridge was probaby 45 feet up and he jumped into FREEZING river water. Good job Brian!
After that we make it to Bark Bay (our campsite) and we pulled the Kayak up and set up camp. It was perfect. We found this great little spot to set up our tent AND it just so happened to have 3 perfect trees to set up two hammocks. :)
So we took it! It was mid-afternoon and we had our tent up and the hammocks up--took a little nap and relaxed the rest of the day.
Later that night we tried to start a fire (failed). BUT, we started talking with this family from Christchurch. They were totally cool. The next morning they gave us their contact informaion for while we're in That night we decided to sleep in the hammocks. Popped two Tynol PM's and hit the hommock! It was a chilly night, but a rather glorious nights sleep for me...not so much for Brian. The best part was we stayed dry the entire night. The tent was up with the rain fly on...just in case we had to hop to the tent in the middle of the night.
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