Tassie!

Well we've arrived in Tasmania and so far it's great!  We had a very early flight so we had to get up at 4am and we almost missed our connecting flight from Melbourne to Hobart because we didn't realize that we had to pick up our luggage and then recheck it but we made it just in time.

We had breakfast the following morning in Hobart at this GREAT cafe recommended by the Lonely Planet.  It was in the old part of the city with really great character, hardwood floors, high ceilings and big windows.  It was full of fresh bread and pastries, croissants and amazing coffees.  It was a nice change from the usual milk made from powder and museli (that Dan has started called "weesli" and has pretty much refused to eat at this point despite my trying to convince him that it's delicious, nutritious and filling).  I couldn't even finish my almond croissant because it was so rich!  They don't really have filter coffee here so whenever we have coffees in a cafe we usually have cappucinos...ahhh....it was all in all a blissful breakfast.  Then  we headed off to Freycinet National Park on the east coast.  It is famous for a bay called Wineglass Bay that is a perfect crescent shape with turquoise water and white sand.  We hiked into our free (yay!) campsite that took us about 2.5 hours and provided excellent views of the bay.  We found a secluded campsite sheltered by trees and about 20 metres from the beach!  I can't believe I am saying this, but this beach was even more beautiful than at Abel Tasman in NZ...and you can only get there by boat or hiking in so there were very few people there.  We spent the evening relaxing and reading our books before boiling up some spaghetti for supper.  We watched the sunset from the rocks on the beach.  We also got our first marsupial encounter which was very exciting!  There are these little Bennett's Wallabies everywhere!  They are little miniature kangaroos about 2 feet tall.  We quickly discovered that they are the raccoons of Australia and there are signs everywhere not to feed them because they can become a little pesky......the story gets better....

So the ranger at the desk told us not to leave our food out and we should just put it in the tent.  This seemed a little odd to us since this is a big no-no in Canada and I even asked him "will they try to break into the tent?" and he assured me this was not an issue.  So we figured he's a local, he should know what he's talking about and put the food in our tent when we went to sleep.  We were awoken at 4am by these pesky little wallabies scratching at our tent trying to get in!  Our tent in predominately made of mesh too and we could see them right through it!  We were not sure exactly what animal it was but let me tell you, in the middle of the night they look a lot like ROUS's!  (For those of you who haven't seen The Princess Bride, ROUS = Rodents of Unusual Size).  There was one peering in right beside Dan like "oh hi guys!".  So we tried to wrap the food up in cloths so they wouldn't smell in and Dan kicked the one in the head!  He came back a second time but the second kick sent him away for good.  I stayed up to keep an eye on things for the next hour and actually witnessed a mom and her baby come out of the bushes.  They I passed out again until 10am.  The next morning we also realized that one of them had pulled out a bag of parmesan cheese that was in Dan's backpack underneath a whole bunch of cloths!  The little rascal had somehow got under the buckle and under all of Dan's cloths to pull out the chesse!  We hiked out the next day and spent the evening in St. Helens, a cute little town on the coast.  So the moral of the story...stick with the Canadian rule of hanging your food on a tree!!!

The next day we headed to Mt. William National Park on the North East part of the Island.  It's known to be the  home of a kind of Kangaroo (whose name escapes me at the moment) but the park was created to protect them because their numbers were down and according to my book "they've been breeding themselves silly ever since."  We did see them on our way out the next day which was very exciting!  And this particular campsite we drove into so despite their being lots of Wallabies, we were not bothered by them since we put all of our food in the car!

Yesterday on our way to Launceston (a city in the north) we stopped by this Lavender Farm, which is apparantly the biggest in the southern hemisphere!  The Lavender was brought over from France in the 1800's.  The fields were huge and all in bloom and smelled heavenly.  After walking around the grounds we stopped for chocolate and lavender cake with ice cream...yum!

We are taking it easy this morning and don't really have a plan yet especially since the weather is a little funny today.  Dan was in serious need of some new shoes so we got that sorted out this morning...so he is happier because his feet feel better and I am happier because his feet are not so stinky now :>)

Well we hope that you are all well...lotsa love xoxo

Hanna and Dan

Best bakery and coffee shop in the world!!!

 Wallaby!!!

Wineglass bay - we camped just off the beach on the far side of the picture

Goodbye New Zealand

Well we had a relatively un-eventful last few days in New Zealand.  We had quite a bit of travel to do to get back to Auckland and the weather was not co-operating with us so we don't have too many exciting adventures to report.  It rained pretty much non stop for 2 days.  We took the ferry back to the North Island and spent the night in Welligton where we had a hearty meal at a place called "Burger Fuel".  They actually had a great selection of vegetarian and vegan burgers made from chick peas and seeds!  I was very impressed and mine actually tasted great!  It had this mango chutney on it that was fantastic!  Then we drove to Whanagui and stayed at this really great hostel in a nice old building that used to be a hospital.  We had a room with a huge bay window overlooking the river so we could read our books and watch the water level in the river steadily rising from the incessant rain!  The next day we drove to the Waitmo caves.  They are famous for glow worms and we decided to splurge on a tour and we figured it wouldn't matter if it was raining 'cause we'll be in the caves, right?  Wrong!  They were closed due to flooding....oh well....we can always come back, right Christian?  :>)  We spent the next night at a place called Raglan on the ocean and enjoyed some wine and a nice pizza and celebrated our last real night in NZ. 

We even scored the last 2 days of our rental car for free because we had to take it in one morning for this certification thing that took like an hour so that made us pretty happy !

And we are off to Australia next....we'll keep you posted....

Hanna and Dan xoxo

More beautiful scenery on the ferry ride back to the North Island:

Chirstchurch and Kaikoura

Well we've had a nice relaxing couple of days after our trek.  The following day we decided to drive to Milford Sound to see the Fiord.  The weather around there is very unpredictable...it was raining when we left, then the sun came out, then it became so foggy we could barely see!  So we were at the fiord, but unfortunately could not appreciate it's beauty.  We did meet some very inquisitive Kea (birds that seem a little naughty) so that was fun.  On the drive home the clouds started lifting and the scenery was so beautiful; out of this world!

The following day we headed to Christchurch.  We stayed in this beautiful hostel for 2 nights that was decorated with nice wooden furniture.  There was also a resident cat so of course that made me happy :>)  When we were having breakfast it was a little scary because there was an mini earth tremor!  Christchurch had a pretty major earthquake in December and there has been some pretty significant damage to the city and apparently they have been having little tremors every now and then since (we were not aware of this!)  Anyways, it only happened the once and not the following day ... whew.  We had a nice day in Christchurch just walking around the city and seeing some of the highlights in the downtown area including the cathedral.

Today we are in Kaikoura.  We had a lovely afternoon walking along the beach and we saw tonnes of seals (we got really close to them!) and different kinds of birds.  We also had some fun playing with the CRAZY seaweed on the beach...although I did get a little mad a Dan when he tried to whip me in the behind with it...such a rascal!  We were really lucky with weather.  It was a little weird today again but it started pouring rain only about 5 minutes after we were back in our hostel...lucky us!  Our hostel is really nice again today, there is a beautiful big common area and free (fair trade organic!) coffee, tea and hot chocolate.  We cooked up a nice veggie curry for dinner and then went into town for a drink.  The big buisness in this town in crayfish - you pay about $50 for a full one in a restaurant.  We decided not to indulge...our wallent couldn't handle it and (of course) I didn't really want one anyways.

We are heading back to the North Island tomorrow on the ferry (Dan is hoping for big waves and me for nice weather condusive to pictures).  Talk to you all later!

xoxo Hanna and Dan

The drive back from Milford Sound

A cute place we had lunch in Christchurch called Joe's Garage

The beach in Kaikoura

Routeburn and Greenstone Tracks

Hello all!

Well we made it back from our backcountry bush adventure!  We walked the Routeburn track, which is one of New Zealand's "great" walks, but then we decided to add on another trail at the end of it called the Greenstone.  We initially booked the Routeburn before we left Canada, but then we realized that in order to get back to your staring point to pick up all the stuff you didn't want to carry on the trek, it's like a 3 hour drive/bus ride because of the way the roads go, and it's 120$ per person in transport!  So we cheaped out and decided to go back on foot via another track.  This area gets a lot of rain and they say to "expect" to get wet at least one day, and that being soaked and having muddy boots is part of the Routeburn experience.  So I would say we did experience it!!  All in all though it was great and we were actually pretty lucky as far as weather goes.  The Routeburn especially goes over a saddle through the mountains that provides some stunning views below that would have been impossible to see had it been cloudy but we had a more or less clear day until we crossed the saddle and then the clouds started to set in.  Our first day, before we really started getting some elevation was a picture perfect day, not a cloud in the sky and lovely and warm.  Our campsite was right beside a river with picture-esque views of the mountains.  On our second night a storm set in and there was CRAZY wind, and I actually thought our tent was going to break or fly away!  It rained hard all night and (of course) all the stuff in our tent got wet (thank goodness for my dry sack- the Nikon made it without getting hit by a drop of rain).  The next morning it was a little hard to get motivated and pack up in the rain but we did it and the first 4-5 hours of the hike were kind of drizzly but then we stopped at this hut and had some lunch and dried ourselves off so we felt a lot better.  All the little streams along the track had so much water from the rain and we couldn't even stand beside the waterfall that is on the route, it was just so powerful!  In the afternoon the sun came out and we felt a lot more optimistic.  We finally reached our desitination at about 9pm after almost 12 hours of walking!  It was pretty intense and we were pooped!  The scenery however was worth it.  The track ran alonside the river, in a valley between mountains and there were sheep and cows grazing.  The clouds were slowly lifting from the mountain tops and the air was so fragrant and clean.  We stayed in this little hut last night on the track so we got a good night's sleep and headed off at about 7am this morning so we could catch the shuttle back to town by noon.  And now we are sore but great!  We've showered, had a nap, had a fantastic meal of pizza and wine by the water and have a nice warm bed to sleep in tonight.  We even managed to dry out all of our camping stuff so it's ready for the next adventure.

We don't have a plan for tomorrow yet...maybe some R and R :>)

Glaciers

Well yesterday we went to see the Franz Joseph and Fox glaciers on the South Island.  We had planned to do a 5 hour hike to get a nice viewpoint of the Franz Joseph glacier but then the weather turned a little foul and it was really cloudy so we figured we would be just hiking up into the clouds and not have a nice view anyways, so we went for some smaller walks.  It was pretty amazing to see the glaciers.  You had to go on some sort of rip-off crazy expensive tour to climb on them so we just admired them from a distance.  Dan (in true character) found a piece of ice floating down the river and carried it all the way back.  In fact part of the way back this little girl asked if she could hold it while her mom took a picture...it was pretty cute.  We were saying they will probably show her this picture later in her life and say "this wierd guy was carrying a chunk of ice back to the parking lot."  Needless to say Dan was covered in cold, melted glacier by the time we got back, and left the piece of ice by the parking lot...later regretting it as he commented it would have been a good way to cool a few beers and make them "glacier" cold :>)

We have arrived in Queenstown today which is a beautiful city surrounded by mountains.  We are off of a 4-day hike tomorrow...let's  hope the weather holds!!

Love Hanna and Dan


Dan with his piece of glacier

On the road to Queenstown

Crazy bird in Abel Tasman national park

South Island!!

Well we have arrived on NZ south island and so far I am amazed that it is even more beautiful than the north island!  The ferry ride over was really really beautiful!  We almost booked it for 2am so we could save 20$ each but I am so glad we opted for the 6:45pm time because that meant that the sun was going down just as we were getting onto the South Island and we went through this little series of mountainous islands that was just absolutely stunning.  It was freezing outside and really windy but I just couldn't go back inside.  It was sort of overcast but sort of clear and misty and just really mysteriously beautiful.  Probably the most scenic boat ride of my life.  I must have taken 50 pictures of the scenery.  When we arrived we found a hostel run by this funny lady from NY city and decorated all crazy.  We went to the local irish pub for a pint and it was definitely the busiest spot it town.  Really great atmosphere....I even drank a Guiness!

Next we headed to Abel Tasman National park and did a little overnight camping trip.  The park is on the ocean and looks like a photo from a travel magazine.  Beautiful turqoise water and palm trees.  We hiked 10km to our campite that only separated from the beach by a small hedge.  We driving down the coast and found this area where you could walk out and see a seal colony.  There were little babies there too!  I've never seen little baby seals in the wild before and they were so tiny and fuzzy and cute!  They kept trying to play and were all flopping around :>)

We are a little tired today so we had a easy day of walking by the beach and catching up on laundry.  We have found this beautiful hostel...the nicest i've ever been in.

Well time is about to run out here so we'll write again soon!

Love Hanna and Dan

Beautiful scenery on the ferry to the South Island

 Abel Tasman National Park

Tongariro National Park

Hello!

Well today we had quite the adventure!  We hiked the Tongariro Alpine Crossing.  It was 19.4km between two volcanoes in the central part of the North Island.  The one volano starred as Mount Doom in the Lord of the Rings!  Overall it was an amazing walk with spectacular scenery but unfotunately we did miss some pretty amazing stuff in the middle of it 'cause the weather went from nice and sunny to pretty crazy winds very quickly and our views got obliterated.  There are these amazing emerald coloured crater lakes along the track by we didn't get the best view of them 'cause we were in the clouds.  It was good that we went today though because I think the next several days will be rain all day.  We got some amazing views of Mount Doom (it does have another name but I forget it).  We are still deciding whether we will stay here one more day or head to Napier (wine region) tomorrow.  We have a ferry booked to the south island the day after tomorrow.  We are pretty wiped tonight and have been eating pretty simple stuff but we went to the grocery store and got some nice bread and cheeses and had a nice snack after the walk and now I am enjoying some Pinot Noir...lovely!  Dan is going to fry up some kind of meat tonight (ugg...ha ha) and I plan to have bruchetta.

Love you all! 

Hanna and Dan

Rotorua

Well we certainly have lots to tell since my last update!  We spent a nice day in Auckland hiking up Mt. Eden, which is a (fortunately) dormant volcano, but you can see the giant crater in the centre that now is filled in with grass.  There were beautiful views of the city from the top.  In the evening we took the ferry to a little suburb of Aukland called Devonport and it was really lovely.  We found the most popular place in town - a fish and chips restaurant where they wrap them in lots of paper!  So nice!  It took about 40 minutes for our food to be made so we got our appetites up by going for a pint down the street.  Then we sat by the water and had supper as a sun set behind Aukland city.

The next morning we got up early so we could pick up our car.  We headed out of Aukland and south towards Rotorua.  The scenery here is absolutely amazing!  There are endless grass covered hills with sheep and cows grazing.  Its lovely just to drive and take it all in.  Our first stop was the grocery store 'cause it's kind of expensive to eat out here so we stocked up on some basics and enjoyed a picnic lunch by the side of the road.  We found a campite and spent the first night in our "Hubba Hubba" tent...easy to set up but a little tight for room :>)

Rotorua has a lot of semi-active volcanic activity, so we went to this place today where there were lots of hot pools with huffing steam and stinky sulfer smelling gas.  In fact this whole areas is kind of stinky!  I felt like we were on one of those "angry planet" episodes...I've never experienced volcanoes that close up!  Some of the lakes were absolutely beautiful.  There were deposits of Sulfur, Silica, Iron, Carbon, ect and they all had really beautiful colours.  There were also these mud pools that reminded me of the bog of eternal stench (if anyone has ever seen the moving Labirynth.)

Tomorrow we plan to drive to the coast and spend some time relaxing on the beach.  Hope you are all well.

Love Hanna and Dan

Auckland skyline

 Crazy volcanic stuff at Rotorua

 Stinky pools of bubbling mud.

Arrived in Auckland!!

Well after what has seemed like days (wait, it has been!), we have finally landed in Auckland.  The flight was actually amazing.  There were tonnes of empty seats at the back of the plane so we both got a whole row to ourselves and were able to lay down and sleep.  The flight attendants were dancing and singing at midnight for the new year and they served Champagne!  We easily found our way to Base Backpackers where we have a reservation and took a little nap before venturing out to explore the city.  The backpacker places here are huge!  Ours could sleep 500 people!  So far we have discovered a few pros and cons to the Base Backpackers.  Pros include very good price, central location and helpful staff.  Cons include VERY thin walls and (unfortunately) a neighbouring asian boy who likes to sing (althougth does not do this well), and no window in the room, which means it's either fluorescent bright or pitch black.  I have the feeling we are going to be a little confused when the alarm goes off tomorrow morning :>)  We are staying at a different place tomorrow on the next block because we couldn't get a private room here...I am crossing my fingers for a window and neighbours without dreams of becoming the next New Zealand Idol.

We had a lovely walk around the city and down to the water after supper tonight.  There is a beautiful park at the top of the hill right near our hostel so we sat on a bench there for awhile as the sun went down and shared a beer.  There were some crazy big trees in the park that looked right out of a fairy tale.  Tomorrow we are hoping to climb up One Tree Hill to get a panoramic view of the city.  Pictures below are first from the beach in LA and the last one is the crazy tree from the park in Aukland.

Thanks for your comments everyone and we'll talk to you later!!

Love Hanna and Daniel