Lake Matheson

mike and i switched places after a couple hours, and i got my first taste of nz driving


i'm having a good time with it


we had to stop and admire the southern alps

and the stream from the franz josef glacier was deep, deep blue

mt. cook was in the distance, obscured by clouds

so we spent the night by the fox glacier and booked a hike for the afternoon. we had some time to kill so we drove to nearby lake matheson

you couldn't take a bad picture of this place

a young fern in the classic spiral pattern, slowly unfurling

and a whole orchestra of ferns

we also met mr. eel by the lake

didymo! they also call it rock snot, which is exactly what it looks like. nz has a national campaign to stop it from spreading around

on the way out we saw this pukeko bird..apparently they're common here, but that's the first i've seen of them. we headed back to town, got some snacks for the trail, and headed to the fox glacier....

Devils Punchbowl

the open road...mike has his game face on

getting stuck behind a hay truck on a one-lane road

unbelievable rock formations

the misty mountains of lore

driving through the forest

and we reached the devil's punchbowl, a giant waterfall in arthur's pass. it was raining pretty hard which made the hike that much more epic

and there she is

mike's poncho wasn't really waterproof, so he made a face

we took a break afterwards in the arthurs pass lodge

and then we were off again, heading for the west coast, the black sand beaches, and the glaciers! 

Obstacle Course!

back in the christchurch gardens

my friend the tui bird

a free play in the park we randomly saw

some guy felt like unicycling at the bar in the hostel

the official cookie of new zealand...he's the best cookie monster rip-off ever

the next day mike and i took a bus to the adrenalin forest

the bus didn't go all the way there so we got a ride from this guy. he was devouring a cheesy baked potato snack

there she is, the beast we tamed

here's an action shot of mike

lots of fun..it was like discovery zone all over again

the flying fox himself!

the final run (there were 6 runs that got progressively harder). this is when the wind started to pick up and the trees were swaying.

look at the tiny people on the ground

we said goodbye to the base backpacker..

...we would miss gypsy-rose, but we had to move on.

so the 4 of us got in the rental car and set off across the southern alps. mike the brave one took the wheel first. stay left, he told himself. stay left. and the journey began...