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There are 276 blog entries within the category of Blog Entry
 The helicopter sitting on the pad waiting to go
After our Kaikoura experience, we headed up to Picton and caught the InterIslander Ferry across. The weather was still pretty bad and it was an enjoyably rough Cook Straight Experience. Our friend, Leah, picked us up at the Ferry Depot and she and her family have been kind enough to put us up in the home for the evening.
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Today was our day in the Abel Tasman National Park. Needless to say it was wonderful. We were happy to have the weather cooperate with us and started the day with a water taxi ride from one end of the park to the other, on a jet boat. After being dropped off, we began a three hour hike back to the other end of the park. While some of the uphills were tiring, it was quite a nice tramp. After our three hour hike we met up with another water taxi and caught it back to the entrance of the park.
After our trip to Abel Tasman we got back on the road and headed to Kaikoura on the east coast. After checking into a nice motel in Kaikoura, we took a lengthy drive and found a dark and secluded beach where we lit off two boxes of fireworks (we've had them saved since the Guy Fawks Holiday Nov 5th). Needless to say the fireworks were less than spectacular but a fun time was had by all. We plan to do either some fishing or whale watching tomorrow afternoon in Kaikoura and then head off to Picton to catch the ferry across the Cook Straight and into Wellington.
Plenty of pictures have been taken and are on the way, I just need a place to stay on the internet long enough.
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Continued heading north along the west coast today departing from Greymouth around noon or so. We stopped at the famous Pancake Boulders just 30 minutes north of Greymouth and later stopped at the Buller Gorge. Both are known as key points of interest in New Zealand and I would say they are pretty interesting. The weather at the Pancake Boulders was not terribly good, but as we continued north along Highway 6 it gradually cleared up.
One interesting story was a stop we had just south of Westport on the West Coast. We stopped for a brief visit and some pictures to a seal colony. On one hand there was a path that wound around the beach and looked to be somewhat of a long journey and on the other hand there was the option of crossing the beach and hiking up the rockside. I decided that we would take to the beach and climb the rocks. As I led the three of us jumping from rock to rock along the beach I did not notice how well one of the seals had blended into the surroundings. Thankfully I lept to the right instead of the left but nonetheless heard a loud roar as I stepped down. Not more than two meters to my left was a huge male seal head in the air snarling at me. I quickly sprung across a few more rocks and up grassy hill only to find myself in the face of another seal snarling at me. I quickly backed off, heart pounding and hands bruised from falling on a previous rock and ran away. In the end, we decided to take the longer path.
After a nice Indian dinner in Nelson (along the North coast) we neaded closer to Abel Tasman National Park and have found ourselves a quaint motel on the outskirts. Weather cooperating, we are planning to do some kyaking somewhere in the park at the Golden Bay.
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Did a ton of driving today. While it was still a pretty neat drive, it rained for about 8 straight hours - more specifically, it poured for about 8 straight hours. Along the drive were literally hundreds of waterfalls covering the surrounding mountains and hills. Every so often we would come across a waterfall that was spilling thousands of liters per minute onto the road. We stopped at both the Fox Glacier and the Frans Joseph Glacier but were unable to tour either of them because of the continuing weather.
One point of interest was a glowworm cave we came across around 10pm, probably 50km or so outside of Greymouth. After a short hike in the pouring rain with only a pocket maglite, we came across the elusive glowworms. They were pretty impressive - very similar to bioilluminescents found under tropical waters at night.
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3rd August 2003
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Tisa has found a job working in the Dunedin hospital at one of their cafes. She had her first day today so we will have to wait and hear more about it in the future once she gets rolling a bit more. There are also pictures of my house online and Tisa's house pictures should be online in the next day or so. We would also like to get photos of our flatmates to put on the website as well.
Photo Gallery Updates:
Kevin's House in Dunedin
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