Heading North

It's Thursday noonish, and we are on the coast near the entrance to the Abel Tasman National Park. We stopped by Kaiteriteri for a little rest on the beautiful cove, looking toward the North Island before going to Marahau for one or two nights. We plan on kayaking there tomorrow with some guides who were highly recommended. The weather is beautiful and it feels great to stop and have a new adventure. We will write and send pics that will tell this next story. Our drive has been spectacular; the land (bush) changes constantly and is so lush. The towns we have gone through have the beautiful fall colors and are full of character. We constantly meet wonderful people who are always so welcoming. This is definitely a magical place to experience.     

Oming in Otago

Hannah and Suzi hamming it up.

Near a small town a few miles from Queenstown, love those fall colors.

Elephant Rocks on our way to Oamaru.

These ladies spun their own yarn before knitting hats and scarves.

We have been having a great time here in Otago Region about 6 km from the wonderful city of Oamaru. The couple we met in Manipauri own a huge dairy farm, along with tons of land. Bruce Gray comes from one of the oldest farming families in New Zealand, and we have learned so much local history. Kristi is originally from Christchurch, spent a bit of time in Australia, and has been in this area for about nine years. She has three kids, the youngest one, Brittney, is a senior in high school, her middle daughter, Haley, has a 10 mo. old daughter and lives in Nelson, and her oldest son, Byron, is at the University in Dunedin studying to be a doctor. Bruce's kids all work for the farm, and we have met all three of them in the last couple of days.  




Lyndon ( in scull cap) closing in for the kill.



If you look closely you can see the ball on the ground under all those guys.

The first night here, David went out with Lyndon hunting for rabbits (a real bunny hunter!) and he had a great time, returning home around midnight. His daughter and her family live in the old family home up the road, and yesterday we watched Jeff, the oldest son, play rugby against Lyndon, his youngest; that was really fun. We then ended up in the town of Oamaru and went to Kristi and Bruce's old city house which is being rented on the website of "bookabach." (Look it up online....Otago and then Oamaru...) It is a cool old home and we stayed there last night since it was not being rented. We visited the Old Town pub, walked down to see the little blue penguins, found a bite to eat at a wine-tasting bar, and strolled our way back to the home. 

After sleeping in the honeymoon suite, David and I woke up this morning to a brilliant golden lit sky welcoming us to a new day. Kristi drove us all southwest toward Dunedin area to go riding some awesome horses with Paul Robinson, the National Champion Bronco Rider of New Zealand. I was honored to ride his favorite "pick-up" horse and David rode another fiesty pretty horse as well. Paul and his sweet girlfriend took us on about an hour ride on the land next to his and we felt so privileged; it reminded us of fond ranch ride memories, and Paul, if he tries to ride in the Salinas rodeo, will be heartedly welcomed by the Gabilan Ranch crew. All the horse people in this area know each other, of course, and I felt right at home. 

David, Paul, Suzi and Ashley after our ride.

Think it was cold in the Doubtful Sound area ?

Bruce telling the "mower" what to cut next.

I got to ride along; that machine had all the whistles and horns you could imagine.

Suzi and I were honored to ride with Paul and Ashley.

The saddle Paul won as the National Saddle Bronc Riding Champion.



Inside Paul's ranch house with Kristi, Bruce and Ashley.



Paul's prized belt buckles

Cowboy Dave and sidekick Suzi ....

Jeff applying the milkers to the cows.

On our way back home, we visited other warm people, and stopped in Oamaru one more time to ride the old-time bicycles called penny farthings. Kristi is the 2000 World Champion Penny Farthing Rider. Our pictures will tell the story of our incredible time here. We are leaving for the northwest area of the South Island tomorrow and it is time for dinner, so I will say good-night. Pictures will be sent to you tomorrow morning after we rise early and go watch the cows be milked. We are so lucky. Good-night for now.  Suzi 

World Champion Kristi in action.

Suzi keeping up with the Pro.

No comment needed for this.........

Doubtful Sound to Queenstown

Rainy, cold but pretty

Rain = waterfalls.   No rain = no waterfalls.     It's that easy.

The three stabilizer sails were on hydraulic roller furlers....just push a button and they rolled up.

Suzi getting ready to get into her harness for her tandem paraglide trip.

It couldn't have been a more beautiful day to soar with the birds !!!

A shot off the top of the gondola down to Queenstown.

This is part of the luge track that we ran twice, way too much fun for only once down.

We did have a great trip to Doubtful Sound, thoroughly enjoying the crew and the people we met, even though the weather sucked. The food was fabulous, our foursome bunkroom turned out to be just for us, and we did have a delightful afternoon kayaking along the pristine shore of the sound. The drizzling rain brought many waterfalls, and a bit of magical mystery to our tour, but the warm sunshine would have shown us the incredible rich colors I know do exist. As we came back to Manapouri, a huge rainbow appeared over the lake, and the sunshine and clear blue skies welcomed us back. 


We gave two young friends we had met on the cruise, Ben and Brittany, a ride back to their home in Queentown, along with another wonderful girl from the US, Hannah, who was heading that way as well. Pretty fun giving rides when we can. We found another Top 10 Holiday Park to call home for these last two nights and definitely got our fill of fun time in Queenstown, the Disneyland city of New Zealand.  We spent the whole time today spending money and enjoying crazy extreme rides. The weather has been spectacular, and the energy here is high. I hiked this morning up the mountain in town, while David took the gondola up and then we rode our very first luges; what fun they are! Next, we walked into town, got a bite to eat and took a very loud jet boat from the town dock, along the shore of the lake, and up the Kawarau and Shotover Rivers, skimming in 6 inches of water and doing 360's quite often. We giggled a lot and definitely this was way beyond anything peaceful we had ever done. We ended the day with a trip up to Coronet Peak and both did a parasail. What an exhilirating chance to fly across magnificent countryside with Queenstown in the far distance. PHEW!  


We are back in our cozy ktichen/lounge near our parked van and just had a lovely visit with Hannah, wishing her well on her extended journey before she heads back home to Wisconsin. We are not sure which direction we will go tomorrow. We have been invited by a dairy farmer to come stay for a few days north of Dunedin and do some cow-punching on a nearby ranch, but we need to check on that possibility tomorrow. Our other option is to head up to Wanaka and over to the West Coast for a bit, but the weather is turning cold again tomorrow, and we are not sure we are ready for more cold weather. We are quite the wooses lately.  Yes, New Zealand is expensive, but it certainly is beautiful and thank goodness we are camping most of the time, making our own meals, and adventuring mostly on our own. We will be happy to be away from this tourist town, but we did have a wonderful time making the most of it today.  We are certainly lucky to be here.  Love to all,  Suzi and David

The Sobos on Cruising, Castles & Exotic Creatures

I know, wrong color and no tree but I still thought of Ferdinand...

This is a molting Yellow Eyed Penguin, the rarest penguin in the world.

Over-looking Nugget Point in the southern part of the south island .

We are in the town of Gore, on our way to Te Anau, close to where we pick up the ride to Doubtful Sound. Believe it or not, we are sitting in the parking lot of MacDonald's using their free WiFi. David just broke down to order a burger and we shall see how that goes. We are trying to chase the sun and hope to find more of it in TeAnau as the weather is supposed to be good for the next three days up in the Fiordland region. Today it is raining up there. David has been really having fun with his new lens. It is really pretty countryside we passby and we are having fun.


The trip through the Catlins area of the South Island was very fun, and we were so fortunate to have wonderful weather these last two days. We first landed in the little town of Kaka, found a lovely campground with warm showers and kitchen facilities, fixed an early dinner and headed out to Nugget Point to watch the Yellow-Eyed Penguins come in from a day of fishing. The viewing station is quite far away, so the pictures from that day don't really show these amazing birds very well.

Looking pretty ragged with all this "molting" going on.

Sa

Yesterday, though, after venturing off the road to the beautiful Purakaunui Waterfalls, we made our way to Curio Bay, settled into a a comfortable, rustic campsite, hiked the bluff separating Porpoise and Curio Bay, and then walked to the stairs onto the rock beach to find more of the rarest, endangered Yellow-eyed Penguins. They are moulting now, and many of them just come out from nests along the shore to stretch and drink, but some still manage to go out daily and hunt, returning at dusk. We were lucky to see both and David got some great shots. The photos give you just a taste of our continuing adventures. We woke up to rain early this morning and hit the road. Onward to the Fiordland National Park and TeAnau and it is from there we will leave for our overnight excursion onto Doubtful Sound. We hope for sunshine and shimmering waters!  Wish us luck!  Love to all,  Suzi 

This Yellow Eyed penguin isn't molting yet and looks so much happier.

Fruit stand where you took your produce and left the money in a jar. Try that one in the States !!

Our campsite near Roxburg, one of the prettiest ones.

These were race horses and the owner would run them 20 times around the track every morning.
He would tie them to his truck and take off, seemed to work OK for him.



These guys were "cleaning up" the sheep, shearing only around their tail ends.



They did this about twice a year.

These two guys were the owners and they invited us off the road to get closer for a better look.
Just like all New Zealanders, they couldn't of been more friendly.

Larnach Castle

Suzi said to give all single women a heads up on the fact that this guy, Ron, is cool and available. Just sayin'.

A albatross in flight off the Otago Penninsula.



The albatross is one of the worlds best gliders, the cruise effortlessly.



This place was as pretty inside as out. And great views to boot !!!

OOOps!  I forgot to tell you a little about the Otago Penninsula. It seems so long ago! It is Saturday, Mar 26 and that was way back last Wed!  We did have a wonderful day with our Canadian friend, Ron, who reminded us both of your bro Jon in so many ways. We both drove our Escapee Vans through unreal sheep countryside to what is known as The Larnach Castle, built in 1871. It was quite enjoyable reading the history of this Victorian style villa, and it was still fun wandering the premises taking too many pictures. After having warm cups of tea and coffee, we drove out the very end to the Royal Albatross Center just as the sun poked out for the afternoon. We did catch a view of some albatross with their magnificant wing spans and enjoyed the fresh air. We said our good-byes to Ron and headed for the Portebello Holiday Park, walked into town for a wonderful dinner at the 1908 Cafe, and left the next morning for the Catlins Conservation Reserve.  -S.

David's Treatise on Driving

It has taken me a while but I'm now feeling comfortable driving on the other side of the car and going down the "wrong" side of the road. It took awhile, but as I said, it now feels almost normal. I still turn on the windshield wipers every time I use the turn indicator as they are located on the other side of the steering wheel than what us "Yanks" are use to and the "round abouts" now seem like the great ideas they are. We should use them back in the states; they keep traffic flowing quite smoothly without the need of stop signs or worse yet stop lights. Of course you do have to be ready to jump when there is a small (and I do mean small ) gap in the traffic, and I still have to really concentrate as to where my destination is and what lane I need to be in, but thankfully there isn't that much traffic here for the most part and only in the large cities do things really get hairy. 

Another thing that takes a bit of getting used to is the one lane bridges. I guess the New Zealand Dept. of Public Works thought it would save some money if they only built the bridges wide enough for one lane. So as you approach a bridge, you have to make sure there isn't someone already on it coming toward you or that there isn't someone approaching form the other side who has the right a way. That's right, one direction of traffic (and I haven't been able to find out which way or why) has the right of way. So as you drive up to a bridge, you check to see if the stop line in the road is on your side or not before you start across. It all sounds confusing, and at first it was, but like I said I'm getting the hang of it and keep your fingers crossed for us that when panic time comes, I will react correctly. That will be the true test, and I hope I miss that day of school !!!  See ya ( I hope !!)  David

In Dunedin

We are in Dunedin right now with 5 min. left on the internet so this is just a short note.  We are in the rain this morning, hoping it will clear this afternoon as we travel out to the Otago Penninsula to see architecture, penguins, albatross, and beautiful beaches. We have met a great guy, Ron, from Canada, and had a wonderful dinner in the city last night after checking out the old train station there.  Enjoying time in New Zealand. We may not have internet connection after today for awhile......maybe not until we get to Queenstown, so be patient. We head to the Catlins in the south and then to Doubtful Sound for a boat trip. We will keep in contact as soon as we can.  Love you mucho. Sunshine to you.  Suzi and David

Check Out that Van: Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test?

We had a magical, incredibly beautiful day at the Mt. Cook National Park, with warm sunshine and blue skies all day long. We took a fabulous 3-4 hr. hike up to Hooker Lake and basked in the phenomenal view of Mt. Cook. The fall colors are exquisite, and I think we are so lucky to have had that stellar day. We met a great couple from Santa Barbara who gave us more tips and off we went the next morning in the cold cloudy mist. After visiting the Edward [I think she means Edmund] Hillary Center, we had a terrific drive down the valley to warm weather, once again; we are now in gold mining and wine country and have found a lovely little campground on warm, sunny plateau overlooking the Bannockburn Arm of  Lake Dunstan. This is called the Central Otago Countryside, just south of Cromwell, and now we are deciding what to do next. We hope to rent some bikes and get some exercise here in the countryside before we head to the east coast.  We are having a great time and again, the New Zealand people are wonderful. Again,  life is sooo  good! The harvest moon was incredible last night. WOW !  Harvest season starts tomorrow for the vineyards.