• Fun with Lollies

    30Dec
    Categories: Around The World, New Zealand, Thailand Comments: 0


    YouTube Direct

  • Sorting through our favorites

    30Dec
    Categories: Around The World, New Zealand Comments: 0

    We finally have had some time to sort through more than a thousand photo’s from Fiji and New Zealand.  We know it is hard to look at all of the photo’s we put up so we were able to narrow it down to about 200.  If you set the play time to 2 seconds a picture it will waste 3 minutes of your time. 

    Enjoy    Link:  Flickr New Zealand Fiji Favorites

  • New Zealand Top Fives

    18Dec
    Categories: Around The World, New Zealand Comments: 3

    This is a summary of our top five New Zealand favorites for a variety of categories. Again, this post is probably more for us and our memory of the favorite things we did, ate, and saw, but if you are planning a trip to NZ, you just might want to put some of these on your list of things to try! We say goodbye to New Zealand tomorrow and fly to Bangkok, Thailand where we will begin keeping a new list of top fives, I’m sure.

    HIKES

    1. Mt. Cook – Mueller Hut

    2. Routeburn

    3. Kepler

    4. Tongariro Crossing

    5. Abel Tasman

    ** Honorable Mention:Queen Charlotte, Cape Reinga, Roys Peak


    LOLLIES

    1. Hokey Pokey

    2. Ecclairs

    3. Sour Worms

    4. Pineapple Lumps

    5. Chocolate covered caramels


    ICE CREAM

    1. Valentino’s Hokey Pokey Gelato

    2. Deep South Hokey Pokey

    3. Tip Top Hokey Pokey

    4. Real Fruit Ice Cream

    5. Deep South Goody Goody Gum Drop


    BISCUITS/COOKIES

    1. Squiggles

    2. Tim Tams originals with cocoa

    3. Tim Tams caramels with cocoa

    4. Melting Moments

    5. Afghans


    TOWNS

    1. New Plymouth

    2. Wanaka

    3. Christchurch

    4. Napier

    5. Taupo


    MEALS AT RESTAURANTS

    1. Thanksgiving spare ribs at Speights Ale House, Wanaka

    2. Fish & Chips, Auckland

    3. Kebab at The Little Turkish Cafe, Auckland

    4. Hot Rocks Pizza, Nelson

    5. Potato Burger, Napier


    HOLIDAY PARKS

    1. Wanaka – Aspiring Campervan Park

    2. Taupo – DeBretts

    3. Haast – Holiday Park

    4. TeAnau – Great Views Holiday Park

    5. Cape Reinga DOC


    PLACES TO SEE NEXT TIME

    1. Doubtful Sound

    2. Milford Track

    3. Northwest part of the S. Island (Heaphy Track, Arches)

    4. Wellington

    5. Arthurs Pass


    ACTIVITIES FOR NEXT TIME

    1. Hot air ballooning

    2. Paragliding

    3. Maori culture event

    4. The rest of the Great Walks

    5. Helicopter ride through Mt. Cook National Park


    BEST PURCHASES

    1. Honey dipper – sounds weird, but we have been looking for a honey dipper (the honey comb like thing at the end of a stick) for ages. We always find the cool ceramic honey containers, but they rarely are supplied with a dipper. Now we have the dipper and will begin looking for the container to compliment.

    2. Guitar – John played this little guitar quite often over the past 9 weeks. He has enjoyed it so much he’s going to try and carry it around for the remainder of our trip.

    3. Lantern – We stopped by what seemed to be a random garage sale/flea market deal outside of Christchurch and John found a lantern with which he fell in love.

    4. Head buff – This is one of those stretchy headband things you see at REI. Erin found one on sale here in a color/style she actually liked and loves it.

    5. Lollies – See top five list above.

    BEST THINGS WE BROUGHT

    1. Big Agnus Sleeping Pads - These amazing pads saved our hips and our backs years of pain and chiropractic visits.

    2. Camera – Duh.

    3. Computer – So great to have the convenience of the computer and the ability to use it for photo back up.

    4. Backpacking gear – We wouldn’t have been able to do most of what we did in NZ without it!

    5. iPod and little speaker – Until the little speaker went kaput this was a great combo and allowed us to have music in the car (at least something other than AM radio)

  • Losing Weight

    18Dec
    Categories: Around The World, New Zealand Comments: 5

    We have been hauling quite a bit of gear around in order to make our NZ tramping dreams possible. Those have now been fulfilled and we are leaving New Zealand and entering a non-tramping (at least not long backpacking trip types) period of our trip. As much as we have enjoyed it, it is so nice to be free of the extra luggage. This week we spent a day sorting and packing, determining what was being sent home and what would be coming with us.

    Backpacking Gear Being Shipped Home

    Backpacking Gear Being Shipped Home

    What We Are Taking With Us

    What We Are Taking With Us

    We were relieved to lose a little weight. How much weight exactly do you think we lost all together? Send in your guess through the comments page. The winner will get some NZ lollies in May.

  • What Are We Eating?

    18Dec
    Categories: Around The World, New Zealand Comments: 2
     This post is more for our memory of the food we ate on this leg of our journey, but we thought some of you might be interested in seeing our uninteresting diet (Aaron Taylor, you said you liked the food blogs so here you go!). Keep in mind we are on a budget of no more than $40 NZ per day ($24 US) for the two of us. We have actually been hitting around $21/day (US) so we’ve been able to go out for a nice meal occasionally. Here are some of our main staples:
    - Rice & Beans. We haven’t been able to find black beans here, but there is a company that sells “Mexican Beans” which have a nice spicy kick to them and we have used those most times.  
     
    - Farm fresh asparagus. We have purchased this at roadside stands several times and it is delicious! 
    - Spaghetti. Boring, but quick and easy and we have discovered a new way to cook this meal that makes it our favorite cheap meal. First cook the noodles, then throw them in a saute pan with sharp cheese and fry. Finally, add spaghetti sauce over the top and cook in. Sounds simple, but it makes all the difference in the world! 

    - Soup and grilled cheese. Again, boring, but makes for a nice easy meal after a long day of driving or hiking.

    - Kebabs. Of course, not native to NZ, but we call it a gyro back home so it’s much more exotic as a “kebab.” Bread, meat, lettuce, special sauce, wrapped up.

    - Potatoes. The tuber is plentiful here and we have been using them for dinner and then cooking up the leftovers for breakfast.

    - Oranges. We found a citrus stand that was selling a bag of nearly 30 small oranges for $2 NZ ($1.20 US). Needless to say, we have been eating a lot of oranges.

    - Avocados. In the Northland many driveways displayed signs advertising home grown avocados. We stopped at one and managed six avocados for $3 NZ ($1.80 US).

    - Vogels Summer Crunch. This is one of many delicious granola type cereals that have been one of our daily choices for breakfast.

    - Kiwi. Of course, you can’t come to New Zealand, home of the kiwi (the fruit and the bird) and not eat kiwis. We have eaten both the golden and green kiwis and still favor the green.

    - Fish. When John runs across a place that looks to have decent fish and chips (if the sign reads “Best in Town” he’s a sucker for sure), he jumps at the chance. It’s all been very tasty so far. He cooked up some dory just the other night. Mmmm… flaky and delicious. Be cautious of the flounder, though. They take the whole fish and deep fry it.

    - Toast. We have toast with butter and Craig’s berry jam or Derry’s home grown honey nearly every morning with breakfast. Two pieces for John, one piece for Erin.

    - Artisan bread, fresh tomato, and feta & basil spread. Inspired by the European style of eating, this makes for a great lunch.

    Sweets must have a category of their own. If you know John Macy at all, you probably know he has quite a sweet tooth. Erin’s isn’t quite as strong as John’s but she definitely enjoys a sweet treat whenever they are available. We have tried to sample a good cross section of treats. However, each time you try a treat, the label reminds you to “Be Treat Wise” and encourages partakers to “Get to know your DIs” which is Dietary Intake, the equivalent of our Recommended Daily Allowances. Another thing that could potentially keep you from eating treats here is that instead of measuring in kCals or calories, they measure in kJ, kilojoules (which they label as Energy – I love that!). Kilojoules are about three times of a kCal, from what we can tell. For example, one small cookie, the size of a regular Oreo let’s say, has 350 kJ of energy. Yikes! If you’re accustomed to looking at the calorie content that seems like a crazy number. It hasn’t really stopped us, though. Here is our list of sweets we have enjoyed on a fairly regular basis:

    - Squiggles. Squiggles are by far our favorite biscuit (cookie) sampled so far. They are a hokey pokey nugget in a cookie shape, covered by milk chocolate, and topped with a squiggle of toffee. Hokey Pokey is everywhere. It is a sort of butterscotch/toffee/caramel type of sugary goodness made from corn syrup and sugar. There’s Hokey Pokey Ice Cream (Robby was the first to tell us it was a must to try this), the Crunchie hokey pokey bar, hokey pokey granola bars, and the list goes on. We pretty much have tried any item that says it has hokey pokey in it and we haven’t been disappointed yet.

    - Afghans. Not a blanket or a person from Afghanistan, these chocolate cookies are also unique to NZ from what we can tell and are quite good. Again, not quite sure what is in them, but they taste kind of like an oatmeal cookie covered in chocolate. We haven’t sampled widely so taste may vary.

    - Sour Squirms. The Natural Confectionery Co makes a very good line of natural fruity, chewy treats. The sour worms have been our favorite so far. We have tried all the different brands of sour worms in NZ and this is still our fave.

    - Ecclairs. These are a definite favorite. This caramel chew has an inner chocolate soul. It’s best to let the caramel melt in your mouth until the chocolate begins to ooze out. These have gotten us through many a hike. We’ll be sending some of these home for later.

    - Wild Clover Cream. This irish cream type liquor is made from honey, which is abundantly produced here, and is delicious in our semi-regular nightly cup of hot cocoa. Of course, this treat isn’t complete without Tim-Tams.

    - Tim Tams. See previous post. We have tried traditional, caramel, double dip, and chewy fudge.

    - Melting Moments. This is Erin’s favorite biscuit and a New Zealand classic. A shortbread sandwich cookie with a tasty cream filling. We have yet to try the homemade version, but purchased an NZ cookbook with this recipe–can’t wait to try it ourselves!

    - Pineapple Lumps. Another food unique to Kiwis. We were at the gas station looking for a treat after a fill-up and we asked what the cashier thought about the Pineapple Lumps. She said they were a must-try and were a Kiwi classic. These chocolate covered pineapple flavored chewy pieces are interesting and tasty in a very fake, nowhere near real pineapple, pure sugar kind of way. It does make you feel a little better that the label says they have 7% real fruit juice which John says is almost as good as eating real pineapple.

    - Snowballs. A chocolate covered marshmallow with coconut topping.

    - Jaffas. Another Kiwi classic, we referred to these as an orange Tic-Tac with a chocolate center.

    - Candy bars: Crunchie, Picnic, Pinky, Flaky, Moro Gold, Pixie, Perkynana… these are mostly Cadbury produced chocolate bars we don’t have back home.

    - Tip Top Ice Cream. This was the first ice cream we were hooked on and was recommended by a friend. We tried Hokey Pokey and Gold Rush, Goody Gum Drop and Cookies and Cream, as well as more Hokey Pokey.

    - Deep South Ice Cream. Only found in the very southern part of the South Island and made in Invercargill, this very creamy ice cream stole first place from Tip Top. We now look for it constantly. Is 8am really too early for ice cream?

    - Real Fruit Ice Cream. The name says it all. Choose either frozen yogurt or vanilla ice cream; select your fruit from the frozen selections; and watch as the magic Flavorama machine churns out a soft serve cream into a waffle cone. Another one we would seek out regularly. Did I mention Erin is lactose intolerant? Yeah… so we have been pushing the limits of her stomach.

    - Valentino’s Gelato. This outstanding gelato shop is by the ferry terminal. We have been there three times for the delicious passionfruit and lemon (Erin) and hokey pokey, coffee, and chocolate (John). Our last NZ treat was a few scoops.

    - Pavlova. An airy, sweet dessert that melts in your mouth. Serve topped with fresh fruit. This is one New Zealanders claim as their own.

    - Banoffee Pie. Not sure if you can get this anywhere else, but we have seen it here and there. A ginger cookie topped with a layer of caramel, then comes the layer of whipped cream and sliced bananas, and a chocolate drizzle on top finishes it off. John found an ice cream version of this just the other day. Not a combination we would come up with but it is great!

    Other miscellanous food notes:

    - As warned, the ketchup (or tomato sauce) here is different. It has a sweeter, less vinegary flavor to it. We don’t care for it as much as ketchup from home, but you certainly can’t eat your chips (fries) without it!

    - Marmite and vegemite are both disgusting. We were told you have to put it on your toast in a very, very thin layer after you load it up with butter. Still disgusting.

    - Instant oatmeal was weird. Very different than what we have at home. The oats are cut smaller and it’s more of a cream of wheat type of consistency with no flavor.

    - There are “flavour enhancers” in a lot of things. Most potato chips and cereals have it included. Trying to stay away, but it’s hard.

    - Organic sections are tiny here and the organic foods seem really expensive. We expected different here for some reason.

    - The standard cheddar cheeses appear to be called by different names. We are generally going with the type called “Tasty” which is kind of like a sharp cheddar. AND, it’s a white cheese unlike our orangey/yellow dyed cheddar cheese at home.

    - The salsa options are very limited. I think there were two brands–the generic store brand and Old El Paso. Old El Paso was about three times the price of the generic. Which one do you think we bought?

    - Eggs aren’t refrigerated and they are almost all brown. If we don’t need to refrigerate them or dye them white, what are we thinking?

    It has been fun to try new foods. Certainly our adventure in eating has come more in the area of desserts than regular food, but I guess that is what happens when you are self-catering.

  • Campervans

    18Dec
    Categories: Around The World, New Zealand, Uncategorized Comments: 0

    New Zealand has their own terminology for what we, at home, would call RVs or trailers–they call the larger ones caravans and the smaller ones campervans. The closest thing we have is the VW Eurovan or the classic VW sleeper vans. We actually rarely saw a VW van, but instead saw lots of  Mazda, Nissan, Toyota, and Mercedes.   

    This place is amazing in what they offer travelers. You have probably see the RV rental companies around the States during the summer with absurd advertising on the sides of their enormous RVs. Many of the companies here take a similar approach, emblazening the sides of their vehicles with a logo or artwork of sorts. We were very thankful to find a company that not only had a reasonable price but also didn’t feel the need to advertise anything on the side paneling. We were also pretty excited about all the options people have here for hiring a campervan. They come in all shapes and sizes. Nothing near as big as we have at home, but the roads here couldn’t handle it either.

    We spent our time on the North Island in a standard campervan which would be about the size of a mini van. On the South Island we wanted more fuel effiency so we went with the micro “van” which was about the size of our station wagon at home, but came with a sweet awning/tent for the back. We were definitely ready to be done with car living after 9 weeks of it and were thrilled Tuesday night was our final night of sleeping in a car.  Yippee!!!

    Here is a selection of the campervans we saw:

  • New Zealand in about a minute

    17Dec
    Categories: Around The World, New Zealand Comments: 3

    If you wonder what been up to for the last two months here is our journey summed up in about a minute.


    YouTube Direct

  • Mueller…Mueller…

    15Dec
    Categories: Around The World, New Zealand Comments: 2

    We hope you aren’t getting too tired of hearing about all our backpacking. We have one more hike we have to share about it. This one takes the cake of all of the hikes we have done and places we have seen in New Zealand. We have to agree with the Israeli gentleman we met on the Routeburn–the Mueller Hut and Mt. Cook rank as our numero uno for New Zealand. After seven beautiful days in the Fiordlands we knew we were pushing our luck to hope for another day of good weather, but the forecast looked decent and moved on to Aoraki/Mt. Cook.

    Our expectation in arriving at the Mt. Cook National Park was to do a day hike up to the Mueller Hut and back as the budget is tight and it was going to be $70/pp to stay overnight. Upon talking to the Dept of Conservation the ranger said camping was an option but we’d be sleeping on the snow. We checked how cold it was going to be that night and figured our 15 degree sleeping bags could hold out for a night. Also, we knew New Zealanders wouldn’t leave someone out in the snow if they were in any real danger. We are getting pretty good at packing quickly and were ready to head up the mountain in about an hour.

    Although this hike is only 5.6 km (just over 3 miles), it went up about 4000 vertical feet in that span which is one foot up for every five feet forward. Needless to say, this was our steepest climb yet.(and this after 6 of the past 7 days were spent hiking–are we crazy?!). If you have been to the Teton Mountains, this is our closest comparison. You drive right up to what seems like the base of the mountain which is just gigantic and firing up out of the ground. You feel quite small looking at these massive snow-covered peaks which are surrounding you. The mountains are so close you can hear and see the snow avalanches coming down every half hour or so. This is the opposite of watching a lightening storm–you hear the thundering sound of the snow falling first and then you look around to see the effects.

    As we climbed higher and higher the view became better and better and our legs more and more tired. You climb up through scree and snow and after three hours of hiking finally come over the ridge to the best view yet. From there you follow the ridge, climbing over boulders to get to the hut, our final destination. The Mueller Hut has a huge deck that faces the mountains. Most folks arrive and hang out on the deck watching avalanches and the majestic scene in front of them. After setting up our tent and fixing dinner, we joined them (we were allowed to use the hut facilities until bed time), taking in the sunset and the entertainment of the kea bird (until it started attacking our tent at which time Erin hurled snowballs at it until it flew away).

    Two of the highlights of this overnight hike (and really of all of our NZ travel) took place between 12:30am and 6am. The first was another midnight star gazing and photographing session. The full moon was pretty much lighting up the landscape. It was so still out it almost felt like you were on another planet–even our pictures look a little sci-fi. We spent about 45 minutes outside until our toes couldn’t take the cold any longer and we crawled back into our tent. Even with our four layers of clothing and 15 degree bags, we spent the next hour paying the price of being outside–it took us that long to warm up to go back to sleep. The second alarm went off at 5am beckoning us to watch the sunrise over the mountains. Wearily we climbed out of bed and hiked up to a point that we believe is Mt. Ollivier, Sir Edmund Hillary’s first summit. This was the best seat for sunrise.

    Before packing up and walking down there was one more thing we needed to do: sledding. The hill behind the hut was ideal and we had the Glad Bag sleds necessary. We of last year’s Christmas in Colorado and sledding with our Newberg “family” at Snow Bunny and were really excited to have a little bit of winter in what is the beginning of summer for the southern hemisphere. It was our first and last winter experience until next winter. After four times up and down the hill we figured our legs had had enough and there were no friends or family to encourage us to take another run or join in a sledding train (a two person train isn’t quite the same) so we packed up, watched one more avalanche, and headed back to the car park.

    We promise… this is the last hike we are going to talk about for awhile.

  • The Routeburn Track

    15Dec
    Categories: Around The World, New Zealand Comments: 3

    We originally booked the Routeburn Track for December 2-4 and had been pushing it off ever since waitingfor a break in the weather. That break had finally come and we found ourselves starting the track on December 10. The Routeburn is another hike that rivals the Milford and was our last Great Walk, making five out of nine that we hiked.Our first night was booked at Routeburn Flats Campsite which didn’t sound appealing and we had heard the first day of hiking was pretty boring so we went into it with low expectations . The walk was actually really great, following a gorge like area with a river running through. There was added excitement too as we stumbled upon the end of a rescue. A kid hopped over the fence and fell 15 feet off a cliff edge into a churning bowl of freezing cold water with no way out except by rescue. He was very lucky and ended up walking away from the incident without as much as a scratch and even held on to his sunglasses.

    The campsite turned out to be a highlight, despite it’s unflattering name. We were extra pleased knowing our third night on this hike would be back at this campsite. We chose to do an out and back walk, which meant climbing up to the saddle on days two and three, in hope that one of the two would be a nice day. Also, if you walk the track from one end to the other, you have to get transportation back and it would take probably 5 hours on a bus, not to mention about $45/pp. It ended upthat both days had good, but different weather. Day two brought us sun, blue sky, and high clouds for the first half of the hike up to the saddle. We thought our luck with the weather had run out though as the grey clouds moved through, blocking our view. But as we continued on the trail, the clouds passed through and presented us with a expansive view of the Darran Mountains as well as opening up enough to give us a look all the way out to the fiords and the sea. As the clouds moved, a new sky was continually re-created. The whole crossing took about 5 hours before we descended through the Fairy Glen, a beautiful moss covered forest (straight out of LTR), to Lake MacKenzie.

    Another highlight of the day was meeting a couple from Seattle who gave us great advice on Thailand as well as suggesting another hike at Mt. Cook. This same hike they referred to had been mentioned to us earlier in the day by an Israeli traveler who said it was his favorite place in New Zealand. He told us this as we were standing in what was the most beautiful place we had been yet in New Zealand. After these two strong recommendations, we knew we would have to give it a look.

    Lake MacKenzie was our campsite for night two. We pitched our tent on one of the 10 mini golf patches of turf (it was very odd), sharing the area with19 others from an Australian school group. Rain was forecasted for day three and we awoke to sprinkles in the morning and no mountains in sight. We were thankful for our one day of beautiful hiking and started off back up to the saddle in the clouds and light rain. To our surprise after 2-3 hours of hiking the sun broke out and the rest of the day was very nice. We were once more back at Routeburn Flats where John fashioned a tent awning to keep us dry as we looked out at the mountains. He even got some compliments from the Dept of Conservation ranger who was very impressed at the set up and referred to it as our “hotel” (we were actually worried she might make us take it down so we were happy to hear her enthusiasm for the set up).

    Our fourth and last day of hiking on the Routeburn was motivated by the knowledge that we would reward ourselves with a Fergburger, which was described by Lonely Planet as “possibly NZ’s best burger.” We couldn’t pass that up! We hiked quickly and were at the Fergburger joint by noon and couldn’t have been happier.

  • The Kepler Track

    08Dec
    Categories: Around The World, New Zealand Comments: 2

    We didn’t realize it at the time, but later learned that Saturday was the best day of the season, so far, on the Kepler Track. The Kepler is one of three Great Walks in the Fiordlands and considered by some to be the best, although the Milford Track (refer to previous post about it’s popularity) has the official title as the greatest tramp in the world (we aren’t sure who is evaluating these hikes–probably someone from NZ =)). We were so excited for the good weather and had been waiting for weeks for a clearing in the Fiordlands. It was worth the wait. We traveled by water taxi to cut out the first 6 km of flat land because we wanted to make sure we could make the 20 km alpine ridge crossing on the best day possible.

    The first hour of the hike felt similar to our Clif bar days with nearly 100 trail runners passing us as we hiked up the mountain and they ran down it–only we didn’t have Clif Shot to hand out so we just cheered them on instead. This annual race brings crazy people from all over the world to run either the 60 km (about 37 miles, going up a mile vertically) Kepler loop or the 27 km (about 17 miles) half Kepler. We were slowed down a bit in our ascent, but it was fun to see the action. After we were clear of the crowds and the treeline, we began to see why this hike ranks among the best.

    Our first stop along the journey to our campsite for the night was the Luxmore Hut which has a view of the Lake Te Anau and the beginning of the Kepler mountain range. It was a good place to stop for lunch. We met a couple from Texas and talked oil/gas (his line of business) over our food. We also found the Spanish body double for Michael and Brian Greller (you have to morph the two of them to make this work). This stop wasn’t long as we could tell the views were only going to get better. And boy were we right! We have been struggling to find new descriptive words to explain the incredible beauty of New Zealand, but we keep coming back to the same ones: amazing, brilliant, awesome, flippin’ sweet (oh, that one’s new), and on occassion, boss (which we are trying to get going in NZ, it’s not catching on so well).

    Leaving the Luxmore Hut we had a big ascent ahead of us up to the top of Mt. Luxmore which is just over 5200 feet. The work of climbing felt easy with the views we were given the entire way. We made it to the top and spent almost an hour soaking in the sun and 360 degrees of mountains. This hike was our slowest to date. We ran into a hiker who encouraged us to take our time as the five hours of ridge line views were worth staying around for. We took this advice to heart and turned on a tortoise pace, getting the most out of the scenery. When we made it to the last spot with really great views we even considered eating dinner there, but realized we were both out of water and still had two hours of hiking remaining. As we were sitting quietly and just about ready to leave we both heard this whirring sound that was getting louder and louder. We looked up and saw a glider plane no more than 150 meters overhead soaring by gracefully. It was such a nice change from the buzzing of the helicopter tours that had been flying on occasion. It made four more passes before flying away. So, after an hour of snacking, taking photos until our fingers were raw, and being entertained by a glider plane, we made the steep descent to our campground, concluding nine hours on the trail. Unfortunately, John had to put in another 2 miles as he realized he dropped the lens hood to our camera on the trail and he decided to go back to look for it… found it!

    The sky was clear that night, giving the opportunity for another night sky photograph. This is one is our favorite so far and took 18 minutes to capture the photo.

    Day two was a much easier day. No real climbing, just a casual 12 mile stroll to our exit. The highlight of the day was watching and photographing the fantail birds that fly so lightly, just like butterflies. It almost seemed like they would land on you as they flew right up to your face and then floated away. They appeared curious about us and stayed around for quite awhile. We made it to the exit in time to catch our ride back to the carpark and we were on our way, leaving Te Anau and moving on to Queenstown where we have a day of rest before we hop on the Routeburn Track, another of the Fiordland Great Walks.

    For more pictures check Flickr

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