Kerstin stares into the fog. Quite mysterious.

Taking another break. Driving through this kinda scenery gets tiring really quickly!

A model we met.

Traffic was nil here. And the other car had lagged behind. What did we do? Play football on the highway of course! What a blast! The weather was perfect -- a nice crisp, warm breeze running through the valley. Ideal gridiron weather, as far as I'm concerned.

Still driving...

Our drive through Arthur's Pass back to Christchurch.

"Oh mannn, ANOTHER one?"

Just a quick stop along the road.

Al looks intense.

The Pancake Rocks in the North of the South Island (if that's possible).

"How the HELL is that block of ice not MELTING?!"

The Fox Glacier. Nice sign. I'll try not to get hit by falling ice/rocks.

Probably one of the more scenic toilets I've used.

We've reached another backpacker at Fox Glacier. Wee!

A nice big hunk of ice at the top of the track. We did it!

Kerstin takes a nap at the top.

A quick view along the trail. Nothing special (Tee hee).

Commencing the walk up the Rob Roy Track near Lake Wanaka.

More random scenery.

The view at Lake Marian. Not bad. There were uncountable waterfalls streaming down the sides of these mountains into the lake. I like.

Coming back down from Lake Marian.

A river flows on our way up to Lake Marian.

Seals chillin' on the rocks. The driver wasn't afraid to pull the boat up within inches of these rocks so we could get some pretty pictures. Nice seals!

Milford Sound again. It's actually a fiord, but they called it a sound. We learned that.

Shehz's beard was already beginning to grow at that point. Wait 'til you see its full beauty.

Caroline checkes out the scenery. It was a bit chilly, but we were lucky to have no rain!

We've arrived and are on the boat. This mountains are big. Sorry about the skewed angle (I can't fix that stuff in an Internet cafe), but notice the cruise ship in the bottom right. It's three storeys tall.

Still driving. Almost there Milford...

The group relaxes to take some pictures.

The drive to Milford Sound. The fields were full of this beautiful purple flower.

A random shot I took of Shehz while driving by. Blurry, but true-to-life I'd say.

Te Anau Lake as we arrived.

Sunset along the drive. Everything is this beautiful in New Zealand. You can't help it.

I swear the wall sockets in Australia and New Zealand are plotting to kill me.

McLean Falls, Caitlans National Park.

Nugget Point. More sea lions hanging around in the water -- very nice!

The tunnel itself. Damp, but short and amusing.

Two sea lions chilling on the beach. Apparently you should stay about 10 metres away from them cause they'll attack you. They didn't seem to care much about us though. Wild sea lions! On the beach! Who knew?

Brian is about to enter the Tunnel Beach cave. Scary stuff. Built by a father to allow his children to reach the beach. What a nice guy! Took a whole mining team.

Random South Island scenery. You'll be seeing lots of this.

Kerstin examins some sheep. She's been looking for the perfect sheep shot. This one didn't make the cut.

maori madness

yo yo,

the whole crew is here in lake wanaka (rhymes with hannukah. hanukkha? ... you can look that one up) on the south island of new zealand and we're having a great time! kerstin was nice enough to cut my hair for me while i sat with a picturesque view of the lake. this is one of the many, many places that lord of the rings did some filming. when you come to new zealand you'll agree that they probably could have filmed the damn thing anywhere -- it's like you're living inside a moving series of postcards here.

we've been doing TONS of driving in the last few days. we started in christchurch, then moved to dunedin, invercargill, te anau, and now here. my favourite experience had to be yesterday's hike up to lake marian. we were all a bit reluctant to try it out (what with the 3hr return trip estimate), but it was certainly one of the most incredible things i've seen. i'd rank it as number two on my list of most amazing experiences. number one, of course, being my birth.

the best part was when i decided that i'd run around the lake to the opposite side where there was a big snow bank coming down from the mountain. it looked pretty close! it wasn't. i was gone from the group for about thirty minutes, running the entire time, and i doubt i even made it halfway. regardless, i got to this neat spot on the other side of the lake affording me a nice view back at the mountains we had just been climbing. it was so gorgeous! luckily, i didn't have a camera so i'll just have to remember it. i think it's probably better that way.

that being said, we've all taken an average of about 50 pictures a day. when we all get home, you'll probably get about a thousand pictures, literally, dumped on you. i thought 2 gigs of memory on my camera would be enough for our time here. i was wrong. now i'm paranoid and trying to find a camera store to burn the extra pictures for me so i can erase my memory card and start again! yikes!

we (i) only have another 9 days in new zealand until we (i) go back to brisbane and then on to canada. we have a few more days here on the south island, and then we fly north for a bit more adventure.

what a time it has been! there's still more left, so we'll keep you updated.

for all of you out there who've actually stuck with us for this entire trip, thanks! also, thanks to "kat" who said she liked our pictures -- you left us no way to contact you so this is the best we can do. we'll put some more pictures up soon enough!

later,

> eee