Vacation Update

It was the old boat. I am sure that you are now sleeping better knowing that bit of useless information. And with that said you will be glad to know that we are in Invercargill as I write this, yesterday we were in Doubtful Sound. I wish I was still there.

This vacation has been fabulous thus far!

We started in Barrytown (North of Greymouth) where we stayed at a dump of a holiday park but had a great time the next day at the pancake rocks, and then ... we made a knife. Well three actually, started with a piece of iron inserted into a fire and worked our way through to polishing the wood handle after putting an edge on the hardened steel! Way too cool of a day.

After that we went down to Greytown (Mom and Dad we drove by the hotel we stayed at when you were here) and went down to another holiday park right on the ocean. Dennis had a great time playing in the water (I watched.) Somewhere around 9:30 when the sun was setting we all went down to the beach to watch the setting. And we saw a Green Flash! What an unexpected big of magic that was.

The next day we made our way to the glacers. Fox and Franz Joseph. They looked so awesome. I will post pictures eventually (long story) and I have the best shot of Dennis and Chris walking over some stepping stones on the river on the department of conservation walkway to the glacier. The holdiay park we stayed at was wonderful, a picnick in the shadow of the mountains was to die for.

Unfortunately the next evening was not as nice. We stayed at a DoC campsite where our air mattress failed to inflate, a long night on the ground made for little sleep. Ugh. And the biting flies, well pound for pound I would rather face a swarm of mosquitoes.

We then made our way to Wanaca. When I die i want to go back to Wanaca. There were a few things to do there, most notably the Puzzle Place. A 1.5 Kilometre maze. That was a fun walk let me tell you! the next morning we went ot the Crown Range, this was an awesome ride over the moutains where we saw first saw Queenstown. Oh my I am glad that we are spending Christmas there. This trip we went through downtown and purchased an air matress on sale for $40. Money well spent as the holiday park in Wanaca was $30 more expensive for the room with a bed than the standard tent site.

The next night we went to Manapouri in preperation for our trip through Doubtful sound (http://www.realjourneys.co.nz/Main/Doubtful) That was an amazing journey almost worth the whole trip down here. I loved the place, and Dennis and Chris did as well. Something magical about the place that words (and the 200 pictures I took) do not do justice.

Now it is time to get to bed, almost 10:00pm here and tomorrow we leave at 8:30am for Stewart Island!!