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.