Susan's BIG Birthday (can you guess which one?) - New Zealand South Island - February 2008

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Kia Ora! We landed in Christchurch. not knowing what day it was, and took a walk in the Botanic Gardens	The beebalm was in full bloom....	...and so were the hydrangeas	And a jet lagged Susan with huge dahlias (must be the sheep poop)
The gardens has many tree species as well as flowers....	A rose garden in full bloom, in February!	Incredible variety of plants...	A kiwi bee
Ah, I can't believe we made it to NEW ZEALAND!!!	First day - warm up ride around the Banks peninsula	View from a hill overlooking Lyttleton Harbor- where the first white settlers came	End of the warmup ride
Wiggling our toes in the blue South Pacific!	Susan in her Frenz of the Enz t-shirt - and we're gonna miss the darn concert!	Leaving Christchurch, and on through the Canterbury Plains - wine and sheep country	Susan, suffering severe jet lag, fails to unclip quickly enough in front of the van..notice the driver!
And now for something completely different....	"uh, just a little off the top, mate,"	"hey, mate, I said....oh ... never mind."	Susan has a go ...
...not sure what the sheep thinks of this....	..."oh be gentle ... no nicks please!"	Mitch thinking "hmmm, maybe I'll do this when I'm retired..."	Historic lunch stop, and our first taste of Monteith's Ale - Yum!
Above Hanmer Springs, what a view!	That's where we're headed tomorrow- westward ho!	Hanmer Springs, where we had a nice relaxing soak	Getting ready for the next day's ride over Lewis Pass
Biking in the beautiful northern Southern Alps (Ka Tiritiri O Te Moana)	Reaching the flats after zipping down the mountain	Our guide, Brandon	Ah, this is sweet!
A swing bridge - a common way to walk across NZ's rivers	Phew- made it across! It's more bouncy than swingy!	Read the sign ... one Kiwi's view of gas prices ...	End of a hard day's ride..at the Hilton!
Notice it says "formerly the Hilton" - the big chain made them change their name, way out here in Blackball NZ	We loved the graphics on this sign - keep those wheels perpendicular to the rr tracks or watch out!	Shopping for a greenstone necklace	The tiny greenstone workshop and showroom
Mitch goes wandering with the camera and finds....monarch caterpillars on a piece of melon	Further wandering reveals a monarch pupae	Monarch caterpiller hanging out	The greenstone shopkeeper
Ah, the sheep poop at work again...beautiful flowers	A blue fly	Mitch discovering the micro setting on his camera...another Kiwi bee	Bright yellow aphids
Lilies	Wonderful dahlias	HUGE dahlia presented to Jennifer by the host!	Kiwi spider
On the road again...anyone a wee bit peckish?	Typical West coast flora - note the tree ferns	Rolling along to....oh I don't know, somewhere...	Ferns, everywhere
Yep, that's where we're headed	Awesome views on the way to Fox Glacier	Turquoise glacial river...	It was "Wear Your Gray Bike Shirt Day"
A wide, unspoiled glacial river	Looking up towards the glaciers	Another nice view ...	It's in kilometers per hour, but I feel like my real age is in MPH!
Relaxing and enjoying the view outside our room at Fox Glacier	That's where we'll hike the next day	Starting out on the hike to the glacier....watch out for flash floods	The glacier's ahead- looks deceptively small
Getting closer...	Looking back down the valley we just hiked up	One of many waterfalls along the way	Luke, our Fox Glacier guide
Now we're parallel to the glacier; the wall is about 60 feet high	Being in the rain near a glacier in NZ is better than being home at work!	The glacier actually is growing...here's what it looked like in 1983	...and in 1998. It's due to greater warming of the Tasman Sea ... more snow
and getting bigger!	On the road again...	...cruising down the West coast	A scenic lunch stop on Bruce Bay (it's kiwi juice)
Through the rainforest	On the way to Haast	Well-deserved nap!	Just taking a moment...
....to savor the surroundings	The support bus going over the one-lane bridge (most on the South island are one lane bridges)	The end of the ride out to Jackson Bay - see Mitch?	We came for the views...and the fish and chips!
Inside the Cray Pot chippie- cozy and delicious	The road literally stops at Jackson Bay - at the northern end of the Fjordlands	At the Wilderness Lodge, we took a hike through virgin rainforest	It was incredibly beautiful; there were many trees of huge girth- we just didnt get a photo of any!
On another short hike, we wind up at the Tasman Sea	The water was warm, the view was outstanding, and...	...the sandflies were voracious! Here Mitch is doing the "Sandfly Dance"	We didn't see any, probably because we were too busy swatting flies!
Oh! We're in Penguin Paradise!	View of a beach south of the Lodge, on the way to Haast	On our way up to Haast Pass, following the wide Haast River valley	The low clouds just make it more interesting
A moody, misty day	Looking back down the valley	Reaching our rest stop before the pass	Swirling clouds
Haast Pass - one lane bridge	Mighty Biking Man	Mountain flowers	Coming down off the pass - notice the drier terrain here on the East side of the mountains
Stopping to look back where we came from	Lots of these here on the South Island!	"Honey, do you want to bike 100K today?"	"Oh I knew you'd say 'Yes!' I love you!"
A roadside description of Lake Wanaka (seen in the two previous photos)- one of many glacial lakes w/bottom below sea level	A nice place for a bit of a rest!	View of the lake from the town of Wanaka (rhymes with Hannukah)	Our biking group's wine and cheese party on our last night together...
...caused much merriment at our last dinner	...especially when the server christened Chuck with champagne (not included in the price of the tour!)	Super Bike Man Brandon and his side of the table	...and the other side, where Don cuts loose and tells a funny story (Don's next to Susan)
OK, we like the mood lighting in here, but no one can actually read the menu??	Our Kiwi guide, Nathan - no, not all the empty glasses are his!	The next morning was cold, and surprise! All the mountaintops were white!	Ah, this looks just like all the postcards
Along the way on our 46K ride the last day	A beautiful little valley, reminds us of Colorado	*sigh*	Free range sheep out for a romp
Beautiful views around every bend in the road	Last lunch back in Wanaka	A parting shot of our guide Brandon - thanks!	Part 2 of our New Zealand adventure - we get a car and go touring for four more days. Our ride- a Suzuki something
So we drove down to Te Anau and took a small local tour van to Milford Sound- fantastic views on the way	Note that we're back on the West coast again-lots of green!	A guy named Murray raised cattle out here by himself....now it's Fjordlands National Park	More of the Park, looking down Hollyford Valley
Down in the Hollyford Valley at Gunn's Camp, where the proprietor has a sense of humor!	More humor at the camp - not much telly 'way out here!	More giggles (translation: a "torch" is a flashlight)	Sir Ed Hillary died just before our trip; much mourned in NZ. His ashes are now in Auckland harbor.
Oh, more laughs! Read the sign!	Trying out another swing (bouncy) bridge	The view from the bridge	I swear, ALL the water in NZ is this color!
After our guide treated us to "billy tea", we did a short hike to see Humboldt Falls	Very long falls	Another stop along the way to the Sound - this is Christy Falls	...and the river below Christy Falls
Looks fake, doesn't it?	The famous one-lane Homer Tunnel, built thru the divide	Don't feed the Keas, or Mitch either! (Keas are large mischievious parrots- you'll see one later)	The mountainside that the tunnel was built through
Notice the traffic light system to keep traffic flowing one way, then the other	Inside the tunnel, in which the road actually goes downhill	The other side of the tunnel- mail carriers climbed over this to deliver mail at one time! (pre-airplanes)	The road continues on to Milford....
A bit of Maori history and culture along the way	Tutoko over my right shoulder	Our ship for the Milford cruise - Milford Mariner	On our boat in Milford Sound on a beautiful day. Mitre Peak, ahead, comes right out of the water - 5076' high
We rounded a corner, and there were seals!	Lots of seals!	Looking back at the Sound from the Tasman Sea	Going back up the Sound and into the wind
The Sound is actually a Fjord since the mountains come straight down into the water	A bit of perspective at the vastness	Another surprise-a pod of dolphins!	They don't seem to mind the boat
Looking back toward the Divide	Approaching a falls	Legend has it that the mist keeps you young ...	Well, what can we say, it's gorgeous
And so is this...NZ is incredible!	Back on the road at an overlook parking lot, a Kea, the mischievious wild birds of NZ	We watched this Kea have a ball as he happily ripped the stuffing out of this bike seat.	"And why not?"
A little fuzzy, but funny picture of a Kea holding onto and nibbling on an antenna!	The next two days, we drove the Southern Scenic Route, which follows the southern coast of the South Island. Windy day!	Here, the wind roared unencumbered out of the South	One of the stops along the way
Monkey Island in the background; the tide was too high to walk out to it	Waipapa Point wooden lighthouse, under renovation	A close sea lion encounter on the beach at Waipapa Point	The remoteness of the Point
Heading toward the Catlins	Curio Bay at low tide, where you can see the fallen petrified forest in the rocks (note treetrunk in the foreground)	Petrified wood tree trunk close up	Curio Bay was sooo pretty....
...and with dramatic surf	In the Catlins, we stayed at a really cool place off of a gravel road in a beautiful valley near Owaka	The cabin we stayed in, regrettably only one night	The view
The view after leaving - our cabin is the 2nd from the left.	Valley residents	Cannibal Bay - huge whole kelp plants washed up on the beach	Nugget Point Lighthouse
At the Lighthouse, looking down at lots of seals sunning themselves	Here they are sunning	..and playing in the surf	Ah, happiness is a nice, warm rock
We're on the Otago penninsula on a mission to see penguins. Oh look, there's one!	Not just any penguin- endangered Yellow Eyed Penguins (about 4000 left). We saw these at a preserve.	A charity preserves habitat like this so the penguins can live without being disturbed. This one's up on the beach.	Part of the bluff we were standing on to see the penguin beach. There's a seal there hanging out with the sheep!
The Yellow Eyed penguins like to go into the bush and do penguin things.	Here's a big, fat, Yellow Eye chick resting under a small tree. They don't get the yellow eye stripe until adulthood.	A penguin lean-to- provides shelter while the native bush grows back (it had been nibbled to almost nothing by sheep)	A meeting? A barbershop quartet? No, they are molting. They stand like this for a month until molting is complete.
Here's a penguin in mid-molt. Poor scruffy guy!	ZZZZzzzzz.....we're in a blind, sunk into the ground. Here's a baby snoozing right in front of us!	Waking up from his nap....babies can weigh more than their parents in their first year.	They're fattened up in preparation of going out to sea for the first time and leaving their parents' care forever.
His penguin buddy comes by. Notice the band on his wing.	The preserve folks track the original adults that lived here. Hmmm, Mitch has been fooling around with Lyn!	A Pukeko	Kiwi bunny joins the birds
"Hey, you woke us up, so where's dinner?"	No rooms in Dunedin, so we drove north to Omaru and stayed the night in a 19c mansion-here's our room!	Oh NO!!! This is our last full day in NZ! Here we are in front of Aoraki (Mt Cook) and Lake Pukaki	We'll always remember the stunning turquoise water, everywhere...
How can we leave THIS?	Salmon sashimi for lunch at a salmon farm	The next day, we left NZ, but had a 6 hr layover in Sydney...so here we are at the harbor for a couple of hours!	The famous bridge, known as the "coathanger". You can actually walk on the top (we didn't)
Mitch finally makes it to the Sydney Opera!	...and it's covered in tiles	Basically it's three separate buildings that look like this....the prow of a canoe, or of a convict ship...	E noho ra, NZ- we have wonderful memories of a beautiful country. Kia ora!

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