Hullo...and Welcome to Mahana

Mahana Lodge

After our month of camping in February we decided to settle down for a little while. On the 3rd of March we headed up to Marborough Sounds where we got jobs working at a place called Mahana Lodge. It is located in the Endeavor Inlet off the Queen Charlotte trek. Natalie cleans the Lodge and Bobby does whatever needs to be done, mow lawns, chop fire wood, weed the garden, carry the luggage off the boats, etc. We work about 3 1/2 a day and have the rest of the day to fish, hike, read, or whatever else we come up with. John and Ann our the owners and have been so gracious to us. John told Bobby at the begining catching fish is apart of his chores when the weather suits. So on average John and Bobby fish about 2-3 times a week. There are so many cool species of fish and every trip brings something new and exciting. Being right off of the Queen Charlotte Trek, we decided that it was time to do another hike, so on our day off we hike a section of the trek and stayed at "The Blue Water Lodge" a friend of John and Ann's owns it. His name is Rod and we quickly became good friends. Rod later took us sailing on his 36ft Sail Boat and took us back to Mahana. Natalie got to man the helm all way home, it was awesome!

Beach at Mahana

Nice a Kahawai caught off the warf

Natalie getting sailing directions from Rod. At one point the wind picked up and the boat was leaning far on the starboard side, it felt like it was going to tip over. Luckly Natalie turned into the wind and brought us back on track.

Storm comming in over Mt. Stoke

Abel Tasman Coastal Trek

Split Apple Rock

This trip was taken at the end of February.

We decided that because we hadn't hiked enough this month we would do another long hike...... So we hiked through Abel Tasman National park. It was awesome and really different from all the other hikes that we had done. The sand is crushed granite, so the water stays clear and the beaches are a rich gold color. The trek lasted 4 days and 3 nights. Because Abel Tasman has an 8 meter tidal change, the greatest in all NZ, we had to time our hike so that we reached the portage areas at low tide. One evening, after setting up our tent, we decided to collect some mussells to cook for dinner. They were biggest mussels we've ever seen. While hiking for four days straight, the topic of conversation gets quite interesting, we were suprised at how much we talked about mexican food! This was a great hike and we definently recommend it.

Our tent

Our campsite was to the right on this beach. We swam in the bay to the left....Awesome!

Natalie crossing at low tide, at high tide it would be over her waist.

The Black at the top of the rock is the Water line at High tide.

Huge Mussel

Natalie's amazing cooking. This was all done on our little camp stove.

"Go West Young Man"

We headed up the west coast and stopped at Fox Glacier. It was awesome to see all the different colors of the Glacier. We did a few day hikes around Fox and then kept heading up the west coast. We later stopped at the Punakaiki and saw the "Pancake Rocks." Natalie didn't want to stop, but I was hungry.....
We later camped at a place near Matueka(near Nelson on the North part of the south Island) and did some more day hikes.

Bobby on a swing bridge at Fox Glacier

Fox Glacier

Pancake Rocks

As you can see Natalie was not that impressed

One of our many day hikes

Making our way North

The original plan was to bungee jump on Valentines Day in Queenstown, but due to the outrageous expense of the extreme sport, we settled for a phone call home and eating Thia food. After 2 days in Queenstown we went to Arrowtown, and said goodbye to Johnny and Maegen. From there we headed to Lake Wanaka and camped for a few nights. We had bought climbing gear on Christmas and finally got to use it in Wanaka.

View just outside of Queenstown

View from our campsite at Moke Lake

Fly fishing on Moke Lake

emphasis on "Fishing" not catching!

Mountains around our campsite


Rock Climbing in Wanaka

Our first climb with our own gear...Awesome!

Routeburn Track

The Routeburn Track is one of the great hikes of New Zealand. It is part of Fiordland National Park and is in the vicinity of the Milford Track and Kepler Track. We took 3 days to complete the track. It was great!

Meet "Reo" our 87' Mits. Pajero that we got back in December.

Our little home for the month next to "Reo"

The start of the Routeburn Track

Natalie and Maegen after a good up hill climb

Awesome waterfall on the Trail

We ran out of fuel for our campstove along the way. We decided our only chance of survival was to build an "illegal" camp fire. Mind you this is an area that rains 186 days a year. Johnny's face really shows the frustration of the situation. We did manage to get a fire going! We were very safe about it, and even somehow seemed to impress the Ranger when he came to "evict" us. It was actually no big drama. He ended up inviting us for tea. Well, sort of....

View from our campsite

Doubtful Sound and Lake Manapouri

As we headed west from the Catlins we stopped in Manapouri. It was from here that we set off on our two day kayaking adventure through Doubtful Sound and then back through Manapouri Lake. Doubtful Sound was beautiful and wild. On the way back the boat dropped us and our kayaks off on a remote island and we camped there for the night. The next morning we packed our gear and kayaked 15 miles back to the dock. All in all we had kayaked 35+ miles over the two days. Needless to say we were sick of kayaking.

Doubtful Sound

Doubtful Sound

Our campfire on an Island in Lake Manapouri

Cooking for 4 people is always fun on this little wolly

Heading back to mainland the next morning on Lake Manapouri

Goodbye Dunedin, hello SUNSHINE!

Nugget Point

Rocks off of Nugget Point

Bobby trying to find a good rock to fish off, turned out this spot was to be to wet for him!
We hiked all around these incredible rock formations on Purakanui Beach. Bobby and Johnny collected some mussels for Bobby to use as bait. Glen loaned him a fishing rod, which is what he did a lot of...fishing not catching. It was too bad, really. We had fun, though.

We had a little visitor

Well, Dunedin was fun. But it is time to say goodbye. We will really miss our friends we made there, and our great jobs, but we are excited to continue our exploration of the rest of the South Island. The four of us planned a 2 week excursion starting in the Catlins heading southwest towards Doubtful Sound and then north to Arrowtown where we will say goodbye. Johnny and Maegan will continue north, and we will...well we are not yet sure. But we planned all kinds of adventures until then.

Looking Back...Moraki Boulders

Over the last few months, we have taken a few side trips from our home in Dunedin. One of which was to the Moraki Boulders. It was a spontaneous little day excursion, and was well worth the drive. The spherical boulders are just randomly scattered in a small area on a beach. Some even have fossils. They are so quirky! We loved it.

6 Parachutes and a partridge in a pear tree

Admit it, ever since you were a kid you have wanted to fly, well kiwi's decided to take this childhood dream and make it possible. Imagine running as fast as you can and all the sudden your weightless and flying high above the mountains...well thats paragliding. All of us were gung ho except for my mom, but with my boyish charm and being here favorite;) she soon changed her mind. So all six of us jumped off a cliff and paraglided around Queenstown for about 30 min. it was so incredible. Thanks mom for being so brave and making this event even more rememorable. Cheers

Last few encouraging words before take off

Our take off platform

Jenny was really excited!!!

Natalie concentrating hard on what here pilot was saying to her... his english wasn't to good.

All smiles at the bottom...Thankfully

more videos are coming soon!

Christmas in NZ

Finally....Family
All of us on top of Lanarch Castle

We just had and amazing Christmas here in NZ. Mom, Dad, Jenny and Troy came to visit us for ten days. It was so special to finally see family and get show them how amazing this country is. We spent the first couple days here in Dunedin and then went to Queenstown for two days, then moved on to Te Anau and spent three days there, and finally we drove through the Catlins and made are way back to Dunedin. In Dunedin we went to Lanarch Castle (the Only Castle in NZ) and went to Tunnel beach. We got to go Paragliding in Queenstown, It was awesome!! The best part was that we all did it together. It was so cool to see 6 parachutes all in the air at the same time. We then did the Mountain luge later that day. It was a special day packed full of extreme sports. Then we made are way to Te Anau which is just outside of Milford Sound. Milford Sound is kinda the "Face" of New Zealand, when you see pictures of NZ they were probably taken at Milford Sound. We took a boat through Milford Sound and it was incredible...Breathtaking really!!! Pictures do not capture how beautiful and huge this place was. On our way back we stopped in the Catlins at the petrified forest and were blessed to see 4 yellow-eyed penguins come out of the water and walk to their nest. Awesome little dudes! We then rented another surf board and borrowed some body boards from my mate Glen and spent the next day at the beach. We all had so much fun and were exhausted....but not enough to keep us from playin a few card games before we went to bed. We played cards every night and that was definently a highlight. It was very hard to see them leave, but we are so thankful they were able to come see us and see New Zealand. Thanks Mom, Dad, Jenny, and yes you to Troy, for making the trip, we love y'all very much! Cheers

Lanarch Castle (NZ's Only castle)

My sweet mom and I are standing in front of Tunnel Beach

Natalie and Jenny tried to out run this wave and Natalie tripped....need I say more

32 years of marriage and going strong.

Mom and dad taken a break at Tunnel Beach

Natalie and Mom in Queenstown

These mountains are called "The Remarkables"....not really sure why ;)

That huge boat gives you and idea of how big they are.