Hello to you all, the time has come for another word from overseas.
We are continuing our travels in the wonderful south island of NZ. There is a long mountain range going down the middle of the island like a spine, which is called the southern alps, and on both sides there are, of course, coasts. We started our descent downwards on the west coast, and actually found it to be a bit disappointing. Not that many attractions that suited our present circumstances, though we do believe that there are some great treks. We did stop to visit the two glaciers, that are world famous for being the glaciers that come closest to the sea. Maybe it was because the weather didn't permit us to see the mountain peaks around or too much of the glaciers themselves, but we found them a bit disappointing. Noga enjoyed hiking up to the Franz Josef glacier and touching the ice, but other than that there isn't too much to tell.
Once we had visited the glaciers, we practically started making ourway inland, towards the mountains, and our time here is more than making up for the west coast! The very day we left the coast and drove over the Haast pass (which is actaully not that high up, only 600 meters or so) everything improved - the weather was lovely: sunny and crisp. There were beautiful water falls along the road, and we even took a short hike towards the confluence of two rivers, where there are clear bright blue water pools. The walk was very gentle, and both girls were running along the path in the woods, screeching like birds and having a marvelous time (as were their parents, needless to say). Hadas seems to enjoy walking more and more, and has started walking for longer parts of our trips (okay, so its just 20-30 minutes each time, with numerous stops - but it's a real treat for us to see that she enjoys the exercise, and stops next to every flower, stick and stone and commands offensive weeds to move out of her way...).
Wanaka was our next stop - a little tourist town on the shore of a magnificent lake (lake Wanaka) surrounded by snowy-peaked mountains. Our friendly hostel had a great view of all the above, which made our meals there so much more pleasant. It was even nice enough in the evening that the grown ups could sit in the courtyard outside our room and share a beer and some conversation with other travelers. Additionally, in one of our Wanaka days we split, Giora going on a hike on his own, exploring a beautiful national park near the town (Mount Aspiring National Park). It was a refreshing day, walking quite a bit on his own, amidst meadows, waterfalls and gigantic mountains. However, this scenery was nothing comparing to the way I(Giora) saw it two days later: Our third day in Wanaka was amazing - it was the clearest day we had seen for a long time. So immediately Giora decided that this was the perfect opportunity for a scenic sky-dive: and boy, was he right!!
A few words about sky-diving in NZ are in place first: there are more than a dozen towns in which tandem-skydiving is an option. Tandem, meaning you're connected to an instructor. He sees to safety and operating the parachutte, and you merely have to enjoy yourself... For me (Giora), the main appeal wasn't the jumping itself as an experience, but especially viewing everything from above. The surroundings of Wanake are fabulous, and in a day like that, without a single cloud, the view was literally breathtaking. Two large lakes, Mount Cook (the highest in NZ) up there, many kilometers away, the winding Clutha river with its turquoise water. Simply AMAZING. Surprisingly, the jump itself wasn't that scary, but it's probably due to the fact I was concentrating on looking at the astounding scenery.
On the very same day, we continued for a lovely stroll by the lake, with the girls playing with rocks and dipping their feet in the water. Later on, we just had to go to "our" playground (see below) for a return visit, and from there two minutes down to the lakeshore, for some more quality "pebble time". Although we didn't go for a major tramp (trek in NZ jargon), and in fact stayed close to home, the weather, our great moods and the tranquility of the day made it one of the best so far! Truly a day to remember.
Wanaka is also home to "Puzzling World", a curious enterprise of all things puzzling - wooden 'put-me-together's of all sorts, visual illusions, gravity tricks and even a maze. We spent a very entertaining morning there, but had to enlist the help of the staff for solving quite a few of the puzzles... Just as importantly, down the road from our hostel we found the playground that has been crowned "The very best to far!". It had all kinds of original and interesting swings and spins, and a dinasour slide.
We are now writing you from Queenstown, the adventure and extreme capital of NZ, although this aspect of town seems mostly wasted on staid souls like us. The extent of our family adventure was to ride the gondola cable car up to a magnificent view of the town, the lake it sits on (Wekatipu) and the surrounding Remarkable mountains (that is the name of the range, and justifiably so). At the top we took a stroll and then rode a chair lift to ride a Luge (a primitive cart, sitting low to the ground, with a steering wheel like a bike and a simple breaking mechanism). We doubled up - Hadas with Dad and Noga with Mom, and raced our way down the concrete track - awesome!!! Noga had a great ride, and Hadas enjoyed it in her own way - she was mostly fascinated by the helmet on her head, to which she pointed every thirty seconds saying "kada" (kasda) with a look of great satisfaction. To each her own...
Again, the day was made even better by clear skies and a cessation of the rain that had been falling all the previous night. Yes, it is summer here as we keep reminding ourselves, but yes, it still rains quite a bit, definitely more than we would have wanted it to. But really, we've been managing beautifully to plan around the weather, and have not yet been caught out in a real downpour, though we keep reminding ourselves that it is sure to happen at some point! Finally, the campground we are staying in is slightly out of town, just above the greenish Shotover river. We really would have like to explore it further, especially as there are supposed to be some majestic canyons, but apparently the only way to do so is on a JetBoat ride (just what is sounds like, a boat that goes very fast, swerving and spinning to give you the 'ultimate adrenaline rush' -adventure queenstown, have we mentioned that?). So we'll probably have to pass on that one...
We are managing to ignore the christmas shopping fever that has hit New Zealand, and although we do go grocery shopping every couple of days, we have done almost no other shopping what-so-ever on this trip. We think this is a joint result of us not being such great shoppers in the first place, but also the consumer rush is much less conspicuous here. Indeed, there are commercials but somehow the whole shopping aspect of life seems to be less a part of daily routines. In the same vein, there are plenty of second hand stores, and it seems that everybody sees them as a viable option, and not only the needy. We must admit that it is a nice respite between the consumerism of Israel and what will hit us once we get to the US...
That is all for now,
Hugs and kisses to all,
Hadas, Noga, Anat & Giora
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