Canyoning and other adventures

Hokitika Gorge:

Cave Stream:

Castle Hill:

Abel Tasman:

View from my windown in Wellington:

So we arrived in Wanaka mid-morning on a grey rather overcast and rainy day. We spent the morning catching up on internet, food, shopping, getting settled (ie lazy day) and stopped in to ask about canyoning. We made some bookings for the next day doing "Big Nige" and then headed off to do a short walk (roughly 2 hours) up Mount Iron for some nice views. The rain had stopped and the sun was trying to peak through so the walk was nice (if a little too uphill for Nalumon's cardio) and there were some pretty views ofthe lake and town below us. Wanaka is a little resort-y for my taste, but overall a beautiful location.

The next morning we woke up early and decided to book another night in the hostel we were at rather than pushing on to Queenstown afterwards (later turned out to be a great decision!) The take off point for canyoning was just around the corner so we met up with our groups. There were a bunch of Canadians, Australian, and some random girl that wasn't in our group and we knew nothing about. We had two boys with us Rob (canadian) and Scott (australian) who were both early twenties-ish.
We got all our gear (harness, wet suits, thermal underlayers, dirty beaten up shoes, helmet, etc) and hiked the 40 min up to the canyon drop in point. We rappelled down and from there it was a series of rappells, jumps, and slides tothe bottom. It was FREEZING even with our 10 millimeters of wet suit neoprene on all over our bodies (inc feet and head!) and so we took some rest stops to drink hot tea and warm up a bit. Even with the cold cold cold weather (i didn't whine cause its my perpetual life existence, being cold, but the others aren't quite as adjusted to permanent cold as me) and water it was SO amazingly fun and totally worth the money/time. Nalumon and I both want to do the bigger canyon someday called the Leapin Burn (although apparently there are a lot of cliff jumps which Nalumon isn't so keen on).

We spent the night again in Wanaka and Scott and I had made plans to go mountain biking the next afternoon while Nalumon bouldered/rock climbed. But rock climbing was full and Scott had skydiving in the morning and we decided to push on to Christchurch in the morning. So i left a note for Scott explaining we had had to leave earlier than expected and we hit the road. We stopped at Lake Tekapo (I made friends with a duck, we sat next to each other and he ate/cleaned himself and I sat/took pictures...it was chill). Then we stopped again to see the claf cliffs, i explored a stream bed and ended up all in and among the cliffs in these little openings and it was neat. Nalumon stuck to the trail and didn't get to get up quite as close. Then we finished the drive up to Sumner (suburb of Christchurch that is on the water). We checked in to the 'auther's choice' hostel (i luuuff my lonely planet book) and then went out to a romantic dinner at wakefield's for valentines day. We shared a salmon appetizer (delish) and then I had the roast lamb rump (even more delish) for the main. We had alemony/cakey thing for dessert that was meh.

When we checked in they asked for our passports to have photo id which set Nalumon off in a PANIC that she had no idea where her passport was. The next morning we tore apart the car and her bag, we called every where we had possibly stopped for the entire route, no luck. Finally we began to face the inevitable that it may be gone for good.

We stopped in Christchurch to get some coffee (mmmh starbucks) and stop in at the police station to see if they could get in touch with other police stations in case it was turned in some where en route. As we were leaving the car park Nalumon couldn't remember where she had put the parking ticket and checked the visor above the steering wheel, no parking ticket but out fell her passport!! So newly relieved we headed on to Hamner Springs.

It exceeded expectations. A cute town with nice walks (we did a 2 hours waterfall walk and then the spur track back) and it was beautiful! We walked through tons of different vegetation/forest types and it was a very very nice walk with nice views.

We got thai food for dinner (met a nice couple from Australia) and then went to the Thermal Pools and lounged around in the hot springs for a while before going back home to bed.

This morning we drove up to Kaikoura, went and visted from seal friends, and will go back at low tide to do a shore walk to see more seal colonise (hopefulyl babies!).

Tomorrow is back to picton and then across to wellington for orientation (boooo). Nalumon looked into changing her flight and they wouldn't let her (:( ) so she has to leave on the 19th. No fun.

BUT the exciting news is.....WE HAVE PICTURES! I have finally found a computer that can read my olympus' xd card (woot woot) so enjoy the FEW pictures (choice pictures..) above (and now yu can all stop whining!)