Rob Roy Glacier Trail

When we stayed in Wanaka, we wanted to see a Glacier and decided the Rob Roy Glacier Trail was the best idea for us. Rob Roy Glacier Trail in the lonely planet book is considered an easy to moderate trail, I think that may be a misprint. The trail was much harder than we thought. It started off with a 40 meter swing bridge over a rushing river. It was around a 2 hour hike switching back and forth up the mountain to the Glacier. Most of it followed a beautiful river and through a beautiful beech forest carpeted with ferns. It was absolutely worth the hard hike once we got up to the glacier. We brought our lunch, and halfway up we were pretty hungry, so we thoroughly enjoyed our lunch of pb&j sandwiches and chips at the foot of the glacier. The walk back down was like walking on clouds compared to the walk up the mountain.

Kit and I before we walked over the swing bridge. We had done some of these when we stayed at the Mount Aspiring Hut on Christmas break. This bridge was longer and the wind was so fierce it pushed the bridge all over the place. Cody danced across the bridge and Kit was fine also. Barb and I hard a really hard time crossing it. Right in the middle, I didn't think I was going to make it, I had to look ahead at Kit and just keep walking.

Barb and Dave Crossing the Bridge

The fern/ Beech Forest

Beautiful view of the rushing water

almost there

waterfalls

We're there!!!

The Glacier. It was hard to take a picture because it was so cloudy and it reflected back on the snow.

Cody and a waterfall

The Elams

Back at the Carpark!!

It was overall a beautiful hike! More pictures to come soon....

Milford Sound

Milford Sound is in the Fiordland National Park on the South West side of the South Island. It is about 8 miles long that comes from the Tasman Sea. Milford Sound gets more rain per year than anywhere else in New Zealand. We were lucky to have a cloudy/ sunny day. It was cold on the cruise, but beautiful. It is absolutely beautiful and and some say it is the 8th wonder of the world.





Here is a view of the Tasman Sea















Fur Seals basking in the sun.
It was amazing watching them climb up the rocks and bark at each other.














Twice we saw a pod of dolphins.
They were so cute and loved jumping out of the water for us.

so many waterfalls, the pictures don't do the waterfalls justice. Some of them were so tall and one was twice as long as Niagara Falls.





























Our boat.














Pictures from the bottom deck of the boat. Kit and I are standing on a huge anchor.

From Coast to Coast

The past two weeks have been spent with the Elams. Kits parents arrived on Monday February 22nd and Cody arrived a day later. We spent the first week hanging out around Dunedin, showing them the sites. We took a day trip to the Moeraki Boulders and ate a fabulous meal at a local restaurant there. On Friday we drove to Te Anau and then on to Milford Sounds in the Fiordlands on Saturday. We took a two hour boat tour of the Sound and saw fur seals, dolphins, the Tasman sea, and beautiful waterfalls. Then on Sunday we drove to Queenstown. In Queenstown we went to hot pools where we had private rooms that over looked the mountains and the shotover river. On Monday we drove to Wanaka and went mountain biking, hiking to see glaciers and relaxing. We drove home on Thursday and spent the last couple days relaxing around Dunedin. We spent alot of time in our Van and we ended up driving coast to coast. It was a perfect trip and we miss them already. I will post picture in installments since there are so many of them.

The Van!

Brothers

Moeraki Boulders
It took millions of years for these to be made and they are perfectly round.

Cody running up Baldwin street. He felt like he was dying about halfway up it.

The Elam kids having fun

job update

Hello all..

I did not get the active movement advisor job. I am not too disappointed about it because there might be a teaching job in the works for me. One of the ladies I interviewed with was the head of a kindergarten association here and she was interested in me for some type of job there. I am very excited about this and I hope that I will get a job soon!

We had a great weekend. It was spent with good friends and new friends, eating pizza in a great restaurant with views of the ocean, and a car! We are going to buy a car this week! It is a baby blue Honda odyssey. We haven't bought it yet, but we have taken it for a couple of test drives and we hope to sign the contract tomorrow!! It is going to be so nice to have a car to muck around (as they say here) the South Island. We decided on a van, because if the weather is bad we can sleep in the back of it, we can throw bikes in the back, and of course the room for our lovely visitors! We have less than a week until the Elam family gets here and we so excited!!

The weather has been hit and miss this past week and it seems like that is the theme for the weeks to come. Sun one day, rain, rain and more rain the rest of the time. One thing I have learned about New Zealand, or at least Dunedin, is enjoy the sunny days while you have them. So I'm off to enjoy our sunny day just like the chickens on the side of the road below.

Otago Peninsula

Last week Kit and I explored the Otago Peninsula, the drives are absolutely beautiful. We went on a short hike and can't wait to go back.

I had a job interview last week for an active movement advisor. I would be given presentations to preschools, communities and parents on how they should incorporate more physical movement into children's lives ages 0-5. I would really like to teach, but my qualifications are still being assessed by the government and I won't even be considered for a teaching job until that happens. I will find out by Friday if I did get the job or not, or if they are still in the process of deciding. We will see what happens. That is all of the news here in Duendin, besides the most wonderful weather we have been having here. We actually went to the beach on Saturday and it was hot out! Kit and I went into the water which was freezing, but refreshing at the same time. Summer has finally arrived on the South Island.

Pictures of the Peninsula below:

A cloud moving in

Above the clouds

Dunedin from the Peninsula

Two more weeks until visitors!!

22 days!!

22 Days until Barb, Dave and Cody Arrive. All of the Elam Family will be in New Zealand. (minus one unoffical Elam, Jenni, we will miss her). We are so excited to have family coming to see us so soon. They will be here for two weeks and we have so much planned. Kit wrote out a list of places we want to take them to eat, places to explore around Dunedin and around New Zealand. We are going to go to Milford Sound, Queenstown and Wanaka. We are also planning on trying to bike some of the Central Otago rail trail. We love having visitors and alot of room, so if anyone else would like to visit, we would love to have you!!!!