Happy Valentines Day!

Sunrise over Tasman Bay
Originally uploaded by camandkristin.

Valentines Day marks our last night in New Zealand- our 7 weeks here have passed so fast, it's hard to believe we've been on the road for 137 days! Tomorrow we catch our flight to Thailand, where we start our 3rd leg of the trip, and will certainly experience mild culture shock (not for the first time...).

We have spent our last few weeks here crossing off the final "must dos" on our list, starting with seeing the Franz Josef and Fox Glaciers on the west coast of the South Island. You can spend a bunch of money to walk on the glaciers, but we decided just to walk up to them and view them from a bit of a distance. They are just large chunks of ice, after all. But these are things you must do when travelling with a geography major. From there we followed the west coast up to Punakaiki where we saw the phenomenon of the Pancake Rocks, and the amazing blowholes that have resulted from the ocean forming the limestone cliffs. We lucked out to be there at a nice high tide, and spent a while getting soaked by sea spray while simultaneously protecting the camera from the same spray... This camera is a serious liability!

From Punakaiki we bee-lined across Arthurs Pass to head back to Christchurch. We spent a night in the Pass fending off two Keas (alpine parrots who love to chew the rubber around your windscreen or doors) and the next morning did a little impromptu caving. There is a 362m long cave that has a river running through it (waist deep) which you can walk through, unguided, provided your torch is bright enough. We learned that ours weren't after we rounded the first corner and plunged into darkness. So, we worked our way back out and came across a family of 7, each with a torch bright enough to singlehandly light the way, so we tagged along with them and made our way through the cave. It's one of the only free things you can do in NZ and that alone made it very cool!

We then returned our camperwagon in Christchurch and reverted back to being true backpackers. We actually enjoyed the freedom- in a strange way having everything you own on your back is oddly comforting. We took the bus up to Nelson at the tip of the South Island, and booked a 3 day kayaking trip into Abel Tasman National Park- certainly one of the most beautiful areas we've ever seen. We camped there for two nights, paddled about 40km, spent some time with a family of seals curiously swimming and playing around our boat, navigated up rivers that became accessible at high tide, pretty much exhausted our shoulders and sat in wet clothes for 3 days. If you're ever wondering about your relationship- strap yourselves into a double kayak, call one of you "navigator" and one of you "steerer" and have at 'er... ;)

From Abel Tasman we headed back to Picton, caught the ferry to Wellington where we spent another night with Lincoln- our personal tour guide, and then headed north where, as you may have already read, we had the windscreen "incident". After 2 days of solid rain and a few leaks in the new windscreen seal (now repaired) we were determined to "get outta dodge" and leave stinky Rotorua behind. But before we could leave, we had to go Zorbing :) The sky cleared, the sun came out, and we rolled down a hill inside a big ball, filled with water. Because, why wouldn't you?! Kristin wasn't planning on becoming a Zorbonaut, but after Cam came down giddy as a kid at Christmas, she decided to give it a try and, sure enough, shrieked her way down the hill with glee! Not sure who dreamed it up, but it's a good idea for sure.

From Roturua we headed up the Coromandel Peninsula to Hot Water Beach. At the beach you can find hot spots under the sand where you can dig a hole which then fills with water (up to 64ºC) and gives you an instant hottub. We found the hotspots, but the tide never went out far enough to be able to dig a hole- but it is quite a sensation to stand with your feet dug into the sand with your toes burning, but being knee deep in ocean water!

Then we made it back to the Smith's house in Pukekohe and spent a day getting ourselves in shape to head to Thailand. Cam has burned his 12th CD of photos, some of which you can enjoy in our Flickr gallery.

So, despite our few minor mishaps, and the significant hit to our budget, we leave New Zealand with nothing but fond memories of the times we've had here, and particularly, the people we've met.

Until next time...
Cam and Kristin