WOW! New Zealand!

Dear New Zealand,

If you could stop raining, that'd be really great.

Kthanxbye!

Love, Krista


No but really, I must say it's as beautiful as everyone said it would be... but only about 10 percent of the time. I guess that's what we get for coming in the cheap shoulder season. Jared and I are just about finished with the South Island, moving on to the north in a couple of days. Our trusty campervan has kept us warm(ish) and dry. It's a converted van with a bed, sink, and small kitchen. It even has a microwave! (We only get to use that when we're spoiling ourselves and pull into a powered site) The distances are pretty small compared to other places (I'm lookin at you, Australia and America!) so the days driving is normally only an hour or two, usually filled with "woooow!" if the clouds have parted. Jared has invented several different wow noises so that he can say them in succession, delivering the correct amount of awe per vista. The only problem with being a small island nation tucked way out in the Pacific is that gas is a luxury item, coming in at almost $9 a gallon! ouch, they didn't advertise this bit! Also, our house on wheels is about as far from a hybrid as you can get, so on each short trip you can practically see the dollars flying out of your tailpipe. It makes for a symphony of wow's and soft sobbing as you drive through the countryside.

During our first couple days, we blindly drove around a bit before I convinced Jared to let me buy the holy grail of travel guides, The Lonely Planet New Zealand. (Nothing stokes the sense of adventure like turn by turn instructions for your entire trip! - Jared) As you can see, this is a source of disagreement, but Lonely Planet has been there for us when cellphone reception has not! (which is frequently)

I want to show you everything beautiful we've seen, but the only thing New Zealand doesn't have in abundance is internet access. But you really don't need it with a landscape like this! Do a quick google image search of New Zealand and you'll see a ridiculous amount of natural beauty and every landscape you can imagine crammed into a very small country.

Some of the highlights have definitely been the wildlife, some of it not so wild. The main crop here is sheep, and don't think we've gone a single day without seeing hundreds of them! Since it is spring, they all have little lambs, and I have seriously NEVER seen anything so freakin CUTE in my life! It's now my mission to shear a sheep while I'm here, and bottle feed a lamb. Then sneak it past customs back home if possible. We also did a penguin tour, where we were able to see yellow eyed penguins in a wild sanctuary. Apparently they are the rarest and most endangered penguins on the planet, which of course was reflected in the price of the tour. We got really lucky a couple of days after this and actually saw one in the wild, at which point Jared suggested that we throw some money at it with which to line it's nest. The next day we camped at a remote Department of Conservation site right on the beach, and woke up to sea lions lolling on the sand like a cat in a sun spot. The only sound disrupting this peaceful morning, and the other campers dutifully videoing from afar, was our van escaping our muddy campsite at the upper end of second gear...woops! Our next wildlife encounter came in the small town of Kaikoura, which has a faithful colony of seals that bask on it's rocks. While they look (and smell) dead, they are actually very much alive, as evidenced by a great video Jared shot. An Australian tourist edged closer and closer to one very large seal that had decided to camp out on the boardwalk, looking pretty sleepy and uninterested...not so! When he got too close, the seal leaped onto his front flippers and lunged, which made for some great tourist watching, as you don't normally see people move that fast! Video available upon request!

Soon thereafter it was time to have a shower and class ourselves up a bit for the Marlborough wine region... the best Sauvignon Blanc in the world! I was really looking forward to this, and it didn't disappoint! We got someone to drive us around as we drank from 10 in the morning, "tasting" and using words like "quite!" "oaky" and "hints of" this or that. It was a great break from our backwoods camping and the stinky camper. Obviously, we're experts now and will be happy to go on and on about this when we get home, no prompting needed!

At this point, it had started to rain, and hasn't let up since. We tried to escape to the west coast, but it found us there too. We did get about 5 minutes of sun at one of the glaciers, but since then have been lost in a grey and dreary haze. Today we are camped out at the thermal springs town of Hanmer Springs, where we spent the afternoon consoling ourselves in the hot sulfur springs. You can imagine what the camper smells like now...eggs anyone? Last night the rain decided to go and change itself to hurricane force winds, so we are kind of stuck here. We're waiting for the rest of the day for downed trees to be cleared and power to come back on, and then we're off to the North Island, where hopefully the weather will be better.

With all that said, I'd like to take this time to mention that we will be back in the job market soon! If you know anyone who's looking, our skills include having lots of great stories, and no practical experience. Don't miss out on this great opportunity, supplies limited, call now!