South Island, NZ

Saturday, January 9. Today was the day to explore the Otago Peninsula. The weather was cold and dreary. We headed out nevertheless. Our first stop was Larnach Castle – New Zealand's only castle. The castle was built in the 1870's by William Larnach in an effort to impress his wife who was descendent from French nobility. We spent a few hours exploring the castle and the gardens. They reminded me of a smaller version of the Biltmore in North Carolina. There were beautiful views from the castle's tower. Unfortunately the rain had started and it didn't look like it was going to stop. We spent the rest of the afternoon driving around the Peninsula. We saw albatross and more fur seals, but sadly no penguins. We headed back to the motel late in the afternoon and after doing some laundry and having dinner, we called it a night.

Sunday, January 10. Happy Birthday LB!!! Today was driving day – destination Wanaka. We awoke to another day of rain. After having some breakfast, packing the car, checking out of the motel, purchasing some gas and getting a large diet coke from McDonalds, we hit the road. We were circling back to Wanaka – a town we had spent one night in before and a town we wanted to revisit. We drove through an area called Central Otago – a beautiful area that produces lots of fruit and wine. It seemed like there were fruit stalls every 500 meters or so. Unfortunately the weather turned from bad to worse and the rain continued throughout the entire 3 ½ hour drive. Despite the rain, the drive was still picturesque. We arrived in Wanaka around 1:30 pm. We checked into our apartment – a great spot with the view of Lake Wanaka and then went to town to grab some provisions. The cold and dreary weather continued throughout the rest of the afternoon (it seems like it has been weeks since we've seen the sun). We spent the rest of the day lounging about, watching television and generally being lazy. It was the perfect day to do so.

Monday, January 11. Today was a day of tramping (aka trekking, bushwalking or hiking – called it what you wish). We awoke early with hopes of catching the Patriots game. Despite our best efforts, we had yet to see a Patriots game since our travels began. As luck would have it, the game was on and as unluck would have it, the Patriots played terribly and truth be told we turned it off after they missed the field goal in the 4th quarter. After packing a lunch, we hit the road to go hike the Rob Roy Glacier Track in Mount Aspiring National Park. My Lonely Planet says the following about Mount Aspiring National Park: “The park, which has wide valleys, secluded flats, more than 100 glaciers and sheer mountains, now blankets more than 3500 sq km of the Southern Alps....” We had about an hour drive to the start of the track with about ¾ of the drive being on unpaved road. In addition, we had stopped at the visitor's center where they had told us that there were a number of fords along the way because of the rain from the day before. They weren't sure whether we'd be able to get through. We set out nevertheless. The drive proved to be quite an adventure. In addition to driving through a huge valley with lots of sheep and cows, we came across 8 or 9 fords (basically places where the road dips down and is filled with 1-2 feet of water rushing to the river below). The first ford we came to there was a line of cars and people standing around trying to figure out whether their cars would make it through. As an aside, with our little Mitsubishi Colt, we had by far the smallest and lowest car. One car made it though, so of course Keith said it would be no problem for us to get through (we me of course convinced that we were going to get stuck or our car would get washed away). Amazing we managed to make it through all of the fords as well as some thick mud. We made it to the track's parking lot though I was worried about what the road would look like on our way back. We set off on our track. Though it was cool, the sun was trying to make it's way out. It was about an 1 hour 45 minutes trek into the glacier. It was beautiful hike. There was a glacier blue river that ran along side us for much of the way. We crossed through big fields, a swing bridge and small waterfalls. There were many large waterfalls coming off the steep mountains. The hike was one of the harder treks that we've done as it was uphill for much of the way and at times quite rocky. When we finally reached the viewpoint for the glacier the weather had become overcast and drizzly. Nevertheless the view of the glacier was spectacular. We had some lunch while looking at the snow and ice capped mountains and we were accompanied by many keas. We had another 1 hour 45 minute hike back to the car. The weather cleared a bit. The hike back was a little easier, though it was still quite a trek. The fords and the mud on the way out wasn't as bad as I had expected and other than having to stop a few times for cows and sheep to cross the road, the ride back was pretty uneventful. We nicknamed our car, “The Little Engine that Could.” Keith and I were both spent from the hike. We finally made it back to our apartment around 5:30 pm. We had some dinner, drank some wine and called it a night.