It's been a long while since we last wrote, but we do have a good excuse: The weather has been acting up. How is that an excuse? Under normal conditions, while one of us is busy writing our notice, the other one is amusing the girls in a nearby playground. However, since it has been very cold and rainy for most of the past week and a half, this setup didn't work so well…
Since the beginning of our trip the local Kiwis have been telling us how unseasonably cold the summer is this year, but we have been managing to work our way around the weather and do almost everything we wanted. But our time came, and the weather hit us full force in the lowest part of the South Island. We had several indoor rainy days, and had to pass up on quite a few outdoor attractions we would have liked to see, mainly in the southernmost region of New Zealand, namely Southland. The area is very sparsely populated, and has many supposedly beautiful places along the coast (we wouldn't know, since we didn't get a chance to see most of them…). From the little we did see, the rugged country is indeed very beautiful. A bit further inland there are rich grazing lands, and we probably saw more sheep there than we did elsewhere in New Zealand. At times the view from the car window resembled a green and white carpet!
From Southland we continued to Dunedin, a relatively big city in the south-eastern corner of New Zealand, starting our way back north along the eastern shore. Being a city it offered a few in door attractions, such as a tour of Cadbury's chocolate factory. For us, the adults, it wasn't that fascinating however you should have seen Hadas and mainly Noga... Needless to say, the real treat was when chocolate bars were handed to the participants, leading to glowing eyes. Hadas walked most of the tour, holding a giant chocolate bar almost her size, and was very happy with it. We also fought the weather bravely, and managed to sneak several semi-outdoor acticities, such as watching albatross birds (very big and impressive !) and more important - seeing the extremely cute penguins in their natural habitat. There is a cool wild-life reserve,where the human visitors are in cages and all sorts of tunnels, so that the penguins won't be disturbed. It was fabulous !
Additionally, we spent Christmas in Dunedin, and joined a very jolly Christmas party in our hostel. It was very intersesting for us to see how this holiday is celebrated here, and I guess it's kind of a preparation to the coming years in the states. As said above, we're now on our way up north along the eastern coast of the south island, with a couple of detours inland. One of those detours is already behind us - a delightful visit to Mount Cook, the highest peak in New Zealand. The mount itself is very impressive, and the lakes, valleys and rivers around it are among the best New Zealand has to offer. Originating in glaciers, the turquoise colour of the water is difficult to describe. I think the lakes there are the most beautiful we've ever seen, even more than those we were astounished at in Tibet.
We also enjoy the fact that this period, after Cristmas, is the summer holiday for the Kiwis. Thus, we had the chance to go to a circus and an amusement park, a refreshing change for the girls after the daily nature walks we take them on. The circus itself was embarrassingly bad, but the girls had great fun and that's obviously what matters. There are many more sights and attractions to tell about, but this post is already too long...
It is hard to believe, but we have merely two weeks left on this trip. Though we try not to think about it, there probably is no escape from saying the we are starting to feel the end. Well, we guess every good thing comes to an end. We're currently in Christchurch, the biggest city in the south island, and within a bit less than a week will return to the north island, on our way back to Auckland, from which we fly out.
Love and miss you all,
Hadas, Noga, Anat & Giora
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